Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog

Stevia can cause infertility in males and females

18/2/2019

We know sugar in large amounts in our diets are not good, as it causes an excess of glucose, high cholesterol, weight gain, inflammation and over a period of time, many chronic diseases. So some "smart" scientists come up with artificial sweeteners to satisfy our guilty sweet cravings without the "calories" or sugar. But it usually turns out that one by one all artificial sweeteners have major downsides in causing unwanted side effects in your body, such as more weight gain, diabetes and even cancer. So this article may be a surprise to most, being about Stevia, a "natural" alternative sweetener.

Stevia comes from a South American plant, Stevia rebaudiana, native to Brazil and Paraguay. The leaves of the plant have traditionally been used in those countries as a sweetener to their tea, for sweet treats and a medicine. Stevia can suppress the growth of oral bacteria to reduce tooth decay, and reduce blood sugar levels. Stevia has also been shown to kill beneficial gut bacteria, which isn't ideal.

Despite these apparent benefits, Stevia has not been universally accepted as being safe for consumption in the USA or Europe or other countries. This decision appears to have been made on many scientific studies since the 1960s showing that Stevia can reduce severely reduce fertility in animals. In males, Stevia greatly affects the metabolism and use of testosterone, the male hormone, and effects on male reproductive anatomy, to affect fertility by over 60% and also affect other general male characteristics which are reliant on male hormones.

In studies on female animals, Stevia was shown to reduce fertility by 57-79%, similar to the results on male studies. The effects on female infertility lasted for months after intake of Stevia was ceased. Stevia has this contraceptive effect as it impacts your hormones and hormone receptors on cells. The contraceptive properties of Stevia have been known for a long time - with early studies in 1968 showing this. Native tribes have traditionally used Stevia for centuries for its contraceptive purposes!

While I am all for natural alternatives to today's mass-produced artificial food and medicines, some plants when ingested do have some negative health consequences, while others can be deadly. Many medications are simply artificial forms of just one (of many) active constituents of a plant. Many Stevia products are similar, being mass-produced or artificial forms of the plant extracts, rather than being the whole leaf.

It appears that Stevia has long-known contraceptive effects, but this hasn't been widely made public. And despite this research, Stevia is still available for sale as a sweetener and food additive in many processed food products, which is concerning.

I'm not a fan of any artificial sweeteners, and sometimes the real thing is the safest option, but in small amounts only in real foods, such as in fruits or some sweet vegetables.

If you are looking to get pregnant in the near future, you need to really check what you are eating and what chemicals you are exposed to, before planning a family! This is something that I can help with!

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How the EAT-Lancet global diet will be forced on you

31/1/2019

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This article follows on from my previous 2 articles on the ridiculously proposed EAT-Lancet diet. The EAT-Lancet commission's initial report for a global diet showed WHAT they want everyone to eat. But another report they released on 28th January 2019 explains HOW they are going to make you follow their plans, by forcing governments and "health organisations" to make it happen!

This project has just become a whole lot worse... read on for more details.

Some observations of the new report include:

1) They propose to reduce the influence that the food industry have on food guidelines used by different countries around the world, because of their tendency to prevent health initiatives being implemented

2) They will promote their EAT-Lancet global diet to all levels of government, to all nations and communities and all people, by using international human rights laws, along with government organisations like the World Trade Organisation, European Union, the World Bank, United Nations and others.

3) They will force governments to stop giving subsidies to fossil fuel and food industries (about $5 trillion annually), and redirect those funds to other sustainable energy and food practices... in effect, for themselves to get these funds instead! Can you now see why they want to force this on you?!

4) They want to overcome the powerful energy and food lobby groups which have prevented government policies being made which keep people and the environment unhealthy while they maintain their profits. For example, soft drink companies spent $50 million in the USA during 2016-17 to prevent government initiatives to reduce intake of soft drinks. The group are recommending stronger government structures to reduce conflicts of interest, including public education, social media marketing, government procurement, additional taxes... and subsidies, but they said this was a bad idea before!

5) They will utilise individual agents as influencers to getting their message out to the general public, in a "bottom-up" approach to go with the "top-down" influencing through government policies in all levels to change public opinions

6) They want to make individuals take responsibility for their own health, by reducing social prejudices on obese or unhealthy people or on their gender, religion and race
7) They will increase awareness of access to efficient cooking stoves (?!) to improve nutrition

8) The report admits that the world CAN produce enough food for everyone, but undernutrition and deficiencies still exist in more than one third of the world's population. Ironically, 99% will be deficient with this plan, and only the 1% who are part of the project possibly getting enough...

9) Animal crops which produce red meat are allegedly a problem and intake will be restricted in this global diet, because one third of the world's grain crops go towards feeding them and not us! Cattle for example are NOT naturally meant to eat grains! The only reason they are fed grains is because grains are high in carbohydrates, which gets turned into fat! So grain-fed cattle become larger and fatter. And this group want YOU to eat more grains, to fatten you up before slaughter?!

10) Red meat in excess is blamed in the report as causing obesity! Not in most people as I see it, but it's the carbs, sugar and grains which are! The report says "Animal-source foods, including meat, provide a rich source of highly bioavailable micronutrients, especially for young children, and make an important contribution to high quality diets when consumed in moderation"! So why are they effectively banning animal foods, with the exception of one-fifth of an egg, or one-tenth of a sausage, as per their 7 grams of red meat per day?

11) They are proposing to promote their implementation of the EAT-Lancet diet worldwide, in a similar way to how cigarettes were demonised and and smokers being alienated, in an attempt to get governments and the public to change and comply to their dietary recommendations

Their goal is to reduce poor nutrition and its ongoing costs on the health system and environment, estimated at $3.5 trillion annually. Ironically, this project will actually INCREASE levels of poor nutrition by causing more nutrient deficiencies in more people than ever before, as reviews of this diet have shown it is deficient in vitamin B12, vitamin D, vitamin K, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, omega-3 fats, protein and amino acids, and more!

This new report also makes an impossible claim that their plans (along with spending 1% of GDP) will stop the increase in climate change!

I've recently watched George Orwell's 1984 movie again, and the EAT-Lancet global diet being forced on everyone is a blatant New World Order policy, if I've ever seen one. It is unscientific, unproven, biased, elitist, and undemocratic. It is a commercial profit-making enterprise, disguised as a global public health directive, and funded by the world's taxpayers, who are only going to get sicker as a result of this.

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Is the new EAT-Lancet diet healthy for you? (part 2)

30/1/2019

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This is part 2 of my article on the new proposed EAT-Lancet "global diet"...

While it would generally be great to see more people eating more quality plant-based foods, which I mentioned in my last 2 articles, there are more than a few problems with this report and the dietary recommendations it makes.

1) There are a lot of published studies which refute the studies they cite as evidence of their reasonings for their recommendations.

2) Nutrition researchers have analysed the nutrient breakdown of the proposed global diet, which was easy to do as they published the quantity and calories of each food item they recommend. They found many major deficiencies in nutrients if you were to follow their advice! Some of the deficiencies include vitamin B12, vitamin D, vitamin K, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, omega-3 fats, protein and amino acids, and more! Just one nutrient deficiency will result in health symptoms and diseases, but this many is a health disaster. This objective of the group to provide a healthy diet has failed miserably!

3) There is no one single diet which works for everyone. We've seen that over the past few decades with government food guidelines all over the world, and the epidemics of chronic diseases are being caused by these guidelines that are too slow to respond to good quality scientific studies.

4) The massive amount of carbohydrates, especially refined and processed carbs (sugary foods and grains) in the EAT recommendations is as bad or worse than what we already have today. For example, they recommend a massive 811 calories or 32% of your daily food intake should be hi-carb grains, and more carbs from starchy vegetables, and another 5% of your daily intake from sugar! This will simply increase the rates of chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.

5) The commission forgets that animal crops rejuvenate the soil with their manure, ironically needed by plants to grow! But plant crops are grown in ever-depleted soils, or are topped up with artificial nutrients instead, not to mention the toxic herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and more that the crops and soil is exposed to. This is not sustainable farming nor environmentally friendly.

6) They recommend many unhealthy fats and oils, including palm oil, which is NOT environmentally friendly as many would know! The palm oil industry is well known for destroying native rainforests to grow specific palm trees. I thought the EAT-Lancet concept was about being sustainable and environmentally friendly?! No, it's not. More native rainforests will be cut down to produce more palm oil from this recommendation, especially when palm oil makes up 2% of this diet (compared to red meats at 1%!).

7) Many of their assumptions are still based on old and incorrect beliefs (based on poor quality studies done in the past), that saturated fats are bad and cause heart disease (which studies show they don't!), or that diabetes is caused by red meat consumption (it's not!), or that salt is bad for you (wrong again), or eggs are bad because they are high in cholesterol which is another heart disease risk (it's not!), and other fallacies. As a result, this new diet is just the same old incorrect information, but then made much, much worse.

8) For many decades we have been told that we all need to eat and drink lots of dairy products every day, to get plenty of calcium for healthy bones. The current perception is that dairy is a good source of calcium, which it actually isn't! But suddenly, the EAT-Lancet report says that a World Health Organisation review has shown that regions with low dairy intake actually have lower bone fracture rates! So now dairy should be reduced. I've been saying for a while that dairy is a poor source of calcium and many plant-based foods have a higher % of calcium per gram! Hence by eating more quality plant foods, you can get sufficient calcium in your diet, but this new diet provides only 55% of your daily requirement of calcium!

9) Meat makes up just a tiny 6% of this new diet, of which only 1% is red meat (just 7 grams per day!), or 2% for chicken and fish. There is no good quality evidence for this! This decision is based on personal bias against meat by 31 out of the 37 committee participants (being 84%) being vegetarians or vegans themselves.

10) There have been NO studies done on this proposed diet! NONE! So how can they possibly be recommending it when they haven't actually tested it?! They have put this recommendation together from a committee looking at different published studies on individual nutrients, but then not actually researching their recommendations as a whole to prove that it will be safe, beneficial and effective in meeting their objectives for our health and that of the environment.

The EAT-Lancet global diet is, in my opinion from reading their recommendations, pretty much more of the same old useless dietary guidelines advice based on the same old nutritional fallacies, but with significantly less meat being recommended and that being replaced by more carbs which ironically will cause even more problems.

Whenever there is a major push for a one-size-fits-all approach to health and nutrition, and where there is no scientific proof, it must be ignored! It simply will not work!

The EAT-Lancet diet should be renamed as the Fat-Lancet diet, because the deficiencies it has, and the high amount of carbs from sugar and grains, and it's reliance on unhealthy fats, will cause more disease and obesity, a worse environmental impact, and more profits to the medical system and the people involved with this proposal.

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The EAT-LANCET diet - is this new global diet healthy for you?

30/1/2019

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The latest instalment of nutritional confusion and idiocy of late is from the release of a new report from the EAT-Lancet Commission, which is the collaboration of the EAT group and The Lancet, with the former being a non-profit startup and the latter allegedly one of the world's leading scientific and medical journals. Really they both should know better...

The EAT-Lancet Commission Report was only recently released (Jan 16, 2019), and is a joint report for a "global health diet" that is allegedly healthy for both people and the planet. Sounds great so far... although a single diet for everyone already has my hackles up, as that simply will not work!

The EAT group hide behind other companies and foundations, but mostly funded by a Norwegian billionaire couple, of which Gunhild Stordalen, is a former model turned doctor and environmentalist, and her husband owns a large chain of hotels. Ironically one of their Foundation's slogans on their website is "sustainable business is big business", no doubt being big profits for them. Another of the Foundation's initiatives is the "Zero Emissions Resource Organisation (ZERO)", to limit climate change caused by human activities, and several other climate and health related initiatives. So why then do the two owners of the EAT group and Foundations own a $20 million private jet in which they fly all around the world in?! And the many meetings of the EAT-Lancet group, including 37 scientists were regularly flown around the world to attend... Not very green, sustainable, environmentally friendly. Very hypocritical I think!

The EAT group is, according to them, a global initiative linking food, health, and sustainability across science, business and politics. The project is far more than developing a single global diet, but one which makes many recommendations about sustainable farming and agricultural practices, environmental impacts, and politics - of free trade, and how to get governments to implement the EAT-Lancet recommendations and how to sell it to the world's population. Good luck with that, as there are many renowned critics of the recommendations, and justifiably so, even days after the report has been released.

The major recommendation of the EAT-Lancet report is that everyone should be eating a LOT less meat and dairy, and replacing these with more plant-based foods! And by less meat, I mean just 7 grams per day of red meat, or 29 grams per day of chicken or fish! Or just one-fifth of an egg!

If the currently recommended food guidelines are so good for us all (allegedly, but they aren't), then why do this group want to make such drastic changes to our meals? Simple, because of their personal bias - with 84% of the scientists on the EAT-Lancet panel being vegetarians or vegans themselves.

As I've said before, yes some people need to eat more vegetables to get more nutrients which will improve their health! But any diet is only as good as the quality and quantity of the nutrients in the foods. If a diet isn't providing sufficient nutrients for you, especially for a significant amount of time, such as this proposed global diet which is lacking a lot of nutrients, then your health will suffer with symptoms and disease.

Of course we also need to be more environmentally aware, and be more sustainable with our resources of food and energy production. We aren't doing too well with this, mostly due to general apathy of the issue, or government or industry regulations (or lack of) which allows damage to be done to the environment on a massive scale.

How does the EAT-Lancet report's recommendations stand up to my scrutiny?! I will analyse their diet and recommendations in my next article!

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Are vegetarian or vegan diets healthier?!

21/1/2019

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There's a growing trend amongst food producers or retailers or restaurants to provide more vegetarian and vegan meal options, as well as fully vegan meals or products. The number of people in Australia identifying as "mostly" vegetarian is approximately 12% according to statistics in 2016.

But is going vegetarian or vegan a healthier option for you?

The short answer is... "it depends", or "in many cases, no"!
The long answer follows...

As a Clinical Nutritionist and Naturopath, I analyse my clients' diets for possible deficiencies or excesses which could be contributing to their health conditions. After all, your food makes up your body's cells and enables it to work properly, as long as you are getting the nutrients you need!

I do tend to find that most people eat too many processed or packaged foods, such as grain based foods - cereals, breads and other bakery products, and not enough vegetables. I also tend to see the surprisingly, people aren't eating enough protein (not just meat, but plant based protein too), and not enough healthy fats (but too many bad ones), but I'm mainly taking about vegetables in this article!

With more people eating more plant-based foods to improve their health, that is a great thing! But as with any other foods, there are concerns about quantity and quality, so just because you are vegetarian or vegan, doesn't mean you are healthier than someone who is an omnivore (who eats meat and plant foods)!

Plant food crops grown in large scale monocultures to produce large quantities of single crops are not sustainable, nor good for the environment due to the large amounts of agricultural chemicals used (pesticides, fungicides,and herbicides like Roundup or glyphosate). These mostly toxic chemicals don't come out in the processing of the crops, so you end up eating them, which of course will have some effects on your health. Unless you choose to eat "certified organic" or home grown foods!

Many plant-based diet advocates (including those who push the ridiculous government food guidelines) recommend eating a huge amount of grain-based foods so you get enough fibre. I usually see vegetarians or vegans eating far too many sugary foods or processed grain products which are high in carbohydrates, which leads to high blood sugars, high cholesterol, weight gain, and inflammation. These can contribute to diabetes, and other chronic health conditions, including cancer.

There are some very poor quality "foods" (and I use that term very loosely here) which are marketed as being vegetarian or vegan (see the meme picture) but they are highly processed, full of additives and chemicals, but are nutrient depleted. These "foods" are not going to be good for you, even if they allegedly are "vegan"! And you can just as easily over-eat such "foods" to the detriment of your health.

So just because a food is marketed as being "all natural", "suitable for vegetarians", or "vegan friendly", it doesn't mean that it is healthy or good for you! Highly processed foods which come in a box or plastic packaging are NOT "vegan"! Sorry, but they are not!

We are all different, due to different genetics, ethnicity, and physiology too! There is no one meal plan which is ideal for everyone, and that includes vegetarian or vegan diets. Vegetarian and vegan diets can be a great improvement in SOME people who perhaps haven't been eating enough plant-based foods in the past, but how healthy these diets are really depends on the types of foods chosen, their quality and quantity, and your individual tolerances or intolerances to those foods. I can help you with improving your diets, if you are not getting the benefits or improved health from what you are currently doing!

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why detoxes do not work!

18/1/2019

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I do get asked a lot what I would recommend for a detox. If you think you overdid it with the xmas and new years celebrations, and you have made your list of new years resolutions starting with a detox, then you need to read this article further!

Many people think they are doing their bodies a great service, by having a yearly... well, service... with a detox of a few days or a week at most. It sounds like a good idea in principle!

Assuming that you want to undertake a 7-day detox with a water fast, or juicing, or detox program pack from your chemist, or some other online detox method, I have some news for you - it won't work! You can't do a weekly detox and hope that it undoes all the damage and toxic accumulation from the previous 51 weeks of the year! It's not possible!

Also, what is it exactly that you want to detox?! Not actually knowing this is also setting up for failing in your detox. Short term detoxes are useless, but targeted detoxes that are tailored against specific toxins, organs or heavy metals CAN and DO work very well! The key is to know what toxins you may have and then setup a treatment plan for that. This can be done with a number of options for testing, such as with a HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) test, Oligoscan or other tests. I can help with these! I've seen some great improvements with targeted detox treatments, including those with high amounts of lead, mercury, aluminium or other toxins or heavy metals.

Many toxic chemicals from foods or household/cleaning/work products are stored in body fat as a "safe" and out of the way place. When you detox, you are generally on a diet, which is actually a restriction of nutrients (NOT a restriction of calories as such) that your body really needs. The reduced food intake will mean that body fat will be broken down to provide energy. That's all good for reducing your weight, but when you lose a reasonable amount of body fat, those stored toxins are also released into the blood. This is not a good thing, and it WILL make you feel worse. This is why you feel terrible on a detox program - you feel like your brain is fuzzy, aching all over, headaches, gut problems and fatigued... This is why you should never detox when you are sick or not feeling well - you will feel worse. And also why you need to support your body to detox when you are losing weight!

A non-specific detox for the body is a great idea, but this needs to be a part of a regular lifestyle, not something you do once or twice per year! It needs to be done all the time! A general detox can be done properly though without feeling terrible when you do it, with a regular and holistic program that covers all aspects of health - physical, mental, emotional, environmental and more.

Detoxing starts with an analysis of what you are normally eating and drinking, and what chemicals you are being exposed to. Then you should be making some changes to reduce your toxin exposure by replacing some items with safer and less toxic ones, and supporting the body's natural elimination channels to remove stored toxins.

So perhaps please reconsider your short term "detox" plans on your new years resolutions list! Replace it instead with aiming for a "healthy lifestyle" in 2019 instead, or using testing to find out what toxins your body has first, then use a targeted detox against those. I can help you with this!

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why you should avoid plastic water bottles and containers

16/1/2019

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When I see clients for helping them to improve their health for all types of health conditions, I always ask about their fluid intake - what types of drinks they consume daily, how much, and with regards to water, what type of water they drink, tap water or filtered or bottled, and what type of container they use to store or carry their water in.

While it's great that most people do take water with them to work or when they go out, most people I see are still using plastic bottles for this purpose. I explain why this isn't good for your health, and they quickly change to healthier options!

We now have "BPA-free" plastic bottles and containers because BPA (Bisphenol-A) was added into plastic decades ago to make plastics flexible and durable. But in 2010, the Australian government announced a voluntary phasing-out of BPA in baby bottles only, based on scientific studies showing that BPA was causing many health issues. Other products followed, but it was still a voluntary measure by the plastic producers. Other countries also made similar decisions to reduce BPA in products.

BPA was replaced by BPS (Bisphenol-S), apparently being safer. As time went on and more studies were done on BPS, it was found that BPS is causing exactly the same health problems as BPA and is just as harmful. Some studies show that 81% of Americans have BPS in their urine.

BPA and BPS, even in very small amounts, have large effects on your cells and your body. These chemicals leach from the plastic into the water or food they contain. BPA and BPS are endocrine disruptors or xeno-oestrogens, as they mimic oestrogen and its effects in your body. Endocrine disruptors and xeno-oestrogens disrupt your hormones to affect a cell's normal functioning to cause metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity, asthma, birth defects, heart conditions, menstrual cycle issues and PMS symptoms, infertility, prostate enlargement, and many types of cancer.

The issues with BPA and BPS and other chemicals in plastics are worse when the plastic is exposed to warmer temperatures, as the chemicals leach much more in summer, or in hot cars, or worse, when used in the microwave oven to cook or heat foods. BPA and BPS also causes similar affects in animals and wildlife, as our waste water and plastics get into waterways.

BPA chemicals are also found in your shop receipts, in the thermal paper used. BPA is also found in the lining of many tins of various foods, with tinned tomatoes being the worst possible to buy and consume. Tomatoes are very acidic and this eats away at the BPA, so there will be BPA in the tinned tomatoes, and this will affect your health. Just use fresh tomatoes instead! Steam some fresh and organic tomatoes yourself to use in cooking, as well as being better for you and the environment! BPA and BPS exposure can also come from using plastic cooking utensils, plastic kettles, and paper cups lined with BPA/BPS, soft drink cans, and other sources.

Even if you have "BPA-free" plastic bottles and containers, the manufacturers are not telling you that the BPS or other chemicals added to them are just as dangerous to your health as BPA. No plastic bottles or containers are safe! Get rid of them! Replace plastic containers and utensils with glass, stainless steel or other inert containers!

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Evidence-based nutrition and health advice

16/1/2019

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I totally understand that nutritional medicine and natural treatments are conflicting to the popular belief that most people have, and this is therefore confusing to some people! Or that the media mentions what might be good for you seems to change every week with new studies concluding with opposing findings to the last week's studies.

Much of the information that I write about or recommend is completely opposite from what we are generally told in the media or from government or health officials, and recommendations that I mention in my articles and in consultations may appear to be at odds to what may have been the public perception for decades.

This can be said for many things that I write about, for the best nutrition and treatments for weight loss, cholesterol and heart disease, cancer, sun exposure for health, and many more topics!

But I see many clients who have been doing all of the usual recommended medical treatments, including following the government food guidelines (which are a bad joke), taking all the recommended medications, and getting nowhere with improving their health, or in fact, getting worse.

There are many reasons for why the public belief on a particular health topic may be incorrect, including poor quality scientific studies done in the past, and the difficulty in the authorities to admit to mistakes for fear of legal action being taken. Hence mistakes tend to be covered up for a long time, or the truth is revealed only very slowly, and even then it takes a long time for the general public to accept the new truth.

To continue to do the same things and expect a different result is apparently the definition of insanity! If you have been doing what you think are the right things, and you are not improving or getting better, you MUST do something different, to decide to make a change for the better and get another opinion!

Everything I say or recommend is based on scientific research, and therefore is "evidence-based". More important than that is that the advice I give is based on good quality scientific research, as a lot isn't good quality.

It's a new year, so it's a great time for a new start to improve your health! I'd love to be able to help you and your family to improve your quality of life! Just ask or contact me to see how I can help you!

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sunglasses can cause sleep problems, depression, and more!

6/12/2018

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Sunglasses have become very popular over the past few decades, more as a fashion statement than anything beneficial for you!

Like many things which initially appear logical, like the sun allegedly causing skin cancer, or eating fat makes you fat, when you really dive into the physiology of the body and how it works, and read scientific studies on the topic, you find that what may be the popular belief in the media or government health advice, is completely wrong!

We are told in the media and so-called health organisations like the Cancer Council, who are advising everyone to protect their eyes from the sun with sunglasses as the sun is so dangerous! The Cancer Council have added "slide on sunglasses" to their "slip slop slap" sun safe programs, and their lack of knowledge on the effects of this new advice is appalling.

I had previously researched sunglasses and their effects on health years ago, before I attended a Cancer Council seminar on cancer prevention in 2017. When they introduced their new advice about everyone wearing sunglasses, I publicly asked them were they aware of the health effects of sunglasses, and I was told that there were none! Ok, so I informed them that:

1) Sunglasses cause sleep problems, as your eyes must be exposed to bright sunlight during the day in order to make melatonin, the sleep hormone! So blocking that bright sunlight with sunglasses when outside will reduce melatonin production and secretion, to cause difficulties with getting to sleep or staying asleep. When you don't sleep well, your immune system suffers, which in turn also increases your risks of all cancers. They hadn't heard of this!

2) Sunglasses cause depression. Your eyes have special receptor cells which sends signals to your brain to make serotonin, one of your happy feel-good hormones! A deficiency in serotonin is typical in those with depression. This is the reason why low sunlight exposure during winter in locations further away from the equator causes "seasonal affective disorder" or the "winter blues" or depression. They didn't know this either!

3) Sunglasses cause you to sunburn quicker and more severely, and INCREASES your risks of skin cancer. Your eyes sense the increasing level of sunlight when you are outside and sends hormones to the melanocytes in your skin to produce more melanin, which is your tanning pigment that protects you against sunburn! Wearing sunglasses stops this protective function of the body, so you sunburn more quickly... And they didn't know this either!

And this is all in published research, which I actually provided to the Cancer Council at that seminar in 2017. Nothing seems to have changed in their appalling advice, so I'm making this information public again.

I'm not suggesting that you should never wear sunglasses again, but increasing your "sunglass-free" time when you are outside can help your sleep and moods very quickly! Initially your eyes can be sensitive to sunlight if you have worn sunglasses all the time, but a gradual reduction of wearing sunglasses will reduce your sensitivity.

I have helped so many clients to improve their sleep or their moods or health with very small changes like this! There are many other factors which can cause sleep issues or depression, and each person's causes can be different. It is so important to find and treat the root causes of health issues for a long-term fix!

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Are cancer-causing chemicals in your sunscreens?

26/11/2018

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I frequently write articles about improving your health by improving what you put into your bodies in the form of food! But what you put on your body, in particular on your skin is equally as important, as your skin absorbs liquids, chemicals, and other substances too.

Now that it's warmer and sunnier again here (in Brisbane, Australia), we need to be a bit more careful about looking after our skin health, and the careful balance between getting enough sun exposure on our skin to have good vitamin D levels (for its anti-inflammatory and other health benefits) and getting sun damage from severe sunburns.

I don't believe in avoiding the sun completely, as the sun offers so many health benefits. I don't believe that we should also be wearing sunscreens at all times either, as proposed by certain cancer organisations. It's about having a healthy balance!

Last year I did an expose of the Cancer Council's sunscreen, and their other policies which are not safe for your health. I reviewed their own sunscreen and found 4 hormone-disrupting chemicals, and 5 cancer-causing chemicals, and many other toxic ingredients in their own branded sunscreens, some of which are banned in other countries. The hormone disrupting chemicals either affect your thyroid or your male/female hormones to cause an imbalance to affect your health, such as weight gain, cycle symptoms, infertility, and other effects. See the info in the meme picture for the details.

I was shocked by this information I found, and I raised this with the Cancer Council last year in a seminar they were hosting on cancer prevention. They denied that their sunscreen was unsafe and that it was tested as safe by the TGA. I know that isn't true, as the TGA don't actually test for safety of the ingredients, but only the SPF rating! The independent scientific sources I used showed that the ingredients in their (and other sunscreens) have a lot of adverse health effects.

Just as with the foods and drinks your consume, you should always check the ingredients to find out what they are and what possible effects they have on your health. Sunscreens and cosmetics, moisturisers, shampoos, and other cleaning products etc, are no different. Always check the ingredients!

There are always better natural products for your skin, especially with sunscreens. For the health of your skin and that of your children and family, please avoid toxic chemicals in sunscreens and use safer options this summer.

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Are fish oil and vitamin D supplements good for you?!

22/11/2018

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This article is another example of how good quality scientific methods in research studies can be deliberately misused or manipulated to return a biased result, which then causes confusion amongst the public, in the media and in scientific circles.

A Harvard trial (called the VITAL study) studied almost 26,000 men and women taking supplements of vitamin D3 or omega-3 fish oil or both, to investigate any benefits in reducing the risks of cancer, heart disease or stroke. Despite overwhelming other evidence that both these nutritional supplements have shown anti-inflammatory benefits against these and other chronic diseases, this study concluded that neither supplements had any "significant" benefits against these chronic conditions.

The key word here is "significant". They arrived at this conclusion despite their calculated and stated 17-25% reduction in cancer risk from taking the vitamin D3 supplement! Their data said it DID have a benefit, yet their conclusion said it didn't! Great science there.

At least they did say that vitamin D3 was well tolerated, and people had few, if any, side effects. You can't say that about any pharmaceutical drug...

As for the omega-3 supplement, they noted an 8% reduction in risk for heart disease, which they again said was "not significant". But interestingly a subgroup DID see a very significant reduction in heart disease risk, being African Americans, who had a 19% reduced incidence of heart events or up to 77% reduction in heart attacks. Not significant?! Sure, nothing to see here, move along now...

How was the science manipulated to give their results as offering "no benefit", despite their data to the contrary? They simply did not use therapeutic doses of the vitamin D or omega-3 supplements! Simply by testing people on small or sub-optimal doses of the supplements, they produced results which didn't show a large benefit, or at least, not large enough for them to be "significant"!

Do I recommend vitamin D3 and omega-3 supplements? Yes, absolutely! But there are several things to keep in mind about this:

1) the quality of the product and ingredients. Not all vitamin D or fish oils are the same. There's a huge difference in quality and ingredients (and therefore, a difference in results) between cheap retail products and practitioner branded products
2) the dosing of the products. The dosing on retail products is simply a deficiency-preventing dose, similar to what was used in this study. For treatments of chronic health conditions, a therapeutic dose is needed for best results!

There are many good quality scientific studies on vitamin D and fish oils for their anti-inflammatory benefits for the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases, but their results are often negated by poor quality, poorly designed, and often biased studies paid for or "sponsored" by a group or company with a vested interest in the result. Even the editors of leading scientific journals have said in the media that up to 75% of studies are fake, manipulated or poorly designed.

On top of this all is the media's ability to misinterpret and sensationalise any result, both good or bad, to sell their news, which simply confuses people even more.
It's a shame that science can be bought, manipulated, or abused in this way.

I will keep taking fish oils and vitamin D supplements myself, and recommending them, because good quality scientific studies do show benefits, and I see this in myself and my clients too!

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Diabetes linked to low sun exposure and poor sleep

20/11/2018

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In this article I will be looking at the relationship between low sunlight exposure, sleep and weight gain and diabetes. You might not think that these topics are related, but they are!

For good quality sleep, you need to make enough melatonin, also known as the sleep hormone. This is dependent on multiple factors, such as sufficient nutrient intake, good digestion and absorption, sufficient sunlight exposure during the day, and other factors.
Melatonin is also an anti-inflammatory and antioxidant hormone, and can reduce blood pressure, reduce cholesterol, reduce anxiety, reduce pain, and interestingly, reduce blood sugar levels! Many studies show there's a link between poor melatonin levels and poor sleep quality and altered insulin secretion and diabetes! This is likely the result of melatonin receptors on the surface of the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas, meaning that the cells which produce insulin actually respond to melatonin!

Melatonin actually reduces the secretion of insulin! Melatonin is only secreted at night when your eyes sense the levels of sunlight diminishing, and this causes you to secrete less insulin which would otherwise reduce your blood sugar levels. Insulin is a "fat storage" hormone, as it tells the cells in the body to take up the glucose in the blood and use it for energy, but it also tells the liver to convert the excess blood glucose into fat so it can be stored. Hence why high carbohydrate diets lead to increased fat storage and increased weight.

The other part of this picture is that high production and levels of insulin are found during the day, when melatonin isn't secreted (due to bright sun exposure). High levels of blood sugars are very damaging to the body, which over time leads to inflammation and diabetes, and all their complications of hormone imbalance, loss of feeling in extremities from nerve damage (peripheral neuropathy), and kidney and eye damage, and heart disease. If you have diabetes, melatonin secretion in the evening will reduce insulin production, so your blood sugars will remain high all night to cause inflammation and damage. You don't want this!

Melatonin doesn't just help you sleep, but it balances your blood sugars and can help to prevent and reverse diabetes! Insulin production also appears to have more of a priority over melatonin production, so a high carbohydrate diet causes more insulin production and less melatonin, causing sleep disturbances!

I have noticed this with my clients, and I have had great success in reducing diabetes symptoms of high blood sugars and insulin levels mainly by improving their diet at dinner time! Reducing carbohydrates in the evening meal reduces blood sugar levels, which in turn reduces the need to produce more insulin, which results in more melatonin being secreted to improve sleep! In addition, the decreased need for insulin reduces the strain on the cells of the pancreas to make insulin, reduces insulin resistance, and lessens the risk of non-insulin dependent type 2 diabetes turning into insulin-dependent diabetes (ie needing insulin injections).

If you want to prevent diabetes or to reduce diabetes, you must reduce your refined and processed carbohydrate intake at dinner! Remember the "no white (foods) at night" rule! That's no wheat (ie bread, pizza etc), pasta, potato, rice, sugar (ie desserts, ice cream), or alcohol! Harsh I know... but you'll feel better for it and you will sleep better too!

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Zinc deficiency linked to autism

11/11/2018

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Autism is a a very prevalent and complex disorder of which the incidences are growing at a very disturbing rate - in just 9 years the official incidences of diagnosed autism has TRIPLED to one in 36 children, and one in 14 children with developmental delays. This huge increase cannot be explained just because of genetics. The more likely causative factors are environmental - how we interact with our environment, such as from nutrient deficiencies, chemical and toxin and radiation exposure, stress, and lifestyle factors.

In a 2015 study, it found that a high percentage of people with Autism Spectrum Disorders were deficient in zinc, a mineral that is needed for many metabolic and neurological processes, including the development and health of the nervous system and production of hormones and neurotransmitters for good mental health. Hence a deficiency of zinc can cause hormone and neurotransmitter imbalances and dysfunction seen in autism. The study also reported that the zinc deficiency was often accompanied by a copper overload or copper toxicity, which can result in impaired social behaviour, and impaired language and communication issues, common in autism disorders.

Zinc is also needed for good immune system function, for good functioning of the senses, for good digestive system function, and many more uses. Digestive issues are very common in those with autism disorders. And with gut issues being linked to brain conditions, this can explain part of the common digestive issues seen in autism, or in zinc deficiency. Such conditions include chronic constipation or diarrhoea, indigestion, reflux, heartburn, pains, bloating and gas, as well as digestive issues like Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, leaky gut and irritable bowel disease.

The same study found that incidences of autism can increase from pregnant women who are deficient in zinc, and women who are pregnant and breastfeeding need a higher intake of zinc-rich food or supplements, or this can result in deficiencies in the mother and baby to cause neurological and digestive conditions in both.

Zinc isn't the only answer to explaining or treating autism disorders, but it is one of many factors which can greatly help in a holistic treatment plan for sufferers. Zinc deficiency is also an issue in many other mental health issues such as depression and anxiety and others. Zinc deficiency is an issue I see a lot in my clinical practice, mainly from a poor intake of zinc-rich foods, and the increasing popularity of vegetarian and vegan diets which are generally low in zinc. Stress also depletes zinc, so a high-stress environment can lead to a deficiency even if your intake is good.

Your zinc and copper levels can be tested, as can other nutritional minerals and toxic metals, which are also common in autism disorders. If you have other mental health symptoms or digestive symptoms (mentioned above), I can help with nutritional advice and supplementation if needed, to help reduce your symptoms and improve your health! The right form of zinc is crucial, as some are much better than others.

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The Dietitians Association of Australia change their tune!

6/10/2018

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This is very interesting news!

I have been extremely critical of the Dietitians Association of Australia for a long time, and their unscientific, unhealthy, biased and corrupt practices of providing food advice to all Australians.

The DAA raise a lot of their income from "corporate sponsors", from such companies as Kellogg's, Sanitarium, Arnott's, Campbell's, Nestle and many more - it's all publicly available to see on their website and in their promotions of these companies and their products. The DAA then advise all their Dietitians of which foods are healthy or not, based on the sponsorships they have, and those dietitians then pass on that advice to the general public, who have been getting generally sicker and with much more chronic disease.

Even worse is that the DAA wrote the government's food guideline policies, supposedly to improve the health of all Australians, but in fact they were just keeping their sponsors happy in return for funding. The food guidelines are not based on solid, independent, and well-researched nutrition studies. And this is why people are constantly getting misinformation about what foods are healthy and which are not!

Recently, documents were leaked that the DAA and food industry committees were found to be running active media campaigns against prominent and independent scientists, doctors, and nutrition experts who were giving evidence-based nutrition advice, but which conflicted with the DAA's biased guidelines. The DAA's CEO and spokesperson recently resigned as a result of several leaks of such evidence.

On the 3rd October 2018, the DAA released a public statement stating that as of the end of 2018, they would be concluding their "corporate partnership" program! Their new CEO has had a huge change of heart from their previous policies, and seems to want to reduce belief that the DAA is biased from their corporate sponsors.

Whether this change of policy will actually result in a change to more current "evidence-based" nutrition advice remains to be seen, as they will have to turn around 180 degrees on much of their advice which they have been pushing for many decades. Their poor advice will take a long time to change in the minds of the general public.

The DAA and Dietitians aren't off the hook yet! The decision to remove themselves from perceived bias is a good one! We will have to wait and see whether this actually changes anything.

For the best, current, independent and evidence-based nutrition advice and for the best health results, continue to see a (non-DAA aligned) Nutritionist or Naturopath!

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"We got it wrong on cholesterol" say nutrition experts

27/8/2018

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At a major nutrition conference in Switzerland in June 2018, many of the world's top nutritionists, scientists and doctors presented many historical and recent published studies, to look at the recommended food guidelines around the world, how they came to be, and what can be done to improve them based on more recent research, in the light of the current epidemics of obesity, heart disease and other chronic diseases.

The food guidelines in most large developed countries were designed with the idea to reduce the growing rate of heart disease back in the 1980s. Their advice was to reduce saturated fat in the diet, reduce cholesterol-rich foods (and blood cholesterol levels), reduce salt, but also increase plant seed oils and whole grains. This on the whole seemed to make sense on one level, but even back then the nutrition science community wasn't in agreement.

The ONE major study which caused a change in belief of nutrition and later the development of the food guidelines was a paper known as the "7 countries study" in the late 1950s by Dr Ancel Keys, an epidemiologist, and creator of the K-rations used in the armed services. His study showed that there was a link between saturated fat (and cholesterol) intake and heart disease, and based on his study, he lobbied and pressured the medical authorities to believe that cholesterol was the major cause of heart disease which was not the opinion at the time. And so it became the "low fat, low cholesterol era".

It didn't work did it? The rates of heart disease and other chronic disease shot up, to epidemic proportions all around the world which we see today.

Why? Because Dr Keys actually studied the heart disease rates and diets (only on paper, not real health results) of people from 22 countries, but he only published the data on 7 countries which actually matched his perceived opinion (i.e. reporting bias). When the data from the other "missing" 15 countries was later analysed by other scientists, they found that they did not come up with the same findings as the 7 which were reported. In fact, when all of the data was analysed together, there was NO correlation between cholesterol and heart disease at all! Sadly this misrepresentation of data in scientific studies continues to this day, which makes it difficult for you (and me!) to sort out the truth from the BS!

And this is confirmed in many more recent and quality studies, which show that high blood cholesterol levels are NOT associated with an increased risk of heart disease at all! In fact the OPPOSITE is the case - low cholesterol levels (especially seen in those taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins) actually increase the risk of heart disease. Other studies show that 50-75% of people who have had heart attacks do NOT have high cholesterol levels, but "normal" levels! So there must be something else which is causing this epidemic of heart disease!

And we know what this is! More on this in the next article.

Coming back to the recent Swiss nutrition conference... the general consensus of the nutrition experts there was that "we got it wrong on saturated fat and cholesterol with respect to heart disease". They admitted it! Which is a massive step in turning around this epidemic we have.

Now we need the government nutrition bodies to realise the truth too. No more covering their backsides or hiding the truth, so that they don't get sued. They can't hide the truth any longer. We know what's really going on, and we know why - they have made a lot of money deceiving people and making them sicker to sell more pharmaceuticals and useless medical procedures.

Let's hope that the admission by leading experts that "we got it wrong" on cholesterol and saturated fat will be the start of a major change in nutrition advice!

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Low carb diets for Diabetes - does it help?! YES!

22/8/2018

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Today (August 21, 2018) Diabetes Australia released a "position statement" to make some loose recommendations or advice to people with diabetes using a "low carb" eating plan to better improve their health.

I have gone over their position statement and this is my review...

Firstly, what is Diabetes?! Diabetes is caused by your food intake being too high in refined and processed carbohydrates, which causes high blood sugar levels. Over time, your cells start ignoring the insulin signal so your blood sugar levels remain high. More and more insulin is produced, as your body is now "insulin resistant", until your poor pancreas organ effectively wears out, and now you have diabetes. All caused by a high carbohydrate diet.

So a lower carb eating plan would seem to be the obvious solution! Many independent and evidence-based Nutritionists and Naturopaths (like me!) have been saying this for many years! Low carb for diabetes has been researched and recommended since the 1920s, but not by the diabetes organisations.

Some notes of the "position statement" are:
1) Diabetes Australia say that there is no "one size fits all" approach to "living well with diabetes". Absolutely true! So why have they been using a "one size fits all approach" for decades?! Eat less fat, less salt, follow the food guidelines, and take this insulin and medication. This doesn't fix diabetes, but only makes it worse.

2) There are many reminders that someone with diabetes should speak with their dietitian BEFORE considering going low carb. Why work with someone who hasn't actually fixed the problem in how long?

3) Dietitians are not allowed to recommend a low carb diet for any condition, as it's against their rules. The reason why is explained later... So if you have diabetes and want to try low carb, you speak to your dietitian, who will just say - "you shouldn't do that" and "eat more grains", which are high in carbs, which causes high blood sugar, which causes more insulin resistance. Pass those diabetes meds please.

4) They are still suggesting that healthy fats should be avoided because of their risk to heart disease - an issue which hasn't been proven in thousands of published studies in decades...

5) People starting a low carb diet will experience tiredness, headaches, nausea and dizziness. Really?! Not in my experience in a low carb plan - in fact, the chronic headaches and migraines disappear within days of starting low carb, and nausea and dizziness reduces too, as does your weight, blood sugar level, cholesterol level, symptoms, and many other "side effects"!

6) They claim low carb diets are popular because they are easy to follow and are heavily promoted in the media! NO! Because there is a lot of very good research showing that they work amazingly well for people with diabetes, weight issues, heart disease, cancer, and many other chronic health conditions!

7) They do say that there is "reliable evidence" (hooray!) that "lower carb" eating can be "safe and useful in lowering blood glucose levels"... Great! Then they add "in the short term (up to 6 months)" but only because they didn't include any studies in their position statement which went longer than this.

8) They didn't consider "vegetables " as being "carbs", when they are. But a "low carb" plan doesn't mean eating less or no veg! Low carb means low refined carbs like sugar, grains, grain products and alcohol, as all of which greatly raise blood sugars and insulin response.

9) They included 3, yep, just 3 pathetic studies to show that low carb wasn't proven to be of benefit in type 1 diabetes, and the most number of people tested in the 3 tests was 45 people. Another 3 studies used for type 2 diabetes. Hardly good examples, when I can find more and better quality studies showing much better benefits for diabetes.
10) AND their definition of "low carb " is diets with no more than 130gm of carbs per day. That's NOT a low carb diet! That's a MODERATE to high carb diet! We don't consider a diet to be low carb unless it's less than 30-50gm of carbs per day. No wonder they didn't get the really good results of reduced blood glucose and HbA1c (a diabetes blood sugar marker test) than I've seen in practice!

In summary, at best, Diabetes Australia are saying, you MAY be able to do a "moderate carb" diet (because it sure isn't low carb!) for up to 6 months maximum, only if you aren't pregnant, a child, breastfeeding, those who are malnourished (including those with cancer, infections, heart disease, and osteoporosis), with liver or kidney failure, eating disorders, on diabetes medications, or if you are a dietitian or diabetes consultant!

ALL of these conditions are ideal for a low-fat and highly nutritious eating plan! All of these health conditions will greatly improve from eating less sugar, grains and starchy foods.

Despite the position statement and its attempt at trying to stop the public criticism against their outdated advice for diabetics, the Diabetes Australia website still has the same old poor advice. The same with the Dietitians Association of Australia. "People with diabetes should follow the Australian Dietary Guidelines", whose high-carb advice caused the diabetes in the first place, because the guidelines were written by the Dietitians Association of Australia, who in turn are sponsored by many food industry groups, and processed food maufacturers like Campbells, Arnotts, Nestle, the Australian Breakfast Cereal Manufacturers Forum (ABCMF), and more! It says so on their website!

Now do you see why we have this epidemic of obesity, diabetes, and other chronic diseases? Nothing is going to really change until the DAA is either replaced, or they start giving factual nutrition advice based on real science, and not on corporate "sponsorships".

Nothing new to see here, move along now...

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Why should you avoid folic acid in pregnancy or conception

20/8/2018

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Are you, or someone you know trying to get pregnant, or thinking of having children soon? Or have you been trying to get pregnant for a while and it's not being successful? Or have you had one or more miscarriages?

There are many possible factors which cause difficulties with getting pregnant or holding onto a pregnancy such as stress, nutrient deficiencies, toxins and chemical exposure, genetics, smoking and alcohol, inflammation and more.

These are two of the most common, but little known, causes of infertility:
1) Hormone imbalance in men and women, and
2) Genetic mutations in men and women.

These are the biggest causes of infertility I see in my clinic, but both are fairly easy to treat to get a successful result! Sadly, the medical approaches to infertility are very expensive, and they don't address the root causes of infertility. One very common and recommended medical "treatment" actually causes more heartache, distress, infertility and miscarriages. This is the advice that the woman trying to conceive should take a pregnancy multivitamin supplement which contains "folic acid".

Folic acid is not found in nature. It's not real. It's an artificially synthesized form of folate, or a fake and dangerous form of vitamin B9, which is found in plant foods. Folate comes from the word "foliage", hence leaves or leafy green vegetables, but also found in any plant-based food.

"Folic acid" is added to cheap retail brand supplements and pregnancy products, as well as to breads, and other refined grain products, cereals, processed foods, and packaged foods. It doesn't have the same effect in your body as the real folate!

But what is worse is that up to 40% of people may have a particular genetic mutation called MTHFR, which I have written about before here:
http://www.rosswalter.com.au/articles/folic-acid-vs-folate-are-they-the-same

When men and women with the MTHFR genetic mutation take supplements with folic acid in them, or eat lots of processed foods high in folic acid, they can develop toxicity from UMFA (un-metabolized folic acid) syndrome. Taking folic acid in supplements or foods when you have the MTHFR mutation causes ongoing infertility, and very sadly, recurrent miscarriages. But women trying to conceive and pregnant women are told to take supplements with folic acid! As per usual with many government or medical directives, this simply makes things worse.

A recent study (Servy et al., Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, 2018) tested couples who had infertility issues for at least 4 years, where one or both partners had the MTHFR genetic mutation. Most had previously tried folic acid supplements, but they had a lot of poor results, including multiple miscarriages. The study instead supplemented the couples with a natural form of folate instead, for only 4 months.

No adverse effects were seen from this form of folate. But the results were amazing! 39% of the females conceived naturally, with most needed some additional treatment to achieve pregnancy, but only 6% didn't succeed. That's a 94% success rate after avoiding folic acid, but taking a natural folate supplement instead!

The study concluded that the natural folate supplement should be used for when one or both partners have the MTHFR mutation, and that the artificial folic acid must be avoided to prevent folic acid toxicity, immune dysfunction, and other adverse health effects such as cancer.

I highly recommend getting tested for MTHFR with a simple blood or saliva test, and taking a pregnancy supplement which does NOT have folic acid in it, but a natural form of folate instead. I can help with both the test and the natural folate supplement, along with investigating other possible causes of infertility.

If you are trying to conceive, or know someone who is, please share this article to them so they are informed and can have a successful outcome!

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Roundup (Glyphosate) is in foods and known to cause cancer

13/8/2018

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Being a Clinical Nutritionist and Naturopath isn't just about helping people with what to eat, but is also about education on what to eat, when, and how, and in even more detail!

One extra little detail is what your food was exposed to in terms of chemicals, toxins, or manipulation during or after production (such as irradiation or genetic modification, and how foods are cooked) which can make all the difference between a food that is healthy and a similar food that is damaging to your health.

One such suggestion I like to make is to avoid your food being exposed to toxic chemicals, such as herbicides, pesticides, fungicides etc. One of the most prominent and dangerous herbicides used on food crops is Roundup (also known as glyphosate, and found in many other brands of herbicides). Even though Roundup is promoted as safe (by its manufacturer, Monsanto), it can cause severe adverse health effects as found in recent research, including birth defects, spontaneous abortions, infertility, hormone disruptions, autoimmune conditions, neuro-degenerative diseases and even cancer (especially Non-Hodgkins lymphoma). It also gets into the environment, animals and the water supply, causing more issues.

Many food crops are genetically modified to be "Roundup Ready", meaning that the crop can be sprayed with Roundup when it's still young to kill the weeds around them, but the young plants can survive being sprayed. Such Roundup Ready crops include wheat, corn, canola, soy, and even cotton.

Roundup is also sprayed on cereal crops (ie wheat and corn), to kill the plants once their grains/seeds have set, to make it easier to harvest them. Unfortunately this leads to the chemical being present in your foods - breakfast cereals, breads, bakery products, soy foods and canola oil. This is one reason why I do not recommend people to eat wheat, corn, soy, or any processed foods with canola oil - unless it has been tested and certified as "organic".

A judge and jury in the USA have just awarded a 46-year old man about $289 MILLION in damages after successfully proving that Roundup caused his cancer. He was a gardener/groundsman and used Roundup regularly, but he isn't expected to live much longer because of his cancer. There are many hundreds more people suing Monsanto for health issues caused by Roundup.

Avoid using Roundup in your gardens or around food crops, as it can be absorbed through your skin to have the same effect. Have a look online for safe, natural herbicides or pesticides that you can cheaply and easily make at home, or just pull your weeds out by hand!

Local councils around Australia are notorious for using Roundup around the streets and parks, but some are heeding the warnings of Roundup and are trialling using steam as a more environmentally friendly and safer alternative to killing weeds! And of course it will be much safer for their employees and the general public too.

For your health and that of your family, please avoid using Roundup in your garden, and avoid Roundup Ready GMO foods.

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The importance of your food choices for dental health

9/8/2018

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At the recent "Low Carb Nutrition Revolution" conference in Gladstone, which I attended as a presenter on the topic of "Low carb for mental health", I was reminded of one of the main reasons I decided to follow this career path, initially as a Nutritionist.

About 12 years ago (approx 2006) I was dragged along to a day-long seminar about Dr Weston A. Price and his work. I wasn't sure what I was getting into, as I was still in my previous career at that time! Dr Price had passed away several decades earlier, but the spokesperson for the Weston A Price Foundation was the main speaker.

Dr Weston Price (1870-1948) was an American Dentist, Nutritionist and Scientist. In the late 1890s and early 1900s he spent over 10 years travelling all over the world to search for the secret of health. He visited and lived with indigenous populations on most continents to research their diets and the quality of their teeth. He found almost perfect dental arches, next to no dental decay, in an era of no water fluoridation, and very little toothbrushing or toothpaste!

When Dr. Price analyzed the foods used by isolated indigenous peoples he found that they provided at least four times the calcium and other minerals, and at least TEN times the fat-soluble vitamins from animal foods such as butter, fish eggs, shellfish and organ meats.

Dr Price was researching these remote populations at the most perfect time in history, when modern foods were only just reaching these areas - white flour, white sugar, refined vegetable/seed oils, and canned foods.

He then noticed the children of parents who had abandoned their traditional diets in favour of the modern diets had extremely bad and decayed teeth, and also a narrowed face, crowded teeth, and a much reduced immunity to disease. All of this occurred in a few years after modern high carb foods were introduced.

The discoveries and conclusion of Dr. Price are presented in his book "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration", of which reprints are still available today. The book contains striking photographs of handsome, healthy natives who eat traditional diets, and compares them with the physical degeneration that occurs when their fellow natives abandon nourishing traditional diets in favour of modern convenience foods. See some attached photos for a comparison.

While Dr Price's research was done in the early 1900s, his conclusions are still very relevant today, perhaps even more so, in this era of high carb convenience foods, epidemics of chronic disease and poor dental health. The research in his book could only have been written at that time in history! We are very lucky that he conducted these studies at the time.

What can we learn from this?

That people of various cultures should stick to their traditional diets of whole, fresh foods as much as possible, while also avoiding the high carb or highly processed foods such as sugar, flours and bakery products. This is why I recommend to clients of different ethnicities to stick to their original traditional diets and not adopt the modern convenience foods, and ignore the ridiculous government food guidelines which assume that we are all the same when we are not!

I believe that Dr Weston A. Price is a hero for his nutrition and dental research! He also noted big health problems with mercury amalgam fillings and root canal teeth...

Do you think your diet is right for you? Or do you get various aches and pains, or digestive symptoms when you eat something but can't pinpoint what is causing it? Or do you get lots of dental decay issues but can't work out why? I can help!

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What is a low carb diet? How can a low carb diet reverse chronic health conditions?

30/7/2018

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There is a growing trend and following of "low carb" type diets for improving health! But there seems to be some confusion or misunderstandings about what "low carb" is, how it is to be implemented, and the benefits! So what does "low carb" actually mean?! Does it benefit everyone? And for which health conditions can it help? Most excellent questions, I'm glad you asked!

The macronutrients we need to eat in a balanced diet (whatever that means!) are proteins, fats and carbohydrates. While most foods contain all of these macronutrients, the definition of carbohydrates is less clear, but generally includes all vegetables, fruit, grains, legumes, pulses, starches and sugars.

At first glance most of these foods would seem to be health, so why do we want to do "low carb"?!

In my clinical practice I analyse peoples' diets and I see most people eating far too many "processed carbohydrates", which includes sugary foods and drinks, breads, grains, bakery foods, cereals, pasta, and alcohol. These products are all high in carbohydrates, but very low in real nutrients! Carbohydrates are NOT an "essential" nutrient, as our bodies can make them from other foods we eat. We have "essential" proteins (amino acids), and "essential" fats (the omega-3 and omega-6 fats) which we MUST have in our diets regularly, because our bodies cannot make them! But there are no essential carbohydrates!

Diets high in these processed carbohydrates can not only reduce the overall amount of nutrients you eat, but cause high blood sugar levels and a lot of inflammation in your body. It is the high blood sugar which causes most of the inflammation response, but also other "nutrients" and "anti-nutrients" in these high carb foods, such as gluten, lectins, phytates, preservatives, additives, agricultural chemicals, moulds and toxins, and more.

High levels of inflammation (which can be confirmed with pathology testing) are what causes most chronic health conditions we see today - weight gain and obesity, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and even cancer.

I also see people not getting enough protein in their diet, and not enough healthy fats! We need proteins for growth and repair, and for many other metabolic functions every day. We also need healthy fats to make our hormones, neurotransmitters, new cells, for energy, and much more! Processed carbohydrates seems to be in excess in most people, and this causes health issues... so a lower processed carb intake, with the reduced amount of processed carbs being replaced by quality protein and healthy fats, can reduce symptoms and bring around a return to health!

There are many implementations of low carb diets, such as Paleo, keto/ketosis/ketogenic, low inflammation diet, primal, LCHF (usually meaning Low Carb High Fat, but that causes bad implementations, so I prefer Low processed-Carb Healthy Fat instead!), and others.

Not all of these nutrition plans may be beneficial for everyone, as there are a lot of interpretations of them, and some can be too extreme for my liking. The main problems are often seen in LCHF, Paleo, or ketogenic diets, which some people can have too much of a percentage of one macronutrient, at the expense of others, which can cause deficiencies and negate any benefits to your health. When these plans are done well, the benefits to your health can be incredible!

With the "good" carbohydrates of whole, fresh, and organic vegetables and fruits being packed with nutrients, I still recommend you eat plenty of these types of carbs! So a "low carb" diet really means a "low processed-carb, low inflammation, but high in nutrients" food plan!

A low carb nutrition plan can have many benefits to your health, by increasing your nutrient intake, reducing inflammation, reducing symptoms of chronic diseases, and helping you to feel much better!

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Stevia can cause infertility in males and females

How the EAT-Lancet global diet will be forced on you

Is the new EAT-Lancet diet healthy for you? (part 2)

The EAT-LANCET diet - is this new global diet healthy for you?

Are vegetarian or vegan diets healthier?!

why detoxes do not work!

why you should avoid plastic water bottles and containers

Evidence-based nutrition and health advice

sunglasses can cause sleep problems, depression, and more!

Are cancer-causing chemicals in your sunscreens?

Are fish oil and vitamin D supplements good for you?!

Diabetes linked to low sun exposure and poor sleep

Zinc deficiency linked to autism

The Dietitians Association of Australia change their tune!

"We got it wrong on cholesterol" say nutrition experts

Low carb diets for Diabetes - does it help?! YES!

Why should you avoid folic acid in pregnancy or conception

Roundup (Glyphosate) is in foods and known to cause cancer

The importance of your food choices for dental health

What is a low carb diet? How can a low carb diet reverse chronic health conditions?

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