Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog

Evidence-based nutrition and health advice

16/1/2019

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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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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WHO INVENTED THE FOOD PYRAMID AND FOOD GUIDELINES?

5/12/2017

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Have you ever wondered why our government food guidelines are the way they are, or why they don't make a lot (or any) sense, or why we have the current worldwide epidemics of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other chronic diseases, when most people are following these guidelines?

Here you have your answers, if you didn't already know...

But first, who invented the initial food pyramid, in an attempt to tell people what they should eat to be healthy? I'll tell you: In 1924, a dietitian by the name of Mary Barber designed the first food pyramid. And she worked for this company...... wait for it...

KELLOGGS!!

What group of foods did she put on the bottom of the food pyramid, to tell you to eat the most of?! GRAINS! (see pic)

What do Kelloggs sell most of? GRAINS!

Way back then the food pyramid was designed to get people to eat more GRAINS, to make Kelloggs more profit. It wasn't based on scientific evidence that it was good for you!

And today, the situation is exactly the same.

Just a couple of days ago, the Assistant Federal Minster for Health, David Gillespie MP, sent out a media release highlighting the huge financial costs of diabetes and heart disease. It also mentioned that based on some research, simply eating more fibre from grains could improve our health and (allegedly) prevent a huge number of diabetes and heart disease cases.

On face value, that idea may sound ok to you, except that it was Kelloggs who actually funded that research! (see additional pics) Some 93 years after they first started manipulating the public, they are STILL interfering with government advice and the food guidelines to get you to buy what will increase their profits - GRAINS! (in breakfast cereals, muesli bars, breads, and many other products)

So what's the problem with grains? They are high in carbohydrates, which gets broken down into glucose in the body to cause high blood sugars, and in excess, it will be stored as fat. A lot of recent research shows that grains cause high cholesterol, high blood pressure, inflammation, low energy, IBS, and a lot more symptoms, and conditions such as diabetes and heart disease - the very things which the assistant health minister and Kelloggs are suggesting will prevent! It won't - eating more grains will cause more of these conditions.

The current food guidelines which still advise us to eat 6-11 serves of grains daily, were produced by the Dietitians Association of Australia, who accept a massive amount of sponsorships from food industry corporates like Kelloggs, Sanitarium, Arnotts, Campbells, Nestle and many more... this is a huge conflict of interest and it shows in their unscientific recommendations. The DAA guidelines are about protecting their corporate partners' profits, and not based on independent scientific research or what is best for your health. Hence why you should ignore these guidelines, and eat LESS grains, if you want to be healthier.

For the best independent nutrition advice, instead talk to your (non-DAA-aligned) Nutritionist or Naturopath. We have your best interests and health at heart, based on recent scientific research.

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More LOW FAT GUIDELINES PROVEN WRONG

29/10/2017

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I love looking at how nutrition affects your health, in positive healthy ways as well as the negative effects of some foods or nutrients. Heart disease is, well... close to my heart, as it runs in my family. Despite the "heart health" food guidelines of low fat, and low salt over the past few decades, heart disease is still the largest killer of men and women in Western countries. Have the government food guidelines since the 1970s caused this? I say it has...

A very recent new study was published in The Lancet (one of the world's most prestigious medical journals) on 29th Aug 2017, finding that a higher intake of carbohydrates was associated with a higher risk of earlier death, whereas a higher intake of healthy fats, including saturated fat, actually reduced the risks and incidences of heart disease and other conditions.

The study was admittedly not of a high quality, being based on questionnaires about food intake (carbs vs proteins vs fats), body measurements, lifestyle choices, medicines, and medical history including cardiovascular events (heart attacks, stroke, and other symptoms) and other non-heart related conditions. As such, there is an element of possible inaccuracies about what people may answer in the questionnaires compared to their truth. But the number of people investigated was high - over 135,000 adults from 35-70 years, from low, middle and high income groups in many countries on five continents. Respondents were followed up at 3, 6 and 9 years later, with repeated measurements and questionnaires to assess changes, nutrition, health, deaths and other factors.

People in some countries obtained most of their energy from a very high carbohydrate intake, even up to 70% or more, which is higher than Australia's food guidelines of 45%-65% carbohydrate intake, and certainly higher than what I see in my clients at 50-60% carbohydrate intake. Another issue with the study is that there was no differentiation between "good" carbohydrates of vegetables and fruit, compared to the "bad" carbs of sugar, grain products, alcohol etc. This is a huge flaw in the study, as some people in rural Asian countries eating mostly a plant-based diet with some animal protein and healthy fats (and thus being very healthy) are being seen the same as people in modern Western towns eating a truckload of sugar, bread and alcohol, with massive grain-fed steaks.

Another flaw of the study was the implied assumption that all people from many different countries, cultures, and ethnicities, are somehow all the same and should eat exactly the same foods! Different ethnicities have different genetics, and as such, have different nutritional needs due to different biochemical and metabolic physiologies.

While the attention-grabbing news headlines of the study suggests that eating more carbs and less fats contributes to increased heart disease and death, or that eating more healthy fats leads to less heart disease, the truth (in this study at least) wasn't so exciting.

Some of the findings were:
- Higher carbohydrate intake was linked to increased risk of mortality
- Higher carbohydrate intake was NOT linked to an increased risk of heart disease
- Total fat intake was associated with lower risk of mortality
- Higher saturated fat intake was associated with a lower risk of stroke, but not other heart disease conditions.

Another interesting result from the study was that a higher animal protein intake was associated with a lower risk of mortality, but no association was found with regard to plant protein.

The study concluded with: "Global dietary guidelines should be reconsidered in light of these findings.". No, they shouldn't! As much as I would love to see the dietary guidelines changed, away from their current food industry sponsored/biased advice, to more current scientific evidence as seen in many other better quality published studies, the guidelines shouldn't be changed based on this poor quality and flawed study!

What is my message from this study? Ignore the sensationalist news headlines or articles for this study, as it doesn't tell the full story! There are much better studies showing the association between eating "bad" refined/processed carbs and heart disease, or saturated fat intake not being associated with heart disease.

And for the best nutrition and health advice, see your Nutritionist or Naturopath, who can tailor a nutrition plan specifically for you, taking into account your health history and your health goals!

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REview of the food & Health documentary "The Magic PiLL"

2/8/2017

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On Monday 31st July 2017, I was invited to attend a private screening of the new food and nutrition documentary "The Magic Pill", and be an expert on the panel afterwards to answer health and nutrition questions from the attendees. Perhaps the title is a little vague at first, but the message becomes clearer as you progress through the film, produced by Rob Tate and Pete Evans (Australian celebrity chef and Paleo nutrition advocate).

The film introduces us to several people of differing ethnicity and their families, and a warts and all look at their health issues, medications, and their concerns about their health. We looked at Caucasian Americans, African Americans, Native Americans, and a large community of Indigenous Australian Aborigines in Arnhem Land. All had many chronic diseases, including many "20th Century conditions" of over-consumption, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, obesity, liver and kidney disease, asthma, and cancer. We also followed the stories of a young girl and boy with severe ADHD and intellectual development issues who were non-verbal and showed a lot of typical behaviours of being on the autism spectrum, which was very stressful for their families.

The Yolgnu people in Arnhem Land were particularly interesting, as they recalled their parents and grandparents all being very fit, strong, having great teeth and in excellent health while living their traditional ways and foods. Then white man came with their western/modern foods. They were now living on "modern" foods of breakfast cereals, breads, damper, jam, orange juice and coca cola... As a result, their health was very poor, life expenctancy very low, and they couldn't see how they could change this.

But along came a charity called "Hope for Health" with selfless health professionals with a program which incoprorates their traditional medicine and diet, exercise, detox retreats, nutrition and cooking workshops and support. In a few short weeks, they turned their health around and this gave them hope! You could see the relief and improvements in their eyes and faces again, and it was beautiful to see! For more information on this charity and their work, please visit https://www.hopeforhealth.com.au/ and consider a donation to help these wonderful people.

A brief section of the film showed similar health issues with Native Americans eating the same modern foods introduced by white man.

It was obvious that the "modern" food pyramid and government food guidelines does not work for everyone (or "anyone", it could be argued), especially indigenous populations. One reason that the guidelines are not working is due to the huge amount of influence the food industry companies have in these guidelines, through "sponsorships" of various health advisory groups, and their deliberate funding of biased "research" simply confuses the public and maintains the current situation. These sponsorships are openly listed on their respective websites.

From my experience in clinical practice (as a Nutritionist and Naturopath), people from non-Western ethnic backgrounds improve their health so much by returning to their traditional diets, which typically includes plenty of seasonal vegetables, some fruits, organ meats, grass-fed/wild caught meats and healthy fats - eggs, nuts and seeds, and the occasional fast. This became the theme and purpose of the film - to educate and empower people to return to health using traditional nutritional medicine and cooking techniques, while avoiding the health dangers in processed foods.

Various scientific, medical and nutritional experts were interviewed and contributed to the film, including Dr David Perlmutter ("we should eat natural foods, not scientised foods"), Dr Rangan Chatterjee ("the question that all doctors should ask patients is 'what are you eating?'"), farmer Joel Salatin ("90% of cattle in the USA are fattened up in feedlots, being fed GRAINS" - yet they are supposedly healthy for us?!, and "a sick environment causes sick crops, which causes sick animals, which causes sick humans who eat them"), South African scientist Professor Tim Noakes (the South African dietetics association filed a complaint against him for giving Low Carb High Fat diet advice, but he won, due to the amount of scientific evidence supporting the LCHF model ), and more.

There was a short section of the documentary showing charts and statistics of the benefits of a LCHF or ketogenic type diets to reduce weight, and reverse many of the modern diseases mentioned earlier. The weight of scientific evidence shows that the current food guidelines is contributing to the chronic disease epidemic we have now, and perhaps the food pyramid model should be turned upside down, so that meats and healthy fats are the main part of our diets, instead of grains.

I do not agree with the current food guidelines (which is quite disappointing as a Nutritionist, but it is a decision based on evidence), and I recommend a similar food model for my clients, being a "low inflammation" nutrition program, which is a slight variation of the LCHF/ketogenic/Paleo model. I don't believe, however, that a high intake of meat/protein or healthy fats should be the most consumed food group. Vegetables should be - preferably raw, fresh, seasonal and organic as much as possible for their wide nutrient content. Grass-fed meats and "healthy fats" (not so much "High Fat", which is open to abuse or extreme diets) should come next, with processed or refined carbohydrates such as sugar, grains and grain products coming a distant last in quantity, or even avoided (as there's no nutrients in grains which can't be obtained from other food groups!).

A LCHF/Ketogenic diet can reduce chronic disease symptoms by reducing inflammation, reducing cholesterol and blood sugars, and normalising blood lipid levels and the body's response to insulin. These changes can help to reduce weight, reverse type 2 diabetes, improve mental health, reduce autism symptoms (both children became vocal, more responsive and better behaved in a few short weeks!), greatly reduce or even eliminate the need for insulin for T2 diabetics, improve energy, improve brain function and cognition, and reduce many other chronic disease symptoms!

We saw all of these improvements start in a few days in the family members being followed in this documentary, and they kept on getting better at each checkup a few weeks and several months after incorporating the dietary changes. It was heartwarming and wonderful to watch the improvements, to see and hear their reactions, and their need for less medications which neither helped improve their health nor reduced their symptoms.

If you are interested in food, health, nutritional medicine, or wanting to reduce your chronic disease symptoms, please have a look at this film! I recommend watching for its emotive, educational and empowering message, that nutritional medicine can be "The Magic Pill" to many of our current health epidemics many people are dealing with personally. If the movie can inspire just one person that there is hope in having better health and a better quality of life, the film has achieved its purpose! Many thanks to all those involved in the film, for raising awareness and hope in many!

Once you are ready to make some changes yourself, please consult with an experienced Nutritionist or Naturopath to help personalise a plan for you, as your current health conditions, lifestyle, medications and other factors may need to be taken into account. I'd love to help you achieve your health goals!

"The Magic Pill" screenings are continuing around Australia at the moment, and I believe will be coming to Netflix soon. Please look out for screenings in your area, or if you would like to organise and host a screening in your area, please contact www.Fan-Force.com to make arrangements!

Good health to you!

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Who really came up with the health star rating system?!

2/10/2016

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The "Health star rating" system in Australia is flawed, useless, biased towards processed foods over less processed foods, and is based on faulty science and corporate interests to maintain their profits.

As I mentioned in my recent article about dietitians and the Dietitians Association of Australia, this organisation is "sponsored" by many food industry groups, "food" manufacturers like Nestle, McDonalds, Campbells, Arnotts and other non-healthy "food" companies. In return for this sponsorship, the DAA provides biased advice which is not based on current nutritional research, but helps to maintain the profits of their corporate sponsors. I have also written previously about the health star rating system (search for my post below), but this article is a different look at it.

What better proof of this biased (or corrupted) health rating system is to look at who was actually a part of this system. I'm sure this might surprise you! The organisations who decided on this rating system included:
- Government representatives - untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
- NSW Food Authority - responsible for food safety, but untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
- Australian Medical Association - representing some Australian doctors, untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine

- Choice - consumer group, untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
- Australian Food and Grocery Council - an industry body for food manufacturers and suppliers, untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
- Australian Industry Group - represents many industries and manufacturers, of which the spokesperson represented the confectionery industry in Australia and was the VP of the International Confectionery Association, untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
- NZ Department of Primary Industries - responsible for food regulations. Spokesperson was trained as a dietitian... (which is not about nutrition or nutritional medicine)
- Australian Beverages Council - representing the manufacturers of non-alcoholic beverages (such as soft drinks, fruit juices, cordials etc - not "health" products are they?!), untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
- Australian National Retail Association - representing retail, fast food and service industries, untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
- Obesity Policy Coalition - enforces laws to support obesity prevention - do we actually have any? Because they aren't working!
- Public Health Association of Australia - at last, some organisation which appears to have something to do with health! But it uses advice from government committees and organisations with a doctor and medical bias, again who are untrained in nutrition or nutritional medicine
This information is plain to see on the Health Star Rating System website (here: http://healthstarrating.gov.au/internet/healthstarrating/publishing.nsf/Content/Acknowledgements)
As you can see from the design of this "health star rating" system, there is very little to no basis to do with real nutrition or your health, but almost all to do with the food industry and processed food corporations and maintaining their profits. This is very disappointing.
You should not use or rely on the "health star rating" system for your food choices. Ignore them and your health will be better for it! In fact, use this system in reverse, by selecting foods with a LOWER star rating for a better choice, and most of the time your choice will be a healthier one! Or better yet, choose foods which do not have a label and thus no rating system, like fresh, organic vegetables and fruit, and organic grass-fed animal products.

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Evidence-based nutrition and health advice

The Dietitians Association of Australia change their tune!

"We got it wrong on cholesterol" say nutrition experts

WHO INVENTED THE FOOD PYRAMID AND FOOD GUIDELINES?

More LOW FAT GUIDELINES PROVEN WRONG

REview of the food & Health documentary "The Magic PiLL"

Who really came up with the health star rating system?!

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