Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog

TGA warns of vitamin B6 causing peripheral neuropathy

14/11/2022

On October 4th 2022, Australia's medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) announced that due to an increase in adverse events reports on products containing vitamin B6, that the recommended maximum dose of vitamin B6 in supplements is being reduced, and products containing vitamin B6 now need to show a warning on the label that vitamin B6 can cause peripheral neuropathy symptoms (TGA, 2022).

The TGA has updated their regulations so that all products containing a daily dose of vitamin B6 above 10 mg require a warning about peripheral neuropathy. To limit exposure to excessive doses, the maximum permitted daily dose of vitamin B6 in products has also been reduced from 200 mg to 100 mg for adults, with lower daily dose limits in place for children depending on their age.

Neuropathy is a diagnosis from nerve damage leads to feelings of burning, pain, weakness, numbness or tingling in one or more parts of the body. Peripheral neuropathy relates to nerve damage which affects the extremities of the body, typically the hands and feet.

Peripheral neuropathy can also occur from other causes, including a vitamin B12 deficiency, autoimmune conditions, and nerve damage from diabetes conditions. If you experience these symptoms, stop taking any supplement products or combinations which have vitamin B6 as "pyridoxine hydrochloride", and see your practitioner as soon as possible.

Vitamin B6 is an essential nutrient, and in foods, it does not cause peripheral neuropathy, partly as foods contain other nutrients which negate the effects of B6 to prevent the neuropathy, and partly as the form of vitamin B6 in most supplements is the synthetic/artificial form of vitamin B6 without the other nutrients to prevent the neuropathy...

Peripheral neuropathy is, however, typically associated with a DEFICIENCY of vitamin B6! But it is also alleged that an excess of B6 (ie, toxicity) can also cause the peripheral neuropathy. The TGA based their decision on many adverse reports from people taking vitamin B6 supplements and having elevated B6 levels in their blood tests. A good practitioner with knowledge of nutrition and blood tests will know that you never test for vitamin B6 levels as it's such an inaccurate test and should never be relied on as an accurate marker of B6 status...

Some supplement products contain both the inactive form of vitamin B6 as pyridoxine hydrochloride together with the active form, called P5P. I also know from published studies that show that if taken together, the inactive B6 will inhibit the body's use of P5P, and hence causing the high levels of B6 and at the same time causing a functional deficiency of vitamin B6, which in turn is causing the peripheral neuropathy.

Vitamin B6 in supplements, especially the inactive form of pyridoxine hydrochloride, should never be taken on its own, or without the other B-vitamins as these balance the B6 and prevent the neuropathy. However, many retail multi-vitamin products or B-complex products, will have the inactive form of B6 and other poor B vitamins and these can also cause neuropathy if taken long-term. Products containing both pyridoxine hydrochloride and P5P should also be avoided. I have not seen any peripheral neuropathy from the active form of B6, being P5P.

There are ways to prevent peripheral neuropathy, depending on the causes of it, as there are causes other than being from vitamin B6. There are also ways to reverse peripheral neuropathy. Stopping any supplement products with pyridoxine hydrochloride is the first step. Then see me for more advice on how to stop the neuropathy symptoms and reverse them!

Stay healthy!

References:

Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). (2022). Peripheral neuropathy with supplementary vitamin B6 (pyridoxine). Retrieved 9th November 2022 from https://www.tga.gov.au/news/safety-updates/peripheral-neuropathy-supplementary-vitamin-b6-pyridoxine

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a one world diet attempts to save the planet and feed the world but will cause more nutrient deficiencies and disease

16/3/2021

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In 2019, I wrote a series of articles to critique the EAT-Lancet Commission report, on a proposed new "one world diet" which alleged to save the environment as well as feeding the world. It sounds like a great plan, except it had some massive holes and wouldn't work to achieve either goal. You can read my earlier articles on this plan here:

http://www.rosswalter.com.au/art.../category/eat-lancet-diet

The initial report received wide media coverage and praise until some independent investigations (including from me) found the the proposed new diet was woefully deficient in multiple nutrients (include vitamin B12, vitamin D, vitamin K, sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, omega-3 fats, protein and amino acids, and more!) which was not sustainable for anyone to avoid health conditions.

The EAT-Lancet diet was in effect an optional-almost-no-meat, plant-based diet, but included manufactured or highly processed plant-based foods. The extremely low animal products would comprise 1/5 of an egg, 2/3 of a fish finger, 1/4 of a rasher of bacon, 1/16 of a burger pattie, or 1.5 chicken nuggets! And even then, animal-based foods are optional! No wonder it was so nutrient deficient! A subsequent investigation into the financial requirements of the EAT-Lancet diet concluded that approximately 1.5 BILLION of the world's 7 billion population today would not be able to afford the EAT-Lancet diet! (Hirvonen, Bai, Headey & Masters, 2019). The EAT-Lancet new world diet was a failure.

EAT-Lancet is an interesting collaboration of the EAT Foundation Group, founded by a billionnaire vegan couple, and The Lancet, a medical and scientific journal. The EAT-Lancet Commission and report was funded by The Wellcome Trust, a charity with pharmaceutical company roots (Eat Forum, 2019). Almost all of the report's authors and contributors were vegans - it was a highly biased group, and their report showed this. The group is attempting to meet the Umited Nations Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement (for climate change) (EAT-Lancet Commission, 2021).

Recently, EAT-Lancet group is back with a new report, full of wonderful quotes and proposals, which deserve to be investigated again, so here are some key points:

• They make many unsubstantiated claims why the future of the planet is dire if we don't all make huge changes to the food supply system and improving nutrition for everyone. They claim that a diet rich in plant-based foods and fewer animal sources will improve health and environmental benefits. But offers no scientific references to back this claim.
• They make no differentiation between organic or grass-fed animal sources of food, versus factory-raised (and grain-fed and other garbage-fed) animals or processed meats, which can give significant differences in health.
• They forget that animals IMPROVE the soil with nutrients and bacteria, and even sequester more "carbon" into the soil (and meat) from the air than what they give out. They also forget that roaming animals do not need vast clearing of native forests, unlike mass mono-plant agriculture (ie, plant farming is more damaging to the environment, than animal farming).
• They make no differentiation between highly processed factory-produced plant sources of food (ie plant protein, soy, GMOs etc) and fresh, whole plant foods.
• They make no mention of the huge transportation issues of getting plant foods to people, or encouraging many people with gardens to grow their own foods!
• Their dietary recommendations are still based on useless calories, but it can be used as a good comparison, for example they recommend 811 calories PER DAY from grains (wow! An epidemic of Diabetes here we come), 78 calories from vegetables, 153 calories from dairy (and never mind the many cultures who traditionally haven't accessed or consumed dairy, and shouldn't), just 30 calories from beef, lamb and pork, 62 from chicken, 19 from eggs (remember just 1/5 of one!), a huge 284 calories from legumes (and again many can't tolerate these or the pea protein powder it mostly comes from), and a whopping 354 from unsaturated plant-based oils, and even 120 calories PER DAY from sugar.
• Their aim is to double the consumption of plant-based foods (except starchy vegetables which are to be limited, despite them being rich source of fibre...), limit red meat (highly nutrient-dense), and with eggs, chicken and dairy being optional.
• Reducing food waste is a goal too, and a good one as up to 45% of food produced is wasted or thrown out because of picky choosing by supermarkets and other food companies, limited resources for picking or processing, not being consumed quickly enough, or other causes. However reducing waste is a much later goal, when it should be done first...

The EAT-Lancet Commission haven't learnt from their earlier failure - no change has been done to their original plan to fix the issues with their "new world diet", to correct the obvious and highly damaging nutrient deficiencies that are present in it. On one hand the report says it is about trying to improve food quality and quantity to feed everyone in a sustainable way, but doesn't actually provide the nutrients it claims.

With all the other political and health agendas going on at the moment and for the past 12 months, this is another part of it. A committee of a few people cannot realistically come up with a plan that will address or fix the entire planet or improve the health of the entire population. These co-called experts did a terrible job of putting together the original report and the "study" of their proposed "one world diet" being the EAT-Lancet diet, with massive issues that were found by independent investigations, but still haven't been fixed 2 years later. I'm sure these experts won't personally be relying on 1/5 of an egg for their daily animal-based protein intake...

This is a plan for CAUSING chronic nutrient deficiencies and disease in the ENTIRE population, while pretending to save the planet and improve health. Pretty much the same as another agenda going on at the moment...

Yes the food supply needs improving in many ways, but this diet or plan is not the way it can be done.

Stay healthy!

#foodcanfixit #fktheEATLancetdiet #fkthenewworlddiet

References:

EAT Forum. (2019). How was the EAT-Lancet Commission funded? Retrieved 8th March 2021 from https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet.../eat-lancet-funding/

EAT-Lancet Commission. (2021). Healthy Diets From Sustainable Food Systems: Summary Report from the EAT-Lancet Commission. Retrieved 6th March 2021 from https://eatforum.org/content/uploads/2019/01/EAT-Lancet_Commission_Summary_Report.pdf

Hirvonen, K., Bai, Y., Headey, D., & Masters, W.A. (2019). Affordability of the EAT–Lancet reference diet: a global analysis. The Lancet, 8 (1), E59-E66. Doi: 10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30447-4

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Modern medicine is JUST an experiment of using toxic chemicals into malnourished people

4/12/2020

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Modern medicine is just an experiment of what happens when you put toxic chemicals into malnourished bodies...

Medications don't fix anything. They just trick the body into hiding your symptoms, to make you feel better. Take for instance pain-killing medications - they perform clever things to your biochemical pathways to stop the pain-causing neurotransmitters and/or the cellular receptors from responding to the neurotransmitters, so you don't FEEL the pain. Even though the root causes of the pain are still there, still triggering the pain, and still triggering the pain neurotransmitters...

Or cough medicines which stop you coughing. Never mind that the coughing is a natural mechanism to get the infected mucus and wastes out of your body! Hence you stay more infected and sicker for longer...

Or anti-inflammatory medications which reduce inflammation. Never mind that inflammation is your immune system's natural healing process, so you are in fact prolonging your injury, preventing healing and preventing your immune system from working, which in turn can lead to more infections and over time, cancer.

Or medications to reduce indigestion, reflux, or heartburn etc, by reducing the amount of stomach acid that your stomach produces, to reduce your symptoms. Never mind that your stomach is supposed to be acidic in order to digest your food and release all the nutrients that you eat! If you aren't digesting your foods, you won't be absorbing the nutrients from your foods, and you will quickly become deficient in a large number of nutrients, which in turn cause many more symptoms and conditions, which you may likely reach for more medications to try to hide.... and never actually fix anything. All the while, your health gets worse and worse.

Medications can't fix a poor diet. Medications can't correct nutrient deficiencies. What you need instead is to fix the root causes of your symptoms, which WILL give you long-term resolution and prevention of recurrence!

Sadly, this is not what doctors or the medical system do. They "treat" symptoms (really, they just "manage" symptoms) with medications or surgery.
I instead, as a Clinical Nutritionist, Naturopath and Herbalist, focus on finding all the root causes of all your symptoms and putting together a plan to treating and fixing those root causes, as well as using better and safer options to reduce symptoms and make you feel better, while fixing the causes.

Finding and fixing any nutrient deficiencies is also a very important aspect of what I do, which can be done through signs and symptoms and/or pathology testing. It is also interesting to note that most medications actually CAUSE many nutrient deficiencies, which is also something I check that your medications are doing...

Don't just hide your symptoms! Get rid of them forever, by finding and fixing the root causes. That is what I can help you with!

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the coronavirus is insignificant and shouldn't even be news

9/7/2020

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Here's some perspective of the coronavirus situation...

Over 4 million people this year have died from hunger, with around 9 million dying every year from a lack of food. A further 815 million people (over 10% of the world's population) suffer chronic undernourishment (World Hunger, 2017), which is not just confined to developing countries, as many in western countries are also suffering hunger and a lack of nutrition. Over 45% of all child deaths are from poor nutrition (Global Nutrition Report, 2015).

If you believe the statistics, around 500,000 people have allegedly died from coronavirus around the world. But these statistics are based on corrupt WHO recommendations for classifying deaths from assumptions being made, no testing to confirm, no autopsies being recommended, and an inaccurate PCR test that is not designed for diagnostic purposes.

What would be the true numbers of covid deaths, we might never know. But one thing is for sure - the coronavirus should be a very minor player in world health issues at the moment. But it isn't because of clever planning and marketing by those who only want you to see that the virus is the only thing that is affecting people.

I haven't even gone into the statistics of other causes of death due to chronic diseases or other infections such as influenza, which kill many, many more people in the world each year.

But we have a media scare campaign over a man-made virus to which just 0.3% of people test positive for, and a mortality rate of those who test positive of just 0.1%... This virus should not even be a published news story, because it is so insignificant in the overall picture of health in the world.

Have you seen any doctor, health official, government, or media outlet during this whole scare campaign, recommending that you can reduce your risks of coronavirus by getting the right nutrition or addressing nutritional deficiencies? No, of course not. Why?

How do you know if you have nutritional deficiencies? You have some if you:
1) Get an infection
2) Have a chronic disease condition
3) or if you have any symptoms at all.

You can easily get tested to see what deficiencies you may have, and then get the results analysed holistically and naturopathically to look for these deficiencies. Sadly, a doctor or GP doesn't interpret your results to look for these as they aren't trained to. This is where I can help!

If you do eat the right nutrition and address deficiencies, you can improve your immune system to better protect you from the coronavirus, as well as solving the world's hunger and malnutrition problems, and also reducing and preventing all chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, mental health and neurological conditions, and even cancer.

See my earlier articles on how to support your immune system better for reducing your health issues.

And stay healthy.

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review of the vegan documentary "The Game Changers"

11/11/2019

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(I have not included all the text of this review here, as it's very long! I have added the introduction, some initial points, and the conclusion. For the full review, click on the PDF file link at the bottom of this article, to open or save the file and read the entire content!)

Being a Clinical Nutritionist and Naturopath means seeing many clients with a variety of health conditions and helping them to improve their health by reducing symptoms and enabling healing. In almost every case, there needs to be some improvements to their food intake in order to get the successful results that the client is looking for.

To help clients achieve their goals requires a lot of knowledge of the anatomy and physiology of all body systems, biochemistry, metabolic pathways, pathophysiology of many diseases, and all the interactions between these. I am very evidence-based as a practitioner, in order to make good recommendations of nutrients and/or products and advice to help the client. There is also an amount of anecdotal evidence being in practice too, which is evidence from personal observations as a practitioner and from the patient. While this is not considered as "scientific evidence" it is still very important, as not everyone is the same or has the same experiences with the same treatments, which is often not reflected in scientific studies.

I am fully aware of the seemingly conflicting advice and recommendations about foods and diets - which diet is best, or whether coffee, chocolate, red wine, dairy, butter, soy or grains are good for you this week or not! Then next week they are bad again... Hence I like to keep on top of the nutritional advice which is given to the public. Which is why I frequently review food-related news stories, articles and documentaries to see what recommendations they say, and whether they are in fact, evidence based.

This review is for the new "plant-based" documentary called "The Game Changers". The documentary is produced by James Cameron (also the producer of Titanic, and Avatar movies and others), Arnold Schwartzenegger, Jackie Chan (actor, martial artist), Lewis Hamilton (F1 driver), and mostly hosted by James Wilks, a UFC martial arts fighter. The trailer for the documentary showed short snippets of several sporting stars and athletes allegedly improving their performance on a "plant-based" (read as "vegan") diet. Even bodybuilder Arnold Schwartzenegger is in favour, despite him not actually being a vegan at the time of his greatest successes! He achieved that on a very high animal protein diet with a side of anabolic steroids! Arnold said in the trailer and in the movie: "the marketing at the time was that real men ate meat, and lots of it", and "but that was marketing. It's not based on reality".

The very same could be said about this documentary - it's not based on reality, certainly not a scientific reality!

By the way, the word "vegan" or description of a vegan diet recommended in this documentary is never used! It's as if the producers know that the word "vegan" has such negative perceptions that they deliberately didn't use this word because they were embarrassed to do so! And there's many good reasons why the word "vegan" has deserved negative perceptions, not least of which is the tendency of the cult-like followers to suspend logic and science in their arguments.

Instead of the word "vegan", they repeat the term "plant-based" on and on and on. If the producers and contributors to the film are so pro-vegan, they should use the term, and not hide behind the confusion of whatever "plant-based" really means. This confusion will grow, particularly as some commonly promoted diets which prevent or improve health issues are "plant-based" but they contain meat and animal products, such as the Mediterranean diet! (Lăcătus, Grigorescu, Floria, Onofriescu & Mihai, 2019). Make no mistake, this documentary is NOT about a moderate "plant-based" diet with some animal products. It is talking about and promoting a VEGAN diet!

The main concept of the documentary is about protein, and that animal protein is not necessary for athletes to perform at the highest level. And that plant-based protein can not only help athletes, but reverse heart disease and diabetes. Or does it?!

As with my other food-related documentary reviews, this is a bit long. Very long, really! Sorry! But it needs to be, but will be very informative, scientific, with a more balanced point of view, and pointing out the errors or holes in their arguments with referenced articles and published studies!

The film quoted wisdom from the martial artist Bruce Lee:

"Research your own experience
Absorb what is useful
Reject what is useless
Add what is essentially your own."

This was Bruce Lee's way of life. And this is good advice, as we are all different!

Yet the aim of the documentary is the opposite - to get everyone to be the same.

This review might sound at this point to be anti-vegan. No it isn't! I am happy for people to look into this way of life and use it themselves, but what is missing in the documentary is balance! Or science. The documentary is extreme in its beliefs and information, and in many parts is completely lacking in good science on human physiology, metabolism, biochemistry and their effect on diseases. The purpose of this review is to perhaps fill in the holes or correct many aspects of science which were lacking in the documentary, and provide more balance, all fully referenced with published scientific studies.

The story
The documentary followed James Wilks and his journey to recovery after tearing ligaments in both knees after a sporting injury. In his search to finding ways to heal more quickly, he came across a book about the Roman Gladiators that found they had mostly a "plant-based" diet, which greatly surprised him. Researchers have found that the gladiators were referred to as hordearii or "barley men", because of their diet. Yet researchers analysed their bones and found them to be fairly strong, and seemed to recover from injuries quickly. So he set about looking into this more for a quicker recovery from his injuries.

My comments - Gladiators were slaves. They had short lives and were not fed well by their owners. They had very nutrient deficient diets, lacking in calcium that is needed for strong bones. Historical accounts showed that the gladiators downed vile brews of charred wood or bone ash or similar, to keep their bones strong. Gladiators were fed a lot of barley, because it made them fat! And they needed subcutaneous fat to protect them from cut wounds that would otherwise damage nerves and blood vessels! A skinny gladiator was "dead meat", and would not have made for a good show. So their plant-based and very high carb diet was done deliberately to make them fat (Curry, 2008). We know this today, that a high carb diet becomes blood sugar, which then gets turned into triglycerides or fat. A major point ignored in this film.

Protein for energy
A big assumption or belief throughout the documentary is the belief that we need protein for energy, and if you decide to go "meat free" as many athletes in the documentary have done, then people will ask "where will they get their energy from if they don't eat meat?!". And if one can get protein from plants, then we don't need meat!

My comments - Our bodies can use the macronutrients of carbohydrates, proteins and fats for fuel for energy. Depending on your typical food intake, the priority of which macronutrients get used first can differ. If you eat a typical Western diet or predominantly vegetarian or vegan diet that is high in carbs, then you will use these macronutrients in this order (Patton & Thibodeau, 2013):

Carbs -> glucose
Fats -> ketone bodies and glycerol
Protein -> amino acids.

If you are on a more ketogenic diet and are "fat adapted", your body's order of preference of fuel will be different (Freeman, Veggiotti, Lanzi, Tagliabue & Perucca, 2006, p153):

Fats -> ketone bodies and glycerol
Carbs -> glucose
Protein -> amino acids.

If you are an athlete, your body's order of preference of fuel can be different, depending on whether you are a distance athlete or a sprinter. Metabolising carbs is a quicker process, but not very efficient, and produces lots of lactic acid as a by-product, which makes muscles sore and burning during exercise, and you run out of energy or strength quickly. Metabolising fats for energy is slower, but MUCH more efficient in producing energy, but doesn't produce lactic acid, so you will have a lot more stamina and less sore muscles later. Hence for sprinters, a higher carb diet (not protein!) can be best for more explosive power in short events. For distance athletes, fats are the best fuel - not carbs and certainly not protein!

It is important to note that protein is always last in the order of preference for energy metabolism! This is important to note, as proteins have many more important functions, being used to make thousands of other proteins in the body, for repair of tissues and organs, and many other metabolic functions. Proteins are very important for your body, and your body doesn't want to "waste" protein to make energy, unless it has to. However, your body will use stored protein if you do not get enough protein in your diet. If you don't eat enough protein where will your body get protein from?

Your muscles.

Muscle tissue will be broken down to provide your body with the protein it desperately needs. You do not want this to happen. Especially if you are an athlete. Hence protein for energy is irrelevant. You need it for repair and recovery afterwards.

(see the PDF file link at the bottom of this article to read the full review content!)

Other issues with vegan diets
Due to the vegan bias in this documentary, there were no negatives of a vegan diet mentioned, so here is a little more balance to the reality:

Plant foods are high in "anti-nutrients" like TIs, oxalates and phytates, which bind to a lot of vitamins and minerals and other nutrients in the same meal, and prevent the body from being able to absorb and use those nutrients. Hence these plant anti-nutrients reduce the bioavailability of other nutrients, or in other words, the antinutrients can cause nutrient deficiencies
Many plant-based foods actually INCREASE inflammation in the body. Plant based foods such as sugar in sugary foods and drinks, processed foods, vegetable/seed oils (especially when heated), and grain products (and they chemicals they are sprayed with) all cause inflammation (de Punder & Pruimboom, 2013). As inflammation reduces the function of the immune system, and is the main driver of chronic disease conditions like arthritis, dementia, diabetes, heart disease and cancer, inflammation-causing foods should be avoided or reduced
Many people have undiagnosed or unknown intolerances or sensitivities to different foods. While this is not restricted to just plant foods, some of the biggest culprits include wheat, gluten in wheat, rye and barley, lectins in legumes, soy, and corn, although an individual can be intolerant to any food
Sadly, modern plant agriculture and farming relies on toxic agricultural chemicals, which often cover the plant foods exposed to them, and which doesn't come out in the processing of those foods, so you end up eating them and having these chemicals affect your health. Genetically modified (GMO) corn actually produces its own toxins in the plant (from a toxin-producing bacterial genes being spliced into the corn genes). So you end up eating these toxins and they have a terrible effect on your digestive system, microbiome and your health
There is a belief that all humans of all cultures and ethnicities are all the same. We are not. We do not have the same genetics, and hence there is no one diet which is ideal for each and every one of us.

Follow the money
As the old Russian proverb says, "When money speaks, the truth keeps silent". Or the more modern catchphrase "follow the money" to find the truth.

James Cameron, one of the directors and contributors to the film, wants you to buy into a plant-based protein eating plan because... he and his wife own many plant-based food industry companies, from which they want to make even more money from gullible people who believe what they see in this documentary, without really checking the scientific facts. The Camerons founded Verdient Foods, a US-based company, and have other similar plant-based food companies and joint ventures with other plant-based companies around the world. His opinion in this film is extremely biased as a result of his financial interests in these food industry companies (Bloomberg, 2019).

Dr David Katz is a medical doctor in the USA, and author of several books and many peer-reviewed studies, mainly on the topic of nutrition (Sboros, 2018). He was a contributor and interviewee in the film, possibly as he is well known as an outspoken voice on nutrition science in the USA. Yet he has faced controversy in his beliefs and articles, and even faced being sacked from some publications due to undeclared conflicts of interest. He was being paid by various companies and appearing to write articles on favour of those companies, and not disclosing his financial benefits from those companies, which would rightly be seen as a conflict of interest (Sboros, 2018).

Dr Katz has been caught out many times in previous publications with similar conflicts of interest, writing favourable reviews but not declaring a financial interest, biased writing, defending manufacturers of unhealthy or junk foods, or even writing favourable product reviews using a pseudonym. He has ties to many producers of sugary foods and drinks, and he promotes or defends their products, for a fee of course. He has denied these conflicts of interest (Sboros, 2018; Greene, 2019).

Other contributors to the documentary include:

Dr Walter Willet - a Harvard University scientist, who has a long list of affiliations and conflicts of interest with vegetarian and vegan groups (The Nutrition Coalition, 2019)
Dr Micael Greger - a medical doctor specialising in nutrition, but vegan nutrition only. He promotes veganism with a religious fervour and will cherry-pick studies promoting the benefits on plant-based diets while never saying anything positive about animal foods (Schwarcz, 2017).

Conclusion
The overall message of the documentary was good, that for athletes to get the best personal or team results, they must do more than just train and practice, but focus on eating healthy meals which provide all of the nutrients that their bodies need to:
1) provide energy for training and in events
2) provide nutrients for repair and recovery
3) provide the right nutrients needed for many metabolic processes
4) have a good digestive system function to digest, absorb and assimilate the nutrients (this was actually completely missed in this documentary!)

The vegan bias of this documentary was particularly evident, with deliberately withheld information, incorrect assumptions or beliefs, misinformation, selective blaming of animal products when plant products cause the same issues, and in some cases, outright lies with regard to human physiology or biochemistry in favour of a plant-based approach vs. a healthy balanced animal and plant based diet! In particular is the completely wrong message in the film that protein is used for energy, when protein metabolism is the last resort for energy production!

Again, everyone is different! SOME people can do fairly well on a vegan diet (perhaps only in the beginning of a vegan diet, as mentioned above), while I see many (as clients) who do not do well at all due to the many inherent nutrient deficiencies of this approach. Athletes need to be very, very careful on a vegan diet to make sure they are getting even more of the nutrients they need. I would highly recommend that anyone considering a vegan diet to working with an experienced Nutritionist to make sure your nutrient needs are being met! As a practitioner, I have never suggested to a vegan to start eating animal products again to rectify any deficiencies which may be causing their health issues. I respect their decisions to be vegan, and I help them address their issues.

There is a lot of blind faith, word of mouth or perception that a vegan diet is healthier, when scientific studies show that some vegans can be healthy (if their diet is done well), and omnivores can be healthy too! But conversely, there are a lot of vegans and omnivores who are not healthy. The problem is not which diet someone is following, but how that diet affects the individual! As we are not the same in our genetics, there is no one diet which is good for all of us. Find what works for you, and seek professional help from experienced nutritional medicine practitioners if any symptoms arise from any change of diet, as it means there is something not right. Having a blind faith in a vegan diet as being perfect for you isn't scientific, but is akin to following a new religion because it's trendy.

Similar to other vegan documentaries I've reviewed in the past, if the producers really want people to follow their way of life or see the health benefits that they claim, then they should at least tell the truth or the full story, and not repeat common misbeliefs based on poor quality science or old science to "prove" their arguments. None of the producers of the documentary have any scientific or nutritional background to completely understand the information they obtained in the making of this, nor were they able to look at the many health consequences of what they are trying to promote. But I guess that was their plan.

The documentary concluded with a disclaimer, "the information in this film is not intended to be medical advice". Yep, they got that right. Sadly too many will buy into the biased and incorrect information in this film, and not see this disclaimer at the end.

Even as a Clinical Nutritionist, and an evidence-based one at that, I have determined that being vegan is not for me. Not because I perceive it as being too difficult, but simply as I know my body better than anyone else. I know what it needs, how it reacts to various foods, and how it works. I am very aware of many quality published studies showing that a vegan diet is deficient in many nutrients, and the health consequences of these. And I'd rather just eat real food and not rely on supplements to get my daily requirements! If being vegan worked, no supplements should be needed, and I shouldn't see any vegans as clients, but sadly that is not the reality.

This more balanced look at this documentary should show that BOTH animal foods and plant foods are needed for a healthy body and healthy life! Too much of one or the other can cause health consequences. However of equal importance to the quantity of nutrients being needed, the quality of those nutrient sources is also as important, as well as other factors such as your own genetics and uniqueness, digestive system function, how foods are cooked, and more.

Wishing you the best of health!

(PS - I have attached my full review of The Game Changers documentary in a PDF document below! Feel free to download, read and share this around! The above article is just a summary of the introduction, main points and conclusion of the full article, which debunks and busts every error, omission or lie in the film!)

the_game_changers_documentary_review.pdf
File Size:	898 kb
File Type:	pdf

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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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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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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?

Zinc deficiency linked to autism

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