Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog - Ross Walter Nutritionist & Naturopath

Plastics are bad for the environment, and your health too!

16/6/2020

In my consultations, I always ask my clients about their use of plastic products, such as using plastic water bottles, or plastic food containers, or whether foods are cooked in the microwave in "microwave safe" plastic containers. There's no such thing as "safe" plastic!

In short, all plastics leach chemicals into the food or water they contain. And plastics leach chemicals at much greater rates when the plastic or food is warmer, or even when frozen in plastic containers.

The issues with plastics are that the chemicals in them (BP-A, BP-S and similar, PCB, PVC, phthalates, parabens and more) are "endocrine disruptors" or chemicals which mimic or disrupt your body hormones, particularly your sex hormones and mainly the female hormone oestrogen. An increased amount of oestrogen in your body can cause a number of severe and dangerous symptoms or effects, such as:

Thyroid hormone disruption (which will affect your metabolic rate and whole body function)
Blood sugar imbalances, and poor blood sugar control
Male and female infertility
Menstrual symptoms - PMS, irregular cycles, painful periods and heavy bleeding and more
Premature puberty and menstruation in girls, even as young as 7 years
Breast cancers in women and men
Ovarian and uterine cancers in women
Endometriosis
Weight gain
Smaller penises and testicles in boys
Reduced sperm count in males
Genital defects
Enlarged prostate in men
Prostate cancer in men
Manboobs and weight gain in men
Gender dysphoria - a mismatch between physical gender and how one feels, favouring a more female identity especially in males.

Hormone-disrupting and cancer-causing chemicals in plastics can be found in unlikely places, including from:

Plastic cookware and utensils
Plastic kettles
Drinking water from plastic water tanks
Chemicals in shampoos, body washes and hair products
Cosmetics
Fragrances and perfumes
Household cleaning products and vinyl products in flooring and cars
Childrens' toys
Thermal receipts from shops
Canned vegetables, especially tomatoes (the cans are lined with BPA)
And many more sources.

Excess oestrogens in your body from plastic exposure can have a severe effect on your health. Which is why you need to avoid plastics and their hormone-disrupting chemicals from all sources.

If you have any of the symptoms or conditions above, reducing your exposure to plastics needs to be a key initial step. Additional work will need to be done to reduce your levels of these chemicals, balance your hormone levels again, and improving your whole body health to recover - which is what I can do!

Eggs are good for you! Eggs do not raise your cholesterol!

2/4/2019

A little while back, the humble egg was demonised and many people were warned off eating them because they (shock, horror!) contained cholesterol and FATS! As a result, many people still have issues or an aversion to eating eggs because they believe they are unhealthy or cause weight gain or other health issues. But is this belief actually true?! Read on...

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, there were plenty of health warnings about not eating foods which contained fats or cholesterol, as it was believed that fats and cholesterol caused heart disease. This theory was quickly disproven, and shown to be the result of very poor research at the time. Many recent scientific studies proves that fats can be good for you (even saturated fats!), as they do not cause heart disease (yes, especially saturated fats and cholesterol!) or weight gain or diabetes or other chronic health conditions. It seems that old beliefs are hard to change in some people, despite all the recent scientific evidence! I have written several articles on heart disease, saturated fats and cholesterol in the past, so have a look for those below.

But back to the eggs... can they be good for you? Absolutely yes! BUT they have to be the right type of eggs, stored properly and even cooked properly for you to get the best benefits! The best quality eggs will be high in protein, and contain healthy anti-inflammatory omega-3 fats, the same as those found in fish, which is why they are good for you!

The best eggs - are certified organic, fresh (they completely sink when submerged in water), and are from free-range chickens who have access to the sun and grass OUTSIDE!

What to avoid - cracked or old eggs (which float or partly float when submerged), those from chickens fed on grains (as these contain less or no omega-3 oils, but a lot of inflammatory omega-6 oils, and not to mention antibiotics and possible hormones added into their feed), or caged eggs from battery operation chickens (inside in cramped and tiny cages which stresses and weakens them).

Cooking eggs should be done carefully to not overcook them (especially the yolk!). Omega-3 oils are quite intolerant to heat for long periods, but still shouldn't be overcooked. Eggs should be poached or lightly boiled so the yolks are still runny for the best benefits! Eggs are also a great source of proteins, and many other vitamins and minerals.

So it is safe to eat eggs regularly! What are your favourite ways to eat eggs?

What is body fat?!

17/2/2018

With our modern and Western diets over the past 100+ years our foods have changed a lot, and our health on the whole has greatly decreased with epidemics of obesity, heart disease, cancer and diabetes being the biggest causes of death. All are directly related to poor food choices and lifestyle factors.

We have changed from a whole, fresh, organic, locally-grown and seasonal food intake, to a highly processed, chemical-laden, artificial, mass produced and carbohydrate-rich but low-fat intake. So it's not surprisingly really that our health in general has decreased. Some Western countries are actually showing a DECREASE in the average mortality rates - we are now not living longer than our parents or grandparents.

One of the biggest culprits on this issue is our ridiculous and corrupt government food guidelines which promote a very high intake of carbohydrate-rich foods as being healthy - such as grains, cereals, breads, pasta, etc. Then to make it worse, they also say to limit your intake of fats. And there you are - you've become addicted and adapted to carbohydrates and glucose for fuel!

Before the 1970s when the current high-carb and low fat intakes were recommended, people in general were much thinner and healthier too! Go and look at some old photographs of your family from this time! You will find it's hard to spot anyone who looks unhealthy or overweight! Sadly, it's the reverse now...

Our overweight bodies are continually storing fat for many reasons, but the key reasons are that our high-carb diets cause a high insulin response in our bodies, which in turn causes the excess glucose to be stored as fat, and also that our bodies are starving of real nutrients, and when our bodies are starving, what we may be eating will be stored as fat for longer-term survival instead of short-term energy production.

So how do we tap into the long-term energy storage (our body fats)?! Simple, reduce or avoid the things which cause fat storage - carbohydrates and the insulin response - and get "fat adapted" again!

That's how I can help you to lose weight - by helping you to become fat adapted! There are many other causes of weight gain - hormone conditions, stress, sleep issues, and many more. I will find the causes of your individual weight gain, as we are all different!

I'd love to help you to become "fat adapted" again, so you can use your stored energy and achieve your health and fitness goals! What would it mean to you to be at your ideal weight again? How would that feel?!

new research shows artificial sweeteners cause weight gain

18/7/2017

I have written and warned people before about the dangers of some artificial sweeteners (see my other articles below or on my Facebook page), but some new research has been published which again confirms some of the major dangers of these chemicals (Azad et al., 2017).

This new study, published today (17th July 2017), reviewed 37 other studies on over 400,000 people and up to a 10-year follow-up. The study focused on artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and sucralose, usually found in diet soft drinks and cordials, and weight loss shakes or protein powders, to name just a few products they are in. The study also looked at studies on stevioside (Stevia extract).

Some of the findings included that the artificial sweeteners can:

1) have adverse effects on glucose metabolism
2) affect your gut microbiome (digestive bacteria) by acting as an antibiotic
3) affect appetite control by stimulating appetite and preventing fullness after a meal, so you eat more and put on more weight
4) increase fat stores, thus contributing to obesity
5) increase the risk of various heart disease symptoms, including high blood pressure, stroke, and other heart-related events
6) increase the risk of type 2 diabetes.

The study concluded to say that they found "the consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners was NOT associated with weight loss", and that "the evidence does not clearly support the intended benefits of non-nutritive sweeteners for weight management", and "routine consumption of non-nutritive sweeteners may be associated with a long-term increase in weight and elevated risk of cardiometabolic disease".

This study highlights the importance of checking your product labels for these chemicals - aspartame (E951), sucralose (E955), and stevioside (E960), and avoiding these products. Install an additive app on your smart phone so you can check the additive numbers while you are shopping!

If you feel you need to use artificial sweeteners to lose weight, then you are not focusing on the causes of weight gain, and you can be making your weight worse.

If your weight is an issue, I can help by identifying all the causes of your weight gain, and resolving those to help you to achieve a healthy weight! This can be done with personalised consultations, or our weight loss program.

Please contact me for more information.

for weight loss, find and fix the causes, Not calories!

7/8/2016

As a nutritionist and naturopath, I still see and hear of the common (mis)conception that to achieve weight loss, you need to eat less and exercise more, or to expend more calories in exercise than you take in as food... This is such an outdated and incorrect theory that it's hindering people who really want to improve their health. And to do this you supposedly need to count calories going in as food and calories expended as exercise. Who really has the time and dedication to do this?! I don't, and why I don't recommend this for anyone!

There are a great many causes of weight gain, and the only way to truly lose weight and keep it off is to find and address ALL of the possible causes in each person, in a personalised and holistic way. One person's weight gain will be due to eating the wrong foods for their body, but another person's weight gain will be due to stress, or inflammation, or artificial sweeteners and other "diet" products (which have NO calories - oh, the irony), poor sleep quality or quantity, toxins in chemicals in foods or environment, the contraceptive pill, medications, hormone conditions, exposure to artificial light, genetics, increasing age, imbalance of gut bacteria, use of antibiotics, and many more causes...

In reality, as I see in practice, weight gain is very much a combination of several or many of these factors, and NOT just about how many calories someone is eating or not expending.

Can you see yet that calories are irrelevant?

Someone can be eating the best diet possible together with regular exercise, but still put on weight because of these other factors! Simply eating the "right" foods and exercising more will not correct all of the possible causes of weight gain in most people! This is why diets don't work and people who follow the diet/exercise theory almost always gain their weight back again, after all their efforts.

Counting calories is a waste of time! It doesn't work to help anyone lose weight. Focus instead on getting some help and advice on a holistic and personalised plan for you! I'd love to help you improve your health!

Does the paleo diet cause weight gain and diabetes?

25/2/2016

I have previously written about the Paleo diet in an article below. The Paleo diet copped another battering in the media this week when an Australian study was made public that this diet can lead to rapid weight gain and insulin levels (ie, type 2 diabetes) in the body.

I have read the study and some of the facts hidden from the media articles are:
1) The study believes incorrectly that the Paleo diet is Low Carbohydrate and High Fat (LCHF) and was configured as such.
2) The study was done on just 9 mice, over an 8-week period. Mice don't have the same metabolism or biochemistry, the number of them isn't anywhere near enough for scientific relevance, and an 8-week period is not really long enough.
3) The mice used were a genetically modified (GM) breed, which have altered metabolism so they develop severe obesity, type 2 diabetes and autoimmune conditions - hence they are already diseased, and aren't suitable test subjects or likely to produce any valid conclusions relevant to humans.
4) The Paleo diet is NOT low carb! It is high in vegetables and fruits, which contain mostly carbs! However the Paleo diet is very low in processed carbs, meaning no sugar, milk, breads, or any other grain products. This is a lot different to the study where the only carbs (6% of their diet) came from simple sugar, which is NOT a healthy carbohydrate!
5) The Paleo diet is NOT high fat! It has a higher fat content, but healthy fats found in eggs, avocadoes, fish, grass-fed meats, nuts and seeds. These healthy fats do not contribute to weight gain in body fat! In the study, a whopping 81% of the diets for the GM mice was fat! This isn't a valid representation of the Paleo diet either.

And I could go on... with such a biased study design, the conclusions just defy logic and contradict all independent research studies on nutrition and the causes of diabetes.

This is the problem with modern science that is dominated by limited research funding being provided by corporates wanting a positive spin in research studies so they can maintain their profits. As a result, studies like this one can be biased from the beginning and deliberately setup to get the results they want. Only by looking into the real facts of such studies with a critical eye can issues like this be found. Unfortunately the media don't check this and they just feed you what the biased press release tells them! It's corporate profits trumping over your health, sadly.

So what does cause weight gain and diabetes? Your diet certainly plays a part, with excessive sugar and processed carbohydrates causing high blood sugar levels and high insulin levels, with insulin converting the excess blood sugar into body fat. A diet higher in healthy fats does not raise blood sugar or insulin levels, and does not contribute to body fat!

There are many other factors that lead to weight gain and diabetes too - stress, lifestyle factors, environmental factors, poor sleep quality/quantity, and various nutritional deficiencies, and more. This is what I can help you with - finding the causes and resolving them, to bring you back to health!

sleeping difficulties are no laughing matter

11/2/2016

Getting a good nights sleep is not just something you need to recharge your batteries at the end of the day! Sleep is needed for:

1) Growth, particularly in children
2) Maintenance and repair of the body
3) Memory consolidation and learning
4) Detoxification and waste processing
and other purposes too!

Sleep difficulties are no laughing matter for people who can't sleep well. Symptoms of poor sleep include:

1) Difficulty getting to sleep
2) Waking during the night
3) Waking up tired
4) Poor concentration and memory
5) Poor immune system function and frequent infections
6) Depression
7) Weight gain.

There can be many reasons or causes for you not sleeping well, and can include dietary, environmental, lifestyle, stress and other factors. I have a range of options to help you sleep better, as it is something that I had difficulty with for a while too. Improving your sleep can make a huge difference to your health, your life and how you feel!

If sleep difficulties are a problem for you (or someone you know), please contact me!

new Australian food star ratings - a joke!

11/10/2015

The new health star rating system for Australian food products is a joke, or it would be funny if it weren't so serious!

The health stars are supposed to show you which foods are healthier - the more stars, with 5 being the maximum, the better... allegedly! The star rating is mainly based on the amounts of sugar, saturated fats, salt and fibre in foods.

The health star system was funded by the government, in partnership with the food industry (which would be a conflict of interest, like sugar manufacturers telling you that sugar is good because it's natural)... The doctor's association (AMA) was also involved, even though they have no training in nutrition or the effects of food on the body! And retailer associations were also involved in the system - why? what do they know about what's healthy or not?!

I agree that foods high in sugar are given low rating, because sugar causes weight gain, diabetes, dental issues, and inflammation, which is the cause of most chronic health conditions including cancer. This is why a lot of popular breakfast cereals only got 1-2 out of 5 star ratings, because of their high sugar and salt content, such as Nutri-grain, frosties, fruit loops, and crunchy nut corn flakes and many more.

However, the most interesting ratings occur in foods with fats, with all-natural and healthy butter only receiving a 1/2-1-star rating, and highly processed, chemical-laden, inflammation-causing, trans-fat filled margarine getting a whopping 5-star rating! How is this possible? Apart from the industry bias already mentioned, it's because they are still using pre-1960s dodgy research that said saturated fat causes heart disease when what was actually found as the cause was trans-fat! Hence anyone who says that saturated fats should be avoided hasn't read the much more recent research (as I have) which says the opposite - that saturated fats reduce inflammation, reduce body fat, and protect the heart, amongst many other benefits! However the saturated fat found in meats depends on what the animal actually ate - grain-fed animals will have a high content of inflammatory omega-6 fats (which cause weight gain and heart disease), while grass-fed animals will be high in omega-3 fats, the same healthy fats found in fish!

My qualified recommendation is to ignore the new food star ratings, and certainly don't base your choice of options from this ridiculous system, as it doesn't accurately identify healthy foods from junk foods. Remember that the best and healthiest foods you eat do not actually have labels or star ratings - vegetables, fruits, grass-fed meats and healthy fats/oils such as olive oil (not for cooking), coconut oil and butter!

SLEEP!

21/2/2015

SLEEP! It is much more than something we do when we are tired. Did you know that scientists either don't know or agree on why we need sleep!

What is certain though is that we do need adequate good quality sleep every night, as otherwise our health can begin to suffer and cause daily problems, leading to longer-term chronic conditions.

A list of some things that can affect your sleep include the following:
- stress, worries, anger etc,
- eating dinner to close to bedtime,
- increasing age,
- having kids! (or pregnancy, breastfeeding etc),
- alcohol intake,
- coffee/caffeine intake,
- too much water before bedtime, causing interrupted sleep and the need to urinate,
- drugs and medications,
- shift work,
- a less than ideal diet,
- your bedroom environment,
- use of electronic devices before bedtime or in the bedroom,
- other lifestyle factors.

The risks of not getting enough sleep or poor quality sleep include the following:
- mood swings and irritability,
- fatigue,
- poor concentration and memory function,
- snacking and subsequent weight gain (and even weight gain on its own),
- depression,
- post-natal depression,
- reduced immune system function leading to illnesses and infections (colds and flu etc),
- and more...

If your sleep quality isn't ideal or if you recognise any of the symptoms of poor sleep above, please contact Ross Walter Nutritionist to see how he can help you to sleeping better and improving your health!