Under Siege: Healthy Eating, Diets, Nutrition And Common Sense

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You may argue that people like us - The Daily Health – contribute to this ‘cold war’ by advocating natural remedies and alternatives against pharmaceutical drugs. Yet, we believe you cannot improve on Nature and that our answers to good health, nutrition and healing lies within what Nature has to offer, before we look at treatments and cures from hardcore, chemical and often very harmful pharmaceutical drugs.

I consider myself to be a happy person. I sometimes have a moan, but then again we all do. Now, I don’t know if it is just me but it seems that lately things are really all going to pot, especially when you look at the constant tug of war between ‘natural health’ and ‘pharmaceutical treatments’.

Meet Katie T. Peck – a qualified dietician

On 8 July 2009, it was reported in the national press that Katie T. Peck - a qualified dietician - told diabetic patients to eat a range of ‘bizarre’ and ‘trendy foods’, including some that were 'dangerous'. Mrs. Peck is now awaiting a disciplinary action which will scrutinise her conduct and competence.

So what did Mrs. Peck say and do?

According to the Health Professions Council’s website the list of her ‘wrong doings’ include:

• Advised a patient with type 2 diabetes to avoid caffeine and replace with water and green tea without providing a clinical reason for doing so.
• Wrote a diet sheet for use on patients with diabetes which had not been reviewed or assessed by an independent group, and recommended:
  1. Drinking no alcohol without providing a clinical reason for doing so.
  2. Eating Red meat fortnightly without a clinical reason for doing so.
  3. Eating bio live yoghurt without providing a clinical reason for doing so
• Advised a patient to take 500mg of Vitamin C daily without providing a clinical reason for doing so.
• Advised a patient to take co enzyme Q10, 2000mg of fish oil supplement and a vitamin supplement to provide chromium, without providing a clinical reason for doing so.
• Advised a patient to take milk thistle without providing a clinical reason to do so.
• Advised a patient to drink dandelion tea without providing a clinical reason to do so.
•  Advised a patient to use goat’s milk without providing a clinical reason to do so.
• Advised a patient to use multivitamin/B complex without providing a clinical reason to do so.
• Advised a patient to use flaxseed oil and evening primrose oil without providing a clinical reason to do so.
• Advised a patient to replace tea and coffee with water, without providing a clinical reason to do so.
• Advised a patient to continue taking multivitamin, omega fish oil, vitamin C/bioflavonoid complex and co- enzyme Q10 supplement without providing any clinical reasons to do so.

The list goes on and whilst we don’t know each patient’s individual medical history, simply reading through Mrs. Peck’s trespasses, it looks as if she applied a lot of common sense and gave sound advice. Yet she stands the chance to be rendered ‘incompetent’.

Would Katie have been more ‘competent’ had she kept her mouth shut? For instance, avoiding alcohol as a diabetic seems like good advice to me. When you are diabetic alcohol can worsen your symptoms because it may make you more prone to hypoglycaemia.

Meet the Stowers, owners of Manna Storehouse - an organic food cooperative

On the morning of 1 December 2008, US law enforcement officers forcefully entered the Stowers' residence without first announcing they were police or stating the purpose of the visit. With guns drawn, they swiftly and immediately moved to the upstairs of the home, where ten children were in the middle of a home-schooling lesson. Officers then moved Jacqueline Stowers and her children to their living room, where they were held for more than six hours.

The Stowers had run a community co-op called Manna Storehouse since 1999. The 60 regular members pooled their resources and bought food in bulk from organic growers across the state of Ohio in the US, which enabled them to get discounts on the healthiest foods available, such as grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, organic eggs and produce, raw milk and cheese —all produced without man-made chemicals, hormones, pesticides, dyes, or additives.

Those of you who read this e-alert on a regular basis will be aware that this type of diet is a powerful way for many to achieve and maintain optimal health and longevity. It’s even more important if you suffer with any type of food allergies, intolerance to chemical additives, or chronic illness.

The problem, stems from the fact that the Stowers were selling foods without a retail license. However, they were not selling to the general public, only to co-op members who pay a membership fee and agree to take full responsibility for the food they purchase, which exempts them from requiring a license, according to US law.

Even though the Stowers have the law on their side, the question here is why were they treated like criminals in the first place for simply looking after their own best interest and that of their community? Were they doing any harm that could possibly justify their treatment?

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Meet the miracle pill that could reduce body fat by half in a week

It seems that despite all honest efforts and scientific research in favour of natural remedies and treatments, for some reason, we are expected to abandon what we know is good for us and believe in ‘miracles’ such as the anti-obesity pill that promises to reduce the fat stored by overweight people by almost a half in a week.

The latest news report this week says results of current research point to a new approach for the treatment of obesity and adult-onset diabetes with a drug which is a synthetic hormone that regulates glucose metabolism.

As much as obesity and diabetes is a primary health concern and an economic threat for modern societies (especially the UK and US), let’s not cut caffeine and junk food from our diets and let’s not try a healthy and balanced approach to dieting and nutrition, but let’s rather pump our bodies full of synthetic hormones. Very competent! Well done!

Meet the Arthritis Drug that also helps Diabetes

With more and more ‘combination drugs’ being prompted by the medical mainstream, such as the Polypill and statins for everyone over 50 with the promise to reduce death from ALL causes by 12 per cent, it comes as no surprise that an arthritis drug can also ‘help’ with diabetes.

Apparently doctors have now turned back the clock more than 100 years to rediscover yet another ‘miracle’ drug called salsalate, which is currently approved to treat joint pain, but researchers say it may have a dual purpose for those with type 2 diabetes.

Are doctors running out of ideas to profit from pharmaceuticals and therefore they reinvent old drugs?

Well, doctors say just like it reduces inflammation in joints, salsalate does the same in other tissues. That in turn, may lower blood sugar levels in people with type 2 diabetes. They also say salsalate has a good safety profile and is inexpensive. And that is exactly where the ‘miracle’ becomes a messy lie. Because if a ‘good safety profile’ consists of tinnitus, ulcerations of the stomach and intestines, abdominal pain, cramping, nausea, vomiting, gastritis, and even serious gastrointestinal bleeding and liver toxicity, I think I’d rather give it a miss. Other side effects of this ‘miracle’ drug are black tarry stools, weakness, and dizziness upon standing (orthostatic hypotension) which may be the only signs of internal bleeding.

Will these doctors be put on trial for prescribing medicine which brings harm to their patients?

I’ll do it my way

As far as I am aware, it is still not a crime in this country if I choose to look after my health naturally! So, if I had diabetes and arthritis, I would first try some flaxseed oil and evening primrose oil.

Flaxseed oil has shown to ease symptoms of arthritis, lupus and Raynaud’s phenomenon, and lubricates joints and lessens stiffness and joint pain. Flaxseed oil may help reduce cholesterol and triglyceride levels in some people with diabetes. However, some people with type 2 diabetes cannot properly metabolize ALA, so flaxseed oil may be of no benefit to them.

The following clinical trials show that evening primrose oil can be useful in the treatment of arthritis: Darlington LG, Stone TW. Antioxidants and fatty acids in the amelioration of rheumatoid arthritis and related disorders. Br J Nutr 2001 Mar;85(3):251-69 and Belch JJ, Hill A. Evening primrose oil and borage oil in rheumatologic conditions. Am J Clin Nutr 2000 Jan;71(1 Suppl):352S-6S.

Maintaining good health is just one of the benefits of Evening Primrose Oil. The health benefits of Evening Primrose oil is being studied extensively in England and Europe for its pain reduction in association with arthritis, controlling complications of diabetes, controlling liver and kidney damage due to alcohol, depression, Multiple sclerosis, skin/hair/nail repair, and most impressively, controlling severe symptoms of PMS.

I am sure if I run down the list of grievances against Mrs. Peck I will be able to find ample clinical reasons to sustain her recommendations. Perhaps she did not mention these extensively to each patient she saw, but can you blame her? If you work for the NHS you are allowed a maximum of 15 minutes per patient. After 15 minutes you need to move on quickly because the patient-conveyer belt of national health allows no time for a quality in-depth consultation. Clearly, it also has no room for good honest healthy common sense.

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Sources:

‘Mrs Katie T Peck’ listed complaints for her hearing, published online by Healt Professions Council, hpc-uk.org

‘Unconscionable Police Raid on Family's Home and Organic Food Co-Op’ by Dr. Mercola, published online, articles.mercola.com

‘The pill that could reduce body fat by half in a week’ by Daniel Martin, published online 14.07.09, dailymail.co.uk

‘Salsalate’ published online, medicinenet.com

‘Supplements: Flax Seed Oil’ published online, spineuniverse.com