Surprise, surprise! Scientists are now telling us that despite our best intentions to eat something healthy, many of us often end up choosing sugary snacks instead.

Dutch researchers asked 585 participants to pick between four snacks: an apple, a banana, a candy bar and a molasses waffle.

About half of the participants indicated they would choose the apple or banana. Not too bad a result on the surface, but a lot of those would-be healthy eaters failed to stick to their guns.

In fact, when presented with the actual snacks a week later, 27% of those who had said they’d pick a healthy one switched to the candy bar or waffle.

On the reverse side, more than 90% of those who had initially made an unhealthy choice stuck with it.

The researchers figure that while we are in control of our intentions, our actual choices are often made impulsively, even unconsciously.

Obviously, if we don’t feel the need to snack, we won’t be tempted.

As I noted in my article How to Lose Weight Naturally in the Winter 2008 edition of Natural Health and Vegetarian Life, some obese people tend to tuck in more in response to the aroma and sight of food.

True hunger is regulated by blood sugar level, blood amino-acid level and fibre. When blood sugar level is low, we experience hunger. Similarly with low levels of amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, so that a low-protein diet or poor protein digestion can create food cravings.

Fibre makes us feel full because it demands chewing which mixes saliva with the food, causing the fibre to swell in the stomach and increase the volume of food.

False hunger is usually the result of external factors that operate on the emotions.

If you find that you are overeating because it is difficult to stop eating at the end of a meal, try limiting yourself to one course only per meal.

What makes it easy to eat on and on, is to change from one dish to another, such as from a main course to a dessert to a confection.

If you limit yourself to a main course only, even if you have a second helping of the main course, you will be surprised how much less you eat in total, while feeling completely satisfied.

It’s hard to imagine anything more important than the health and well-being of our children, yet we continue to put them at risk through additives found in many everyday foods.

While the UK is phasing out six artificial colours that scientists have found may cause hyperactivity in children, Australian authorities have yet to take any action.

The UK move, which will result in the six colours being removed from all foods by the end of 2009, follows scientists likening the detrimental effects of the colours to those of lead on children’s development.

Why, we can rightly ask, aren’t Australian kids being protected?

The colours to come under fire are Tartrazine (102), Quinoline Yellow (104), Sunset Yellow (110), Carmoisine (122), Ponceau Red (124) and Allura Red (129). Their detrimental effects, as listed below, are frightening:

Tartrazine: Linked to hyperactivity, skin rashes, migraine, asthma, behavioural problems. Thyroid problems and chromosomal damage in animal studies. Banned in Norway and Austria.

Quinoline Yellow: Suspected carcinogen, linked to hyperactivity, skin rashes, asthma. Banned in USA, Norway – previously banned in Australia.

Sunset Yellow: Suspected carcinogen, allergies, hyperactivity, stomach upsets, skin rashes, asthma. Kidney tumours and chromosomal damage in animal studies. Banned in Norway.

Carmoisine: Suspected carcinogen, mutagen, skin rashes, oedema, hyperactivity, asthma. Banned in Sweden, USA, Austria and Norway.

Ponceau Red: Suspected carcinogen, asthma, hyperactivity. Banned in USA and Norway.

Allura Red: Suspected carcinogen, skin rashes, asthma, hyperactivity. Banner in Denmark, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Norway.

These colours are found throughout our everyday foods, such as fruit juices, cordials, muesli bars, dried fruit snacks, biscuits, custards and yoghurts, and are also used extensively in soft drink, ice cream and confectionery products.

In the wake of the new information coming from the UK, the Kids First Campaign has been launched in Australia to demand that Australia’s Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) ban the six colours from our food.

You can add your weight to the campaign by signing the online petition at www.additivealert.com.au.

‘Money before children’ would appear to be the creed of the broadcasting industry, with Australia’s communications watchdog going against parents’ calls for a ban on junk food advertising on television.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has announced it will not be recommending any general restrictions be imposed on food and beverage advertising to children.

Instead, ACMA chairman Chris Chapman has encouraged industry to “recognise the strong community concern in this area and consider how it can adequately address this concern without additional regulation being imposed”.

Although finding there was a relationship between advertising and food and beverage preferences among children, ACMA considered there was insufficient evidence to support a link with obesity levels.

The authority has said it will consider reviewing its position if evidence of an identifiably stronger association between advertising and obesity and the benefits of food and beverage advertising restrictions becomes available.

In keeping with parents groups and other concerned health bodies, the Natural Health Society has long been calling for a ban on the advertising of junk food to children.

The fact that ACMA’s own research has found a link between advertising and children’s preferences and requests, should in itself be grounds for a ban.

The ACMA findings, contained in its long-awaited review into children’s television standards, only go as far as recommending greater control on the use of celebrity and character endorsements.

The continuing lack of action on junk food advertising is impossible to understand in light of Australia’s growing obesity levels, particularly amongst children.

One top children’s hospital, Westmead in western Sydney, has now taken the unprecedented step of appointing a specialist to treat childhood obesity.

As part of the treatment, the specialist will be encouraging families to adopt a healthier lifestyle, with more healthy eating and more physical activity.

While such a move is to be applauded, measures like this can only be hampered by the continuing bombardment of our children with junk food advertising.

Find out more on the recommendations contained in the Draft Children’s Television Standards 2008 at http://www.acma.gov.au/webwr/_assets/main/lib310132/draft_cts_2008.pdf

You can also make your own submission up to October 17, 2008 by emailing ctsreview@acma.gov.au.

Alternatively, submissions can be sent by mail to:

CTS Project Manager
Content Monitoring and Review Section
Australian Communications and Media Authority
PO Box Q500
Queen Victoria Building NSW 1230

Forget about looking for a memory pill, if you want brain power later in life and lessen the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, think about increasing your level of mental activity.

This could be anything from dancing to traveling to learning a new language, according to researchers at the University of NSW.

Dr Michael Valenzuela said his research team’s findings mean that people can help themselves rather than rely on drug companies that are trying to find a pharmaceutical target to prevent the shrinkage of the hippocampus – a significant risk factor for developing Alzheimer’s.

The research revealed that people who have been more mentally active over their lives have a larger hippocampus and, critically, that it shrinks at half the rate of those who have lower mental activity.

This is the first time that researchers have compared participants’ brains over a period of time in relation to mental activity patterns, adding weight to previous work which shows that complex mental activity helps prevent dementia.

“This also helps throw some light on why there has been this consistent link between mental activity and lower dementia risk,” Dr Valenzuela said.

“Our prior research shows the risk for dementia is quite malleable, even into late life,” he added“It is vital that everyone is involved in cognitive, social and physical activities in late life such as dancing, tai chi, sailing, travelling and learning a new language, for example.

”To find out more about what you can do to help prevent Alzheimers, read our detailed article published in the Summer 07/08 issue of Natural Health and Vegetarian Life, Alzheimers Disease: Solutions are emerging – prevention is possible.

With GM canola to be grown in our country for the first time this year, many Australians are understandably worried about exactly what they will be putting into their mouths when they grab their food from the supermarket shelf. (See Natural Health and Vegetarian Life Autumn 2008 articles GM Foods - The New ’Cane Toad’ and GM Foods - The Scientist’s View.

Although canola is used in a huge range of everyday foods, under current laws, it won’t be labelled as GM.

But we can at least find some peace of mind through the True Food Guide, an initiative of Greenpeace.

This free guide lists those companies who have given a written assurance that they do not use genetically engineered (GE) ingredients in the food chain, and those who have not.

Despite the presence of labelling laws on GE ingredients in some other countries, no such laws exist in Australia, meaning we have lost the right to know exactly what we are eating.

The True Food Guide is, therefore, a real saviour as we continue with the fight against the introduction of GE crops. In the Guide, Greenpeace has rated common brands based on written responses to a series of questions in July 2003.

The ratings are more stringent than Australian labelling laws as they reflect the use of highly processed GE derived ingredients as well as GE stockfeed.

The guide can be used to compile your own personal shopping list, and encourages individuals to contact those companies who have not given any assurances about the GE status and call on them to go GE free.

Greenpeace is also the force behind the ‘Chefs Charter’ which opposes the recent introduction of GM canola in NSW and Victoria, and calls for thorough labeling of all food products containing GM ingredients.

Among the many high profile signatories are Bill Granger, Maggie Beer, Stephanie Alexander, Kylie Kwong, Justin North, Sean Moran, Margaret Fulton, Dure Dara, Neil Perry and Holly Davis.

To get your copy of the True Food Guide and to find out more about Greenpeace’s GE initiatives visit the True Food Network.

How many more children will join the growing ranks of the obese before government decides to clamp down on the proliferation of junk food advertising?

Leading childhood obesity experts have now joined the long list of campaigners, including the Natural Health Society, calling on federal, state and local governments to take steps to restrict the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks to children.

Louise Baur, Professor of the Discipline of Paediatrics & Child Health at the University of Sydney and Consultant Paediatrician at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, says that parents are struggling to be heard over the bombardment of marketing aimed at their children.

"Every week, in my weight management clinics at the hospital, I see parents who are trying their very hardest to look after the health of their kids" says Professor Baur."

By now, everyone has heard the alarming childhood obesity statistics. Parents are much better informed about healthy eating, and are trying to teach their children good nutritional habits. But how can they compete with slick, multi-million dollar marketing campaigns?”

She dismisses suggestions that advertising doesn’t play a significant role in the diets of children.

"Advertising does influence what kids want and therefore what parents buy - of course it does. Companies wouldn’t spend millions on it if it didn’t!"

Professor Baur points not only to television advertising, but to a range of marketing strategies from sponsorship of kids’ sporting events to "endorsements" of products by popular cartoon characters.

She says that all levels of government have a role to play in supporting parents by introducing measures to restrict these marketing practices - and she isn’t alone.

The World Federation of Consumer Organisations, Consumers International, has released a new International Code on Marketing of Food and non-Alcoholic Beverages to Children, which is supported by the International Obesity Taskforce.

The Code calls for new government regulations to protect children and parents from the pressures of junk food marketing practices.

"This isn’t about being the "fun police", banning chocolate or soft drinks, or outlawing all forms of advertising" she says.

"All we are asking is for some balance. Limiting the marketing of unhealthy food and drinks will give parents a better chance to teach their kids about responsible, healthy eating. We want to give children back to their parents. And that’s going to lead to happier families and healthier kids."

To find out more about joining the fight against junk food advertising, click here.

The endless diet of bad news we are served up on television, on radio and in newspapers is enough to get anybody down, but many people create their own recipe for disaster through their food choices.

Depression is a rising problem especially in older people and young people . It can have the tragic consequence of suicide.

What needs to remembered is that brain function depends on blood supply, which depends on what it gains from the intestine, which depends on what is put in the mouth!

Keeping in mind the following information will help to yoy to keep the blues away.

MINERALS

Essential for avoiding depression are zinc, selenium, manganese, calcium, copper, iron, chromium and sodium.

Chromium helps regulate blood sugar and is adversely affected by eating lot of sugar.

Lithium, a trace mineral, helps depression. It is found in sea vegetables, including kelp.

Magnesium is a mood stabiliser.

Zinc and vitamin B6 have been found to be low in depressive patients. To be absorbed, zinc needs tryptophan and B6. Vitamin B is in bananas, avocadoes, watermelon and potatoes.

Selenium is a major antioxidant protecting the brain. Alcohol depletes selenium, while a rich source of selenium and zinc is Brazil nuts - just 2 per day is sufficient.

VITAMIN B12

A deficiency of Vitamin B12 is associated with depression, confusion and memory loss. It also causes low homocysteine which blocks synthesis of serotonin, a ‘feel-good’ brain chemical.

Elderly people and people on vegetarian diets are most likely to be deficient. Studies have shown that 5% of psychiatric patients are deficient in B12.

FOLIC ACID

The most common vitamin deficiency, folic acid is required to lower homocysteine. Sources are legumes, nuts, seeds, egg yolk, green vegetables and avocado.

OMEGA-3 FATTY ACIDS

These are essential for brain function, with a lack leading to depression, mood swings, lower IQ and ADD. The processed modern diet supplies a lot of omega-6 fatty acids and very little omega-3, which is rich in fish oil and flax oil, and also in canola oil and walnuts.

NEUROTRANSMITTERS

The brain requires ‘neurotransmitters’ – about 50 of them – to enable nerve messages, including thoughts and feelings, to move from nerve cell to nerve cell. The key one is serotonin which affects influences mood and memory. The more we have, the better we feel. This depends on 3 amino acids – tryptophan, tyrosine and phenalanine. Tryptophan also requires carbohydrate to form serotonin, which may be why when people are feeling down, they crave sugar. Tryptophan is found in the protein foods – fish, eggs, cheese, (cooked) dried beans including soya beans and peanut butter, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and nuts.

FREE RADICAL DAMAGE CAUSES BRAIN AGEING

Free radicals cause ageing which causes less serotonin which causes more depression. It is important to protect brain with antioxidants – C, E, carotenes, co-Q10, ginkgo biloba, glutathione and lipoic acid (found in potatoes, carrots, beetroot, spinach, sweet potato and red meats . Excellent foods for the brain are the dark blue, purple and red fruits and veges. Carotenes better absorbed when taken with olive oil or flax oil. Lycopene in tomatoes is a valuable carotene for brain function, especially mental acuity in old age.

HISTADELIA

High histamine can lead to depression, and a blood test can assess histamine status. Dr Carl Pfeiffer discovered that, in this case, folic acid can make the person feel worse. Meat contains amino acids that tend to increase histamine levels, so the diet for these people is low protein, high complex carbohydrates with plenty of fruits and vegetables. Vitamin C is anti-histamine, so take supplements of C as well as zinc, manganese and B6. Methionine also helps to detoxify histamine, so ensure plenty of folic acid.

In the spiralling ‘epidemic’ of mental illness, there is hot debate about how to deal with it, but no one is asking why people’s brains are malfunctioning.

Treating illness while ignoring the underlying causes is always futile.

A mountain of studies make the range of possible causes clear enough. As with the use of illegal drugs, nutrition can cause brain chaos.

Brain function depends on the blood supply which depends on what is picked up from the intestine, which, in turn, depends on what we put in our mouths.

It is well recognised that sugar in excessive amounts causes hypoglycaemia which can result in hyperactivity, mood swings, anxiety, delinquent behaviour or abuse of alcohol or drugs. Mood swings, for example, characterise bipolar disorder.

Food allergies can cause panic attacks, anxiety, depression, persistent elation, mania, hyperactivity, violent behaviour, delusions, alcoholism and drug addiction.

Numerous minerals are essential for normal brain function, including zinc, selenium, magnesium, calcium, copper, iron and chromium. Deficiencies of these are common in a diet high in processed foods.

Similarly with vitamins; B12 and folic acid are particularly important, and deficiency is common. Antioxidants protect the brain from premature ageing; again, these are deficient in the typical modern diet. Lack of omega-3 fats – as found in fish and flax oils – leads to depression, mood swings and lower cognitive ability. Inadequate intake is widespread.

Alcohol at a level as low as three standard drinks four times a week can result in brain damage, commonly showing up as depression and lower intelligence.

Only when these causes are addressed will there be a significant reduction in mental illness in Australia.

Many years ago, when an advertisement for deodorants came up with the slogan, “Even your best friend won’t tell you”, they did a brilliant job of making everybody paranoid about body odour.

And there is no doubt that for some people this is a very genuine problem.

Body odour has two main sources. The first is sweaty clothing. If clothing is not changed for a few days, the sweat it has absorbed can begin to smell. Obviously this will happen much more rapidly in hot weather than in cold. It is easily prevented by washing clothing as required ? as most people do.

The other main source of body odour can be very difficult to deal with. It is odour being released from the skin more or less continuously.

Because the skin is an organ of elimination (sweat is like extremely dilute urine), if the liver and kidneys cannot cope with the body’s eliminative load, some of it is likely to be shed through the skin.

This is the basis of most skin diseases and also persistent body odour – the kind of body odour that is as bad a few hours after showering as it was before showering. It is to prevent this form of body odour that people take deodorants and antiperspirants.

There are a number of reasons for body odour, including a high level of toxic wastes in the system from both food and chemicals. Remember that medications are all chemicals of one form or another.

Excessive waste products from food can occur even with a good diet if there is enough stress. Stress can interfere with all systems in the body, including digestion, assimilation and elimination of metabolic waste products, so stress can contribute to a build-up of waste products – ‘toxaemia’.

Virtually all of us in Western society have toxaemia to a lesser or greater degree. The presence of persistent body odour indicates that the body needs a substantial detox.

How to detox is spelled out in an article in the Spring 2001 issue of NVNH on the subject of self-healing, or Chapter 15 of the Society’s book, The Man Who Lived in Three Centuries.

The amount of detoxing that can be done at home without professional supervision is relatively limited. A substantial detoxification can be done in safety at a health retreat where the practitioners are appropriately experienced.

The great advantage of a thorough detox is that the inner spring clean revitalises every system in the body. And this can certainly fix body odour.

After my daughters 8 week vaccinations she went from a tiny patch of eczema on the insid eof her legs to being coved from head to toe and her shoulders weeping.

I was devastated for her and she was miserable. I set about to find a cure for her.

I found a natrapath and she advise me to put her on a goats milk formula as I had stopped breastfeeding her and then thru the day and night I saturated her skin in a mixture of organic vitamin E Oil, rosehip Oil and Johoba oil. I stopped her vaccinations also.

Within a month her eczema disapperared. When I started on solids I kept her on a wheat and dairy free diet. Now she is 1 year and only tiny patches of eczema on back of legs as I have exposed her to small amounts of wheat and egg yolk only. My daughter is healthy and happy and also asthma free.

I still cannot bring myself to vacinate her and have been told to at least wait until she is 3 years old. I’m not sure what I will do when she turns 3 as I would hate to reverse all the good work.

Will the eczema come back or could I trigger asthma? Maybe she is just not suited to vacinations as she is too sensative.

Recent research that found reducing the protein intake of fruit flies increased longevity provides another chunk of useful knowledge about protein. However, enough is already known on the subject to enable us to act.

Waiting for further research would be fiddling while Rome burns.

The greatest nutritional study ever – the China Study conducted by Professor T. Colin Campbell of Cornell University in the US – found that high protein strongly promotes cancer.

After pre-cancers were initiated by a chemical, they progressed far more rapidly with a diet containing 20% protein in terms of total calories than if the diet contained 5% protein. In fact, animals given a high dose of carcinogen developed substantially less cancer when fed 5% protein than animals fed a low dose of the poison and a high 20% protein.

The people of rural China suffer vastly less cancer than we Westerners. Along with the fact that they don’t eat junk food, Professor Campbell found that 10% of their total calories comes from protein, with only one-tenth of this derived from animal foods. In contrast, the American diet contains protein at the level of 15% of total calories, with four-fifths coming from animal foods. Australian figures will be similar.

The Professor concluded that once cancer was initiated, its development was controlled far more by protein consumption than by the amount of the original carcinogen. Dramatic stuff!

How much protein is too much or too little? Since cancer did not develop up to about 10% protein, this appears to be about right for us. This represents around 50 grams of protein per day for an average adult.

In practical terms, a diet containing plenty of fresh vegetables and moderate amounts of grain foods would include just 100 to 150 grams of protein-rich foods – namely, flesh foods, eggs, cheese, legumes and nuts, with a preference for the plant foods.

Three cheers to the doctor who recently braved the wrath of the establishment to issue a warning about the over-prescription of drugs such as Ritalin for the treatment of ADD and ADHD!

Among many warnings about giving children these stimulant drugs, the best I have come across is by a US paediatrician who practised for 55 years before his retirement and eventual death.

He states in a paper (of which we have copies) that he treated thousands of children exhibiting ADD and ADHD with Ritalin and other stimulant drugs before realising that the core of the ADHD problem was nutrition.

Once he began treating ADD and ADHD children with nutrition, the results were that “60 to 80 percent of these children were 70 to 100 percent better and did not need stimulant drugs ...”

In his article, he spells out the steps he would take according to the particular signs and symptoms being exhibited by the child.

The only side-effects of such methods are improvements of other aspects of health.

Yet, as is the case with so many medications, people continue to be taken in by the drug companies, whose deceptions are all too clearly revealed by the former Editor-In-Chief of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, Dr Marcia Angell, in her 2005 book, The Truth About the Drug Companies – How They Deceive Us and What To Do About It.

In her two decades with this journal, Dr Angell watched the drug companies stray from their original mission of developing useful drugs, and instead become vast and highly profitable marketing machines with sometimes dubious products.

We published an interview with Dr Angell in the Autumn 2005 issue of NVNH.

The banning of all advertising of junk foods during children’s television viewing times, as proposed in a current campaign by Choice magazine, could arrest a lot of the damage already being done to our children.

The proof that these ads work is that manufacturers keep paying large amounts of money for them. What children see on TV is very sophisticated and very authoritative to their unsuspecting minds.

Parents (even if they are role models themselves) haven’t a ghost of a chance of neutralising the super-sophisticated persuasion of the professional marketers whose job is to sell products for profit.

This would apply even if children were with their parents all the time, which they’re not.

There is firm evidence that junk foods can cause more than obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

A very high calorie intake causes genetic damage, raising the risk of cancer and other diseases (CSIRO research).

Deep-frying of foods causes oxidation of fat and cholesterol which are then major risk factors for heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Deficiency of antioxidants allows oxidative damage that can lead to artery disease, nerve damage (motor neuron disease and MS), cancer and other diseases.There can also be damage to the brain.

Deficiency of the alkaline minerals, potassium, magnesium and calcium, contributes to acidity of the system. 1996 research found that schoolboys with acidic brains had dramatically lower IQ scores that those with alkaline brains.

A high intake of refined carbohydrates upsets blood sugar levels, leading to hypoglycaemia in which the brain is literally driven crazy by sugar deficiency. As the US paediatrician, the late Dr Lendon H. Smith wrote, the person then operates from the reptilian part of the brain which is selfish, mean and anti-social. The result can be aggressiveness, irritability, tantrums, sleeplessness, poor concentration and delinquent behaviour – which is just what we are seeing.

As Choice points out: Parents are tired of being told it’s all their problem when multimillion dollar advertising campaigns relentlessly market unhealthy food and drinks to their children.

All parents can play their part in the Choice campaign sharing their own families’ experiences of junk food marketing online at www.choice.com.au/fedup.

Save our children (and ourselves). Bring on the ban!

The health of current and future generations of Australians will be put at risk by any decision to allow genetically modified crops to be grown in NSW.

The NSW Government plans to lift the moratorium on genetically modified canola crops next year, ignoring potentially disastrous health consequences already evidenced in other countries.The independent panel which reviewed the GM legislation failed to consider substantial evidence outlining not only the health, but also the economic and environmental consequences of the introduction of GM canola crops.

In the United States alone, genetically modified organisms (GMOs) were linked with health problems as far back as 1989. At that time, genetically modified strains of an L-tryptophan food supplement were found to be the cause of symptoms such as severe pain, hair loss, memory loss, muscle weakness and hardening of the skin. In this case, the link was only discovered because of the severity and rapid onset of the symptoms. Unfortunately, in other cases, it may take years to determine the extent of the health consequences of GM foods.

The frightening fact is that in many instances, people may not even know what they are eating! Organic farmers and others not growing genetically engineered crops rightfully feared the inevitable cross-contamination from the pollen of GM crops. Without highly expensive testing, there will be no way to determine the extent of cross contamination, ultimately making it impossible to know what is going into our foodstuffs.

You can find out a lot more about the risks associated with GM foods in the next edition of the Natural Health Society’s own magazine, Natural Health and Vegetarian Life, available in March.