The tobacco industry has focused more recently on divide-and-conquer strategies to create schisms within the tobacco control movement. We in the healthy food community can learn from this by staying united and not allowing minor disagreements to distract us from the bigger picture.
PBDE fire-retardant chemicals in the food supply may contribute to attention and cognitive deficits in children.
Feeding infants cow’s milk formula may adversely alter metabolic programming.
A study involving more than a million kids suggests the striking worldwide variation in childhood rates of allergies, asthma, and eczema is related to diet.
The levels of arsenic, banned pesticides, and dioxins exceeded cancer benchmarks in each of the 364 children tested. Which foods were the primary sources of toxic pollutants for preschoolers and their parents?
Foods of animal origin (especially fish) appear to be the most important source of human exposure to industrial pollutants such as alkylphenol xenoestrogens.
Phytonutrients in certain plant foods may block the toxic effects of industrial pollutants, like dioxins, through the Ah receptor system.
Modest lifestyle changes that include the avoidance of alcohol may cut the odds of breast cancer in half, but certain grapes appear to contain natural aromatase inhibitors that may undermine the ability of breast tumors to produce their own estrogen.
DNA-damaging chemicals, formed when meat is cooked, stimulate breast cancer cells almost as much as pure estrogen, and can infiltrate the ducts where most breast cancers arise.
Fenugreek seeds may protect against cancer and improve muscle mass, but they can make your armpits smell like maple syrup.
The reason birth order is a predictor of pollutant levels in the bodies of children is that women can pass along as much as half of their PCB burden to their fetus during pregnancy.
Exclusive breastfeeding for a full six months may, ironically, improve our children’s taste for vegetables—whereas children fed formula grow up with increased rates of inflammatory diseases such as asthma, cancer, and diabetes.
Based on the half-life of industrial pollutants children may be exposed to in the womb or at the breast, how many years does it take for them to detoxify their bodies (assuming they’re brought up on a healthy diet)?
Other than pet food and fish (which may be most contaminated), how do fire-retardant chemicals (PBDEs) and polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) concentrate in the American food supply?
For the same reason aspirin should be avoided in pregnancy, chamomile has such powerful anti-inflammatory properties that regular consumption may result in a serious fetal heart problem—premature constriction of the fetal ductus arteriosus, which allows the fetus to “breathe” in the womb.
The opiate-like effects of the casomorphin in cow’s milk may have a depressive effect on the respiratory center of infants, and lead to “milk apnea,” in which babies temporarily stop breathing, and are placed at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (crib death).
Young infants, and perhaps those with recurrent oxalate kidney stones, should avoid beets. But most commonly, the chief side effect is beeturia, the harmless passage of pink urine, though not all are affected—akin to the malodorous urine (“stinky pee”) that sometimes results from asparagus consumption.
Who should get tested for vitamin B12 (cobalamin) deficiency, and which is the best test to use: serum B12, methylmalonic acid (MMA), or holotranscobalamin levels?
Disinfectants used to sanitize cow udders may provide a source of iodine for dairy consumers, but can also increase the concentration of pus in milk from cows with staph infection mastitis.
Vitamin B12 is an imperative for those eating vegetarian and vegan diets, especially during pregnancy and infancy.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can be life-threatening.
On average, plant foods have 64 times more antioxidant power than red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, and eggs— but is it a fair comparison?
