What Really Works: The Insider’s Guide to Complementary Health

Susan Clark

www.WhatReallyWorks.co.uk

part one (#ulink_245bbb36-36f0-54eb-ab35-79930d92907f)

Body Works (#ulink_245bbb36-36f0-54eb-ab35-79930d92907f)

Food (#ulink_7bb75dbf-6bed-5775-afb4-759ef75352db)

The Artificial Gut

In a humble laboratory at the Institute of Food Research in the UK, there is a machine which operates exactly like a real human gut. Each day it is ‘fed’ different foods so that the scientists can figure out just what does go on in the human colon. What they are particularly interested in is the balance of the bacteria in the human gut. What, for example, happens to the bacteria which normally help us digest our food when the diet is too high in sugar? How does the artificial gut cope with antibiotics or prescription drugs, including the contraceptive pill? How does a gut that is fed infant formula differ from one that is nourished with human breastmilk, and what happens when the researchers deliberately change the gut flora by introducing man-made molecules that can act as a kind of fast food for the good bacteria and which also work in the body to starve the toxic bad ones?

The work that is quietly going on in this lab is not to be laughed at or dismissed lightly, because if vitamin and mineral supplements were the first wave of getting back to good health in the 20th century, then the secrets of the human gut, which has to process these dietary supplements, holds the key to optimum health in this new century.

It is not right to say ‘you are what you eat’. You are, though, a reflection of how your body absorbs what you eat, and for too many adults in the West, the honest answer when asked ‘how are you?’ is ‘not great’.

This does not mean you are sick. You function. You get out of bed each day, run a household, sort out the kids, hold down a job, but you never feel 100%. You may be tired all the time, your skin may be less than glowing. Maybe you just don’t have the energy to get out there and exercise. However it shows up, you know you could be better.

Digestive disorders are the root cause of 70% of all complaints and health problems, according to naturopaths who treat illness with a combination of nutrition, homeopathy and herbalism. Gut problems now cause more days off work (after the common cold) than any other health problem, and a third of the adult population is troubled by Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), where the symptoms alternate between chronic constipation and diarrhoea.

More frightening is the fact that cancer of the colon is now the second biggest cancer killer after cancer of the breast in women and lung cancer in men. In humans, it is now believed that tumours arise 100 times more often in the large intestine, compared with the small one. What scientists must now find out is whether some of the large intestinal bacteria are actually producing carcinogenic or tumour-promoting compounds as a byproduct of their own metabolism. If this is what is going on, the solution may be as simple as changes to the diet. The progress of a colon cancer is slow, making it more than susceptible to the right kind of dietary intervention.

What to Eat

The message has not changed, so if you care about your health, you will have probably heard it before. If you want to avoid some of the worst toxins now used in the production of nutrient-poor foods from nutrient-robbed soils – and at the last count, there were an estimated 250,000 of them – switch to an organic diet wherever you can.

Organic food has been produced without the use of chemicals to protect the crop from insects or accelerate crop growth, and so while it may have been fashionable of late to join a backlash claiming there is no difference between organic and non-organic food, adopting this view flies in the face of both science and common sense.

Hard evidence that organic food is healthier to eat than conventional crops has now been published by scientists who claim they finally have the proof that plants grown without artificial pesticides and fertilisers contain higher levels of nutrients.

The study is one of the first to confirm what those of us who intuitively support organic farming have long suspected – that organic fruit and vegetables do not just taste better, but offer greater health benefits too.

Researchers backed by Britain’s organic watchdog The Soil Association compared plants grown under strict organic conditions with those grown by conventional farming methods. The team, based at the University of Copenhagen, found that organic plants contained higher levels of vitamins and far more ‘secondary metabolites’ – a family of compounds which help protect plants from outside attack. When eaten in fresh fruit and vegetables, some of these metabolites are thought to lower the risk of cancer and heart disease.

There is no question too, that increasing the amount of raw food in your diet will also make you healthier. This is because a raw food diet will boost levels of the enzymes we need to break down and digest our food, at every stage of this process from the mouth to the gut. Even a short time on a mostly raw food diet can help detox the body, boost energy levels and help normalise the digestive tract. I have included three simple but powerful detox diets in this book (see pages 130, 136 and 147). Try them and watch how, as your health gets better on the inside, this is reflected on the outside as the condition of your skin, hair and nails improve beyond recognition.

For everyday eating, government guidelines in most countries suggest you aim for five portions of fruit and vegetables daily. For optimum health, though, you should actually be aiming for eight. Thankfully, that means eight in total – that is, fruit or veg, not eight of each.

People often get confused about what constitutes a portion. There is no need to fret about exact weights or to spend hours counting the broccoli florets in your raw vegetable side-salad, but as a rough guideline a portion is the equivalent of a slice of bread, half a bowl of rice, half a standard side-salad, a broccoli spear or a small apple.

Aiming for eight portions is easier said than done, of course, since most people hate chomping their way through what are laughingly called ‘health foods’. Maybe not so funny, since, as this term implies, so many foods are not healthy at all. In fact, if you do give in to a junk diet and spend years eating these more popular but nutritionally-starved foods, then far from nourishing you, they will eventually make you sick.

If you are in any doubt that the food on your plate really can affect your health, reflect on this: in Japan, where the diet is rich in substances called phytochemicals, especially soya, 25% fewer women succumb to breast cancer than in the West. Men, too, benefit from these nutrients, because while the rates of prostate cancer in the East and the West are similar, far fewer Japanese men will actually die of the disease.

Conversely, cancer rates among East Asians who migrate and adopt Western diets mimic those of the Western world, within a shockingly short period of time.

Cheat Your Way to Better Health

Juicing is the ultimate cheat to better health. It’s the quickest way to get live enzymes straight into the stomach and bloodstream, and is also the fast-track way to eat those eight portions of raw fruit and vegetables without getting jaw ache. Think about it: You need to juice about 16 medium-sized carrots to make a glass of carrot juice for breakfast. Despite the fact that carrots are a superb source of antioxidant compounds called monoterpenes and betacarotenes, which help protect against killer cancers and heart disease if eaten regularly, you probably don’t eat half that number in a week.

Juicing used to be as dull as ditchwater, but there are now lots of excellent and inspiring new juicing books (see the Bibliography), so if, after a few weeks of juice therapy, you’re still stuck with carrot and celery, you will only have yourself to blame.

You can juice, blend and pulp any vegetable, fruit or seed you care to name. Can’t face grinding your way through a bowl of selenium-rich prostate-protecting brazil nuts? Make a nut milk instead. Nut milks are an excellent alternative to dairy, especially for kids who have allergies to milk but who can tolerate nuts. Since nuts are also rich in the essential fatty acids (especially omega-3s) which work in the body to dislodge stored fat, they can even help with weight loss and tackle unsightly cellulite.

You can buy a decent standard juicer for less than £50, but if you’re serious about juicing or if you suffer from any of the digestive disorders detailed later in this book (see Top-to-Toe) and which mean you should be aiming for a 70% raw food diet, then The Champion Juicer is the one all the professionals use. It’s actually quite sleek-looking and not too bad to clean. It can pulp, mash and grind, and while it is not cheap, it is a reliable workhorse that will not let you down.

Eat with the Seasons

Eating with the seasons not only means you are getting your food fresh, it also brings real health benefits. Fresh young spring greens, for example, help cleanse and detoxify your system after the stagnation of winter. Warm, nourishing root vegetables sustain the body through the colder months of winter, and in the summer, light salads and juicy ripe fruits will keep energy levels high and the body hydrated.

Why Are You Still Eating Meat?

At the risk of upsetting meat-producers everywhere, I have to report that whenever I analyse the nutrutional content of any meat recipe, I find it hard to justify it’s place in any health book … including my Vitality Cookbook! Most meat contains cholesterol-raising hidden saturated fats and, unless you buy organic, it’s quite likely to contain more than lingering traces of the antibiotics animals are pumped full of to promote faster growth and higher profit margins.

There are lots of reasons to stop eating meat. Buddhists and Hindus, for example, believe that when you eat meat you lower your spiritual vibrations, and that with every mouthful you swallow the terrifying death screams of the animal which at it’s slaughter, often at the hand of someone it trusted to feed and nurture it, seeps into the memory of the muscle tissues.

If that’s too far out for you and you don’t, in any event, object to meat on a soul level, then think about your physical health. Vegetarians are three times less likely to have a heart attack or a stroke than meat-eaters. They have a 40% lower incidence of cancer and are less likely to suffer from arthritis, obesity, diet-related diabetes, constipation, gallstones, hypertension and many other ailments.

If you don’t care about your health, what about your figure? When did you last see a fat tree or a fat vegetarian? Neither of these depends on meat for survival, and nor do we. The inner lining of the human colon is pocketed to slow down digestion. This, according to nutritional anthropologists, suggests that our natural diet should be one of fruit and vegetables. The inner surface of the colon of a canine animal like the dog is smooth and unpocketed for fast transit and the digestion of meat.

Meat that stays in the gut rots in the gut and can cause additional problems including diverticulosis and bad breath. Think what a piece of meat would look and smell like if you left it on the worktop in the kitchen for four days. US researchers reckon that, on average, there’s eight pounds of undigested, putrefying meat in the intestines of an adult American.

Still dying for that medium rare steak?

When and How to Eat

If you are eating the right foods – and, just as importantly, at the right times – you should be able to eat as much as you like, when you like. Digesting food, converting it to energy that the body can use and eliminating waste takes an astonishing 80% of your total energy reserves. No wonder, then, that so many people who have irregular mealtimes, impaired digestion and no time to prepare good food for themselves feel tired all the time – the amount of energy they are spending on the whole process must be even higher.

Smaller, more frequent meals make less of a demand on your digestive tract than one or two large and late-night meals. Adopt a ‘nil by mouth’ policy after 5 p.m., and any excess weight you carry will naturally drop off.

The French, of course, savour their meal times and you would never catch them wolfing their way through some gastronomic delight with eyes glued to the TV. The way we eat our food is just as important as what we eat, and the guidelines I like to follow, whenever possible, are those put forward by Ayurvedic practitioners, who take their inspiration from India. (For a full explanation of Ayurveda – or the ancient Indian ‘science of life’ – see page 272).

One simple but highly effective tip from these practitioners, especially for those of you suffering digestive disorders, is to make and drink a special ginger pickle 30 minutes before each meal. The pickle, a combination of honey, freshly grated root ginger and lemon juice, together with a pinch of salt, all dissolved in warm water, does not taste as bad as it sounds. In fact it has a warming quality and, I can promise you, it definitely works.

Other healthy eating tips from the older healing traditions include leaving the table when you are three-quarters full (this is customary in yoga traditions); replacing your cutlery on the plate between mouthfuls to slow the rate at which you eat, avoiding all gassy or fizzy drinks and taking a short walk to help ease digestion after each meal.

The most important thing is to make time for the food you have prepared, and that means setting the table and sitting down to eat. Even when you are alone. Eating on the hoof may be tempting when you are in a rush but you will, eventually, pay for this bad habit with a disruption to your digestion.

True Nutrition

Many humble, everyday foods bring huge health benefits. Did you know, for example, that rhubarb is an excellent source of calcium, or that eating just two apples a day can reduce blood cholesterol levels by 16%? True nutrition would have nothing to do with supplements and everything to do with what you choose to put on your plate.

The biggest irony in modern medicine is that doctors have little or no training in nutrition – in the UK, most qualify with just an hour of nutritional training – yet the very idea that good nutrition is paramount comes from their own founding father, Hippocrates who said: ‘Let food be thy medicine’ and who believed that adjusting the diet should be the first step in any treatment to alleviate or prevent ill health.

The following guidelines show just how easy it is for all of us to use food as medicine:

Beating Stress: The B vitamins are known as nature’s own stress busters. They always work better together than when eaten alone, and are found in foods as diverse as bananas, cheese, sunflower seeds and soya. Eat lentils and brown rice for vitamin B