Episode 04: Why Choosing The Right Food Can Be So Confusing

Aug 10

What is the optimal diet? Or is there such a thing? Because there is so much "noise" out there regarding nutrition and the best diet to follow for optimal health, we tend to give up. In this episode we examine the reasons for all the mixed messages.

Transcript:

Welcome to my podcast, asking the question, if not now, when? This is Cindie Brown and thank you for joining me today. For more information, visit me at www.ifnotnowwhen.best.

One of my 5 pillars of good health is "feed your body good food". As simple as that statement sounds, it really isn't that simple. In my quest to adopt an optimal diet for good health, healing and longevity, I found confusing to be an under statement! It's a land mind out there with the push and pull of many different interest all voting for our food dollars and data derived form different clinical trials and studies pointing in opposite directions. Because there's so much noise out there it's unfortunately created an attitude of, "everything's bad so I'm just going to eat whatever I want." or when we talk about nutrition, people's eyes just glaze over.

So I see three main reasons for this:

One is science keeps evolving. An example is the Microbiome, it seems like we are just scratching the surface on this topic with an ever greater understanding of the critical role our gut bacteria play in overall health.

Second, big food and big agro chemical companies pay scientist, doctors and university professors to make false or misleading claims about their products since they know these titles are voices of credibility in the public’s eye. This leaves us with evidence based science being industry funded which is a disservice to our society and public health. Public health is not big food or big agriculture's priority.

And the third is Nutritionalism - The science and politics of dietary advice. It's a term coined by Michael Pollan in his book, "In Defense of Food". It refers to food marketers taking advantage of the latest food trends. Examples are; the low fat phase we saw years ago where every food package said low fat to sell their products. A current trend is Keto and Keto friendly on a lot of the food packaging we see today.

So the question becomes, how do we navigate through all of this to make good choices. Well, first I would consider where there is agreement among all dietary recommendations. When we look at the conversations and debates over a vegan diet, a vegetarian diet , keto , paleo or carnivorous diet and which provides the best health benefits, I think we are having the wrong conversation. I'm not discounting these conversations but it's not as relevant to overall health if the food we're eating is processed with filled with chemicals which are making us sick and age faster.

If we look at our heath outcomes over the past 40 years, every static we look at are trending in the wrong direction and all paths lead predominately to our food supply. If you look at images of Woodstock in 1969 you don't see any fat or obese people in the huge population. Any mass gathering of people today looks very different. Nor were there the rates of cancer, autoimmune disease, diabetes, autism, ADD/ADHD and the list goes on at the rates we are seeing today. The conversation first needs to be what has changed in our food supply resulting in all the pour health outcomes?

I just want to take a few minutes to give you two examples regarding our food supply just so you have a finger on the pulse of what I am talking about.

So first, using the coined phrase I read in Dr Hyman's book, Food Fix: "It's not the Cow it How" The food cows naturally eat is grass yet the industrial produced cows are fed soybeans and corn. The corn and soybeans are sprayed with roundup a weed killer sprayed four times as much as they have in the past because of the genetically modified seeds and crops. You know that Round up, I use, I buy Round up and I use it for my driveway to kill the weeds in the pavers. I can't imagine we are spraying that on what we are eating. But anyway, so Roundup includes a chemical called glyphosate. This active ingredient is just one part of a chemical cocktail that makes up this herbicide, By the way, herbicide is to kill so we've got herbicides, pesticides, homicide, suicide, it's all designed to kill obviously, I'm getting off track t. So anyway some research suggests that its complete formulation is more toxic to our cells than glyphosate is by itself. I highly suggest you google glyphosate, it's pretty eye opening. So research indicates that glyphosate is an endocrine disruptor. It's also been linked to liver disease, birth defects and reproductive problems in laboratory animals. It has been shown to kill beneficial gut bacteria and damage the DNA in human embryonic, placental and umbilical cord cells. Studies have confirmed that Roundup can cause non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which is what I had and prior to that I had big spinach salads every day lot's of vegetables, lot's of fruits all conventional so I can't even imagine how much glyphosate I ingested. In any case, that's another topic, so not only did the studies confirm the Lymphoma it also confirmed other cancers, including leukemia and brain cancer.

So because cows can get sick at the industrial feedlots eating corn and soybeans, so the cows are given antibiotics. Then they are given a variety of steroid hormones natural and synthetic versions to make the animals grow faster. So when we eat this industrial raised meat and feed it to our families, we're ingesting the pesticides that are cumulative in our body over time. The antibiotics that are killing our vital good gut bacteria. We're understanding more and more about how important gut bacteria is to our mental health, how we absorb nutrients, our immune system and a lot of other bodily functions so that those low level of antibiotics that we're constantly ingesting impacts our bodily systems. So that's why "it's not the cow, it's how" When we talk about meat and meat protein the more important conversation is how it is raised.

Another example is the breakfast cereals marketed to children and what we feed our children and grandchildren before they head off to school. Captain Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Lucky Charms (magically delicious) Coco Pops, Honey bunches of oats, Cheerios, Frosted flakes, Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the list goes on and on all heavily marketed toward young children in ever increasing insidious ways. Just as a side note, glyphosate is also sprayed on wheat as a drying agent so these breakfast cereals all have glyphosate residue. Glyphosate has been banned in Europe and public outrage is making a difference in this country even with Monsanto/Bayer and big food fighting back. So enough about glyphosate. So in the ingredient listed on these boxes of cereal, what the food manufactures do is use different names for sugars, there's lot's of different names for sugars, cane sugar fructose, sucrose, the list goes on and on so that way when they are using different names for sugars they don't need to make it the top ingredients or one of the top ingredient in the list of ingredients in the cereal. It's one the ways they use to trick us. Ingredients are listed starting with what the product has most of. Also, these cereals also include food dyes. "Research has also associated food dyes with problems in children including allergies, hyperactivity, learning impairment, irritability and aggressiveness." No wonder teachers are telling parents to take their child to the doctor and put them on Ritalin to control their ADD and ADHA. Arriving at school with all that sugar and red dye and told to sit still and concentrate. Food is information telling our cells and gut bacteria what to do and our kids are responding.

You know there are so many studies indicating the difference it makes when children eat the right thing. If you can imagine sending one child to school with what I just described and the second child with a breakfast without chemicals weather it's eggs, real food and you sit them both down, who is going to perform better? Later I talk about the disparity in our society of the have's and have not's and that's a conversation in and of itself. But I would ask that you give your children the best chance possible at school and feeding the Captain Crunch is not going to be the best choice.

You know there are so many studies spelling this out to all of us. Just one is, there was a secondary school for children with behavioral issues and low test scores. Going to the secondary school, they simply changed the lunch program providing nutritious food. Simply doing that turned test scores around and behavioral issues were minimized.

You know in my past episodes, I've talked about my desire to live a life that matters, this is an area I want to make a difference. I want to be another voice to build a true understanding of what's happening out there. I don't want to sound like I am lecturing but instead inform. I really struggled with this episode instead of your eyes, your ears would gloss over and risk losing your interest. But it's a topic I am so passionate about because of the harm it's doing to our society, our children, our public health system, the threat it's posing to our food supply, how it widens the gap between the haves and have not's, our environment and even our national security. It truly touches every aspect of our society. I am grateful there are many other passionate voices surrounding this important topic. I've outlined a few of them in the show notes for your reference, and there're welcomed changes taking place, yet we've got a long way to go. The book I mentioned earlier, Food Fix by Mark Hyman, MD address this very issue in detail and has great recommendations and a vision to reverse this trend where all vested interests win. If this is a topic that you're interested in, this is a must read.

I've resolved myself to the fact that the only way we can change our food supply for the better is voting with our dollars making big food profitable only when they do the moral and ethical thing and supply food without the current heavy toxic load. They can do it. They supply food to Europe where there are more protections regarding ingredients allowed in food and our big food companies comply. But they don't have to in the United States because we don't require the same protections. Until then, big food, just like big tobacco will continue to use their unethical marketing tactics and fill our food with nitrites, dies, antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, stabilizers, emulsifiers, artificial flavors, "natural flavors" (who know the natural flavors are not listed so who know what's in there) and a whole host of other chemicals that are profitable for them and we pay for this with our health and medical bills and in higher health insurance premiums because we as a nation are sicker. The other industries that benefit from our food supply are health care and pharmaceutical industries.

I know eating high quality, organic food is more expensive. And, I know how hard it is raising a family and living on a limited budget and food marketers strategically marketing fast food and their processed food to our children. I was there raising my two boys on a limited budget with the added pressure of limited time working full time, helping with homework, and then rushing from one sports activity to the next. To feed a family, it is more economical and easier to buy processed foods and the sugary drinks. In addition, all the grocery store coupons were for junk food. I have never seen a coupon for broccoli. "I tried to be the coupon mom" I had the folder, and all the coupons in order and I got some good deals on toilet paper and paper towels. However, with more people demanding quality food there are so many more organic options and big food distributors like Walmart that are now offering an ever increasing organic produce section and organic food options at reasonable prices. With economies of scale, I believe we will continue to see prices drop on organic choices, grass feed beef, Free range poultry and eggs without the hormones and antibiotics. I believe that buying quality organic food ultimately saves us money with reduced medical costs, prescription drugs and doctor visits. I have some suggestions I'll share with you that I've incorporated in my life to help with this.

So, here's a challenge that will require us to vote with our dollars and at the ballot box and I can't even tell you how disturbing this is to me. I am a rule follower and this one just is beyond what I thought was happening. In almost every industry bribes are illegal. I know with my company, I have had to take many required courses on ethical business practices and a big portion is recognizing a bribe and that it's illegal no matter how subtle. It's grounds for termination and companies such as mine could be responsible to huge fines for accepting bribes. Yet, as it relates to our health, there is no regulation. It's even common practice for big food and big Ag to send a scientist, university professors and Medical Doctors large sums of money requesting they do a study in their favor. An example is sugary beverage companies pay scientist to do studies on the effects of sugar on human health and of course the study is published and indicates that sugar has no effect on human health and a good source of energy which is nuts. Monsanto, now Bayer paid a college professor at the University of Florida, where my son is currently a student, to teach students that there's no problem with GMO seeds and Round up on food and any information to the contrary, he would dispute. This is crazy!!!

Dr. Jason Fung, MD, I will add him to the show notes by the way, advocates to get the conflicts of interest out of medicine and food recommendations. He explains if all our evidence is produced by doctors, scientist, and professors who are paid by big food and big agro-chemical companies, we lose evidence based science. I believe we deserve better! Dr. Fung gives the example of Dr. Steve Piper in Toronto Canada who has been out there saying sugar and fructose are health foods. He then explains that The National Post did a story that Dr. Piper takes hundreds of thousands of dollars from the sugar industry and sugary beverage industries. In addition the Sugar industry is funding the University of Toronto and they are producing questionable research as a result. I really don't understand why this is allowed.

OK, bear with me on this one…..I'm going to read a passage from the book called Feeding you Lies by Vani Hari, a food activist . She writes, and these are headlines in publications: First…

"Buying organic veggies at the supermarket is a waste of money" Quarts Publication.

"The USDA organic label misleads and rips off consumers", Forbes

"Organic foods are just a marketing label" Business Insider.

"Don't believe the organic hype" NPR.

"Is organic food worth the higher price? experts say no" Portland Tribune.

So she writes, "Who is really telling the story here? Big food and big AG rely heavily on front groups to promote these types of messages in the media and they even go as far as to train seemingly independent farmers, bloggers and scientists to act as expert sources for journalists. It's an elaborate con that the media keeps falling for. Big food is waging a war against organic food with the good guys being battered by the industry front groups armed with millions of dollars from food and chemical companies. In 2015, the advocacy group, Friends of the Earth produced a report called, "Spinning Food, How Food Industry front groups in covert communications are shaping the story of food". The report exposed The Dirty tactics that big food and agro-chemical companies have implemented to combat the organic food movement. It reveals how they're using their deep pockets to launch stealth public relations campaigns and push coordinated messages that attack organic food and activists like me. At the same time these groups defend the continued use of synthetic pesticides, antibiotics, GMO's and chemical food additives."

Whooooo..

You know I always have this kind of analogy and how I see life as kind of the pendulum pretty much in all aspects of our life where that pendulum swings to one extreme and then pressures push it back down towards the middle and then when it starts to go to the other extreme, voices and pressures push it back the other way. And I think this book, Feeding you Lies, and many others and many other voices are starting to push us back towards the middle and this book did have an affect.

You know I've taken a deep dive into this topic but it is so disturbing to me and I want you to have a good idea and picture of what's happening out there. I feel it's an injustice to our society and an obligation to call it out. Please know, I want big food companies to be successful but not at the expense of public health and immoral and unethical marketing tactics. Thanks to so many scientists and medical professionals who haven't been bought by big food, and many others in the field that have and continue to create public awareness through radio shows, podcasts, books, ted talks, documentaries, ect.

So, what do we do? Here are my suggestions

First, as the saying goes, "Never make the perfect be the enemy of good enough" Another good way to navigate this is using the 80-20% rule. Eating real food 80% of the time will give better outcomes. As habits changes, the way you feel changes, cravings diminish and seeing better behavior and test scores improve in your children and grandchildren the more we'll continue to move in that direction.

Another is when possible, cook your own food more often reducing the number of times you go out to eat. You're able to control the ingredients. Equally, when possible, bring lunch to work.

An then talking about going out to eat, if there are any chefs out there listening or if any of you that know a chef, we need to use their high profile status to get the message across. They have a voice in our society and influence what we eat. This is a place where scientist and chefs can work together to influence the health of our society. I learned about this concept from John Roca, a restaurant owner in Spain. He maintains a constant dialogue with scientists and farmers and his kitchen is his laboratory. He is able to point out that non GMO organic food is much more flavorful. Chefs explaining and using these products will help move us forward and they are able to offer more delicious food.

Next, read the ingredients on food packaging instead of the misleading propaganda on the front of the package exploiting the latest food trends (Nutritionlism). Look for foods that are nutrient dense as Dr. Fuhrman would say. Organic and non GMO are more nutrient dense. The seeds modified for large yields diminish flavor and nutrients. On food labels, you should be able to read everything on the label and the fewer the ingredients the better.

Another is, we vote with our dollars. When possible buy quality over quantity. It really matters and in many cases can be done by reallocating your food dollars. One way to do this is by taking the money you would use to eat out and buy quality food. I'm not suggesting not to eat out but maybe less often. Another way is eating less but high quality meat instead of a lot of low quality meat. If you go online, in some areas there are local ranchers offering grass fed quality meat at very reasonable prices. I have added a resource in the show notes, one being ButcherBox, they are dedicated to delivering high-quality, humanely raised meat supporting farmers and making decisions that benefit our planet. You know I went on line to place an order and I was on a waiting list. First time I was happy to be on a waiting list. That means there is demand and people are getting the message. Shop online at Thrive Market offering high quality food at lower prices and other vendors offering organic options such as Walmart, Target and Aldi and other local grocery stores supporting their decision to offer organic food at reasonable prices encouraging them to offer more. In the show notes, I have listed suppliers I buy from that work very hard to provide high quality products produced sustainably. This also supports the farmers and ranchers that are making the right changes in their farming practices and supports regenerative farming.

A great resource for parents is the Wellness Mama Podcast and Katie can be found at Wellnessmama.com. Sitting in the waiting room of her OBGYN with her first child she saw an article indicating the life span of our children will be 10 years less than our generation. This news motivated her to come up with a "clean living" strategy. Six children later, she has been of service to many offering great suggestions on homemade household and personal hygiene products and easy family recipes with chemical free ingredients. I just got the ingredients for the homemade laundry detergents. So I will be making that next week. It's one third the cost of regular laundry detergent and it is good for the environment.

There is also Mom's Across America - A nonprofit organization founded by Zen Honeycutt, Their mission is to educate and empower mothers and others with actions and solutions to create healthy communities.

Be aware of food initiatives when we go to the ballot box. Support our elected officials that understand and support laws that protect and put the health and well being of our society ahead of big food, big agriculture and agro-chemical company profits. We need our food supply to be safe and healthy. A super crazy example, congress voted that anything containing two tablespoons of tomato sauce can be labelled a vegetable, this puts pizza into the vegetable category here in the United States. This is real and we allowed it. Be aware of the FDA and government unwilling to require stricter protections on food labeling. Require those "natural flavors" be spelled out. I want red die in our foods to be ban like it is in Europe. All they have to do is use paprika instead. I think we deserve this quality of food and protection.

Be aware that "You cannot exercise your way out of a bad diet". Exercise is great and a contributor to good healthy but you can be physically fit and not healthy.

Also, we need to respect and have a better understanding of where food comes from and respect bio diversity so we don't lose species of food. An example, we should not restrict ourselves to only 4 types of apples. There are many varieties of apples and we need to appreciate and cultivate that bio diversity. There is a trend to going back to the land and treating it with respect so we are fundamentally growing food with more flavor. This is a trend we need to pay attention and contribute to. There is a loss of bio diversity due to single crop and a mass market approach to agriculture. Having a dialog with our farmers to insure our food supply is as diverse and authentic as possible. Also, eat diverse types of foods, we have heard eat the rainbow. This insures we are getting all the micro nutrients we need for good health.

Another when you hear a food recommendation or claim especially if it doesn't make sense, follow the dollars to see if that person was funded by big food, big agriculture, or a front groups. However, the number one guide and recommendation is don't eat chemicals that our cells can digest, that make us sick, make us age faster and make us feel bad. Plain and simple.

You know the good news is we can still take control of our health and make good choices regardless of all the nutritional noise out there. Knowing this information empowers us to make better food choices.

So if there is a recommended diet where all agree is eat real food.

I'll leave you with an ancient proverb: "When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use, when diet is correct, medicine is of no need."

Thank you so much for joining me today. Wishing you peace, love, joy and good health. Bye for now.

A list of some of the front Groups mentioned in the Podcast that discredit organic food production, defend pesticides and antibiotics in animal production and promote the benefits of artificial sweeteners, trans fats and GMO foods:

The American Council on Science and Health (ACSH)
The Alliance for Safe and Affordable Feed funded by GMA and Monsanto
The Center for Food Integrity funded by Monsanto
The National Restaurant Association
United Soybean Board

Resources and references:

David Agus, - Professor of medicine Engineering at the University of Southern California A cancer dr. by trade and believe in prevention. Author of "a Short Guide to a Long Life"

John Roca, Restaurant owner in Spain dialog chefs and scientist. The kitchen and laboratory. Now we need to use the high profile of chefs to get the message across.

Davos - World Economic Form - Davos 2015 - Let Food Be Thy Medicine

Nutritionalism: Michalepollan.com

Microbiome - https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/26/the-human-microbiome-why-our-microbes-could-be-key-to-our-health

Dr. Mark Hyman MD. https://drhyman.com/

Vani Hari: https://foodbabe.com/

Dr. Joel Fuhrman: https://www.drfuhrman.com/

Dr. Jason Fung, MD: https://www.dietdoctor.com/authors/dr-jason-fung-m-d

Dr. Gordon Saxe, MD, PHD Center for Integrative Nutrition: https://providers.ucsd.edu/details/11632/gordon-saxe-family_medicine-san_diego

Dr. Sheila Patel, MD, The Chopra Center for Wellbeing: https://chopra.com/bios/sheila-patel

Dr. John Fagan, PhD Health Research Institute: https://www.organicvalley.coop/blog/dr-john-fagan-toxins-in-food-environment/

Cows Fed Soybeans: http://agebb.missouri.edu/mgt/lane.htm#:~:text=Whole%20soybeans%20can%20be%20used,go%20on%20and%20off%20feed.%22

Cows fed Corn: https://www.quora.com/Farming-Why-are-most-cows-fed-corn-instead-of-grass