August 2007

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Vol: 10.08

 

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Geoff Bond

Nutritional Anthropologist

Evolutionary Biology

The Bond Effect The Bond Effect The Bond Effect
The Science and Art of Living the Way Nature Intended
www.TheBondEffect.com
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10th Year of Publication

We are independent of commercial pressure and say exactly what we think.

CONTENTS

As Nature Intended

Childhood Sunshine Reduces Multiple Sclerosis Later

 

Medical Politics

Obesity Taboo Broken

 

Quote of Month
Challenge the Limits

 

Questions

Fruit, Fructose Overdose, Colic

 

Learning to like vegetables

 

Retinol, Cancer and Face Creams

 

Cinnamon Sunscreen Ingredient

 

Meal Idea

Peabody's Sautéed Chicken Salad

 

Hints & Tips
Long Time Organic Farming

 

News Shorts
Obese Girls - Less College

 

Apple Peel Healthiest

 

Good News

Red Wine Fends off Prostate Cancer

 

Milk in Tea: Antioxidants OK

 

Second Guessing Nature

Selenium Supplements and Diabetes

 

Disease Connections 
Crucifers Fight Prostate Cancer

 

Did You Know?

Sperm Speed Competition

 

Feedback
Tony Marowitz

 

Book Review

The Dig Tree (VII)

Laughter
Unintended Howlers


Always consult your doctor before undertaking any health program


USEFUL LINKS

Deadly Harvest Cover.jpg (293631 bytes)

Deadly Harvest Information Page

Healthy Harvest Cover.jpg (67579 bytes)

COOKBOOK 
Healthy Harvest Information Page

AS NATURE INTENDED: Sunshine

Sunshine deficiency is responsible, wholly or in part, for a great number of the illnesses we suffer today [Ref 1].

Childhood Sunshine Reduces Multiple Sclerosis Later

Those children who had a sunny childhood are less likely to develop multiple sclerosis in later life. Talat Islam PhD of The University of Southern California and colleagues carried out the study on identical twins - a powerful way of eliminating genetic weakness as a cause of MS. The twin who received most sunshine received "strong protection from MS"; the sunshine deficient twin doubled his risk of MS [Ref 2].

 

MEDICAL POLITICS

Obesity Taboo Broken: Say it as it Is
The doctors’ association now recommends that when a child is obese, doctors should say so – and then get the child and parents to deal with it [Ref 3]. This is a reversal of the earlier policy which tried to spare fat people's feelings.

Our View? About time! In January 2004 we quoted author Greg Critser: “Suggest to an obesity counselor that children should be counseled against gluttony and you will be admonished as a veritable child abuser.” [Ref 4] See our full article: January 2004

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

Challenge the Limits
"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go". -- T. S. Eliot, American Nobel prizewinning poet.

QUESTIONS
Fruit, Fructose Overdose, Colic
Q.
Your remarks about colic and its connection to fructose overdose from fruit helped me cure this longstanding ailment (Natural Eater and Colic, November 2006). However, can you give us some guidance as to which fruits are particularly low in fructose?

A. Yes. The trick is to define fruits that are not only low in fructose but are also low ("good") glycemic. 

1. Low fructose, good glycemic: bilberry, blackberry, gooseberry, grapefruit, lemon, lime, loganberry, nectarine, pomelo, raspberry, redcurrant, whitecurrant and wild strawberry. 

2. Low fructose, borderline glycemic: banana (green), guava, tangerines (Satsuma, mandarin) orange, peach, plums (greengage, Victoria, damson), strawberry (cultivated).

3. Low fructose, bad glycemic: apricot, fig (raw), kiwi, melon (cantaloupe, galia), pineapple, watermelon. 

4. Medium fructose, good glycemic: Blackcurrants, cherries.

5. High fructose, borderline glycemic: apples (all varieties), dates (raw), lychees, pear (all varieties).

6. High fructose, high glycemic, : bananas (yellow, ripe), custard apple, grapes, mango, persimmon (a.k.a. sharon, kaki), prickly pear.

Our View? it is a shame that modern fruits are problematic compared to our ancestral ones. In your case, you need to stick to category 1 above and see how you go if you introduce some of the other categories. On the other hand you will need to boost your intake of salad vegetables to compensate. (It might be some consolation to know that low fructose, low glycemic avocado and tomato are both technically fruit!)

Learning to Like Vegetables

Q. I have read Deadly Harvest and am totally convinced by your arguments. The trouble is, I simply cannot bring myself to eat the kinds of foods, particularly salads, fruits and vegetables that you recommend. What to do?

A. There are a couple of things you can do. First sneak up on it gradually. If you can manage a tomato, train yourself to eat one or two every day. Learn to use vinaigrette in various ways to give an appetizing taste. When that is in place, move on to the next ingredient, cucumber or lettuce, say.

Another temporary makeshift device is to juice your vegetables. Throw them in the blender and then drink them down as slowly as you can. This is just a stopgap measure. Bit by bit, get used to eating those same ingredients in their normal state.

Retinol, Cancer and Face Creams

Q. You mention last month (July 2007) that esophageal cancer is aggravated by retinol (vitamin A) supplementation. Many face creams contain retinol. Should these be avoided?

A. No. The minute amounts of retinol in skin creams are no threat. In fact, as described, retinol potentiates the efficacy of face cream.

Cinnamon Sunscreen Ingredient

Q. In June 2007 you mentioned that cinnamates (from cinnamon) were OK compounds. However - does this favorable comment apply to "ethylhexyl methoxycinnamate"? It appears in many sunscreens and lotions.

A. There are indeed problems, albeit minor, with this chemical and they are set out very well on www.cosmeticsdatabase.com (Direct link). 

Our view? Why bother? You do far better to manage your exposure to the sun without sunscreens, just cover yourself up as necessary to avoid burning.

 

MEAL IDEA

Peabody's Sautéed Chicken and Warm Salad

This is one of the Natural Eating dishes offered by Peabody' casual diner in Palm Springs:

- Sautéed Chicken Breasts

- Sautéed sliced bell pepper

- Lightly sautéed sliced tomatoes

- Peeled and sliced avocado

- Lettuce.

On a bed of lettuce place the tomatoes then the bell pepper, avocado and chicken.

 

HINTS & TIPS

Long Time Organic Farming Even Better for Tomatoes

In a new angle on organic farming, a study finds that the longer a field has been organic, the better the nutritional quality of the tomato. In particular, the level of the micronutrients called "flavonoids" increased to much higher levels over a period of ten years. The researchers commented that the nutrient increases corresponded with the increase in organic matter (humus) in the soil.

Our View? Our food chain has major back-tracking to do before it can supply us with produce as nature intended. By all means go that extra mile and source produce from a long-standing organic farmer if you can.

 

NEWS SHORTS

Obese Girls Less likely to Attend College 

Obese girls are half as likely to attend college as normal size girls according to a study from the University of Texas [Ref 5]. Obese girls feel bad about themselves; they feel even worse if obese girls were a small minority at school. Obese boys, however, had no such qualms.

Our View? maybe it's one more reason why parents and the health professionals need to be cruel to be kind - and shock kids into controlling their appetites. See Obesity Taboo Broken, above.

Apple Peel Keeps Cancer at Bay

Researchers have identified a dozen compounds -- "triterpenoids" -- in apple peel that inhibit, even kill cancer cells. Three of them have never been described before [Ref 9].

Our View? We should be certainly eating the whole apple including the peel anyway. Since apple is rather glycemic and high in fructose [see Fruit, Fructose Overdose, Colic above] then perhaps we should focus more on the peel than the flesh!

 

GOOD NEWS

Red Wine Fends off Prostate Cancer

Men who drink an average of four to seven glasses of red wine a week have half the risk of being diagnosed with prostate cancer as those who drink none [Ref10].

Our View? Red wine, with its cargo of valuable micronutrients, can be an agreeable addition to The Bond Effect regime. Just practise it in moderation!

Milk in Tea Does not Reduce Antioxidants

Black tea has a deserved reputation as a rich source of micronutrients. (See "Healthy Tea", July 2003). Americans and Europeans tend to drink tea weak, flavored perhaps with a twist of lemon. 

However, in British tea culture (which includes most countries of the Commonwealth), tea is brewed strongly and drunk with a splash of milk. Researchers wondered if the milk neutralized the goodness in the tea. 

They used British tea bags which, at 3 grams, contain 50% more tea than American and European ones. They then brewed the tea for 7 minutes. One day the volunteers drank the tea neat and on the next with milk added.

The researchers found that adding milk made no difference. Either way, after 80 minutes, the volunteers' blood contained much elevated levels of all kinds of good compounds: phenols (20%), catechins (32%), quercetin (39%) and kaempferol (45%). General plasma antioxidant activity increased 10% [Ref 11].

Many unfamiliar with British tea culture might be surprised at the length of brewing: 7 minutes. However, interestingly, the researchers found that the longer the tea is brewed, the better.

My View? As a Brit I drink plenty of tea -- brewed plenty strong. And yes, I guiltily put in a splash of milk -- only condiment quantities, mind! But I am comforted to know that the tea itself remains just as healthful.

 

PITFALLS OF SECOND-GUESSING NATURE

Selenium Supplements Increase Diabetes

Selenium is an antioxidant often included in multivitamin tablets and is thought to be a "good thing". However, those who consumed 200 micrograms of selenium per day were 55 percent more likely to develop type 2 diabetes [Ref 7]. The researchers think that excess selenium disrupts the endocrine (hormone) system.

Our View? Last month (July 2007) we mentioned how excess selenium is linked to esophageal cancer. Some selenium is essential, but too much is detrimental. Here is yet another example of how we cannot second-guess nature. But we don't need to! Just eat like nature intended and these thing work out just fine.

 

DISEASE CONNECTIONS

Cruciferous Vegetables Beat Back Prostate Cancer

In a recent study, greater consumption of dark green and cruciferous vegetables, especially broccoli and cauliflower, was linked to deceased risk of aggressive prostate cancer [Ref 6].

 

DID YOU KNOW?
Sperm Speed Competition
Sperm have to swim quite a long way to find an egg to fertilize. The first one there gets the prize. So evolutionary competition will work to reward the fastest. This matters most if sperm from different males are competing with each other.

So in promiscuous species, we might expect sperm to swim faster. This is borne out by experiment [Ref 8]: The chimpanzee female is highly promiscuous: she will mate with several males within minutes of each other. Their different sperms race each other at 24 inches an hour. 

In contrast, dominant gorillas maintain an iron grip on their harem's chastity. No competition there. So gorilla sperm can afford to amble along at only 3 inches an hour. 

And where do humans fit into this? They have sperm that swim at about 8 inches per hour. That is, faster than gorilla sperm but slower than chimpanzee's. This implies that human males, in their ancestral past, competed at a level of female promiscuity intermediate between chimpanzees and gorillas.

Afterthought: How did the researchers obtain the sperm samples? The ever-ready chimpanzees were happy to ejaculate into an artificial vagina. But the gorilla was more coy. Nevertheless one intrepid (female) researcher solved the problem. While distracting him with candy, she gave the gorilla a hand job!

 

FEEDBACK

Tony Marowitz

"Please pass along the following fact I found very interesting. I'm not remotely overweight, I'm a hair under 6 feet and prior to starting the recommended diet by Geoff weighed anywhere between 166 lb - 172 lb depending on how much beer I drank the prior night or on what I pigged out on. Certainly a reasonable weight for a 6 foot guy. Oddly enough though, I've evidently burned off the beer fat and whatever else was rotting away in my insides. I'm down to 156 now and am back in 34 waist pants for the first time in 20 years. Thanks again. What a lifestyle change it is." - Tony Marowitz

GEOFF'S REVIEW OF BOOKS
The Dig Tree (VII)
by Sarah Murgatroyd
Bloomsbury, London, 2002

The 1860 Burke and Wills Expedition to pioneer a route across Australia is a nutritional object-lesson. It also highlights deep human drives. Why did Burke take such futile risks?

 

.... Burke was crazy with love and would do anything to win Julia's hand. In such conditions, just leading a competent and uneventful expedition across the continent is not enough – it has to have the element and drama of “futile risk-taking.” 

Of course, risk takers also risk losing their lives, which is just what happened to Burke and some of his unfortunate companions. But he certainly got the acclaim he craved – posthumously. His story set alight the imaginations ofMelbourne society. He and Wills became household names. Their bodies were brought back from the bush to lie in state. 

On the day of the state funeral thousands thronged the streets and jostled for position. The funeral procession was a sumptuous cavalcade of consular officials from nine countries, assorted bigwigs, politicians, businessmen, marching bands and all led by a regiment of Light Dragoons. “The centerpiece of the cavalcade was the funeral car, a magnificent vehicle, modeled on the carriage used for the Duke of Wellington ... pulled by a team of six horses sporting elaborately decorated harnesses and black plumes”. The Royal Geographical Society in London awarded Burke its prestigious gold medal; statues of Burke and Wills adorned Melbourne and other towns.

Source did indeed get the recognition he craved. Had he managed to survive, he would almost certainly have earned the hand of his beloved. JuliaMathewsgave several memorial performance for the dead explorers.

All in all, Murgatroyd gives an enthralling, meticulously detailed account of this extraordinary expedition. It gives us at www.naturaleater.com the material we need to make our points about human nutrition, and about the motivations of idiotic male endeavor.

I have just one small quibble: Murgatroyd's inappropriate use of the metric system in an Anglophone world which still loves and uses Imperial units. I strongly doubt that Burke measured out “85 grams” of sugar as his daily ration (“3 oz”, more like) – and a cricket pitch is exactly 22 yards long, dammit – not 20.1 meters!

Read the full review on www.TheBondEffect.com or on Amazon: click on this direct link.

 

Laughter the Best Medicine
Unconscious Howlers

Genuine clips from letters to public housing maintenance departments: 

* "My bush is really overgrown round the front and my back passage has fungus growing on it."

* "It's the dogs mess that I find hard to swallow

* I wish to report that the tiles are missing from the outside toilet roof. I think it was bad wind the other night that blew them off.

Always consult your doctor before undertaking any health program

FOOTNOTES
[1] Marc Sorenson; Solar Power for Optimal Health, ISBN1-4243-1387-2.

[2] Neurology. 2007 Jul 24;69(4):381-8. Childhood sun exposure influences risk of multiple sclerosis in monozygotic twins. Islam T. 

[3] American Medical Association; Expert Committee Recommendations on the Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Overweight and Obesity; June 6, 2007

[4] Critser. FatLand: How the Americans became the Fattest People in the World. ISBN-13: 978-0141015408

[5] Crosnoe, R; Gender, Obesity, and Education, Sociology of Education, July 2007, 241-260.

[6] J Natl Cancer Inst. 2007 Aug 1;99(15):1200-9. Epub 2007 Jul 24; Prospective study of fruit and vegetable intake and risk of prostate cancer. Kirsh VA.

[7] Ann Intern Med. 2007 Aug 21;147(4):217-23. Epub 2007 Jul 9. Effects of long-term selenium supplementation on the incidence of type 2 diabetes: a randomized trial. Stranges S.

[8] The use of optical tweezers to study sperm competition and motility in primates; Journal of the Royal Society Interface; DOI 10.1098/rsif.2007.1118; Online Date Tuesday, July 24, 2007; Jaclyn M. Nascimento. 

[9] J. Agric. Food Chem., 55 (11), 4366 -4370, 2007. 10.1021/jf063563o S0021-8561(06)03563-1; Web Release Date: May 8, 2007; Triterpenoids Isolated from Apple Peels Have Potent Antiproliferative Activity and May Be Partially Responsible for Apple's Anticancer Activity; Xiangjiu He and Rui Hai Liu.

[10] Janet L. Stanford; The International Journal of Cancer; June 2007.

[11] Effects of Infusion Time and Addition of Milk on Content and Absorption of Polyphenols from Black Tea ; Janet A. M. Kyle, et al; J. Agric. Food Chem., 2007, 55, (12), pp 4889–4894. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/jf070351y

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copyright: 2007 Geoff Bond