Nutrition Dude

Now Do You Believe Us?

I've been  banging the drum for years about the obesity time bomb, but most doctors and politicians have had other priorities. Have a look at the main findings of these three reports and tell me there isn't a problem!

British adults are the most obese in Europe

The UK now has a higher rate of obesity than anywhere else in the EU. In the UK22.6 per cent of adults are obese, compared to just 12.9 per cent in Germany, 9.4 per cent in Franceand 8.5 per cent in Italy (Department of Health, Health Profile of England 2007,22 October 2007).

Obesity could cost £60 billion by 2050 A government report, published last year projected: ‘The NHS costs attributable to overweight and obesity are projected to double to £10 billion per year by 2050. The wider costs to society and business are estimated to reach £49.9 billion per year (at today’s prices)’ (Foresight, Tackling Obesities: Future Choices, 17 October 2007)

Obesity Rising.  Between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of men classified as obese rose by half to 23 per cent of the male population, and the proportion of women by 42 per cent to around 25 per cent of the female population.  Nearly one in five children is now classified as obese (Our Future Health Secured: A Review of NHS Funding and Performance,11 September 2007). 

If anyone you care about has a problem with their weight, please refer them to our updated Personal Weight Loss Programme. With a combination of extensive screening using the latest biodermal technology, followed by 16 weeks of 1:1 support from our degree qualified nutritional therapists, we can help them change their relationship with food forever. This is the link:

http://www.nationalnutritionclinic.com/personal-weight-loss-clinic.htm

Warm regards

Graham

So Overweight People Are Just Greedy?

I'm the last person to be hung up on political correctness, but I just can't believe what I'm reading about Dr Hamish Meldrum, head of the British Medical Association. He believes that overweight and obese people do not need help from their GPs or from medication. They are just plain greedy, and need to eat less and exercise more.

Very helpful. Thank you for that breath-taking statement of the bl**ding obvious. I suppose alcholics are just too thirsty?

I'm sure many overweight people do eat too much. I'm sure they don't all do as much exercise as they should. But I also know that the numbers have escalated out of control in the last twenty years, while successive governments have done nothing of any substance to address the problem. There is a time-bomb of metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes and cardio vascular disease waiting to hit the NHS as a result of the obesity epidemic.

Surely we need every resource capable of helping to defuse this timebomb to be working together within some kind of co-ordinated framework? If the medical profession simply slopes its shoulders and says 'not our problem, mate', where can we expect this leadership and co-ordination to come from? Politicians? Don't hold your breath.

Maybe this is the 'killer' issue that can put nutrition at the heart of our approach to health, rather than the study of the food that we eat and its impact on our bodies being treated as some kind of 'complementary' side show to 'real' medicine.

End of rant.

Best wishes

Graham

www.NationalNutritionClinic.com      

Quel Surprise - National Newspaper Slags Off Complementary Therapy

Every so often, in a slow news week, one of the national papers decides to do an expose on some aspect of medicine or complementary therapy. Yesterday it was the turn of food intolerance testing, with the Daily Mail sticking the boot in to kinesiology, biodermal screening and blood tests for food intolerance.

As is so often the case, allergies and intolerances are treated as the same thing when in reality they are different. An allergy will produce an immediate reaction as soon as you touch a food, while an intolerance shows symptoms as you digest the food up to 3 days after eating it.

We use bio-dermal screening, a technique with a 30 year track record. Not only are our results validated by our highly qualified nutritional therapists when they carry out in-depth consultations with patients, but they are invariably proved accurate if the patient is asked to undergo any laboratory tests based on saliva, blood or stool samples. We use the screening as a quick way to assess the likely causes of symptoms from mild bloating to severe IBS, then refer the patient to one of our nutritional therapists if there are sufficient grounds to do so.

We have testimonials from patients whose quality of life has improved dramatically after a screening, so to discourage people from taking such tests is in no one's best interests. But of course, it makes a good story so let's publish it anyway...

Warm regards

Graham

www.nationalnutritionclinic.com    

Ostrich Or Expert? You decide...

Don't you just love government experts?

In the same week that they finally admit that, er, global warming may be worse than previously thought and Greenland is about to melt, we now have the admission from the Food Commission that nutritional values of meat and dairy products have plummeted since the 1940s.

Every time we screen people at the clinic for vitamins, minerals and nutrients we find shortfalls - even when they seem to be eating a healthy, balanced diet. (see www.nationalnutritionclinic.com/food-intolerance-zone ) We have been saying for years that the reason is simple - the nutrients are simply not present in food. Why? Because they are not present in the soil. Why? Because of intensive farming which relies on man-made fertilisers to replenish soil rather than allowing it more time to replenish naturally and fully. We have literally reaped what we have sown.

And still some 'experts' refuse to recognise the truth. Losses of 62% of calcium in milk, or 79% of iron in chicken are put down to changes in measuring technology. Yeah, right. Give it five or ten years and they'll quietly accept the findings and claim they said so all along.

These are the same people backing the mind-numbingly stupid EU plans to prevent us buying high quality supplements that we patently need as the only source of vital nutrients. Your life in their hands? Scary, but true.

Warm regards

Graham

Practice Director, National Nutrition Clinic

Because Nutrition Is Personal...

www.nationalnutritionclinic.com         

How To Surprise Your GP...

According to the latest Norwich Union Health of the Nation survey, 94% of GPs believe that their patients do not know the difference between a Food Allergy and a Food Intolerance.

Are they right?

Next time you see your GP, why not bring this up in the conversation, and see if he/she knows the difference!

A Food Allergy involves an immediate reaction by your immune system to the cuplrit food. As soon as it touches your skin, you may experience anything from itchiness to a life-threatening anaphylactic shock.  Note that you don't even have to eat the food - if you touch it, or rub your eyes after handling it, that may be enough to spark an allergic reaction.

A Food Intolerance is a set of symptoms which occur after eating a particular food, but which does not involve a reaction from your immune system. Typical symptoms include stomach bloating, fatigue and headaches. They may start an hour after eating the culprit food, or you may experience a delayed reaction 48 hours or more later as the food works its way through your digestive system.

Food Sensitivity is sometimes used as an umbrella term covering both conditions, though it is of little help since they require different tests and different approaches to treatment.

At the clinic we focus on food intolerances using biodermal screening as this gives immediate results and costs about a third as much as a blood test. Full details at www.nationalnutritionclinic.com/food-intolerance-zone.htm

January 23rd to 26th is National Food Allergy & Intolerance Week - I'm already lined up to do some radio interviews and will be making a series of posts to the blog during the week on the subject.

We often find that food intolerance is a major cause of irritable bowel syndrome, so even though intolerances are still not given much credence in traditional medicine, they are causing an awful lot of pain and discomfort to an awful lot of people. Yet, with a screening and some follow-up action, they can usually be overcome and the culprit foods re-introduced later.

Warm regards

Graham

The scientist, the nutritionist and the BBC news team...

Yesterday was a little crazy.

First day back after the holidays, and the phone goes at 9:15. BBC 1 o clock News are doing a piece on the effectiveness of detox programmes after some scientists slagged them off as worthless.  Can they come and film our new Easy Detox programme in action, err, now please?  A few phone calls and within 45 minutes the reporter and cameraman arrived. Much moving of furniture to get the right angles. then a shot of Yours Truly putting my feet in the ionic spa. Isabelle did a great interview which was edited down to one sentence, while Daphne screened the reporter for toxicity as she spoke to the camera. It went out nationwide so even my mum in Whitley Bay saw it...

No sooner had the dust settled than I get a call asking me to take part in a live discussion on London Tonight, the BBC local news programme for the South East. I did this with a lady from You Are What You Eat magazine. I argued that we are eating, breathing and rubbing onto our skin more toxins nowadays than ever before, so its not surprising that our liver needs a bit of help. The important point is that you can't buy wellbeing in a box - we are all unique at a biochemical level so detox programmes need to be personalised to be effective.   

Of course I've had lots of phone calls from people about my new status as a media star, so forgive me going on about it - seems like it has an effect as we had a record number of hits on www.nationalnutritionclinic.com yesterday.

I'm sure you are sick of being wished Happy New Year by everyone who emails or speaks to you, but it would be rude of me not to add my best wishes. May it be the year you achieve everything you want to in ensuring a long and healthy life and looking and feeling great - nutrition plays a much bigger role in all these things than most people imagine.

Warm regards

Graham   

Scary News About Obesity

OK, we all know that overweight and obesity are getting worse. But the figures released in this week's Health Survey for England show just how bad things have got.

One in four of us, men and women, is now obese. That is double the number from just ten years ago. The only glimmer of light from the 10,000 people interviewed by the Health & Social Care Information Centre is a slight increase in awareness of the importance of nutrition and exercise.

However, as we see all the time in the clinics, awareness is one thing, taking action is another. We've been aware that smoking causes lung cancer since the 1950s, but look how many people still stand on the street outside shops and offices in the freezing cold to drag on a furtive ciggie.

Will it take a change in how the NHS responds to these 'lifestyle choice' illnesses to make people eat more sensibly? How bad will the problem get if it takes as long as smoking before people take action? You don't have to be Einstein to extrapolate these growth figures. Two more decades and every single one of us will be obese.

Strangest of all, why is this not headline news? What effective action has been announced to turn this trend around?  The size of the EU rebate and the pensions crisis will pale into insignificance next to the future cost of obesity/syndrome X/type 2 diabetes when it affects more than half the population.

Sorry about the un-festive tone, but the scariest aspect of the obesity epidemic is the apparent indifference to it from those who could make a difference. If you know anyone who is obese, please refer them to our site at www.nationalnutritionclinic.com where they can sign up to receive our free report on The 10 Secrets of Healthy Eating.

Warm regards

Graham

   

Drug and Supplement Interaction

The vendetta against nutritional supplements continues...

Not content with the EU's attempts to stop us having access to high quality supplements from reputable suppliers simply because they cannot afford the clinical trials typical of the big pharmaceuticals companies, now a group of 250 GPs have joined in.

41% of them think some of their patients are overdosing on vitamins, particularly A, B6, C and E.

The reality is that most people's diets do not give them anything like enough of the vitamins and minerals needed for a healthy body. However, the GPs are correct in one critical area. Supplements do interact with some medications and can reduce their effectiveness or cause further side effects.

This is one of the areas in which our Nutritional Therapists spend much of their time. When they see a patient who is on medication they always research interactions before recommending supplements. It can be amazingly complex and time consuming work, but is another example of just how personal nutrition is. What works brilliantly for me may not work for you, simply because you are already taking medication for another condition. Sometimes it does pay to get some expert help.

Warm regards

Graham   

Your Secret Sixth Taste Bud

Some mice in a lab in France's Burgundy University might be tha trigger for a change in our whole approach to treating obesity.

Researchers there suggest that we have a protein called CD36 on the tip of our taste buds which drives cravings for fat. Conventional thinking is that we only have five taste buds - sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami ( a savoury taste found in mature cheeses). In the experiment, one set of mice did not have the CD36 on their taste buds (don't ask me how it was removed) , and was happy to drink normal water and/or fat-enriched water. However, the mice with normal taste buds preferred the fatty water. 

Imagine if we could trick our own taste buds in this way - we'd never feel the need to eat fatty foods again.

Warm regards

Graham