October 8, 2015 general

Some important research hits the front page, but many times it doesn’t or does so with unhelpful spin. For example, in this case calcium, D & diet guidelines. 

• Research shows that persons over age 60 decline mentally three times faster if they have low levels of Vitamin D. Study LINK. Assuring adequate levels of vitamin D is one of the easier diet and lifestyle changes that can ward off dementia. Here is a link to our article on vitamin D. Hmm, the government keeps telling us to take small amounts of vitamin D and to slather ourselves with sunscreen so we don’t get any accidentally.
• There has recently been some bad press regarding the previously assumed benefits of calcium in supplements and foods for building fracture-resistant bones. Study LINK. We’ve been saying this for a long time. Children need calcium, but for adults, osteoporosis is a result of hormone insufficiency and other factors. I don’t know why there has been such a focus on calcium when it also takes magnesium, manganese, zinc, boron, vitamin K, vitamin C, stomach acid and a lot more to build bone. Excess calcium can inactivate stomach acid. Calcium that doesn’t make it into bone can end up not only as bone spurs, but also as hardening for arteries if it is not escorted to bone by sufficient vitamin K and other factors. A 2013 HBN newsletter ran a 2-part series on calcium. Part 1. Part 2. I also suggest the book Death by Calcium which we have in our book store. Hmm, the government is still telling us to take calcium.
• The US government creates dietary guidelines that affect everything from school lunches and research funding to product labels and indirectly food policy around the world. Those guidelines are theoretically based on the latest research as compiled by unbiased experts. However, a report in the British Medical Journal says that is not what is happening. BMJ reported that there is not a systematic review of evidence, but rather reliance on the opinions of experts who are not required to reveal conflicts of interest. The journal suggests that there is too much influence from groups such as the American Heart Association that take significant funding from food and drug companies.

The report also specifically points out that the “new” guidelines don’t reflect recent research trends such as those that demonstrate the benefits of a reduced carbohydrate diet and those that have shown that saturated fat is probably not a cause of heart disease. That the “experts” have stuck to their opinionated guns has left us with the same high carbohydrate advice that for decades has made us fat and sick. LINK to BMJ Report. The US Congress has scheduled hearings…that might help if the moneyed interests don’t put too much pressure on the proceedings. Fingers crossed.

It is starting to sound as though we would be safest to do the opposite of what the government tells us to.