From commercials on television, to a walk down a grocery store aisle, our culture puts a premium on food, supplements, and medicines that emphasize "instant, "quick", "fast-acting",and "cooks in just five minutes."
We want what we ingest to be fast, or to work instantly in our bodies and allow us to proceed with the multitude of tasks and responsibilities we have with a minimum of time wasted.
The nature of food, however, is anything but instant. The metamorphis of seed to plant, of flower to fruit is a slow dance with earthworms and honeybees, with sun and moisture.
My Italian friends can wax eloguent about their mothers and grandmothers day long process of making sauce for pasta, how the kitchen swells with the aromas of herbs and tomatoes slowly simmering for hours and hours.
I think about a cold winter's day soup over a low flame, stirred and seasoned and nurtured for hours.
Several years ago I was preparing dinner for a Cherokee friend of mine named Michael Raven Horse. I dashed around the kitchen trying to make sure everything came out at the right time. He came over and touched my arm and said, "slow down, take your time, you are making medicine. Every meal you prepare is medicine."
The holiday season is a celebration of food: a turkey basted all day, fresh pies,steamed green beans, and real mash potatoes. My mother and sister spend the entire day of Christmas Eve preparing dinner for that evening, while my Dad and I take the opportunity to sample the home-made cookies, fudge, and little lemon cakes while my sister isn't looking. This for me is soul food, food that is prepared within the nature of food itself: over time. This is the food that feeds our entire being, that is the best kind of medicine.
Last night I was on the phone with my good friend, Sallie, and we were talking about food as it relates to horses. Her seventeen year old grand prix dressage horse has been on whole food supplements for 23 months. She choose to go the whole food supplement route after her horse suffered from a serious ligament injury, and the vets questioned whether he would ever return to competition.
In the almost two years her horse, Chamberlain, has been on whole food supplements he is been champion or reserve champion at the grand prix and the freestyle in two prestigious regional finals.
She said, "you know the thing about whole food supplements is that the longer the horse is on them, the better the horse gets. Just when I think Chamberlain can't get any better, he gets to a new level of fitness and overall health. I used to use regular vitamin supplements and they would work for a short time, and then I didn't see results anymore, so I'd change brands. Whole food doesn't work in an instant, but it keeps on helping the horse. I mean Chamberlain is almost 18 years old and he's still blooming."
There is an old horseman's saying, "it takes a tincture of time."
Monday, November 19, 2007
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Complexity of Food
When I was a kid growing up in the 1950's and early 60's, milk was delivered by a milkman, eggs came from my grandmother's hen house, and vegetables were only store bought in winter. Soft drinks were a rare treat, and I don't think I ever tasted a Swanson TV dinner until I was a teenager. I remember walking down the narrow aisle of the local grocery store with my mother and pointing in vain at the frozen section of Chicken Pot Pies and Swanson pre-prepared meals, and my mother saying, "that's not food."
On Halloween, my mother dutifully took our sagging bags full of candy away from us and gave out an alloted treat once every couple of days, and then threw our halloween bags away by the end of a week.
When a Mcdonalds opened in our town in the late 1960's, I had to sneak out with friends in order to try one of the hamburgers and shakes. Mcdonalds wasn't my mother's idea of food either.
I guess in today's parlance, one would call my mother a Food Nazi. She viewed sustenance as one of two things: food or junk.
Today there are many more choices and monikers for what we put in our mouths and for what we feed our horses:
whole food, fast food, slow food, raw food, processed food, refined food, functional food, vegan food, organic food, genetically modified food, non-genetically modified food, fortified food, antibiotic-free food, grass-fed food, cage-free food,range-free food, pesticide-free food, hand-crafted food, artisan food....
The definition of whole food is simply: foods that are unprocessed and unrefined; what was known in my childhood simply as Food. Think of it as food that has nothing added and nothing taken away.
The word "whole" is derived from the Greek root "holon" which means both a single organism and the entire universe, and signifies that these are single entities but are synergistic and woven together to form the whole. The word "food" traces back to the Olde English word "fode" which means to foster, to nourish and to encourage growth. So philosophically, the concept of "whole foods" is rooted in an integrated universe in which foods contain the spectrum of essential synergistic nutrients that when consumed foster in us a balanced vitality and wholeness. (The George Mateljan Foundation)
Refined food is food that undergoes many commercial processes, resulting in the loss of nutrients within the food. The advent of grain refining for white flour resulted in approximately 60% of calcium lost, 77% of zinc, 71% of potassium, 84% of magnesium, 85% of manganese, 75% of iron, and 98% of Chromium (Senate Document 264, 74th Congress, 1936).
Refined food cannot meet basic health needs, so synthetics are added to refined food to provide some form of nutrition.
Processed food refers to whole food that has been adulterated through applications of high heat, spray drying, emulsification, etc. The FDA maintains a list of over 3,000 chemicals that are added to processed foods. These compounds are used to stabilize, texturize, preserve, sweeten, thicken, add flavor, soften, and to add color. Some of these compounds which are known to be toxic to animals and humans are allowed by the FDA because they are used at low levels.
Because processed foods have a low nutritional value, they have a higher ratio of calories than whole food. This phenomenon is known as "empty calories."
Fortified food can be either processed and or refined, and refers to the synthetic additives in it. When we see breakfast cereals with a banner on the box exclaiming Fortified With B Vitamins, you can be sure those B vitamins did not come from the grains themselves.
Functional food are foods that provide a specific and beneficial physiological effect on health, performance and well-being extending beyond the specific actions of basic nutrients. The science of functional food focuses on the physiological effects of various bioactive compounds,and non-nutrients such as fiber and probiotics. Yoghurt, for instance, is a functional food, even though it has also gone through processing (pasturization).
Let's say your horse needs extra vitamin C for immune system support. You also know that the bioflavonoids in citrus are powerful antioxidants. You could feed whole oranges and lemons to provide the vitamin C and bioflavonoids and be feeding a whole food that is also a functional food.
When it comes to horse feed, whole grains (oat,barley, wheat, corn, soy) can be considered a processed food due to the high heat milling process used by commercial mills in North America. The good news is that because these grains are in their whole state, they have not been through the refining process which further de-natures the grains. Also they are not generally adultered with chemicals in the milling process. They are of course subjected to herbacides and pesticides when cultivated. Commercial horse feed with various food stuffs labeled "wheat middlings", etc, are actually both processed and refined. Synthetic nutrients have to be added to commercial feeds because there are few nutrients left after processing and refining.
Commerical feeds are a convenience like fast food. It's a lot easier to feed a barn full of horses a commercial feed than it is to feed whole food. Similarly it's a lot easier of us to stop at Mcdonalds or Taco Bell and pick up a meal than to shop for whole food and prepare it when we get home.
We treat food as a commodity when in fact it is a necessity of health and well-being.
I may have been a grumpy kid when I didn't get a snack of Twinkies and wasn't allowed to gulp Pepsi, but I'm grateful now to the connection I have with food based on my mother's insistance of what food is.
On Halloween, my mother dutifully took our sagging bags full of candy away from us and gave out an alloted treat once every couple of days, and then threw our halloween bags away by the end of a week.
When a Mcdonalds opened in our town in the late 1960's, I had to sneak out with friends in order to try one of the hamburgers and shakes. Mcdonalds wasn't my mother's idea of food either.
I guess in today's parlance, one would call my mother a Food Nazi. She viewed sustenance as one of two things: food or junk.
Today there are many more choices and monikers for what we put in our mouths and for what we feed our horses:
whole food, fast food, slow food, raw food, processed food, refined food, functional food, vegan food, organic food, genetically modified food, non-genetically modified food, fortified food, antibiotic-free food, grass-fed food, cage-free food,range-free food, pesticide-free food, hand-crafted food, artisan food....
The definition of whole food is simply: foods that are unprocessed and unrefined; what was known in my childhood simply as Food. Think of it as food that has nothing added and nothing taken away.
The word "whole" is derived from the Greek root "holon" which means both a single organism and the entire universe, and signifies that these are single entities but are synergistic and woven together to form the whole. The word "food" traces back to the Olde English word "fode" which means to foster, to nourish and to encourage growth. So philosophically, the concept of "whole foods" is rooted in an integrated universe in which foods contain the spectrum of essential synergistic nutrients that when consumed foster in us a balanced vitality and wholeness. (The George Mateljan Foundation)
Refined food is food that undergoes many commercial processes, resulting in the loss of nutrients within the food. The advent of grain refining for white flour resulted in approximately 60% of calcium lost, 77% of zinc, 71% of potassium, 84% of magnesium, 85% of manganese, 75% of iron, and 98% of Chromium (Senate Document 264, 74th Congress, 1936).
Refined food cannot meet basic health needs, so synthetics are added to refined food to provide some form of nutrition.
Processed food refers to whole food that has been adulterated through applications of high heat, spray drying, emulsification, etc. The FDA maintains a list of over 3,000 chemicals that are added to processed foods. These compounds are used to stabilize, texturize, preserve, sweeten, thicken, add flavor, soften, and to add color. Some of these compounds which are known to be toxic to animals and humans are allowed by the FDA because they are used at low levels.
Because processed foods have a low nutritional value, they have a higher ratio of calories than whole food. This phenomenon is known as "empty calories."
Fortified food can be either processed and or refined, and refers to the synthetic additives in it. When we see breakfast cereals with a banner on the box exclaiming Fortified With B Vitamins, you can be sure those B vitamins did not come from the grains themselves.
Functional food are foods that provide a specific and beneficial physiological effect on health, performance and well-being extending beyond the specific actions of basic nutrients. The science of functional food focuses on the physiological effects of various bioactive compounds,and non-nutrients such as fiber and probiotics. Yoghurt, for instance, is a functional food, even though it has also gone through processing (pasturization).
Let's say your horse needs extra vitamin C for immune system support. You also know that the bioflavonoids in citrus are powerful antioxidants. You could feed whole oranges and lemons to provide the vitamin C and bioflavonoids and be feeding a whole food that is also a functional food.
When it comes to horse feed, whole grains (oat,barley, wheat, corn, soy) can be considered a processed food due to the high heat milling process used by commercial mills in North America. The good news is that because these grains are in their whole state, they have not been through the refining process which further de-natures the grains. Also they are not generally adultered with chemicals in the milling process. They are of course subjected to herbacides and pesticides when cultivated. Commercial horse feed with various food stuffs labeled "wheat middlings", etc, are actually both processed and refined. Synthetic nutrients have to be added to commercial feeds because there are few nutrients left after processing and refining.
Commerical feeds are a convenience like fast food. It's a lot easier to feed a barn full of horses a commercial feed than it is to feed whole food. Similarly it's a lot easier of us to stop at Mcdonalds or Taco Bell and pick up a meal than to shop for whole food and prepare it when we get home.
We treat food as a commodity when in fact it is a necessity of health and well-being.
I may have been a grumpy kid when I didn't get a snack of Twinkies and wasn't allowed to gulp Pepsi, but I'm grateful now to the connection I have with food based on my mother's insistance of what food is.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
The truth about Synthetic Nutrients
The supplement industry has a dirty secret, and has done an incredible job of concealing the secret about synthetic nutrients with hip marketing phrases like "megadoses", "purity", and "natural."
I understand how persuasive those words are; heck I swallowed hundreds of thousands of grams of synthetic nutrients over an 18 year period.
I believed that synthetic was better and or equal to what was found in Nature. If molecule per molecule a synthetic nutrient was the same as that nutrient found in food, why not take the synthetic and get a much higher dose of it to boot!
Everytime I asked a formulator what the synthetics were made from, I got the standard response, "well they are crystalline."
"Okay, but where did the molecules come from?"
"Oh, that's proprietary information."
The only thing I learned in all those years working for synthetic vitamin companies was that the biggest supplier of the synthetic B vitamins was pharma giant Hoffman Larouche.
The history of synthetic supplements started in the 1940's. The formulations available at that time were small dose synthetics, similar in milligram amount to what was found in whole foods like yeast.
It wasn't until chemist Linus Pauling championed Megadose Therapy in 1970 that synthetic nutrients in high doses really became a part of our supplement culture.
The synthetic supplement boom began in the 1980's and companies fought for health food store shelf space based on having the highest miligram and gram amounts for B complex, vitamin C, and amino acids. As the doses got larger, the pills got bigger, so swallowing these synthetic monstrosities took a Herculean-sized throat.
The supplement companies responded by creating powders and liquids to keep the megadoses flowing.
Today Megadose Therapy is still very much alive. The Pharmaceutical companies have adopted the principle when formulating medicines; particularly the ones synthesized from plants. While a traditional healer would use amounts best described as a "handful" of the leaves or roots, the pharmaceutical approach is to synthesize one chemical ingredient found in a plant and then produce it in 100's of miligrams. These amounts do not occur in the plants themselves.
It was in August of this year that an email alert came across my computer. Since my company TheracellEQ is a manufacturer, I now have access to the proprietary information that I never had access to before.
This email alert was a notification that there would be a price increase for synthetic supplements because of the petro chemicals and petroleum extracts used to make them.
What?
I read the email alert again. Petrochemicals used to produce some vitamins.
Holy Cow. All these years I've spent bombarding my cells with the "purified"
benefits of petrochemicals. And I've done the same thing to my dogs and horses.
Armed with this information I headed down the rabbit hole and finally found what I had been searching for: exactly what individual nutrients are made from.
Here in a nutshell is the raw material used to produce synthetic nutrients:
Vitamin A/Betacarotene: Methanol, benzene, petroleum esters; acetylene, refined
oils
Vitamin B-1: Coal tar derivatives, hydrocholric acid; acetonitrole with ammonia
Vitamin B-2: produced with 2N acetic acid
Vitamin B-3: Coal tar derviatives, 3-cyanopyridine; ammonia and acid
Vitamin B-5: condensing isobutyraldehyde with formaldehyde
Vitamin B-6: petroleum ester and hydrochloric acid with formaldehyde
Vitamin B-12: Cobalamins reacted with cyanide
Vitamin C: Hydrogenated sugar (generally a corn source) processed with acetone
Vitamin D: Irridiated animal fat/cattle brains or solvently extracted
Vitamin E: Trimethylhydroquinone with isophytol; refined oils
Vitamin K: Coal tar derivative; produced with p-allelic nickle
Obviously, supplement companies have a vested interest in keeping their secret. They want us to keep injesting synthetics, and buying into megadose therapy; the more is better marketing scheme.
Megadoses don't occur in Nature. Nutrients from whole foods and plants are always found in concert with other biological factors like enzymes, proteins, minerals, and other as yet unidentified co factors.
I wonder if the urine and feces waste from synthetic supplementation taken by cattle, horses, dogs, and humans affects the ground water, the soil, the other animal life depended on a balanced eco system. Maybe the only problem to the environment is the chemical and hazardous waste produced by processing synthetic nutrients. Where does that stuff go?
What I do know is that the answer to health, well-being and longevity does not reside in synthetic supplementation. Even the Father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, knew that when he wrote: "let food be your medicine, let medicine be your food."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References to synthetic supplements:
1] Budvari S, et al editors. The Merck Index: An encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals, 12 th ed. Merck Research Laboratories, Whitehouse Station (NJ), 1996
[2] Vitamin-Mineral Manufacturing Guide: Nutrient Empowerment, volume 1. Nutrition Resource, Lakeport (CA), 1986
[3] DeCava JA. The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants. A Printery, Centerfield (MA), 1997
[4] Hui JH. Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology. John Wiley, New York, 1992
[5] Gehman JM. From the Office of the President: Pseudo-Group Once Again Misleading the Naturopathic Field. Official Bulletin ANA, January 25, 1948:7-8
[6] Ensminger AH, et al. Food & Nutrition Encyclopedia, 2 nd ed. CRC Press, New York, 1993
[7] Mervyn L. The B Vitamins. Thorsons, Wellingborough ( UK), 1981
[8] Thiel R. Natural vitamins may be superior to synthetic ones. Med Hypo 2000 55(6):461-469
[9] Haynes W. Chemical Trade Names and Commercial Synonyms, 2nd ed. Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1955
[10] Shils M, et al, editors. Modern Nutrition in Health & Disease, 9 th ed. Williams & Wilkins, Balt.,1999
[11] Gruenwald et al editors. PDR for Herbal Medicines, 2nd ed. Medical Economics Company. Montvale (NJ) 2000
I understand how persuasive those words are; heck I swallowed hundreds of thousands of grams of synthetic nutrients over an 18 year period.
I believed that synthetic was better and or equal to what was found in Nature. If molecule per molecule a synthetic nutrient was the same as that nutrient found in food, why not take the synthetic and get a much higher dose of it to boot!
Everytime I asked a formulator what the synthetics were made from, I got the standard response, "well they are crystalline."
"Okay, but where did the molecules come from?"
"Oh, that's proprietary information."
The only thing I learned in all those years working for synthetic vitamin companies was that the biggest supplier of the synthetic B vitamins was pharma giant Hoffman Larouche.
The history of synthetic supplements started in the 1940's. The formulations available at that time were small dose synthetics, similar in milligram amount to what was found in whole foods like yeast.
It wasn't until chemist Linus Pauling championed Megadose Therapy in 1970 that synthetic nutrients in high doses really became a part of our supplement culture.
The synthetic supplement boom began in the 1980's and companies fought for health food store shelf space based on having the highest miligram and gram amounts for B complex, vitamin C, and amino acids. As the doses got larger, the pills got bigger, so swallowing these synthetic monstrosities took a Herculean-sized throat.
The supplement companies responded by creating powders and liquids to keep the megadoses flowing.
Today Megadose Therapy is still very much alive. The Pharmaceutical companies have adopted the principle when formulating medicines; particularly the ones synthesized from plants. While a traditional healer would use amounts best described as a "handful" of the leaves or roots, the pharmaceutical approach is to synthesize one chemical ingredient found in a plant and then produce it in 100's of miligrams. These amounts do not occur in the plants themselves.
It was in August of this year that an email alert came across my computer. Since my company TheracellEQ is a manufacturer, I now have access to the proprietary information that I never had access to before.
This email alert was a notification that there would be a price increase for synthetic supplements because of the petro chemicals and petroleum extracts used to make them.
What?
I read the email alert again. Petrochemicals used to produce some vitamins.
Holy Cow. All these years I've spent bombarding my cells with the "purified"
benefits of petrochemicals. And I've done the same thing to my dogs and horses.
Armed with this information I headed down the rabbit hole and finally found what I had been searching for: exactly what individual nutrients are made from.
Here in a nutshell is the raw material used to produce synthetic nutrients:
Vitamin A/Betacarotene: Methanol, benzene, petroleum esters; acetylene, refined
oils
Vitamin B-1: Coal tar derivatives, hydrocholric acid; acetonitrole with ammonia
Vitamin B-2: produced with 2N acetic acid
Vitamin B-3: Coal tar derviatives, 3-cyanopyridine; ammonia and acid
Vitamin B-5: condensing isobutyraldehyde with formaldehyde
Vitamin B-6: petroleum ester and hydrochloric acid with formaldehyde
Vitamin B-12: Cobalamins reacted with cyanide
Vitamin C: Hydrogenated sugar (generally a corn source) processed with acetone
Vitamin D: Irridiated animal fat/cattle brains or solvently extracted
Vitamin E: Trimethylhydroquinone with isophytol; refined oils
Vitamin K: Coal tar derivative; produced with p-allelic nickle
Obviously, supplement companies have a vested interest in keeping their secret. They want us to keep injesting synthetics, and buying into megadose therapy; the more is better marketing scheme.
Megadoses don't occur in Nature. Nutrients from whole foods and plants are always found in concert with other biological factors like enzymes, proteins, minerals, and other as yet unidentified co factors.
I wonder if the urine and feces waste from synthetic supplementation taken by cattle, horses, dogs, and humans affects the ground water, the soil, the other animal life depended on a balanced eco system. Maybe the only problem to the environment is the chemical and hazardous waste produced by processing synthetic nutrients. Where does that stuff go?
What I do know is that the answer to health, well-being and longevity does not reside in synthetic supplementation. Even the Father of modern medicine, Hippocrates, knew that when he wrote: "let food be your medicine, let medicine be your food."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References to synthetic supplements:
1] Budvari S, et al editors. The Merck Index: An encyclopedia of Chemicals, Drugs, and Biologicals, 12 th ed. Merck Research Laboratories, Whitehouse Station (NJ), 1996
[2] Vitamin-Mineral Manufacturing Guide: Nutrient Empowerment, volume 1. Nutrition Resource, Lakeport (CA), 1986
[3] DeCava JA. The Real Truth About Vitamins and Antioxidants. A Printery, Centerfield (MA), 1997
[4] Hui JH. Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology. John Wiley, New York, 1992
[5] Gehman JM. From the Office of the President: Pseudo-Group Once Again Misleading the Naturopathic Field. Official Bulletin ANA, January 25, 1948:7-8
[6] Ensminger AH, et al. Food & Nutrition Encyclopedia, 2 nd ed. CRC Press, New York, 1993
[7] Mervyn L. The B Vitamins. Thorsons, Wellingborough ( UK), 1981
[8] Thiel R. Natural vitamins may be superior to synthetic ones. Med Hypo 2000 55(6):461-469
[9] Haynes W. Chemical Trade Names and Commercial Synonyms, 2nd ed. Van Nostrand Co., New York, 1955
[10] Shils M, et al, editors. Modern Nutrition in Health & Disease, 9 th ed. Williams & Wilkins, Balt.,1999
[11] Gruenwald et al editors. PDR for Herbal Medicines, 2nd ed. Medical Economics Company. Montvale (NJ) 2000
Saturday, October 6, 2007
The Acid-Alkaline Balance for Horses
Horses that live only on diets of pasture and hay generally aren't susceptible to acid-alkaline imbalances. It has long been thought that the inclusion of processed grains, which can contribute to an acid-alkaline imbalance, is modified by pasture grasses and hay. The alkaline nature of the forages keeps the blood Ph balanced. So even horses with limited turnout, on plenty of hay, fed commercial grains, in theory would not suffer from acid-alkaline challenges.
If we look at grains from the perspective of the acid-alkaline balance, virtually all unsprouted grains are considered acid to the blood Ph. However, sprouted grains are alkaline.
Before the advent of corporate farming, and high speed milling, farmers cut their grain crops and left them overnight or for a day or two before harvesting. This method exposed the grain seeds to dew; water being a key component in the sprouting process. The dew broke the phytic acid (a seed's natural protection barrier) thus taking the seed from it's "sleep state" to it's "awaking state". When the grains were taken to the mills, the seeds were not exposed to high heat processing, thus ensuring the nutrients and enzymes stayed intact. The seeds were not de-natured.
What we don't know from any formative study on commercial feeds is what effect the added molasses, and the synthetic fortified nutrients combined with the highly processed grains have on the acid-alkaline balance.
We do know that pharmaceutical medications are predominately acidic to the blood Ph. In theory the forage diet would compensate for the added acidity of the meds. But if we compound this with other factors: herbicide and pesticide usage,
acid rain in regions without a limestone base, the added feeding of synthetic supplement formulas, the daily rations of commercial feed, the lack of variety of plants, herbs, native grasses, and fruits in most sport horses' diets, and the added effect of pollution ----we could be tipping the balance towards immune system challenges, and ultimately a blood Ph that becomes a host for viruses.
Horses in work and training need alkaline reserves to maintain their blood Ph balance. A study in Australia by Ranvet (www.ranvet.com.au/acidosis.htm) on acidosis in race horses highlights this need for alkalis to balance the acids. The study points out that poor performance, and sourness may be the result of low alkaline reserves.
Equine allergies, ulcers, and metabolic challenges may be related to the acid-alkaline balance. The steep rise in these health issues and the concurrent rise in the corresponding human imbalances (allergies, digestion, diabetes) cannot be easily dismissed as coincidence.
If we look at grains from the perspective of the acid-alkaline balance, virtually all unsprouted grains are considered acid to the blood Ph. However, sprouted grains are alkaline.
Before the advent of corporate farming, and high speed milling, farmers cut their grain crops and left them overnight or for a day or two before harvesting. This method exposed the grain seeds to dew; water being a key component in the sprouting process. The dew broke the phytic acid (a seed's natural protection barrier) thus taking the seed from it's "sleep state" to it's "awaking state". When the grains were taken to the mills, the seeds were not exposed to high heat processing, thus ensuring the nutrients and enzymes stayed intact. The seeds were not de-natured.
What we don't know from any formative study on commercial feeds is what effect the added molasses, and the synthetic fortified nutrients combined with the highly processed grains have on the acid-alkaline balance.
We do know that pharmaceutical medications are predominately acidic to the blood Ph. In theory the forage diet would compensate for the added acidity of the meds. But if we compound this with other factors: herbicide and pesticide usage,
acid rain in regions without a limestone base, the added feeding of synthetic supplement formulas, the daily rations of commercial feed, the lack of variety of plants, herbs, native grasses, and fruits in most sport horses' diets, and the added effect of pollution ----we could be tipping the balance towards immune system challenges, and ultimately a blood Ph that becomes a host for viruses.
Horses in work and training need alkaline reserves to maintain their blood Ph balance. A study in Australia by Ranvet (www.ranvet.com.au/acidosis.htm) on acidosis in race horses highlights this need for alkalis to balance the acids. The study points out that poor performance, and sourness may be the result of low alkaline reserves.
Equine allergies, ulcers, and metabolic challenges may be related to the acid-alkaline balance. The steep rise in these health issues and the concurrent rise in the corresponding human imbalances (allergies, digestion, diabetes) cannot be easily dismissed as coincidence.
Friday, October 5, 2007
The acid-alkaline balance
Four years ago in Anaheim California, I met a researcher from the World Health Organization. He studies viruses (cancer, SARS, and AIDS) and explained how an acid blood Ph provides the environment for viruses to thrive.
Based on his research, he said that diets high in acid foods (processed foods, meds, high meat diets, etc) actually set the stage for viruses to take hold.
This researcher had been experimenting with various supplements (b-complex, ascorbic acid, vitamin E) and found that they contributed to an acid blood Ph. He speculated that this was due to the fact that most nutrients in supplements are synthetic. He said he stumbled upon some whole food supplements (containing nothing but nutrients from the whole food itself) and the blood Ph of his study group stayed in the normal range (7.42-7.45)
As a supplement formulator, this researcher's observations and experience with the acid-alkaline balance had a profound affect on me. I had already made the quantum leap to whole food for my own personal health and well-being. But I had not seriously questioned the synthetic nutrients and nutraceuticals that are a formulator's tools for creating supplements.
So began my journey down one of many rabbit holes that will be chronicled in this blog.
Based on his research, he said that diets high in acid foods (processed foods, meds, high meat diets, etc) actually set the stage for viruses to take hold.
This researcher had been experimenting with various supplements (b-complex, ascorbic acid, vitamin E) and found that they contributed to an acid blood Ph. He speculated that this was due to the fact that most nutrients in supplements are synthetic. He said he stumbled upon some whole food supplements (containing nothing but nutrients from the whole food itself) and the blood Ph of his study group stayed in the normal range (7.42-7.45)
As a supplement formulator, this researcher's observations and experience with the acid-alkaline balance had a profound affect on me. I had already made the quantum leap to whole food for my own personal health and well-being. But I had not seriously questioned the synthetic nutrients and nutraceuticals that are a formulator's tools for creating supplements.
So began my journey down one of many rabbit holes that will be chronicled in this blog.
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