Eggs are eggselent!

I was talking to a friend recently who seemed unaware that the great debate on the cholesterol contained in eggs had been overturned. As she loves her egg and toast soldiers she was limiting herself to one a week but it is now over two years since the British Heart Foundation (BHF) accepted that the evidence on eggs contributing to high blood cholesterol was unfounded.

Research at the University of Surrey has also recently confirmed that the evidence that eggs raise cholesterol levels is based on out-of-date evidence from research done on powdered eggs.

Eggs are little powerhouses of nutrition, containing protein, essential amino acids, vitamins B, D, A, and riboflavin, and minerals, including calcium, potassium, and iron. They are also one of the few good sources of sulphur, which is essential for oxygen transport in the cells – see the story on swine flu. A lack of oxygen can lead to increased cancer risk as well as encouraging fungus, bacteria and mould in the body as they cannot survive when good supplies of oxygen are present.

Yet another reason to have a healthy, real, diet and why were they testing powdered eggs anyway and not actual eggs? Those previous finding for high cholesterol were based on the fact that the problem has always been oxidised cholesterol – cholesterol heated and exposed to air for an extended period. So a boiled egg presents no problem because the yolk sac insulates the cholesterol from oxidation – line up those toast soldiers and plan a long campaign!

Not into juicing buy a bar instead

I am a very big fan of juicing as you get the maximum nutrition from raw foods, and it tastes good. However, if you don’t have a juicer, or are away from home, then a winner of Best New Food Product at this year’s Natural and Organics Show might be something to add to your shopping list.

Very good juicers are made by a company called Juice Master and they have now developed a 100% natural, 100% raw Vege Juice in a Bar you can stick in your pocket and unwrap at your leisure. No artificial anything and it combines the raw power of natural ingredients with a wide range of chlorophyll rich juices from vegetables and plants. I have to admit that doesn’t sound that great, but you need to taste them to experience how well they have combined healthy vegetables, plants, algaes and friendly bacteria infused with the natural sweetness of raw dates and creamy smooth raw almond butter. Because the fruit and vegetable juices are dried at low temperatures they preserve their nutritional value and so this could be an ideal way to fill that gap in your lunchbox, or when travelling. Nor is this something only natural or raw food fanatics would enjoy, as this award comes from a panel of judges, but also from members of the public. If you can’t find them in your local health shop you can order online from here juicemaster.com

Gardening by the moon

Not actually by moonlight, but using the phases of the moon. Something old and gnarled countrymen – actually my previous landlord in Burwash’s very old gardener – have been doing this for years, as have herbalists who gather plants at certain moon phases. However, it’s not something you would associate with a couple of our major food retailers – Tesco and M&S. It’s certainly something that you might want to investigate if you do any growing of your own vegetables, or fruit and flowers for that matter, and it uses something called the biodynamic calendar.

It divides days into roots, leaves, fruit and the senior product development manager at Tesco no less definitely gives it credence. For instance, if he is organizing a wine tasting he avoids root and leaf days and has it on a fruit day. Although risking sounding like an old hippie, he is very clear that if he that wine tasting on a root day then it alters the taste of the wine, making it worse, but if it is on a fruit day it tastes at its best. Nor is he alone as M&S wine buyer Jo Ahearne, said this week that “We swear by lunar cycles at M&S.”

As they are in business to make a profit, you have to give them credit for admitting to something which sounds odd – but that they definitely see a benefit to. To give you a heads up, this week Thursday and Friday are the days best for attending to fruit plants, (including tomatoes) and Saturday and Sunday are root days so good for root vegetables and apparently composting as well.

Where do the phases of the moon fit in? Well, the waning moon draws energy downwards and inwards, so a good time for planting whereas a waxing moon draws energy upwards and outwards, which is a better time for harvesting and picking. To save you gazing at the night sky and wondering, there is a very handy website which gives you each month the moon phases and biodynamic calendar. If it comes up in German – as it did when I went online – you just click English and then the white button next to it which resets it. The German word for reset isn’t in my vocabulary – but eventually I worked out that’s what it meant: www.astrologie-info.com/mocal.cgi

Sour cherries have a sweet effect

One fruit I particularly love are dark, sweet cherries, but for maximum health effect it is the tart, sour, cherries that bring most benefit. Available as juice or powder, not suitable for eating raw, they have powerful antioxidant qualities but a new benefit has just been announced by researchers from the University of Michigan.

They have found that regularly including tart cherries in the diet can reduce the symptoms of metabolic syndrome and the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms including high blood pressure, high triglycerides, high fasting blood sugar, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol and obesity (particularly around the stomach). The study found that cholesterol levels and stomach fat were both reduced in the trial and, more importantly perhaps, that the cherries were found to reduce inflammation at a systemic level. Our body’s natural response to injury is inflammation as it seeks to heal the affected part, but as I mentioned in last week’s Health News, chronic inflammation has been linked to increased risk for many diseases including depression.

If you are interested in finding out more, or for the name of your local stockist or ordering online, then a good website is www.cherryactive.co.uk or call them on 08451 705 705

Health Warning On Pistachios

As a pleasant and healthy snack, pistachios are very popular – perhaps more in the USA than in the UK but they are to be found in many a store cupboard. There is now a current and serious health warning after pistachios were found to be at risk for ongoing potential for salmonella contamination at a US manufacturing plant in California. They had previously recalled two million pounds of pistachios after a previous alert, but the FDA has now stepped in and they have now recalled their entire 2008 crop of roasted pistachio nuts. There have been no reported deaths or serious illnesses so far, but the FDA has advised consumers as a precautionary measure not to eat pistachios until the suspect nuts can be tracked down in the food chain. This is a lengthy job as they are not only sold whole but also to various manufactures to be included in their products such as trail mix and manufactured desserts.

The main imports into the UK come from America, so if you have bought some recently and want to check if they have been cleared then there is a website at www.PistachioRecall.org which has a database of pistachio nuts and pistachio products that are not affected by the recall and are presumed safe.

Folic acid can boost birth weight for healthier babies

I mentioned a few weeks ago the benefits of Omega-3 for premature babies and now there is further help to boost your baby’s birth weight by over 60 grams – and this is very good news for their long-term health. The British Journal of Nutrition has reported that supplementing the mother’s diet with of 400 micrograms of folic acid during the pregnancy is important for two reasons:

The prime reason is that babies with a low birth weight (defined as less than 5lb 8oz) have an increased risk of developing heart disease, diabetes, ADD and depression later in life and sadly their number is increasing. Secondly, being underweight indicates that they have not had their maximum growth potential in the womb as this is dependent on their receiving the correct balance of nutrients during the pregnancy and folic acid has an essential role to play in the normal production of protein, lipids and DNA. Taking the supplement while already pregnant was seen to result in a 40 per cent lower risk of having a child with low birth weight and in fact was even more marked in women having their second child as when they supplemented before conception they saw a 240g higher birth weight compared with first time mothers who didn’t take folic acid at all.

It is recommended in the UK that women take a 400 microgram folic acid supplement daily from the time of conception to the 12th week of pregnancy, in order to cut the rate of neural tube defects such as spina bifida. This is in addition to the 200 micrograms of folate that should be obtained from a healthy diet from sources like brown rice, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, peas, and – interestingly – low calorie beer. Unfortunately, it seems that more than 90 per cent of women looking to start a family don’t have anywhere near this amount and so potentially are putting their children’s’ future health at risk.

Hypertension and kidney disease beaten by a pea?

If you have high blood pressure there are several ways to reduce it naturally through exercise and diet. Now it seems you can also help by adding garden peas to the menu as recently reported by the American Chemical Society.

Researchers in Canada found that proteins found in yellow garden peas show promise as a way of fighting high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. Peas are an amazing source of protein, dietary fibre, and vitamins and have the bonus of being both free of cholesterol and low in fat. Yellow peas are best known perhaps for their use in dhal and soups so adding them to your weekly menus could help delay or prevent the onset of kidney damage and potentially stabilise high blood pressure.

Fight mood swings with fish oil

A recent report in the American Journal of Nutrition offers some hope for women – and those who have to live with them – who sufferfrom the hormonal havoc that can occur with PMS and in the time running up to the menopause. It’s not just the hormones of course, other stresses such as work and family life also add their load, plus the emotional challenge for many women of approaching the end of their childbearing years.

Other than hiding in a cupboard during the time when you want to lash out at everyone and everything and no sensible partner is insane enough to ask if you are alright without running the risk of a clip round the ear or a torrent of weeping. Now hope is at hand in the form of supplementing the diet with omega 3 oil.

Two groups of women took part in the eight week study; one being given 1.2 grams of omega-3 from fish oil and the others a placebo of sunflower oil. The group who had the placebo showed no improvement, but those taking omega-3 had definite improvements in their emotional state.

To supplement to the level of the trial you would need 1200mg a day of omega 3 and 1,050 mg of EPA. If you are not keen on taking supplements then you could increase the amount of oily fish in your diet such as salmon, sardines, mackerel, herring and anchovies. Or turn to that childhood staple of cod liver oil if you can stand the taste. It contains large amounts of EPA and DHA.

A word of caution, most people can take fish oil supplements safely, but if you are any form of anti-coagulant, such as Warfarin please speak to your doctor. Fish oil supplements can thin the blood so you must check whether they are suitable for you before embarking on adding them to your diet.

Lack of vitamin D weakens young girls’ muscles

Another reason not to neglect eggs, particularly for teenage girls, is that new research in the USA and Germany has found that having insufficient vitamin D may cause weaker muscles.

A lack of the vitamin causes problems with calcium absorption, and can lead to bone weakness, fractures and osteoporosis as well as increasing the risk of cancer, heart disease and autoimmune disorders. Certainly it is known to impact our muscular and skeletal system and cause weakness, but what’s news it that it can also affect muscle power and force. The researchers tested their theory on nearly 100 girls between 12 and 14 at inner city schools and found that overall 75 percent of them had less than ideal levels of vitamin D, but were not showing any symptoms related to deficiency.

The girls were put through a variety of sport exercises, mainly involving jumping, and it was found that there was a direct correlation between vitamin D blood levels and the girls’ performance on the muscle strength tests. Recent studies suggest that as many as 55 percent of apparently healthy U.S. adolescents might be vitamin D deficient and so it would be worth making sure that girls include the best sources every day such as oily fish, eggs and fortified foods like breakfast cereals and powdered milk. Plus that basic, free source good old fashioned sunlight.

Fried eggs can benefit cholesterol!

You can’t entirely blame Edwina Currie, though anyone who writes as badly as she does ought to be blamed for something, but we have steadily been eating fewer and fewer eggs. The dreaded phrase ‘high in cholesterol’ have sealed their fate, but ironically it now seems that new research shows they could actually reduce a risk factor for heart disease.

We have been warned over and over again about the dangers of eggs producing cholesterol that will clog up your arteries – though as cholesterol is essential to our health and wellbeing it has always been a mixed message.

The main target has been those people who have high blood pressure, and instead of a natural regime of exercise and diet many doctors have been prescribing an Angiotensin- Converting Enzyme (ACE) inhibitor drug. How about a couple of fried eggs instead? Two splendid Canadian researchers at the University of Alberta recently ran lab tests to see whether eating fried eggs or boiled eggs would produce greater amounts of ACE inhibitory peptides and the fried eggs were the winners!

They found that cooked eggs could generate a number of potent ACE inhibitory peptides and although I am not advocating you have them every day, do not remove them from your diet because of the cholesterol scare but eat in moderation – as you should do with all things in your diet.

Incidentally, the research that led to the egg/cholesterol scare was done on powdered eggs and the problem has always been cholesterol that has been heated and exposed to air for an extended period. This does not occur with ‘real’ eggs as the yolk sac insulates the cholesterol from oxidation. Many doctors believe that there is no link between eggs and having high cholesterol levels and in fact if you don’t have enough cholesterol from food sources then your body is forced to manufacture it as it is essential for your health. This form of cholesterol that the body produces is more likely to be deposited in blood vessel walls than any form of cholesterol found in eggs.

Egg and chips anyone?

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