Honest Nutrition: A Descent Into The Ocean Of Nutritional Prattle, And Coming Up For Air

By Ira Edwards

Honest Nutrition is an attempt to do what textbooks and hundreds of diet books do not. Nutrition textbooks do not tell you that this science is in its infancy, nor how many "scientific" claims are open to question, based on faulty research or simple hunches. If they include some of the biochemical and physiological context of nutrition, they still omit financial, social and political aspects.

After attempting to understand the prejudice against vitamins and supplements among the industrial-medical-political Big Brother (IMP-BB) and the lack of evidence for most alternatives, there is still some useful information.

Opposing philosophies are denoted as SUPR (SUrgery-PRescription orientation) and UTHR (Unconventional Therapies, Herbal Remedies.)

Honest Nutrition uses a large alphabetical section to give easy access to useful information about many diseases and nutritional therapies.

Honest Nutrition includes information about hormone resistance diseases, cryptic infections as a cause of "unknown etiology" diseases, and the effect of nutrition on behavior and criminality.

Some claims:

1. Obesity always involves hormones, sometimes with positive-feedback loops, which is why "Just eat less and exercise" seldom works.
2. A major factor in arterial disease is viscous blood, resulting in part from a lack of omega-3 fat. Cholesterol lowering does not help.
3. Some heart attacks may be due to hormonal effects, involving the hormone ouabain, and preventable with an extract of the herb strophanthus.
4. Many, or most North Americans suffer serious lack of nutrients: vitamin D, magnesium, and plant nutrients.

The author challenges the medical establishment to examine their doctrines and learn how to help people suffering from nutritional diseases. Many technical terms are included. The non-scientific reader is asked to skip over these, to gain a useful knowledge of nutrition.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Jul 9, 2007
• ISBN: 9781425197322

Ira Edwards

The author earned a degree in chemistry, was employed in chemical research for Weyerhaeuser, then learned biochemistry and physiology in medical school at the University of Washington. After a year in a public health lab, a master's degree, teaching certificates, five years of teaching premedical courses at Northwest Nazarene College, I thought I knew nutrition. Wrong. I knew no more than my successful medical classmates, who still think they know nutrition. Realizing how little I knew, I determined to learn. Finding reliable information among much academic doctrine, fake research and sales pitches proved to be near impossible. The challenge became an obsession. Several years of day and night study didn't answer all my questions, but I found enough to write an informative book that includes political, social, financial, biochemical and medical context surrounding nutritional questions. I am biased in favor of simple, inexpensive therapy. I sell no products or therapy, and am not paid by any medical or nutritional organization.

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Copyright 2007, 2012 Ira Edwards.

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HONEST NUTRITION

TABLE OF CONTENTS

AS WE BEGIN—

Intent; Caution; Apologies; Disclaimers; Nutritionism

HONEST NUTRITION

PART ONE

CONTEXT, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL

CHAPTER ONE: HONESTY

Honesty SUPRs and UTHRs Public relations

The author Seeing dishonesty Definitions False claims

CHAPTER TWO: BAD ADVICE

Take charge Bad advice Ask your doctor

Mixed messages We are different Doctrines fads and legends

CHAPTER THREE: SOURCES

Information and products Disinformation

Group-think Honest sources

CHAPTER FOUR: THE MEDICAL ESTABLISHMENT

Big Pharma Research Government and FDA Chelation and herbs IMP-BB

(industrial-medical-political big brother and war against supplements) Harmonizing and EU Good and bad mix Acedia Truth Doctors Defensive medicine

CHAPTER FIVE: ECONOMIC PROBLEMS

High cost—13 reasons Lawyers Regulation

Insurance Technology Profits Ineffective treatment Reform

CHAPTER SIX: HUNCH-BASED NUTRITION

Graham, Kellogg and Post Research Alternatives (UTHR)

HONEST NUTRITION

PART TWO

NUTRITIONAL PRINCIPLES

CHAPTER SEVEN: FIRST PRINCIPLES

What is health? Whole body Symbiosis Interactions

Placebo Causes Logic Molecules

Stomping symptoms Nutrients Modern diseases

CHAPTER EIGHT: DEFICIENCIES AND SUPPLEMENTATION

Old paradigm Supplement need

Food-Supplement-Spice-Herb-Drug

Primitive vs. Modern Drugs vs. Herbs

HONEST NUTRITION

PART THREE

PHYSIOLOGY AND DISEASE PROCESSES

(The way things work, and when they don’t)

CHAPTER NINE: BASIC PROCESSES

Metabolism Blood Viscosity Adaptation

Toxins Calcification Mineral balance

CHAPTER TEN: INFLAMMATION, INFECTION AND THE IMMUNE SYSTEM

Diseases Immune system Boosters Inflammation

Chronic diseases Stealth infections New germ theory

Treatments Dental

CHAPTER ELEVEN: BREATHING and ALLERGY

Respiratory system Allergy Poison oak Sensitization

Autoimmune disease Asthma Mold

CHAPTER TWELVE: DIGESTIVE SYSTEM

Stomach acid Drug treadmill Helicobacter Food intolerance Colon

and endobiome Gut nerves

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: DIABETES

Diabetes types Syndrome X Insulin Sugar Neuropathy

Treatments Low blood sugar Glu—words Low-carb

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: WEIGHT

Frustration The problem Culture

Causes Hormones Appetite Wrong ways

Surgery Acting and eating Our story

BMI Underweight

CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE FATS OF LIFE

Good and bad fats re-defined Kinds of fat Labels Essential fat

Diseases Education Babies Omega-6 Cholesterol

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: HEART AND ARTERIES

Heart and artery disease, causes Plaque Viscosity

Prevention Heart attacks CHF Tests

Blood pressure Clotting Prevention (again) and treatment

Calcium Chelation Nanobes

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: HORMONES

Leptin Resistance Pituitary Endorphins Estrogen

Fibroids PCOS Androgens Sex Hormone replacement

Growth hormone Thyroid Parathyroid Adrenal Pancreas (See ch. 13)

Relaxin Feedback and homeostasis

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: MENTAL FUNCTION

Statin drugs Behavior Excuses Alcohol

HMNS Lithium Anxiety Depression

Schizophrenia ADHD Bipolar Food for Thought

Illegal drugs Antidepressants

CHAPTER NINETEEN: BONES, JOINTS, MUSCLE PAIN

Collagen Arthritis Pain drugs

Nutrients Bones Calcium (Also ch. 15)

CHAPTER TWENTY: STRANGE PAINS

Causes Low back Lyme

Treatments Headache Migraine

Fibromyalgia and fatigue Stress

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE: CANCER

Finding cancer Causing cancer Prevention and Treatment

Nutrients IPT Angiogenesis

Chemotherapy and radiation Markers

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO: AGING

Sociology Symptoms Causes Physiology

Glycation Inflammation Dementia and Memory Treatment

Acute illness Economics

HONEST NUTRITION

PART FOUR

ALPHABETICAL SECTION

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE: ABBREVIATIONS CONDITIONS, TREATMENTS DEFINITIONS

HONEST NUTRITION

PART FIVE

APPLICATIONS

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR: INTEGRATION of body systems

Leptin Hormone resistance Diets

Vegetarian fare The China Study

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

Eating to avoid disease

Attitudes

My way Spectrum fare

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX: CHALLENGE TO HEALTH PROVIDERS

TREE OF HEALTH

AS WE BEGIN—

IF NOTHING ELSE, READ THIS.

Many people in my community and along my street are sick, some are demented, some are dying. The medical system is not helping them, and some are put in greater pain.

The high cost of our medical care is an outrage. Medical service is corrupt and ineffective. Regardless of some high-tech miracles that are great in a crunch, the best inexpensive and most effective prevention and treatments are scorned.

Seeking answers in more expensive technology and more intrusive government is wrong. We need to use what we know, and some of what our great-grandparents knew.

Answers exist. This is urgent. Help can be found.

THE AUTHOR

It doesn’t matter much who wrote this. Who DIDN’T write it are experienced, open-minded, inquisitive medical doctors and researchers. Why not? Are they too busy with golf, yachts, travel, or the sale of their own narrow, misleading, over-hyped books? It is only because they did not write it, that I did. It had to be done. They could have done better.

Long ago, following a childhood of herding goats, cutting weeds and hating school, I had most of a medical education (six months short of an M.D. at the University of Washington.) I have a master’s degree from the University of Oregon. I taught geology, astronomy, physics, and various biology and pre-med courses at Northwest Nazarene College. Then I taught all the science courses in junior and high school at Unity, Oregon, but being a terrible teacher, I did that only one year. I worked a few months in a public health lab, and 28 years (non-teaching) at Southern Oregon State College.

If I had become an MD, I could not have written this book. Perhaps, because I could not finish medical school, I am able to do a greater good, though for the nest 32 years, I knew little and cared little about nutrition. Strangely, I thought I knew.

In later years, I realized that everything I had learned and taught about nutrition was misleading or false. That led to an obsession with finding the truth. After years of day-and-night searching from many sources, HONEST NUTRITION is here.

INTENT

The un-informed need information; the mis-informed need challenge. In this book I intend to bring to light principles, nutrients and therapies that will help the reader find good health, and to provide guidance to judge what is true or false in the varied health claims that many information peddlers want us to believe. Unlike other nutrition books, I include some physiological, pathological, therapeutical, social and political settings in which nutrition works.

BOOKS

I began organizing what I learned about nutrition into a document for my own use, and over the years it morphed into an orthomolecular nutrition textbook. For those who don’t need HONEST NUTRITION, I am writing PRE-PAIN, a more practical book for those who want to prevent the pain and degeneration of aging. Until that is available, read WELLNESS PIECE BY PIECE by Pat Sullivan.

My passion now is to finish writing NUTRITION BABEL, in which I intend to tell how lavishly the experts blather, prattle, chatter and babble bout what we should eat, and how much we miss because research and publicity are misdirected.

CAUTION: Self-treatment can be dangerous. Consult with your medical doctor about the use of nutritional information from any source. This you can count on: there are errors in this book. Information here needs to be confirmed, correlated, augmented and applied by a medical doctor. Where I have reported an herbal treatment, I have seldom included information on how much to take or how to take it. A medical doctor should be able to advise different individuals about unexpected conditions.

We can hope, can’t we? The fact is, many doctors will not know the answers. Many times, what could be effective treatment will fail for lack of professional guidance. Frustrated people will try self-treatment. Most of the time, no harm will be done, nor good. Sometimes self-treatment will result in harm.

APOLOGIES

I try to make this book easy to use, and I resist using standard forms just because that’s the way it’s done. I always hate to change, but do so when necessary. My use of English language is still more farm boy than professor. I learned to say creek instead of crick when I left the farm, but I still use crick when I want to. I don’t try to be politically correct. I use the generic he and him rather than use clumsy compound words, because everyone knows that means both genders, and I don’t care much if I offend some overly-critical people. I expect to offend almost everyone, anyway, because hardly anyone will agree consistently with what I have to say. This isn’t really an apology. Sorry.

I apologize to those who vainly advised me to make changes. I have to write what I think is honest, in a form that I would want if I were searching for information, and I can’t please everyone.

I do apologize, though, that I can’t really do what I set out to do in this book. I’m not smart enough or educated enough. Most of all, much information I need just isn’t there, and that’s not my fault. While the medical establishment tries to find another toxic and barely useful drug, they badly neglect much needed nutritional information. So, I apologize not for myself, but for terrible failures of the health care system that leaves victims of chronic disease up a crick.

NUTRITIONISM Do not skip this! It is a necessary perspective as you read further.

Obsession with nutrition can result in fads, overconfidence in questionable nutrients and therapies, much worry and expense. In response to Michael Pollan’s book IN DEFENSE OF FOOD, I wrote the following:

NUTRITIONISM

Scientism is ideology, not science, rather an excessive faith in science. Much of what passed as nutrition science in the last 50 years was scientism. Little dabs of science were put on bandwagons hauled off in all directions.

Faith in nutrition, an obsession with what we eat, excess belief in what nutrition can do, is nutritionism.

For a while, the biggest bandwagon was low fat. People got fatter. Then there was low saturated fat. People got fatter and diabetic. Then there were low fat, high fat, high protein, low protein, low carbohydrate, low calorie, high fiber, low cholesterol, vegan, zones, . . . , and more people got fatter, diabetic and neurotic.

Nutritionism is over-concern with effects of eating. If food is killing us, as it may, over-concern is the wrong term. We might say nutritionism is misdirected concern with the effects of eating.

A young child was brought into a hospital in Seattle with the lowest hemoglobin value that the doctors had ever seen in a living person. After the baby’s life was saved with a blood transfusion, the doctors talked with the parents. Surprisingly, they were intelligent and caring parents. But they were so concerned with nutrition that they had made mealtime miserable. The child refused to eat.

Healthy eating is a happy time with the family together. Happiness and social harmony may matter as much as nutrient content. Nutritionism destroys that.

Nutritionism has been a great boon for industry. They have made us desire vitamin O, coral calcium, and an endless variety of pills, lotions, and health foods. We buy all kinds of things because they are labeled low fat (which means high carb,) low carb (which means high fat,) low calorie which means low nutrient content and no cholesterol which robs us of other nutrients. Then, as we get sicker, the drug industry booms.

Nutrition as science is so confused and conflicted that nutritionism is the natural result. When we get news stories telling us that cholesterol is killing us, why would we not be concerned? The root of nutritionism is bad science and worse publicity. In nutrition, bad science far exceeds good science. An answer to nutritionism might be just eat food, and enjoy it.

That’s what people did, long ago. Food was scarce. Whatever could be gathered or produced was a treasure. None had the flavor or texture of Pringles or Twinkies, which was a benefit. People seldom were tempted to stuff themselves.

Primitive fare was far from perfect. People starved, and sometimes were poisoned. Sometimes the soil, therefore the produce, lacked vital nutrients. Sometimes available food had little protein. The human body is adapted to survive though deprived, but does best when many different foods are available. We can learn much from what we call the paleo diet, which had, at any one location, hundreds of types of leaves, roots, and fruits.

We can’t go back. The paleo diet is not available to us. We wouldn’t like it anyway. We have learned to like highly altered products of corn, wheat, and soy, flavored with salt and sugar. We have a great variety of products made from these, but few nutrients. The natural nutrients of these grains are destroyed or reduced in the products.

We have available more meat than many primitive people, but again, with reduced nutrients.

So, we can’t just eat food, and get good nutrition. The food lacks magnesium, folic acid, and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), for a short list. For lack of these, we get heart disease and bad moods. Even when we get concerned about nutrition and eat more vegetables, those, too, are less nutritious than the vegetables our great-grandparents grew in their gardens.

So, as we recover from nutritionism and try to get nutrition, we will not likely get enough magnesium, folic acid, vitamins D and B12, DHA, resveratrol and a few others without using supplements. We will get much too much of the common vegetable oils and their altered products unless we make some really drastic changes. If we continue to eat much meat and grain products, we will not have any appetite for vegetables.

How to make these changes, and have joyful family meals is up to you. You won’t get much help from your law-makers, health books, grocery store or your family doctor. They are all immersed in nutritionism.

(This book, HONEST NUTRITION unfortunately is not free from nutritionism and other errors. It is a beginning, with much still to be learned.)

DISHONEST DISCLAIMERS

It is customary, even required, that writers of alternative medical advice and advertisers of alternative therapies include a warning that These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The required statement is misleading. No one would produce such products or information, except with the intention of preventing or treating diseases, or selling them for that purpose. There would be no reason to buy, or bother to read, if they believed the statement. Most nutrition writers hope, and intend, to help you prevent, diagnose, treat, and possibly cure your diseases, in addition to preserving your health.

Some do an end-run: These products do not prevent or cure disease; they enable the body to do so.

If you had an approved by FDA list, you would find many dangerous, expensive, and near useless drugs (along with some very good ones), and practically no nutrients. Approved by FDA does not mean healthful. Not approved means nothing. The best nutrients in the world are not approved. FDA has little interest in nutrients unless they compete with drugs, or in very rare cases when a nutrient actually proves harmful.

The FDA does what drug companies want done, and they do not want nutrients to make drugs unnecessary. If your health depended only on products and information that the FDA had evaluated and approved, you would be sick, and your local medical doctor would be severely limited.

Jonathan Wright, M. D. puts this in his newsletter: All material in this publication is provided for information only and may not be construed as medical advice or instruction. Readers will, however, take it as medical advice, and benefit.

The publisher is not responsible for errors or omissions. he adds. That applies to this book, for I expect to make errors, and the reader should expect it. There is a great lack of reliable nutritional information, here as elsewhere.

Consult your doctor about this treatment is a frequent statement in nutritional literature. Ha! Few of us have a doctor who will answer such questions, after we wait three months for five minutes with him. Dash past the receptionist, corner the doctor, don’t let him out of the examining room! You may get this answer before the police arrive: This treatment has not been adequately tested, and I can’t recommend it. Or, without all that effort, he will say Of course—if you want this drug, I’ll write a prescription.

AN HONEST DISCLAIMER

This book cannot give final answers. Any suggested treatment requires further study.

Suppose you read a headline End depression in a month with rubidium. You need to answer questions—1. Is this statement honest? 2. Will this treatment be harmless if I try it without knowing more? 3. Will it be effective if I don’t know how much to use, when and how to use it, and what to use with it? 4. Is there a better or more economical treatment? 5. Where can I get more information, or where can I find a medical provider who knows?

The answers are often not here. Such answers are rare in nutrition books. What you might find on the internet is designed to sell, not inform. Your doctor is too busy.

I really want to help. I’m frustrated too.

Try chapter three to help you find sources with answers.

You may want to begin with chapter 23, an alphabetical annotation of many topics.

HONEST NUTRITION

PART ONE

CONTEXT, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL

CHAPTER ONE

HONESTY

Honesty SUPRs and UTHRs Public relations

The author Seeing dishonesty Definitions False claims

WHAT IS HONESTY?

Honesty requires more than a practical wish to be correct; it requires determination to find truth, even unpleasant truth. Truth is elusive, and we ourselves can be as readily mistaken as anyone else. I search for my own biases, examine my ability and willingness to change, and study opposing views. Without a challenge to what we thought we knew, we don’t learn.

A LAW OF OPPOSITES

Would you buy a used car from Honest John? The most dishonest declare their honesty. When someone claims to be unprejudiced, BEWARE! At a university where tolerance is celebrated, you better be their kind of rebel! When anyone calls himself unbiased, there is bias. A well-known politically biased news organization advertises an unbiased and authoritative guide to alternative medicine.

A claim of objectivity is a sure sign of arrogance. A large book, called an objective report on alternative therapies, had few pages that could qualify as somewhat objective. If you encountered a group calling themselves a committee for responsible medicine, what would you think? Trust them like you trust a snake. It is not in the nature of people to describe themselves accurately. Honesty is a virtue, but not naturally human. Objectivity is scarce. Responsibility is more precious than diamonds, and as rare. So, what about a book titled HONEST NUTRITION? Can it be?

SUPRs AND UTHRs; WHO IS HONEST?

Nobody is honest. A few try, and many think they are. The most honest are those who frequently find they are wrong, admit it, and make corrections, and look to those with varied views for knowledge and correction.

HONEST NUTRITION is an attempt, but surely it will not be accomplished in full. I want the title to be true, but the rational reader should be skeptical.

Do you expect honesty from the American Medical Association, the Food and Drug Administration and Harvard University? I did, but no longer. Now, I can hardly trust anyone.

Is your family doctor honest? He was taught to instill confidence. He will pretend to know more than he does. That is the mask we see. It is useful, but not honest.

SUPR (SUrgery-PRescription), my label for conventional medicine shares humanity with UTHR (Unconventional Therapy—Herbal Remedies), those who are called alternative. Neither is a different kind of people. Blatant dishonesty is found wherever you look in the field of nutrition. UTHRs have been conspicuously dishonest. SUPRs are better at hiding it. Government is worst.

Because there are many different UTHRs, including witch doctors, ancient and modern therapies based on hunches, and many kinds of charlatans, more dishonesty can be attributed to UTHRs. SUPRs follow more rigid rules, and often agree with each other. SUPRs claim that they are supported by good research and UTHRs are not. That is a part truth. Good research supports many UTHR therapies, and SUPRs lack it much more than they admit. Evidence based? Don’t believe it.

Will your TV announcer, nutrition writer, vitamin salesman, and health gurus of all types LIE to you? Yes! Even your cardiologist may lie to you, rather than admit that he doesn’t know much about nutrition.

Or, they lie to themselves, thinking they know more than they do, and what they have always believed must be true, or that their objective reference book tells them all they need to know. It is hard to say, I have been mistaken all my life. Who would admit People die because of my sloth? In spite of your best efforts to reject deceit, you will be fooled.

WHY THEY LIE

Shame, pride, and practicality. It is shameful to admit to being wrong or having caused damage. Most cling to their pride in being right. Lies are often useful, even beneficial.

Beneficial? Your doctor’s lie may help you heal. He says This drug will make you feel better, and your mental attitude makes you feel better. (See ➢placebo.) (The symbol ➢ refers to alphabetical subjects in Part Four.)

Shame and pride are not beneficial. They keep your doctor from learning about nutrition. Practicality means money. Money trumps honesty.

PR

PR means Public Relations. The PR industry is vast. Their job is to make the public think favorably of their sponsors. Their sponsors are the names you see advertised on television. Truth is not relevant to them. Their job is to sell, whatever it takes. They keep themselves out of direct sight, disguising themselves as sources of reliable information. Their information is never reliable, and it is dishonest. The medical and drug establishment may be their biggest sponsor. Many independent organizations are fronts for the PR industry and their sponsors. They make the task of finding honest information about nutrition very difficult. If the truth were known, their income would plummet, as many drugs become relics and surgeons seek employment in alternative medicine.

WHAT I WRITE

This is not a standard nutrition text. This incomplete compilation of maladies, nutrients and eating habits is put in the context of the world we live in and the physiology and biochemistry of the body. I include related knowledge about politics, economics, and the medical care system that must be understood and changed. Without that, knowledge of nutrition can’t be applied.

There are many ideas here you may not be able to use, and good products that you can’t find. Some good therapies are repressed by economic and political enemies. Many good nutrients are not sufficiently tested, and I can only list possibilities, not facts. I list some nutrients that will turn out to be useless, as I miss some of the best. Even if I knew all that is known, the state of nutritional knowledge leaves me flailing.

Many successful books have cute headlines. I hope to have more truth under the headlines. I write what I think is most important and most neglected. That is why you may see HMNS (heart-mind-nerve supplements) and GOOD FATS often mentioned. (Good fats are redefined. See ch 15.)

WHY I WRITE

My friends and family suffer and die while the medical profession, SUPR and UTHR alike, doesn’t meet their needs. I write because I care, and I worry.

Most of the people I know are dependent on a multitude of prescription drugs, getting extremely expensive and technical help from their doctors, and still suffering and dying. I write because I know medical care can be better.

Why would anyone read this book? Nutrition books should be written by professional nutritionists, and I’m not. An author should be confident of his topic, and I’m not. Readers expect clear, definite answers to their questions, and I can’t honestly give them.

Why would anyone read a book that gives answers with qualifications and doubts? I don’t know why you might read it, but I know why I must write this way. I write because knowledge of nutrition is muddled, and I hope to make enough sense to help hurting people.

On the other side, library shelves are filled with books written by well-qualified nutritionists, doctors and scientists who give positive answers that promise quick results, great health, etc.—I read them and find their promises empty. Something is wrong here. If the experts can’t (or won’t) write an honest book, what can I do?

I’ve gone down rows of nutrition books in libraries and bookstores, wishing to find answers I can believe. I leave disappointed. Most of the books make spectacular claims on the cover that cannot be backed up in the text. In the text, they make claims for their hunch-based views that may be plainly false at worst, or leave out relevant and needed information at best.

So, in a field of spectacular but illusory claims, do I dare make spectacular claims? I will. I believe that there is available nutritional information, backed up by sufficient research and experience, that if widely applied, could reduce the need for surgery by half, reduce the use of prescription drugs by three-fourths, and along with economic reforms, we could have much better health for a quarter of the cost. We could see some common diseases almost disappear, including diabetes, arthritis, asthma, GERD, ADHD, and coronary artery disease. Cancer could be considerably reduced. Brain and nerves could work better, making depression, behavior and mood disorders rare.

This valid information, though, is dispersed among so much hype, deceit and misunderstanding, that it will take great effort to sort it out. I try.

There are some good books. Read OPTIMUM NUTRITION FOR THE MIND by Patrick Holford, THE BRAIN CHEMISTRY PLAN by Michael Lesser and THE MOOD CURE by Julia Ross. But these may make more sense after your read HONEST NUTRITION.

I remember much of my medical education, and have added to my knowledge over the years. After retirement in 1996, I found myself obsessed. I study health and nutrition 8 to 12 hours a day, year after year. I search for understanding from people on the street, from talk shows, from the internet, newsletters, books, seminars; wherever health is the subject.

It isn’t about me. In excellent health myself, most of the people I knew were suffering all kinds of conditions and not getting the kind of help that should be available. When someone tells about their heartburn, I wish I could help. Many of them have chronic pain and life-threatening diseases. Hardly anyone past sixty does not have some combination of arthritis, dementia, osteoporosis and arterial disease. Even young people have obesity, diabetes, depression and hepatitis.

I find any kind of medical help outrageously expensive. So I search for economic answers. Many of my friends are street-people, welfare-dependent, and barely surviving. Any medical care they get is what the establishment decrees. They live on junk and care little about nutrition. They can get expensive, often useless medical treatment at taxpayers’ expense, but they will not buy flaxseed, or learn how to use it. They don’t think well, they get into trouble frequently, and their counselors and caseworkers don’t know how nutrition affects behavior.

I am, by inclination, a problem-solver. Problem-solving was part of my job. There is hardly a greater unsolved problem in this country than this: Most people are not getting good medical care, even at excessive costs to themselves, their insurance, or the public coffers.

The biggest obstacle in this study is dishonesty. Honesty is more scarce in nutrition than in politics. I share a fault with them all, in that sometimes I think I know more than I do. I try to identify that, and change.

I refuse to accept the deceit and ignorance that saturates the field of nutrition. I will do something about it. I have little credibility to write a book, but I cannot rest.

TRYING TO BE HONEST

The Roman governor Pilate asked Jesus What is truth? You may have the same cynical attitude about honesty. Truth is elusive, and nutritional truth is obscure. Honesty surely is rare, but it exists. Truth exists.

Being honest is essential in any search for truth, but it is no guarantee. Many people, all of us many times, are honestly wrong. To guard against this, we must be skeptics. Most ideas presented as truth are not, and every bit of data must be scrutinized for error. The skeptic knows that errors come from many directions and take many forms. The most honest and skeptical of us are at times gullible. Medical doctors who are totally skeptical about alternative medicine can be truly gullible when being sold on the virtues of Nexium. A doctor who overcomes his skepticism about nutrition and begins to accept some alternative ideas, then becomes gullible in adding this and that alternative practice.

Suffering people will be gullible, either when the doctor presents his diagnosis and recommends drugs and surgery, or when the alternative practitioner recommends supplements or some strange treatment. They crave hope.

Everyone has unrecognized prejudices. They regard these prejudices as facts that no longer need to be examined. Once a person believes that breast cancer is caused by pesticides and pollution, he may never accept contrary evidence. Once an activist has devoted great energy to convincing the public and the government that coconut oil is dangerous, who am I to tell him he is wrong? People become emotionally invested in their truths, and will not be changed.

I try to discover my hidden prejudices, because I want this book to be truthful. An honest answer can still be mistaken. Truth is even more rare than honesty.

The honest person must realize that truth is elusive, admit he is often wrong, and be willing to change; realize that those who disagree may have good reason for doing so; that useful information can come from questionable sources. He must examine his sources, his biases, his priorities, his weaknesses, be humble enough to search for truth rather than to confirm beliefs, admit mistakes. A nutritionist might call that eating crow.

SEEING DISHONESTY

Consider this for honesty: The Jan. 2002 Reader’s Digest has the front cover headline: LOSE WEIGHT and Still Eat What You Want. Who hasn’t seen dozens of such claims? They are on the cover of almost every woman’s magazine at the checkout counter. An honest statement would have said, We have nothing new to say. We are sorry we have nothing to tell you about weight loss. Even so, people still hold out some hope that sometime, somewhere, there will be a reasonable way to lose weight. They find hope in the headlines, buy the magazines, and read part of the article before giving up.

An issue of Prevention magazine says on the cover, LOSE WEIGHT EASILY. Don’t buy magazines that make absurd claims.

It isn’t just magazines. I don’t find nutrition textbooks enlightening, and the health sections of bookstores and libraries are filled with appealing but appalling books. So, to be honest, this book can’t say on the cover, as some do, Wonderful easy answers to all your health questions.

I am not a skeptic by nature. A thief is quick to recognize a thief, and an addict can’t fool an addict. But as an honest person expects honesty, I have been be fooled by the thief, the addict, and the dishonest nutrition writer. So, I study research principles, human physiology and biochemistry, and the habits and thinking of people, to be able to discern. My necessary skepticism comes with effort.

When I read about some great herbal treatment, I want to believe, and must study to find what is exaggerated or totally false. Skepticism comes easy, however, when I see an advertisement for a prescription drug on TV. These ads are for drugs that sensible people would not want and honest doctors would not prescribe.

I search for agreement from reliable sources, or citations of research that look somewhat honest. I may miss it.

When you find yourself facing a chronic illness, you will go to your family doctor, and sometimes get a correct diagnosis. Then you will be given options that are very expensive, and perhaps somewhat effective. Modern medicine has developed many very powerful, expensive drugs, but has not developed anything to make these drugs unnecessary. Surgical techniques are truly wonderful, but often overused. And again, medical science is seldom interested in making surgery unnecessary.

There are many alternative therapies. Whatever truth these therapies offer is buried in a mountain of hype and delusion. Because, by the goodness of nature, most sick people get well, or at least get better, then whatever treatment they use gets the credit. And so, it is possible for any treatment to garner a book-full of testimonials. Useless therapies are credited with wonderful cures. To avoid such delusion requires the most careful and thorough research. But most research is neither careful nor thorough, nor properly analyzed.

An example of bad analysis: In December 2001, newspapers carried a story of research with statin drugs and antioxidant supplements. It was found that the drugs were effective in lowering cholesterol, but in combination with antioxidants, they were less effective. So, forget about using antioxidants, they said. It may be that the antioxidants would be more effective without the statins. They never checked that. They likely made a bad choice of antioxidants. Since the research goes against much previous research, why should we instantly pick this one as true, and forget the rest? As early as 1948, Canadian researchers determined that vitamin E reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases. As recently as 1999 researchers in the United States determined the same. So if in 2001, we find that vitamin E decreases the CVD-protection of statins, something stinks. Was this research designed by those who hoped to discredit antioxidants? Did they use a defective form of vitamin E?

An example of delusion: I have received in my mail several booklets propounding the wonders of vitamin O. There is no research cited whatsoever, but the booklets consist entirely of testimonials. Many people believe vitamin O provides enough oxygen to their system to cure their diseases. But it is chemically impossible for the drops of solution they used to contain as much oxygen as one breath of air. So, if vitamin O has any value, a breath of air has more, at much less cost.

An example of fraud: I received in my mail a brochure that claimed that tyramine is a precursor of all the body’s hormones, and that your hormone supply could be replenished cheaply and easily with this single chemical. In HARPER’S BIOCHEMISTRY, I found tyramine as the excretion product of tyrosine. Tyrosine, not tyramine, is an amino acid precursor of thyroid hormones. The sellers of tyramine had counted on customers to be ignorant and gullible.

Such deceit can be dangerous. Tyramine, if taken with certain antidepressants, may send you to the emergency room.

Even with all of this skepticism, I can list some therapies, herbs and supplements with confidence that you will be helped.

One more thing, though. If I have any hope of writing an honest book, I must vigorously examine my own views, mercilessly accuse myself of dishonesty, and make changes with shame and smashed pride.

If I am to be honest, I must admit my prejudices. I favor anything inexpensive, and that often means bulk foods, supplements and herbs, rarely prescription drugs. If given a choice between an extremely expensive drug for migraine, and inexpensive magnesium and feverfew, I really want the cheap stuff to work.

I have no fascination with the words natural, or organic, though many times natural and organic products are better and safer. I seldom worry about pollution, preservatives, or whatever demons might be in our food, water and air, but sometimes these prove to be relevant. My lack of emphasis here may be prejudice.

Because bypass surgery has killed some of my friends, I zealously crave alternatives. Could this make me think too highly of chelation therapy? Impartiality, often claimed by scientists, is not a human trait. Dice are impartial, but not in human hands. My own claim of honesty, to be honest, is questionable.

I have a good education, an urgency to search out useful truth, some ability to see through fraud, and I care very much about my suffering friends. Maybe this means something: At various times and places, people have called me Honest Abe. I like that.

DEFINITIONS

Part Four, consisting of alphabetical topics, will include definitions. Some are needed here.

In nutritional writing, newspaper articles and ads for drugs or vitamins, you will find many terms like breakthrough, miracle, secret remedy, cure, supercharge, melts fat away, easy weight loss, cleanse blood, and boost energy. These are hype words, plainly dishonest.

FARE and DIET: The word diet has multiple meanings. To be clear, I will limit diet to mean some deliberate choice of foods for a health purpose, as weight loss diets, anticancer diets, etc. To refer to what people eat, I use the word fare, or food. I will not say Mediterranean diet, unless referring to a dieter’s attempt to eat more olive oil and vegetables. Mediterranean fare is what people generally eat in that part of the world. What most American youth eat is not a diet, but junk-food fare. When they try to lose weight by eating less junk food, that is a diet. The standard American diet (SAD) is contemporary junk fare.

New and recent means sometime in the last 50 years.

Natural means it exists. Everything, one way or another, comes from nature.

50 mg on a label may mean 25, or 10.

Safe, referring to prescription drugs, means the FDA has not taken it off the market. It doesn’t mean the drug hasn’t killed 10,000 people. Unsafe, referring to herbs and supplements, means someone, somewhere, was thought to be adversely affected. Unproven is unlikely to be used in reference to drugs and surgery. For supplements and herbs, it means no-one has invested a hundred million dollars to get FDA approval.

Positive words like proved and effective are nearly always exaggerations. I am guilty.

Link is important in research statistics. Ephedra linked to athlete’s death may mean nothing, because ephedra gets the blame in the media for whatever strong ephedrine drugs the person may have taken. Link implies cause and effect, but more often the link is an outside factor that affects both entities, or the link can be too weak to have meaning. However any link provides fodder for exaggerated and false claims for all kinds of products and therapies.

Detox, or detoxification, is a current fad word which has meaning only if the toxin is identified. EDTA could be called a detox agent because it is known to remove toxic heavy metals.

Hedge-words like may, might and sometimes vary in meaning from not quite always, to a chance in a million.

I avoid long words where a short one may do. Perhaps the pharmaceutical industry will forgive me for calling them drug companies. Once in a while I put in a long biochemical term just for fun. Smile, and go on.

FALSE CLAIMS

Here are some popular nutritional claims by medical professionals or salesmen:

1. If you are overweight, all you need to do is exercise more and eat less. FALSE. This is an insult to many who have diligently worked at that, and languish!

2. This guaranteed miracle weight loss program works wonders! These advertisements are fraud.

3. 100 percent guaranteed to work! can be offered for completely worthless products. Most people will not try to get their money back.

4. You can get all the nutrition you need just by eating a sensible diet that includes fruits and vegetables. FALSE. This hunch-based claim is untested; rather, tested and shown false by ailing millions who do this, yet are deficient in magnesium, zinc, omega-3 fats, vitamins B6, B12, D, folic acid, tocotrienols and more.

5. You need this prescription drug. Ask your doctor about ##. WRONG. You will not find a prescription drug advertised on television that does not have a cheaper, safer, more effective alternative.

6. Take this medicine for heartburn. FALSE. Heartburn medications are often the beginning of a drug treadmill, and worse.

7. Pain in your wrist? We have an operation that will fix it. WRONG. Carpal tunnel surgery often fails, and stomps a symptom, not the cause of inflammation.

8. You have coronary artery blockage. You must have a bypass operation now, or die. BAD IDEA. The bypass is temporary, dangerous, and terribly expensive. There is no statistical evidence that on the average, a heart patient lives longer with the bypass than with alternatives.

9. Eat lots of fruits and vegetables, restrict sweets, fat and salt. PARTLY TRUE, sometimes.

10. Take this multivitamin, and feel the energy! FALSE. A feeling of increased energy is imaginary. A company made wonderful claims when they added a token amount of lutein to their pills. Sham nutrients are called fairy dust.

I wrote to fifteen nutritionists with questions about omega-3 fats that textbooks don’t answer. Three replied. None were willing to say I don’t know. One said Buy a nutrition text!

I have examined many nutrition texts, and find few answers to my questions. Suppose, for instance, that you wanted to know what would be good to keep skin healthy as we age. Do you think you would find that along with vitamin C and several other nutrients, silica is needed for skin collagen health? With the terrible skin condition of most aged people, this is an appalling gap.

To be honest, there are big gaps in this book. The next topic you look for may not be here. This is not a comprehensive book.

NOTE: There are mistakes in this book. By the time this is published, I will have identified one or two. Within two or three years, some facts will turn out to be untrue. A nutrition book with a claim of being true and accurate will have a dishonest author. Being honest is an attempt, not an accomplishment.

CHAPTER TWO

BAD ADVICE

Take charge Bad advice Ask your doctor

Mixed messages We are different Doctrines fads and legends

The advice Take charge of your own health is used in various ways. Often, it means, Don’t believe those other guys. Medical doctors may use the statement when they know they can’t answer many of their clients’ questions. Drug hawkers say it, meaning, Buy this product.

Some medical providers assume mindless gullibility in those they treat. They tell us one thing today, another tomorrow. We have been told that colds are spread mainly by hand-to-hand contact, not through the air. Then we were told that research has found no connection with hand-to-hand spread of the virus, that it is spread by droplets in the air, and cold drafts have nothing to do with it. But we all have had experience with cold symptoms following closely after a chill.

With such conflicting information, we feel a need to take charge of our own health, but we don’t know how.

How can I take charge of my own health? Can I become more knowledgeable than my doctor? Can’t I trust my doctor? We don’t know how to take charge of our own health.

We may hear of Ayurvedic medicine, Chinese herbal medicine, naturopathy, aromatherapy, homeopathy, acupressure, Grandma Putt’s Medicine Chest, and countless claims of miracle cure-alls. Depending on which hawker we find first, or which has the most convincing pitch, we are sold Sea Silver, coral calcium, Sun Chlorella, supercharged water, electronic frequencies, various liver and blood cleansers, Microhydrin, breathing technique, and an eight-week plan guaranteeing you will never again be sick. When I take charge of my own health, I will be swamped with false claims.

A few people have taken charge of their own health, and won. You may have read a story about someone who had a chronic illness. The doctors didn’t do much good, but the sick person got on the internet, learned everything that was to be learned, and found a doctor somewhere who had the answer. Others have been led around the world, spent a fortune, and lost.

I try to take charge of my own health in regard to calcium. I am often told that I need it. I also read statistics that osteoporosis is frequent in geographic areas where fare is high in calcium. I still don’t know.

Fifty years ago, we were hounded with claims that we had tired blood, and we needed this iron supplement or that. Now some multivitamins are supplied without iron, because