Nick Anderson blogs ...

There are several ways to promote a very slightly alkaline/neutral pH (potential of Hydrogen) in the mouth, e.g. : by brushing your teeth with a very slightly alkaline/neutral pH toothpaste (like Weleda Salt Toothpaste or Green People Fennel & Propolis Toothpaste) about an hour after every meal, snack and drink (other than pure water) to remove: any food or drink residues any tartar or dental plaque that may be forming (see Edi below) ( https://www.weleda.co.uk/salt-toothpaste-75ml-101004 ) ( https://www.greenpeople.co.uk/products/fennel-propolis-toothpaste-50ml )   Eating or drinking anything acidic softens both dental enamel and dentine, making them more vulnerable to erosion by brushing, so brushing sooner is unwise. Please note that ‘acidic foods’ and ‘alkaline foods’ are not the same as ‘acidifying foods’ and ‘alkalising foods’ (see Edii below). by swilling a small mouthful of water around the mouth and between the teeth after every meal, snack ...

There are several ways to promote a very slightly alkaline/neutral pH (potential of Hydrogen) in the mouth, e.g. : by brushing your teeth with a very slightly alkaline/neutral pH toothpaste (like Weleda Salt Toothpaste or Green People Fennel & Propolis Toothpaste) about an hour after every meal, snack and drink (other than pure water) to remove: any food or drink residues any tartar or dental plaque that may be forming (see Edi below)                  (https://www.weleda.co.uk/salt-toothpaste-75ml-101004)                  (https://www.greenpeople.co.uk/products/fennel-propolis-toothpaste-50ml)   Eating or drinking anything acidic softens both dental enamel and dentine, making them more vulnerable to erosion by brushing, so brushing sooner is unwise. Please note that ‘acidic foods’ and ‘alkaline foods’ ...

  Lexico.com* defines: 'eat' as 'put (food) into the mouth and chew and swallow it', and 'chew' as 'bite and work (food) in the mouth with the teeth, especially to make it easier to swallow' Chewing We at Green Health Watch Magazine think that chewing has other important roles, e.g.: reducing food into a smooth, gruel-like liquid in preparation for its further breaking down by the stomach (using churning, digestive enzymes and gastric acid (see Edi)) in preparation for its digestion by the small intestine promoting calm and rumination (thinking time) promoting the values of the Slow Movement - slowing downthe 21st Century's current frenetic pace Mindful chewing   Never 'wolf' your food down.   1. Fill your mouth two-thirds full. One moderately heaped spoon or fork should     do the trick.   2. Pause. Put down your cutlery. Focus your attention on...

Further to 'Nick has a go' (GreenHealth Watch Magazine Edition 52 page 7) ...  I made good progress towards consuming ten 80 gram (g) portions of vegetables and fruit (V&F) a day, but began to feel very full. I will spare you the details. Suffice it to say that my body's waste disposal system began to challenge my house's waste disposal system. The solution was obvious but unwelcome - reduce the volume of cereal, meat and fish I was eating. But then I thought ... if I were to accept a lower target of, say, eight portions of V&F a day, and bearing in mind the advice that most V&F bring a unique contribution of nutrition to the feast ... which V&F that I regularly eat would I stop eating? Was there any almost 'dead wood' V&F in my current diet? From what I'd heard and read previously there were two obvious candidates - parsnips and potatoes - so I decided to research them in more detail. I found out the following ... ...

Following Dagfinn Aune and colleagues' call for both women and men to eat at least ten 80 gram portions of vegetables and fruit (V&F) a day (see the article  'Five-a-day? Ten? Lucky thirteen?' ), I thought I would see if I could squeeze ten portions of V&F into my habitual meal structure, viz: a hearty breakfast (~600g), a wholesome lunch (~470g) and a modest dinner (~260g). The hearty breakfast (~600g) The hearty breakfast required little change. I had been breakfasting on porridge accompanied with two portions of fruit followed with a generous (~30g) mix of sunflower and pumpkin seeds and lubricated throughout with a very large dollop (~100g) of organic plain yoghurt for years. Adding a third 80g portion of fruit was not difficult: Porridge - ~230g Portion (80g) of fruit x 3 - ~240g Sunflower and pumpkin seed mix - ~30g Yoghurt - ~100g a total weight of meal - ~600g One of the first things I noticed when I took on this challenge was how sma...

It is generally accepted that: eating a 200g (gram) mix of vegetables and fruit (V&F) a day (two and a half 80g portions) reduces one's risk of: developing heart disease by 16% having a stroke by 18% developing cardiovascular disease by 13% developing cancer by 4% and succumbing to premature death by any cause by 15% eating a 400g mix of V&F a day (the UK Department of Health's Five 80g Servings of Vegetables and Fruit A Day' recommendation) reduces the risks of developing these diseases significantly more, and ... In February 2017 a very large review and meta-analysis conducted by Dagfinn Aune and colleagues (which pooled and re-analysed the findings of 95 studies covering around two million people) 1 concluded that: eating 800g of F&V a day appeared to have reduced the risks by even more, viz: of developing heart disease by 24% of having a stroke by 33% of developing cardiovascular disease by 28% of...

Green Health Watch subscriber David Ryde was once recognised as the UK’s least-prescribing GP. His studies and experience had led him to advising changes in diet rather than dishing out drugs. In this article we summarise what convinced David that: humans were probably originally vegan, even fruitarian contemporary levels of meat-eating may be a factor in many diseases. Microscopic marks found on both the teeth of living species and on fossil teeth indicate that the humans of four million years ago (Australopithecus robusus) were fruitarians rather than omnivores, like present day chimpanzees Although the move from veganism to omnivore happened over millions of years, it may still have outstripped the ongoing evolution of the human digestive system, he suggests, causing many of the illnesses from which we suffer today. David's evidence David’s evidence includes: The human stomach needs half as much hydrochloric acid to digest plant protein as it needs ...

Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the build-up of excessive fat in the liver cells of people who drink little or no alcohol. It is the main cause of liver (hepatic) damage worldwide, and affects up to a quarter of US adults - an estimated 90 million people. 1 When more than 10% of the weight of their liver is from fat (an alternative definition of NAFLD) people are more prone to inflammation and scarring of the liver, becoming (i) overweight or obese and often (ii) 'insulin resistant' (see GHWM47p10). Severe cases of NAFLD can even trigger liver failure. If you are not attracted by the raft of drugs and side effects that orthodox medicine offers people with NAFLD, cinnamon may be a powerful alternative. One meta-analysis of ten trials (covering a combined 543 patients) found that various cinnamon doses (between 120mg and 6g per day for between four and eighteen weeks) significantly reduced (i) fasting blood glucose levels, (ii) blood total and LDL (...

When blood glucose levels rise too high the body attempts to restore a healthy level by releasing insulin from the pancreas (exposure to insulin encourages cells in the body to draw glucose from the bloodstream). If, however blood glucose levels are chronically* high, meaning that cells throughout the body are chronically exposed to insulin, they lose their sensitivity to insulin's effects, and become what is called 'insulin resistant' (IR). As the cells in the body become insulin resistant they ... are increasingly unable to draw glucose from the blood and become low in glucose (hypoglycaemic) …leading to: lower energy production by the cells higher storage of fat in the body raised blood glucose, fat and insulin levels, and reduced function Two examples: IR liver cells are less able to fulfill one of their major roles: the regulation of glucose and fat levels in the blood, resulting in even higher blood levels of both IR brain cells...

Xylitol, a low-calorie sugar made from birch bark, certain fibrous fruits and vegetables and corn cobs, is almost too good to be true. It is a safe, natural sweetener which is as sweet as, and tastes exactly like, cane or beet sugar but: contains 40% fewer calories and 75% fewer carbohydrates boosts rather than disrupts the immune system protects against rather than encourages harmful bacteria and increases rather than decreases plaque alkali levels in the mouth, thus is good for your teeth. 1,2 Furthermore, if women use xylitol when pregnant, its protective effect against tooth decay is passed from mother to baby 3 is slowly absorbed and metabolised by the body, helping stabilise insulin and hormone levels, protecting against breast cancer and slowing ageing has no known toxic effects can replace sugar in cooking, baking and beverages is also found in chewing gum, mints and nasal sprays The human body itself makes and treats itself with an average...

In 2005 Dr. Stephen Cavallino persuaded ten of his 'carbohydrate addict', overweight patients (eight females, two males) to: „     put themselves onto a higher-protein, lower carbohydrate diet for eight-weeks „     add a 'triply essential' fatty acid omega-6:omega-3 ~2:1 daily dietary supplement for the second four-weeks of the trial (2,900 milligrams daily, as provided by LINKYES Ultimate EFAs) „     assess themselves before starting the higher-protein, lower carbohydrate diet, then keep a daily log of their experience, particularly with regard to:     „     appetite    „     carbohydrate craving     „     weight reduction     „     general energy     „     general alertness Analysis of the logs justified the following conclusions: „     Adopting a higher-protein, lower carb...

Before the boom in processed foods most people ate sufficient pristine, vibrant, polyunsaturated essential fatty acids (linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid ) to meet most of the body's needs. This is no longer so, and our health is almost certainly suffering. It is important to restore good levels of the two essential fatty acids into our daily diet. The body uses various mixes of linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid for many purposes. They are, for instance, the body's fats of choice for the maintenance of the membranes of (i) the body's ~37 trillion cells, and (ii) the (sometimes thousands of) energy-producing organelles called mitochondria inside every cell. A key function of the cell membrane is cell oxygenation, which it does by facilitating the diffusion of oxygen from the bloodstream into the interior of the cell. A key function of...

For the last six months we have put in a lot of time learning everything there is to know about fatty acids.  Here is the first posting ...  Within the fields of academic biology, medicine and nutrition the adjective ‘essential’ is used in three different ways. There is the common usage of '‘must have’ or ‘cannot do without’ this or that nutrient if one wants to achieve good health. Many fatty acids are deemed 'essential ' or 'singly essential' in this sense. Academic biologists, doctors, researchers and nutritionists sometimes use the adjective 'essential' as a shorthand for 'this nutrient cannot be made by the human body'. There are two fatty acids considered 'doubly essential' - alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) and linoleic acid (LA) - in that: we cannot do without them if we want to achieve good health they cannot be made by the human body For many people the adjective 'essential' is also a synonym of the adjective 'p...

  Green Health Watch Magazine published its new free newsletter last week .  It was a bumper edition (20 articles) because I wanted to give readers a representative mix of all of the magazine's principal interests - Children’s health   Diet   Energy sources   Fertility  Vaccination   Pesticides   GM crops   Chemical pollution   Illnesses of our time   Radiation   Climate change   Lifestyle   Complementary medicine   Food production   Orthodox medicine   Transport So. Here's an inaugatory treat for you. If you would like to be emailed future editions (probably monthly)  complete the following 'letter' and send it to me at: nick@greenhealthwatch.com Dear Nick Please include this email address ............................ in the email address list for your free Green Health Watch Magazine until further notice. My f...