Practical Nutrition+ Vol 01 No 03
Practical Nutrition+ (tm)
Vol 1, No. 3
April, 1995
Copyright 1995 by Dennis Denlinger
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
"Practical Nutrition+" is a monthly electronic newsletter about care of the human body. Over the past 20 years the Editor, Dennis Denlinger, has been researching how to care for his own body with much success. During this time many theories and methods have been investigated and tried. Some have worked and some haven't. Some which have worked have been replaced with others which have worked better. Even more subjects have been researched than have been tried.
Suggestions, gripes, questions and other feedback, addressed to Editor, "Practical Nutrition+" at denlingr@ix.netcom.com are welcome. Also, experts and people with practical experience with various areas of health are welcome to contribute guest articles. Contributors will be acknowledged by listing their Name, Firm Name, Street Address, Phone Number and E-mail address.
The content of "Practical Nutrition+" is determined by the Editor, with due weight being given to your input. It will include from time to time articles by Dennis Denlinger or other lay persons who have had practical experience in day-to-day nutrition, articles by health care professionals, book reviews, answers to your questions and perhaps some surprises.
>>>"Practical Nutrition+" does NOT give advice, but is only intended to inform, to entertain and to be a place where ideas regarding health can be exchanged. If you have a specific health problem, consult an appropriate licensed health care practitioner.<<<
"Practical Nutrition+" will be available at various locations around the Internet. To subscribe to the electronic version of "Practical Nutrition+" send both your e-mail and paper mail addresses to denlingr@ix.netcom.com or to Dennis Denlinger, P.O. Box 60431, Sacramento, CA 95860-0431, USA. Your address will Not be distributed to others, but we may send you other pertinent information from time to time.
Our Body is a Garden
Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.
Have you ever noticed how the human body resembles a garden? In a garden there are groupings of different kinds of plants. In the body there are groupings of different kinds of cells. In the garden individual plants grow at somewhat different rates and to somewhat different sizes. In the body, individual cells also grow at somewhat different rates and to somewhat different sizes.
In the garden there are beneficial critters such as earthworms and ladybugs. In the body there are beneficial critters such as acidophilus bacteria. In the garden there are unwanted critters such as snails which eat the plants which make up our garden. In our bodies there are unwanted critters such as the liver fluke parasite which eat up our cells. In the garden there are bacteria such as leaf rot which destroy our garden. In our bodies there are tuberculosis bacteria which destroy our cells. In the garden there are some plants such as that apple tree over there which can survive many seasons whereas there are other plants such as lettuce which survive only one season. Likewise, in the body there are some cells which survive the entire life of the body such as nerve cells whereas there are other cells such as blood cells which survive only one season.
A major difference between a garden and one of our human bodies is that a body is mobile and the garden is stationary. Now, just imagine a garden which can stand up, walk and run. CATCH THAT CABBAGE! What a funny sight, seeing a garden pick itself up, walk out to the car, get in and drive away.
Vice versa, imagine a human body with rows of cells down which you can walk to provide service such as pulling the cancer cells or thinning out the poorly growing cells. Imagine the body just laying there and doing nothing but grow. Somebody has to come by and keep it trimmed and in shape or the cells will overgrow the rows and fill up the walking paths.
What does all this mean?
Just like a garden, our bodies need attention and care to thrive and provide us what we need of them.
You might be walking down a path in you garden and drop a trowel without causing the garden much ill effect. You might swallow a small marble without causing your body much harm. However, if you were to drop 10,000 trowels in your garden, they would interfere with the growth of the plants. And if you were to swallow 10,000 marbles you would probably as least have indigestion, if not something more serious.
Intelligent gardeners plan their gardens as systems with many different species of edible as well as non-edible plants and other life such as insects, birds and worms with the intent of having a healthy garden. It takes all kinds of life for a garden to grow healthily. For instance, lady bugs eat many of the insects which prey on the edible plants. Some inedible plants make emissions which repel unwanted insects. Earthworms and bacteria in the soil prepare certain elements in the soil for absorption by the root systems of the plants. These gardeners also know that spreading certain things such as common table salt on the garden will kill it. Therefore they do not sprinkle salt on the garden.
Intelligent gardeners of the body know that it also has systems which work together for optimum health. There are certain cells such as white blood cells which, like the lady bugs, attack and kill (eat) unwanted (bacteria) cells. There are beneficial bacteria in the intestines which do beneficial things for our bodies such as producing vitamin K. The good body gardener also knows that some salt is needed by the body, as it is naturally somewhat salty. He also knows that if the body has too much salt it will not do so well and therefore controls how much salt the body receives.
When I started thinking of the body like a garden, it became less of a monolithic hunk of rock and more of a living, breathing group of systems which need to work together for optimum health. Having this viewpoint made me more willing to care for it properly. Perhaps this viewpoint will be of benefit to you, too. I hope so.
By Dennis Denlinger
Organic Foods vs. Conventionally Grown Foods
In Greece, the farmers grow organically and don't even know it. A good friend who grew up there tells me that they never use pesticides. One of her aunts, she related, lived to be 130 years old. A couple other relatives lived to over 110, actively farming and enjoying life the entire time. There may be other factors in the Greek diet (also called Mediterranean Diet, which will be discussed in a later issue) which contribute to a long and active life, such as the fact that they eat very little meat, but the absence of pest killers definitely contributes.
Go take a look at a farm were pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilizers are used liberally. Dig up a shovelful of soil. Look for life in the soil. It won't be there. The pesticides kill not only the unwanted insects, but also the wanted ones, such as earthworms, which process the minerals in the soil into a form which plants can readily absorb.
Next, go look at a farm which uses organic growing techniques with no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. Dig up a shovelful of soil. Look for life in that soil. It will be crawling with worms and other critters. Those critters process the soil into a form which make it possible for the plants to absorb the minerals they, and we, need for optimum health.
According to David Steinman in "Diet for a Poisoned Planet," 60% of the pesticides used by the modern farmer are NOT to improve yield, but to improve the appearance of the crop when it arrives on the grocer's shelf. Organic produce has more blemishes which, although not detrimental to nutrition, are not appealing to the eye of the shopper.
For instance, the other day I had an organic orange with a patch of what appeared to be scar tissue on it. When I peeled it, there was no sign of any damage to the fruit. Had that orange been produced with pesticides, the toxic spray would have eventually gotten into the ground, been absorbed by the tree's root system and incorporated into the orange. True, I would not have had to see the blemish, but I would have been subjecting my body to more toxic load. Enough of that kind of load and the human body would eventually become partially (i.e. ill) or totally (i.e. dead) unservicable.
Much of the non-organically grown food also is sprayed with wax to reduce spoilage and give a sheen. Back many years ago when I ate that kind of food, that wax was distasteful to me. Then recently I found out in Dr. Clark's book, "The Cure for All Cancers" that the wax creates an environment in which destructive parasites can flourish in the body. Food certified to be organically grown cannot be sprayed and still be called organic. Okay, so I have to eat the apple or cucumber sooner or risk spoilage. Which is better, to have the fruit spoil due to lack of a wax coat or to have the body spoil due to ingesting the wax?
Generally, organic food in the market costs more than non-organic food. There are several reasons for this. One reason is that organic farming is more labor intensive. For instance, organic farmers have to pull weeds mechanically or by hand whereas the non-organic farmer sprays toxic herbicides to get rid of weeds. Also, most organic farmers are small and therefore do not have the advantage of large scale to spread out the fixed costs.
Many of the costs of non-organic farming are hidden and paid for in other ways. For instance, there is a higher incidence of cancer and other illness among farm workers and their families. The dollar cost of treating the illness often is carried by health insurance which all of us pay for or by government sponsored social programs which our taxes pay for. This dollar cost is not factored into the price you pay at the market. There is no way to account for the "cost" in terms of human suffering.
In approving the use of each pesticide, the FDA recognizes that there will be a certain additional death rate per 1,000,000 population. They adjudicate that the economic benefit to the society of pesticide use over-balances the cost of treating the illness which precedes the death. This cost also is not factored into the price you pay for non-organic food at the market. Once again, there is no way to account for the "cost" in terms of human suffering and loss of loved ones due to pesticide use.
As a side note, according to Steinman, infants and young children are more susceptible to these toxins than adults.
The FDA does not take into account the variety of pesticides used together. Your pharmacist recognizes that certain drugs used together can give very adverse effects and tries to guard you against such danger. However, the FDA does not even test which pesticides used together, when ingested by humans, give adverse effects. This potentially multiplies the economic cost as well as the human "cost" to the society of non-organic farming many times.
Then, as the pesticides wash on down the rivers to the sea they kill fish and/or make the fish unfit for human consumption. Nobody knows what economic cost this is to our total food production picture. The economic loss of those fish is not factored into the cost at the supermarket of non-organic food. In addition, some of the fish is tainted with pesticides and eaten, causing more illness and costs as described above.
Some of the pesticides get into the ground water. Therefore municipal water engineers have to go to greater lengths and cost to provide us with safe drinking water. That cost also is not factored into the "lower" cost of non-organic as opposed to organic food on the grocer's shelves.
Just how much of a difference do the above factors make between the cost of organic and non-organic food at the market? Nobody has bothered to do such a detailed study.
Now that I have been eating organic food for a while, I can recognize a taste difference between organic and non-organic foods. I have heard the same from others as well. What economic value is there in eating better tasting organic food as opposed to less tasty non-organic food?
In my opinion, even though organic food costs more than non- organic, I would rather pay more than my fair share for my food and reduce the risk of paying more doctor bills, losing productive work time and perhaps cutting my life short with cancer or some other major illness. I most definitely do not want to subject my children to the danger of illness posed by non- organic foods, no matter what the cost.
The rapid growth of the organic food industry testifies to the fact that others feel the same way.
by Dennis Denlinger
Answers to Your Questions
What can I do right now to improve my nutrition with no expense?
Do as many mothers tell their children: Chew your food at least 20 times each bite. There is good scientific reasoning for this. Your saliva contains enzymes which are essential in starting the digestive process of food. No matter how much good, nutritious food you eat, if it is not digested and absorbed by the body through the intestinal walls you are merely making expensive fertilizer. Chewing food well is the first step toward making it absorbable by the body.
To further aid the digestive process, do not drink beverages shortly before, during or for 1 hour after eating. The liquids will dilute the digestive juices in your stomach, making them less effective. Those juices need to be full strength to do their job well.
Book Recommendation
Have you ever seen the commercials telling the good things about sugar? These commercials tell you that when you are feeling tired and run-down in the afternoon, you should eat some candy or cookies or other sugar for a quick pick-me-up.
These same commercials do not tell you that the sugar leeches (sucks out) necessary vitamins and minerals from your body. Removing those nutrients can cause the body to feel less than optimum - perhaps tired and rundown. The classic book "Sugar Blues" by William Dufty does tell you. It tells you much more, too.
A diet of sugar can be worse than not eating anything. For example, some sailors were ship wrecked in 1793 with only sugar and rum as rations. When they were rescued only nine days later they were in a wasted condition due to starvation. In comparison, a girl injured in a plane wreck in some mountains and living only on snow was found alive a month later.
He goes on to say that refined sugar is lethal when ingested by humans because it has empty calories. Those calories *need* vitamins and minerals which are drained or leeched from the body's storehouse. This weakens the body's systems, making it susceptible to disease.
He covers the history, politics and economics of the increase and maintenance of sugar use. After reading this book, if you really *get* it, you will throw away the sugar bowl, the cookie jar and read all labels for sugar - and not eat any foods which contain the white granules.
This book was written in 1975. It is a classic and still holds a place on the book racks in health food stores.
by Dennis Denlinger
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"Practical Nutrition+" is produced and edited by Dennis Denlinger. From time to time I have data on my favorite subjects, publications (I operate a publishing house) or products which I can send you. Some goes best by e-mail and some goes best by snail mail. I will have a summary of my current "nutrition hat," covering basic concepts and how I am presently applying them, available soon via e-mail. Eventually it all will appear in "Practical Nutrition+." For specific requests or potluck, send your e-mail and snail mail addresses to denlingr@ix.netcom.com. or snail mail to Dennis Denlinger, P.O. Box 60431, Sacramento, CA 95860-0431, USA, or telephone (916) 485-5119. I may ask for postage on some snail mail requests.
