Part 22 (2/2)
The omega-3 series should const.i.tute approximately 10 to 20% of our fat intake. Some of the reported benefits of the omega-3s include protection against heart disease, strokes, and clots in the lungs; anticarcinogenic activity against tumors; protection against diabetes; prevention and treatment of arthritis; and treatment for asthma, PMS, allergies, inflammatory diseases, water retention, rough, dry skin, and multiple sclerosis. The omega-3s are reported to increase vitality and contribute to smoother skin, s.h.i.+nier hair, softer hands, smoother muscle action, the normalization of blood sugar, increased cold weather resistance, and a generally improved immune system. Omega-3s are also important for visual function, development of the fetal brain, brain function in adults, adrenal function, sperm formation, and the amelioration of some psychiatric behavior disorders. It may take three to six months after starting flaxseed oil supplementation to see results.
Flaxseed contains 18-24% omega-3 compared to the low content in fish of 0 to 2%. This is significant because many people mistakenly think that they need to eat fish in order to get the omega-3-derived EPA for heart and artery protection. Abundant research on the subject indicates that this is simply not true. The vegetarian flaxseed has many major advantages over fish oil. The first is that the omega-3 is a basic building block in the human body for many functions, only one of which is to make EPA. The fish oil doesn't supply omega-3; it supplies the EPA-and therefore limits the body's options to make what it needs from the omega-3. Thus, the omega-3 is a better nutritional resource than the high-EPA fish oil.
Another major difference is the fiber that comes in the flaxseed. Fish has no fiber and also is a highly concentrated food. Unlike many other plants, flaxseed has a special fiber called lignin that our body converts to lignans, which help to build up the immune system and have specific anticancer, antifungal, and antiviral properties. High levels of lignans are a.s.sociated with reduced rates of colon and breast cancer. Just ten grams, or about one to two teaspoons of flaxseed oil per day, raises levels of the lignans significantly. A third advantage of the flaxseed oil over fish oil is that fish and fish oil are high in cholesterol. Three and one-half ounces of cod liver oil contain 570 milligrams of cholesterol, which equals the amount found in two egg yolks. The fourth advantage of flaxseed oil over fish oil is the fact that fish are often high in toxic residues because they sometimes live in polluted waters. The fifth reason flaxseed is more propitious is that high levels of fish oil are rich in vitamin A and D, which can be toxic in high doses. Please note that provitamin carotene, which is converted by the body to utilizable vitamin A, cannot be toxic like animal-sourced vitamin A.
How to Take Flax.
ALTHOUGH SOME CLINICIANS HAVE ESTIMATED that one regularly needs as much as three tablespoons of flaxseed oil per day, this may be more a therapeutic dosage than a maintenance dose. Dr. Rudin, a flaxseed researcher, uses two to five tablespoons per day. Researchers at Omega Nutrition, who produce a high-quality flaxseed oil, claim that a healthy daily dose is closer to one teaspoon of oil per day or three teaspoons of the flaxseed in its whole form. Flaxseed oils from Omega Nutrition and Barleans seem to be the flaxseed oils on the market with the most enzymes preserved and the least amount of fatty acids changed from cis to trans. Because their flaxseed oil is so close to the natural state, it is the one exception to using free oils in the diet.
When taken as a whole seed, the flaxseed can be soaked, as with other seeds, in order to deactivate the enzyme inhibitors. I have found it best to use them in a blender with water, fruits, vegetables, or other seeds. Breaking up the soaked seeds in a blender makes them easier to a.s.similate and minimizes the laxative effect from the whole soaked seeds. One can also just grind the whole, dry flaxseed in a coffee mill and take it directly. This is the easiest and perhaps the most effective way to take the flaxseed. Conversely, when oil is extracted, which causes some omega-3 loss, it begins to break down to plain fatty acids, which may not happen when flaxseed is soaked. I feel that the addition of flaxseeds to the diet is important for vegetarians, particularly live-fooders. I have had several cases of people on a raw-food diet that did not include flaxseeds who had health problems which disappeared within a month after they began taking flaxseed or flaxseed oil. I consider flaxseed an essential for a healthy live-food diet. If one wants to take flaxseed oil instead of the seeds themselves, the oil should be packaged in a light- and air-blocking container and should not have been heated to temperatures above 118 degrees F during the processing and bottling. Once opened, the flaxseed oil should be refrigerated and consumed within three to six weeks. In an unopened state it will retain its strength for four months. Freezing will extend shelf life for up to one year.
Fis.h.i.+ng in Polluted Waters.
FROM A PRACTICAL POINT OF VIEW, eating fish is potentially dangerous because of the widespread, ever-increasing pollution of the waters of the world. The biggest water contaminants are the PCBs and mercury. PCBs, along with dioxin, DDT, and dieldrin, are among the most toxic of chemicals on the planet. According to J. Culhane, in his 1988 article ”PCBs: The Poisons That Won't Go Away,” only a few parts per billion of these substances can cause cancer and birth defects in lab animals. The Tenth Annual Report of the Council on Environmental Quality sponsored by the US government found PCBs in 100% of all sperm samples. According to a Was.h.i.+ngton Post article in 1979, the PCBs are considered one of the main reasons that the average sperm count of the American male is approximately 70% of what it was thirty years ago. This same article also points out that 25% of college students were sterile at the time as compared to one-half of one percent thirty-five years earlier. Most toxicity experts agree that the main source of human contamination comes from eating fish from waters in which the PCB levels are high, which today can be almost anywhere. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that fish can acc.u.mulate up to nine million times the level of PCBs in the water in which they live. PCBs have been found in fish from the deepest and most remote parts of the world's oceans.
Fish and sh.e.l.lfish are natural acc.u.mulators of toxins, because they live and are flushed by the water in which they dwell. Sh.e.l.lfish such as oysters, clams, mussels, and scallops filter ten gallons of water every hour. In a month, an oyster will acc.u.mulate toxins at concentrations that are 70,000 times greater than the water they are living in. The problem isn't solved by not eating fish when one realizes that half the world's fish catch is fed to livestock. According to Diet for A New America, more fish are consumed by US livestock than by the entire human population of all the countries in Western Europe. Periodic testing in the US has found eggs and chickens highly contaminated with PCBs after being fed fish that were contaminated with PCBs.
Mercury toxicity from ingesting fish is another well-known source of illness. Two forms of mercury are the most dangerous. One is the quicksilver mercury and the other is methylmercury, which is about fifty times more toxic. Although there is a general agreement that mercury in plants is a less toxic form, experts do not agree as to whether the mercury in fish is stored primarily in the form of the more toxic methylmercury. In any case, children and adults who ate fish from mercury-contaminated waters in Mina-mata Bay, j.a.pan, in 1953, along the Agano River in Niigata, j.a.pan, in 1962, and other locations in Iraq, Pakistan, and Guatemala, all have suffered death, coma, or a variety of brain and neurological damage.
Aside from these more acute incidents of chemical factory mercury contamination, such contamination of fish is widespread. According to Rudolph Ballentine, M.D., mercury toxicity is being reported with increasing frequency by physicians as well as dentists. The two main contributing factors seem to be a diet high in fish and the common use of silver-mercury amalgams for dental work. Fish consumption alone may be enough to cause mercury toxicity. An article by the Canadian Medical a.s.sociation in 1976 reported that Indians in Northern Canada, who ate over one pound of fish per day, had symptoms of mercury poisoning. A 1985 study in West Germany of 136 people who regularly consumed fish from the Elbe River found a correlation between the blood levels of both mercury and pesticides and the amount of fish eaten.
Fish and sh.e.l.lfish may also carry their own toxins. The most common of these toxins is ciguatera poisoning. The cigua toxin is both a neurotoxin and gastrointestinal toxin which may give symptoms of numbness and tingling to lips, nausea, abdominal cramps, paralysis, convulsions, and even death. A little less than one case in ten is fatal. Certain species of red snapper, pompano, jackfish, grouper, and eel may have the toxin. Certain sh.e.l.lfish such as clams, mussels, scallops, and crabs may take in a toxic substance from plankton at certain times of the year, which may also cause a poisoning effect similar in severity to ciguatera poisoning. This poisoning is difficult to treat. I have seen at least one patient who was unable to work for several years after suffering such a poisoning.
Because there do not seem to be any fish available that are not potentially filled with toxins, one should consider carefully whether it's worth the risk to eat fish. In a study published in the Diet and Nutrition Letter of Tufts University, it was reported that the more fish pregnant mothers ate from Lake Michigan, the more their babies showed abnormal reflexes, general weakness, slower responses to external stimuli, and various signs of depression. They found that mothers eating fish only two or three times a month produced babies weighing seven to nine ounces less at birth and with smaller heads. Jacobsen, in a follow-up study that was reported in Child Development, found that there was a definite correlation between the amount of fish the mothers ate and the child's brain development, even if fish were eaten only one time per month. He found that the more fish the pregnant mothers ate, the lower was the verbal I.Q. of the children. Children are usually the most sensitive to toxins, and they are prime indicators of what may be happening to adults on a more subtle level. A Swedish study in 1983 found that the milk of nursing mothers who regularly ate fatty fish from the Baltic Sea had higher levels of PCBs and pesticide residues than even meat-eaters. Lactovegetarians were found to have the lowest pesticide residues in this study.
The sanitation problem a.s.sociated with fish and sh.e.l.lfish must also be considered. Once the fish or sh.e.l.lfish are caught en ma.s.se in the trawler nets, the crus.h.i.+ng pressure on the fish causes the intestinal contents to be squeezed out, contaminating the rest of the catch. Also, the fis.h.i.+ng net is oftentimes dragged across the bottom of the ocean where the sediment is highly contaminated with toxins and bacteria. In the book Basic Food Microbiology, it is reported that the contamination from the sediment results in a bacterial count that ranges up to a million per gram. This is a very high count; salmonella, for example, in counts as low as one to ten bacteria per gram, have caused infections in humans. Salmonella is not so much a problem with shrimp, but more with bottom-feeding fish and sh.e.l.lfish in coastal waters which have been polluted by sewage. By the time fish have reached port, most have suffered considerable contamination and microbial growth. The task of processing, which involves gutting and filleting, further spreads the contamination. The inspection of fish for contamination is more thorough than government inspection of beef and poultry. Sixty percent of the fish are inspected by the National Seafood Quality and Inspection Laboratory. Sh.e.l.lfish are inspected under a special surveillance agency set up after a typhoid breakout in 1925.
Not only do the bodies of fish become the repositories of chemical toxins, but they have the propensity to concentrate microorganisms as well, especially salmonella and hepat.i.tis. In Basic Food Microbiology, it shows that 7 to 20% of sh.e.l.lfish and 40% of the mussels gathered from five separate collecting stations were contaminated with salmonella. Some, but not all, of this bacterial and viral contamination can be avoided if the sh.e.l.lfish are cooked. For example, in Transition to Vegetarianism, Dr. Ballentine reports that a bacterial count of over a million per gram was found in crabs that were boiled for thirty minutes.
I have presented many reasons why one would want to give up fish. There are no nutrients found exclusively in fish that cannot be found in safer, healthier, vegetarian sources. Although seafood was once considered a healthy food, modern-day pollution has made it risky to eat. The biggest reason of all not to eat fish is to love oneself more than being addicted to old eating patterns of culture and convenience.
Preview of Chapter 23.
STAGE THREE IS THE FIRST STEP INTO VEGETARIANISM. It is a major lifestyle change and needs to be experienced in that light. There may be some minor psychological s.h.i.+fts as well as a slow detoxification process that is initiated. By moving into it slowly and peacefully these changes will have a minimal impact. The two best-known diets for a beginning vegetarian are the Airola Diet and macrobiotics. Both these diets will be discussed. You may settle into either of these two diets and be quite comfortable. The conscious eater diet includes these and, by the end of Stage Three, takes you a little further for optimal health. It allows you to do building or cleansing, heating or cooling, and to balance yin and yang and acid-base. In this chapter you are introduced to the concept of biogenic and bioactive foods and fermented foods. Questions about dairy products, calcium balance, fiber, oxalates, and phytates are also addressed. In beginning a vegetarian diet, give yourself four to six months to make the transition. Are you ready to change to a diet that will significantly improve your health and aid your spiritual well-being?
I. Developing a vegetarian diet II. Biogenic foods III. The psychology of the transition to vegetarianism IV. Holy cow! Pros and cons of dairy products V. The Airola Diet.
VI. The Macrobiotic Diet.
VII. Fermented live foods.
VIII. Nuances of the Stage Three diet.
Stage Three: Developing a Vegetarian Diet.
THE TRANSITION TO A VEGETARIAN DIET IS A MAJOR LIFE STEP. People come to vegetarianism in many different ways. Some choose it for ethical reasons, others to minimize cruelty to animals, others for health reasons, some to help preserve the ecology or to create an atmosphere for world peace, and some make the change for specifically spiritual reasons or to enhance their meditation. For many the change may be motivated by a combination of all of these arguments. Whatever the reason, it is a transition worth understanding so it can be done gracefully and in the most healthy, harmonious, and peaceful way. By making the changes gradually, one gives the body, mind, and circle of family and friends a period of adjustment that supports the transition. This approach helps to guarantee a sustained s.h.i.+ft to a vegetarian way of life.
Most often, when one stops eating all red meat, poultry, eggs, fish, and other seafood, one naturally s.h.i.+fts from a high-protein, high-fat, low-fiber, low-complex-carbohydrate, high-pesticide diet to a low-fat, low-protein, high-natural-carbohydrate one. This high-, natural-, complex-carbohydrate and low-protein diet is the one recommended by the highly prestigious International Society for Research on Nutrition and the Diseases of Civilization.
Not everyone makes a smooth s.h.i.+ft from a flesh-centered to a vegetarian diet. There is a tendency for some people, under the illusion they are eating a low-fat and low-protein diet, to think that because they stopped eating the highly concentrated protein of flesh foods, they can begin eating large amounts of dairy, oily foods, tofu, and roasted nuts and seeds. These foods are high in cooked fats and protein and should not be eaten in excess either. The general findings of cross-cultural studies suggest that a diet high in natural complex carbohydrates and low in protein creates the best health, vitality, and longevity. Many of the cultures noted for longevity eat only one-half to one-third the protein that Western nations eat. Diets for fast oxidizers and parasympathetics require a higher ratio of protein and fat to carbohydrates, but can easily remain relatively low-protein. A diet high in complex natural carbohydrates includes fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and grains. This is the essential diet followed by long-lived people such as the Hunzas of Pakistan, many of whom live close to one hundred years or more, and the Russian Caucasians, called Abkhazians, who have seven times more centenarians per million than the US. Although the Abkhazians eat some meat, according to Paavo Airola, most of their centenarians are vegetarian. Other long-lived cultures, such as the Bulgarians and Vilcabamban Indians, also follow a similar diet. Americans, who are the world leaders in cancer, heart disease, arthritis, obesity, high blood pressure, multiple sclerosis, mortality rates, miscarriages and birth deformities, eat more meat, more protein, and probably more cooked fat than any other nation.
Biogenic Foods.
RAW OR SPROUTED SEEDS, NUTS, GRAINS, AND GRa.s.sES are the most potent life-force foods. They are called biogenic foods. These foods contain the secret of life itself, the germ, which contains the reproductive power for the perpetuation of the species. They contain the spark of life which sparks the life of those who eat them in their live form. These foods have all the nutrients essential for bountiful human health and longevity. When sprouted, many of the nutrients are increased and the nuts, seeds, and grains become considerably easier to digest. When most seeds and nuts are soaked and sprouted, naturally occurring digestive enzyme inhibitors are washed away and the proteins, lipids, and complex carbohydrates become predigested into free amino acids, free fatty acids, and simpler carbohydrates. Cooking may destroy these enzyme inhibitors, but it also disrupts the SOEFs, destroys vitamins, mineral complexes, and food enzymes, and coagulates the protein. Many of the grains contain complete proteins, essential fatty acids, and many vitamins and minerals. They are a high-quality source of vitamin E, lecithin, and most of the B-complex vitamins. They also are high in fiber, which is so vital to our health. An increased consumption of biogenic foods is part of Stage Three.
Bioactive Foods.
THESE ARE FULLY MATURE FOODS that are live, but not the super-high life-force foods that biogenic foods are. They are excellent foods and very much a part of Stage Three. The difference between biogenic and bioactive foods is the difference between the high vitality of a young child who is rapidly growing versus the vitality of a healthy adult. Bioactive foods include all of the vegetarian foods, such as vegetables, fruits, mature seeds, nuts, grains, beans, and legumes.
Vegetables, including sea vegetables such as dulse and kelp, are also extremely important to our health. They are excellent sources of minerals such as calcium and iron, as well as enzymes and vitamins. They contain complete proteins which, according to Paavo Airola, often have a better net protein utilization value than proteins from animal sources. One acre of leafy greens contains twenty-five times the amount of protein as one acre devoted to livestock. Vegetables serve both as cleansers and builders for the body.
Fruits are nature's suns.h.i.+ne and pure gifts to us from Mother Nature. They are nature's solar collectors and can be thought of as condensed sunlight. Most fruits are rich in vitamin A and C and a varied a.s.sortment of essential minerals. They are the highest of all foods in boron, which is important in preventing osteoporosis. They are not only nutritive but good detoxifiers and bowel cleaners. They contain a higher amount of structured water than any other food and are high in energetic radiations arising from the four elements of air, sun, earth, and water.
Legumes, such as soybeans, peanuts, and kidney beans, are powerful building foods that are high in protein. According to the Max Planck Inst.i.tute, about 50% of the protein is coagulated when any protein is cooked, so soy and other legumes that need to be cooked are, for this reason, not the best protein as compared to nuts, seeds, and grains which can be eaten raw or sprouted.
Soybeans have provided a source of high protein in Asian countries for many thousands of years. Because of their strong inhibitory enzymes, they must be sprouted or cooked before they can be safely consumed. They are high in fiber and lecithin. If not cooked, they also provide a good source of vitamins, especially the B vitamins.
<script>