Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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 This expanded edition of Prescription for dietary Wellness includes the most important current information on phytochemicals, their curative powers, and which foods contain this powerful medicine.
Women Have Special Needs
Because of their physical ability to reproduce the human species, women have special nutritional needs. The delicate hormonal balance that fluctuates throughout women's lives greatly affects their health. Today, the hand that rocks the cradle is also bringing home the bacon, and all kinds of new problems with health are starting to affect women in greater numbers. |
| Using that information, I have devised some simple basic dietary guidelines that form the basis of recommendations on using nutrition to fuel, nurture, and heal your body. This chapter serves as an introduction to basics that underlie the more detailed information that follows in the rest of the book.
First, it is wise to always to eat a variety of food. This helps to minimize the possibility of repeated exposure to the same pesticide residues and other toxins and unnatural, harmful things that may be attached to foods or introduced during the growth cycle. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 It's probably because the vast majority of the people actually writing these dietary guidelines have financial ties to the very food industry groups that would be financially harmed by any advice telling Americans to eat less of anything. It resembles the situation at the FDA, where many of the people making the decisions on which drugs get approved are, themselves, bankrolled by pharmaceutical companies. Can you spell C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N? To learn more about how all this really works behind the scenes of the food industry, read the book Food Politics by Marion Nestle. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 So when DSHEA came into being it was a great milestone nationally; it essentially legitimized the dietary supplement industry. Post-1994 with DSHEA there are very specific guidelines as a dietary supplement company that we operate within. So when DSHEA came into being, there were still people who said, "Dietary supplements just aren't regulated." Well, that's completely false. They are regulated. They fall within the guidelines of the FDA. There's page after page after page of recommendations. |
Phyllis A. Balch, CNC
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| Hormone replacement therapy, osteoporosis, cancer, and heart disease (surprisingly, the number-one killer of women) are all addressed from a nutritional viewpoint, along with dietary suggestions for continuing health.
Threats to Health
There is so much information—both valid and invalid— about the myriad ways in which food, water, and environment may be harmful to health. It is difficult to understand how food additives, irradiation, preservatives, pesticides, herbicides, and soil depletion affect health. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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 Cholesterol 85 mg - Sodium 90 mg - Total Carbohydrate 1 g dietary Fiber 0 g - Sugars 0 g - Protein 35 g - Calcium 4% DV
Block Beanofritos
2 cups (one 16-ounce can) black beans 1 medium tomato, chopped 1 small onion, minced Salt and pepper to taste
1 avocado
]A cup plain low-fat yogurt
4 low-fat whole-wheat tortilla wraps
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro Dash of Tabasco (optional)
In a medium skillet, saute the black beans with the tomato and onion until the vegetables are soft and the beans are hot. Add salt and pepper while mixture is cooking. |
David Winston, RH(AHG), and Steven Maimes
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 The level of evidence must be considered when claims about the properties of botanicals used as dietary supplements are evaluated.
The USP editors are unreceptive to accepting any research that is not placebo-controlled and double-blinded as the basis for determining the efficacy and safety of medicinal herbs. Studies that use placebos give the medication under study to some volunteers and another agent that they know has no effect to others. In studies that are double-blind, neither the researchers nor the volunteers know which drug they are getting. |
| Monographs for some dietary supplements and ingredients appear in a separate section of the USP.
The FDA recognizes the USP and National Formulary (NF) as official standards, and they are now published as a single volume (USP-NF). The USP-NF also has official government recognition in more than forty countries outside the United States.
The USP was first published in 1820 and described botanical, mineral, and animal-derived materials used in drug preparations. Over time, new materials have been added and others deleted. Unfortunately, many of the items dropped were botanicals. |
| In 2005, the USP contained 95 dietary supplement monographs, both botanical and nonbotanical.
Why Were so Many Botanicals Dropped from the USP? Botanical medicine began to be replaced by pharmaceutical drugs beginning around 1880. In part, this was a result of the rise of the modern pharmaceutical industry and the discovery of powerful synthetic coal tar dye compounds by German researchers. With the new century, herbs were seen as old-fashioned and relics of the past. The future of health care was now firmly linked to the laboratory and science. |
| Several adaptogens, when used along with dietary changes, exercise, and supplements, can help reduce cholesterol levels.
Adaptogens for Cardiovascular Health
Most adaptogens are not specific cardiovascular tonics, but they do have numerous effects that are beneficial, including normalization of blood pressure, vascular protection, and mild blood thinning qualities, thereby decreasing the likelihood of strokes. Some can lower levels of low density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) cholesterol, and they protect against damage caused by cardiotoxic drugs. |
| These names are required on the labels of commercial dietary supplements. However, some herbalists prefer to use different names based on regional popularity and tradition. The names used throughout this book are primarily in harmony with Herbs of Commerce, with a few exceptions.
ADAPTOGENS AND PHYTOCHEMICALS
Pharmacology is the study of drugs and their effects on the human body. A drug is a substance that is given to treat or prevent a disease. The study of the chemical makeup of plants is called phytochemistry, and the study of naturally derived drugs is known as pharmacognosy. |
Wendy Bazilian, DRPH, MA, RD, Steven Pratt, MD, Kathy Matthews
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 And in a meta-analysis review of different styles of diets over a 24-week period, researchers found that weight loss was most rapid and significantly more weight was lost on a very low-calorie diet that specifically included soy when compared to three other dietary interventions that included meal replacements, energy restriction, or low-calorie programs.43 One simple reason for these results is that we know that when you substitute vegetable protein, like soy, for animal protein you tend to consume fewer calories because plant-based protein is generally lower in calories than animal protein. |
| There's another issue worth considering in regard to weight loss and dietary fat: Researchers have recently been learning that it's not just the amount of fat in the diet that affects weight loss or gain; it's also the type of fat. Studies have found that diets high in saturated fat promote weight gain beyond the simple mathematics of caloric intake. In one study on mice, researchers found that subjects fed varying types and amounts of fat benefited most from a diet of healthy fats. |
| Another study on mice found that the quality of dietary fat—in this case omega-3 fatty acids versus saturated fat—could actually affect the hormones that in turn affect the hypothalamic satiety center. In this study the omega-3 altered the brain's regulation of metabolism and limited the development of obesity.18
We also now know that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids in our bodies plays a major role in how the central nervous system controls our metabolism and thus our weight. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 This is especially true for dietary fats, including essential fatty acids.
Without a gall bladder, you're not going to be able to digest dietary fats with any degree of efficiency. This means that if you don't take bile salts as a nutritional supplement every time you eat healthy fats, you'll miss out on all-important omega-3 fatty acids and other healthy oils. That's why people who have had gall bladder removal surgery usually suffer the classic signs of EFA deficiencies: poor nervous system function, irritability, learning difficulties, heart disease, poor blood sugar control, and so on. |
Wendy Bazilian, DRPH, MA, RD, Steven Pratt, MD, Kathy Matthews
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| Lycopene, a fat-soluble nutrient that helps prevent cancer and heart disease, relies on a bit of dietary fat to transport it into the bloodstream. So the nutrients in those tomatoes or that spinach in your salad is getting an express ride into your system when you use some healthy olive oil-based dressing on your salad. the simple value of soup. As the researchers put it, "Eating soup as part of lunch or dinner led to both decreased consumption of calories and a slower rate of eating. |
C. W. Randolph, M.D.
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| For the treatment and prevention of bone density loss, no other form of hormone replacement or dietary supplementation has had as high a level of positive response as bio-identical progesterone.
PMS relief
Have you or anyone you know ever suffered from premenstrual syndrome (PMS)? If so, here is more good news about progesterone. In the early 1950s, a theory was advanced within the medical community that PMS was caused by unopposed estrogen during the luteal phase of your menstrual cycle. |
| NUTRITION FACTS
Amount Per Serving: Calories 740 - Calories from Fat 560 - Total Fat 62 g Saturated Fat 1 1 g - Cholesterol 160 mg - Sodium 2420 mg - Total Carbohydrate 19 g dietary Fiber 6 g - Sugars 5 g - Protein 28 g - Calcium 20% DV
Tuna Melt
1 (12-ounce) can albacore tuna in water
2 tablespoons plain low-fat yogurt 1 hard-boiled egg, chopped
1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley Salt and pepper to taste 4 slices whole-grain bread 1 tomato, sliced
}A cup grated skim milk mozzarella
Drain tuna and mix with yogurt, egg, and parsley. Add salt and pepper. |
Jeffrey M. Smith
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 In other words, the GM protein was diluted by other dietary proteins by twelvefold and sixfold, respectively, producing another possible masking effect."74
Jeffrey M. Smith Regarding Mon 863 Bt corn: "African aid recipients rely on maize for about 90% of their caloric intake. Rats are stand-ins for humans. According to Pusztai, researchers should have started with the maximum amount of corn possible (while maintaining a balanced diet), and then used lower concentrations to evaluate dose effects. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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 In many of his experiments, Mattson uses dietary restriction to cause mild cellular stress — there isn't enough glucose to produce adequate amounts of ATP—and he's found that mice and rats that are given a third of their normal calories live up to 40 percent longer than average. His work has helped identify protective molecules unleashed during various types of stress, including aerobic exercise. |
| It's the same process generated by dietary restriction and exercise. The title of one of Mattson's journal articles says it all: "Neuroprotective signaling and the aging brain: Take away my food and let me run."
Resilience is the buildup of these waste-disposing enzymes, neuroprotective factors, and proteins that prevent the naturally programmed death of cells. I like to think of these elements as armies that remain on duty to take on the next stress. |
Joerg Gruenwald, Ph.D.
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 INDICATIONS AND USAGE
Germander is used as an aid in the treatment of gallbladder conditions, as a digestive aid, as a rinse for gout, for fever, and as a dietary aid.
PRECAUTIONS AND ADVERSE REACTIONS
Liver cell necroses, characterized by, (among other things), jaundice and an elevated level of aminotransferase in the blood, have been observed following intake of the drug. One case of death has been recorded. The drug is, for that reason, not to be administered.
DOSAGE
Mode of Administration: Germander is occasionally used in tea mixtures and in homeopathic preparations. |
| It is a useful drug in pediatrics for tonsillitis, nutritional disorders and as a dietary agent for digestive disorders. It is also used in medicinal preparations for dermatological conditions such as photodermatosis and pigment anomalies. It is used in teas for intestinal parasites.
PRECAUTIONS AND ADVERSE REACTIONS
Health risks or side effects following the proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages are not recorded. The drug has a low potential for sensitization through skin contact. |
John J. Ratey, MD
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| The rest of your plate should be balanced with whole grains, proteins, and dietary fats. Low-carb diets may help you lose weight, but they're not good for your brain. Whole grains have complex carbohydrates that supply a steady flow of energy rather than the spike and crash of simple sugars, and they're necessary to transport amino acids such as tryptophan into the brain. As you learned in chapter 4, tryptophan is a precursor necessary for the production of serotonin, and it and other important amino acids come from protein. |
Wendy Bazilian, DRPH, MA, RD, Steven Pratt, MD, Kathy Matthews
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| As one large study that investigated functional foods and weight control put it when discussing the value of adding foods like nuts and tea to the diet to help control weight, "if the dietary components were combined, their effects could be significant"2 We're sure that you'll find when jam combine these SuperFoods your results will indeed be significant.
The Secret Lives of Fat Cells
Let's take another look at fat and some of the fascinating properties of fat tissue that have only recently been discovered. We used to think that fat cells were simply cells that stored fat. |
Tori Hudson, N.D.
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 Elevated levels of vita-
Recommended dietary allowance (RDA):
Age 18 and younger, pregnant: 2,500 IU per day Age 18 and younger, nursing: 4,000 IU per day Age 19 and older, pregnant: 2,600 IU per day Age 19 and older, nursing: 4,300 IU per day Tolerable upper intake level (UL): Age 18 and younger, pregnant or nursing: 9,000 IU per day
Age 19 and older, pregnant or nursing: 10,000 IU per day Beta-carotene:
No recommended doses or insufficient reliable information. Consider UL to be 10,000 IU per day. Anywhere between 10 IU and 10,000 IU per day is an option. |
Benjamin H. Natelson, M.D.
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 The number of poisonings from herbs, vitamins, and other dietary supplements increased nine-fold from 1983 to 2005. Of the 125,600 incidents reported that year, 27 ended in death. Even more worrisome is an FDA consultant's estimate that for every serious adverse event that is reported, 99 other serious events are not.
How can you be cautious? You can speak with your doctor. When doctors ask patients about medicines, the patient often assumes the doctor means prescription medicines. That's only part of the story. |
| MAOIs that lack these dietary risks are currently available in Canada and Europe and hopefully will become available in the United States soon. When that happens, I will probably use those drugs as my first line of treatment for depression accompanied by physical symptoms. There will be more to say about a newly available MAOI, administered as a skin patch, in chapter 7.
Instructions for Patients on MAO Inhibitors
Follow these instructions all the time while taking an MAOI and for two weeks after stopping the drug. |
Herbert Ross, DC with Keri Brenner, L.Ac.
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 Alternative medicine employs a battery of diagnostic tools—sleep tests, physical examination, dietary assessment, emotional evaluation, and tests for digestive, detoxification, and hormonal function—to build an individualized picture of the patient's condition. This customized approach extends beyond diagnosis to treatment. Skilled alternative practitioners take the time needed to find the root causes of sleep disorders, and they also get the patient actively involved in their treatment. |
| Another dietary rule of thumb is to avoid foods that contain tyramine, a breakdown product of the amino acid tyrosine. Many people can metabolize tyraminejustfine, but in some people, tyramine makes its way into the bloodstream, where it increases the release of the stress hormone norepinephrine, which acts as a stimulant. Tyramine can also trigger migraine headaches. |
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