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Choose your foods like your life depends on them.
November 2004 newsletter

Book Review
The Garden of Eating

Rachel Albert-Matesz and Don Matesz

The Garden of Eating takes a thorough look at the diets of primitive hunter-gatherers and present day native peoples. What makes looking at such a diet, sometimes referred to as a "paleo-diet", either worth the effort or pertinent to modern day life? Contrary to common perception and barring unexpected catastrophe such as death in battle or complications from wound infection, native peoples frequently enjoy living to a ripe old age. Once making it though childhood native peoples have every reason to expect living well into their 70s and even 80s. Not only that - they do so with youthfulness and vitality, even absent all the comforts we expect of "modern life." (See excerpt following review).

Starting with the research of Dr. Weston Price who studied many native groups we see that native peoples uniformly lack many of the health problems afflicting western civilization that we have come to look upon as part and parcel of growing old: dental decay, high blood pressure, heart disease, gallstones, diabetes, constipation, arthritis and cancer. The entire list of maladies affecting those who eat a standard western diet were and are essentially unknown to our ancestors and modern day native peoples.

Hunter-gatherers and native peoples follow diets consisting of a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. Leafy vegetables, stems, roots and tubers, berries and other fruits, are all eaten in large quantities. Seeds and nuts are also eaten when and where they are available. These foods dominate their diet.

But this doesn't mean that primitive peoples were vegetarian, as is sometimes argued in comparing humans and their diets with primates and the primate diet. If we look at the primates most similar to ourselves, chimpanzees and apes, comparing their digestive systems to ours, we find there are important differences. With much larger multi-chambered stomachs and/or voluminous colons filled with fiber-fermenting bacteria and protozoa, the digestive system of the apes is much more suited to an exclusively plant-based diet. With its smaller stomach and colon but larger small intestine the human digestive system is much better suited to the inclusion of meat in the diet (albeit in moderation).

The remainder of this amazingly comprehensive book on eating natural foods is devoted to practical matters. The authors cover kitchen equipment, food purchasing options and enough recipes to be simply a cookbook in its own right. Yet this tour de force is so much more, an excellent foundation for building the all-natural kitchen.

There is truly something for everyone in this book from information on diet and its effects, ideas on organizing a kitchen, stocking a pantry with an eye toward a produce dominated diet and meal planning, to recipes too numerous to count. For those interested adopting a healthy diet, the cooking aficionado or anyone in between we whole-heartedly recommend The Garden of Eating as an addition to one's personal library or a wonderful holiday gift idea.

Chef Rachel Albert-Matesz earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and communications from the University of Washington (Seattle). She has been a cooking instructor, consultant, healthy cooking coach, and food and health writer for 18 years. In 1988 Rachel started and ran Rachel's Natural Foods Cafe in Seattle, Washington. She has led more than 650 cooking classes in Ohio, Michigan, California, Washington, and Arizona. Rachel has written several other books and over 200 magazine articles. She is currently a faculty member of the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts as well as a personal and commercial consultant on food preparation and healthy eating.

Don Matesz holds bachelor's and master's degrees in philosophy from the University of Toledo, Ohio, a diploma in Comprehensive Nutrition from the American Academy of Nutrition, Corona Del Mar, California, and a certificate in Chinese Herbology from the Institute of Chinese Herbology, located in Oakland, California. He is currently working on a master's degree in Oriental Medicine at the Phoenix Institute of Herbal Medicine and Acupuncture.

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Excerpt from
The Garden of Eating

"The Modern Longevity Myth"

The prevalent opinion that we live longer than our ancient ancestors misses the mark. Today the people with the longest life span are those living in Okinawa where the average life expectancy is 81.2 years - 86 for women, 75 for men. In modern America, the average is 80.45 years.

In Natural Eating, Geoff Bond notes ancient people had a similar life expectancy. About 3000 years ago, the author of the Bible's Psalm 90 wrote that the expected life span was between 70 and 80 years. Around the same time in Greece, the poet Homer composed the Iliad, in which he tells us Odysseus' wife Penelope remained faithful though he was absent 20 years, during which time she had offers of marriage from many men, some the same age as her son Telemachus. Bond says, "In other words, in ancient Greece 3000 years ago, a 40-plus woman was such a marriageable attraction that she was pursued by men half her age." More than 2300 years ago in Greece, the philosopher Aristotle recommended men not marry until reaching 35 - as Bond says, "hardly the strategy of people expecting a short life or decrepit old age."

Ancient people not only lived long, they were active late in life. The great Chinese philosopher Kung Chiu, commonly known as Confucius, died at 73 in 479 B.C. Kung Chiu wrote his famed Spring and Autumn annals in the last years of his life. Siddharhta Gautama, now known as Buddha, lived 80 years from 560 B.C. to 480 B.C. Gautama traveled from village to village by foot, teaching the Eightfold Path of enlightenment until his last day. In 399 B.C. the great philosopher Socrates was put to death at 70 by the Athenian government for supposedly having "led the youth astray" through his relentless public questioning of received views. Plato was 41 when he set up his first school of philosophy in 386 B.C.; he taught and wrote until he died in 347 B.C. at 80.

Bond adds: "Look again at some of Alexander the Great's generals. Antigonus Monophthalmos was a battling veteran who, encouraging his troops from his war-horse, finally succumbed to a hail of javelins at the Battle of Ipsus. He was 81 years old. His opponent, Lysimichos was later killed at the Battle of Coropedium at the age of 70. His ally Selfcos Nicator survived all battles only to be assassinated at the age of 78."

How many modern 70-year-old men would be capable of ridding a horse into battle carrying the heavy ancient armaments? These old men had the virility of youth. We live no longer but lack their vigor in our old age!

We have generated the false impression we have longer lives than our forebears by misunderstanding our own average life-span calculations. For example, it is often claimed that the average life span for white Americans increased more than 25 years (for men from 48 to 74; for women from 51 to 80) between 1900 and 2000. The 1900 figures paint an inaccurate picture because they are averages that include all deaths from infancy to old age.

To illustrate, if 50 percent of people die in infancy, and 50 percent live to 80 years, the average life span will only be 40. But when only those who lived past childhood are taken into account, people in 1900 had the same life expectancy as we do today; many lived to 70 and older. By improving sanitation and bringing down the infant mortality, we have created the illusion that adults are living longer. Once out of childhood, our potential life span has not really changed in at least 3000 years.

Reprinted with permission from The Garden of Eating: A Produce-Dominated Diet & Cookbook. Copyright © 2004 Rachel Albert-Matesz and Don Matesz, PlanetaryPress.

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New cholesterol guidelines tainted by doctors' drug company connections

Highly regarded physicians at the heads of prestigious medical groups and with publications in top journals recently advised the government to lower cholesterol figures for medicating patients, with the effect that many more will be medicated. But when these famous doctors advised the government, there was something else they had in common that wasn't revealed.

Eight of the nine doctors were making money from the same companies whose cholesterol-lowering drugs they were urging upon millions more Americans. Two own stock in them. Two others went to work for drug companies shortly after working on the guidelines. Another was a senior government scientist who moonlights for 10 companies and even serves on one of their boards.

Consumer groups and others are now questioning not only the advice these doctors gave but also their fundamental ability to act in the public's best interest.

It comes as some of these companies lobby the government to let drugs at the center of this controversy - statins such as Lipitor and Zocor - be sold over the counter. Prominent doctors with ties to statin makers are urging approval.

Meanwhile, the dangers of statin drugs include dizziness, cognitive impairment, polyneuropathy, heart failure and cancer. For further information on these complications visit Dr. Mercola's website.

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Acorns were a dietary item of many Native Americans living in woodland areas. Preparing them can be a bit of work but does provide an interesting experience especially for young children. See what's involved next month in the December issue of Naturopathyworks.

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Prescription antacids can lead to increased risk of pneumonia

According to a study published in the October 27th 2004 edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association [1] the use of prescription heartburn medications such as Zantac and Prilosec can result in increased risk of community-acquired pneumonia. This increased risk is most likely because these medications reduce the microbe-killing acid normally found in the stomach. As acid decreases, the microbes normally killed by stomach acid begin to flourish and can be aspirated into the respiratory tract. Community-acquired pneumonia refers to pneumonia caught outside a hospital setting.

The study led by Robert J. F. Laheij, Department of Gastroenterology, University Medical Center, St. Radboud, Netherlands, followed over 350,000 individuals for an average of 2.7 years. Individuals who took prescription antacids classified as H2-antagonists were nearly twice as likely to acquire pneumonia as those who did not use prescription antacids. Similarly - individuals who took prescription antacids classified as proton-pump inhibitors were more than twice as likely to acquire pneumonia as those who did not use prescription antacids.

How and why the stomach produces acid...

The stomach produces acid to break down food as part of the digestive process. On occasion the acid produced by the stomach can irritate the lining of the stomach resulting in indigestion and heart-burn or go so far as to attack and begin to digest the interior of the stomach itself resulting in an ulcer.

Histamine is a protein that many are familiar with in relation to allergies. In the digestive process, cells lining the stomach wall produce acid when histamine "binds" to them. H2-antagonists (such as Tagamet and Zantac) work by binding to the "receptors" which histamine would normally bind - but do so in such a way that acid is not produced. Proton pump inhibitors (such as Nexium, Prilosec and Aciphex) work by interfering with the final stage of acid production by stomach cells.

The results...

The end result of these drugs is that acid production in the stomach is lessened. The perceived benefit is that the patient no longer stuffers from heartburn and ulcers are allowed to heal.

These benefits must be weighed against certain drawbacks. As Laheij points out, reduced acidity levels in the stomach result in increased bacterial levels in the digestive tract [2] [3] [4].

Conclusions...

Modern western medicine is often very adept at treating acute medical conditions such as a broken bone or the immediate aftermath of heart attack or stroke. When treating chronic conditions, as in the present discussion related to the treatment of ulcers, western medicine often proves to be somewhat less adept in providing treatment. Although a problem may seem successfully treated - the conventional treatments of chronic conditions can often lead to later unrelated and completely unexpected problems.

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