A Presentation for Costa del Sol

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A Presentation for Costa del Sol
Science Technology Group
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Correlation Cause Effect
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(No Transcript)
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UK Age at Death
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There are no healthy or unhealthy foods, only
healthy or unhealthy diets Scottish Healthy Diet
Promotion Leaflet 2002
There is no such thing as junk food, but there
is such a thing as a 'junk diet' Vincent Marks
Emeritus Professor of Clinical Biochemistry at
the University of Surrey
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Do you NEED to lose weight?

• Body-Mass Index BMI Weight (kg)/Height2 (m)

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What is Energy

• Need to distinguish scientific from vernacular
  usage
• Energy is not the same as vitality!

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Energy

• Measured by calories or joules
• 1 calorie is the amount of heat needed to raise
  1gm of water by 1oC
• Replaced by joule in scientific use
• Food energy uses Calorie (1000 calories)
• 1 Calorie 4.184 kJ

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Vitamins Essential Minerals

• 13 vitamins
• 4 fat soluble (A, D, E, K) 9 water soluble (Bs,
  C)
• Required in very small amounts
• Necessary for life
• Excess can cause disease or side-effects
• Dietary Minerals
• Not minerals but elements
• Macrominerals Ca, Mg, P, K, Na, S (gt 200mg/day)
• Trace minerals B, Cr, Co, Cu, F, I, Mn, Mo, Se,
  Si, V, Zn (lt200mg/day)
• Wide range of disease due to lack or excess

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The Worldwide Variety of Diets

• Inuit
• Seal meat, raw blubber, seal blood soup, boiled
  and raw fish
• Sami
• Reindeer meat, some fish and wild berries with
  low intakes of other fruits, vegetables and dairy
  products
• Mongolian
• Meat (sheep camel), milk, flour, wild onions
  garlic
• Australian Aborigine
• Mostly raw including reptiles, insects, grubs
• Traditional Zen Monks
• Rice, fermented soya beans, pickles, vegetables
  (not onions), green tea

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Look at the Diet as a Whole, Not the Individual
Items

• RDA 2500 Cals, 55g Protein, 40mg Vit C
• How much do we need to eat to meet protein
  requirements
• Apple 52 Cals, 0.26g Protein, 4.6mg Vit C
• 21kgs or 11,000 Cals
• Baked Potato 93 Cals, 2.5g Protein, 9.6mg Vit C
• 2.2kgs or 2,050 Cals
• Chips 319 Cals, 3.8g Protein, 2.7mg Vit C
• 1.4kgs or 4,600 Cals
• Mars Bar 452 Cals 4.0g Protein
• 1.4kgs or 6,000 Cals

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even if you drink an almost lethal dose of
alcohol your liver will clear it in 36 hours
without any assistance from detox tablets. ... I
am frustrated by the claims made that a detox
diet will somehow improve your liver function
Professor Sir Colin Berry, Professor Emeritus of
Pathology, Queen Mary, London
On detox the Romans got it right Mundus vult
decipi - the world wants to be deceived - better
translated as Theres a sucker born every
minute. The only thing that loses weight on a
detox diet is your wallet. Dr John Hoskins,
Environmental Toxicologist, Fellow of the Royal
Society of Chemistry
The bodys own detoxification systems are
remarkably sophisticated and versatile. They have
to be, as the natural environment that we evolved
in is hostile. It is remarkable that people are
prepared to risk seriously disrupting these
systems with unproven detox diets, which could
well do more harm than good. Professor Alan
Boobis OBE, Toxicologist, Division of Medicine,
Imperial College London
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Superfoods?
'Not only is it completely misleading to break a
food down into its component parts and study
those one by one, but it is impossible to predict
the reactions of individual metabolisms to
specific foods,'...
'People don't eat nutrients, they eat foods. And
foods can behave very differently to the
nutrients they contain and they can have a very
different effect in someone's body than they have
when examined in a test tube.'
Jeremy Spencer, Lecturer Food Biosciences Reading
University
'The term "superfoods" is at best meaningless and
at worst harmful,' 'There are so many wrong
ideas about superfoods that I don't know where
best to begin to dismantle the whole concept.'
Catherine Collins, chief dietician St George's
Hospital
'If you're concerned about your health, then you
should probably avoid food products that make
health claims,'
Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma
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Myths exploded Berries Claim The superfood of
the century. Packed with essential nutrients,
berries have been labelled as the best food to
help brain development, higher IQ, energy and
boost immunity against infection. Reality There
is no published evidence supporting the role of
berries in IQ. They do contain folic acid, though
this appears across a wide range of plant-based
foods. Pomegranate juice Claim Pomegranates
contain plant anti-oxidant called polyphenols, a
major polyphenol antioxidant being ellagic acid,
a supposed anti-carcinogen. Pomegranates are
widely claimed to have eight times the
anti-oxidant potential of tea. Reality
Consuming a modest 180ml serving of pomegranate
juice leads to an increase in blood anti-oxidant
levels for one hour, but it is rapidly removed
from the blood.
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Seaweed Claim A so-called nutrient powerhouse
that stimulates the immune system, boosts brain
power and guards against dermatitis, obesity,
heavy metal poisoning, depression, congestion and
anaemia. Reality The nutrients in seaweeds are
found in all green vegetables. In addition,
seaweed produces natural toxins called
microcystins that can cause liver damage in
humans and are thought to be potentially
carcinogenic. Wheatgrass Claims A blood
cleanser and detoxifier attributed to both the
'natural plant enzymes' and the chlorophyll
content of the freshly-juiced grass, claimed to
'detoxify the body'. Wheatgrass does contain the
anti-oxidant apigenin. Reality The commonly
held assumption that a 30ml shot of wheatgrass
juice is nutritionally equivalent to a kilogram
of vegetables is a complete myth. A floret or two
of broccoli, or a tablespoon of spinach, contain
more folic acid and vitamin C than 30ml of
wheatgrass juice. Chlorophyll is not absorbed
into the body (or else we would all look an
attractive shade of green), and its supposed high
levels are no higher than other green vegetables.
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the phrase 'you are what you eat' ... is patently
rubbish
Vincent Marks, Emeritus Professor Clinical
Biochemistry University of Surrey, former
President of the Association of Clinical
Biochemists and former vice-President of Royal
College of Pathologists
...there is no such thing as a bad food. It is
not what you eat that determines whether it will
contribute to a healthy life but whether it is
eaten as part of a sensible mixed diet.
Stanley Feldman, Emeritus professor of
anaesthesiology at Imperial College London
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The complete list of things that give you cancer
Part 1 Acetaldehyde, acrylamide,
acrylonitril, abortion, agent orange, alar,
alcohol, air pollution, aldrin, alfatoxin,
arsenic, arsine, asbestos, asphalt fumes,
atrazine, AZT, baby food, barbequed meat,
benzene, benzidine, benzopyrene, beryllium,
beta-carotene, betel nuts, birth control pills,
bottled water, bracken, bread, breasts, bus
stations, calcium channel blockers, cadmium,
captan, carbon black, carbon tetrachloride,
careers for women, casual sex, car fumes, celery,
charred foods, cooked foods, chewing gum, Chinese
food, Chinese herbal supplements, chips,
chloramphenicol, chlordane, chlorinated camphene,
chlorinated water, chlorodiphenyl, chloroform,
cholesterol, low cholesterol, chromium, coal tar,
coffee, coke ovens, crackers, creosote,
cyclamates, dairy products, deodorants, depleted
uranium, depression, dichloryacetylene, DDT,
dieldrin, diesel exhaust, diet soda, dimethyl
sulphate, dinitrotouluene, dioxin, dioxane,
epichlorhydrin, ethyle acrilate, ethylene,
ethylene dibromide, ethnic beliefs,ethylene
dichloride, Ex-Lax, fat, fluoridation, flying,
formaldehyde, free radicals, french fries, fruit,
gasoline, genes, gingerbread, global warming,
gluteraldehyde, granite, grilled meat, Gulf war,
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The complete list of things that give you cancer
Part 2 hair dyes, hamburgers, heliobacter
pylori, hepatitis B virus, hexachlorbutadiene,
hexachlorethane, high bone mass, HPMA, HRT,
hydrazine, hydrogen peroxide, incense,
infertility, jewellery, Kepone, kissing, lack of
exercise, laxatives, lead, left handedness,
Lindane, Listerine, low fibre diet, magnetic
fields, malonaldehyde, mammograms, manganese,
marijuana, methyl bromide, methylene chloride,
menopause, microwave ovens, milk hormones, mixed
spices, mobile phones, MTBE, nickel, night
lighting, night shifts, nitrates, not breast
feeding, not having a twin, nuclear power plants,
Nutrasweet, obesity, oestrogen, olestra, olive
oil, orange juice, oxygenated gasoline, oyster
sauce, ozone, ozone depletion, passive smoking,
PCBs, peanuts, pesticides, pet birds, plastic IV
bags, polio vaccine, potato crisps (chips), power
lines, proteins, Prozac, PVC, radio masts, radon,
railway sleepers, red meat, Roundup, saccharin,
salt, sausage, selenium, semiconductor plants,
shellfish, sick buildings, soy sauce, stress,
strontium, styrene, sulphuric acid, sun beds,
sunlight, sunscreen, talc, tetrachloroethylene,
testosterone, tight bras, toast, toasters,
tobacco, tooth fillings, toothpaste (with
fluoride or bleach), train stations,
trichloroethylene, under-arm shaving, unvented
stoves, uranium, UV radiation, vegetables, vinyl
bromide, vinyl chloride, vinyl fluoride, vinyl
toys, vitamins, vitreous fibres, wallpaper,
weedkiller (2-4 D), welding fumes, well water,
weight gain, winter, wood dust, work, x-rays.