Features
Nutrition labels on food are designed to make it easier to achieve a healthy diet, but with two systems in use, which is the most helpful? By Juliette Kellow.
Nutrition levels on food offer a wealth of important information – but it can feel like you need a PHD to understand them. By Juliette Kellow.
Eating brightly coloured fruit and vegetables can keep you fit and healthy and protect against certain cancers, arthritis, heart disease, cataracts and even premature ageing. As children we might have been told to ‘eat our greens’, but now health experts agree it’s just as important to eat our reds, oranges, yellows, blues and purples, too, reports Juliette Kellow.
If you believe the TV ads, the message is clear: drink probiotics and you’ll become happier and healthier. Christina Quaine reports.
New research suggests that almost half of us suffer from food intolerances and allergies. Medical writer Jo Revill looks at this growing problem.
Around 10 per cent of us suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), but the right diet can help, says nutritionist Natalie Savona.
Losing your shine?
It sounds heavy – and no, we don’t mean the likes of Metallica, but heavy metal toxicity is threatening our health. By Helen Renshaw.
Heavy metal toxicity (or poisoning by substances that enter the body through pollution or contaminated food) is one of the murkiest issues threatening our health, not least because the experts don’t agree on the seriousness of the problem.
Some, like natural medicine practitioner and World Health Organisation researcher Dr George Georgiou, believe toxic heavy metals in food are behind an increased risk of conditions as diverse as cancer and infertility.
Other researchers claim such fears are exaggerated. A recent study published by the Food Standards Agency found that levels of toxic metals found in a sample of foods did not present significant risks.
Confused? We investigate the threat posed by heavy metals in food...
Fish is one of the worst culprits, with high levels of mercury regularly found in species at the top of the food chain.
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What are heavy metals?
Heavy
metals are natural components of the Earth’s crust that cannot be
degraded or destroyed. Examples include mercury, cadmium, arsenic,
thallium and lead. As trace elements, some metals (such as zinc) are
essential to health in extremely low concentrations, while others have
no nutritional value. All, however, can lead to poisoning at higher
concentrations. They are dangerous because they bioaccumulate – that
is, build up in the body faster than they can be broken down and
excreted.
How do heavy metals get into our food?
Either
naturally or as a result of human activities. They can contaminate food
through pollution, or through pesticides, growth promoters fed to
livestock or additives that prolong shelf life.
Which foods are most susceptible?
Fish
is one of the worst culprits, with high levels of mercury regularly
found in species at the top of the food chain. Chicken is also a risk,
as it is sometimes given arsenic as a growth promoter. Fruit,
vegetables and cereal products that have been sprayed with certain
pesticides or grown near busy roads are also at risk.
How can they damage us?
The
World Health Organisation says environmental pollution is the
underlying cause of 80 per cent of all chronic degenerative diseases,
which is why legal limits are placed on the amounts that can occur in
food. Acute toxicity – the effect of one-off exposure – can prove fatal
but is rare, while chronic toxicity – repeated exposure at a lower
level – can be caused by long-term accumulation of heavy metals in the
body. Studies have linked chronic contamination to conditions such as
cancer, infertility, Alzheimer’s, strokes, heart attacks, autism and
depression.
So do we need to worry?
Yes,
say natural health practitioners, including Dr Georgiou. “The FSA’s
findings are correct if taken in isolation, but studies such as these
underestimate the accumulative nature of these toxins,” he says. “I
believe it to be beyond reasonable doubt that heavy metals in foods are
having a detrimental effect on health.”
What can we do about it?
The
FSA promotes a varied diet as the best way to minimise intake of heavy
metal toxins. Buying organic should, in theory, reduce your intake. Or
you can take more drastic action. Compounds able to detoxify the body
by locking onto heavy metal molecules and flushing them out via natural
excretion are called chelators, and chemical chelation has long been
used as a treatment for acute metal poisoning. Dr Georgiou has
developed a natural chelator called HMD, which has been tested on 350
people and shown to eliminate heavy metals from the body. So the
situation is heavy – but treatments such as these could help lift the
load.
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