Woodford Files

As Vitality readers charge headlong into the fall season, our magazine will be right there with you offering more stimulating articles on creating a healthy body and mind than ever before.

This month, Julie Daniluk’s Allergy-Free Cooking feature takes a look at the role of food allergies in weight gain, and presents easy ways to remove allergenic culprits from the kitchen. The benefits of learning to prepare new allergy-free meals for yourself and family are tremendous – from losing weight to eliminating common allergy symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, and even asthma. In fact, this article begs the question – what if getting fat doesn’t depend so much on calories, but on how many food allergens a person takes in on any given day?

This reminds me of a story my friend once told: She was vacationing in a village in the Mediterranean, eating lots of local cuisines, pouring buckets of olive oil on everything, swimming every day, and losing weight. Then one day a neighbour started bringing her loaves of beautiful homemade bread. After a few days of indulging, my friend noticed with dismay that her weight was starting to creep up. Looking back, she realized the only thing that had changed was the addition of bread to her diet, something that she was unknowingly allergic to. When she stopped eating the bread, her weight started to drop again.

Personally, there’s nothing I like better than fresh bread with organic butter slathered on. Unfortunately, I’m allergic to wheat, so eating it is the speediest way I’ve found to pack on the pounds.  Now I’m learning to live with ancient grains that don’t trigger an allergic response, but do provide that satisfying hit of carbs. Quinoa, teff, and kamut are among my faves.
 
Speaking of food, I find it interesting that so much media coverage is being given to the Listeriosis bacteria contaminating packaged meats across Canada, but nobody is talking about a much more lethal ingredient in these products, namely sodium nitrate (and nitrite). According to the Organic Consumers Association, regular consumption of processed meat can increase the risk of pancreatic cancer by 67%, due to the presence of nitrates and nitrites used in lunch meats, hot dogs, bacon, etc. to prevent botulism and give meat an attractive red colour. For more on their views, go to: www.organicconsumers.org/foodsafety/processedmeat050305.cfm

“Sodium nitrate is a dangerous, cancer-causing ingredient that has no place in the human food supply,” says Mike Adams, author of Grocery Warning Manual. For more information on this excellent resource for shoppers, go to: www.truthpublishing.com/grocerywarning_p/yprint-cat21246.htm

And according to the Cancer Prevention Coalition: “Peters et al. studied the relationship between the intake of certain foods and the risk of leukemia in children from birth to age 10 in Los Angeles County between 1980 and 1987. The study found that children eating more than 12 hot dogs per month have nine times the normal risk of developing childhood leukemia. A strong risk for childhood leukemia also existed for those children whose fathers’ intake of hot dogs was 12 or more per month.

Researchers Sarusua and Savitz studied childhood cancer cases in Denver and found that children born to mothers who consumed hot dogs one or more times per week during pregnancy has approximately double the risk of developing brain tumors. Children who ate hot dogs one or more times per week were also at higher risk of brain cancer.

Bunin et al, also found that maternal consumption of hot dogs during pregnancy was associated with an excess risk of childhood brain tumors.” www.preventcancer.com/consumers/food/hotdogs.htm

To dig deeper into the research on nitrates, go to: http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/f-w00/nitrosamine.html

For those wanting to avoid nitrates, start checking labels, and look for: potassium nitrite, sodium nitrite, potassium nitrate and sodium nitrate. Fortunately, nitrate-free organic meats are becoming more available, especially in health food stores where customers demand the highest quality non-toxic food. Make sure to start requesting nitrate-free meats at your local stores, as this will strengthen the demand for these products.

Now that commercial lunch meats are off the menu in most households, many moms are undoubtedly wondering what the heck to pack in kids’ lunches during the new school year. In her feature on Growing Healthy Kids, Susannah Kent interviews professional nutritionists to get their take on the healthiest whole foods to nourish young minds and bodies. Breakfasts made with ancient grains, and lunches made with fresh vegetables and quality proteins come out on top. For those who want more detail on this subject, see the extended version of Kent’s article on our website.                  

As you can see from my picture, I’m still holding up my sign protesting Bill C-51. Now that an election is looming, it’s more important than ever to keep the pressure on. See our latest feature on the campaign to stop C-51 by Helke Ferrie.

Julia Woodford