Harvard's Meat and Mortality Studies | NutritionFacts.org

Harvard's Meat and Mortality Studies | NutritionFacts.org

Dangers of red meat

Been a lot of press about this over the last few years. This interesting article points the finger at carnitine, an amino acid that exists in high quantities in red meat, but is also found in other meats, eggs and dairy. So, even if you are consuming lean red meat to avoid saturated fat and cholesterol, you are still at risk of heart disease when you eat red meat.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22042995

Married to our gut flora.

There is more and more research going into the relationship we have with our gut flora. The numbers of gut flora we have are staggering. There are 100 trillion microorganisms in the average human gut - 10 times the number of cells in the entire body. These flora manufacture vitamins, digest nutrients that we can't and defend us from harmful pathogens. These flora are crucial to health and yet many patients with colitis end up having part or all of their bowels removed. This seems wrong to me. If something crucial is broken, better to attempt to fix it than to cut and throw it out. I'm so glad that I have not gone down this route - having a colostomy bag for the rest of my life!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21383362

Can we trust any processed foods?

The best antioxidant foods? Whole foods of course...

Antioxidant Content of 300 Foods | NutritionFacts.org

Colitis was a blessing

May sound strange to say it, but now that I've come through and beaten this horrible disease I'm actually glad it happened to me. Firstly, it showed me that modern medicine does not have all the answers. My UK doctor told me that the cause was unknown, but it definitely wasn't dietary! I was put on steroids and immune suppressants, horrible drugs, and when they stopped working after a while the dosage was upped. At one meeting with my GP he actually advised my to consider smoking! I kid you not. Now, I had read this on Wikipedia, that smoking somehow alleviates colitis symptoms, most likely because the body is too busy fighting off the toxins from cigarettes to worry about what's going on in the bowel. This reminded me of my brother who had been told by an NHS dentist to consider snacking on crisps instead of fruit, because fruit acid could damage teeth - unbelievable!

I wonder why we spend more and more on health care each year?

I've no doubt that I would have ended up having part of my colon surgically removed. Interestingly this is what Manchester United footballer Darren Fletcher is currently having done to try to save his football career. If only he knew what I know.

Anyway, I see colitis as a blessing most of all because it has made me change my diet and lifestyle to one that is conducive to long term good health. If I hadn't had colitis in my late 20s it may have been cancer in my 50s, or heart disease, or arthritis, or depression or any number of non viral or non bacterial, lifestyle diseases. I feel lucky everyday.

Secret social lives of bacteria

This TED.com talk is excellent for a rudimentary understanding of how bacteria live. I'm in no doubt that when my colitis was at it's worst, the bad bacteria took over and launched an attack on my system that would last for weeks and weeks.

http://www.ted.com/talks/bonnie_bassler_on_how_bacteria_communicate.html