News

Our monthly nutritional news letter with the latest research and thinking.

Watch out for all the dairy Peddlers

Research carried out at The David Hide Asthma and Allergy Research Centre over the last 18 years has shown that changing the lifestyles of young children can stop them developing asthma in later life. These changes included the manipulation of diet and environment of the children and their mothers. Soya, dairy (yes dairy) and nuts were removed entirely from the diet and the results have been startling. But did we really have to wait this long to figure it all out.
I think the key point here is that the study had been going for 18 years now. People like me have been promoting the benefits of good nutrition for a lot longer than 18 years and many of us have promoted dairy free diets to individuals susceptible allergies. Many of these have been pilloried for their outlandish views and ridiculed for their unscientific approach. Others have been accused of dangerous practice because of the push to keep modern dairy products at the heart of the British diet.
So here we are 18 years later and here are is some information or non-information from leading Asthma and health authorities on asthma, nutrition and dairy.
Asthma UK say that ‘Eating a healthy balanced diet is important for everyone’ and then go on to say ‘Most people with asthma do not have to follow a special diet’. So that’s pretty clear then.
As far as I can see BUPA don’t mention diet at all in their asthma fact sheets.
I have trawled through Kick Asthma, a kind of trendy kids site for asthma sufferers and I can’t find a single mention of nutrition or water. How strange.
Then my current favourites the Food non-Standards Agency, the acceptable face of rubbish food. They estimate that 5% of the population are lactose intolerant. That very conservative estimate equates to some 3 million people, so why on earth do they insist on dedicating such a large percentage of their own Eatwell plate to dairy? Here is what they say, ‘dairy is an important source of calcium, which helps to keep our bones strong. The calcium in dairy foods are easy for the body to absorb’. This is outdated nonsense. Here is what The Harvard School of Public Health has to say ‘Calcium is important. But milk isn’t the only, or even best, source’.
So there we have it then. We’ll all be told that more research needs to be done before absolutely anything can be done. We shouldn’t stop eating dairy without consulting with our GPs and as long as we all follow a healthy balanced diet, all will be good in the world. Think again!
More about soya in another newsletter.

Case studies

I’m going to begin publishing a number of case studies here on the site. This is to give you all a better idea of the sort of people who benefit from nutritional therapy and the wide range of issues that we see in the clinic.

• 74 year old woman presented with ‘IBS’ symptoms lasting 32 years
• Symptoms include bloating, tenderness, constipation, diarrhoea, wind and general discomfort 95% of the time
• Despite numerous medical investigations and visits to alternative/complementary practitioners the symptoms have continued unabated
• Upon further investigation it was shown she was harbouring 2 different forms of mould in her gut and all common beneficial bacteria were low
• In addition her stool pH was extremely low
• Other issues that arose during our consultation were a tendency to overeat when alone, not to chew food and to drink large amounts of water whilst eating
• We introduced a 12 week programme to remove the moulds and address the underlying bacterial imbalance. This included a 4 week preparation time to make the transition as tolerable as possible
• The programme included an alkalising diet, extensive supplementation to support the digestive system including the liver and prescription medication to remove the moulds
• 6 months after the start of treatment she has remained symptom free for approximately 7 weeks at time of writing
• Is now maintaining health gut health with the assistance a probiotic supplement and supporting an alkaline diet with the use of specific ‘green foods’

More case studies will follow in the coming months.

That’s it for now. Happy eating to all of you.

These recommendations are not comprehensive and are not intended to replace the advice of your doctor or pharmacist