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Cures?
One of my pet hates is the drug industies attempts to provide miracle cures for illness and of course obesity and its related problems. There have been various diet pills, fat burners, fat blockers, etc. Get the latest pill that stops you getting fat, and the obesity epidemic is solved. It doesn’ t seem to be working. Just this week the UK is top of the list for obesity in women. Like most health related problems just taking a pill is not a cure all. You have to change your diet and also your lifestyle. But that is too difficult for most.
There is now another wonder drug in the pipeline to cure obesity. This time it is a daily jab that attacks the blood supply of fat cells. The supposed obesity solving drugs on the market all have side effects and this new one is no different. At the moment only being trialled on animals but the drug causes some kidney related problems which the researchers think can be overcome.
Regardless of that, we have fat cells in our body for a reason – we have fat soluble vitamins and fat is a large constituent of the brain. So why would scientists/experts think blocking the blood supply to fat cells will be any safer than previous attempts at curing obesity with a miracle cure. Of course if the product sells there is a large profit.
Diet and lifestyle changes are the only way and it does not have to be difficult. My nutrition based diet does not deprive you of food but concentrates on small changes that add quality to your diet. You can read more in my book The Nutrition Diet and Recipe Book which is available free from www.obooko.com (under heading of Health and Self Improvement).
Just to confirm the benefit of diet instead of a pill new research has now shown that obese people with type 2 diabetes, can be overcome by diet. A low calorie diet can help with the diabetes and show results in 4 months. This is good news for those with type 2 diabetes and would mean they don’t take a pill for the rest of their lives. How much this news is taken up is of course another matter. People seem to prefer taking a pill to changing their ways unfortunately.
How Much Water
There are often questions about whether there is any benefit in the accepted advice that we should drink up to 6 to 8 glasses of water daily. Scientists have studied all the studies into the benefits or not of drinking water and came to the conclusion that there was no measurable benefit for the average person to drink large quantities of water. They went on to say that the average person obtained plenty of liquid from tea, coffee and diet etc. But tea and coffee especially are not always good for you in large quantities so water is better.
They did though in my opinion contradict themselves a little by saying that there was a need in certain instances to drink more water. Such as sportsmen, workers who sweat a lot, people with certain illnesses, people living in hot climates and elderly people who don’t always realise they are thirsty, etc. So in fact there are benefits from drinking extra water. Whether it is measurable in the average person is another matter. There are arguments among some experts as to what is acceptable as water. Most say coffee and alcohol are not counted and some say that tea, especially herbal teas can be counted.
We are all different and have different requirements and in an ideal world a healthy diet such as The Nutrition Diet can provide plenty of water. The diet emphasises the importance of fruit and vegetables and these have a high water content. But if you don’t eat much fruit and vegetables and live on junk or processed food that is one source of water gone. Coffee is a diuretic and so if you count that as water you need more water to make up for the diuretic action. In some coffee drinking societies it is normal to take a glass of water with the coffee, perhaps there is a reason. Also liquids like coffee and fizzy drinks interfer with other nutrients and nutrient metabolism whereas a glass of water is ‘clean’.
Once again listen to your own requirements. Watch your diet and carry on drinking water, but as with food don’t be fanatical or worry about whether you have had 5 glasses or 7 glasses of water that day. You should in any case cut down on stimulants such as coffee and alcohol and drinking water regularly soon becomes natural and cuts down the need for other forms of water.
Do We Need Supplements
Image by Andrei Z via Flickr
There is always talk about supplements and sometimes adverse articles decrying the effect of supplements and that money is wasted on them. This has been happens quite often with studies being quoted as to the benefit or not of certain vitamin supplements. The reports, like all statistics, can be made to suit the author and if the studies are looked at closely there are actually benefits from supplements. If food was produced naturally and not tampered with and we improved our diets to a more nutrition based diet the need for supplements may not be seen to be necessary.
Ideally we should be able to get all our nutrients, vitamins and minerals from our diet. This blog’s aim is to promote nutrition as the norm for a healthy diet. Whether we can actually achieve that with diet alone is sometimes open to question when modern industrial farming is considered. If we can grow our own vegetables and /or buy all organic meat, fruit and vegetables etc, this may be possible, but a lot of hard work. For most people though that is not easy, especially in our modern frantic lifestyle today.
Buying mass produced, industrially grown fruit and vegetables is not the same. They may look good – perfect in shape and colour but do they do you good. Take tomatoes for instance. Many are now grown hydroponically without soil. The roots are in water and fed nutrients to promote growth. The tomato however never sees the sun which is important in ripening the fruit and vegetables and to develop nutrients naturally. In the case of tomatoes the sun promotes lycopene development which is an important nutrient for our health.
Fruit and vegetables are also picked half ripe and that means nutrients have not had time to develop plus the produce is often stored for months and artificially ripened again affecting nutrient quality. So without realising it we can be missing or short of the vitamins and minerals we need for good health. Though we buy lots of fruit and vegetables it may not be enough.
This is just another reason to consider supplements. I recommend using a good multi vitamin tablet plus omega 3 and maybe vitamin C supplements as a matter of course. The more ways industrial farming finds to provide food further away from what nature intended the more we may have to look at supplements to maintain good health. I should also repeat that nutrition supplements are just that – supplement to as good a diet as you can manage. There are actually supplements for a whole range of health matters and in many cases they do help in the long term. Here though we are talking general diet and healthy living and if you have a specific problem and need for nutrition help then you should consult a qualified practioner.
If you want to know about supplements have a look at my site www.thenutritiondietclub.com A variety of suppliers providing a wide range of supplements to suit all pockets can be found on the products page of this site. Also one of the books in my recommended reading provides an A-Z of vitamins and minerals.
