Super Immunity (22 page)

In contrast, higher levels of
food-derived
folate are associated with less breast and prostate cancer.
²³
Furthermore, when you get your folate from produce, you get thousands of other beneficial cancer-fighting nutrients in the process.

As I have already stated, health authorities have emphasized the critical importance of taking folic acid supplements during pregnancy to prevent birth defects of the spinal cord. Almost all women are aware of these recommendations, and the matter is emphasized by all physicians. Is this the right approach? I think it is clear now that it was and is a big mistake. Instead, health authorities should be emphasizing the need for childbearing women to eat sufficient greens and beans each day.

Our present system, where women rely on a pill and not on real foods, leads to a plethora of serious health problems in children—among them, the conditions mentioned in the research list above: childhood asthma, infant respiratory tract infections, and cardiac birth defects. On the other hand, the children of women who consumed more
food
folate during pregnancy were less likely to develop attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
²⁴
Even more startling is the reduction of childhood cancers seen in the children of women who consumed folate-containing green foods during pregnancy and did not take folic acid supplements.
²⁵

My contention is that the reliance on folic acid during pregnancy, instead of educating women about the importance of consuming natural food for their folate needs, is permitting an epidemic of childhood leukemia, which could have been easily prevented. Women should also be aware that consuming processed meats during pregnancy (or even in the year prior to conception) increases the risk of their child having cancer, including leukemia and brain tumors.
²⁶

Getting enough
folate
from natural foods can keep cancers from starting, by repairing errors in DNA, but
folic acid
appears to feed tumor development and promote carcinogenesis. In light of this research, I do not include folic acid in my multivitamin or prenatal vitamin. I do not recommend that pregnant women take a prenatal that contains folic acid. I do recommend a blood test for folate sufficiency before even

contemplating pregnancy, and I do recommend a high-folate diet rich in green vegetables. A diet that includes the regular consumption of green vegetables is the safest way to protect your offspring and achieve protection from cancer, heart disease, and all-cause mortality.

Recent studies have shown that excess copper could be associated with reduced immune function and lower antioxidant status.
²⁷
Recently published research also indicates that high copper intake combined with a diet high in saturated and trans fats could lead to an accelerated rate of mental decline in older adults.
²⁸
Caution here is warranted, and it is prudent not to supplement with copper.

Iron should also not be supplemented in males or postmenopausal women who no longer bleed regularly. Iron is an oxidant and can contribute to infection and even increase heart attack risk.
²⁹
It should be taken as a supplement only when a deficiency or enhanced need exists.

Beyond these above-discussed elements, there is no evidence that other nutrients in the RDI dose ranges found in ordinary multivitamin/multimineral preparations are harmful. However a crucial point needs to be made:
supplements are not substitutes for a healthy diet.
To the extent that they offer some people the confidence to eat less wholesome vegetation, they are hurtful, not helpful.

As we saw in an earlier chapter, approximately one-third of the dry weight of our stool is bacteria. Shortly after birth, promoted by bacterial growth factors in human breast milk, the digestive tract gradually gets colonized with about thirty to fifty different species of beneficial bacteria. These bacteria serve a host of useful functions, including repressing the growth of harmful organisms, training the immune system to respond to only pathogenic bacteria, detoxifying and removing cancer-causing toxins, and producing immune system–supporting nutrients. The natural, native bacterial flora of humans also protect against allergies and immune disorders by decreasing absorption of incompletely digested proteins.

The term “probiotics” is used both for the beneficial bacteria that are native to our intestinal tract and for supplemental live bacterial organisms that are thought to be beneficial when ingested. However, the (limited) bacteria in supplemental probiotics and fermented foods are not the same as the indigenous bacterial flora that live in the gut. Supplemental probiotics serve a beneficial role—but mostly when the normal native bacteria have been harmed or removed with antibiotic use or perverted with a diet of sweets and processed foods.

There is no published evidence that probiotic supplements are able to effectively replace all the functions of the body's natural flora when these have been killed off. Probiotics are useful after taking antibiotics, as noted; but it can still take months to reestablish the normal type and amount of gut flora. Healthy foods promote healthy bacteria to live in the gut; unhealthy foods promote unhealthy bacteria and yeast forms. However, unless a healthy diet, rich in various fibers, is continually maintained, the probiotic bacterial levels achieved by supplements drop within days when supplementation ceases. So what we eat is still the most important factor in maintaining our intestinal flora.

“Good” bacteria feast on fiber and resistant starch, while “bad” bacteria and yeast feast on refined sugar and animal fat. There is no substitute for a healthy diet; and if you are eating health-promoting foods and avoiding junk foods and antibiotics, it is not necessary for you to take probiotics or fermented foods. Your body will grow the right kind of bacteria automatically.

One of the complications of antibiotic therapy is secondary infection—a huge problem in hospitals. Until recently there hasn't been a good understanding of how and why this occurs. Now researchers have identified the way that normal gut flora keep the immune system “primed” to recognize the cell walls of bacteria so that the slightest change from a normal to a pathogenic bacterium will stimulate an immediate attack.
³⁰
Antibiotics shut this recognition ability down, leaving the body without one of its defense systems. Probiotics can help turn this safeguard back on again.

If you are taking antibiotics more than once per year, then of course the continual use of probiotics is recommended, as it could take a year or more to reestablish normal bacterial protection each time. Otherwise, probiotics should be used for at least three months after each use of antibiotics. Fortunately, most healthy people eating a healthy diet should never need an antibiotic—not once in their life—because dangerous bacterial infections are exceedingly rare in people with excellent immunity.

Probiotic supplements may be indicated and helpful for certain other conditions as well, such as irritable bowel syndrome, autoimmune diseases, allergies, headaches, and excessive yeast in the gut. They are also helpful for those who are not eating properly for good health.

More than a dozen studies on the effectiveness of probiotics in preventing viral infections such as colds and flu have been conducted, with mixed results. Most studies have shown some decrease in the severity and number of illness days in participants randomly assigned to treatment groups.
³¹
The inconsistency of the evidence demonstrates that probiotics are more useful for unhealthy people eating unhealthfully, and less helpful for those eating healthfully and in good general health.

A healthy diet with plenty of raw vegetables, mushrooms, and beans, in the absence of antibiotics, will provide enough of the favorable bacteria in your gut to you keep you healthy and functioning at your highest levels. It is not necessary to eat fermented foods such as yogurt and kefir to have beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. However, the more a person consumes sweets and processed foods and utilizes antibiotics, the more likely it is that he or she will require ongoing supplementation with probiotics.

Probiotics are well tolerated in adults, children, pregnant women, and even premature infants. However, they should be avoided in severely immune-compromised patients with HIV or advanced cancer or people undergoing chemotherapy.

Table salt consists of sodium chloride. It supplies us with sodium, an important mineral that is essential for proper functioning of the human body. However, the American diet contains dangerously high amounts of sodium, almost 80 percent of which comes from processed and restaurant foods. The human diet, for millions of years, did not contain
any
added salt—only the sodium present in natural foods, which adds up to about 600–800 milligrams per day. The dietary intake of sodium in the United States today is about 3,500 milligrams per day.

Excess dietary salt is most notorious for increasing blood pressure. Populations in pockets of the world that do not salt their food do not have elderly citizens with high blood pressure (also known as hypertension). Americans have a 90 percent lifetime probability of developing high blood pressure. So even if your blood pressure is normal now, if you continue to eat the typical American diet, you will be at risk.

Elevated blood pressure accounts for 62 percent of strokes and 49 percent of coronary heart disease.
³²
Notably, the risk for heart attack and stroke begins climbing with systolic pressures (the first number in the blood pressure reading) above 115—considered “normal” by most standards. Even if you eat an otherwise healthy diet, and your arteries are free of plaque, hypertension late in life damages the delicate blood vessels of the brain, increasing the risk of hemorrhagic stroke.

The American Heart Association, recognizing the significant risks of high blood pressure, has recently dropped their recommended maximum daily sodium intake from 2,300 milligrams to 1,500 milligrams.

Salt has additional dangerous effects that are not related to blood pressure. In the 1990s, it was found that the relationship between salt intake and stroke mortality was stronger than the relationship between blood pressure and stroke mortality; this result suggests that salt may have deleterious effects on the cardiovascular system that are not related to blood pressure.
³³
Likewise, high blood pressure causes kidney disease, but dietary sodium has damaging effects on the kidneys beyond the indirect effects of high blood pressure.
³⁴

Further research has determined that long-term excess dietary sodium promotes excessive cell growth, leading to thickening of the vessel walls and altered production of structural proteins, leading to stiff blood vessels. In another study, higher sodium intake was associated with greater carotid artery wall thickness, an accurate predictor of future heart attacks and strokes—even in people without high blood pressure.
³⁵

High salt intake is also a risk factor for osteoporosis, because excess dietary sodium promotes urinary calcium loss, leading to calcium loss from bones (and therefore decreased bone density). Daily sodium intakes characteristic of Americans have been associated with increased bone loss at the hip, and sodium restriction reduces markers of bone breakdown. Even in the presence of a high-calcium diet, high salt intake results in net calcium loss from bone.
³⁶

Although postmenopausal women are most vulnerable to these calcium losses, high salt intake in young girls may prevent the attainment of peak bone mass during puberty, putting these girls at risk for osteoporosis later in life.

Salt is also the strongest factor relating to stomach cancer. Sodium intake statistics from twenty-four countries have been significantly correlated to stomach cancer mortality rates. Additional studies have found positive correlations between salt consumption and gastric cancer incidence.
³⁷
A high-salt diet also increases growth of the ulcer-promoting bacteria (
H. pylori
) in the stomach, which is a risk factor for gastric cancer.
³⁸
Alarmingly, high sodium intake also correlates with death from all causes.
³⁹

Reducing dietary salt is not only important for those who already have elevated blood pressure; limiting added salt is essential for
all
of us to remain in good health. Since natural foods supply us with 600–800 milligrams of sodium a day, it is wise to limit any additional sodium, over and above what is in natural food, to just a few hundred milligrams. I recommend no more than 1,000 milligrams total of sodium per day. That means not more than 200–400 milligrams over and above what is found in your natural foods.

It is also important to note that expensive and exotic sea salts are still salt.
All
salt originates from the sea—and so-called sea salts are still over 98 percent sodium chloride, contributing the same amount of sodium per teaspoon as regular salt. Sea salts may contain small amounts of trace minerals, but the amounts are insignificant compared to those in natural plant foods, and the excess sodium doesn't magically become less harmful due to those minerals. A high-nutrient, vegetable-based diet with little or no added salt is ideal.

Salt also deadens the taste buds. This means that if you avoid highly salted and processed foods, you will regain your ability to detect and enjoy the subtle flavors in natural foods and actually experience heightened pleasure from natural, unsalted foods.