Main Presentation: “Is Food Our Friend or Our Foe?” by Margaret Moss MA, UCTD, DipION, CBiol, MIBiol
August 18th, 2022 @ 8am PST
We have to eat, or we die. Yet foods probably kill most of us, at least in developed countries. Cows make milk for their calves. Pigs have piglets to maintain their species, not to feed us. Wheat grows seeds to maintain its species too. So do cabbages. These foods are not designed for us. We just have to find foods that keep us alive, even if the long-term consequences are less than ideal.
Why do so many people die of coronary heart disease? The evidence is strong that the toxic sugar, galactose, in milk contributes to narrowed arteries, and the membrane of the fatty globules in cream contributes to blood clots. The solution is to eat hard cheese. Why do so many die of cancer. There is good evidence that fructose, a sugar in fruit, sugar cane, sugar beet, and high fructose corn syrup, enables cancer cells to form new cancer cells, to enlarge tumours, and to spread to other sites in the body. Sugars seem to play a part in multiple sclerosis as well.
If you buy a car, there is a manual that tells you what fuel to use in that model. Unfortunately, babies are born without manuals, and parents don’t know what model of baby they have. Some people with food and chemical sensitivity take decades to find out what model they are.
There is no one test that can tell you what to eat, because there are many mechanisms that cause problems in coping with foods. You could have coeliac disease, with an immunological reaction to wheat, rye and barley. You could have rapid reactions to foods, because of antibodies called IgE. You could have lactose intolerance, an inability to split the double sugar, lactose, in milk into the simple sugars, glucose and galactose. Someone else might have galactosaemia, an inability to cope with galactose, which can lead to low intelligence, deafness and small stature. Another person has phenylketonurea, an inability to process part of protein, which can also lead to low intelligence. Favism, or G6PD deficiency can cause poor tolerance of specific drugs, and also of broad beans. Fructose intolerance is an inability to process fructose. Fructose malabsorption is poor capacity to move fructose from the gut to the bloodstream. The fructose left in the gut can lead to overgrowth of undesirable organisms there. Substances called lectins, which are concentrated in the skins of seeds, can give people arthritis or diarrhoea. They may need to avoid wholemeal bread, kidney beans or bran.
Sometimes the best thing is to avoid foods that disagree with us. However, some people find they have to avoid more and more, and are left with hardly anything to eat. It is important to strengthen the body’s ability to cope, Some sensitive people have poor capacity to detoxify chemicals in foods called amines and phenols. Sulphate is needed for this. If we don’t make enough sulphate we can bath in it, and absorb it through the skin. Other processes, called methylation and glucuronidation, may be inefficient. Certain nutritional supplements, carefully chosen, can help greatly with these processes. Vitamin D is needed for T regulatory cells to calm the immune system.
So foods are vital, but can cause us major problems, and even kill us. Poor food preparation, like inadequate cooking of meat or dried beans, or fast modern bread baking, cause trouble. So of course do additives in foods, especially when they are combined in one meal. Then there are pesticides in foods, often many pesticides in one food. Food may be mouldy. Food handlers may transmit infections via the foods they touch. Contaminated water may be used to wash foods. Food packaging may contaminate foods with aluminium or chemicals that leach from plastic.
We survive as long as we do, because we have complex immune systems, and multiple ways of making chemicals safe. We have to find a way of working with our bodies, so as to have a happy and productive life.
About Margaret Moss MA, UCTD, DipION, CBiol, MIBiol
Margaret is a Master of Arts in maths and logic from Cambridge University in Britain. She trained to teach the deaf at Manchester University. She taught in Kenya, Zimbabwe and England. She was head of two boarding high schools in Kenya, and Deputy Head of a large school for the deaf in Zimbabwe. She trained as a nutrition consultant at the pioneering Institute for Optimum Nutrition in London. She has investigated the causes of coronary heart disease, cancer and multiple sclerosis, and biochemical issues in chronic fatigue, autism, fibromyalgia, and other chronic conditions. She has investigated nutritional deficiencies caused by many drugs. She has published her original research in The Lancet, The International Journal of Cardiology and The Journal of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine. She has written many articles for the public. She has lectured to doctors, health care workers, and students, and given talks in schools, colleges and to the public. She has broadcast on various TV and radio stations in Zimbabwe and Britain. She runs an international nutrition clinic mainly for those with complex chronic problems, seeing clients in person and on Zoom and Skype, and providing individually tailored advice. The motto of her clinic is science and compassion.
