Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

By now we’ve all heard the news; major food producers are cracking down on marketing junk food to kids. Sure, it seems like a noble effort, but, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Check out this ABC News report:


Sure, advertising during kid shows is out, but wrapping snack-cakes and cookies in comic strips is no bid deal—I don’t like it. Assuming big companies have the best interests of children at heart is foolhardy. Instead, you take charge! Teach your kids the importance of healthy eating habits early. From Dr. Fuhrman’s book Disease-Proof Your Child:

We teach our children to eat when not hungry. We encourage it. Many parents actually think it looks health for their kids to be plump and bigger than average. They continually encourage them to ignore their bodies and eat when not hungry. The children learn to eat for a taste thrill; it is recreational eating, akin to recreational drug use. They do it for a thrill and pay a price for it later. These children and adults have overeaten their whole lives, so that they have no recollection of what true hunger feels like.


The first step toward your child’s healthy eating is changing your own. Concentrate on changing the dietary habits of the parents first and gradually remove more and more of the unhealthy options. If your child doesn’t change his diet right away, that is okay. Stop trying to control his intake. Stop battling. Instead, continue to offer delicious vegetable dishes and other great foods that are available. If he chooses to eat very little of it, that is fine. The best way to handle it is to say, “You don’t have to eat. If you are not hungry, why don’t you go and play.” If he asks for something not in the house, simply tell him that you do not have any. When he gets very hungry, he will ask to eat and relish what was offered earlier. You might be surprised at how much good stuff he will eat because he is really hungry and not forced to eat something when he was not. It will also be easier if he sees the rest of the family enjoying eating the healthy food choices and healthful recipes.

And here are some more posts that’ll help you and your family lock into health eating:

• Preparing Your Home for Eating Healthfully
• The Secrets to Getting Your Children to Eat Healthfully

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Adapted from Dr. Fuhrman’s book Disease-Proof Your Child:

We must be responsible for our health and the health of our children. We parents have a huge responsibility and can help guide and shape our offspring into health and happy adults, or, through abuse, neglect, ignorance, and even convenience, we can damage their future. We know with certainty that the foods we feed our kids during childhood play a large role in dictating their future health.

We know that children have sensitive vulnerabilities that are quite distinct from adults. Their exposure to chemicals in our environment is more potentially damaging than the same exposure at a later age. It is important to realize that the diet a woman eats during her pregnancy and even before her pregnancy effects the adult health of her future offspring. For example, a recent study shows a strong association in children who develop brain tumors with the mother’s consumption of hotdogs during pregnancy.1 Scientific evidence suggests that cigarette smoking during pregnancy is associated with testicular cancer in sons thirty-five to fifty years later.2 We may get away with risky behaviors when we imbibe in our later years, but when we gamble with our children, the stakes are much higher and the damage more profound.

Health is a complicated issue. All the contributory causes of cancer and other diseases are not presently known. A variety of external factors interact with genetics to initiate and propagate the process of carcinogenesis. Multiple factors come into play to induce damage leading to cancer. Nevertheless, the preponderance of evidence demonstrates that superior nutrition can almost always overwhelm a family history of cancer. The vast majority of cancers are still avoidable.
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This next report made me think of the crabby old man saying, “In my day we used to walk to school barefoot, through snow and molten lava, and we never complained.” I guess they don’t make kids like they used to because a new study claims that kids living near school rarely walk there. Madeline Vann of HealthDay News has more:

Even though one out of three American children live within a mile of their school, barely half of those students regularly bike or walk to class, researchers report.


Children who live in the South, in rural areas or who have college-educated parents are among those least likely to bike or walk to school, notes the report, which is published in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Sarah Martin and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) studied data from more than 7,000 children between 9 and 15 years of age.

They found that almost 35 percent of the children lived within one mile of their schools. Children between 11 and 13 years old were more likely to walk or bike than 9-year-olds. Children whose parents had a high school education were more likely to bike or walk than children with college-educated parents.

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Doctors—recognizing the healthful benefits of Omega-3s—are starting to experiment with fish oil to help protect premature babies against Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), a disease that attacks their eyes. Is it a good idea? The researchers seem to think so. Lauran Neergaard of the Associated Press reports:

Premature babies have still forming retinas; blood vessels necessary to nourish them haven't finished growing. ROP forms when something spurs those blood vessels to grow abnormally , too many form, and they leak.


But do omega-3s play a role? Dr. Lois Smith, an opthalmologist at Children's Hospital Boston, and colleagues at Harvard and the National Eye Institute first turned to mice to find out.

They harmed the mice retinas in a way that mimics ROP, and then fed them different foods: Half ate the rodent version of a typical Western diet, high in omega-6s and low in omega-3s. Half ate the equivalent of a Japanese diet, with a 2 percent higher omega-3 content.

That simple change cut in half the retinal disease among the omega-3-nibbling mice, Smith reported last month in the journal Nature Medicine.

More intriguing, the omega-3s didn't just block bad blood vessels from forming. They also helped normal, healthy blood vessels grow. They appeared to work by blocking well-known inflammation-causing pathways in the body, while mice fed more of the omega-6s experienced extra inflammation.

Now, Smith is about to begin a study in premature babies at her Boston hospital to see if adding omega-3s to their IV feedings , feedings that today contain omega-6s instead , decreases their risk of eye damage.

I always find it puzzling when experts miss glaring truths. You’d think somewhere in their research they would have dug up SOMETHING warning them about dangers of fish oil, and, that there are much safer sources of Omega-3 fatty acids available, but, I’m no know-it-all. I’ll let Dr. Fuhrman explain, from Fatty Acids and Fish Oil:

Flaxseeds and hempseeds are the foods with the highest concentration of this much-needed fat. Besides omega-3 fats, these seeds also contain very high levels of photochemicals, anti-oxidents and fibers that have been shown to have beneficial effects that inhibit prostate, breast and colon cancer. However, these protective nutrients and cancer-fighting lignans are not present in significant quantity in the oil, only in the whole seed…


… The amount of DHA can vary significantly in various fish. Some salmon (especially farm raised) has very little DHA, for example. More importantly, several studies have indicated that both fish and fish oil supplements are prone to contamination with toxic materials. For example fish and fish oils have been shown to contain large concentrations of dioxins and PCBs because the dumping of toxic waste and raw sewage into our oceans has taken a toll. Lipid peroxide contamination occurring with aging of the oil further complicates the supposed health benefits of fish oil consumption. Fish and fish oils also contains mercury. Data from the Center for Disease Control indicates that one in 12 women of childbearing age in the United States has unsafe mercury levels, and their threshold for safety is high. The major contributor to body mercury load is fish and fish oils, not dental fillings. Multiple studies have illustrated most of the body's mercury load is from the consumption of fish…

…If you avoid fish and instead consume fish oil, you may still have a problem. One problem with fish oils is that much of the fat has already turned rancid. If you have ever cut open a capsule and tasted it, you will find it can taste like gasoline. Many people complain of burping, indigestion and of fish breath. I have also observed that rancidity of this fish fat places a stress on the liver. Patients of mine with abnormal liver function noted on their blood tests when consuming fish oil have had these tests return to normal when the fish oils were stopped.

I don’t know about you, but, I wouldn’t want my child eating something that tastes like gasoline or potentially contains harmful toxins. Although, this shouldn’t underscore the benefits of Omega-3s; Dr. Fuhrman talks about Omega-3s in Disease-Proof Your Child:

For the brain cells to maintain their cell membrane fluidity and to properly recognize chemical messengers they must have the right ratio of omega-6 and omega-3 fats built into their structure. Too little omega-3 fats and too much saturated fat and trans fat could stiffen the fatty acid membranes and interfere with proper cellular communication. Raw nuts and seeds supply children with unpolluted omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in a protective package rich in antioxidant vitamins and minerals.

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Kind of a daunting headline. New research claims breastfeeding does not protect against obesity. Anne Harding of Reuters reports:

Instead, the researchers say, the protective effect of breastfeeding some studies have found is likely due to the fact that women who breastfeed their infants also tend to have qualities that make them less likely to raise obese children.


"There are several reasons for why mothers should breastfeed their children, independent of obesity," Dr. Andre M. Toschke of Kings College London, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health. "(Our) study questions a little bit the argument of breastfeeding for protection against obesity."

Dr. Fuhrman thinks this is a bunch of junk. Here’s what he had to say:

My thoughts are that just because you were not breast fed for a prolonged period when you were a child, does not mean you are destined to fatness forever. Optimal nutrition and regular rigorous exercise still works and is necessary for optimal health whether you are overweight or not, and whether you were breast fed or not. So take that nipple out of your mouth, and get on the stair master right now.

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