National Celiac Disease Awareness Day September 13th
Because we were traveling that day in Persepolis/Iran, I missed the date that reminded us of the most under-diagnosed disease there is: Gluten intolerance.
Sprue, celiac sprue, celiac disease, gluten intolerance – they are all different names for the same disease – the one that turns your daily bread into poison.
Inventing agriculture some five to ten thousand years ago was a huge step forward for mankind: Less people - especially children - starved, more survived – and more people had the leisure to turn to cultural endeavors (observing the stars, building cities, learning poetry). Agriculture is at the heart of our civilization.
Of course, there was a price to pay: Some children could not tolerate the new foodstuffs on the table – milk and bread – and died. But most did very well. The population grew.
Nature whispers to hunters and gatherers in the voice of the wind, the rustling of leaves, the babbling of brooks – everywhere spirits and gods seems to reside in holy nature places.
Once farming has been invented, there’s really need only for a single God – the one who lets the wheat grow and fattens the cows so that they give milk: Give us our daily bread was the prayer ever since then. Leaving Nature behind and turning to monotheism also meant to exploit Earth and go for effectivity in all our endeavors: It made us great – and destroyed our old mother-ship Earth.
Except that the gluten (the sticky protein in wheat that makes dough so doughy) can cause myriad diseases: diabetes, arthritis, cancer, depression, autoimmune disease, skin diseases, neurological problems, vitamin B12 deficiency, and so on, and so on. (I am working on a comprehensive list of gluten-related diseases – will come soon).
And gluten is not only found in wheat – it also is in rye, barley and – as a slightly different but related protein – in oats.
You know the story from the Bible about the Golden Calf? Well, in Persepolis I got an idea why the Golden Calf was such a threat Abraham’s God: It was a fall-back into the era of many gods, polytheism. Worse: it went directly to where the money was: to the cow. The One God had to be angry if they could circumvent him. Look at the picture of one of those double-cow capitals of Persepolis – on the “medical questions?” page here).
But back to gluten: About one in a hundred (or a little less – depending on your ethnic background) cannot digest gluten well. If you are reddish or blond, blue-eyed and fair-skinned, you have higher likelihood to be intolerant to gluten – but I have certainly seen the disease in dark-haired people; even in Africans and Asians.
There is not cure for celiac disease – the only recourse is to leave out all gluten in your diet. Some people have a hard time to let go of bread, cookies, cake and pasta. But once you realize that you can eat rice, beans, lentils, garbanzos as much as you want, you suddenly are not only disease-free but you certainly live healthier because all our junk food is based on wheat (and fat).
You might have guessed it: If you are already depriving yourself of all fun in life, you can as well drop milk and dairy products – as they are the other big culprit at the root of many inflammatory processes in your body. Read More
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Vegetarian? Vegan? Omnivore?
August 13, 2010
We had this before: I am not a vegetarian. Not because I don’t like animals or because I don’t care for the Earth. No, because I am a pragmatic person. I eat what my body needs.
If you ask me what my body needs, my standard answer is: vegetables, vegetables, vegetables. But we need more than vegetables. We need some fish, and occasionally even some meat. Some eggs will do, too.
Vegan or vegetarian food is a great way to cleanse the body after too many years of bad nutrition. People who have switched to vegetal food often remember how wonderful they felt that first month after the change - and therefore are reluctant ever to go back to meats. But after a month or two, deficiencies slowly set in.
As a doctor, I am familiar with vitamin B12 deficiency in vegetarians and vegans. It is a big problem. Because without vitamin B12 one gets anemia (low count of red blood cells) and dementia. The brain needs vitamin B12 to function. The sad fact is: If you are vitamin B12 deficient and replenish with that little red pill (or shots from your doctor), your anemia will vanish – but the brain damage is done: The marbles you have lost, you will not recover because dead brain cells don’t come back.
Vitamin B12 deficiency is a pretty good argument for a doctor not to be a rigid vegetarian. But for people who have not seen the effects of a tiny vitamin lacking, it means nothing.
So, here is another argument: We all know that the animal world is divided into two groups: herbivores and carnivores. The first eat greens exclusively, and the others are carnivores – predators that feast on other animals. And, sure enough, there is a third group, the omnivores; they eat everything that comes near their snouts, and pigs and humans are their most notorious members.
Come to think about it: A cow in the pasture munches on grass, solely, right? Wrong! A cow eats tons of insects, caterpillars, ants and butterflies - creeping, crawling creatures that land in their stomachs by accident – and are put to good use. I heard this story (first-hand!): A young, inexperienced farmer kept horses and sheep in one meadow together. After lambs were born in the spring, she found – to her horror – that a horse had smashed a baby lamb’s skull and licked up the brains. This happened not once but twice. She talked with an older farmer, who looked at her with pity and gave this piece of advice: “That’s why you don’t put out horses and sheep together in the pasture.”
Conversely, when a carnivore catches its prey – let’s say a cat a mouse – they eat it whole, including the stomach contents which contain grains. Lions are known for seeking out especially the stomachs of their victims.
This means that the concepts of strict herbivorism or carnivorism are myths: All creatures need both sources of nutrition (albeit in different proportions) – and seek out what they lack.
On our planet Earth, we get our energy from the sun, and from the plants that convert sun energy into sugar and starches – that is how we are nourished, by photosynthesis. Interestingly, carnivores usually don’t hunt other carnivores; they prefer herbivores. Why? Because the meat of herbivores has been grown on an herbal diet. Even carnivores cannot get too far away from the power of the sun in plant materials. And that, by the way, is the reason we usually don’t eat carnivorous cats and dogs but prefer rabbit, cows, game, lambs. And it might be one of the reasons in Jewish traditions for “forbidden” foods: pigs, shrimp, lobsters, and so on – animals that are carnivores or scavengers (eating dead meats). They are too far away from the green source of vitality. And so, by the way, are cattle that are fed corn: No greens strengthening their meat.
One last thought: So, which are the healthiest meats around? Americans seem to think that chicken and turkey are the best – as if chickens and turkey are not animals. From a nutritional standpoint, poultry are only marginally better than beef, for instance; they also contain unsavory animal fats, especially if they are grain-fed and from a commercial source. In a normal supermarket, the healthiest meat actually might be lamb. Lambs are born out in the meadows; they eat grass all their lives, they are not fed grains and are not treated with antibiotics, and so on. Then they are harvested.
Rule of thumb: Eat vegetarian three days a week, fish or eggs three days, meats one day. No deli – ever.
Sorry, if this is a bit graphic. But even if you close your eyes to not see it - the fact is that animals die so that we can eat; meat is not concocted in factories and comes shrink-wrapped and cooled. Let's make sure that the whole operation - from raising animals, keeping them, to slaughterhouses - is run as humanely as possible.
For every animal I prepare in my kitchen – including fish – I say a prayer. To thank this being that died so that my family can be fed. Read More
Driving An Old Car
June 6, 2010
When I carried my son at the ripe age of forty-two, my obstetrician was livid. He thought it was irresponsible and dangerous. “You can drive a twenty-year old Cadillac from the East Coast to the West Coast,” he declared, “BUT you will get into trouble!”
The comparison of my still nicely functioning body with an old car was insulting – to say the least. But history proved me right, and we have a wonderful, healthy son.
That, however, is not what I want to talk about today.
I want to praise old cars (and other old things). As of this day, my car is about fourteen years old and still running fine. When that car was much younger (but already dented and unfashionable), one of my patients declared: “With a car like that, you can’t be a good doctor!” Meaning: a good doctor can afford a newer, better car.
But can she? Apart from that my car is not a measure of my value or of my medical skills - am I not more than just a doctor – but also a steward of our good old Earth, like we all are, or should be? The longer I drive my old car, the fewer resources have to be used up, the more is saved. That is true for many things. So many items we buy nowadays get obsolete fast – and we retained nothing of their value. When I was a student, I made one day a totally irresponsible purchase: I bought a used Yamaha piano. I signed a check for money I didn’t have and then scrambled to borrow from my friends. Somehow, I made it – the check didn’t bounce. And so many years later the piano is still wonderful – and more worth than ever. – When my son now buys electronics (a cell phone, a laptop, an iPod), he uses them for a few short years, and then their value plunges toward zero. So many things we replace because they are not the newest item anymore, but they still pretty good, in working order and all. My Yankee (of course, I am not a Yankee – but feel akin) nature wants to preserve, repair, recycle.
In case you think this has nothing to do with medicine: The herbs I cherish and the plants I eat can only grow if we preserve our old Earth.
I will buy a new car if this one stalls and there is a hybrid station wagon on the market. Read More