camclub news - June 2015
Choosing organic – “a great contribution people can make”
Low vitamin D levels associated with depression
Poisons in our parks? – no thanks, says PAN UK
Prince’s intervention may have delayed Herbal Directive
Processed food is starving our gut flora and making us ill says top food scientist
ASA pulls up Juice Garden’s beetroot blood claims
Omega-3 and B vitamins offer Alzheimer’s hope
Choosing organic – “a great contribution people can make”
Buying organic is a “great contribution people can make to support farming that’s better for the environment and for animals”, said Soil Association chief exec Helen Browning when she appeared on Desert Island Discs this week.
Asked by presenter Kirsty Young to select “the one thing that best sums up organic farming and the work of the Soil Association”, Browning explained: “Farming is a very disruptive thing to do to the environment and from the time that humanity started farming we’ve we’ve squeezed out nature. The Soil Association’s job, and organic farming’s job, is to make space for nature and to enable wildlife, farm animals and people to thrive while we farm.”
“The Soil Association’s job, and organic farming’s job, is to make space for nature and to enable wildlife, farm animals and people to thrive while we farm”
Asked about the higher pricing for organic, and whether it’s worth it, Browning said: “I understand that when people are squeezed financially they might ask if buying organic is their highest priority. But I think you have an option to support a way of farming that’s much better for the environment and much better for animal welfare – then I think it’s a great contribution people can make.”
Between selecting her eight pieces of music (Buddy Holly, Genesis, Al Stewart and The Beatles were all included) and talking about her formative experience, Browning also stressed the urgent need to protect the world’s soils. “We’ve already degraded about 40 per cent of our soils internationally, and that’s happening here as well. If we don’t take care of our soils, we won’t be able to feed people in 50 years.” She also expressed concern at the “crazy” energy inefficiency of conventional food and farming systems. “You put about 10 or 12 calories in for every calorie of food you get out the other end. That can’t continue,” she said.
Low vitamin D levels associated with depression
People who have higher vitamin D levels have a lower risk of depression, according to a recent study.
The research, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, employed data from the Finnish Health 2000 Survey, which studied over 5,000 participants aged 30-79 of whom 354 had been diagnosed with depressive disorder and 222 with anxiety disorder.
Those individuals with higher serum 25(OH)D concentrations showed a reduced risk of depression, according to the study, but this wasn’t found to be the case for anxiety.
The researchers stated that the proportion of cases that could be attributed to one or more risk factors was 19% for depression when serum vitamin D concentrations were at least 50nmol/l, meaning that raising serum levels above this level could have avoided about 19% of the depression cases in the study.
The researchers from the National Institute for Health and Welfare in Helsinki, concluded: “These results support the hypothesis that higher serum 25(OH)D concentrations protect against depression even after adjustment for a large number of socio-demographic, lifestyle and metabolic factors.”
The results found a weaker association amongst those over 59, with the researchers saying that this could be explained by a greater prevalence of both depression and low vitamin D in the younger participants.
Poisons in our parks? – no thanks, says PAN UK
Pesticide campaign group PAN UK is launching an initiative aimed at ridding public parks in Britain of toxic herbicides and pesticides – starting with Brighton & Hove.
PAN UK says there is a growing body of evidence about the harmful effects of pesticides on human health and the environment. Just a few weeks ago the International Agency for Research on Cancer said that, following an exhaustive review of the research data, it now views glyphosate – the most widely used herbicide in the world – as “probably carcinogenic to humans”.
The group says it is time that Britain “catches up with other progressive countries around the world already making a stand against the use of pesticides in urban areas”. In France, it says, 300 towns and villages, including Paris, have gone pesticide-free.
PAN UK’s campaign starts with Brighton & Hove where it already has support from local groups, including Brighton Breast Cancer Action and the Brighton and Hove Organic Group
When Brighton Breast Cancer Action recently made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to find out what pesticides were being used by Brighton & Hove City Council, the group was shocked to discover that a number of glyphosate-based products, including Monsanto’s Roundup Hi Active, were listed.
PAN UK says it hopes that a “successful shift in Brighton can inspire others across the UK” – and is offering help to anybody wanting to start their own local pesticide-free campaign.
Prince’s intervention may have delayed Herbal Directive
Private memos written by the Prince of Wales to Tony Blair and members of the Labour government suggest that the Prince’s intervention on herbal regulation may have led to delays in Britain implementing the EU Herbal Directive.
Some of the correspondence between Prince Charles and ministers, written during 2004-2005 (the so-called ‘black spider memos’), was published yesterday after a long campaign by The Guardian for the letters to be made public.
In a letter to the prime minister dated February 2005, the Prince raises the subject of the EU Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD), which was enacted into UK law in 2004. A supporter of traditional herbal medicine, the Prince was concerned by reports from practitioner groups that the THMPD would severely restrict their access to herbal products.
In the letter, the Prince said of the THMPD that it was “having such a deleterious effect on the complementary medicine sector in this country by effectively outlawing the use of certain herbal extracts.” He added: “I think we both agreed this was using a sledgehammer to crack a nut” – and he offered to provide the prime minister with contacts from within alternative medicine sector.
“We can do quite a lot here: we will delay implementation for all existing products to 2011″
Tony Blair replied to the Prince in supportive tones. He said that the people with whom the prince had put him in touch “feel that the directive itself is sound and the UK regulators excellent, but are absolutely correct in saying that the implementation as it is currently planned is crazy.” He added: “We can do quite a lot here: we will delay implementation for all existing products to 2011; we will take more of the implementation on ourselves; and I think we can sort out the problems in the technical committee – where my European experts have some very good ideas. We will be consulting with your contacts and others on the best way to do this – we simply cannot have burdensome regulation here.”
In another memo to the then health minister, Charles Clarke, the Prince urges the government to follow the example of South Gloucestershire council and encourage more organic, sustainable school meals.
Processed food is starving our gut flora and making us ill says top food scientist
Processed foods are killing the complex community of gut bacteria that protect against obesity, heart disease and cancer, a leading food scientist has warned.
Professor Tim Spector, a researcher at King’s College and the author of 700 academic papers on nutrition and obesity, makes the claim in a new book The Diet Myth.
Speaking on Radio 4’s Today Programme this week, Spector said: “Certain things we know that are bad for us, like junk food, may not be causing problems because they contain a bit too much fat, salt or sugar but because they’re depressing our gut bacteria – which are lower down in our intestines – of much needed nutrients, because they’re waiting for the fibre and diverse range of foods they live off. Sadly our Western diets don’t contain them.
Spector says that it isn’t just so called ‘junk food’ that is the culprit, but processed food more widely. “Processed food only contains about four main ingredients ands most of it never reaches our friends waiting for it in the lower gut, who are desperate to turn normal nutrients into vitamins and good metabolites for our blood, and chemicals that help our immune system and keep us healthy.”
“We really need to stop this modern trend of cutting out certain foods and everyone getting a narrower and narrower spectrum of food”
Spector’s prescription for good health is simple: “Eat real food, but above all eat diverse foods – that’s what our ancestors did. We really need to stop this modern trend of cutting out certain foods and everyone getting a narrower and narrower spectrum of food.”
ASA pulls up Juice Garden’s beetroot blood claims
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has ruled that the botanical juice bar Juice Garden breached the CAP code following a complaint challenging the statements it made on its website about two juice products.
The Bloody Marvellous juice was claimed to be a ‘blood purifier’ and the beetroot in it said to ‘cleanse the blood’, which, said the watchdog, were unsubstantiated claims under the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR).
In its ruling, the watchdog said that according to the NHCR, “only health claims which appeared on the list of authorized health claims (the EU Register) could be made in ads that promoted foods, saying it did not see any “evidence to demonstrate that ‘blood purifier’ was an authorized health claim”.
Juice Garden’s Leafy Greens juice was described as a ‘detoxifier’, again a claim not accepted by the ASA, which pointed out that NHCR rules state “references to general benefits of a nutrient or food for overall good health or health related wellbeing were acceptable only if accompanied by a specific authorized health claim”, and that in this case there was none.
The ASA added that Juice Garden Ltd replied to the complaint saying it didn’t seek to profit from health concerns and was willing to make changes to the ad, but in the eyes of the ASA, it did not provide a substantive response.
However, after contacting local Trading Standards, the Juice Garden said it would remove the content within a week.
Omega-3 and B vitamins offer Alzheimer’s hope
A new study into Alzheimer’s disease has found that omega-3 fats and B vitamins can slow brain shrinkage by up to 73% in those with high homocysteine levels and initial signs of memory decline.
The research, led by Professor David Smith, the scientific advisor for Food for the Brain, was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The study involved 168 people aged 70-plus showing the first signs of memory decline who were given either high dose B vitamins or a placebo. After the researchers closely monitored brain shrinkage they found that those taking the B vitamins who started with high omega-3 levels in their blood had 73% less brain shrinkage, reaching a similar percentage of shrinkage as found in healthy elderly people with no memory decline.
The least brain shrinkage occurred in those subjects who had high levels of omega-3 fats and homocysteine, which indicates poor vitamin B levels.
“Something so simple as keeping your omega-3 levels high and supplementing B vitamins could dramatically reduce a person’s risk,” commented Smith. “We should be screening people for the early signs of cognitive impairment and then testing their homocysteine and omega-3 status.”
