Food Sensitivities

Food Allergies, Celiac Disease, Milk Intolerance & Nutritional Issues

Children and adults with ADD and associated disorders including depression, emotional lability, asthma, recurrent ear infections and learning difficulties have been found to be allergic to common foods such as wheat, rye, barley, oats, milk, eggs, yeast, peanuts, chocolate, oranges, tomatoes, shellfish, food additives, artificial colourings and preservatives, caffeine and wine.

Food not only provides energy and the structural building blocks for growth and repair of cells it is also a source of information. Food allergies and other adverse reactions to food can manifest in a multitude of different ways.
Here is a partial list of some of the most common symptoms associated with them.

Respiratory System

• Non-seasonal runny nose, nasal congestion

• Allergic rhinitis (hay fever)

• Allergic conjunctivitis (red, itchy eyes)

• Recurrent serous otitis media (inflammation and fluid in the middle ear)

• Asthma

• Throat swelling (in serious anaphylactic reactions)

Skin

• Hives

• Eczema

• Swelling of the mouth, eyelids and lips (angioedema)

• Itching skin

Digestive System

• Diarrhea

• Constipation

• Nausea and/or vomiting

• Bloating

• Burping

• Flatulence

• Upset stomach or indigestion

• Stomach aches

Brain and Nervous System

• Dizziness

• Irritability or aggression

• Hyperactivity, agitation or anxiety

• Poor concentration

• Exhaustion

• Insomnia

• Migraine headaches

Miscellaneous

• Dark circles under eyes

• Paleness

• Excessive sweating or Slight fever

• Rapid heartbeat

• Muscle aches and pains

• Bed wetting

• Frequent urination and Excessive thirst

• There has been much confusion about describing the difference between food allergies and food sensitivities.

FOOD ALLERGY - adverse reactions to foods which are primarily caused by the immune system.

TYPE I HYPERSENSITIVITY

A Type I hypersensitivity is an immune system reaction which is responsible for an immediate allergic reaction such as rhinitis (hay fever) and anaphylaxis.

Mast cells which line all entrances to the body and found in all locations in the body, primarily defend the body against parasitic infection.

In a Type I hypersensitivity, antigens break through the skin or mucous membranes of the respiratory or digestive tracts and are greeted by mast cells which set off a violent explosion. When a person has an immediate Type I hypersensitivity, their mast cells are covered with lots of allergy promoting antibodies (large protein molecules produced by the immune system) known as IgE.

Each antibody is specifically designed to attach to one particular antigen. (There are 5 classes of antibodies each with a different role in the immune system IgA, IgD, IgE. Ig G, IgM). This means that mast cells of allergic individuals are covered with vast amounts of IgE designed to attack only those antigens to which they are allergic.

These allergy generating antibodies are known as allergens. If large numbers of allergens attach to IgE molecules on mast cells, they set off a chain reaction releasing alarm molecules such as histamines and leukotrines which cause immediate inflammation, redness, swelling, mucous, hives, nasal congestion, coughing sneezing, red and itching eyes.

Mast cells in the digestive tract react differently to food allergens. Huge amounts of allergens may cross the mucous membrane of the gut and travel throughout the body activating mast cells in other locations distant from the digestive tract. Therefore food allergies are accompanied by hives, fatigue, malaise, headaches, stomach pains, irritability, hyperactivity, and "mental fog" and antihistamines have no place in the treatment of food allergies because a wide variety of inflammatory molecules are released in the gut.

Recent research indicates that mast cells within the GALT (gut associated lymphoid tissue) may release their contents under circumstances not associated with Type I hypersensitivity. For example, mast cells in the gut may release their contents when directly stimulated by nerve endings, or when communicated to by neuropeptides (released from nerves or absorbed from the diet if digestion is inefficient or the gut is leaky) or a variety of inflammatory mediators released from other immune cells.

This is in direct contrast to what immunologists and allergy specialist have been taught  i.e. that food allergy only exists when specific IgE molecules on the surface of mast cells are stimulated by specific allergens.

Recent estimates that Type 1 hypersensitivity based on food allergens occurs between 3-5 % in children (as high as 8 %) and between 1-2 % in adults does not account for the much higher incidence of adverse reactions to food in the general population. Furthermore, when ADHD children are placed on a high-quality, low allergy potential diet, 75% or more showed marked improvement in overall health, behaviour and cognitive performance. This cannot be explained by Type I hypersensitivity alone (Lyon 2000).

TYPE II HYPERSENSITIVITY

Although very important in defending the body against foreign invaders, this type of hypersensitivity is unlikely to play a major role in food allergies as it does not involve specific IgE antibodies. Instead the body manufactures IgA, IgG and IgM antibodies to defend itself against invasion.

This occurs to some extent in leaky gut (increased permeability of gut membrane) where whole cells e.g. bacteria, yeasts, undigested food cross the mucous membrane of the gut and have to be destroyed through Type II hypersensitivity reactions. The end result of Type II hypersensitivity is the release of inflammatory mediators from the immune cells.

TYPE III HYPERSENSITIVITY

This may yet prove to be the most important class of immune reactions for those experiencing adverse food reactions, particularly children and adults with hard-to-pinpoint, delayed food allergies.

Type III hypersensitivity occurs when antibodies and antigens combine together in the blood stream to form large complexes called immune complexes. These stimulate immune cells to release inflammatory molecules which can lead to an extraordinary variety of symptoms. Very common in snake bite victims who have been given an antidote made with horse serum (serum sickness).

Type III hypersensitivity is amplified when gut permeability is increased. These reactions are delayed (4-6 hours) and if a person keeps eating a food which provokes a Type III hypersensitivity, they may never associate specific foods with specific adverse reactions and may simply experience poor health with no apparent cause. Type III hypersensitivity is also thought to be associated with food addictions.

People with food allergies often crave the very foods they are allergic to. When placed on an elimination diet they may feel like "death warmed over" for the first 3-10 days and experience "allergen withdrawal syndrome". This occurs because of a transient serum sickness-like event that occurs when allergenic foods are suddenly withdrawn form the diet. When a person regularly eats foods to which they are allergic, immune complexes formed are small and numerous. High numbers of small immune complexes create vague and hard to define symptoms. Once the food is withdrawn, smaller numbers of very large immune complexes are formed and have to wait for a few days before being cleared by the immune system.

Large complexes provoke more severe symptoms. Headaches, muscle and joint pains, stomach aches, mood swings, malaise, cognitive, emotional and behavioural changes commonly occur during this withdrawal phase. If the allergic food is eaten during this phase, theses individuals experience a short-term "high" most likely caused by the release of stress hormones, increased sympathetic nervous system activity or the release of "opioid" peptides from nerve endings or immune cells in the gut. This would explain why these individuals are very reluctant to eliminate favourite foods from their diets. Opioids have been implicated, in animal studies, in delaying neuron and glial development (Zagon, McLaughlin, 1990) dendrite development (Hauser, McLaughlin, Zagon, 1989), and brain development (Zagon, McLaughlin, 1984). Food addictions seem to be most common with dairy or wheat allergy.

TYPE IV HYPERSENSITIVITY

In Type IV hypersensitivity, specialised immune cells (natural killer cells) become highly sensitised to specific antigens and attack those antigens without the need for the production of antibodies.

This type of hypersensitivity is a very slow reacting process which has been implicated in celiac disease (gluten intolerance) and is also thought to be a contributing factor in Crohn's disease (inflammatory bowel disease).

FOOD INTOLERANCE - adverse reactions to foods which are not primarily caused by the immune system.

CELIAC DISEASE

Celiac disease (also called celiac spruce) is caused by an intolerance to gluten, a component of wheat, rye, barley and oats.

Gluten contains a protein called alpha-gliadin and in persons with this disease this protein causes a reaction in the mucous lining of the intestine. The villi lining the small intestine suffer damage and destruction, which impairs the body's ability to absorb vital nutrients.

Malabsorption becomes a serious problem, and the loss of vitamins, minerals, and calories results in malnutrition despite an adequate diet. Diarrhea compounds the problem. Since digestion is impaired, food allergies may also appear. There appears to be a very strong familial pattern of food intolerance, which may also include patterns of digestive enzyme deficiencies disease (Dohan 1972; Horvath, Horn, Bodanszky, Toth, Varadi, 1983; Leung, Robson, 1996 ).

Lactose intolerance also often accompanies celiac disease. Kaczmarski, Kurzatkowska (1988) have reported a very high familial incidence of cow's milk intolerance in the families (34%) of children with cow's milk intolerance and a 13.3% family incidence of gluten intolerance in the families of children with celiac disease Similar familial patterns have also been observed regarding ADHD patients (Biederman, Faraone, Keenan, 1992; Sandberg, 1996; Hechtman, 1996). Investigations of children of short stature has revealed that 5% to 20% of these children have celiac disease (Arucchio, et al, 1988).

Celiac disease is often misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome or spastic colon as many physicians are not aware of the various symptoms associated with gluten intolerance. Many people therefore go a long time before being diagnosed correctly, and often they identify themselves because of what they have read or heard about the disease.

The latest estimates for the prevalence of this condition in the US is 1:150 and the only thing that is rare about it is diagnosis. Europe is ahead of the US, and Italy (1 in 7 children) requires testing of every 7 year old child. A study done in Italy found the prevalance in Northern Italy to be twice that of Southern Italy.

Susceptibility to celiac disease is a genetically transmitted trait which has been associated with genetically coded immune system factors identified as human leukocyte antigens (HLA) (Auricchio, Greco, Troncone, 1988). There is a significant association with HLA B8, which has also been demonstrated in 10% to 30% of European populations (Ammerman, Cavalli-Svorsa, 1984). Other HLA factors have been demonstrated to have an even stronger association with celiac disease, but the HLA B8 is found in more than 80% of celiac patients (Cooke & Holmes, 1984).

Depression has also been asserted to be the most prevalent symptom of celiac disease (Cooke & Holmes 1984) and reported as very common by others ( Addolorato, Stefanini, Capristo, Caputo, Gasbarrini, 1996; Holmes 1996; Pellegrino, DAltilia, Germano, 1995; Hallert, Astrom, Walan, 1983) which is thought to be a function of central monoamine metabolism dysfunction (Hallert, Martensson, Allgen, 1982) or due to reduced serotonin binding sites on the platelets of celiac patients (Chiaravalloti, Marazziti, Batistini, Favilli, Ughi, Ceccarelli, Cassano, 1997).

Celiac disease affects both adults and children, and can appear at any age. It can be triggered by emotional stress, physical trauma, a viral infection, pregnancy or surgery. It often appears in babies when they are first introduced to cereal foods at around three or four months of age.

A baby with celiac disease may gain weight more slowly than normal or may lose weight. The infant may have a poor appetite, flatulence, and offensive smelling bowel movements. Infants and children may exhibit stunted growth, vomiting, an intense burning sensation in the skin and a red itchy skin rash called dermatitis herpetiformis. Children are likely to have an anemic, undernourished appearance. Ulcers may develop in the mouth. Celiac spruce may trail off in adolescence only to reappear, in some instances, in adults in their thirties or forties. The first signs are often weight loss, diarrhea and nutritional deficiencies such as anemia.

Other symptoms include nausea, abdominal swelling, large and frequently pale and/or light-yellow coloured stools that float, depression, irritability, muscle cramps and wasting, and joint and/or bone pain.

There is a great deal of evidence suggesting that gluten may also contribute to the rapidly increasing incidence of malignancy. Gluten has been implicated in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and autism (Dohan et al., 1969; Singh & Kay, 1976; Reichelt, et al, 1990a).

Gluten produces exorphins which are opioid-acting peptides derived from external sources, instead of being synthesized within the body. These exogenous opioids have been shown to bind to the same cellular receptors that endogenous opioids bind to, thus impacting on the immune system, nerve function, myelination processes, vascular walls, neuromuscular function, and a variety of CNS functions. As may be expected, such opioids can have an anaesthetizing, analgesic, and addictive effect.

Zioudrou et al. (1979) identified some opioid peptides in the digests of wheat prolamines and dairy proteins which have opioid activity, and Fukudome and Yoshikawa (1992) have since characterized 15 separate amino acid sequences of gluten-exorphin A-5 in a single molecule of wheat. It bears noting that four other opioid-acting amino acid sequences have also been identified in wheat protein and may also occur in multiple regions of the proteins in this very common food ( Fukudome & Yoshikawa, 1992). It is also likely that passage of at least some of these exorphins into the blood, as is witnessed by anti-gliadin antibodies, is occurring in at least 15% of the random population (Arnason, et al., 1992).

There is also a significant population of patients with autism, schizophrenia, and bi-polar disorder, many of whom do not mount a discernable antibody response to these proteins, but whose symptoms improve on a diet which excludes them (Reichelt, 1996).

One sequence of amino acids which has been identified in abundant quantity in both wheat and cow's milk is similar to melanocyte-stimulating-hormone-release-inhibiting factor (MIF) which has been shown to enhance CNS dopaminergic activity in animals (Mycroft et al,1982). A condition of increased central dopaminergic activity has long been associated with ADHD and a variety of other psychiatric conditions (Gill, Daly, Heron, Hawi, Fitzgerald, 1997; Raskin, Shaywitz, Shaywitz, Anderson, Cohen, 1984).

The earliest report that opioid peptides could be derived from food proteins is probably that of Zioudrou et al.(1979). This group named exorphins and established their functional similarity to morphine. They reported that Naloxone, a morphine antagonist, blocked 70% of gluten-derived exorphin activity, while blocking 100% of milk-derived exorphin activity. Animal studies conducted by the same group show that these exorphins will bind to opiate receptors in the brain.

Gluten-derived opioids are thought to have a much greater potency than those derived from milk, and the former are claimed to have a potency that is a small fraction of that of morphine (Huebner, Lieberman, Rubino, Wall, 1984), so the signs of behavioural impact would likely be much more subtle than is seen in morphine addiction

There was evidence almost thirty years ago, from double blind trials that some schizophrenics benefited from exclusion of gluten and dairy from their diets (Dohan, et al, 1969; Singh & Kay, 1976. The patients in question were released earlier than previous patients who had consumed a regular diet These positive results were replicated by all the researchers who worked within the clear and simple parameters outlined by Dohan. It was a decade after publication of the first clinical trial of this diet with schizophrenics, that Zioudrou et al. (1979) published their discovery of morphine-like peptides in the digests of wheat and dairy products, thus providing subsequent support for the application of the exorphin hypothesis to schizophrenia.

Opioids, in general, have been implicated in sleep onset (Wilson, Dorosz , 1984) and hypothalmic-pituitary-adrenal axis function (Hoggan, 1997b). Reduced attention may be the result of the CNS attachment of opioid-acting exorphins. Paul et al. (1985) have indicated that exorphins can stay in the circulation of celiac children for as long as a year after consumption of gluten. Since there are five known types of opioids which have been isolated from proteins in wheat, and eight which have been isolated from milk proteins the number of possible variations in presentations should amount to the square of the sum of these two numbers.

If left untreated celiac disease can be quite serious, even life threatening. Bone disease, central and peripheral nervous system impairment, internal hemorrhaging, pancreatic disorders, infertility, miscarriages and gynecological disorders are just some of the long term maladies that can complicate celiac disease. It also increases the risk of developing intestinal lymphoma and other intestinal malignancies.

Certain autoimmune disorders can also be associated with celiac disease, including dermatitis herpetiformis, kidney disease (nephrosis), sarcoidosis (the foramtion of lesions in the lungs, bones, skin, and other places) insulin dependent diabetes mellitus, systemic lupus erythematosus, thyroid disease, and rarely chronic active hepatitis, sclerodoma, myasthenia gravis, Addisons disease, rheumatoid arthritis and Sjogern's syndrome.

Celiac disease is increasingly being linked to epilepsy, autism, schizophrenia, depression and chronic fatigue syndrome (Lancet). Endorphin-like substances may be created in celaic disease and together with increased gut permeability allows absorption of these substances into the brain. Delays in neuron, glia, dendrite, and brain development have also been associated with opioid peptides (Hauser, et al., 1989; Zagon, et al., 1991; Zagon, et al., 1984).

Recommendations

Avoidance of all foods which contain gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats) is essential as is adequate vitamin intake.

Eliminate milk as Investigation of ADHD subjects for deficiencies of digestive enzymes may thereby be very revealing.

Processed foods should be avoided and all labels need to be carefully read. Watch for hidden sources of gluten such as hydrolysed vegetable protein, textured vegetable protein and hydrolysed plant protein.

Avoid all derivatives of wheat, rye, barley and oats such as malt, modified food starch, some soy sauces, grain vinegars, binders, fillers, excipients and natural flavourings.

Do not eat sugary products, boullion cubes, bottled salad dressings, chocolate.

People with celiac disease need fibre and foods rich in iron and B vitamins. Rice, nuts, sunflower seeds, raisins, figs, seedy fruits (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries) are suitable.

Celiac disease causes malabsorption of the B vitamins and the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K so ensure adequate intake of these vitamins in addition to vitamin C. Barley grass is a good source of Vitamin K.

Ensure an adequate intake of the minerals iron, zinc (and copper to balance the zinc), calcium, magnesium and N-acetylglucosamine (forms the basis of complex molecular structures in the mucous membrane of the intestinal lining).

Essential fatty acid supplementation is also necessary for the villi in the intestines.

Proteolytic enzymes to aid in digestion and absorption are also useful.

Use supplements that are hypoallergenic, wheat-free and yeast-free.

Drink at least 8 glasses of filtered water per day.

"Dietary compliance is an intense learning experience. Errors are the rule, not the exception, as one learns the pitfalls of such a diet in the context of a culture inundated with gluten" (Hoggan 1998). "One of the most important skills that children and adults with ADHD must learn is how to properly feed their own brains for life" (Lyon, p121).

This article is an extract from the THE CLINICAL PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY FORUM.

Does milk really look good on you?
by Ingri Cassel

Pasteurized, homogenized cow's milk has been promoted as the perfect food for humans, especially for our children. This multi-generational advertising campaign has been so successful that the industry has a multi-million dollar advertising budget and a legislative lobbying influence in congress so powerful that every child in a public school receives a pint of milk each day -- whether he or she can pay for it or not.

In 1999 the Department of Agriculture donated $200million to America's dairy farmers despite the fact that the wholesale price for milk had reached the highest levels in history.

Most people have been so conditioned to believe that the healthy growth of their children's bones is dependent upon receiving calcium from processed cow's milk that they view milk commercials as more of a public service announcement than an attempt by businessmen to sell a product.

Several well-footnoted books and countless articles on the subject show that processed cow's milk is not healthy for humans and, to the contrary, has been linked to a wide range of physiological complications. The list of problems that have been associated with the consumption of milk and dairy products includes iron deficiency anemia, allergies, diarrhea, heart disease, colic, cramps, gastrointestinal bleeding, sinusitis, skin rashes, acne, arthritis, diabetes, ear infections, osteoporosis, asthma, autoimmune diseases and possibly even lung cancer, multiple sclerosis and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Milk and dairy products are acid-forming and mucus-producing substances that provide the ideal
bodily environment for many children and adults to experience increased frequency of colds and flus.

The milk of mammals is species-specific and cow's milk is a species-specific food for calves.

As Dr. Frank Oski explains in his book "Don't Drink Your Milk!", the milk of each species appears to have been specifically designed to protect the young of that species.....Heating, sterilization, or modification of the milk in any way destroys the protection. There is a tremendous difference between human babies and baby calves and a corresponding difference between the milk intended to nourish human babies and baby calves. It takes about 180 days for a human infant to double its birth weight, and human milk is five to seven percent protein. It takes only 45 days for a calf to double its birth weight and cow's milk is 15 percent protein. This protein in cow's milk is of a different composition than that of human milk and is poorly assimilated in the human body. The primary type of protein in cow's milk is casein. According to Dr. John R. Christopher, N.D., M.H., there is up to 20 times more casein in cow's milk than human milk which
makes the nutrients in cow's milk difficult (if not impossible) for humans to assimilate.

Lost in the process

Pasteurizing milk destroys enzymes and reduces the vitamin content by over 50 percent. Raw milk contains beneficial bacteria such as lactobacillus acidolphilus which holds the putrefactive bacteria in check. This is why raw milk will eventually curdle and sour if allowed to sit at room temperature. Pasteurized milk, not having any beneficial bacteria or enzymes, eventually rots.

The irony of pasteurization is that it destroys the germicidal properties of milk. Experimental animals deteriorate rapidly on pasteurized milk. For instance, calves fed pasteurized milk die within 60 days, as shown by numerous experiments. So why do we pasteurize
milk? 1) It extends the shelf life of milk from five days to several weeks and 2) It enables the farmer to have lower standards of cleanliness. The standards for certified dairy herds and milk handlers of raw milk are considerably higher than for herds whose milk is
to be pasteurized.

Homogenizing milk has been linked to the rise in arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and heart disease. The culprit is an enzyme in milk called xanthine oxidase (XO) which partly survives pasteurization (40 percent). When the cream in milk is in it's natural state, the fat globules are too large to go through the intestinal wall and into the bloodstream. Homogenization changes that by straining the fat through tiny pores under great pressure. XO attaches to the fat molecules (now reduced in size but increased in amount a hundred times) which are now
small enough to get into the bloodstream and do its damage.

Scientists have discovered that a significant amount of XO is present in areas of hardened and blocked arteries. XO is not present in human milk. In clean, raw cow's milk. XO is not absorbed by the intestines.

Your bones are a mineral bank for your body storing 99 percent calcium, 85 percent phosphorus and 60 percent magnesium. When mineral levels are low in the blood, osteoclasts break down bone to free up these minerals and deposit them in the blood. Excessive animal
protein intake increases the need for calcium to neutralize the acid formed from digesting animal
protein. This indicates that the drinking of processed milk destroys bone in the process of digestion  the opposite of what the Dairy Farmer's Association of America, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration has been telling the
American public for generations.

Conditioning the American public to believe that processed cow's milk is beneficial, if not critical to growing healthy bodies is not unlike conditioning the American public to believe that fluoride prevents tooth decay.

Jethro Kloss, author of the internationally recognized and revered herbalist resource guide *Back to Eden* stated in 1939 that, *Cow's milk is unfit for human* *consumption and causes the symptoms intestinal* *auto-intoxication.*

The Monsanto connection

In 1994 the FDA approved the use of recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST -- better known as bovine growth hormone -- BGH), a genetically-engineered hormone manufactured by Monsanto that increases milk production in cows by 10 percent to 25 percent. The milk from cows treated with BGH contains elevated levels insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), one of the most powerful growth factors ever identified. While IGF-1 doesn't cause cancer, it definitely
stimulates its growth. Recent studies have found a seven-fold increase in the risk of breast cancer in women with the highest IGF-1 levels, and a four-fold increase in prostate cancer in men with the highest levels of IGF-1.

BGH is banned in both Canada and Europe. BGH-treated cows are also more likely to contract
mastitis, a persistent infection of the cows' udders. These cows are then treated with a myriad of
antibiotics and sulfa drugs. Trace amounts of these drugs as well as pus and bacteria from the infected udders are also found in their milk. Many of these antibiotics, even in trace amounts, can cause allergic reactions -- from mild reactions such as hives to anaphylactic shock.

The role of Monsanto, one of the world's largest chemical corporations and developer of the terminator gene for seed crops, in the willful adulteration and contamination of milk must be considered. Monsanto, also one of the world's most prolific polluters, intends to control the world's food supply by making sure that farmers must come back and purchase its seed year after year because terminator gene-containing plants will not produce viable seed. Monsanto also
developed the FDA-approved bovine growth hormone that increases production at the expense of the cow and the health of the adults and children who drink the milk.

Kloss' statement was published long before Monsanto was able to further contaminate milk with
bovine growth hormone. If cow's milk was unfit for human consumption in 1939, has Monsanto and the FDA, with the introduction and approval of BGH, made it more or less fit than it was before WWII?

Dietary alternatives to cow calcium

Our nutritional education in school (funded in part by the dairy industry) taught us that dairy products are one of the four basic food groups we ALL need for proper nutrition. Largely as a result of this K-12 conditioning, the average American consumes 375 pounds of dairy products a year. One out of every seven dollars spent on groceries in the U.S. goes to buy dairy products.

There is no question that cow's milk contains calcium. What is in question is how much of that calcium is made available to the body through the digestive process. We have been told all of our lives to drink plenty of milk in order to build strong teeth and bones. Curiously, the U.S. as a whole records the highest consumption of dairy products in the world and also boasts the highest incidence of bone fractures and osteoporosis in the world. In the January 1988 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, scientists reported that calcium excretion and bone loss increase in proportion to the amount of animal protein ingested. Animal proteins, due to their high sulfur content, alter the kidney's reabsorption of calcium, so that more calcium is excreted on a diet based upon meats, eggs and dairy products. People on high protein diets excrete between 90 to 100 mg. of calcium a day.

The difference in health between consumers of milk and those who choose to abstain are astounding. Dr. John R. Christopher tells the story of a woman who came to his office with her three grown daughters. All three daughters were encouraged by their mother to drink lots of milk but one of the daughters had rebelled. The two daughters who dutifully drank their milk and lots of it wore false teeth whereas the third daughter who abstained still had all her teeth intact.

Being a former La Leche League leader, I have heard numerous stories told by mothers of the trials and tribulations of raising children. The most frequent success stories I have heard about resolving chronic ear infections and frequent trips to the doctor's office is the elimination of dairy products. Over and over again these women relate how surprised they were to have healthy kids at last. Others have found that milk, being quite addictive, was more difficult to eliminate totally. These families would go on a dairy binge periodically. The following week they would pay for it with a flare up of symptoms from the build up of mucus.

Dr. J.Dan Baggert, a pediatrician in Alabama, describes his experience after recommending that ALL his patient's eliminate cow's milk from their diets. "In Don't Drink Your Milk", Dr. Baggert was quoted as stating, "During the years from 1963 through 1967, I referred an average of four appendectomy cases per year. During the past five and a half years, I have referred only two patients for appendectomy, the last one being three years ago. Both of these children were
professed milk guzzlers.... I do not have a single case of asthma. In fact, I have nearly forgotten how to prescribe for them...Perhaps the most significant thing I have learned is that Group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus germ will not, under ordinary circumstances, establish an
infection in a child kept on an absolutely no-milk-protein dietary regimen. I have been aware of
this for the past two and a half years and, so far, there have been no exceptions. Anytime a patient of mine is found to have streptococcal pharyngitis or pyoderma, we can establish by history that he ingested milk protein within five days prior to onset of symptoms or signs bringing him to the office....I now admit an average of 12-14 patients per year to the hospital. Their average hospital stay is three days. Between 1963 and 1967, I admitted an average of 100+ patients to the hospital per year. Their average stay was five days.

Considering all this evidence, it would be difficult to still buy into the media hype that cow's milk is the perfect food and natural for humans to consume. So what do you drink instead? Distilled water, herbal teas and fresh-extracted fruit and vegetable juices. And if you are a newborn infant, there are two obvious alternatives -- the right and left breast of your healthy mother.

To increase dietary calcium, consider increasing your consumption of green leafy vegetables such as collards, kale and spinach. Adding these greens to soups, stews and even chili is a more appetizing way to incorporate them into your diet. Carrots and their juice are also an excellent source of highly assimilable calcium.

References:

NOTE: The referenced website links are highly recommended, to return to the LDPS website, simply use the "Back" button on your browser.

Alexander, P (1997): It could be allergy and it can be cured. Ethicare Pty. Ltd.

Lyon, M (2000): Healing the Hyperactive Brain. Focussed Publications

Hoggan, R (1998): Application of the Exorphin Hypothesis to ADHD: A theoretical Framework. Masters Thesis, University of Calgary. Many ADHD and associated disorders and mental illnesses are postulated to be exacerbated by the ingestion of gluten (wheat, rye, barley, oats) and casein (cow's milk) and backed up by a thorough scientific literature search.

Osiecki, H (1998): The Physician's Handbook of Clinical Nutrition. Bioconcepts Publishing

Pelton, R & LaValle, J.B (2000): The Nutritional Cost of Prescription Drugs. Morton Publishing Company

Rapp, D (1981): Diet and Hyperactivity. Paediatrics. 67 (6), 937-938

Trenev, N (1998): Probiotics: Natures internal healers; Your body's first line of defense against most common diseases. Avery Publishing Group

Wadley, G & Martin, A (2000): The origins of agriculture a biological perspective and a new hypothesis. Journal of the Australasian College of Nutritional & Environmental Medicine. Vol. 19, No. 1, April 2000, pages 3-12. See http://www.acnem.org/journal/19-1_april_2000/origins_of_agriculture.htm for full article.

This article is well worth reading as it explores the pharmacological properties of cereals and milk and the possible link between diet and mental illness. Exorphins opioid activity in wheat, rye, barley and oats and casomorphin (in bovine [cow's] and human milk) have been shown to be absorbed from the intestine and can produce effects such as analgesia and reduction in anxiety usually associated with poppy-derived opioids (heroin and morphine). The questions raised in this article "Are cereals and milk chemically rewarding and are humans somehow addicted to these foods?" are thought provoking and the arguments presented are certainly food for thought.

Nutrition

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