At the moment one of the diets that is being covered both negatively and positively in the press is the Atkins diet. This diet is not new;  the Victorian doctors advocated high fat and meat diets for clients to reduce weight.

The problem with any diet like this one is that people come in different shapes,  sizes and metabolic rates – one diet by its very deffinition will not suit everyone.  There are five basic metabolic types, two of which  do well on the ‘Atkins’ type diet.  Of the others, one tolerates it and the other two  get ill  (for more information on metabolic typing, please   see the Adam and Eve Diet).

Great emphasis is placed on the quality of foods.  One of the common factors in all ill health is dehydration. Dehydration triggers a series of biochemical events that mirror the body’s response to stress. Dehydration is a chemical stress on the body.  One of the common experiences is that increasing water intake  increases urination. This process is, in fact, a ‘washing’ of cells, as the extra water allows the body to transport out accumulated cellular waste material. The process eventually slows down when the cellular ‘washing’ is complete.

Very often, we seek to do the best for ourselves and family by making changes to our diet unaided, based on the diverse information available through the media, television, advertising and magazines.  Not all this information is based on sound principles though;  for instance  many people now choose to use margarine in place of butter.  Margarine is a man-made product containing hydrogenated fat, which is difficult for the system to break down properly and utilise. Ollestra is a similar product which also has the ability to strip the digestive tract of fats, oils and fat soluble vitamins. Ollestra is also known to cause digestive disorders in some people (IBS like symptoms).

We often turn to these synthetic products because of media information as detailed above,  peer pressure and a desire for health. Butter is a natural product containing vitamins, enzymes, fats and minerals needed for good health. White refined sugar and white bleached flour and products that contain either have no value, except to provide energy (refined carbohydrates); most substances which are useful as building blocks have been refined out and, ironically, often repackaged as a health giving bran cereal.

Systematic over-use of this type of energy source can, eventually, result in metabolic disturbances, such as reactive hypoglycaemia, environmental sensitivities, and/or digestive dysfunctions. In two weeks, 20th Century man eats  the same amount of sugar which was consumed by 18th Century man in a year. The impact of this 2600% increase of sugar on the biochemistry of a human being is enormous and far reaching; we are not designed to assimilatge such a toxic load. It is a curious fact that most of the diseases we now accept as ‘common’ were unknown to our ancestors; they have only begun to emerge in our society with the increase of refined and processed foods being eaten on a daily basis.

To make an appointment in the Jersey Clinic contact me via email at  rlanend@googlemail.com  for the London Natural Thyroid Clinic contact 0843 902 3180 during working hours.