General Interest Articles

100% whole enzyme-active Broccoli Sprout Powder – Find out why our flagship ingredient is considered the most potent naturally-occurring activator of the cell’s own defence systems. Vegetables are well-known as being exceptionally beneficial for human health. Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables in the Brassica family are known to exceed all others for their health-promoting effects. However, most of us don’t eat enough of these protective vegetables; in fact, green leafy vegetables and crucifers make up only 1% of all vegetables consumed!

Background

I suspect you are reading this article because you have been exposed to inaccurate circulating information which suggests that magnesium stearate is a harmful compound when used in supplements. In fact, some manufacturers appear to promote this myth as a marketing advantage to encourage sales of their products over those of their competitors.

The Facts about Magnesium Stearate

Magnesium stearate is a natural lipid (fat) component of animal foods and is also naturally present in human cells. In fact, we are eating it every day in a mixed diet. For every gram of fat naturally present in beef, there are about 15mg of stearic acid 1. A 100-gram serve of lean beef steak contains about 18 grams of total
fat2. This means that for this modest meal portion, one would consume around 270 mg of stearic acid.

In Part  1,  we  looked  at  the  Mediterranean  diet  as  a possible prescription for good health and longevity.  The Greeks living on Crete and consuming their traditional diet can boast the lowest rates of heart disease in the world.

Not only are the Greeks relatively free of cardiovascular disease but they are also far freer of the other diseases of civilization – cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, menopausal abnormalities,  gall  bladder  disease  and  diverticulitis  to name the most common. What  is  so  curious  about  this  is  that  the  Greeks  would appear  to  break  all  of  the  “rules”  which  we  in  Australia hold  up as   icons  for  cardiovascular  disease  prevention.

This anomaly may explain why you may occasionally hear of a person who has been to his doctor and been given a “clean  bill  of  health”.   Secure  in  this  apparent reassurance, there is great surprise and shock when the individual suffers a heart attack soon after.  Many modern nutritionists are asking whether we are measuring disease risk in the right way.

A recent Nutrition Society of Australia meeting was themed,  “A new twist on health foods”.  The  theme confirmed the widespread and growing interest in the properties of particular  foods.   Where  nutritionists once viewed foods as providing just macro- and micronutrients, now foods are viewed  also as valuable sources of biochemically-active phytochemicals (plant chemicals).

It has been estimated that foods contain around 10,000 such phytochemicals if absorbed, have the  potential to modify the function of our cells.  This concept is the foundation on which the emerging  discipline of Nutrigenomics is based.  The word, Nutrigenomics means ‘food influencing our genes’.

Another issue in the HEALTH IS WEALTH series is entitled,  “Foods, herbs and medicine  –  a  blurring of  the boundaries”.  Ongoing research continues to confirm that the boundaries are indeed blurred.  Is a soybean a food because it contains proteins, fats, carbohydrates together with a range of micronutrients or is it a medicine because it contains estrogen-like compounds which can bind to the estrogen  receptors  and  exhibit  estrogen-like  properties?  Is ginger a herb because it is used to add flavour to other foods or is it a medicine because it inhibits the enzyme, thromboxane  synthetase  and  thereby  interrupts  the generation of mediators of inflammation?

For decades, food has been considered the source of nutrients essential to the biochemical processes which sustain life. The concept of recommending minimum levels of each nutrient to prevent deficiency diseases has prevailed.

Whilst this view still holds true, research into other chemical properties of plant foods has revealed that plant foods hold new secrets to health. Such knowledge is providing valuable keys to our understanding of how different cultural dietary practices affects various aspects of health of whole populations.

To pharmacists, the notion of plants having therapeutic  effects should not be unfamiliar.   Many of  the  world’s most valuable drugs have had their origins in plants.