delede's Journal, 26 June 2016

/hmmm. So what really are the "deficiency diseases"? How do they arise? 

And how can I prevent them? 

Even fresh meat has some vit c, also tomatoes.  

"They believe firstly that we get all our nutrients from outside sources" That is not true by any stretch of the imagination. You're claiming nutritional experts believe this when they do not. Look at amino acids, 20 of them, 9 we can't make. By default this means that there are 11 that we can. How does that fit in with the above quote? --- "we see here that all the other species can make their own C but not us" Humans are not the only species that cannot make vitamin C, we're rather rare among mammals with this trait, but not the only ones. We share this with other apes, monkeys, some bats, capybaras and guinea pigs. Thiamine is an essential nutrient that ALL life needs, but only plants, fungi and bacteria can make it. Everything else has to consume it. How does that figure in with your ideas? 

Beware of odd ideas. There are many foods with vitamin C that are low carb, like peppers, tomatoes. Vegetables have many B vitamins. If you eat fresh foods and good quality vegetables you can get every nutrient that you may have given up by not eating grains.  

I wonder if Pfizer "made up" scurvy (vitamin C deficiency)... And pernicious anemia.... 

Wow! You have given me a lot to 'chew' on. I understand that we cannot synthesize minerals so we need to consume them. I used to take supplements for my chronic anemia, until the pills started to give me nausea and I stopped and started working on eating the right foods and combinations of foods (e.g. fruit but no dairy with my iron-rich foods). I also saw a recent article (I can't remember where) that showed that although humans lack the gene to directly manufacture Vitamin C, we do have microbes/gut flora that help us to manufacture it. Goodness! It just occurred to me that I had an extensive course of antibiotics that wreaked havoc with my helpful bacteria. Maybe that is why I am now showing symptoms of Vitamin deficiency. 

Ok. My Science knowledge is minimal. I have to change that as I have two young children who are fixated on Science. The boy loves Chemistry and the girl loves Biology. I love Literature and Sociology and their father is more into Math, so wonder where they got that from. Anyway I digress. I think I understand, despite my very limited scientific knowledge, that we are more than just what we eat. We are designed to create the combinations of elements that our bodies need, and that the 'factory' is fueled by glucose. Excess glucose, whether directly from carbs or indirectly from protein via glucogenesis, is converted and stored as fat. The more natural our food intake, the better our chances of having a healthy system that will function as designed. So, if I shed the excess fat and promote digestive health, I will not need to purchase supplements, including that nasty-tasting protein powder!  

Tomandjerry, did it ever occur to you that "less is more"???? I'd be a lot more apt to read your postings if they didn't go on forever and ever!!! 

I certainly do not mind the details. In fact, I will also be copying and saving the information in case it gets slashed by FS. I love to do research before making decisions, so you have given me a lot of material to verify. 

T&J defaulted to a lemon, I wonder how long it will take him to come back with another account.  

I'm Putting 5 on 24 hours. 

I can t wait to see what name he comes up with next! 

Dr. Hyman recommends that we take a general multivitamin, but other docs say that ample leafy green vegetables will provide the vitamins. I've been eating low carb high fat for a long time and I've never felt healthier; I never get sick. Just annecdotal, I know, but many folks get healthier on a ketogenic diet. 

Thanks for that information Erika. It makes me feel more comfortable with the LCHF concept. 

"Three cups of leafy green, three cups of sulfur rich, and three cups of color" is what Dr. Wahls recommends for optimal brain health on a ketogenic diet ( 69% fat, 18% protein, 13% carb). It must be doable. 

Thank you LadyinDenim. I will make that my goal for the next couple of weeks and see how my body responds to it.  

That was the absolutely weirdest set of comments and now no one can see the weirdness, just our reactions to it. Delede, I was composing a reply to you when that tomandjerry person started in with the crazy spam and completely distracted me. Ignore everything they said, it's easier than trying to parse out what was factual and what wasn't. I can confidently say that many of their conclusions were dubious at best and demonstrably false at worse. There are many sources of vitamin C from sweet pepper to kale, as well as animals sources like liver and other organ meats, which is why Native North Americans living near the Article Circle can eat a diet absent of vegetables and fruits and not get scurvy. And so long as you avoid starchy vegetables you won't be consuming a lot of carbs or calories. Nutrition is very, very complicated and in many ways not fully understood, and it is a passionate subject for many, as tomandjerry demonstrated. However, common sense is better than conspiracy. Bottom line: eat a variety of whole fresh foods, especially when they are in season, both cooked and raw, and preferably home prepared and minimally processed. You shouldn't then have to worry too much about deficiencies unless your doctor runs blood tests and discovers one. And yes, it's not a conspiracy to sell vitamins unless your doctor is actually selling them out of their office, which I think would be highly unethical of any MD. Any number of things can cause you to absorb certain nutrients less efficiently, from age to medications to diseases. Anyway, good luck, hope I've been helpful and made sense. 

Oh, good - a voice of sanity! Thank you TRPiJiu. 

Buy a multivitamin