Allergy-Proof Your Life. Michelle Schoffro Cook

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СКАЧАТЬ to DNA in the mitochondria to the point that they totally inactivate it—they knock it out altogether.” Additionally, these preservatives have been linked to allergic conditions like hives and asthma, according to the Center for Science in the Public Interest.20

      THE DAIRY DILEMMA

      Forget what dairy marketing bureaus would have you believe—dairy is not the health food it has been touted as. When it comes to seasonal and environmental allergies, I have found that dairy products are one of the worst culprits. It may seem like an unusual connection, but I have observed the disappearance of allergies in countless clients over the past twenty-five years when they follow a dairy-free and low-sugar diet plan. For most people, these two simple dietary changes are sufficient to eliminate seasonal allergies as long as this type of diet is followed. Let’s explore some of the problems with dairy products.

      Dairy products are highly mucus forming and can contribute to a whole host of respiratory conditions, including nasal and sinus congestion as well as lung troubles like asthma. Milk and other dairy products tend to be difficult to digest. Baby cows that drink their mother’s milk have four times the stomach capacity as humans, but most humans struggle with the digestion of dairy products. Most people assume that only those who have symptoms of lactose intolerance have difficulty digesting dairy products, but there are many other symptoms linked to their digestion, including indigestion, heartburn, abdominal cramps, aching joints, sinus troubles, nasal congestion, arthritis, and many others.

      As if cow’s milk wasn’t hard enough to digest, most milk is homogenized, which denatures the milk’s proteins, making it even harder to digest. Many peoples’ bodies react to these proteins as though they are “foreign invaders” causing their immune systems to overreact. Research also links homogenized milk to heart disease. Additionally, during this homogenization process all the enzymes that help digest milk are destroyed. Further, any beneficial bacteria that would have predigested the milk products, making them easier for us to digest, are also killed.

      But difficulty digesting proteins isn’t the only issue. Due to our commercialization processes involved in the growth of dairy cows, many foreign substances find their way into the cows and are then passed along to the milk they produce, which ultimately end up in our bodies when we drink or eat products made with milk. Pesticides in cow feed find their way into milk and dairy products that we consume. Not only are the naturally present hormones in cow’s milk stronger than human hormones, throwing off our delicate hormone balance, but the animals are routinely given synthetic hormones to plump them up and increase milk production. These hormones further throw off our hormonal balance.

      As soon as I tell people to stop eating dairy products, they inevitably ask me, “But how will I get my calcium?” We have been duped into thinking that dairy products equal calcium in the same way we think meat equals protein. Although dairy products are undoubtedly high in calcium, dairy products are difficult to digest, which means that we actually absorb very little of the calcium found in these products. The calcium found in plant-based foods is far superior to dairy products because it is much easier to digest and absorb.

      Before you panic about increasing your risk of osteoporosis if you give up dairy products, you might be surprised to learn that research shows that the countries whose citizens consume the most dairy products have the highest incidence of osteoporosis, with Americans and Canadians having some of the highest rates of the disease. Some of the foods that have high amounts of highly absorbable calcium include almonds, almond butter, broccoli, carrot juice, carrots, dark leafy greens, kale, kelp, navy beans, oats, sesame seeds, sesame butter (tahini), soymilk and tofu (organic only, as soy is heavily contaminated by genetically modified organisms, or GMOs), wild salmon, and sardines.

      Replace dairy products like milk, cream, butter, ice cream, and cheese with dairy-free beverages like almond or coconut milk or cashew or coconut cream, coconut butter or a vegan butter substitute instead of butter, and cashew- or coconut-based ice creams. Additionally, there are many excellent dairy-free cheeses now on the market. Avoid ones with casein, which is a dairy product derivative that is mucus forming and difficult to digest. Many of today’s vegan cheeses are delicious, artisanal options that are far from the original ones that hit the market decades ago. So if you haven’t tried them lately, you might want to explore dairy-free cheeses. Also, there are a wide variety of styles and tastes, so if you don’t like one, try a different variety.

      BEYOND THE MEAT MYTH

      Most foods contain protein, including fruits and vegetables, yet many people still believe the myth that meat is the best or only source of protein. This myth and the dietary habits that support it are having serious health ramifications.

      The average person in the United States or Canada eats more than 248 pounds of meat every year. That’s about the equivalent of eating a whole pig each year and comprises about 40 percent of the typical person’s diet. Most health and nutrition experts agree that meat should not exceed 10 percent of our overall food intake, but most people eat four times that amount. When you consider that our ancestors ate an estimated 5 percent of their total food intake in the form of meat and that they ate substantially less food than us, you might begin to understand why this extremely high amount of meat consumption is a problem. Yet people still ask me, “If I cut back on meat, where will I get my protein?” The food pyramids and other equally irrelevant systems of nutrition we were taught in school have led us to believe that we will be protein starved if we don’t eat the whopping amounts of meat we consume daily.

      Sorry, meat lovers, but a study at the University of Columbia found that eating bacon fourteen times a month was linked to damaged lung function and an increased risk of respiratory diseases.21 Eating processed foods like bacon also increases the risk of dying young.22 And according to research in the journal Circulation, daily consumption of processed meats like bacon, sausage, and deli meats can increase the risk of heart disease by 42 percent and diabetes by 19 percent.23 Although some meat is fine, processed meat is not part of a health-building, immune system–restoring diet and is best avoided.

      High-protein diets like Atkins and South Beach have left many people thinking that animal products are the only foods that contain protein. That is simply not true: fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains all contain protein. Most people actually eat excessive amounts of protein from animal sources, which requires a tremendous amount of energy for digestion. Additionally, excessive meat—and, incidentally, dairy—consumption is linked to imbalanced levels of certain microorganisms in the gut, according to Harvard University research published in the journal Nature.24

      It has long been known that diet influences the type and activity of the trillion microorganisms residing in the human gut, but Harvard scientists found that even what we eat in the short term can have drastic effects on the type and numbers of microbes in our gut and their capacity to increase inflammation in the GI tract, which can cause inflammation anywhere in the body, including the sinuses, lungs, and nasal passageways. Additionally, this GI inflammation can also result in immune system imbalances like the overreactivity of the immune system to dust, pollens, molds, or other environmental substances. I’ll share more about this GI-immune system link in the next chapter.

      The Harvard scientists discovered that microbes found in the food, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, quickly colonize the gut. They also found that an animal-based diet such as the SAD caused the growth of microorganisms that are capable of triggering inflammatory bowel disease within only two days of eating these foods. Other research links inflammation-causing microbes to the degradation of our health, suggesting that the Harvard study has СКАЧАТЬ