
                     Practical Nutrition+ (tm)

Vol 1, No. 3                                       April, 1995
Copyright 1995 by Dennis Denlinger
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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"Practical Nutrition+" is a monthly electronic newsletter about
care of the human body. Over the past 20 years the Editor, Dennis
Denlinger, has been researching how to care for his own body with
much success. During this time many theories and methods have
been investigated and tried. Some have worked and some haven't.
Some which have worked have been replaced with others which have
worked better. Even more subjects have been researched than have
been tried.

Suggestions, gripes, questions and other feedback, addressed to
Editor, "Practical Nutrition+" at denlingr@ix.netcom.com are
welcome. Also, experts and people with practical experience with
various areas of health are welcome to contribute guest articles.
Contributors will be acknowledged by listing their Name, Firm
Name, Street Address, Phone Number and E-mail address.

The content of "Practical Nutrition+" is determined by the
Editor, with due weight being given to your input. It will
include from time to time articles by Dennis Denlinger or other
lay persons who have had practical experience in day-to-day
nutrition, articles by health care professionals, book reviews,
answers to your questions and perhaps some surprises.

>>>"Practical Nutrition+" does NOT give advice, but is only
intended to inform, to entertain and to be a place where ideas
regarding health can be exchanged. If you have a specific health
problem, consult an appropriate licensed health care
practitioner.<<<

"Practical Nutrition+" will be available at various locations
around the Internet. To subscribe to the electronic version of
"Practical Nutrition+" send both your e-mail and paper mail
addresses to denlingr@ix.netcom.com or to Dennis Denlinger, P.O.
Box 60431, Sacramento, CA 95860-0431, USA. Your address will Not
be distributed to others, but we may send you other pertinent
information from time to time.


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                   Our Body is a Garden

               Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
               How does your garden grow?
               With silver bells and cockle shells
               And pretty maids all in a row.

Have you ever noticed how the human body resembles a garden? In a
garden there are groupings of different kinds of plants. In the
body there are groupings of different kinds of cells. In the
garden individual plants grow at somewhat different rates and to
somewhat different sizes. In the body, individual cells also grow
at somewhat different rates and to somewhat different sizes.

In the garden there are beneficial critters such as earthworms
and ladybugs. In the body there are beneficial critters such as
acidophilus bacteria. In the garden there are unwanted critters
such as snails which eat the plants which make up our garden. In
our bodies there are unwanted critters such as the liver fluke
parasite which eat up our cells. In the garden there are bacteria
such as leaf rot which destroy our garden. In our bodies there
are tuberculosis bacteria which destroy our cells. In the garden
there are some plants such as that apple tree over there which
can survive many seasons whereas there are other plants such as
lettuce which survive only one season. Likewise, in the body
there are some cells which survive the entire life of the body
such as nerve cells whereas there are other cells such as blood
cells which survive only one season.

A major difference between a garden and one of our human bodies
is that a body is mobile and the garden is stationary. Now, just
imagine a garden which can stand up, walk and run. CATCH THAT
CABBAGE! What a funny sight, seeing a garden pick itself up, walk
out to the car, get in and drive away.

Vice versa, imagine a human body with rows of cells down which
you can walk to provide service such as pulling the cancer cells
or thinning out the poorly growing cells. Imagine the body just
laying there and doing nothing but grow. Somebody has to come by
and keep it trimmed and in shape or the cells will overgrow the
rows and fill up the walking paths.

What does all this mean?

Just like a garden, our bodies need attention and care to thrive
and provide us what we need of them.

You might be walking down a path in you garden and drop a trowel
without causing the garden much ill effect. You might swallow a
small marble without causing your body much harm. However, if you
were to drop 10,000 trowels in your garden, they would interfere
with the growth of the plants. And if you were to swallow 10,000
marbles you would probably as least have indigestion, if not
something more serious.

Intelligent gardeners plan their gardens as systems with many
different species of edible as well as non-edible plants and
other life such as insects, birds and worms with the intent of
having a healthy garden. It takes all kinds of life for a garden
to grow healthily. For instance, lady bugs eat many of the
insects which prey on the edible plants. Some inedible plants
make emissions which repel unwanted insects. Earthworms and
bacteria in the soil prepare certain elements in the soil for
absorption by the root systems of the plants. These gardeners
also know that spreading certain things such as common table salt
on the garden will kill it. Therefore they do not sprinkle salt
on the garden.

Intelligent gardeners of the body know that it also has systems
which work together for optimum health. There are certain cells
such as white blood cells which, like the lady bugs, attack and
kill (eat) unwanted (bacteria) cells. There are beneficial
bacteria in the intestines which do beneficial things for our
bodies such as producing vitamin K. The good body gardener also
knows that some salt is needed by the body, as it is naturally
somewhat salty. He also knows that if the body has too much salt
it will not do so well and therefore controls how much salt the
body receives.

When I started thinking of the body like a garden, it became less
of a monolithic hunk of rock and more of a living, breathing
group of systems which need to work together for optimum health.
Having this viewpoint made me more willing to care for it
properly. Perhaps this viewpoint will be of benefit to you, too.
I hope so.

                                   By Dennis Denlinger


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          Organic Foods vs. Conventionally Grown Foods

In Greece, the farmers grow organically and don't even know it. A
good friend who grew up there tells me that they never use
pesticides. One of her aunts, she related, lived to be 130 years
old. A couple other relatives lived to over 110, actively farming
and enjoying life the entire time. There may be other factors in
the Greek diet (also called Mediterranean Diet, which will be
discussed in a later issue)  which contribute to a long and
active life, such as the fact that they eat very little meat, but
the absence of pest killers definitely contributes.

Go take a look at a farm were pesticides, herbicides and chemical
fertilizers are used liberally. Dig up a shovelful of soil. Look
for life in the soil. It won't be there. The pesticides kill not
only the unwanted insects, but also the wanted ones, such as
earthworms, which process the minerals in the soil into a form
which plants can readily absorb.

Next, go look at a farm which uses organic growing techniques
with no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers. Dig up a
shovelful of soil. Look for life in that soil. It will be
crawling with worms and other critters. Those critters process
the soil into a form which make it possible for the plants to
absorb the minerals they, and we, need for optimum health.

According to David Steinman in "Diet for a Poisoned Planet," 60%
of the pesticides used by the modern farmer are NOT to improve
yield, but to improve the appearance of the crop when it arrives
on the grocer's shelf. Organic produce has more blemishes which,
although not detrimental to nutrition, are not appealing to the
eye of the shopper.

For instance, the other day I had an organic orange with a patch
of what appeared to be scar tissue on it. When I peeled it, there
was no sign of any damage to the fruit. Had that orange been
produced with pesticides, the toxic spray would have eventually
gotten into the ground, been absorbed by the tree's root system
and incorporated into the orange. True, I would not have had to
see the blemish, but I would have been subjecting my body to more
toxic load. Enough of that kind of load and the human body would
eventually become partially (i.e. ill) or totally (i.e. dead)
unservicable.

Much of the non-organically grown food also is sprayed with wax
to reduce spoilage and give a sheen. Back many years ago when I
ate that kind of food, that wax was distasteful to me. Then
recently I found out in Dr. Clark's book, "The Cure for All
Cancers" that the wax creates an environment in which destructive
parasites can flourish in the body. Food certified to be
organically grown cannot be sprayed and still be called organic.
Okay, so I have to eat the apple or cucumber sooner or risk
spoilage. Which is better, to have the fruit spoil due to lack of
a wax coat or to have the body spoil due to ingesting the wax?

Generally, organic food in the market costs more than non-organic
food. There are several reasons for this. One reason is that
organic farming is more labor intensive. For instance, organic
farmers have to pull weeds mechanically or by hand whereas the
non-organic farmer sprays toxic herbicides to get rid of weeds.
Also, most organic farmers are small and therefore do not have
the advantage of large scale to spread out the fixed costs.

Many of the costs of non-organic farming are hidden and paid for
in other ways. For instance, there is a higher incidence of
cancer and other illness among farm workers and their families.
The dollar cost of treating the illness often is carried by
health insurance which all of us pay for or by government
sponsored social programs which our taxes pay for. This dollar
cost is not factored into the price you pay at the market. There
is no way to account for the "cost" in terms of human suffering.

In approving the use of each pesticide, the FDA recognizes that
there will be a certain additional death rate per 1,000,000
population. They adjudicate that the economic benefit to the
society of pesticide use over-balances the cost of treating the
illness which precedes the death. This cost also is not factored
into the price you pay for non-organic food at the market. Once
again, there is no way to account for the "cost" in terms of
human suffering and loss of loved ones due to pesticide use.

As a side note, according to Steinman, infants and young children
are more susceptible to these toxins than adults.

The FDA does not take into account the variety of pesticides used
together. Your pharmacist recognizes that certain drugs used
together can give very adverse effects and tries to guard you
against such danger. However, the FDA does not even test which
pesticides used together, when ingested by humans, give adverse
effects. This potentially multiplies the economic cost as well as
the human "cost" to the society of non-organic farming many
times.

Then, as the pesticides wash on down the rivers to the sea they
kill fish and/or make the fish unfit for human consumption.
Nobody knows what economic cost this is to our total food
production picture. The economic loss of those fish is not
factored into the cost at the supermarket of non-organic food. In
addition, some of the fish is tainted with pesticides and eaten,
causing more illness and costs as described above.

Some of the pesticides get into the ground water. Therefore
municipal water engineers have to go to greater lengths and cost
to provide us with safe drinking water. That cost also is not
factored into the "lower" cost of non-organic as opposed to
organic food on the grocer's shelves.

Just how much of a difference do the above factors make between
the cost of organic and non-organic food at the market? Nobody
has bothered to do such a detailed study.

Now that I have been eating organic food for a while, I can
recognize a taste difference between organic and non-organic
foods. I have heard the same from others as well. What economic
value is there in eating better tasting organic food as opposed
to less tasty non-organic food?

In my opinion, even though organic food costs more than non-
organic, I would rather pay more than my fair share for my food
and reduce the risk of paying more doctor bills, losing
productive work time and perhaps cutting my life short with
cancer or some other major illness. I most definitely do not want
to subject my children to the danger of illness posed by non-
organic foods, no matter what the cost.

The rapid growth of the organic food industry testifies to the
fact that others feel the same way.

                                    by Dennis Denlinger


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                   Answers to Your Questions

What can I do right now to improve my nutrition with no expense?

Do as many mothers tell their children: Chew your food at least
20 times each bite. There is good scientific reasoning for this.
Your saliva contains enzymes which are essential in starting the
digestive process of food. No matter how much good, nutritious
food you eat, if it is not digested and absorbed by the body
through the intestinal walls you are merely making expensive
fertilizer. Chewing food well is the first step toward making it
absorbable by the body.

To further aid the digestive process, do not drink beverages
shortly before, during or for 1 hour after eating. The liquids
will dilute the digestive juices in your stomach, making them
less effective. Those juices need to be full strength to do their
job well.


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                    Book Recommendation

Have you ever seen the commercials telling the good things about
sugar? These commercials tell you that when you are feeling tired
and run-down in the afternoon, you should eat some candy or
cookies or other sugar for a quick pick-me-up.

These same commercials do not tell you that the sugar leeches
(sucks out) necessary vitamins and minerals from your body.
Removing those nutrients can cause the body to feel less than
optimum - perhaps tired and rundown. The classic book "Sugar
Blues" by William Dufty does tell you. It tells you much more,
too.

A diet of sugar can be worse than not eating anything. For
example, some sailors were ship wrecked in 1793 with only sugar
and rum as rations. When they were rescued only nine days later
they were in a wasted condition due to starvation. In comparison,
a girl injured in a plane wreck in some mountains and living only
on snow was found alive a month later.

He goes on to say that refined sugar is lethal when ingested by
humans because it has empty calories. Those calories *need*
vitamins and minerals which are drained or leeched from the
body's storehouse. This weakens the body's systems, making it
susceptible to disease.

He covers the history, politics and economics of the increase and
maintenance of sugar use. After reading this book, if you really
*get* it, you will throw away the sugar bowl, the cookie jar and
read all labels for sugar - and not eat any foods which contain
the white granules.

This book was written in 1975. It is a classic and still holds a
place on the book racks in health food stores.

                                      by Dennis Denlinger


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"Practical Nutrition+" is produced and edited by Dennis
Denlinger. From time to time I have data on my favorite subjects,
publications (I operate a publishing house) or products which I
can send you. Some goes best by e-mail and some goes best by
snail mail. I will have a summary of my current "nutrition hat,"
covering basic concepts and how I am presently applying them,
available soon via e-mail. Eventually it all will appear in
"Practical Nutrition+." For specific requests or potluck, send
your e-mail and snail mail addresses to denlingr@ix.netcom.com.
or snail mail to Dennis Denlinger, P.O. Box 60431, Sacramento, CA
95860-0431, USA, or telephone (916) 485-5119. I may ask for
postage on some snail mail requests.

