Food Chemistry, Quality & Safety
This book describes some of the more important and more interesting features
of food chemistry and develops a perspective on the healthier food choices
included in the Alpha Nutrition Program. Food chemistry is complex and involves
both chemicals intrinsic to food and chemicals added to and contaminating food.
The food supply in any region of the world involves sampling the chemistry of
the agricultural environment. In the good old days, food originated close to
home and consumers sampled the local environment. Now food is shipped all over
the world. Consumers sample exotic environments with no knowledge of the
sources.
There are many complicated issues influencing proper food selection. Food
choices have been changing rapidly and will continue to change for personal
health reasons, but also in the next decades, we will change collectively. Some
changes will be voluntarily and others will well be imposed on us by shifting
economics, political upheavals, climate changes, population growth, and crop
failures. Food choices in affluent countries already involve new and unusual
combinations of food chemistry that has never been experienced before in the
history of life on earth.
Thousands of new chemicals have entered the food chain as additives and
contaminants. Immune-mediated (allergic) diseases are increasing and create
expensive, chronic and debilitating illnesses. Each person interacts with food,
home and work environments that determine his or her biological fate. In
industrialized countries, the microenvironment of each person is controlled by
human constructions and is generally polluted by toxic substances. The extent of
this chemical contamination is seldom measured and the effects are poorly
understood. As environmental problems multiply, new ill-defined illnesses will
increase.
If your premise is that foods in common uses are good foods, healthy for
everyone to eat, you will be disappointed. On the other had, if you premise is
that foods are too dangerous to eat; you will lead an unhappy and malnourished
life. A balanced point of view is developed in the Alpha Nutrition Program. The
most reliable rule is that people should eat plant foods that have been in
common use for centuries. Vegetables and fruits provide good nutrition and have
additional benefits. Non-nutrient chemicals in plants can add unexpected
benefits when included in the diet. These non-nutrient substances are now
referred to as "phytochemicals" which just means, "plant chemicals".
Alpha Nutrition Program Food Choices
The Alpha Nutrition Program begins with the idea that everyone has a small set
of best-fit foods that would allow them to feel and function optimally. The
first goal is to identify the simplest set of best foods for each person.
We argue that a return to simpler foods would have important biological
advantages. We seem to work better when we have a simple, regular food supply -
no surprises.
Alpha Nutrition routines are based on numerous decisions which arrived at a
set of policies which do three important things:
- Simplify a very complex situation
- Create order when chaos threatens to take over
- Establish a critical path in a maze of possibilities
The core-concept also made good nutritional and economic sense. Human diets
all over the world are based on a set of staple foods. The core of a new,
healthy, modern diet should be a small number of staple foods. But which staple
foods? The ability of the Alpha Nutrition Program to solve
food allergy problems could be considered one of its most important advantages
over any other system of diet revision. The Alpha Nutrition Program is based on
assumptions about food reactivity, safety, and overall desirability. These
assumptions have been confirmed by 20 years of testing different food choices in
a large number of patients who suffered from a variety of disorders.
The core-concept developed as we kept score of adverse food reactions
reported by patients. The program includes foods that we have found to be highly
desirable nutritionally and, at the same time, caused the lowest incidence of
adverse food reactions in a large group of people. The program excludes food
choices - even popular choices - if we found that these food choices commonly
created health problems. We found that rice, vegetables, and some fruits were
among the best tolerated and most acceptable of all food choices.
Whatever the complex of reasons behind the food problems we have observed,
the health-seeking goal of Alpha Nutrition is based on a return to a diet of
simple, carefully selected, natural foods. Fresh or frozen vegetables, fruit,
and rice products are the primary food choices. Poultry, fish, and small
quantities of red meat are also suggested unless you have a vegetarian
preference. Legumes, tofu and soya products are meat alternatives. Flavoring
herbs, spices, and a small number of prepared or manufactured foods are
suggested. These foods allow you to reconstruct daily menus, with confidence of
good nutrition, and stable life-long eating habits
Food Choices Author Stephen J. Gislason MD
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Table of Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Classification of Food Components
- Nutritional Programming
- Alpha Nutrition Program Food Choices
- Program Food Exclusions
- Phytochemicals
- Aromatic Substances
- Terpenes
- Carotenoids
- Phytosterols
- Phenols
- Flavonoids
- Isoflavones
- Catechins, Gallic Acids
- Lipoic Acid and Ubiquinone
- Glucosinolates
- Grapefruit Factor X
- Food Additives
- Sulphites
- Nitrates and nitrites
- Salicylates
- Food Colors
- Monosodium Glutamate
- Aspartame
- Negative Chemicals in Food
- Alkaloids
- Lectins
- Castor Beans
- Cooking Chemistry
- Garlic and Onions
- Nutmeg, Drugs in Spices
- Hot Spices, Peppers
- Brassicas
- Deadly Nightshades
- Cassava
- Fish-Odor Syndrome
- Herbs and Teas
- Legumes
- Soya
- Soya Problems
- Soy Allergy
- Soy Products
- Proteins and Amino Acids
- Immune-Mediated Protein Diseases
- Distribution of Antigen
- Cow’s Milk Proteins
- Gluten Proteins
- Jacob Creuzfelt Disease and Mad Cows:
- Non-Nutrient Amino Acids
- Cycad Beans and Lytico-Bodig
- Peptides Derived From Food Proteins
- Alcoholic Beverages
- Distillation
- Beer and Ale
- Wines
- Ethanol
- Metabolism of Ethanol
- The Negative Effects of ABs
- Toxicity to Digestive Organs
- Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
- Nucleotides and Gout
- Food Safety
- Foodborne Infection
- Staphylococcus
- Salmonella
- Campylobacter
- Escherichia coli O157:H7
- Toxoplasma gondii
- Cryptosporidium parvum
- Norwalk virus
- Food Toxins
- Fungi in Food
- Botulinus
- Shellfish-Associated Toxins
- Atlantic Mussels and Memory Loss
- Food Contaminants
- Pesticides
- Dioxins
- Aluminum
- Heavy Metals
- Radioactive Isotopes
- Abstracts from the Literature
- How aspartame prevents the toxicity of ochratoxin
- Ochratoxin A and prevention by aspartame
- Aspartame: scientific evaluation
- Neonatal exposure of male rats to estrogens
- Goitrogenic and estrogenic activity of soy isoflavones.
- Effects of soy phytoestrogens on breast cancer
- Uterine Adenocarcinoma… Genistein
- Neurobehavioral actions of isoflavonoids
- Experimental colon cancer… genistein.
- Fusarium …western Canadian wheat.
- Tofu with late life cognitive impairment and dementia
- Soya protein on the menstrual cycle
- Infants & estrogens from soya infant formula
- Anti-thyroid isoflavones from soyabean:
- Grapefruit juice: potential drug interactions
- Appendix
- Alpha Nutrition Nutrient Formulas
- Alpha Nutrition Program
