The Nutrition War Zone
Nutrition must be one of the most controversial, opinionated yet critical topics on the planet.
Go online and you’ll find an ocean of confusing and contradictory views, fuelled by complex scientific data, dogma, and a tsunami of abuse.
It would be funny if it were not so serious. We are suffering from an epidemic of diabetes and obesity with associated heart attacks and dementia, which still dwarfs the deaths from the coronavirus. Even in the case of viral infections, people eating a healthier diet are far more likely to survive than those eating a poor diet.
At the same time, we are destroying the soils on which our future survival depends. This is serious stuff.
This blog is my attempt to change our food system from one riddled with misinformation driven by profit, to one focused on the health of the community.
It’s Personal for Everyone
If I come over as a bit extreme, it is because this is not some academic interest. My wife, a qualified surgeon and doctor, was well on the way to having her leg amputated as it turned black from diabetes—largely from misinformation from her medical colleagues.
The situation was only reversed by a serious change in diet, and thankfully she still has both her legs.
For anyone facing the consequences of a poor diet, this is personal, not just part of a statistic.
How Food Is Grown Really Matters
One key aspect of our food is how it is grown. There is an immense literature on the benefits of certain vegetables—kale comes immediately to mind—and this can be true when they are grown in nutritious, biologically active soil.
However, no vegetable grown in tired soil lacking in nutrients and sprayed with toxic chemicals can truly be beneficial for our health.
A consistent theme throughout these blogs is that we must focus on the soils in which we grow our food. Health starts in the soil.
Our Gut Brain Is the Master Regulator
The first port of call for our food is our gut. Our guts are not just a dumb collection of trillions of cells. They communicate to form genuine intelligence—the gut brain—which regulates our bodies: how much and what we eat, and much of our immune system that protects us 24/7 from harmful microorganisms.
Eating a diet that leads to a healthy gut biota is the key to our health. Health may start in the soil, but it grows inside our gut brain.
The earliest diets were nutrient-dense and gut-supportive, but low in energy.
Benefiting Us All
The Gbiota system is a powerful technology for improving our food supply, our general health, our immune system, and the management of fats and insulin. But a technology, however good, is not going to benefit anyone if it is not widely available to everyone at a price people can afford.
This widespread availability is not going to be achieved by a massive advertising campaign run on a for-profit basis. There is already excessive promotion and manipulation of the truth in the food industry.
People need to know that the food they are eating is authentic, and the best way to do that is to buy from a grower they trust. Technically this is easy in the age of the internet and online buying, but we still need to create local groups that work together as a social movement.
People power is far more effective than multi-billion-dollar advertising campaigns. Ideas spread virally when people talk to each other or share on social media.
We can even learn from the coronavirus. At first just one person was infected, and in a very short time it had spread across the world.
It is a very simple message to spread: we need beneficial biology in our guts, and we get that from eating food grown in nutrient-rich, biologically active soil. This is not about profits; it is about creating a better world for everyone, where we all have access to clean air, clean water, and healthy food grown in a sustainable way. Do it for your grandkids.
Read more about alternative food here
More information: colinaustin@bigpond.com
