Special Reports by Chris Masterjohn

Do you want information that is both cutting-edge and exciting while also
thoroughly credible and extensively referenced?

Do you want information that you simply can't get anywhere else?

Chris Masterjohn's Special Reports feature in-depth coverage of the following critical concepts:

Abstracts

How Essential Are the Essential Fatty Acids? The PUFA Report Part I: A Critical Review of the Requirement for Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids
by Chris Masterjohn

Copyright 2008 Chris Masterjohn. Please do not distribute without permission.

Current reviews and textbooks call the omega-6 linoleic acid and the omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid “essential fatty acids” (EFA) and cite the EFA requirement as one to four percent of calories. Research suggests, however, that the omega-6 arachidonic acid (AA) and the omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are the only fatty acids that are truly essential. Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) occurs in fish products but is probably not a normal constituent of the mammalian body, and in excess it interferes with essential AA metabolism.

The EFA requirement is inflated in the scientific literature by several factors: the use of diets composed mostly of sucrose, glucose, or corn syrup; the use of diets deficient in vitamin B6; the use of purified fatty acids instead of whole foods; the use of questionable biochemical markers rather than verifiable symptoms as an index for EFA deficiency; and the generalization from studies using young, growing animals to adults. The true requirement for EFA during growth and development is less than 0.5 percent of calories when supplied by most animal fats and less than 0.12 percent of calories when supplied by liver. On diets low in heated vegetable oils and sugar and rich in essential minerals, biotin, and vitamin B6, the requirement is likely to be even lower than this. Adults recovering from injury, suffering from degenerative diseases involving oxidative stress, or seeking to build muscle mass mass may have a similar requirement. For women who are seeking to conceive, pregnant, or lactating, the EFA requirement may be as high as one percent of calories. In other healthy adults, however, the requirement is infinitesimal if it exists at all. The best sources of EFAs are liver, butter, and egg yolks, especially from animals raised on pasture. During pregnancy, lactation, and childhood, small amounts of cod liver oil may be useful to provide extra DHA, but otherwise this supplement should be used only when needed to obtain fat-soluble vitamins.

Vegetarians or others who eat a diet low in animal fat should consider symptoms such as scaly skin, hair loss or infertility to be signs of EFA deficiency and add B6 or animal fats to their diets. An excess of linoleate from vegetable oil will interfere with the production of DHA while an excess of EPA from fish oil will interfere with the production and utilization of AA. EFAs are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) that contribute to oxidative stress. Vitamin E and other antioxidant nutrients cannot fully protect against oxidative stress induced by dietary PUFAs. Therefore, the consumption of EFAs should be kept as close to the minimum requirement as is practical while still maintaining an appetizing and nutritious diet.

How Essential Are the Essential Fatty Acids? The PUFA Report Part 1: A Critical Review of the Requirement for Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (Volume 1 Issue 2), 23 pages $15.00

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Thyroid Toxins: The Double-Edged Swords of the Kingdom Plantae
by Chris Masterjohn

Copyright 2007 Chris Masterjohn. Please do not distribute without permission.

Plants produce many toxic substances to defend themselves from insects and other herbivores. These chemicals are also toxic to humans; small amounts of plant toxins, however, may actually promote human health through the principle of hormesis -- that is, the principle that chronic exposure to low doses of toxins helps keep our defenses revved up and ready to handle the assaults of more formidable toxins. We must therefore rely on human epidemiological evidence and experimentation using whole foods rather than experiments with isolated chemicals in test tubes or isolated cells before we conclude whether a food is dangerous or healthful.

Such research has indicted several classes of foods that may exert a toxic effect on the thyroid gland and thyroid hormone metabolism in humans; we call these foods goitrogenic and we call the chemicals responsible for this effect goitrogens. Goitrogenic foods include soy, millet, cruciferous vegetables, cassava, lima beans, flax seeds, almonds, and fruits and fruit seeds of the Rosacea family. The goitrogens in soy and millet are flavonoids. The goitrogens in cruciferous vegetables are isothiocyanates, which their precursors, glucosinolates, generate when we chew the plant in its raw state or when our intestinal bacteria digest them, whether cooked or raw. The goitrogens in the other foods are called cyanogenic glycosides.

Cooking and fermenting do not destroy millet or soy flavonoids; in fact, they make these foods more goitrogenic. Millet goitrogens are present in both the bran and the endosperm. Although the bran is more goitrogenic than the endosperm, traditionally prepared millet that is dehulled (and thus has its bran removed), fermented and cooked into a porridge is exactly the type of millet that is associated with goiter in human populations. Microwaving crucifers reduces the average isothiocyanate yield to one-half; steaming them reduces this yield to one-third; boiling them for a half hour and dumping out the water almost entirely eliminates this yield. The effect of microwaving and steaming is dependent on the individual’s
intestinal flora and is unreliable; inter-individual variation in the release of goitrogens from crucifers cooked in this way varies four-fold. The effect of boiling leaches goitrogens into the cooking water and also destroys them; this is a more reliable way to avoid the goitrogens. Fermentation makes crucifers more goitrogenic. The most effective way of removing cyanogenic glycosides is by crushing tubers and leaching them in running water for several days, and by blanching and boiling leaves.

Dietary iodine is able to overcome the effect of cyanogneic glycosides, moderate amounts of crucifers, and is probably able to overcome the effect of soy flavonoids. Dietary iodine is not able to overcome large amounts of crucifers or any amount of millet. Millet flavonoids may be more dangerous than the others, because they not only interfere with the production of thyroid hormone, but they also appear to interfere with some of the homeostatic mechanisms by which our body compensates for the hypothyroid state.

People who have resilient health while eating these foods should continue to eat them with impunity. However, people who have thyroid problems or other problems associated with iodine deficiency or cyanide exposure should consider experimenting with the following dietary restrictions: 1) eliminate millet; 2) moderate soy and only consume it with additional sources of iodine; 3) limit crucifer intake to five servings per week, only eat more than this if it is boiled and match one’s crucifer intake with extra iodine 4) avoid foods with cyanogenic glycosides unless they are extensively boiled or crushed and leached in running water for several days, and match one’s cyanogen intake with extra iodine and vitamin B12-containing foods or supplements (but not cyanocobalamin). These foods are not inherently unhealthy but simply contain
chemicals that have the capacity to harm the health of some people under some circumstances; this is true of all foods. Experience always trumps theory, so the individual should use this information as but one tool with which she or he can experiment to find the most appropriate diet for herself or himself.

Thyroid Toxins: The Double-Edged Swords of the Kingdom Plantae (Volume 1 Issue 1), 23 pages $15.00

 

About the Author   Chris Masterjohn is the author of several articles in Wise Traditions - a quarterly journal published by the Weston A. Price Foundation and he is the creator and maintainer of Cholesterol-And-Health.Com, a website dedicated to dispelling myths about cholesterol. He has authored two items in peer-reviewed journals: a letter inf the Journal of the American College of Cardiology criticizing the conclusions of a study on saturated fat and a full-length feature in an issue of Medical Hypotheses proposing a molecular mechanism of vitamin D toxicity. Chris has a a Bachelor's degree in history and is currently pursuing a PhD in Nutritional Science with a specialty in Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition at the University of Connecticut.