Old Wisdom: Food as Medicine

Fall 2008

Health and Nutrition

Free radicals are best on a campus; in your body your diet can help cleanse
these and other nasty rascals

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

By Bruce Burnett

Jonathan Hanson's excellent book, Complete Sea Kayak Touring (Ragged Mountain Press, 1998) includes a valuable chapter on provisioning your kayak with nutritious, high-energy food.

However, for overall health, vigor and injury prevention, it's even more important for kayakers and other active people to be diligent about their everyday diet.

Twenty-four hundred years ago, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” What was true 2,400 years ago is even truer today with the typical North American diet – high in processed and fast foods full of sugars and trans fats that contaminate our bodies. One anarchist-sounding rogue from this diet is named “free radicals.” These are the leading villains in the aging process and a major cause of tissue injury in athletes.

A free radical is an atom with an unpaired electron. Like an overly aggressive suitor seeking a mate, a free radical waltzes through your body, grabbing electrons from cellular tissue and wreaking havoc like a philandering home-wrecker. Each free radical may exist for only a tiny fraction of a second, but the damage it leaves behind can be irreversible. Although some free radical activity is vital for immune function and hormone and enzyme production, too many will accelerate the aging process, suppress the immune system and be a major factor in age-related diseases such as cancer, heart disease and arthritis. The formation of free radicals stimulates the development of even more free radicals, snowballing their production and damaging genetic material.

Bad habits like smoking and eating fast food generate free radicals, but so do good habits like kayaking, hiking or indeed any metabolic activity, due to increased oxygen consumption.

To counter free radicals, you need lots of antioxidants in your diet. Fruits, vegetables and even herbs – especially herbs in the oregano family – are excellent dietary sources of antioxidants and should be an integral part of every energetic person’s regimen.

Another common herb that alleviates pain and inflammation from athletic injury is ginger. According to Michelle Schoffro Cook, a doctor of natural medicine, in her book Healing Injuries the Natural Way, ginger blocks the formation of prostaglandins and leukotrienes, two substances that cause inflammation. Dr. Cook also claims that ginger has antioxidant properties that actually break down inflammation and acidity in the synovial fluid of joints.

I would also recommend supplementing your diet with antioxidant vitamins and minerals, especially vitamins C and E and the minerals zinc and selenium. When shopping for vitamin E, select a natural, not synthetic, version and preferably one with mixed tocopherols. Antioxidants gobble up free radicals like voracious piranha fish. They neutralize them by binding to their free electrons.

Kayakers and hikers should also ensure they have adequate omega-3 essential fatty acid in their diet. One of the best omega-3 supplements for joints is fish oil, which is rich in eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Both fight joint-damaging enzymes called collagenases and reduce inflammation (often caused by free radicals). As a result, fish oil is a great supplement for reducing joint and tendon pain and preventing wear and tear. That’s why eating fish at least twice per week – especially oily, cold-water varieties like salmon, herring, mackerel, anchovies and tuna – or taking fish oil capsules is recommended.

Fish oil has also proven helpful for overuse injuries. For the past several years, the Danish Olympic rowing team has given its athletes fish oil along with gamma-linolenic acid (GLA), an omega-6 plant oil that acts like an omega-3, to help them quickly recover from inflammation. They use about 600 mg each of omega-3 fish oils and GLA daily.

Vegetarians can use flaxseed oil as a source of omega-3, but EPA and DHA are about 11 times more potent than the alphalinolenic acid (ALA) from flaxseed oil.

Other important supplements for the healing and prevention of athletic injuries include glucosamine sulfate, chondroitin and MSM (methylsulfonylmethane). Glucosamine and chondroitin help rebuild and lubricate cartilage and connective tissue. Because your body can only make glucosamine slowly, and your ability to make it at all atrophies with age, taking it as a supplement effectively speeds the healing of your joints after exercise. Studies have even shown glucosamine and chondroitin to be effective against arthritis in clinical settings, making these supplements first-line treatments for most people with joint complaints.

MSM, an organic sulfur, is used by the body to make important enzymes, antibodies and connective tissue. It is found in vegetables, meat, eggs, poultry and dairy foods, but it is difficult to get enough MSM through food as it is often destroyed through processing.

All wise athletes know the wisdom of the RICE procedure for soft tissue injuries: rest, ice, compression and elevation. But healthy food and nutritional supplementation have vital roles to play. As the ancient Chinese proverb says, “He that takes medicine and neglects diet, wastes the skill of the physician.”

Anti-oxidant-rich polenta with oregano

Ingredients:

3 cups of spring or bottled water
1 cup of milk (or substitute such as nut milk – I do not recommend soy milk)
1 Tbsp. of butter
1 tsp. of sea salt
Pinch of cayenne pepper
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 cup of polenta
½ red pepper, very finely diced
½ orange pepper, very finely diced
¼ cup of finely chopped broccoli, lightly steamed
½ cup of freshly grated Romano or parmesan cheese
1½ Tbsp. of fresh oregano, finely chopped.

Preparation:

Bring the milk, water, butter, salt, cayenne and garlic to a boil in a pot and slowly add the polenta in a slow stream, stirring continually. Reduce the heat to a simmer and continue to stir until the moisture is absorbed and the mixture has a creamy consistency, about eight to 10 minutes. Add the vegetables and cheese and continue to cook and stir for another couple of minutes. Then thoroughly blend the oregano into the mix. When it is evenly distributed, pour the polenta into a glass pie plate and allow to cool. It may be served cool or re-heated. Cut into wedges prior to serving.

Bruce Burnett is a Ladysmith, B.C.-based hiker and kayaker. Bruce is also a chartered herbalist, an award-winning writer and author of the best-selling book HerbWise: growing cooking wellbeing. Contact Bruce through his website at www.herbwiseproducts.com.