<<Second, I haven't seen much posted about anemia, but as a former
> nutritionist, I do want to point out that anemia, while common, is a
> very
> serious condition in young infants.  The reason why it is serious is
> that
> iron deficiency (even BEFORE progressing to anemia) can have an effect
> on
> cognitive development. >>

Yes,  Susan...thank you for bringing up this critical issue.      My own
severe anemia and iron deficiency that were discovered when I was ten
went _completely untreated_.  My parents and a bunch of health
professionals completely dropped the ball.

Every adult in my life assumed that the ensuing decline in my
schoolwork, energy level etc was simply b/c i didn't 'care',  i didn't
want to do better.   They couldn't have been more more wrong.  I'd
always been an excellent student but very suddenly couldn't concenrate,
was constantly falling asleep in class, felt like I could never follow a
thought to it's logical conclusion.   The brain fog was severe and
debilitating.

B/c i'd always known I was smart, I knew there was something more to it,
but


<<So, to continue, why would it be that these requirements are so high?
If
> I'm paraphrasing Kay Dewey's talk properly (correct me if I'm wrong -
> any
> of you who went to the ABM meetings last year), prior to our developing
> agriculture, the first foods that preagricultural humans probably
> offered
> our children was bits of chewed up meat. >>

and very likely, chewed up bits of organ meat......high zinc, high
vitamin A, high iron.


> <<That's about the only
> explaination for such a high requirement in iron and zinc.  As I
> previously
> stated, the iron is important for cognitive development, and the zinc is
> important for the immune system and for appetite.>>

yup.  i've seen kids who 'won't eat' or are 'the pickiest eaters on the
plant' suddenly start eating everything healthy that's offered them as
soon as they're given supplemental zinc.

Zinc deficiency is common.



> <<Now, one of the things that we have to keep in mind is that the meat
> that
> was probably offered back in the preagricultural times was not
> contaminated
> with chemicals, was not fed corn (a practice which makes cattle quite
> ill
> to the point of needing antibiotics to survive beyond six months)>>

and most  unfortunately, it changes the fatty acid profile of the meat
and the amount of fat in the meat. Meat in an evolutionary/wild
environment will have significant amounts of omega 3's and CLA.  Meat
from factory grain feeding farms will have none.



<< I'm sure that it was
> a rarity when the hunters captured a large enough animal to gorge on
> meat.>>

True.  But overall, caloric intake was so much lower that the cals from
meat tended to be a very significant portion of overall caloric intake.


> <<I have to say the same thing about what the soy industry has done.
> Cultures that regularly consumed soy products do not consume them in
> nearly
> the same quantities that our soy-milk venti latte consuming Manhattan
> population consumes soy.  My nephew, a soy-formula fed baby, now
> consumes
> huge quantities of soy milk products and I'm a little concerned about
> the
> imbalance of such a huge quantity of one food.>>

It's very concerning.   The coutries that traditionally consumed soy did
so in small quantities and it was either fermented (think natto in japan
and tempeh in indonesia)...and the kind of tofu that was made in china
wasn't rapidly made like it is today......it was a long slow process
during which the phytates and antinutrients in soy were broken down.
'traditional' soy consumption is an entirely different animal than
current soy consumption.

<<Children
> there grew well up until about six months or so, when they were then
> introduced to cassava.  Cassava has very little to recommend it as a
> food
> source.  It is almost entirely carbohydrate, has little of the nutrients
> found in grains such as wheat, sorghum, or rice>>

rice really has very little though too.  and even the other grains, when
compared to something like sweet potato or quinoa or fruit or veggies,
come up short.

<<in this area was very
> high in thiocyanate (which interferes with iodine absorption) and was
> very
> low in calories.  The predominant deficiencies in young children were
> kwashiorkor, some marasmus, and iodine deficiency (which impairs mental
> development). >>

what a disaster.


<<In other areas of Africa where grain is available, they increase the
> bioavailability of the nutrients by fermenting.  This does help young
> children absorb the nutrients better.  So not all food processing is
> detrimental.>>

fermentation is a great kind of processing.....the fact that it's
generally wholly missing from our current diet has been nothing short of
devastating for gut health.


<< I think we are stuck with treading a delicate
> balance with the contaminants that have entered our food chain and our
> ability to access foods that have not been contaminated.  I am sure that
> years from now we will have a better understanding of why some people
> seem
> to be healthier on a high carbohydrate diet and others do better on a
> high
> protein diet>>

there are some explanations already....Metabolic Typing offers some
great insights.  there are a couple of books available on in.

<<
>  and we will no longer see our culture go through swings from
> one to the other because we will know who benefits. And finally, the
> best
> diet for us, is not the best diet for our children because their
> stomachs
> are smaller and they need more concentrated nutrients than we do>>

very very very true.     I'm so glad I was able to hook up with an
excellent nutritionist early enough in my kids lives and wish it was
something more readily available to more people.

Thanks for the fascinating post.

:)
katherine in atl

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