A friend who is a practitioner of Chinese Medicine recently e-mailed my
husband and I to find out what we thought about a book called  "The new
eating right for a bad gut" by James Scala.  He had a feeling that we would
disagree with this particular author's conclusions and wondered what we
thought.  I though that digest readers might find this of interest.

Our friend said:
He has some very interesting theories, one of which is to finely cook and/or
peel foods with a tough fiber matrix.  I appreciated that Chinese theories
on "energetics" of food are starting to merge with current day scientific
thought.  He spends a lot of time on ways to balance inflammatory and
anti-inflammatory prostaglandins and leukotrienes.  He claims that
increasing intake of foods that are high in ALA and EPA will encourage
anti-inflammatory PGE-3, and foods that are high in AA will encourage
inflammatory PGE-2.

Apparently this author feels that one of the biggest reasons for a diet high
in AA is red meat, and it should be avoided if inflammation is a concern.
He says that organ meats are high in the worst kinds of fat, and "if there's
any single group of foods that clearly belongs in the "don't" category, it's
beef, lamb, and pork organ meats."

Our reply:
First, not all meat is the same.  The fatty acid profile of grain fed meat
is very different from that of grassfed meat.  I'm not talking about so
called "organic" or "free range" meat (that is fattened on corn and soy
beans) vs. conventional supermarket meat (with all that plus drugs).
<www.eatwild.com> has tons of information. Loren Cordain, Ph.D., has also
written on this subject for medical journals.

The composition of 100% grassfed beef, lamb, and their organ meats, is more
like that of wild game, very favorable.  It is the grain fattening that
upsets the healthy fatty acid ratios in the animals, and the people who feed
on them.  The quality of meat, quantity eaten, and context (overall diet)
are very important.  Many people  look at only meat vs. no meat and make
certain evaulations or conclusions, without considering, for example, the
way the animals were fed or the context in which most Americans/Westerners
eat meat, that is in the context of a nutritionally deficient diet of junk
fats, junk carbs, highly processed meats, tons of sugar, additives,
preservatives, foods the human body is not designed by nature to deal with.

Re. AA, there are more problems than just red meat.  In fact, vegetable oils
rich in omega 6 linoleic acid are in most people's diets the major source of
pro-inflammatory prostaglandins (not red meat).  Since 1910, Americans have
more than doubled their intake of PUFAs from vegetable oils, whereas SFA
intake from animal sources has actually decreased (according to the
USDA)--hence it is hard to blame the huge increase in IBD in recent years on
increased animal fat intake.   In addition, AA is essential for healthy cell
membranes and only becomes a problem if it is released from cell membranes.
AA is released from cell membranes when the omega 3 levels are low.   As you
know, omega 3s are best supplied by grass fed animal products, ocean fish,
and greens--lacking in most people's diets.

Dr. Scala, the author of the book noted talks about this:
the digestibility of various foods in relation to inflammatory bowel
diseases, and claims that many IBD patients have a difficult time with red
meat and dark (chicken) meat because dark meat comes from active muscles and
it's abundant with gristle that remains undigested, so it should be avoided.
With red meat he feels that intestinal irritation also comes from the
gristle as he has found that IBD patients do better with  ground meat.  He
advocates always taking the skin off chicken before consuming as well.

Our reply:
What is funny about this is that isolated bovine cartilage (Catrix), i.e.
processed gristle,  has been shownto have antiinflammatory properties in IBD
(regional enteritis, ulcerative colitis, as well as rheumatoid arthritis,
progressive systemic sclerosis, hemorrhoids, and psoriasis).  In ulcerative
colitis, 3g, 4x daily has shown benefit (The Biological Activity of Bovine
Cartilage Peparations, Prudden JF, Balassa LL, Semin Arthritis Rheum,
Summer, 1974; 3(4): 287-321.)

The type and quality of meat and how it is prepared will influcence how the
body uses it.  How a food is prepared can affect how well it is digested.
What it is eaten with and in what state will also affect the outcome.  One
with weak digestion may have trouble digesting many or most things.  (Here's
where TCM and spleen tonification comes in, as well as lifestyle factors:
eating sitting down, chewing well, avoiding reading, listening to or
watching the news, having family fights, working, driving, etc. while
eating.)  When the body is in a fight or flight mode, blood is siphoned away
from the digestive organs and toward the limbs, the nervous system is on
alert, ready to go, which does nothing to facilitate good digestion!

We know of many people who've had IBD, ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease
and related disorders who've experienced tremendous relief from symptoms and
drammatic healing by eliminating foods such as grains (esp. gluten rich
grains i.e. wheat and wheat relatives) and esp. beans (which contain
lectins, and proteins that can cause inflammation of the bowels and trigger
autoimmune reactions) and uncultured, unboiled dairy products (which contain
certain proteins that can be problematic for some).  These people have
continued to eat animal products--fish, fowl, meat, eggs---but have improved
the quality of meats they eat AND the context of the whole diet, removing
all highly processed foods.  Some have gone dairy free, others have used
cultured products only.  They successful people we've known of have removed
junk fats, sugary things, artificial foods, etc.  Some have had to avoid or
severely limit nuts and/or seeds, which aggravate IBD in some cases.

BTW, as far as epidemiology goes, a perusal of Don's back issues of Clinical
Pearls News reveals several studies finding strong correlations of IBD with
high intake of total carbs, starch, refined sugar, and "fat" (unspecified
source, but probably veg oils).  Only one cited a link between "protein"
(unspecified source) and only ulcerative colitis (not other forms of IBD).
See  "Diet and IBD: A case control study," Persson P-G, Ahlbom A, Hellers G,
Epidemiology, Jan 1992;3(1):47-52; "Dietary Habits as Risk Factors for IBD",
Tragone A, Valpiani D, Miglio F, et al, Eur J Gastroenterol hepatol, Jan
1995;7(1):47-51; "Pre-illness Dietary Factors in IBD," Reif S, Klein I,
Lubin F, et al, Gut, 1997; 40:754-760.

I would not advise anyone to take out meat or poultry or eggs off the bat.
We then went on to offer our suggestions.

Rachel & Don