Balanced diet key to healthy life

Dr. Mark Crapo, Symmetry’s senior vice president for product technology and training, stresses the importance of a balanced diet in staying healthy. In an interview with Dr. Mohsin Shaikh Al-Hassan, Dr. Carpo said that proper food and healthy food habits could go a long way in keeping a person healthy, while stressing that our moods could be closely linked to diet and key nutrients. Here are the excerpts: Is it true that correct diet can help a body be free of diseases? Disease can attack the body from a number of avenues, so you can’t be 100 percent protected just from diet. However, the latest statistics that I’ve seen do say that 70 percent of all disease and 50 percent of deaths are related to poor diet and lifestyle. To what extent the saying “stomach is the home of all disease” is true from scientific perspective, and how can we avoid that in our life through food? Actually it’s the intestinal system that’s the most closely linked to the immune system, not just the stomach. Physicians and researchers say that 80 percent of our immune system is in our “gut” or small and large intestines. Certainly the stomach is linked to that, as what starts in the stomach ends up in the intestines. It’s very important to eat a diet high in fiber for intestinal health as well as fermented food (like yogurt) that has probiotics or food that contains prebiotics, special fiber-rich carbohydrates that feed the probiotics. These things help us absorb nutrients, make some nutrients for us and also make antibiotics to kill off the bad bacteria in our bodies that could lead to disease. Does food have any impact on psychological condition of humans and could that cause depression? Definitely! Our moods can be closely linked to diet and key nutrients. Recent research has shown the very important role of vitamin D and its effect on anxiety and depression. Resveratrol, an amazing molecule found in the seeds and skins of grapes, has also been shown to have very positive effects on mood, memory and mental functioning. Some learning disabilities have been linked to low levels of various vitamins and minerals. Food habits vary from one country to another and from one society to another. Which countries according to you have sound and healthy food habits? Much has been written in the past decade about the Mediterranean diet and the Asian diet both of which are high in Essential Fatty Acids and beneficial oils, like olive oil. These diets are also high in a variety of fruits and vegetables as well as fish. Diets such as this are linked to low levels of heart disease and degenerative diseases like arthritis as well leading to a longer life span. Usually some people follow wrong dietary system that can affect their health in the future, but they are unaware about that. How can humans evaluate their food habits as healthy and unhealthy? I’d have to say that one of the most important things we can do to improve our diets is eliminate or severely reduce the processed carbohydrates. For most of us this would come in the form of added white sugar and white flour in things like soda pop, white bread, white pasta and pastries or processed grains like white rice rather than brown. Using whole grains will provide more fiber, more vitamins and more minerals all essential to our health and well-being. I think it’s essential for all of us to add some supplementation to our diets as it’s nearly impossible get everything we need for our food alone in this day and age. Many of make bad choices — and we know it. But, often people try to make good choices but the problem is the food we eat is grown in soil that is deficient in nutrients, there may be little if any zinc, selenium or the other nutrients we need to be healthy. The food may be over-processed which can remove any of the nutrients that were present and then it’s over cooked that can eliminate or destroy anything that might be left. Supplementing the diet is a health and a life insurance policy - ensuring we get the nutrition we need to function at optimal levels. What is your classification of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in terms of food and food habits? I’ve seen the availability of very healthy choices in terms of traditional foods; lots of vegetables, healthy lean meats, sauces made with yogurt or beans, etc. Unfortunately there are also lots of unhealthy options available and many people are choosing to eat “fast food”. Most of the fast food places do have some healthy choices available but those are not the choices most people choose. In the US, 50 percent of all the vegetables eaten today will be a potato as a potato chip or a French fry and I don’t think anyone thinks those are healthy choices! What are the practical benefits gained by society and food agencies from holding health seminars? I think in all areas of life, knowledge and education are the keys to being healthier and happier. It’s common that people have very little real knowledge about diet, vitamins, minerals and the importance of supplementation. Seminars on these subjects are the easiest way to gain knowledge that can help make us healthier and lead to longer lives. What about your special experiment in dealing with medical and food communities in the Kingdom? Symmetry Arabia is very fortunate to have a number of talented and dedicated leaders like Josie Medina, Zain Abolqasim, Meshall Al-Zahraa, Al Faisal Abdulrahman, Amos Henry, Jo Cuthbert, Dr. Hakeem and many others that are working hard to help spread the word about health. We recently held a seminar in a hospital setting, which was arranged by Evelyn Lugo (with help from a number of our local business partners) and were pleasantly surprised that it was a standing room only event. We had a wonderful reception by the medical community in Riyadh! I would also like to give additional acknowledgement and thanks to Dr. Moshin Shaikh Al-Hassan. It is through his efforts that Symmetry’s health benefits are being spread via the printed word as well as TV and radio. His efforts are helping to have a beneficial impact on the health of thousands of people in the Kingdom. I look forward to future seminars with the people not only in Riyadh and Jeddah but many other of your beautiful cities. Food and beverages can be used in treating some diseases, are there any particular food or beverages that can help patients in treatment? There are specific food sometimes recommended for specific problems but in general, the best advice is to eat a varied diet, rich in fruits and vegetables. It is sometimes said that we should eat a “rainbow”. In this case a rainbow refers to foods of all the colors found in nature. Usually dark, deep or bright colors indicate a rich abundance of antioxidants and other nutrients. This is why Symmetry’s Genesis uses dark purple and red pomegranate and grape juice as well as aloe vera and apple juice as a base to add standardized extracts of resveratrol, Ellagic acid, polyphenols, primary antioxidants and a mixture of 14 herbs. What are the erroneous common practices in international food products at present which you advice to eliminate or limit? Last food that is often filled with processed carbohydrates, too much sugar! (That includes French fry.) There are violations committed inside some food and beverage factories. How can these violations be reduced? As with most things; money. In order to have better regulation we need agencies to hire more inspectors, those inspectors need better training or in some cases they would first have to pass stricter regulations. Since we can’t always trust that this is happening (and government agencies can’t afford it), Symmetry uses a series of 28 different tests run on the raw materials and the finished products to help ensure your health and safety. Not only do we test our own products but submit them to 3rd party labs for testing prior to them being shipped outside the US, this ensures we match all of our label copy. There is a problem related to high prices of food in recent years. What are the reasons for that rise? Certainly the increasing cost of oil (gas) makes the transportation and production of food more costly. (And the farther that food has to travel, the greater the cost, which will be added to the final product.) We’ve also seen poor crops in some regions in recent years related to weather or natural disasters. The law of supply and demand then significantly affects the price of what is available or what is left. It is noticed that food production companies are keen to launch huge advertising campaigns to promote new products in particular. What is your view on this especially in terms of hiring professors and experts in nutrition in promoting such products? It’s always important to remember that an advertisement, for anything, is just that; an advertisement which is done for the benefit of the company selling the product. Companies will pay “experts” to have specific opinions or research results before any experiment is even conducted. This is one reason why we rely on 3rd party, independent research on the various nutrients or ingredients we use to make our nutritional products like Genesis. When I say there is research that shows resveratrol can aid in weight loss or diabetes, you don’t have to believe me, believe the thousands of different completely independent studies that have been done in recent years.