August 30, 2022

Nutritionists, particularly bureaucrats, indicate that eating some sort of balanced nutrition is as good as nutrition gets and supplements are only needed where deficiencies are noticed. That type of nutrition is far from optimum.

Minerals are so hazardous to take that generally people should get minerals from red meat. White fish has almost nothing for minerals. There is significant value in taking minerals; but they must be in small quantities and sometimes not even once a day. The way they are combined with other things is important; and it is too complex for most persons. The description here explains the challenges.

Optimum nutrition is never totally achievable, but improvements can be made. So the attempt here is to describe elements of the process that are involved in optimizing nutrition in a theoretical way.

Evolution physiology is important in evaluating nutrition. I refer to myself as an evolution physiologist. I study species which are extreme examples of evolution. They show how evolution extends back in time.

Evolution is minimalist. Any change that improves survival with be promoted in evolution. Now days, the forward evolution is minimal. The major leaps were being made 300 to 500 million years ago. As complexities became more extreme and functions became more numerous and interdependent, only small changes could be tolerated.

Biology has become so highly differentiated that it would die out in 2-10 million years, even if humans had no influence over it. That's because so many complexities depend upon each other that any change or improvement in one element is detrimental to other elements; so species cannot adapt easily enough to changing environmental conditions.

Since humans are the most complex product of evolution, they have many biological contradictions that do not resolve.

For example, metals which are used as nutrients must be attached to protein carriers before they can enter the bloodstream. They often use the same protein carriers and compete with each other. Few carriers are needed with normal food, so they can be expected to run out when taking minerals as supplements. Some protein must be eaten to restore the carriers. There are so many such details that they cannot be all accounted for. There aren't enough hours in a day to separate all the things that should be separated.

When taking both copper and zinc supplements, the zinc will use up the protein carriers and create a copper shortage. There may be additional reasons why zinc will create a copper shortage. So zinc and copper need to be taken at different times.

Zinc takes precedence over copper in metabolism, because zinc is needed for several highly demanding purposes with more immediate consequences than copper. The most significant is strengthening of the immune system, which has rapid consequences in survival against diseases.

Zinc was only recently added to the diet of humans in a major way. All herbivores (vegetarian animals) have a shortage of zinc, because there is almost no zinc in the plants that are eaten. It was the increased availability of zinc that allowed humans to evolve beyond the Great Apes.

The monkeys could only evolve into Great Apes upon become partial carnivores, which provided increased zinc in their diet. Not only did the increased zinc strengthen the immune system of the Great Apes, it strengthened their bones.

It appears circumstantially that monkeys were prevented from getting large due to weak bones in the absence of sufficient zinc. Why then did the dinosaurs get large on vegetarian diets? In part it could be that they ate such a huge volume of plant food that they extracted significant zinc, as if they were carnivores. The stomach size was huge for herbivore dinosaurs. But probably more significantly, they had crude bones that were large and bulky, where monkeys and their descendants needed light-weight bones.

The increase in zinc for human ancestors allowed them to live longer, which was the critical factor in developing communication and intelligence. It takes many years of age to accumulate knowledge, even now days. The recorded human history always mentions the elders as the source of knowledge.

The reason why human ancestors got more zinc than the Great Apes is because they moved out of the forests and into the coastal area of southwest Africa where there were a large number of shore birds nesting and readily available sea creatures along the shore for a high-zinc diet. By contrast, the Great Apes found much difficulty in predation within the forests.

Humans benefit from more micro nutrients than are found in their food for the above reasons, which would be true even with the most perfect diet possible. Then when adding processed foods, even more micro nutrients are needed.

That means humans benefit from small amounts of adding micro nutrients as supplements to their diet. The effects are particularly noticeable for the elderly, as their metabolism slows down due to a reduced rate of proteins being synthesized.

But vitamins and minerals are generally toxic, until they get to their final destination. That means another contradiction is in taking toxic substances which do some harm in some places while adding benefits in other places. As a general concept, micro nutrients are a benefit at about the recommended daily allowance, while extreme amounts should be avoided. Some are less toxic than others, which allows greater amounts. Some persons have died taking excessive amounts of B vitamins over time.

Toxic metals such as copper should not be taken often and usually in smaller quantities than usual pills. Almost every chemical in food will be stored in fat tissues and released later—sometimes in dangerously high quantities.

If taking metals, take about half a gram of citric acid before and after to protect the heart, as metals tend to disrupt the electrochemistry of the heart. Citric acid is a chelating agent, which means it attaches to metals and diminishes their harmfulness. The easiest way to take citric acid is to dissolve it in water at about 3-5% and then guess at the right amount to sip on.

Food grade citric acid will have vitamin C in it, because it is extracted from lemons. Vitamin C must be kept away from zinc but not iron. How then to find citric acid without vitamin C for zinc.

The way to take zinc is to first take food grade citric acid—about one half gram dissolved in water—a few minutes before taking zinc. Then pulverize zinc gluconate into a powder and distribute about 30 milligrams of zinc round in the mouth. That will keep the zinc away from food; and it will absorb in the mouth. Powdered zinc gluconate will also diminish tooth decay if pushed into decay areas.

Copper or other metals should not be taken on a totally empty stomach, because they might be absorbed too fast and damage the liver or kidneys. The liver needs some protein and energy to function well and resist damage from free metals.

In general, people should get their metal nutrients in food, which makes them safe in being attached to proteins or porphyrins. The best food for minerals is red meat. So why do some nutritionists say to avoid red meat? It's not clear why; but experts get too much wrong with nutrition, such as telling people to avoid salt.

Recently, some experts said they were wrong about low salt and there is no need to avoid salt except for certain medical conditions; but that information disappeared with very little visibility in the media. People need quite a bit of salt and should not be unnecessarily reducing it to small quantities.

Vitamin D is often needed in significantly large quantities; and a shortage results in spinal pain equivalent to nerves being pinched. I have to take 5,000 units twice a day to prevent that problem; but that is with old age and youngsters would not need as much. Before I figured out the cause of the problem, back pain was so severe that I had to type standing up. I thought I was taking vitamin D, but the amount was too small and some brands were not reliable. Reliable brands need to be determined through trial-and-error, as the bureaucrats will not enforce laws in that area. There are laws against fraud in every area.

Generally, optimum nutrition means taking vitamins and minerals in small amounts. It's not an easy thing to do. One problem is that silicon is usually included in the pills. Silicon should be avoided, as it mineralizes metals and cations. Mineralization means covalent bonds are formed, and they don't easily unform.

Carbon and silicon are quite similar, except that carbon forms its covalent bonds with other carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and sulfur, while silicon forms its covalent bonds with metals and cations.

Fakes sometimes say silicon is a nutrient. There is a lot of such fakery in the nutrition area. Another example is chromium. The chromium fakery began with a test for the effects of insulin while adding chromium to the brew and pretending that it was the chromium doing what insulin was doing. So chromium is said to be a "glucose tolerance factor." Why does chromium need to do what insulin does?

Fake nutrition jumps out of the page in its contempt for valid science. Real science is the determination of cause-and-effect relationships showing the details of the results. Fakery swims around in a cloud of nonsense. There are no similarities.

The underlying science indicates that so-called vitamin E is not a real vitamin but a plant-generated insecticide. The supposed function is to attach to animal cell membranes and serve as an anti-oxidant to protect lipids in cell membranes. It's an extremely week and accidental anti-oxidant; and it is in the wrong place. Cell membranes are cluttered; and that isn't where anti-oxidants belong.

Vitamin E supposedly goes part way through cell membranes. There is no such thing; molecules go all the way through or not at all. If part way through the reducing part would be outside the cell, where it is not in contact with the lipids within the membrane which it is supposed to protect. There are membranes inside the cell. Why don't they need to be protected by vitamin E?

Cell membranes are too crowded for such a limited, attached reactant. The real protections of lipids from oxidation involved highly complex physiology, which makes the tack-on ridiculous by comparison.

Plant cells are not affected by vitamin E, because their cell walls are made of cellulose. That is why the molecules function as pesticides for plants. The molecules do no harm to plants, but they enter animal cells due to the lipid membranes surrounding animal cells. The vitamin E molecules have a lipid-soluble end which allows them to enter animal cells and carry disruptive molecules into the cells.

Quinine does something similar to vitamin E in combatting insects. It is found under tree bark. It has a lipid soluble tail which draws it into animal cells and carries in a disruptive molecule.

Manganese is an overlooked micro nutrient that is important in a lot of metabolic processes. Manganese, as all metals, is toxic; so the upper limit is set at eleven milligrams per day. Usually less and probably not every day should suffice.

Those metals need to be chelated, which means attached to organic acids. Gluconate is the most common. When a name ends in "ate" it means an acid that has been neutralized by association with another molecule which replaces the hydrogen of the acid.

Molybdenum is a very unusual micro nutrient that is needed for metabolizing sulfur. It has a high electronegativity of 2.16, while copper is 1.9, iron is 1.83 and zinc is 1.65. The electronegativity tends to correlate with the reactivity, which means molybdenum is even more reactive than copper. Usually, people should depend upon food for molybdenum.

The elderly make good test animals for nutrition, since their nutritional problems increase as protein synthesis decreases. So one of the things I find is that joint pains develop when eating sugary foods and disappear when totally avoiding such foods.

I found that taking vitamin C with zinc creates a reaction with zinc seemingly making zinc toxic instead of useful. Theory indicates that vitamin C reduces zinc from the plus two form which is usable to the plus one form or elemental zinc, which is toxic instead of useful. Therefore, vitamin C should not be taken within one hour before or several hours after taking zinc.

The same is probably true for all metals in mineral form except iron. Vitamin C should not be taken at the same time as minerals other than iron to prevent them from being reduced to toxic or nonfunctional forms. Iron, however does need small amounts of vitamin C to prevent it from oxidizing to the plus three form, which is very toxic. Only small amounts of vitamin C should be taken to keep it from reducing other minerals to toxic or nonfunctional forms.

When taking iron, a small amount of citric acid is needed to protect the heart—like half a gram several minutes before and several minutes afterwards—and a small amount of vitamin C to protect the liver—about 120 milligrams per day, some before and some after taking iron but kept away from other free metals than iron.

The liver needs some protein and energy to function well and resist damage from free metals. So iron might be taken about two or three hours after eating, so it doesn't mix with a lot of food but a little bit of food.

Beta carotene should not be taken in large amounts for vitamin A, because it accumulates and softens tissue, which can result in damage to tissue. When I was taking large amounts of beta carotene, my skin got soft causing fingernail edges to cut into my skin and create infections. When I discontinued taking beta carotene, it took several months for my skin to normalize. Small amounts of beta carotene are a good way to get vitamin A.

Two vitamins destroyed by cooking are folate and pantothenate. There is not much in raw food except for sprouts. Sprouts grow rapidly; so they are loaded with folate and pantothenate. The problem with pills is that folate degrades easily, unless the pills are well designed to stabilize folate. Degraded folate turns yellow and tastes bitter; so the condition of pills can be evaluated that way.

In regard to fat production, nutritionists, particularly bureaucrats, have a slogan that says, fat equals calories ingested minus calories burned up; and on that basis tell people to burn up calories through exercise. Exercise increases fat production, because 50 million years of evolution requires that result. The more energy that is burned up, the more energy that needs to be stored to minimize the harm that results from a shortage of energy. (Storage fat didn't exist until it evolved in yeasts 50 million years ago and then spread to other species through horizontal gene transfer.)

People who work hard outdoors find that the harder they work, the more fat they acquire. That's because regulation mechanisms turn on fat production as needed. Bureaucrats ignore that mechanism and convince people to get exercise to lose weight, which is self-defeating and bad for health.

There are an extreme number of control mechanism in human physiology. How they interact cannot be analyzed apart from some general observations. Nutritionists pretend that there are no such things.

A raw food diet reduces fat production dramatically. Bureaucrats say the reason is because of fewer calories eaten. They don't know how many calories are eaten. The effect is a product of evolution for human ancestors as monkeys which needed to be feather-weight for climbing in trees. They ate a raw food diet. That means humans eating a diet similar to monkeys makes them lose weight.

There are any number of regulatory mechanisms involved in that process. The patterns get stored in DNA and stay there forever. DNA patterns are protected from mutation by excising out mutations and covering the unused DNA with proteins. My research shows the storage and re-use of physiological patterns with anomalies of the morel mushroom which revert to earlier growth patterns.