Healthy Diet?
by © Diana Thurbon
In practice I have come across a number of people who tell me they feel awful and are tired all the time. They can’t understand why.
I found the answer through a simple analysis of their hair!
There is no one healthy diet that suits everybody.
The diet you believed to be very healthy could have created a copper overload as it did for my patients. So what does this mean for your health? A great deal because copper and zinc are found in all the cells of your body. The ratio of copper and zinc must be right or a number of things can happen.
Excess copper can inhibit the conversion of the Thyroid hormone T4 into T3. You will be hypothyroid but even if prescribed thyroxin and your TSH levels return to normal you will still feel tired, because of this conversion problem.
As well as the thyroid your adrenal glands will be in trouble. They need enough available zinc to respond to stress and make cortisol. Also your liver will break down toxins more slowly creating a sluggish fatigued feeling and your cell’s vital energy transport system will be affected. These are plenty of reasons to feel tired.
So what kind of diet can cause this problem?
Would you believe a high carbohydrate low fat diet?
First of all our best sources of zinc are in red meat and shellfish. There is zinc in whole grains but it’s often poorly absorbed. You need zinc to metabolize sugar.
Don’t eat sugar? Remember carbohydrates are converted in your body to glucose (that’s sugar). All those yummy healthy whole grain muffins are chewing into your body’s zinc stores every time you eat one. If you are avoiding fat you are probably limiting animal protein – our best zinc source. Your balance of essential fatty acids may be incorrect (see my article on eicosanoids), compounding the problem.
Copper is an important nutrient but only in very tiny amounts, we need much less copper than zinc. Good sources of copper are nuts, seeds, soy products, and legumes. All the foods we think we should be eating. If you eat lots of dairy products too, you should know calcium slows the excretion of copper, so that means we keep more.
To sum up a “natural food” vegetarian diet is disproportionately high in copper and low in zinc and contains abundant fiber and phytic acid, which prevents the absorption of the zinc that is in your food.
Many people will have a great liver, which happily dumps excess copper and keeps the body’s copper zinc ratio in balance. Some people will not. However, please don’t manipulate your diet and cut out healthy foods on guesswork. If you think copper overload could be the reason your tired the best course of action is to have a tissue mineral analysis done. No we don’t cut a chunk of tissue from you – just a small hair sample will do. Usually from the nape of your neck, (there are other sources for bald men).
This hair is sent away to a lab for analysis. Once you know if copper is a problem for you steps can be taken to get your zinc/copper stores back in balance with some simple detoxing methods, some dietary change and some copper antagonistic minerals.
Article provided by:
Diana Thurbon
