Is fat good or bad? Well, the answer is it depends.

Bad fats include saturated and trans fats often found in fried, greasy foods or anything made with butter, shortening, lard, or hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats. There are few who would argue that these fats have any role in good nutrition and health.

The good fats, on the other hand, play a critical role in your body’s maintenance and have a major impact on mental and physical health. Every cell in your body needs these good fats. The membrane surrounding each cell is made of fat and without this fat the cell loses its structure and stability. Even more important, the brain needs essential fatty acids (good fats) for proper function, growth, and development. About 60 percent of the dry weight of the brain is fat.

Fat is particularly important in anorexia. Individuals struggling with anorexia commonly have an extreme fear of gaining weight leading them to avoid eating foods containing any amount of fat. Over a short amount of time this can lead to deficiencies in EFAs which can contribute to higher cholesterol levels, osteoporosis, depression, increased cardiac episodes and even increased suicide risk.

Not surprisingly some researchers are looking into EFA supplementation to treat patients with anorexia. In one study patients with anorexia experienced improved mood (less anxiety and decreased preoccupation with food) and overall health when they received a daily EFA supplement in addition to standard treatment. While individuals were receiving supplementation, not one relapsed and all restored some weight.

Getting enough good fat is important for those with anorexia and for everyone.

Ever wonder what happens to certain ideas in medicine? Ideas that seem far-fetched, but would be miraculous if they worked…

They get tossed out like a rotten tomato.

Dr. James Goodwin and his wife Dr. Jean Goodwin coined the term the “tomato effect” in 1984 to describe what happens in medicine when “an efficacious treatment for a certain disease is ignored or rejected because it does not ‘make sense’ in light of accepted theories of disease mechanism and drug action.”

The rejection of a potentially effective treatment because “everyone knows it won’t work” is named for Americans’ belief from the 16th to the 19th centuries that tomatoes were poisonous.

And the tomato effect helps explain the reluctance of the medical community to embrace nutritional therapies for anorexia nervosa.

For decades the medical community has widely accepted that returning to a healthy body weight would lead to a healthy mind and ultimately recovery from anorexia. But treatment based on this flawed idea is failing innumerable patients and their loved ones. Nearly 35% of patients with anorexia who reach near-normal weight relapse!

Looking only at a person’s health in terms of pounds over-simplifies this complicated disease.

Anorexia is a disorder of self-starvation and profound malnutrition; yet, nutritional supplementation is rarely part of standard treatment. Even when weight is restored nutritional deficiencies (i.e. zinc, B12, amino acids, and essential fatty acids) often continue.

Doctors, patients, loved ones, and the general public need to be aware of the tomato effect in the treatment of anorexia nervosa. It’s time to view anorexia nervosa as a disease of extreme malnutrition.

After eating spicy or greasy, fatty foods, many millions of Americans experience heartburn, the painful burning sensation in the esophagus and the major symptom of gastroesophogeal reflux disease (GERD). Prilosec, Tums, Maalox, and Nexium are household names, thanks to a bombardment of ads. It’s not surprising then that medication for GERD alone accounts for more than 60 million prescriptions per year. But don’t be tempted to reach for those antacids without first knowing the facts!

Many people blame high levels of hydrochloric acid (HCl), the active component of stomach acid, for their heartburn. But in reality heartburn is not always caused by excess HCl. Those heartburn symptoms may be due to low levels of HCl.

Decreased HCl can lead to:

• Impaired absorption of vitamins and minerals
• Interference with satiety signals
• Difficulty digesting protein
• Symptoms similar to GERD: anemia, a lack of energy, tooth decay, gum disease, food sensitivities, flatulence, bloating, and pain or discomfort after eating

So before reaching for those antacids consider whether you have low HCl levels (HCl levels are also known to decrease with age). Otherwise, the very medications that are supposed to help eliminate your symptoms can actually prolong them and cause other health problems, i.e. nutritional deficiencies.

Read on to find out whether you are producing enough HCl.

How to Determine If You’re Producing Enough Stomach Acid

There are two simple tests that can determine if an individual is producing enough stomach acid – and if not, how much supplemental acid may be needed. Both tests can be done at home, but I recommend that the HCl Supplement Test be performed under the supervision of a health care provider for adolescents under the age of 18.

Apple Cider Vinegar Test

Take one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with a meal.

Outcome 1: If you notice any pain or warmth in your stomach, you can discontinue the test because you are indeed producing enough gastric acid.

Outcome 2: If there are no symptoms, repeat the test at the next meal using two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar. With each meal increase the amount of apple cider vinegar until you feel a warm sensation in your stomach.

The warm sensation indicates that you’ve taken too much vinegar, and one tablespoon less than the amount you took is the amount of vinegar that you need. For example, if you took three tablespoons of vinegar and felt a warm sensation, then two tablespoons is the amount that you need.

HCl Supplement Test

These supplements can be found in your local health food store and most are in the form of Betaine HCl, with a typical dose of 500 mg.

The test follows the same protocol as the vinegar test. During a meal take one HCl supplement and look for any symptoms of pain or warmth in your stomach. Continue the same pattern of increasing the amount of supplement by one tablet with each meal until you feel the warmth. Then reduce the dose by one tablet and stay at this dose with each subsequent meal. Stop increasing at four tablets per meal.