Selected press clippings
– Perspective, Chicago Tribune, Aug 21, 1992
Food Study Deserved Objective Story
Perspective by Barbara Zeitlin Kravets, Vice president, International
and American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists
It is with journalistic and scientific dismay that I read
"Healthy foods list brings out the devil's food in kids" on the front
page of the Tribune Aug. 5.
This article discusses a report by the Center for Science in
the Public Interest that advocated a diet of primarily unprocessed foods and
also listed 100 of the best processed foods, especially for kids.
Unfortunately, as written, it could have appeared on the Op-Ed page with other
opinion pieces rather than in a prominent position in the news section.
A more factual article on the same subject, "Appealing
junk foods blamed for fat kids," appeared in your Aug. 4 issue.
"Healthy foods list" was simply an editorial in
disguise. Note just two examples: "...the only pizzas on the list had
names that would make you not care whether the delivery guy made it in 30
minutes or less, or even at all;" and "Parents and children in the
Chicago area Tuesday offered a rousing `to hell with it' to the list..."
A balanced article would have included comments from
consumers who explain why they do eat non-processed food.
Mention might have been made of the mounting evidence
against processed food. As a co-drafter of Illinois Public Law 87784 that
licenses dietitians and nutritionists, and as a science writer and former
department head of a hospital, I am aware of numerous articles in peer-reviewed
medical journals that link highly processed foods with degenerative
diseases and warn that poor eating habits are formed in
infancy and in childhood.
This information has become mainstream. The Time magazine
April 6 cover story, "Real power of vitamins: New research shows why they
may help fight cancer, heart disease and the ravages of aging," stated:
"...no, (even in a good diet) you may not be getting enough of these
crucial nutrients in your diet."
The typical processed American diet is not just a national
problem. In a Tribune article, Oct. 14, 1990, "In Japan fast food is fast
becoming a health hazard," it was reported that the Japanese shift to a
Western diet in 1959 is now out of hand. Prominent Japanese nutritionists state
that "millions of affluent young people are committing suicide by
forsaking traditional Japanese fare for Western fast food."
Health care costs are increasing geometrically. One would
hope that reports such as the one from the Center for Science in the Public
Interest, which discuss inexpensive, simple and readily available health
options, would be covered more positively or, at the very least, more
factually.
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Chicago Sun Times,
February 15, 1995
Are You Intolerant?
– Hidden Food Reactions
Can Threaten Your Health
By Olivia Wu
Are you tired?
Maybe it's because you're intolerant. To food. Common foods,
such as milk, wheat, eggs, corn and yeast. Things you eat every day, maybe
three times a day.
"Fatigue - every health professional hears this
(complaint)," said Barbara Zeitlin Kravets, a board-certified and licensed
clinical nutritionist. It's the overriding health concern of contemporary
Americans. In addition to her own practice, Kravets works for physicians and is
a health-food industry consultant.
Add to fatigue such other hard-to-articulate feelings as
malaise, overweight, aches and pains, mood swings and digestive problems, and
you have a whole pool of unexplained obstacles to our sense of well-being.
A growing number of health practitioners suspect the culprit
is the body's inability to tolerate certain foods.
Estimates of how many Americans suffer from food
intolerances range from a fraction of a percent to 60 percent, said Dean
Metcalfe, head of allergy and infectious diseases at the National Institutes of
Health.
One reason for the discrepancy rests not on how patients
feel, but on medical definitions. Metcalfe believes that the percentage of
people with actual intolerances is somewhere in the single digits.
Robert Boxer, an allergist practicing in Skokie, recognizes
intolerances. They are not imagined. "There is a basis in biology,"
he said. Patients suffer due to metabolic defects, enzyme deficiencies and even
genetic and
environmental factors.
In addition to lingering fatigue, more clear-cut symptoms of
food intolerance range from merely aggravating to disabling. They can be as
benign as a bloated feeling and flatulence, worsen to sleeplessness and
“graduate'” to a runny nose, coughing and a scratchy throat.
A few scientists believe that, undetected, sensitivities can
trigger debilitating asthma, migraine headaches and even psychosis, among other
maladies.
Is it an allergy?
Food intolerances are hard to diagnose because symptoms vary
widely from individual to individual. Kravets says no two patients have the
same intolerances and no two people react the same way to the same food.
One thing is clear, however. A food intolerance is not an
allergy.
And, normally it's not life-threatening.
Allergies trigger an immunologic reaction, said Metcalfe of
NIH. Someone who is allergic to milk, for example, willproduce antibodies to
attack the offending agent immediately, sometimes within seconds. Symptoms may
include rashes, wheezing and swelling, and may lead to shock.
Everything else is an intolerance.
Is it all in my head?
If everything else is an intolerance, that creates a bloated
category that makes reactions hard to pinpoint, especially when experts
disagree on the definition of intolerance.
Many situations aren't intolerances at all, but actually
deficiencies, Metcalfe said. If you lack the enzyme lactase, which digests
lactose, the sugar in milk products, you can ingest the enzyme (available in
many forms) and start drinking milk again. Or, you can avoid dairy products. By
Metcalfe's definition, it's not an allergy or intolerance.
Disregard the enzyme deficiencies - the toxic reactions that
asthmatics may have to sulfites, for example - and very few true intolerances
are left. Complicating the issue are the delayed or hidden allergic reactions
that can occur from one hour to 20 days after exposure to the problem food.
And there's a final factor: People can imagine they're
having an allergic reaction or intolerance when they're not, Metcalfe believes.
"There's a big problem with cause and effect," he said. But I still
feel bad
Even if cause and effect cannot be established, reactions do
occur. Some health providers put them all under the umbrella of food
hypersensitivities. These providers practice clinical ecology, a new, not yet
mainstream science. At one extreme, the theory is that food allergies appear as
food addictions: You crave an offending food because, like alcohol, it
initially makes you feel good.
Hypersensitivity runs the spectrum from acute allergies to
hidden allergies to enzyme deficiencies to digestive disorders to malaise, and
ranges in its effects from aggravating to debilitating. In short, it's any food
that hurts your health.
"You have to get away from the `magic bullet' mind
set," said Dr. Keith Block, an internist who practices in Evanston. Just
as there is no magic cure, there is no single cause for food intolerances.
Individuals have a slew of hypersensitive reactions to food,
caused by a slew of environmental and biological stresses. And those stresses
can add up.
Hypersensitivity to foods is real. With hidden allergies, a
different group of antibodies comes to the rescue, but the reactions occur from
several hours to three days or even three weeks later.
"You're never sure of the source," said Block, but
you know you're chronically fatigued, feel weak and can't sleep. These
"small straws on the camel's back" can set the stage for metabolic
and digestive problems, lowering resistance and thus creating new sensitivities.
One example: leaky gut syndrome. The lining of the
intestines, worn down by poor nutrition or biochemical offenders, allows
partially undigested food particles and other toxins to enter the bloodstream.
Alarmed, the body sends screaming armies of chemicals to attack them. This may
result in chronic inflammation. The system is overwhelmed.
What to do?
Many physicians recommend a battery of tests. Metcalfe warns
that rare, life-threatening allergies must be diagnosed.
Kravets says sure, tests are great and she often orders
them. They can cost thousands of dollars. But if you can
simply stop eating a suspicious food and you feel better,
why not try that? Often clinical trials - a "trial-on and trial-off"
experiment with careful observation - will suffice.
But tests don't find everything.
For example, "You can draw blood until a person is as
white as a sheet," Kravets said, and still not detect certain
non-immunological reactions, such as that triggered by MSG (monosodium
glutamate, a flavor enhancer).
The allergist's traditional skin tests and blood tests miss
intolerances. Still, Kravets' trials and observations - and lab tests, when
applicable - enable her to create an individual plan that fits a client's
biochemical and nutritional profile.
Allergist Robert Boxer says he often recommends a rotation
diet, which serves three purposes. On such a diet, foods are rotated so a
patient eats a food just once in four days. This helps pinpoint the offending
food.
Second, the rotation is therapeutic. You avoid eating an
offending food - say, wheat - for three days.
Third, it has preventive value. You may be intolerant to
wheat (found in bread, pasta and cookies), but if you eat it only once every
four days, you lessen the burden on your system.
Is there a cure?
Sure, for the easy cases. If you believe you can't tolerate
a food, stop eating it. Then ask yourself if you feel better.
If laboratory tests show you are hypersensitive to certain
foods, avoid them. If you are missing an enzyme, say lactase, taking lactase
supplements may solve the problem.
Many times, says Boxer, after prolonged avoidance patients
may be able to tolerate a once-forbidden food and can eat it occasionally.
The burden
The problem, some experts believe, is that food intolerances
occur in a clump. A person rarely is intolerant of only one substance.
Practitioners such as Keith Block widen the scope of food
intolerance to eating choices in general. He asks clients whether they want a
cure or optimal health. Everything you eat, and even the way you eat, either
stresses your immune system or builds it up.
In Block's global view, intolerances set you up for disease,
and disease sets you up for intolerances. What and how you eat can touch off a
spiral toward poor health, sliding you down the spiral of disease. The downward
spiral can skew metabolic and digestive processes, or be symptomatic of a
beleaguered biological system. In the final turn of that downward spiral, with
lowered immunities, you may set yourself up for cancer, heart disease and
inflammation.
Block, Boxer and Kravets agree that organic foods, because
they are chemical-free, eliminate added burdens on the system that can cause a
cascade of intolerant responses.
Eat like your great-grandparents
There is no such thing as a generalized good-for-you diet.
"No one-size-fits-all" plan exists, Kravets said. But clearly, the
body doesn't need chemicals and processed foods, she added.
Beyond that, you can honor the genetic and cultural factors
that influence individual biochemistry. "Eat the (pre-industrial) ethnic
diet of your ancestors," she urges.
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Chicago Tribune, March 31, 1974
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Those wishing to help celebrate Barbara Kravets’ life are encouraged to share spirited remembrances and photos on this website; see the links at the bottom of the Obituary page.
