Just say no to a post antibiotic Apocalypse
- Adam
- Oct 22, 2017
- 4 min read
Recently I posted a blog about transitioning off antibiotics, soon after Professor Dame Sally Davies was all over the media warning of a post antibiotic apocalpyse. Strong language indeed! She is addressing a different issue than the one I was talking about and it gave me a lot to think about, so here are a few of my recent thoughts on this. I guess we have a queasy sense that modern food is not as nutritious as it was back in the day and we perhaps prefer to be blind to the fact that a lot of our protein sources are loaded with antibiotic residue and god knows what else. This drip feed of antibiotic residue challenges our immune systems and creates anti-microbial resistance. Eventually the antibiotic drugs will no longer help us if and when we need them.
People are dieing now as a result.
The following is a link to a good Dame Sally's message.....
First up lets think about how antibiotics work.
Here's a good primer... https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/10278.php
In my recent sepsis health scare I was given a shotgun blast of in th beginning three ! Yes count them three!! intravenous antibiotics. I'm not sure microbiology were ever 100 percent certain which particular strain of bacteria was poisoning my blood and therefore a strategy of containment not cure was used, i.e I was given a few broad spectrum bacteriostatic antibiotics that prevented the bacterial infection getting further out of hand and kept Adamski alive for long enough so my immune system could sort things out . They were working off an educated guess from looking at infection markers within my ongoing blood tests. The strategy worked and I'm very much alive thank you very much :-)
Sometimes the exact cause of infection is known and in these cases an bacteriocidal antibiotic can be used to precisely target and kill the strain of bacteria involved. I believe medical professionals often do not have that information to hand and so broad spectrum antibiotics are used more often. If there are any doctors of microbiologists reading this and wish to add to the debate then please chime in.
Watch out for the hidden antibiotics
I was shocked and dismayed to discover chickens are often pumped up with antibiotics not because they are sick but simply it makes them to grow faster. An antibiotic residue can show up in all animals that are intensively farmed, in beef, in farmed fish, in some eggs and so on. Its important to choose wisely our protein sources if we don't want to cause problems for ourselves like the ones I mentioned above.
How can we get some usable information out of all of this? Are there any necessary and straightforward steps we can take.
For myself I perceive a high risk in my own dietary habits. I do a certain amount of strength training which is at times supported by higher than average amounts of protein consumption. A standard weight lifters diet is heavy on protein, so are dietary concepts like Paleo diet and Ketogenic. These dietary ideas have certain health benefits but only if the protein is good of course and other factors are balanced.
Here's a few dietary options I have considered...
Go raw vegan
This is very very hard to do in my opinion, but ethically very sound and good for your light body.
Go vegan
I'm not sure how many successful vegan strength athletes, bodybuilders,powerlifters and wrestlers there are. Andreas Carling is one of them and back in the day Bill Pearl are a couple that spring to mind. So I also think this is hard to pull off and do well. Not out of the question though.
Go vegatarian
Same as above
Go pescatarian
Now THIS seems doable to me, as something I can transition to right now. The trick is to replace chicken and beef with non farmed small fish that are low down the food chain. Think Sardines rather than farmed Salmon. The small and low down the food chain thing is because we don't won't to replace the anti-biotic residued chickens with mercury contaminated fish!!
Go pescatarian with some wild no farmed meat
Not all meat is farmed and not all meat is contaminated with antibiotic residue, think deer/venison, buffalo, ostrich, kangaroo, or a plain old free range organic chicken. Charles Poliquin is a big advocate of the wild meat thing. Not sure I'm quite ready to try Caviar and nuts for breakfast though Charles! http://www.strengthsensei.com/the-meat-and-nuts-breakfast/
Supplementary protein
Certain whey proteins are produced so as to be free of all manner of nasties, antibiotics, hormones etc. Remember many athletes are Natural and drug free, so food provenance is a big deal.
Organic Eggs are antibiotic free
Liquid Egg Whites.
The humble egg is the standard by which other proteins are measure for bio-usability. I have asked a couple of manufacturers about antibiotic residue in their product and have received certain re-assurances. There is more to follow on this though.
Hemp and Pea Protein
These two could be a god send for a vegan and actually look pretty good in terms of being free of nasties. Digestibility, tolerance, bio-usablilty and the spectrum and balance of amino acids in the protein are all issues to think about here. Added Glutamine could be an answer. I have some on trial and will let you know how I go.
So to conclude...
In the spirit of 100 days to healthy, its good to look at all of the foods we habitually consume and think about whether there are better choices to be made. It doesn't really take that much time to review and research good choices to be honest. The real objective is rude health, a super strong immune system, an increased vibrational frequency and so much more. We are what we eat, we are what we digest and we are what we eat ate.
