Mother nature the original micro-doser

MOTHER NATURE – THE ORIGINAL MICRODOSER

In continuing our hypothesis that food can provide medicines or our body, it is important to consider some aspects of evolution. The plant world evolved before animals and during their evolution plants produced a myriad of different phytochemicals to defend themselves against UV radiation, pests, and environmental conditions like drought. In the subsequent evolution of animals and humans, these species evolved by taking advantage of these protective chemicals in the plant world and used them for their own well-being. As you might imagine, the level of these components in the plants is relatively low especially when compared to the amounts typically found in supplements. Yet man and animals survived through evolution by eating these plants with their low level of phytochemicals. You can think of this as Nature microdosing its creatures with protective phytochemicals so that the species can survive and thrive. Last month we discussed eating a balanced diet, which is Nature’s way of providing us with the medicinal powers of food. While our body metabolizes these phytochemicals, it also extracts out the essential nutrients that we need for our health. Because of this, eating a diet rich in diverse plants acts like a sustained-release microdosing protocol. Indeed, when we eat animals, we are also consuming the phytochemicals that the animals have because they ate the plants. A well-rounded diet from both plants and animals continues to provide our body with these essential metabolites. Instead of one massive dose that our liver could quickly metabolize, the frequent intake of varied fruits, vegetables, and spices keeps a "background hum" of these metabolites in the bloodstream.  Much like the "entourage effect" we discussed previously, the complex matrix of a whole food (proteins, vitamins, fibers, fats, and multiple phytochemicals) often enhances the stability and signaling power of the individual compounds. When we consume these phytochemicals in small, "micro" amounts, they act as mild stressors that trigger our cells’ internal defense systems. Rather than doing the work for us, they "nudge" our bodies to move in the direction of restoring homeostasis, enhancing the body’s own defense systems. This is why the Mediterranean diet and the Dash diet work. They don’t supply large amounts of biologically active metabolites, but rather a continuous stream of ‘food medicines ‘to allow us to handle the threat of chronic inflammation. Scientists have tried to find the key foods in these diets and use them in supplements at very large concentrations to solve health issues. Once you take an active material from the foods in these diets and try to replicate the success of these diets on our health you fail. That is because it is the food itself that represent the medicine we need. There is no ‘magic bullet’ to make us healthy but rather the array of nutrients in whole foods that does the trick. So, as you assess your health needs, you may find a supplement to use to try and get you back on track but inevitably you need to use whole foods to keep you there.

Here is some additional information regarding our food containing microdoses of important ‘medicines’.

Let’s look at three examples of supplements and how they compare to food sources.

1.   Quercetin. Life Extension sells a 250 mg capsule of quercetin. In nature, quercetin is found in apples at a concentration of about 12.5 mg/apple (assumes an apple weight of 250 gr). To get 250 mg found in a capsule, you need to eat 20 apples (250/12.5).

2.   Glutathione. Life Extension sells a 500mg capsule of glutathione. Asparagus contains 30 mg/100 gr or roughly 7 mg/stalk. To get 500 mg you need to eat about 70 stalks of asparagus.

3.   Curcumin. Life Extension sells a 500 mg capsule of curcumin. This is roughly equivalent to eating 31,250 mg of the turmeric root itself.

With these few examples it is easy to understand that the ‘medicines’ in food is nature’s way of ‘microdosing’ us with the protective chemicals found in the plant world. This is a compelling and scientifically grounded way to frame nutrition. While microdosing is often associated with sub-perceptual amounts of synthetic substances in a concept known as hormesis, (a biological phenomenon where low dose exposure to a stressor (e.g., toxin, heat, exercise) induces adaptive, beneficial effects, while high doses are toxic or inhibitory) the analogy to medicines in food works remarkably well for things like polyphenols (anthocyanins, curcuminoids, flavonoids) because they rarely act like traditional "macronutrients" (fuel). Instead, at low levels they function as biological signals to the cells in our bodies to induce beneficial adaptive responses like enhancing our DNA repair mechanisms and improving the efficiency of essential cellular components like mitochondria.

Many polyphenols are now being studied for their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier in trace amounts. Once there, they don't necessarily rewrite brain chemistry but rather modulate it by promoting the health of existing neurons or growing new ones, supporting  the body’s ability to deal with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. By eating an array of foods containing polyphenols we are helping our body fend off chronic inflammation which leads to so many disease states.