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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us April 7, 2006 Different sexes, different diets By Jennifer Margulis Tidings Correspondent Paul Buck has a lot to say about nutrition. A tall man with sage blue eyes, 83-year-old Buck is a biochemist by training. He earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry and physiology from the University of California at Berkeley in 1954 and taught first at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and then at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. At Cornell, Buck had a joint appointment in the Department of Food Science and the Graduate School of Nutrition. When he retired, Buck moved to Ashland, where he continues to work as a nutritional consultant, helping people cure a variety of health problems by changing their diets and exercise habits. Paul Buck, who spent his working life as a nutritionist, sees a number of problems with the approach to diet taken by American medicine. Jennifer Margulis | For the Tidings It was an interest in malnutrition that first brought him to his field of study. A native of Vancouver, British Columbia, Buck served in the Army during World War II from 1940-46. “When I was in the Army, we saw hunger,” Buck remembers. “People who escaped from Germany, and German prisoners ... I saw hunger and starvation and wanted to go into nutrition.” But at that time, says Buck, not a single medical school in the United States or Canada focused on nutrition. Instead of becoming a doctor, Buck studied biochemistry with a professor named Alice Morgan, who Buck credits for opening his eyes to the many differences in nutritional needs between men and women, a subject, he says, that remains poorly understood by most Americans and that deserves more research. According to Buck, men essentially stop growing at age 23, approximately the same time their last wisdom teeth come in. Unlike men, women (who get their wisdom teeth slightly earlier) continue to grow for the course of their lives, 365 days a year, until about eight to ten years after they go through menopause. Because of the difference in growth patterns, men can eat a relatively unhealthy diet and still enjoy good health. But women cannot. “Her nutrition has to be absolutely different than a male’s,” says Buck. “This isn’t recognized, even today, by most medical doctors.” For example, there are at least 46 enzymes and hormones in the breast milk of a lactating woman. These hormones and enzymes are not present in a man’s body. Buck goes one step further to say that a variety of women’s health problems — from PMS to infertility — can be exacerbated, or even caused by, poor diet. “I’m just as concerned about our American diet as I am about the junk food in our body,” say Buck. “We’ve allowed the food industry to so alter our diet. We buy so many prepared food and processed foods that our diet is suffering.” Buck says Americans need to we eat more fish (including sardines and anchovies, as well as bigger fish like salmon, halibut and cod) and that to stop eating processed grains. “White bread is horrible,” says Buck. “To say we’ve got ‘enriched’ white flour is ridiculous.” A kernel of wheat is made up of three components: the bran, the germ, and the endosperm. When whole wheat flour is converted into white flour the bran (which contains most of the plant’s fiber) and the germ (which contains most of the nutrients) are removed. What is left is the starchy endosperm. Food companies then add back lost nutrients in chemical form into white flour, which is why the flour is called called “enriched.” But, according to Buck, there is nothing remotely enriching about white flour or the products made with it. In addition to fish and whole grains, Buck says eating a variety of foods is important. “Diversity in diet is important. There is no single miracle food. There is no food that should be predominant in our diet, because we need a variety.” He also believes that good health involves more than just good nutrition, and he breaks down the word “health” accordingly: H: Hopes or goals. “It’s important to realize that your goals should not be self-centered,” says Buck. “You should include your family ... and grandchildren and extended family. You are often the model they follow. Your hopes or goals should be reflected in your own daily pattern. Actions speak louder than words.” E: Exercise. “That is more important than anything I can talk about in diet,” says Buck. “Oxygen is the most important nutrient. You can live without water for a couple of days, but you can’t live for more than 10 to 15 minutes without oxygen ... when you breathe out, the body uses the lungs to get rid of 2,000 toxic compounds with every breath. Urinating gets rid of 1,000 and defecating only 800. So why don’t we pay more attention to the lungs?” A: Alimentation. The food that we eat plays a direct role in how healthy we are. The pesticides present in conventional food particularly concern Buck. For this reason he grows his own organic food in his home garden. L: Love. “Your body can only be healthy if you are in love with humanity,” says Buck. “Nutrition becomes a matter of concern not just for yourself.” T: Traumas and stresses have a negative affect on health. Buck includes pollution, toxins and pesticides in this category. He recommends that people take 20 minutes a day to relax and de-stress. H: Humor. “Humor is considered to be the complex naturopathic medicine,” says Buck. “We ought to recognize that humor includes our willingness to make mistakes, say ‘I’m sorry’ or ‘I’m wrong.’” DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams