Creative Natures Response to: Professor Regan's supermarket secrets In response to Horizon’s ‘Professor Regan's supermarket secrets’ aired Tuesday 27th on BBC2. Creative Nature would like to touch on some rather interesting points raised. Firstly for those of you who may have missed it, the programme aimed to look at various products on the supermarket shelf which stated various claims and then to put these claims to the test ‘scientifically’. Along with Organic Food, Smoothies and Pro-Biotics, ‘Superfoods’ were put to the test. I would firstly like to say that we at Creative Nature welcome scientific research into any of our products as we believe far more studies into the effects of nutrition need to be conducted, it is still a very misunderstood and underestimated area of science. However the programme we had eagerly anticipated proved to be ironically unscientific! Firstly the scientific expert, Professor Regan who was to inform the public on nutrition turned out to be an obstetrician, (mid wife/gynecologist) not a food scientist! Professor Regan, began questioning a producer of margarine, rich in plant sterols, about the possible side effects (of which there are none reported). She concluded that though such foods with added plant sterol-ester had in fact proven effective at lowering cholesterol she would rather take a pill called ‘Statin’.
This pharmaceutical drug made from a toxic mould has many side effects including:
“Reversible myositis is a rare but significant side-effect of the statins. The statins also cause headache, altered liver-function tests (rarely, hepatitis), paraesthesia, and gastro-intestinal effects including abdominal pain, flatulence, constipation, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting. Rash and hypersensitivity reactions (including angioedema and anaphylaxis) have been reported rarely.” (The NHS National library for health)
There are also reports that statin may cause depression. It is not lost on us that this state-funded programme, seems to be promoting a drug which a government health advisor recently stated should be given to all men over 50 in a mass medicated blanket approach, regardless of their current health?!
Let us move swiftly on to the ‘scientific’ findings of ‘Superfoods’. The good news is that the program concluded that ‘Superfoods’ were proven to have high nutritional densities and high levels of antioxidants.
Quote, ‘Foods known as Superfoods do have high nutritional qualities so will go into the basket but as there is no evidence that any one food can provide miraculous health benefits, the ‘term’ Superfood must be discarded.’ Creative Nature agree to this conclusion on a number of points, firstly science has proved ‘Superfoods’ have superior nutrition to other foods. Secondly we agree that there is no one miracle food, we recommend eating a combination of many different healthy nutritious organic foods (different coloured foods often indicate different properties so eat a range of colours). Thirdly, we also agree that the term ‘Superfood’ has been branded around without any clear definition of its meaning. The Creative Nature definition (as shown on our home page) is clear and if it were to be used as a standard, would resolve the issue.
Although the higher nutritional properties of Superfoods were recognized the benefits of having superior nutrition and higher antioxidant levels was questioned. (The benefit of eating pesticide free produce was also questioned!)
Let me first address the issue of antioxidants. The programme gave the impression that no one really knew what antioxidants were or what there role was in the body. It suggested it was being used as a buzz word to confuse the customers. A conservative estimate suggests that actually over 30,000 scientific papers have been written about free radicals and antioxidants in the last 20 years and as long ago as 1930 Sir C.V Raman was awarded the Nobel prize for his pioneering work with antioxidants. It is widely accepted within the scientific community that free radicals do contribute to the aging process and that antioxidants do have the ability to stabilise these free radicals.
Only the week before on ‘Horizon’ itself, professor Kirkwood stated ‘The thing that drives the aging process we now know to be the build up of damage in the cells and organs of our bodies. To clear up any misunderstanding of what antioxidant are and what they do, and so that Creative Nature can not be accused of using buzz words to confuse the public! | 
