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Canine Shine: From a shiny coat to fabulous Gut Health; a power pack of natural nutrients for your dog!

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Nutritionist and former vet, Lucy Williamson DVM MSc ANutr, explains why sea buckthorn is so good for a dog’s best health:

As a Registered Nutritionist passionate about natural, nutrient-packed foods for our best health, I’m privileged to be working with the team at The British Seabuckthorn Company.

My previous career as a Vet, began to teach me the power of nutrition for best health; my interest in small animal practice was always Dermatology – the treatment of skin disease. So, the Canine Shine project, just pure, natural seabuckthorn berries, a power-pack of nutrients for skin health, is an exciting journey!

The Ancient Greeks named Seabuckthorn: ‘Hippophae’, which translates as ‘Shiny Horse’. We now know this is because it’s a rich source of many nutrients required in the every-day functioning of healthy skin.

The main oil within skin cells is an Omega 6 called GLA, which boosts blood circulation, hydrates and regulates inflammation within the skin. As well as being a source of this vital oil, Seabuckthorn is rich in Antioxidants and Vitamins A, B and E, all required to keep skin cells healthy, slowing the ‘ageing’ process.

We’re also beginning to understand the crucial role of our gut health in our overall health and wellbeing, thanks to rapidly increasing research. This process is just as vital in animals, with fibre and antioxidant-rich foods nurturing their beneficial gut bacteria. For animals, not all so called ‘prebiotic’ foods are equal – fruit fibre, as well as beet pulp, oats and barley can be especially beneficial to dogs1. Seabuckthorn is a great source of fibre and we’re continuing to explore its influence on gut health.

With feedback from dog owners on Canine Shine, so far being very positive not only for skin condition but general health and wellbeing too, why not treat our most loyal canine companions, & see for yourself, the benefits from nutrient-rich food in its most natural form!

  1. Pilla, R., & Suchodolski, J. S. (2020). The Role of the Canine Gut Microbiome and Metabolome in Health and Gastrointestinal Disease. Frontiers in veterinary science, 6, 498. https://doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2019.00498
Growing our own

An Update from David

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It hardly seems possible that this time last year we were planning out another year. A natural cycle of winter pruning, hoping for a successful pollination in March leading through to a new harvest in July.

A year on, and we are still thinking about that natural cycle, but life has changed. The natural cycle remains, but every customer now is a personal customer. We sell a very specialised fruit and every personal order values sea buckthorn so we need to nurture and ensure that quality is king.

The original concept of growing sea buckthorn was underpinned by its nutritional value. The historical context of it being valued as a traditional remedy for centuries added to its credibility. This tradition inspired plant breeders across the world to tame wild varieties. Wild or tame, the berries have the potential to be so much more than being a “little orange berry”.

As a grower we are committed to a natural cycle that provides a little more knowledge with every year that passes. We started with German and Finnish varieties back in 2009. These plants are now mature. The Finnish plants have been a challenge, but it was rewarding in 2020 when we could pick the variety Terhi for the first time. Like our Siberian plants, the Finnish ones did not enjoy our mild, wet weather. But success is sweet when it happens.

In 2012, with the help of the InCrops team at the University of East Anglia we imported our first Siberian plants. This was very exciting as these promised so much. Thornless, high yielding, better tasting, easier harvesting – the panacea of sea buckthorn growing.

In ten years we have seen only one crop of Siberian berries. Reality mellows initial enthusiasm, but not the determination to grow Siberian sea buckthorn. The consideration that moving plants across continents required them to adapt to a new climate and soil had not been factored into the original plan. 10 years on our learning curve has been steep and frustrating. Now in 2021 we are planting a new Siberian orchard with a new planting design to solve the barriers that have prevented Siberian success.

As we move forward in the orchard, we have been so fortunate to team up with Dr Lucy Williamson -who as a nutritionist is deciphering what sea buckthorn is.

Our fascination for sea buckthorn was driven by its nutritional potential. The 190 phytochemicals found in the berry drive the potential benefits, recognised over the centuries. We analyse our berries and the laboratory gives sheets of facts. Understanding what they mean is key to knowing what we are doing, why and how we can change our methods to improve berry quality.

Lucy’s speciality is gut health. This is not an area normally associated with sea buckthorn. We tend to think of health as a reaction to a disease or ailment. We should think more proactively of maintaining good health and this comes back to the ancient concept that food is health.

For food to be the driver of health it has to have the right qualities. Understanding what those are and why they are important is essential so as growers we focus on improving berry quality. Lucy is our key to developing the understanding of why sea buckthorn has the potential we believe it has. The gut is the place where our food is transformed into the vital nutritional building blocks the body needs. Understanding how it works is a new and complex science and with Lucy being specialist in this field will guide our focus as to how we grow to produce berry quality that relates to health.

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Sea Buckthorn and Omegas

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Our nutritionist, Dr Lucy Williamson, writes here about the importance of omega oils and how sea buckthorn is unique in the variety of omega oils that it contains.

Omega oils are involved in many every-day processes in the body, from transporting vitamins, making hormones and the correct functioning of cells, so they’re of huge importance in our overall health! Seabuckthorn is totally unique in the variety of health-giving Omega oils it contains, not just in its seeds but in the berries too. The seeds are especially rich in Omega 3&6, the two ‘essential fatty acids’ that we are totally dependent on our food for, while the soft parts of the berry are one of very few plants to contain valuable Omega 7. Omega 9 in seabuckthorn, is perhaps better known as Oleic acid, the beneficial fat in olive oil.

The nature of fat in our food depends on the types of fatty acids it contains – saturated and unsaturated. All fats contain both but in general plant oils contain more unsaturated (liquid at room temperature) and fats of animal origin contain more saturated (solid at room temperature). Including more plant oils in our diet is really beneficial for our health (1).  Seabuckthorn, as well as being a rich source of Omega oils, also contains plant sterols, natural plant compounds which help to promote good cholesterol levels. It’s also a fabulous source of fat-soluble vitamins A&E. You can read more about all its other beneficial nutrients here but let’s concentrate on those Omegas!

Omega 3 is vital for the structure of our cell membranes which ensure the proper functioning of all our body cells. So, it’s easy to see why a diet rich in Omega 3 gives such wide-ranging health benefits from protecting against heart disease & regulating inflammation to giving our skin a healthy glow! For example, by keeping cell walls flexible, Omega 3 helps to keep blood pressure down (because the cells lining blood vessels stay stretchy) which in turn helps to maintain a healthy heart. The anti-inflammatory function of Omega 3 is especially important in preventing blood clots, (which increase the risk of stroke) but new research is starting to show other benefits such as improved bone density, better outcomes in auto-immune disease like Rheumatoid Arthritis and protection against Dementia in older age. It’s important to mention that there are two types of Omega 3 which are especially important for our vision, brain health and their anti-inflammatory function. These are EPA and DHA and are already present in oily fish. Plant Omega 3 however, needs to be converted by our bodies into these two forms before we can get the same benefits. So, if we’re relying on plants for our Omega 3, we need a lot! (2)

Omega 6 is high in the seeds of seabuckthorn, making up about 40% of the oils there! However, it also accounts for about a third of the oils in the berries too. Omega 6 in our food helps to maintain healthy cholesterol levels by raising ‘good’ HDL cholesterol and lowering ‘bad’ LDL cholesterol. It’s also the most abundant oil in our skin, so as well as promoting a natural glow it can help with acne, atopy and psoriasis. One particular type of Omega 6, GLA (better known perhaps as the beneficial oil in evening primrose oil and borage) is especially high in seabuckthorn and can help to regulate hormonal changes during menopause.

Getting the right balance…

It’s really important to strike the right balance of Omega 6: Omega 3 in our food. Our UK food intake surveys show us that on average most of us manage 6:3 at a ratio of 10:1 but 4:1 is far more beneficial for our health (3). British seabuckthorn contains a balance of 1:1 so provides a very welcome functional food to help us get a good balance.

Omega 7 is rarely found in foods; happily seabuckthorn berries are one of the very few, rich sources. Research has shown Omega 7 to be extremely effective in promoting healthy mucous membranes – the delicate lining of our respiratory and digestive systems. (4) This is one of the reasons why seabuckthorn pulp as a natural food supplement is very popular in preventing stomach ulcers in horses. Having practiced as a Vet before becoming a Nutritionist, I can safely say this is something they’re very prone to especially with the stress of racing. However, it’s the mix of over 190 nutrients in seabuckthorn which is thought to amplify the beneficial effects of these nutrients individually. No wonder then, being packed full of antioxidants like flavanols, Vit C, carotenes (Vit A) and tocopherols (Vit E), that seabuckthorn, having all these nutrients together, can be so beneficial against the long-term effects of stress on digestive health, the cardiovascular system and skin condition. Omega 7 may also be beneficial in Diabetes as it increases our sensitivity to insulin. (4)

Omega 9 is also present in high quantities in olive oil and there are now many links between the olive oil in a Mediterranean-style diet and protection against longer-term heart disease and cancer.

 

References

  1. Saturated Fats and Health: SACN Report https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/saturated-fats-and-health-sacn-report accessed online 24.04.20
  2. P. C., (2017) Omega 3: the good oil Nutrition Bulletin 42: 132-140
  3. National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) 2018 update
  4. Marsinach et al (2019) Impact of seabuckthorn oil fatty acids on human health Lipids in Health and Disease 18: 145
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Field Update

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Growing sea buckthorn at Devereux farm has been a steep learning curve. Our Siberian plants established in 2012 suffered 40% losses in 2014 through fungal diseases. Subsequent replanting in 2015 were successful and since then there has been no return of disease. I put this down to our organic management aimed at soil improvement, using both compost teas and composts over the years. It is the principle resource that I look to maintain the health of my plants.

Rainfall has become a very unpredictable variable. Last summer our sea buckthorn had to tolerate two months without rain up until the end of September. From then on the rain was incessant creating waterlogged soils until mid-March. I have considered this to be intolerable to sea buckthorn, but we do not seem to have lost any plants as a result.

As we are preparing a field for our new orchard it is being subsoiled to a depth of 1 metre. This cuts a slot forming each row, whilst also shattering the soil at a lower level. As we are told that climate change will give longer periods of drought I want our plants to develop roots that can source deep soil moisture. I believe the subsoil slot provides an easy route through our heavy clay soils, for new roots to grow to a good depth. It may not be conventional wisdom, but our weed control system cuts plant surface roots to encourage deeper rooting.

In 2012 we planted our orchard with varying plant spacing: at 0.8m, 1m, 1.5m and 2m. New plantings in 2015 had spacing of 1.5m, 1.75, 1.85, and 2m.  Row widths also are variable across the site – being at 3m, 3.5m, 3.8m and 4m. Having invested in a tractor mounted Ladurna cultivator to control weeds around the plants it has been valuable to be able to see how practical these measurements are when using machinery. The conventional 2m plant spacing and 4m row width provides plenty of machine operation space, but when land is valuable fruit yield can be increased by increasing plant numbers per hectare. Hence our latest new orchard we will be planting with 1.8m plant spacing with 3.8m row widths. This tighter spacing increases plant numbers by 15% per hectare, whilst allowing ease of use of machinery and optimum light for the plants.

Producing fruit is our principle goal, but producing high quality sea buckthorn is our objective. This year I have already started applying foliar feeds. Following trials by Mishulina (1976) there are indications that trace elements of Iodine and boron increase vitamin C levels. Last year’s berry analysis indicated good results with vitamin C in Latvian varieties. This year I will follow the same foliar feed spray cycle but adding two additional sea weed extract applications. This will allow five applications pre harvest. Followed by one seaweed and two foliar feeds in August/September. I have to accept that berry quality is as much a product of variable weather as management intervention, but we will look forward to comparing the 2019 and 2020 berry analysis results as the means of developing consistent berry quality in future crops.

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Vitamin C and Gut Health for strong Immune systems – two more reasons why British Sea Buckthorn is worth shouting about!

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Latest post by BSC’s registered nutritionist, Dr Lucy Williamson

At this time of year in the UK our immune systems are really in need of a boost. Starved of sunlight hours over the winter and more time spent indoors means we really need to choose foods which help us to develop a strong immune system. I had planned this blog on Vitamin C for exactly that reason… not knowing that 2020 would also bring along COVID-19, a new Coronavirus.

In his last blog post, David, Director at British Sea Buckthorn, mentions the importance of food for our overall health but also our Gut Health. As a Registered Nutritionist with a keen interest in gut health and with a family of my own to keep as healthy as I can over the winter, I feel well qualified to really shout out about a daily dose of British Sea Buckthorn to help keep the bugs at bay! And, David is quite right in saying “The concept (of gut health) is of such importance that it is becoming a subject we all need to understand”

So, in addition to focussing on Vitamin C for the second in this blog series, I’m also going to give the 101 on Gut bacteria for immune health, helping our immune systems be the best they can be.

Vitamin C – Our immune system, bones, skin & hair, blood vessels, teeth and nervous system are all dependent on it for their normal functioning and each cell in our body requires it to convert our fat stores into energy. We can’t build up stores of Vitamin C and unlike animals and plants, we’ve lost the ability to make our own. So, we’re totally dependent on our food to provide this water-soluble vitamin.

So why is Vitamin C needed by so many systems in our body?

Its properties are based on its ability to assist in many chemical reactions essential in our metabolism. It activates the enzymes required to make collagen – the basic building block of our skin, bones, teeth and hair. Enzyme activation by Vitamin C is also required to make hormones, particularly those which help us to respond to stress and to make neurotransmitters, the chemicals which send signals between nerve cells.

Vitamin C is well known for helping us resist infections like the common cold, but how?

Our immune system has a high demand for energy due to constant cell multiplication and their movement to wounds & cuts or to potential infection sites around the body. Vitamin C is pivotal here in providing this energy source through activating the enzyme, Carnitine, required in this process. Research has also demonstrated its essential role in enabling immune cells to kill bacteria and recover afterwards and also in the chemical signalling pathway which attracts immune system cells to the area in the body that needs them. In my last blog on Antioxidants I also mentioned how Vitamin C is required to make our own antioxidants to protect us against cell damage and therefore ensure our cells function correctly – especially important for the cells of our immune system.

100g of British Sea Buckthorn berries give 10 times the Vitamin C of an orange! Over the winter, I’ve been fuelling my family with British Sea Buckthorn smoothies made from the frozen berries. A zingy way to start the day!

The team at British Sea Buckthorn know that I’m passionate about Gut Health too.

How do our gut bacteria benefit our immune system?

British Sea Buckthorn is a source of Fibre – a type of carbohydrate that can’t be digested in the small intestine. Instead, it passes to the colon (large intestine) where it’s fermented by billions of gut bacteria to produce many compounds essential for our metabolism. Collectively, the genetic make-up of these bacteria is known as our ‘Microbiome’. With 150x our own genetic makeup, our microbiome is to be nurtured; in fact, our ratio of human cells to bacterial cells is 1:1 so we’re just as much bacteria as we are human! We now know these gut bacteria to be essential in the correct functioning of our immune system – over 80% of the cells which make up our immune system are located in the wall of our intestine. Gut bacteria here provide ‘exercise’ for our immune system cells, ensuring it develops correctly, almost working like a vaccine in fact. In 2016, The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), who report the findings of research studies to Public Health England, advised increasing the recommended intake of fibre for children (18g/day) and adults (30g/day), as a result of firm evidence for its health benefits, including its effect on our Microbiome. Sea Buckthorn is a good way to increase fibre intake.

Our gut bacteria also have an important role activating some of the antioxidants in British Sea Buckthorn, which as mentioned above, are also beneficial in boosting our immunity.

So, a daily dose of Sea Buckthorn certainly has the beneficial nutrients for a strong immune system. And, for anyone who missed the recent BBC episode of Countryfile, it’s also fabulous to know that by enjoying British Sea Buckthorn you’re also doing your bit for the environment by supporting their projects to enhance nature, biodiversity and wellbeing!

Next time – all you need to know about the products of Sea Buckthorn fibre fermentation by our gut bacteria, for our longer-term health and wellbeing.

References:

Sender, S., Fuschs, S., Milo, R (2016) Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/036103v1

Valdes, A.M., Walter, J., Segal, F., Spector, T (2018) Role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health British Medical Journal: 361 K2179

Growing our own

A Crucial Time of Year

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A blog post from David

Change is an issue that governs life. As another storm passed this weekend the sun has returned seeming to bring on spring. This is a crucial time of year for us. Our first research into sea buckthorn started in 2006. Then the challenge was from where to source plants. By 2009 we had the six German female varieties and three Finnish. Wild UK sea buckthorn we recognised as very thorny making picking a painful exercise. When it became apparent that thornless varieties had been bred in Siberia this had to be seen as the future. These varieties had been adopted in Canada and seemed to also offer higher yields, larger berries and higher natural sweetness.

Farming is about working within a natural environment to produce a natural product. The term – we are what we eat, makes growing sea buckthorn such an exciting prospect. Its berries, leaves and even its bark offer natural benefits that can help to preserve health.  The fact we are developing a healthy product makes us look to what consumers are wanting. As we move into a new year the food and drink experts put forward their ideas as to what is trending. There are no real surprises as trends evolve over time, but health does seem to be on most people’s minds. One trend relates to an aging population recognising how healthy food can influence mental and physical health. 40 to 54 years olds demand snack foods that satisfy hunger but also boost nutritional needs. Instant access to internet knowledge has made younger generations more knowing on quality. Maybe this is a factor in that choosing products that promote gut health is becoming mainstream.

Within this mix there has been no mention of the words natural, nor organic. I would like to believe that there is a link that healthy food tends to have fewer ingredients that are more traceable and that foods are becoming less processed and closer to their natural roots. We grow our sea buckthorn organically because it offers complete clarity in that it is a food that is a product of the natural environment. The nutrients within the berry have evolved over thousands of years that has been appreciated to provide a health benefit because of the ability for each nutrient to work in synergy with each other. If we introduced any additional chemicals into the growing environment we risk breaking that natural formulation.

At the start of this post I mentioned that this is a crucial time of year. For two years now the weather in early March has blown through our orchard and dispersed pollen, not between our male and female plants – but to the wind. No pollination means no fruit. So this coming week we will start a trial to put up windbreaks to break the wind tearing through the plants. It is another example that in farming, progress relates to the annual cycle. Each year exposes a problem – that can only be solved as the following year comes around.

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Sea Buckthorn for the long term

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David’s latest blog post.

David is a Director of the British Sea Buckthorn Company. 

I have often said that the sea buckthorn trial at Devereux farm is a 20 year project. The first ten years saw plants established but also lost to disease. The results are now – after ten years, developing with a cold store with a limited stock of frozen berries from the 2019 harvest. An evolution of progress.

The enthusiasm for sea buckthorn comes as being part of the global community of sea buckthorn growers, researchers, processors and manufacturers. Their collective investment has created expansion in production. Production, as I have found is not easy but the growth of a global sea buckthorn industry has taken 50 years to expand into 40 countries. For all the difficulties of establishing a growing crop – growing a market is an equal challenge, even for a crop based on significant nutritional quality.

Our health is key to being able to enjoy a normal life. Health is not a simple concept. It requires investment. Our personal investment managing our body’s functions has long term implications. Out of sight is often said to be out of mind. Appreciating the ability of our immune system to keep us healthy is easy just to accept. Our digestive system operates unseen, converting food to the vital mix of nutrients our complex body requires to function effectively. But how often do we actually buy food based on respecting the needs of our digestive system – even though it is our own personal system that maintains our own personal health.

There has been a quiet revolution developing in the nutrition world exposing the importance of the gut. There are tens of trillions of bacteria that live in our gut. A multi-functional soup of incredible complexity forming a balanced mechanism that breaks down food into constituent nutrients. This balance of species in this vast population is critical. This is not something of convenience, it is like a Ferrari, fine-tuned for peak performance. Put diesel in your petrol car and you pay for the consequences both by looking foolish and having to repair the damage.

I say all this because I understand the gut microbiome concept but not the detail. The concept is of such importance that it is becoming a subject I need to understand. As I get older I am appreciating the need for good health to allow a quality of life at work and at home.

Within so many issues the word balance is so importance. It is a pet subject of mine but I often reflect back on the Galenic way of life. A set of principles based on times when medicine was rudimentary so personal responsibility to one’s own health was essential. It suggests five principles of the food/drink we consume; the right amount of exercise; working in a positive environment; good sleep and good mental health as forming the basis of preserving our health. There is a sixth principle that requires each being proportionally balanced. A rational approach and one that can work even in the stressful world of 2020.

An interest in food takes you in many directions. Being a farmer in 2020 is concentrating my mind on significant changes coming post-Brexit for our industry. With great change comes the need for ensuring that you fully understand all the implications of change before decisions become irreversible. The current debate around how to feed a growing global population, together with the need to adapt to climate change will require all of us to change – but often evolution is better than revolution. Maintaining a balanced debate, taking all opinions into account and using compromise to bring everyone along a path of change achieves the progress that we really need to solve these issues.

Growing our own

Update from the field

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2019 created a revolution in our plans for growing sea buckthorn. The decision to harvest the berries by cutting branches and then freezing them so the fruit can be easily shaken off meant creating our own processing machinery, but it also meant managing the plants differently.

In countries where this practice is common, the plants have a single stem, approximately one metre high. Branches grow from the top of this stem which are then harvested every three years.

Our intent up until 2017, was to hand pick our berries. So we allowed our plants to become multi-stemmed with multiple side shoots. Now all these have to go.

To do this too suddenly would potentially kill the plants, so we will remove the lower branches over a three year period allowing the plants to adapt to this new form.  It is a risk and some plants, or some varieties might not adapt to the process, but that is the nature of developing the sea buckthorn crop.

Pruning off these branches would normally be done when the plants are fully dormant. Our sea buckthorn, both the Siberian and Latvian have had to adapt to our local climate. By the end of January out of 14 varieties , 12 will be showing their first leaves. Pruning off larger branches is undesirable once the plants are out of dormancy, so this hard pruning process will stop in February.

The next major undertaking will be to start planting the 4000 one year old cuttings that we imported from Siberia in October. This will start a new organic plantation taking on all the knowledge we have gained over the past ten years. It is a commitment for the farm as we move further into the era of climate change and the need to adapt to potentially more challenging conditions.

Managing adaption is an interesting concept in an era of climate change. Milder weather will change the way plants behave. If their growing cycle starts earlier in the year, will they continue on to grow viable crops, particularly if the key development stages in the growing cycle are vulnerable to the uncertainties of late winter/early spring weather.

This is a problem if one grows crops in an open, soil based field environment. Growing food in soilless controlled environments may become the solution to all these issues. Technologically feasible these methods can be energy intensive. However we produce food it will have to be sustainable. There are many politically motivating concepts being promoted globally as to how we are going to feed the world. For us now however we have the reality of considering how we respond to reducing our carbon footprint; our energy use; our resource use; our waste. This will be a primary plan for 2020. We may be organic, 50% of our farm may be devoted to wildlife habitat, but the devil is in the detail. Responding to climate change is the responsibility of each and every one of us – neither money nor technology can buy another planet.