Thursday, June 26, 2014


YOUR HEALTH
Fat foolishness revealed

We have since 1977 been told by the medical establishment and ‘researchers’ that animal fat – in meat  and dairy products -- is harmful if not deadly – causing hardening and narrowing of arteries, other heart disease and leading to obesity and all the ills those extra pounds produce.

Time magazine, however, has revealed the truth in its June 23, 2014 cover story.

Put simply, we have been mislead for over 35 years due to sloppy, poor science and half-truths.

Sloppy research

Dr. Ancel Keys in the 1950s and 1960s suggested that the high rate of American heart disease and deaths was due to clogged arteries caused by cholesterol build up and that red meat and dairy products were to blame. He advocated based on his studies, the Mediterranean diet.  He used data from southern Italy to show that the people there had far fewer heart attacks than Americans, and attributed it to their diet: fish, nuts, fruits and vegetables and olive oil--  which has monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs).

The problem with his research, as Time points out on page 32, is that he ignored the data from some Greek islands with the same diet but high heart disease rates, and excluded from his study French and German diets which were high in meat and daily and alcohol (wine or beer) but both the French and the Germans had the same low rate of heart disease as the southern Italians.  The French and Germans  and some Greeks were simply left out of the ‘evidence’ database and the fallacy of the superiority of the  Mediterranean diet was born.

More importantly we now know that meat and dairy products not only produce LDL cholesterol but an almost equal amounts of healthy HDL cholesterol – so it balance out as zero. (p.34)

Moreover, recent laboratory analysis has found there are 2 types of LDL particles – those that are  large and fluffy and that easily pass through the body,  and a smaller, sticky particle form of LDL that seems to  be the type that settles and adheres to the walls of arteries.

Meat and dairy contain just the fluffy, harmless LDL.  It is carbohydrates – bread and pasta – that have the small, sticky particle type LDSL. (p.34)

Finally, the fact people seem to have been gaining weight across the board for some 30 years despite the significant reduction in meat and dairy consumption and the proliferation of low-fat foods,  has led to the realization that the brain’s feeling of satiety or “I have had enough to eat, thank you.” is not triggered by either low-fat or artifically sweeted foods and drinks.  Only real, 100% saturated fat (and 100 real sugar) triggers this brain cessation signal. (p. 35)

Put simply, the misguided efforts to make people healthier with low fat and non-saturated fat diets has failed because it misunderstood how the body and the brain work and what triggers satiety.

A  glass of homogenized, whole 100% milk will make you feel full and satiated while almost no amount of skim milk will do the same.

Sugar vs. artificial sweeteners, we have recently learned, is the same situation.

So we have been eating more and drinking more and ingesting lots of unnecessary calories – leading to weight gain – by avoiding saturated fat meat and whole fat dairy products!!!

 

So here is my advice.

Whether you believe in the Bible or Darwinian Evolution, humans have been fruit, berry, nuts and vegetable eaters from the start, soon thereafter we became wild game and domesticated animal eaters – both meat and dairy products. And finally, we added agricultural grains as last.

Our teeth attest to our omnivore biology which is part of our human genetics and history.

So eat fruits, berries, nuts and vegetables and meat and dairy in their natural, high saturated fat forms, and include fish and fowl and grains.

A balanced diet of all food groups is the key, and be sure to get enough saturated fat and real sugar to have your brain signal it is satisfied and you can now stop eating.

You taste buds and figure will love you for it.

 

 

Monday, June 23, 2014


YOUR HEALTH and JUST DO THE MATH

Diabetes Type 2 Mania

In a recent article on the Healthier School program in the United States, proponent Michelle Obama is quoted by Time magazine (June 16, 2014, p. 14) as saying:

“The stakes couldn’t be higher on this issue” noting that 1 in 3 U.S. children will develop Type 2 diabetes. [My bold, enlarghed font.]

The Type 2 diabetes ‘scare’ has clearly reached panic mode with such an outrageous and ridiculous statistic.

No disease on the planet affects 1 in 3 humans – not cancer or heart disease or alcoholism.

According to Wikipedia (“Diabetes mellitus type 2”) and other sources, Type 2 diabetes accounts for some 90% of diabetes and occurs when the pancreas produces too much insulin or the body’s blood cells no longer efficiently absorb insulin.  Either way, blood sugar levels rise.

The primary symptoms are excessive thirst, frequent urination, constant feeling of hunger and, surprisingly,  weight loss.  It is common among people who are obese but can, it is believed, be controlled by regular exercise and diet changes to lower blood sugar levels.  Mediation – such as insulin – can also be prescribed if exercise and diet changes are not enough.

Type 2 diabetes can lead to heart disease, stroke, blindness, kidney failure, limb amputation and dementia.

Conventional wisdom advises against saturated fat (see my blog trashing this theory) and excessive sugar.

-           -        -        -


Since the U.S. population is today just over 318, 300,000, (http://www.census.gov/popclock/),  then, mathematically, Type 2 diabetes affects just 7.5% of the population.  That is far, far, far from the ridiculous 1 in 3 listed above.

Michelle Obama or her information source clearly needs a reality check and a lesson in basic math.  So does Time magazine for mindlessly allowing that 1-in-3 figure to go unchallenged.

The actual Type 2 diabetes figure for America at 7.5% translates as 1 in 13.333:  the correct ratio based on the population data.

Someone simply dropped the 1 in front of the 3.33 and suddenly we end up with an ‘epidemic’ and ‘end-of-the-world’ panic.

Wednesday, June 18, 2014


YOUR HEALTH

Obesity and down the rabbit hole -- again

Are we all living in Alice’s Wonderland where everything becomes weirder and weirder?

Time magazine, June 16, 2014, p. 12, gives new figures from a recent University of Washington study on the increase worldwide in people who are overweight or obese. The total of the two groups is 2.1 billion.

Since the world’s current population is 7,241,027,026 as of 4:27 p.m. June 18, 2014 according to the worldometer clock (www.worldometers.info/world-population/) this means that  28.9% of the world’s men, women, children and elderly have a sweight problem --  or just under 1 in 3 humans on the planet.

How such a ridiculous figure could ever be arrived at or published by a credible university and Time magazine boggles the mind!!!

As the Washington study published in the Lancet is unavailable online, a Reuters summary is useful and fully quoted below with my yellow highlighting:

(Reuters) - Obesity is imposing an increasingly heavy burden on the world's population in rich and poor nations alike, with almost 30 percent of people globally now either obese or overweight - a staggering 2.1 billion in all, researchers said on Wednesday.

The researchers conducted what they called the most comprehensive assessment to date of one of the pressing public health dilemmas of our time, using data covering 188 nations from 1980 to 2013.

Nations in the Middle East and North Africa, Central America and the Pacific and Caribbean islands reached staggeringly high obesity rates, the team at the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle reported in the Lancet medical journal.

The biggest obesity rises among women came in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Honduras and Bahrain. Among men, it was in New Zealand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United States.

The richest country, the United States, was home to the biggest chunk of the planet's obese population - 13 percent - even though it claims less than 5 percent of its people.

Obesity is a complex problem fueled by the availability of cheap, fatty, sugary, salty, high-calorie "junk food" and the rise of sedentary lifestyles. It is a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke, diabetes, arthritis and certain cancers. Chronic complications of weight kill about 3.4 million adults annually, the U.N. World Health Organization says.

During the 33 years studied, rates of being obese or overweight soared 28 percent in adults and 47 percent in children. During that span, the number of overweight and obese people rose from 857 million in 1980 to 2.1 billion in 2013.

That number exceeds the total world population of 1927, when it first hit 2 billion. Earth's population now tops 7 billion.

The researchers said obesity - once a malady of rich nations - now grips people of all ages, incomes and regions, with not one country succeeding in cutting its obesity rate.

"Two-thirds of the obese population actually resides in developing countries," said Marie Ng, a global health professor who was one of the researchers.

The problem was most acute in the Middle East and North Africa, with more than 58 percent of adult men and 65 percent of adult women overweight or obese. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait saw big increases.

"We have to remind ourselves that obesity is really not a cosmetic issue. It's a main risk factor for morbidity and mortality," added global health professor Ali Mokdad, another of the researchers.

Obesity is appearing at increasing young ages, rising nearly 50 percent in children and adolescents worldwide.

Men tallied higher rates in developed countries. Women did so in developing countries. There was a possible ray of hope in rich countries, with the rate of increase in adult obesity slowing in the past eight years.

More than half of the world's obese live in just 10 countries: the United States, China, India, Russia, Brazil, Mexico, Egypt, Germany, Pakistan and Indonesia.

                           (Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

 (http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/28/us-health-obesity-idUSKBN0E82HX20140528)

 

The statistics Time highlighted for overweight and obese are:

Saudi Arabia   69.4%                U.S.                67.4%       Germany    61.1%

China              28.3%              India                19.5%

So, the people of the world are –supposedly – ballooning in size over the last 33 years: in all countries rich and poor, and children  as well.

The criteria used, of course, is the BMI, with any rating above 25 as ‘unhealthy’.

Again, I must protest this insanity and use of the flawed BMI standard.

Do the simple reality check i have recommended in the past:

Look at the adults, teens and children around you. Do only 32.6% of Americans or just 1 in 3 look as if they have a healthy weight or are too thin?

If you live in Germany, do only 38.9% , i./e. 2 in 5, look healthy or too thin?

And if you live in Saudi Arabia do only 3 in 10 people and children look healthy or too thin?

The BMI, I repeat, was never meant to be used for growing children under age 18, and is well known to have a white male bias in its original population sample studies.  It does not accurately reflect genetic differences between ethnic groups nor what has been historically diverse cultural norms and ideal.

It is far better to look at longevity tables.

The statistics below for life expectancy are from the World Bank.                                                                                                                                                       [http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.DYN.LE00.FE.IN]                 

 
1980
 (World Bank)
2009
(World Bank)
2012
(World bank)
China 
69
76
77 years
India      
55
67
68 years
Germany     
76
83
83  years
Saudi Arabia  
65
77
77 years
U.S.        
78
81
81 years

 

Every country that has become more prosperous or is living at first world standards has increased longevity since 1980 – the starting point of the University of Washington study.

Reaching age 75 was almost unknown in the 1960s and 1970s but is common by 2012 as seen above, and crossing the 80th year mark has been attained by Americans and Germans.

Americans, the inventors of fast food in the 1950s and 1960s have managed to live longer even with so-called ‘demon’ French fries, hamburgers, KFC breaded chicken, pizza, pop and chocolate and ice cream galore as their dietary norm.

And the Germans, with ancestral diets high in meat and fat and beer, do not seem to be suffering – contrary to the BMI standard.

Remember, insurance companies advise people to be somewhat overweight if they wish to live longer lives --  as sudden illness or surgery or chemotherapy, etc. cause rapid weight loss and/or appetite loss that alone can lead to death.

So next time you see scary statistics re: BMI and obesity, etc., try not to fall down the rabbit hole into unreality and silliness.