A long crawl from NYC back to the Hamptons yesterday on the Hampton Jitney allowed plenty of time to continue learning from Gary Taube, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories. I mentioned this scientific look at the history of current dietary recommendations and how most of them are not based on facts but rather on biased interpretations of the truth even in the face of new evidence, last month.
My point is not to slag anyone whose job it is to make health recommendations who chooses to stick with the status quo–people need their jobs after all and in this day and age it takes massive effort to effect change among the largest health organizations. Change is going to come though and I want to be a part of it. Speaking out about outdated science is my way of helping usher in the changes we so badly need in order to reverse the rates of heart disease and diabetes.
I’ve reported, as recently as yesterday, that there is no provable link between consumption of saturated fat and heart disease. A leading journal published the results of a meta-analysis supporting this claim. The same groups that advocate lowering saturated fat, increasing carbs and vegetable oils, claim that monounsaturated fat is the healthiest because they lower LDL cholesterol and raise HDL.
Here’s a twist you would not have expected. As quoted from Taube’s book on page 168, “The majority of fat found in red meat, eggs and bacon is not saturated fat but the very same monounsaturated fat as in olive oil.” This information can be found by anyone at the USDA’s Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. (And you can get weekly audio emails with this kind of myth busting information by signing up for my Midlife Myth Busting Audio Postcards.)
Let’s stick with Taube as he dissects a porterhouse steak nutritionally–it’s compelling. “Consider a porterhouse steak with a quarter-inch layer of fat. After broiling, this steak will reduce to almost equal parts fat and protein. Fifty-one percent of the fat is monounsaturated, of which 90% is oleic acid. Saturated fat constitutes 45% of the total fat, but a third of that is stearic acid, which will increase HDL cholesterol while having no effect on LDL. The remaining 4% of the fat is polyunsaturated which lowers LDL but has no meaningful effect on HDL.” (HDL in case you’ve forgotten is the measure of total cholesterol we are encouraged to raise because it is health protective.)
“In sum,” Gary continues, “perhaps as much as 70% of the fat content of a porterhouse steak will improve the relative levels of LDL and HDL cholesterol, compared with what they would be if carbohydrates such as bread, potatoes, or pasta were consumed.”
So what to do? Limit vegetable oils with the exception of olive oil, flax seed oil, coconut and avocado oils. Eat plenty of plants and include plenty of organic, farm raised meats, wild fish, cage free eggs high in Omega 3s, and limit sugar–including the foods that turn quickly into sugar in the digestive system. And keep an open mind to new discoveries and the possibility that there are mighty forces in place who rely on the status quo to please their share holders. I’ve said it before, I’m not a conspiracy theorist and the links are obvious once you start looking.
Speaking of sugar I’m going to do a series of posts on just how big a player this one, ubiquitous substance is in the creation of lifestyle diseases and how you can have a sweet life without deprivation.
A little happy dance is in order if you fear eating butter, eggs, meat, cheese etc because of their alleged links to heart disease via increased cholesterol. For years I’ve been writing about research on the heath benefits of fats–saturated and otherwise when found naturally in foods–and it’s always heartening when some of the more conservative groups come to the same conclusions. I’m not just a radical butter-loving-nut-promoting-beef-cheese-and-ice-cream-eating midlife crazy. Well maybe I am all of those things but damn, but you can’t accuse me of making up the science.
In the May issue of Dr. Steven Sinatra’s Heart, Health and Nutrition, he shares the findings of a recent meta-analysis on the effects of saturated fat as it relates–or doesn’t–to heart disease and stroke. A meta-analysis is a statistical review of multiple studies. According to Dr. S, “The review, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, crunched numbers from 21 previous studies involving nearly 350,000 adults.
The subjects, basically healthy to start, had all been surveyed about their dietary habits and then monitored for between 5 and 23 years. Researchers concluded there was no difference in the risk of cardiovascular disease between people with the lowest intake of sat fat and those with the highest.”
Now it gets even better:
“However, the study also revealed what dietary factors did contribute to heart disease—namely polyunsaturated vegetable oils and sugars. Canola, corn, safflower, sunflower, and similar vege oils become oxidized when heated and produce harmful trans fats that cause an inflammatory response in the body. Sugars also create dangerous inflammation when consumed in excess.”
Burger anyone? Look saturated fat raises both HDL and LDL cholesterol. The conventional wisdom held that LDL was “bad” for us and so these foods should be eliminated or kept to a minimum. The latest science points to inflammation as the culprit behind most lifestyle diseases–or at least a contributing factor–eliminating the leg to stand on for the argument that foods with saturated fat and by extension, cholesterol, must be banished.
As the veil is lifted on the marketing hype and government influence for gain that brought us to fear certain foods we will no doubt begin to reverse some of the lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and diabetes. If people come back to the table that serves natural meats, fish, and organic dairy–and moves away from foods made in labs, with grains as a base, with oils more suitable for engine lube than human food, then we will see a healthier midlife and beyond.
Never mind midlife, young life, baby life, 20-something lives; all can benefit from staying away from what really makes us fat and unhealthy.
So as the weather warms up and the ice cream store beckons, have some full fat, real ingredients. A little goes a long way in terms of satiety and your heart will thank you in the long run.
One of my guilty pleasures a few times per week is to watch Oprah while I’m at the gym. Yesterday I got part of a show which I’ll assume was about prevention and reversal of diabetes. For those of you who are new here, part of my mission is to reverse the trend and rates of heart disease and diabetes in midlife women so I paid attention to what the guests–Dr. Oz, Bob Greene, (Oprah’s trainer), and Dr. Ian Smith–had to say. (Art, Oprah’s former chef made a guest appearance as proof that you can reverse diabetes. He’s lost something like 90 pounds and transformed his cooking in the process)
Bob Greene has a new book out, The Best Life Guide to Managing Diabetes and Pre-Diabetes. He is co-author along with Dr.Jack Melendrino and Janis Jilbrin MS, RD. I’ve yet to buy the book–I disagree with Bob on many aspects of his programs–but will pick it up. Whether Bob and I see eye to eye over butter vs margarine–he touts it and I say it’s plastic and dangerous–is unimportant if his program and celebrity gets the word out that people can reverse diabetes and/or prevent it. There is one thing he told a group of women, who all looked more than well fed and heading for or suffering from diabetes, and it was this:
Exercise is non negotiable!
Amen to that! Most of you reading this are already believers in the power of movement. If there are any of you who doubt that exercise is a life saving, life extending, cure-what-ails-you kind of thing, I invite you to change your thinking. Even daily walking can change your physiology and contribute to better health.
With diabetes and pre-diabetes it is even more important that you move your muscles, get your heart pumping, and blood flowing. Exercise moves blood sugar where it needs to be which gets it out of your bloodstream. While you are exercising insulin cannot be produced so you give your body a rest from the insulin storm produced by too much blood sugar. Your blood sugar levels go down naturally. If you need to, you will most likely lose weight.
This is not a plug for Bob’s book, as I said, I don’t own it yet. From the reviews I’ve read I know I’ll have other issues outside of some of the foods given the Best Life Seal. Rather, it is a plug, no, a plea, for all of the women reading this to move your parts! I don’t want to have to drag you all kicking and screaming into a long, happy life . And since that’s impractical how about I just beat this subject to a mind numbing pulp by repeating it–you’ve got to move it move it!
I also don’t want to see you too sick to kick and scream. Diabetes is not simply a sugar issue. It is a disease with debilitating and often horrible consequences. By the time a person is diagnosed with diabetes they have had the condition for years. High blood sugar and insulin resistance have been battering your heart, kidney’s, nerves in the eyes and feet. Shall I go on? Drugs come with their own set of complications and who wants to test their sugar 2 – 6 times per day?
Exercise is not the only lifestyle change that must become a regular part of your life to prevent or turn back the diagnosis of diabetes but it is an important one.
As Bob told the church ladies–many of whom were midlife–Exercise is Non-negotiable. Love you Bob, margarine and all, thanks for getting the word out.
Hormones rule, did you know that? I’m not talking just sex hormones though in teenaged boys and middle aged women they are certainly at the top of the pecking order most days.
Everything we eat has a hormonal consequence, some helpful, some down right harmful over the long term.
Insulin is a hormone and is responsible for getting blood sugar somewhere it can be used or stored. Grehlin and leptin are the push me-pull yous of the hunger and satiety dance. These three food related hormones are in direct communication with our other messengers such as glucagon–the fat-burning hormone. Called into action when food is scarce, glucagon converts stored fat into sugar and uses it for energy. These 4 hormones worked in perfect harmony before the introduction of grains and industrial food production when all hormonal hell broke loss. It’s been a steep slide towards disease and women on the verge ever since.
So what can be done? Keep an eye on this blog cause it’s one of missions to let women know about how to eat for hormonal balance, and grab this book if you want some science and some recipes.
Dr. Michael Aziz is an internist with a practice in Manhattan; Midtown Integrative Medicine. Frustrated early on in his medical career that so many young people were coming in with cancers, diabtetes, and allergies that he couldn’t heal as well as all ages of people who had weight issues, he went in search of some answers. What he found was this connection between key hormones and the foods we eat. The main culprits?
Sugar, grains, processed fake foods like margarine, and the endocrine disruptors found in the chemicals used to increase shelf life, texture, color, etc. One of his findings goes along with mine of late–low fat diets are partially at fault in the rise of diabetes, obesity, and hormonal chaos. “The results of the research is clear, eating fat does not make you fat. Rather it’s the lack of natural fats in your diet that makes you gain weight” writes Aziz. He continues, “Natural fats are essential for your cells to work properly. Fats slow down the absorption of food, stabilize blood sugar levels, decrease, cravings, and make you feel full.”
And blood sugar levels will make or break our health over the long haul. I’ve included a link to a 2.5 minute video of Dr. Aziz live, he explains his philosophy and his book a bit more. His solution is an easy, delicious way of eating, protein, fat and fresh fruits, veggies, beans and legumes pretty much.
It’s becoming harder and harder to hide from the latest message on food as medicine–eat what’s natural, eat foods you can recognize as such, don’t fear the fat, and eat organic (meats and dairy) and grass fed (meats) when you can. In case you don’t remember how delicious a dollop of half and half is in your coffee or whole egg poached or fried–it’s The Yumm Factor to the 10s. You may have to let go of some long held beliefs to take on these new ideas but if you find hormonal heaven vs a daily roller coaster from hell, wouldn’t it be worth it?
Dr. Michael Aziz
