Reader Q&A Q: I am confused by all the claims of doctors and the diet industry. Does eating fat make you fat? And does saturated fat really cause heart disease?
A: The simple answer to both those
questions is, “No.” However, modern ranching and feed-lot practices make the fat
of animals raised in those conditions unfit for human consumption. 99% of all animals
intended for slaughter are fed a diet of corn. Corn makes the animals fatter, bringing a
better price for the grower (cattle are sold by on-the-hoof weight, not the quality of the
meat). All corn acquires various molds during storage and shipment, therefore all corn
contains numerous mycotoxins, the most harmful being aflatoxin B1. The animal’s body
tries to quarantine these mycotoxins by enclosing them in fat cells for later elimination.
The more mycotoxins that are consumed, the more fat cells are produced in an attempt to
isolate the toxins, thus making fatter animals at slaughter time. Aflatoxin cannot be
destroyed by temperature extremes - freezing and cooking have no effect (it has been
suggested that a temperature high enough to destabilize mycotoxins – make them inert
– would make your steak nothing more than charcoal) The legal limit of allowable
aflatoxin for human consumption is 20 parts per billion (ppb), but 300 ppb are allowed in
animals that are intended for human consumption. So when we eat the animal fat, we’re getting a massive dose of
aflatoxin, which our bodies try to isolate by making new fat cells. Over time, these
toxins make their way into the bloodstream. The blood’s way of trying to neutralize
them is to encase them in something called “plaque,” which then accumulates on
the walls of veins and arteries. When it builds up enough, the result is heart disease or
heart attack. The animal fats you eat do not make you fat (exception: see the sugar
section of the response to the next question) or give you heart disease. The mycotoxins in
that fat are what is hurting people. To avoid the problem of mycotoxins in your meat,
always choose grass-fed meats whenever possible. A lot of people don’t like the taste
or appearance of grass-fed beef, because the fat is yellow in color and the taste is
described as “gamy.” I’ve had grass-fed beef and I don’t think it
tastes gamy at all. I think it tastes like beef, not the bland, dyed,
who-knows-how-old-it-is meat you find neatly wrapped in plastic at the grocery store. It
also might not be that bright red color you’re accustomed to, because most people who
process grass-fed meat do not use nitrates to preserve the red color (without the added
chemicals in grocery store meats, it would all be brownish and you wouldn’t buy it).
The yellow fat in grass-fed meat is yellow because of beta-carotene and conjugated
linoleic acid, both of which are very good for you. See http://www.mercola.com/beef/cla.htm
for more information on CLA and its health benefits. Don’t be fooled into buying “organic” or “free
range” meat. Neither one of those marketing phrases is an indicator that the animal
really ate any grass at all. “Organic” simply means they were fed an organic
diet, most probably organic corn (which, because it’s organic will be teeming
with Aspergillus and other forms of mold), and “free range” just means an animal
has access to the outdoors, but it might only be five minutes a day in a tiny corral
barely big enough to turn around in (many confining feed lots qualify to use the phrase
“free range”). There are many ways to stretch the truth in advertising (usually
by changing the definition of words). “Free range poultry” just means the
chickens have more than two square feet of floor space per bird. They might never have
seen the sky in their entire lives. So be a smart shopper. Read the labels, ask questions,
and when in doubt, leave it on the store shelf. Q. You guys talk a lot about toxins and things that screw up my immune system functions. Can you elaborate a bit? A: Sure. Here’s a list of some of the
most common immune system toxins. Nitrates Nitrates are primarily found in meats and are converted to
nitrosamines in the body. Nitrosamines aid in the creation of cancer, heart disease,
behavioral disorders, and if heavily consumed, can cause heart attacks. They also depress
immune function, leading to more frequent and severe infections. Found in: Ham
Bacon
Sausage
Bologna
Hot dogs
Pastrami
Salami
Pepperoni
Red meats Hydrogenated Oils
Hydrogenated oils interfere with
the cell membranes, making them less fluid. White blood cells are then unable to function
to destroy and consume foreign microbes, leading to deep-seated systemic infections.
Found in:
Doughnuts, pastries, cakes, cookies, pies, etc.
Granola bars
Waffles, Pop-Tarts
Microwave popcorn
Peanut butter
French fries, Tater Tots, hash browns
Battered or breaded food
All chips (potato, corn, tortilla)
Commercial bread, buns, bagels
Creamed soups or vegetables
TV dinners or entrees
Breakfast cereals Refined Vegetable
Oils
When heated, these oils behave basically the same as hydrogenated oils
by interfering with cell membrane function, leading to immune system malfunction. The
toxins formed by these oils when heated are also very carcinogenic. Deep fried foods
contribute greatly to the creation of cancer. Found in:
Corn oil
Safflower oil
Sunflower oil
Peanut oil
Canola oil
Soybean oil Olive oil, grapeseed oil, and coconut oil, however, are beneficial to
your immune system and have antimicrobial properties as well. Olive and grapeseed oil can
be slightly heated with no toxic by-products, but it’s best to use them unheated.
Coconut oil can be heated to fairly high temperatures with no toxic effects. Use olive or
grapeseed oils in your salad dressings and sauces, and use coconut oil for cooking. Refined Sugar
Sugar consumption causes Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke, blood
clots, high blood pressure, and heart attacks, not to mention obesity. It is also believed
that sugar causes cancer, because cancer patients who eliminate all sugar from their diets
go into “remission.” The tumors need sugar to live, and without it they will
starve and die. (This is why I think cancer is actually a fungal infection.) A hundred years ago, the per capita consumption of sugar in this
country was close to zero (an average of less than five pounds per person per year) Today
it’s more than 150 pounds per person per year. That’s an average of 12.5 pounds
of sugar consumed by every person in this country every single month. Before you say
“But I don’t eat that much sugar!” go read the labels on everything you eat
on a daily basis. That’s where all the sugar is hiding and you are not even conscious
that you’re eating it! Sugar has zero nutritional value, and it actually depletes
certain nutrients in the body, specifically:
Chromium
Magnesium
Zinc
Copper
Potassium
Thiamin
Niacin
Pantothenic acid
Folic acid
Biotin As well as depleting these nutrients, sugar also promotes fungal
growth in the body, and kills white blood cells in the process. Eating sugar with fat is especially devastating. This includes
pastries, cakes, cookies, chocolate bars, etc. Also, eating anything with fat along with a
soda pop (i.e., fast food fare) has the same effect. The reason is that consuming sugar
causes the pancreas to produce insulin to process the sugar and store it in the muscles
where it can be used as energy. Insulin also signals the body to store any fat consumed,
saving it for use later. This is because sugar consumption (in large quantities, as every
American eats today) is a fairly new trend (within the last 100 years or so), and our
bodies are programmed to always store energy for later, when we might not have foraged
enough food, or the hunt was unsuccessful. This is a self-protective mechanism to avoid
starvation. Now, though, when we eat sugar, we’re getting energy, so the body says
“OK, we’ve got the sugar for energy, now what to do with all that fat? Let’s
store it in case there’s no food next week!” The results in today’s society
are disastrous – an epidemic of obesity. If you consume no sugar, the body utilizes
the fat you do eat right away, and there’s no weight gain (provided there’s at
least some physical exercise involved). The sugar/fat problem is exacerbated in people with Insulin Resistance
(i.e. Type 2 diabetics), whose bodies produce many times the normal amount of insulin. The
more insulin produced, the more fat is stored. The increased amount of insulin makes it seem
like a huge amount of sugar was consumed. I kind of wandered off track there, but the connection between sugar
and fat is important, and anyone with excess pounds to shed should be aware of the
relationship between the two. Found in: Practically
all processed food Iron
The type of iron used by food manufacturers is inorganic iron, because
it is far less expensive to produce than organic iron. It is made by dissolving iron
metal. This kind of “iron fortification” does little more than add to your heavy
metal burden, contaminating internal organs, especially the liver, whose job it is to
extract and excrete these contaminants. Found in:
Commercial white flour products Breakfast
cereals Anything
that says “Iron Fortified” Organic iron (found in plant and animal sources) is non-toxic to the body and is fully absorbable. By “organic” I mean that it has been partially processed by the plants, so it’s “predigested” for lack of a better description. Good sources of high-quality organic iron are found in the following foods:
Red meat (nitrate-free) from plant-eating animals
only
Dark leafy greens
Grapes, prunes (or dark plums)
Some herbs (oregano, parsley, cumin)
Sardines
Egg yolks White Flour
Products
All white flour products are made with flour that has had every
shred of nutritional value removed from it. It is then “fortified” with
synthetic iron and vitamins. If you’re going to use flour, always choose whole wheat
flour that has not had the bran and germ removed. Home ground flour is obviously
the best choice. Artificial Favors
and Colors
Most of these are made from coal tar or petroleum residues. Most are
also known carcinogens. Despite thorough research in the 1920s, the government decided in
favor of the big chemical corporations, and approved these substances as food additives.
The “logic” behind this decision was that they would be consumed only in small
amounts, and therefore pose no hazard, however, today almost all processed foods
contain these artificial flavors and colors. Heavy consumption of these additives can
actually kill white blood cells outright. All the FD&C dyes are derived from coal tar
and should never be consumed. Alcohol
Alcohol depletes many nutrients (besides being itself a mycotoxic
substance), including:
All the B vitamins
Vitamin C
Vitamin A
Essential fatty acids
Amino acids
Zinc
Selenium
Magnesium Alcohol also denudes the mucous membranes, leaving the tissue open to
infection. Vaccines
Vaccines are harmful in many ways. They are always contaminated, for
one thing. There’s no way to filter out only the virus or other microorganism
that is desired. Often they are contaminated with an animal virus from the animal tissue
or serum they were cultured in. Most also contain other contaminants, including bacteria
and mold, from the surrounding atmosphere. All vaccines contain mercury as a preservative.
The so-called “mercury-free” vaccines are not actually without mercury. The FDA
simply redefined the word to mean the mercury content is below a certain level (like the
“fat-free” cookies that each contain 0.5 grams of fat). And don’t you
believe the doctor when he tells you the vaccine he’s injecting into your body
contains only a dead virus. If it was dead, your immune system wouldn’t need to react
by producing antibodies to it. Vaccines only work part of the time. An effective vaccine must contain
the exact strain of live virus that you’re trying to immunize against. Viruses
are constantly mutating, making most vaccines ineffective before they’re available.
Then there’s human error. In 2004, the flu vaccine cultured for that year was the wrong
strain. It did absolutely nothing to prevent the current strain of flu, yet even
though this was known by the CDC, the AMA, and most doctors, people were still encouraged
to go get their flu shot that year, even though it was of no use. Why? Because the vaccine
cost $8.00 per dose to produce, and they wanted their money. I don’t know how many
people got a flu shot that year, or how much they paid if they did get one, but I’d
be willing to bet it was a
tad bit more than $8.00 per shot. Which means that Big Pharma not only got their money
back, but they made a profit on nothing more than a huge mistake! Remember, it’s not about your health any more; it’s about
bottom-line profits. Watchdog 1. University of
Cincinnati (UC) researchers say exposure
to a certain group of fungal spores—abundant in the air that we breathe every
day—can make young children
more susceptible to developing multiple allergies later in life. And it goes way beyond
that statement. For more, see: http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.asp?id=4085 and on the same subject: Indoor air
quality has become increasingly important as we live in a society where the majority of
our time is spent indoors. Specific attention has been drawn to airborne fungal spores as a factor
affecting indoor air quality. This study targeted shortcomings of other studies by
utilizing long-term air sampling and total fungal spore enumeration to determine
associations between health outcomes and fungal spore concentrations. See: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1399-3038.2006.00414.x The point here, even
though neither of these articles goes far enough, is that mainstream folks are starting to
recognize the fungal problem. 2. You won’t
believe today’s news unless you actually read it. In an unprecedented power grab, the FDA has declared that all drug
companies are now immune to lawsuits on any drug that has been granted FDA approval.
It’s the biggest handout to drug companies ever, and the action further establishes the FDA as a rogue agency
acting to protect Big Pharma, with no respect for the laws of the land or the safety of
health consumers. Read the full, astonishing story at: http://www.newstarget.com/019497.html 3.
Big Brother is closing in on your freedom of choice: An influential
government advisory panel recommended that 11- and 12-year-old girls be routinely
vaccinated against the sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer. More at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13612899/ 4. New evidence
showing that beta blocker drugs
increase patients’ risk of strokes, heart attacks and diabetes has led to 2
million Britons being taken off the blood-pressure drugs. More at: http://www.newstarget.com/019493.html 5. At a time when
many are calling for more risk
information in direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical ads, a new study from AstraZeneca puts a cap on the number of risks mentioned
in TV spots before the consumer is overloaded. http://www.bioethics.net/News/?id=2266 Trust the drug makers to
want to limit what they have to tell you about how sick their drug might make you. 6. Increasingly, patients are being treated by health care professionals
with N.P. after their name instead of M.D. or D.O. Nurse-managed primary care centers such
as Project Salud have increased to about 250 nationwide today, from a small handful 15
years ago. Full story at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/25/AR2006062500282.html
I’d like to insert my plug for NPs (nurse-practitioners) and CNPs (certified
nurse-practitioners) here. I find that, as a generalization, CNPs offer more personalized
care than do MDs. This is purely empirical on my part, with no official studies to back me
up. I find MDs to be too bigheaded/egocentric. The CNP I visit regularly (2-4 times per
year) appears to actually care about me and is willing to take the time to listen
carefully to what I have to say about whatever brought me to her office. All the MDs I
have known, on the other hand, appear to want nothing more than to prescribe a pill and
get me out of the office (there are, of course, exceptions: I know one CNP who believes
she is an MD and has the appropriate attitude). I have found very few MDs during my life
who will even take the time to listen to my theory of what caused the ailment or what
might be preventing the body from squelching that ailment. I know many of you will be
thinking that this would be natural, given that I currently qualify as a quack with
unorthodox theories (at least far from mainstream), however you should also note that my
current beliefs in health care have only been around for about a year, yet my statements
above span my entire life. Anyway, unless you need a “specialist,” when in the
market for a general practitioner, if you have the choice between a CNP or an MD, take the
nurse! 7. Drug companies are accused today of
endangering public health through wide-scale marketing malpractices, ranging from
covertly attempting to persuade consumers that they are ill to bribing doctors and
misrepresenting the results of safety and efficacy tests on their products. More at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1806084,00.html 8. A 15-month
inquiry by a top House Democrat has found that enforcement of the nation’s food
and drug laws declined sharply during the first five years of the Bush administration.
For instance, the investigation found, the number of warning letters that the Food and Drug Administration issued to drug companies, medical
device makers and others dropped
54 percent, to 535 in 2005 from 1,154 in 2000. Get the full version at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/health/policy/27fda.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 9. Supermarkets
must not be allowed to set up walk-in clinics on their premises because a GP’s advice
to patients would be undermined by the cigarettes, alcohol and junk food on sale, doctors
said yesterday. http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1807341,00.html Somehow I seriously
doubt that is the real reason. This article comes from England, where most doctors
get a salary from the government (socialized medicine) rather than a fee-structure to the
patients. However, even in the UK, there are few doctors who will tell you not to eat
whatever food is on sale. They still do, like here in the USA, get kickbacks for
prescribing certain medications, and I know of no prescription medication that is ever
“on sale” (with the exception of DTC introductory price breaks to get you hooked
in the first place). I suspect that this is more of an attempt to require patients to go
through the normal system, thereby ensuring that the existing doctors get their chance at
the kickbacks. 10. Critics say the
payments can bias the doctors’ treatment decisions and may lead to suspect research
findings. http://www.bioethics.net/News/?id=2277 I don’t think one
need be a “critic” to come to that conclusion. He who is being paid to prescribe
a medicine is always more likely to prescribe the one that fattens his wallet. 11. A drug that can
restore eyesight to some elderly people, even allowing them to read or drive again, is
expected to win federal approval this week.
But for patients,
doctors, Medicare and other insurers, the drug’s arrival will pose a conundrum. That
is because the medicine, Lucentis,
is expected to be 10 to 100 times as expensive as a similar drug that many
ophthalmologists say is every bit as good. More at: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/business/29eye.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 12. Big Brother is at it
again, this time to protect the surgeon’s income. A 34-year-old
mother in Seattle has been arrested, jailed and charged with “kidnapping” her
own infant son after she tried to
rescue him from overzealous surgeons who demanded to perform kidney surgery on the
boy. “You do what I tell you to do, or I will have the police at the door, taking
that baby from you.” That’s what one doctor reportedly told the woman,
shortly before Child Protective Services took her baby away. More at: http://www.newstarget.com/019512.html The child was not
in imminent danger as the Amber Alert claimed. 13. Healthy adults
taking maximum doses of Tylenol for two weeks had abnormal liver test results in a small
study, researchers found, raising concerns that even recommended amounts of the popular
painkiller might lead to liver damage.
In the study, 106
participants took four grams of Tylenol — equivalent to eight extra-strength Tylenol
tablets — each day for two weeks. Some took Tylenol alone and some took it with an
opioid painkiller. Dummy pills were given to 39 others. More at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13702968/ It’s a good thing
this was dated 7/04/06 or I would call it an April Fool’s joke. Now I have to ask,
where the hell have these people had their heads buried? I’m sorry, but all you have
to do is look at the PDR (physician’s desk reference) to see the possible negative
effects of acetaminophen to know what this expensive study is just now telling us. For
example:
Do
not take these products for more than 10 days for pain (5-day limit for children)
or 3 days for fever without your
doctor's approval. Stop taking this medication and check with your doctor if your
pain or fever won't go away or gets worse, or if you develop new symptoms or notice any
redness or swelling.
When using acetaminophen
to treat sore throat, stop and check with your doctor if the sore throat is severe, lasts
more than 2 days, or is linked with a fever, headache, rash, nausea, or vomiting. If you
develop an allergic reaction, stop taking this medication. If your child must avoid
phenylalanine, do not give the children's or junior strength chewable tablets. Possible food and drug interactions when
taking this medication Do
not use these products if you are taking other medications containing acetaminophen.
Check with your doctor before combining acetaminophen with [any one or more of] the following:
The TB
medication isoniazid (Nydrazid) Non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as Advil and Dolobid Oral
contraceptives The anti-seizure
drug phenytoin (Dilantin) The
blood-thinning medication warfarin (Coumadin) The HIV drug
zidovudine (Retrovir) Combined
with heavy drinking, acetaminophen could conceivably cause liver damage. Check with your doctor about taking
this medication if you generally have three or more alcoholic beverages a day. |