Fats to eat

This video is a dime a dozen, but I just wanted to post one more video in the right direction on fat. She mentions canola oil for a split second, but, Go Girl!

MSG/Canola Music Video

Great informative video
Find more videos like this on iseecolor


Lousy music, but beefy in reasons to avoid MSG and Canola Oil

Fats: demystified

I've been stumped for about 2 years about fats, and was grateful to come across this info, which I excitedly share. See:

Truth about Abs.com

Its pro- coconut oil, extra-virgin olive oil, avocados, high-fat fish, nuts, seeds, free-range meat. These must not be cooked at a heat above their smoke point in order to prevent free radical formation.

Its anti- fried food, homogenized milk, hydrogenated oil, and refined oils

They state, "Anything labeled vegetable oil, soybean oil, corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil, " (I add sunflower) " and even many canola oils have been damaged by this refining process (unless they say 'virgin' or 'cold expeller pressed')"

These other three articles (1) and (2) and (3) are about commercial vegetable oils and how they are harmful. Also, read "Canola: Good or Bad?"

It helps me feel better to finally have this info., but, still, unhealthy oils are rampant in our food supply making it difficult to avoid.

Polyunsaturated fats

"Unrefined polyunsaturated oils in small amounts can help provide us with some of the essential omega-6 fatty acids our bodies require. A better source for these essential fats would be vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and grains. The public, however, is consuming way too many polyunsaturated oils like corn, safflower, sunflower, cottonseed, and soy. Too many of these fats can upset the balance they must keep with the omega-3 fatty acids, contributing to a number of problems including immune system dysfunction; damage to the liver, reproductive organs, and lungs; digestive disorders; depressed learning ability; impaired growth, and weight gain.

"Polyunsaturated oils are easily oxidized, making them a source of free radicals, which injure the arteries and create a situation that cholesterol tries to remedy. Not only does cholesterol attempt to repair the lesions created by free radical damage, it may be helping to prevent such damage in the first place by acting as a potent antioxidant."

"High intake of polyunsaturated oils weakens cellular membranes. When this occurs, cholessterol comes to the rescue. Additional cholesterol enters teh cell membrane in order to stabilize and restore proper cellular function. In the process, cholesterol is drawn from the bloodstream, thereby lowering serum levels temporarily." This is sometimes misinterpreted that polyunsaturated fats are heart healthy. "In fact, it appears that cholesterol is simply trying to repair the damage done by high levels of polyunsaturated oils. These fats were not common many decades ago when heart disease and certain other chronic diseases were rare." (taken from Politically Incorrect Nutrition by Michael Barbee, C.D.C., p 22)

Vegetable oil

See video "heart healthy" oils are really rancid oils. Recommended to use cold pressed olive oil or coconut oil.

Dr. Blaylock, M.D. from Excitotoxins (p 230): "The majority of fats in the American diet consist of what are called omega 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. This includes the essential fatty acids linoleic and linolenic acids, which are high in corn, cotton, soya, safflower, and sunflower oils. While the popular trend, initiated by the American Heart Association, promotes the use of polyunsaturated oils, there is growing evidence that these oils promote the generation of "bad" as well as "good" eicosanoids. In fact, there is significant evidence that these oils may actually promote arteriosclerosis, and therefore, coronary artery disease and strokes."

Cancer mortality rates have risen along with the increase in vegetable oil consumption. SOme of the blame for cancer must rest with teh free radicals that are created by the heating, deodorizing, and refining of vegetable oils, which are stripped of most of their protective vitamin E in the process.

A significant risk factor for developing heart disease is high levels of a substance in the blood called lipoprotein(a). This Lp(a) is a 'sticky' variant of LDL cholesterol and appears to help form arterial plaques. Saturated fat lowers levels of this damaging substance while consumption of trans fat raises the amount of Lp(a) in the blood. Cell membranes simply prefer saturated fat, but through their advertising, promoters of the vegetable oil industry have tried to convince us otherwise. A high consumption of polyunsaturated fats, however, has long been connected to the development of cancer and heart disease.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is found not only in beef fat, but in lamb, buffalo, and ruminants, whole milk, cheese, and butter. Studies show that consumption of raw milk, yogurt, and buttermilk reduces the risk of breast cancer. Women with breast cancer have lower CLA levels in their blood than those without this disease. CLA inhibits the growth of human breast cancer cells, malignant melanoma, colorectal, and lung cancer cells, and animal studies suggest it lowers LDL, resulting in less atherosclerosis and being good for the heart.

Avoiding CLA may be a factor contributing to obesity. "It has been established that eating essential fatty acids helps the body metabolize other fats more efficiently, thereby contributing to weight loss. Yes, eating the right fats help you lose weight. CLA inhibits fat cells from getting fatter. Human studies have shown that consuming moderate amounts of CLA for three months without dieting resulted in as much as a 20 percent loss of body fat. Apparently, CLA affects fat metabolism by interfering with the activity of fat-regulating hormone, leptin, and possibly by increasing insulin sensitivity." (Barbee, p34) It can manage type-2 diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels and reducing body weight. CLA can also stimulate the development of muscle tissue, besides ridding the body of fat, thus body builders take CLA suplements. There is also substantive evidence that CLA is antioxidant.

Unfortunately, good quality CLA is hard to come by in our current food system. Grain-fed beef, Bovine Growth Hormone, skim-, low-fat, and homogenization are to blame.

"Cattle-raising practices over the years have yielded meat that is contaminated with hormones and antibiotics, as well as pesticide residue from the grains fed to the animals. Today's typical beef contains an unnatural, overabundance of the omega-6 fatty acids. Not only that, animals fed hay and grains have a much lower CLA content. Ruminants have digestive tracts that convert the linoleic acid in food they eat into CLA, and when their food is green grass, the CLA content of the meat, or the milk, is many times higher. Grain-fed beef today is deficient not only in CLA but also in the healthy omega 3-fatty acids. Therefore, a search for organically raised beef is well worth the effort, particularly if the animals are allowed to graze." Buffalo meat is also good; they are not fed hormones and eat plenty of grass. (Barbee, p35)

The growth hormone rBST creates higher levels of a specific protein linked to cancer, enhances diabetes in people prone to the disease, and weakens the immune system in humans. It also makes more antibiotics necessary for the cows. Pasteurization destroys many protective health promoting nutrients. Homogenizing milk causes humans to absorb xanthine oxidase, which causes heart disease by damaging the arterial walls (raw milk is best, if it can safely be done). Taking the fat out of milk reduces CLA content, and, obviously, so does drinking soy milk instead of cow milk.

Good Fat Bad Fat

Ah ha ha ha ha... So I get to do what we're not supposed to do, and demonize our food. Fat has been confusing me the past few weeks, so I read more (and made this chart myself). I wish fat were as simple as "saturated, polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, trans," but its not that simple. There are so many names and components to fat!

Essential for health: Omega-3 fatty acids, conjugated linoleic acid, DHA

Good, but eat in moderation: Omega-6 fatty acids (don't eat vegetable oil, just get this from whole foods), saturated fat, olive oil, coconut oil

Bad: Trans fat (hydrogenated oils), rancid oils (ie. vegetable oil, toxic to our bodies), olestra, animal fat (stores all the chemicals ingested by the animals)

Omega 3-fatty acids the ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids is very important. Today we are eating at a ratio of about 1:46, whereas a hundred years ago it was about 1:2 (much better). (read more) Omega 3s are essential for brain function.
DHA A component of Omega 3-fatty acids. Very important for brain function. A deficiency can cause the brain to rebuild itself incorrectly within two weeks. Watch the beginning of this seminar which discusses DHA, and read about Omega 3-fatty acids.
Omega 6-fatty acids found naturally in vegetables and other foods
coconut oil noneatherosclerotic: doesn't clog arteries. Antimicrobial agent and boosts the immune system. Kevin Trudreau states that eating a spoonful each morning made his pants looser and looser on him until they didn't fit anymore.
olive oil monounsaturated fats like olive oil appear to inhibit the oxidation of LDL cholesterol (Barbee, 23)
vegetable oils (read more)
full fat dairy products Good. Read Conjugated Linoleic Acid
Conjugated Linoleic Acid (read more)
Saturated fat Saturated fats are most stable. Fats exposed to oxygen, light, or temperature, normally have the molecules break down. Once it breaks down, the more toxic and rancid it will be.
Polyunsaturated fat
Monounsaturated fat
Trans fat (partially hydrogenated oil, hydrogenated oil) (read more) found in margarine, cake mixes, cookies, crackers, chips, peanut butters, pastries. Good for storage, shipping, processing. Made in a lab by adding hydrogen back into fat, which makes them more stable. Studies show cardiovascular diseased, because molecule is kind of kinked which clogs arteries. Not legal in Canada and many other parts of the world.
Animal fat
Olestra Great little food chemistry invention for providing shelf-item foods, which inhibits fat absorption, but also inhibits vitamin absorption as well.
High Oleic oil
Rancid oils Packaged vegetable oils. I will have to do further research on how or if we damage oils in our own kitchen, possibly, even olive and coconut oils if at too high a heat.

Cholesterol is not a fat, but read more comments about it here. Dietary cholesterol is not actually something to be avoided, nor high cholesterol in general which is good for cell repair and a functioning reproductive system. Oxidized cholesterol is to be avoided and will cause heart disease. Oxidized cholesterol is in dry milk and powdered eggs among other things.

Additionally, Barbee states in his book that the fats that were found layered in arterial walls was 30% saturated, but 70% polyunsaturated- the (quote) "good for your heart" fats. Remember, too, that homogenized milk is made of molecules that scars the arterial walls.

So, surprise! Is that totally against all conventional wisdom?
High Fat vs. Low fat diets testimonial

Saturated Fats

Truth about saturated fats video.


Is God Stupid? video clip

"Saturated fat- purported to be very bad for us- is in fact extremely important in maintaining the health of the cell membrane, which is comprised of at least 50 percent saturated fatty acids. Saturated fats are also needed for the proper utilization of the essential fatty acids, like the omega 3s, the consumption of which has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks.

"Saturated fats attempt to normalize cholesterol levels. When saturated fat does raise total cholesterol levels, it has been shown to raise the good HDL in the process. In addition to that, and as we have seen from the Framingham study, consumption of saturated fat, a substance absolutely essential to cellular health, lowers a number of markers used by physicians to determine the risk of coronary heart disease.

"Excess saturated fat, however, can be a problem due to its tendency to make platelets sticky, causing them to aggregate. This could be trouble for cardiovascular system if the high amounts of saturated fat are not kept in check by limiting sugar and by increasing fiber. An adequate intake of vitamin C and the essential fats like the omega-3s from fish and flax can also help the general population counteract eh effects of excess saturated fat.

"It appears that saturated fat, like cholesterol, isn't the culprit it has been made out to be after all. A recent study of 2000 subjects on a low saturated fat diet for two years showed no reduction in the recurrence of colon tumor precursors. Another 6-year study of 40,000 middle aged American men showed no link between saturated fat and heart disease. In animal studies as well, saturated fat helped to prevent strokes, not cause them. To say that saturated fat causes heart disease is, as numerous researchers are beginning to point out to us: 'Wrong.'" (from Politically Incorrect Nutrition by Michael Barbee, C.D.C, p 26)

A significant risk factor for developing heart disease is high levels of a substance in the blood called lipoprotein(a). This Lp(a) is a 'sticky' variant of LDL cholesterol and appears to help form arterial plaques. Saturated fat lowers levels of this damaging substance while consumption of trans fat raises the amount of Lp(a) in the blood. Cell membranes simply prefer saturated fat, but through their advertising, promoters of the vegetable oil industry have tried to convince us otherwise. A high consumption of polyunsaturated fats, however, has long been connected to the development of cancer and heart disease.

Calorie Count

I made a resolve that if I was paying $450/year on internet, I was going to get the most out of it. There's so much available. I also wondered how I was doing on my caloric intake, and I found a great on-line tool called Calorie Count. There are other similar websites out there which may even be better.

I'd never had an interest in counting calories before, but despite my strong-held belief that eating the right foods and being in tune with your body will control caloric intake (from How to Lower Your Fat Thermostat), I remembered my cross-country coach saying "Don't work against yourself. Don't be doing this great workout and go home and eat lousy." I was running 45 minutes 3 days a week and it was still hard to budge the scale. (Additionally, did you know that eating in excess is correlated with cancer and tumors?) Was I eating too much? I tried Calorie Count to find out.

Calorie Count is a great on-line tool with a database of nutritional information for many common and name-brand foods. Counting calories is the biggest pain in the world, and it still is with this tool, but made slightly easier. It keeps an on-line log for you, so no more trying to find your notebook or that piece of paper; its all saved in cyberspace. It also does analysis, estimates your normal caloric burn and you can add what exercise you've done that day to add to calories burned. Additionally, calorie count provides an on-line community in which being a participant will set you up with friends, readings, and success stories to support weight-loss efforts.


Some tips I found useful:

Do not use a very low calorie diet. A typical active young woman should not go under 1700 calories. Very low calorie diets trigger the body to go into a hibernation mode and to be more stingy with energy thus storing more fat. Creating a caloric deficit of about 500 calories a day should be good, and will create a healthy, slow weight loss.

Foods that are high in calories such as rice, cheese, and peanut butter should be measured. Use a measuring cup or spoon. I found it useful to cut my cheese into 1 oz. cubes right (16 equally-sized cubes for one pound of cheese) when I opened it, and put it in a plastic baggie. Guessing on these items could mean being 100-200 calories off each, and that's enough to throw the record way off.

There's a common saying: calories in, calories out; meaning, creating a caloric deficit will result in a proportional loss in weight, and a caloric excess results in a proportional weight gain. It isn't that simple, which goes against the very object of using Calorie Count, but I'm sure counting calories has good properties, too.

Seriously! I just watched a girl in Fat: What No One is Telling You that is on a treadmill 3 hours a day! She was obese and is battling to maintain her weight, but that is a huge chunk out of her life to have to do each day. I highly doubt people in other countries are on the treadmill as much as we are.

This video shows ways that can alter weight that are not connected to calories:

Don't skip meals, or fast

Eat Breakfast

Get enough sleep

Eat on a low glycemic index

Exercise-> Burn weight while in rest, even sleeping

Hormone therapy RCH

Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Not a simple equation of calories in, calories out, although exercise will help

Trans Fats

In our local Women's Conference at church four or so years ago, one speaker addressed us about nutrition. I remember her telling us about trans fats, and how they were terrible things to avoid; they make rats dumb and fat, unable to use their heads to get themselves through mazes. She said trans fats give items a long shelf life, so producers love to use them, and they're in everything: crackers, chips, etc., and I later learned in shortening, peanut butter, and lots of our goods with flour in them like breakfast bars and cake mixes. She said that they weren't on the nutrition label yet, but shortly it would be required, and in the mean time to read ingredient labels for partially hydrogenated oils and to avoid them.

Well, time passed, and trans fats became labeled. All the things I had been taught contained trans fats had "zero" trans fat on the label. I have only found one product in all of my existence that said it had "trace amounts of trans fat," but still zero trans fat. I was so confused. Everything I knew about trans fat became fuzzy to me, I couldn't even write about it until just a week or two ago.

Apparently, zero does not mean zero in Washington D.C., and there is deception in our food labels. Watch "Deceptive food labels" video.

It is still true that trans fats are not good for us, and basically they're hydrogenated oils. I have no idea how producers are saying their products have zero trans fat, because its in everything. I'm looking at my can of Crisco right now, and it says zero trans fat. It has 1. soybean oil 2. fully hydrogenated oil (is that okay?) 3. partially hydrogenated oil (the culprit), and then on to lots of other things I'd rather not eat such as TBHQ and citric acid which is probably derived from corn. So, how could this be, zero trans fat?

Anyways, I would think it wise look for and to avoid the partially hydrogenated oils. Doctors and dieticians advise it. Trans fats "disrupt cellular function and interfere with the use of essential fatty acids in the body... Breast cancer rates are directly tied to trans fat consumption (Barbee, p29)." "Trans fats [partially hydrogenated vegetable oils] have been implicated in higher risks of developing both heart disease and cancer. The list of problems associated with the consumption of trans fats, unfortunately, is not a short one: heart disease, obesity (by increasing the size of the fat cells), diabetes, low birth weight, allergies, asthma, and immunte dysfunction(Barbee, p26)."

Trans fats are created "by the deoderization process designed to mask vegetable oil rancidity or throught eh hydrogenatoin process to maek the oil firm, and are found today in countless baked an d processed ofoods They were identified as unhealthy as far back as 1958," says Barbee. "A recent report at The National Academy of Science's Institue of Medicine concluded that the safe amount of trans fat in our food is 'zero'."

Now, the clincher: trans fat is touted as a great way to avoid "saturated fats". Thus, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), (which I quoted in "12 food additives to avoid," as not to be fully trusted (I was right!)) with all good intentions tried to interfere with McDonalds to reduce their use of saturated fats on french fries. Thus, now McDonald's french fries are slathered in hydrogenated oils which plummets fry health value to a food of death, and the thing is, saturated fat isn't even something to avoid; the American Heart Association has us all misinformed. Read Julie & Julia!

CSPI was aghast with all the saturated fat on theater popcorn, and now that's full of trans fat, too, in place of the healthy coconut oil! CPSI acknowledged: 'Until the early 1900s, if you wanted a solid fat for your pie crust, you had to choose between lard, butter, or beef tallow. In 1911, Procter and Gamble changed all that when it introduced Crisco, a shortening made by hydrogenating a liquid oil (cottonseed)." It is a mystery why CSPI couldn't put two and two together and see that it was at this very time in our history that heart disease rates began to climb. Healthy, natural animal fats were replaced with polyunsaturated and hydrogenated oils (Barbee)."A Harvard University study showed higher intakes o ftrans fats in those who developed heart diseas.

A significant risk factor for developing heart disease is high levels of a substance in the blood called lipoprotein(a). This Lp(a) is a 'sticky' variant of LDL cholesterol and appears to help form arterial plaques. Saturated fat lowers levels of this damaging substance while consumption of trans fat raises the amount of Lp(a) in the blood. Cell membranes simply prefer saturated fat, but through their advertising, promoters of the vegetable oil industry have tried to convince us otherwise. A high consumption of polyunsaturated fats, however, has long been connected to the development of cancer and heart disease.

The Dutch government has banned the sale of margarine containing trans fats. Government regulations [in the U.S.] permit products to be labeled as "all natural" even if they have trans fats added to them in the form of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. The trans fats found in these oils do not behave like the trans fats that occur naturally in small amounts in certain animal foods like milk. Natural trans fats are converted to benefiecial conjugated linoleic acid or to energy. To say that the partially hydrogenated oil added to countless food products is 'natural' is more than a little deceitful. ...It is foreign and toxic.

Update July 24, 2010:
So, watching this video by nutritionist Rhadia Gleis, I think I understand that the hydrogenation process used to make fats stable goes a little flukey sometimes and creates trans fat. So, I guess that's how something made completely of hydrogenated components (such as shortening) can have only a little trans fat in it. Its just a percentage that goes haywire in the chemical process. The recommended intake of trans fat is zero trans fat (as it is zero for lead, BPA, etc.). However, I think even though all our labels say zero trans fat it doesn't mean it doesn't have it. As one person states "zero in Washington [D.C.] doesn't mean zero."

King Corn

We had a hard time understanding where this movie was going for the first half hour besides growing an acre of corn in Iowa. It got better, though, much better, and I think these guys stumbled on just about the hugest story of our food, and Food, Inc. was just a spin-off (unless its just common knowledge). This is the food movie. (Aside from this gem).

These two document filmers very politely interview a farmer and his wife in Iowa, and the farmer's wife just out says, "Yeah, we're growing a bunch of crap." They were blown away. "Crap?" The farmer's wife says she can't use it, maybe she'd grind it up to make a little cornmeal, but she hardly does that.

This corn is genetically modified and breeded and its easy to get a high yield. Millions of dollars have been spent researching uses for it. Now its subsidized. Yet, its inedible to beast and man. Its feeds our beef, and anyone my age has probably only had corn-fed beef, and no grass-fed beef in their life.

A little over half of the corn in Iowa goes to confinement feed lots where they bring in young calves and feed them for 140-150 days and then butcher them. "They may as well slaughter them after six months, as the cows are going to die anyway." The corn diet will actually kill a cow in six months.

A corn-fed diet which is high in starch, with a confinement lot where they can't move, makes the cows gain weight quickly and can they can be slaughtered much faster than grass-fed cows. The resulting ground beef from corn-fed cows is full of antibiotics put in the cows so they can survive the diet, and their muscle tissue looks more like fat tissue. There are 9 grams of saturated fat vs. 1.3 grams saturated fat per serving in corn-fed vs. grass-fed beef. "Its really not meat, its fat. Sixty-five percent of the calories come from fat." One farmer of a confinement feed-lot states "If America wanted grass-fed beef, we would give them grass-fed beef."

I have two pages of notes of knowledge this film has, so there's lots more. Available at WSU library. I recommend viewing this.

Tuna: The Triple Whammy

Look, Ma, I caught a big one!

More playing with the food storage. So, yes, tuna can contain mercury, MSG, and BPA. I'm not going to say don't eat it. Its got omega 3 fatty acids, protein, I don't even know the cost-benefit analysis of eating a can of tuna, but there are ways to reduce risks:

1. Look for tuna with just water, salt, no broth. Broths often contain MSG.

2. Buy fresh and avoid canned to hurdle BPA leached from can linings. I'd like to can my own meat if I can find the right size jars.

3. Mercury: sadly, 95% of all tuna on earth now contain mercury. What to Expect When you're Expecting (2008) states pregnant women should limit tuna and freshwater fish caught by recreational fishers to 6 ounces per week. For everyone, fish with lower mercury content are "salmon (wild caught is best), sole, flounder, haddock, tilapia, halibut, ocean perch, pollack, cod, and trout, as well as other smaller ocean fish (anchovies, sardines, and herring are not only safe, but also loaded with omega 3)." Alex Jones states he read that much of the mercury we eat passes through us with our food, but the dangerous mercury to avoid is in our vaccinations.

The Seattle Times quoted a producer on the BPA-ban in sippy cups and formulas in WA: "It's 'being put in the mind of consumers that it [canned food] is a dangerous product,' said Randy Ray, a lobbyist for the Pacific Seafood Processors Association. 'And try making a can of salmon to sell in 50 states and have 50 states tell you [you] have to do it differently.'"

I would say to him, we're all the same species and what is harmful to humans in Washington state is going to have the same affect on humans in Mississippi, so there are no 50 different standards; what endangers Washingtonians also endangers Mississippians, too.

Mercury

Word on the street, a few ways to get mercury into your system:

1. "Breathing in while passing a coal plant," will give you "the same amount of mercury found in your local flu shot."

2. Select vaccinations.

3. Eating shark, swordfish, king mackerel, tilefish, or tuna steaks.

4. Mercury fillings.

Whoa, whoa, back up. This video reveals a way longer list than I knew:

Watch Video Clip "Mercury- How to get this lethal poison out of your system"

Do NOT vaccuum up mercury, as it will distribute it into the air.

Do not have your mercury fillings removed by just anyone. Once the drilling starts, it goes into the air and can poison those present. The dentist must know what they're doing and have a special vaccuum for the vapors.

Pregnant women should not be getting the normal flu shot, even though they'll offer it; get thimerosol free.

Chelation is a process of putting proteins in the body which gather the mercury in order to get it out of the system. Also special foods and supplements.

What are the affects of Mercury on the body? (Lots of neurological, depression, weight gain, etc.) How to clean up? What to eat, what to avoid? Watch the continuation of the above video.

Read more:

Most flu shots contain mercury, but few know it

First person: The quest for a flu vaccine without mercury

Mom's Against Mercury

Thimerosol, organic mercury, swine flu, and you

Does the Swine Flu Vaccine contain Mercury?

Flu Vaccine: Contains Mercury, Take Caution if Younger or Lightweight

Your Child’s Flu Vaccine May Contain Mercury

The Mercury Story

Mercury Poisoning and Heavy Metal Toxicity

Learn more about Mercury and other heavy metal toxicities by clicking on my toxin label.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (Julie & Julia)

We watched this in late April. Two true stories of life, love, and food.
Watch actress as Julia flips her cuisine.

Julia Child had a passion of bringing French cuisine home to the average American cook. While living in France for a few years with her husband, which two were very much in love, she thought the food she was tasting was divine. She struggled for a decade to put all the fine cooking into a book for every American homemaker to use.

Modern-day Julie attempts to use her cookbook and replicate all 524 recipes in 365 days. Quite a feat, and she records it.

This was a stimulating movie, with a historic reminisce. The recipes in this movie were with lots of butter, etc. One thing I've noticed in my research of food is this obsession with the French paradox: how do the French stay thin? They seem to be doing things "wrong," yet don't have our weight problems, so is it really wrong, or are we?

Bait and hook, I totally set this one up. Newsflash: Yes! Butter is good for us.

Conjugated Linoleic Acid

Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) is found not only in beef fat, but in lamb, buffalo, and ruminants, whole milk, cheese, and butter. Studies show that consumption of raw milk, yogurt, and buttermilk reduces the risk of breast cancer. Women with breast cancer have lower CLA levels in their blood than those without this disease. CLA inhibits the growth of human breast cancer cells, malignant melanoma, colorectal, and lung cancer cells, and animal studies suggest it lowers LDL, resulting in less atherosclerosis and being good for the heart, states Barbee.

Avoiding CLA may be a factor contributing to obesity. "It has been established that eating essential fatty acids helps the body metabolize other fats more efficiently, thereby contributing to weight loss. Yes, eating the right fats help you lose weight. CLA inhibits fat cells from getting fatter. Human studies have shown that consuming moderate amounts of CLA for three months without dieting resulted in as much as a 20 percent loss of body fat. Apparently, CLA affects fat metabolism by interfering with the activity of fat-regulating hormone, leptin, and possibly by increasing insulin sensitivity." (Barbee, p34) It can manage type-2 diabetes by lowering blood sugar levels and reducing body weight. CLA can also stimulate the development of muscle tissue, besides ridding the body of fat, thus body builders take CLA supplements. There is also substantive evidence that CLA is antioxidant.

Unfortunately, good quality CLA is hard to come by in our current food system. Grain-fed beef, Bovine Growth Hormone, skim-, low-fat, and homogenization are to blame.

"Cattle-raising practices over the years have yielded meat that is contaminated with hormones and antibiotics, as well as pesticide residue from the grains fed to the animals. Today's typical beef contains an unnatural, overabundance of the omega-6 fatty acids. Not only that, animals fed hay and grains have a much lower CLA content. Ruminants have digestive tracts that convert the linoleic acid in food they eat into CLA, and when their food is green grass, the CLA content of the meat, or the milk, is many times higher. Grain-fed beef today is deficient not only in CLA but also in the healthy omega 3-fatty acids. Therefore, a search for organically raised beef is well worth the effort, particularly if the animals are allowed to graze." Buffalo meat is also good; they are not fed hormones and eat plenty of grass. Eating grass instead of grains lowers the bacterial and E-coli risk of a cow's milk and meat, making raw milk safer. (Barbee, p35)

The growth hormone rBST creates higher levels of a specific protein linked to cancer, enhances diabetes in people prone to the disease, and weakens the immune system in humans. It also makes more antibiotics necessary for the cows. Pasteurization destroys many protective health promoting nutrients. Homogenizing milk causes humans to absorb xanthine oxidase, which causes heart disease by damaging the arterial walls (raw milk is best, if it can safely be done). Taking the fat out of milk reduces CLA content, and, obviously, so does drinking soy milk instead of cow milk. Unfermented soy additionally messes up hormones and thyroid function. See realmilk.com for where to buy.

See also my post on Saturated Fat and additionally Good fat, Bad fat.

In his documentary Sicko, Michael Moore observes the French passion for, "Wine, smoking, and their fatty foods," yet they live longer than Americans. He attributes it to universal healthcare. Should he perhaps consider that their fatty foods are their strength while our low fat/trans fat/corn fed cows are a source of disease to us? Trans fat is found in margarine, shortening, and most of our food, even in foods that say it has zero trans fat on the label. Trans fat inhibits fat metabolism. Widely used vegetable oils have their problems as well, specifically rancidity. Oils that have been damaged can be toxic to us and cause problems losing weight. See Maximized Living Plan on damaged oils as well as Underground Wellness video.

See also the realmilk.com website or google benefits of raw milk. I made my own (incomplete) google map for grade A raw milk in Washington. Another recommended movie on the topic of corn fed beef is "King Corn" available at WSU library.

Behavior and Nutrition

Watch Behavior and Nutrition by Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D. neurosurgeon

Highlights of this video:

Pregnant women can influence the life of their child to the point of determining their hypertension or breast cancer risk, by their diet in utero.

Relation of sugar and hyperactivity. The two biggest food sources that contribute to our sugar consumption are sodas and fruit juices.

The brain is constantly rebuilding itself. Some parts of the brain rebuild in decades, some as fast as two weeks. DHA fatty acid is essential for brain function, and if the brain has a deficiency of DHA for two weeks, it has an affect on how the brain rebuilds itself.

Hypoglycemia can imitate neurosis, hysteria, neurasthenia, and even psychosis. Associated with anxiety schizophrenia.

Crime and nutrition: change diet, probation violations decreased 86%. The more violent offenders, the more deficient the diet. Even marginal deficiencies in nutrition can lead to behavioral problems. Change the diet, and behaviors and drug use are dramatically reduced.

Consuming high calorie, high sugar diets, results in lots of free radicals= every cell in your body will age faster. Leads to Alzheimer's.

Treat an alcoholic for hypoglycemia, and get a 71% rate of recovery from alcoholism. Treat an alcoholic with Alcoholics Anonymous and get a 25% rate of recovery. Ninety-seven percent of alcoholics are hypoglycemic, vs. 18% for controls. Most of the crimes, most of the auto accidents in U.S. are connected to alcohol.

SSR drugs for depression are supposed to make serotonin levels go up, but in some people it makes serotonin levels go down, and these are kids that end up getting suicidal.

A study removed food dyes and had dramatic results. The biggest behavioral reactions to food dyes are to Yellow 5 and sodium benzoate. Another common behavioral reaction is to soy.

People are consuming lots of soy, thinking it prevents breast cancer, and it doesn't.

Serotonin helps repress aggressive acts, controls suicide and depression. Corn is very low in tryptophan (serotonin).

National Nutritional Survey of Adolescents
60% deficient in iron
57% in vitamin A
43% in vitamin C
39% in vitamin B1
30% in protein
16% in riboflavin

Niacin has a lot to do with mental illness. Other nutrients associated with behavior are vitamins C, D, E, K, A, B, and carotenoids.

Food allergies affecting the brain. Many symptoms are subtle or purely neurological and people don't even know they have them. Lists many symptoms. (Lethargy, stupor, disorientation, paranoia, delusions, hallucination, agitation, rage, panic attacks, criminal behavior, and even seizures) Also lists common food allergens.

Schizophrenic study:
88% schizophrenics allergic to wheat
60% to milk
50% to corn
100% to either gliaden or gluten
As long as they avoided gliaden or gluten they were normal. When they got back on it, even a small amount, all their schizophrenic symptoms came back and they had to be hospitalized.

Vaccinations. Create an immune reaction that will not subside for years. Create an inflamed brain. Causes autism, etc.

Animal saturated fat impairs brain function; omega 3-fatty acids, DHA, and arachidonic acid improve brain function.

Rage and violence occurs with deficient levels of DHA, with MSG, or even very small amounts of lead.

We're getting way too many omega 6 fats and not enough omega 3 fats, but the ratio between the two is very important. At the turn of the century our diet ratio was about 1:2, and now its about 1:46. Omega 6 comes from corn oil, canola, peanut, safflower, etc. Omega 3 from walnuts, flax, fish.

Artificial estrogen is a brain toxin.

Toxins: Aluminum, Mercury, Lead, Cadmium, Fluoride, MSG, Aspartame, Pesticides, Herbicides, Industrial Solvents, Food Dyes, Excessive Vaccinations

You'll just feel so smart after finishing this video, and feel there's so much more to learn! He's a great speaker, knows what he's talking about, and a well-researched brain neurosurgeon. He has a short sum-up at the end.

He has also written a book Health and Nutrition Secrets, and I don't know what parts of that book play here in this video.

Politically Incorrect Nutrition

I'm clueless as to what to write about this book. Impossible to summarize, it is a great book. My husband checked it out two years ago, and I was skeptical at first. How are we to believe these things against all conventional wisdom?

It is so well written, convincing, and amazing, how we're all wrong about what we're eating. It follows the actual studies instead of the lies we keep repeating in magazines, via dietitians, doctors, etc. He's very well read and brings to light many myths. This, from Amazon.com:

Review
A brilliant expose....a must read for anyone seeking better health in a climate of deception and dishonesty. -- Ted Spence, DDS, ND

Current, cutting edge, and very much on target. This is a book I can highly recommend. -- Ann Louise Gittleman, The Fat Flush Plan

Read this book and you won't be a victim any longer. -- Donna Gates, MEd, The Body Ecology Diet

Product Description
Everything you thought you knew about nutrition … but didn't! Politically Incorrect Nutrition debunks many of the widely held beliefs of consumers as well as health care practitioners concerning our life-sustaining food supply.

Using the most recent and objective scientific and clinical research data, this book reveals that much current nutritional dogma is based on outdated information or has been fabricated to satisfy vested corporate-financial interests rather than to promote human health. Learn about these issues and more:

*How non-caloric artificial sweeteners can actually make you fat -- if not kill you.
*How overconsumption of certain soy products can upset your hormonal balance and lead to hypothyroidism.
*Why cholesterol does not cause heart disease and how eggs and red meat may actually help prevent it.
*The harmful effects of irradiation, microwaving, plastic leaching and overprocessing on food.
*Why the government is poisoning our water supply with fluoride, a toxin also found in green tea.
*The need for saturated -- but not synthetic -- fats in a healthy diet.
*The limitations of calcium and vitamin C supplementation.
*A dozen ways a vegetarian diet can actually harm your health.
*Facts and fallacies about the "Ideal" diet.

Chapters include:
Green Tea: A Cup of Contaminants
Soy: No Wonder Food
Cholesterol: Some good News
Conjugated Linoleic Acid: Can Beef and Butter Keep You Thin?
Fluoridation: The Poisoning of America, Part 1
Aspartame: The Poisoning of America, Part 2
Osteoporosis: More Than Just Calcium
Bovine Growth Hormone: (Some) Milk is Not Good for Anybody
Eggs: More Good Cholesterol News
Plastics and Microwaves: What Have We Done to Our Food?
Vitamin C: Too Much of a Good Thing?
Food Irradiation: The Public as Guinea Pigs
Vegetarianism: Ethical and Dietary Considerations
The Best Diet: Is There One?
The Nonpyramid Food Guide

One more thing I'd say: If you're like me, you're sick of every "fad" wisdom. Even though this information sounds new to us, he doesn't stand alone on these issues. This is what doctors and scientists are trying to tell us, but up against all the propaganda, and we may not hear it.

Super Size Me

This movie was so revolting. I don't recommend it to anyone. We watched it in two parts, the first half hour and then the rest. I was so disgusted in the first half hour, I didn't want to finish, but forced myself to just to post it on this here blog. I don't know who was a worse sucker for stubbornness: him trying to kill himself eating burgers for a whole month against the advice of his doctors, or me torturing myself through the entire movie just to see what I could get out of his interviews, etc. By the end, I thought I had gotten nothing out of it. Then... I got to thinking, and realized more and more what I learned.

Highlights:
The very best part of this movie, that you'll want to watch, is when he goes into the public school system to see what they're eating. It may vary according to version, but FF to about 51 minutes 20 seconds and watch to 57:52. Amazing! Highly recommended.

I also recommend seeing the GMA lobbyists (FF to Minute 1:22:15) The GMA (Grocery Manufacturers Association) is a member of the group that promotes "MSG is safe"

Besides that, there's,
Bypass surgery "Desperate problems call for desperate measures."

Advertising Kids that can't even recognize visuals of Washington, Lincoln, or Jesus, correctly identify Ronald McDonald.
In 2001:

• McD's spent $1.4 billion on radio, television, and print worldwide
• Pepsi spent $1 billion on direct media advertising
• Hersheys spent $200 million internationally
• In its peak year, the 5-a day Fruit and vegetable campaign total advertising budget in all media was $2 million "100 times less than just the direct media budget of [Hershey's] candy company."
  

Regulations are being passed prohibiting photography of industrial food production They don't want us to see how our food is made! We might not want to eat it.

Nutrition Facts are difficult, if not impossible to find. They're "on the internet," yet he states that an astounding percent of the U.S. populous does not have the internet. How can you argue consumer responsibility, when the nutrition facts aren't even posted?

Naivety of interviewees off the street It was ingenious to ask people off the street, "What is a calorie?" I would have never thought to ask that question, and would have never guessed that so many people didn't have an answer. What is the point of even having food labels if people don't know what a calorie is?

What goes into a chicken nugget You guessed it- a million ingredients, all low quality.

Heavy users defined Seventy-two percent of McD's customers. These guys eat at McD's at least once a week. Those that frequent McD's 3+ times a week that are called super heavy users and total 22% of McD's customers.

See lots of fat people on video And realize how big we are.

and, of course, I guess you have to include the punchline
Spurlock gets life-threateningly ill on his month- long McD's diet He induces a fatty liver and rapid weight gain. He suffers a myriad of other symptoms such as depression, food addiction, and erectile dysfunction.

Spurlock's study methods are totally unscientific; he should have controlled for calories. He was eating 5,000 calories a day. So, was it all due to the food source, or his calories? If he would have stuck to a normal caloric intake it would really show what McDonald's food does to you, overeating aside. He is very good at his statistics, throughout the whole movie, though, which makes watching it enjoyable, including statistics about his own personal health deterioration.

This is not a movie we wanted to watch with toddlers, I mean, if not for the very fact that its like watching one big McDonald's commercial.

*The full-length movie documentary Super Size Me is available in its entirety on YouTube.

Public School House Rock

Super Size Me states that the healthy school lunches actually cost the same as the commercialized ones. What's holding up the system? Junk food companies don't want to be kicked out of school lunch programs, and they latch on. Watch Supersize Me and Killer at Large to see more about our public school lunch program.

Public School House Rock warning: crude language.

Diet Foods: Beware

Here's a good article on deceptive "health" or diet foods.

Low-fat foods may be high in calories. Low-fat salad dressings have more MSG and other ingredients to make it taste good. Diet soft-drinks, even though they have zero calories, they trigger insulin and its just like eating lots of sugar.

"We have talked to many individuals over the Internet and personally, who say their hypoglycemic reaction to MSG and aspartame is worse than their reaction to sugar and other carbohydrates. Excitotoxins cause the release of insulin. Insulin triggers fat storage and cravings. It also triggers an adrenalin release. To calm us down and regulate the effects of adrenalin, the brain releases serotonin, our "feel good brain juice." Consequently, serotonin levels are being used up too quickly. As a result, a person develops headaches, weight gain, depression, fatigue, and sleep disorders. Then the cycle begins again as a person reaches for the same jump starters: foods high in excitotoxins, caffeine, and simple carbohydrates." (Anglesey, 59)



"Dr. Arnold Mech, a child psychologist, addiction medical specialist, program developer at the Menninger Clinic, chemical dependency psychologist, eating disorder specialist and NOMSG member for three years. His theme was "Rage Reactions" caused by MSG. He had noticed that many of his patients seemed to be hypoglycemic. One of his patients was a young girl who had the habit of drinking three six-packs of diet cola per day. He gave her the glucose tolerance test and even though she was avoiding sugar, the test came back showing that she was hypoglycemic. He tested other patients and noticed a recurring pattern between aspartame, junk food, and hypoglycemia. He theorized that aspartame and other excitotoxins aggravate hypoglycemia. They cause people to crave more carbohydrates and sugar which sets the body up to release too much insulin which lowers glucose in the blood which in turn continues a cycle of craving more sweets and carbohydrates. But even if they aren't eating a lot of sugar or carbohydrates, excitotoxins like aspartame, can still trick the body into releasing too much insulin, which sets up hypoglycemia.

"When the blood sugar crashes, people turn to caffeine and excitotoxins for an energy "kick" and they need more and more to get that "kick". Their lives begin to revolve around high carbohydrate and high excitotoxic addictive foods and it's big business to the companies that produce them. He called it the "craving and withdrawal" cycle. Kids constantly want cereals and other fast foods high in excitotoxins. First they may be diagnosed with ADD as youngsters, then as teens and young adults, they may develop rage reactions. Many children, and eventually adults, lose their ability to control their impulses. This has shown to have terrible results, not only in eating disorders, but in relationships with other people. Dr. Mech noted that schools send out warning notices to parents to feed their kids well during national standard testing time, suggesting they want to look good as a school district." (Angelsey, 63)

How to Lower Your Fat Thermostat

How do you summarize an entire book? Well, I cheated and used their summary:

The authors theorize that each person has a "thermostat" for weight that their body oscillates around. For some its higher, others lower. There are a few ways to lower your fat thermostat.

1. Exercise will lower the set point

2. Decrease the fat in your diet
excess fat in the diet will get stored on the body. (I'd have to argue this one somewhat, because our low-fat diets have gone to extremes; fat is an essential part of the diet.)

3. Decrease your intake of refined carbohydrates
Refined carbohydrates flood the body with a sudden rush of glucose. This triggers insulin to be released to break down the glucose. "In the presence of excess insulin, a disproportionate share of the sugar in the bloodstream is converted to fat and deposited in the fat stores. Excess insulin also seems to inhibit or slow the breakdown of fats for the energy needs of the body. This combination leads to more reliance on sugar as the major fuel source, a more rapid use of the ingested sugars, the need for more frequent eating, the eating of larger volumes of food, and a preference for sugars in the diet. It also leads to an increase in fat stores and the protection of those fat stores." (p 79)

They use a term called "refined carbohydrate unit" which I think today is called a glycemic index, to identify foods that will have this insulin-fat storage affect on the body. Foods with high glycemic indices are potatoes, white rice, white flour, white sugar. See Natalie's video on glycemic index. In my opinion, this is why the Adkins diet works: we're eating too much white flour, white sugar, and potatoes! But the Adkins diet is not sustainable. We need carbohydrates; and veggies, fruits, and whole grains are fine and don't cause weight gain like refined carbohydrates do.

4. Reduce intake of high-calorie density foods

5. Stop drinking calorie-containing fluids or eating in response to thirst
Drink plenty of water.

6. Eat in harmony with the hunger drives of the body
Eat when you're hungry, stop before you're full. It takes time to get in tune with what our bodies are saying, because so many of us have binged/denied ourselves for so long. Our body knows what its doing. Starvation diets trigger a natural survival technique of the body to go into a hibernation mode and store fat. Thus, yo-yo dieters' bodies (or those with very low calorie diets) get stingier and stingier with energy storage and their bodies are more prone to gain weight.

7. Get proper nutrition
If you're deficient in a certain vitamin, even if your body has had its caloric needs met, its still going to be craving food in an attempt to get nourished.

Omega 3 fatty acids

"Omega 3-fatty acids are derived primarily from coldwater fish. When the diet consists of a high proportion of these oils the generation of arachidonic acid is significantly reduced, thereby reducing the generation of 'bad' eicosanoids. Experimental animal and human studies have both demonstrated a significant reduction in blood coagulation and, hence, the incidence of both strokes and heart attacks.

"We know that cell membranes are critical in receptor function, ion exchange, enzyme function, and nutrient entry into the cell. With aging, the cell membranes lose some of their fluidity. It is also known that dietary omega 3-fatty acid can change the composition of the cell membranes in a short period of time so that the major component of the membrane lipids are then comprised of the two types of oils found in fish oils, mainly eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These particular oils inhibit the production of arachidonic acid within the cell membrane. It is the activation and release of arachidonic acid from the cell membrane that triggers the production of eicosanoids, resulting in the production of prostaglandins and leukotrienes. Many of these products are quite toxic to cells and can generate massive amounts of free radicals, leading to damage to the cell's membranes as well as its genetic structure. As we have seen, this process plays a critical role in glutamate toxicity. The bottom line is that omega 3-fatty acids (fish oils) can block the production of "bad" type ecosanoids.

"Other studies have shown that feeding omega 3-fatty acids to animals can significantly improve nerve conduction within the optic nerve. While no one has measured it, one could safely assume that neural conduction within other parts of the nervous system would improve as well. It is important to buy only quality products free of pesticide residues and mercury. Some brands have high concentration so of omega 3-fatty acids and should be preferred. Another warning, always keep your capsules in the refrigerator. Omega 3-fatty acids are unsaturated and subject to rancid destruction. Because of this, I would recommend taking at least 400iu of alpha-tocopherol per day with your capsules." -(Dr. Russell Blaylock, M.D., in his book Excitotoxins p230)

Omega 3-fatty acids are so important, it may be necessary to use fish oil supplements, but keep fish oil capsules in the fridge!