MYTH: We need to eat meat to get enough protein. Genetically we cannot do without meat protein, and all meat and all fat is bad
REALITY: We get an overload of protein; the typical modern diet contains many times more protein than is necessary for good health. If you eat a variety of fruits, vegetable, and legumes, you will get quite a bit of your protein requirements. Still, animal protein is one of the most allround proteins and fat from pasture fed beef is still healthier than most polyunsaturated ones. Springbutter has a deep yellow colour because of the Vit A. It is also one of the better sources of Vit K2. As a cooking oil there is no comparison. As one famous chef said: "I have never stopped using animal fats. It is healthier for one thing it does not stick to the food as the vegetable oils do and it lasts much longer because it is more stable. And apparently whole wheat grains come with their own set of really serious problems. So you may have to avoid wheat all together.
MYTH: Vegetarians are sickly and weak.
REALITY: And what about Carl Lewis, winner of nine Olympic gold medals; David Scott, ironman triathlete; Edwin Moses, Olympic gold medal winner in the hurdles; or World Champion body builder Piero Venturato.
Yes! they all abstain from meat. We think... maybe they take protein supplements. It is dangerous to take these sports guys as an example because their nutrition is often totally geared toward maximum output in a special department.
A fairly low carb diet is likely to be of more help when dieting. The gluten in wheat are the latest to become suspect, and let'snot forget the lectins, the proteins that were developed as a defense mechanism b y the plants. Abundantly present on the fiber of grains, but also on beans, peas etc. Best soak all legumes (beans, peas) overnight and rinse thoroughly.
Ryebread is healthier , simple carbs like sugars and white flower products have been proven to be pretty deadly.
MYTH: Genetics play a much greater role in who will develop cancer than eating meat does.
REALITY: True, genetics plays a role but only five to ten percent of all cancers are caused by inherited genetic mutations.
By contrast, 70 to 80 percent have been linked to diet and other behavioral and environmental factors.
The verdict is still out what really causes cancer, although scientists more and more tend to believe that many of our longheld beliefs about the benefits of polyunsaturated fats are on very shaky ground scientifically speaking.
Fact is that all cancer patients also turn out to have extremely low levels of serum Vitamin D.!!!!
MYTH: Fruits and vegetables are always healthier than meat .
REALITY:
Ever bought a box of strawberries in January? Those big ones (Chandler or Albion)? Ever wondered why they have no taste ? It is nothing but water and nitrogen. The Vit C level is less than half of the homegrown. The Brix level is often less than poor. (poor is 6 and excellent is 16). Brix not only denotes sugar but also the minerals and other micro nutrients.
On top of that they are high on the list of the "dirty dozen", a list of fruits and vegetables that are loaded with pesticides.
You can Google "Dirty Dozen".
MYTH: You need dairy products in order to get enough calcium. It is good for your bones and helps prevent osteoporosis
REALITY: What little gain in calcium you might get is off-set by the acidifying effect of the milk protein. You get more calcium from one serving of broccoli than from a glass of milk.
The Nurses' Health Study (Harvard) concluded that the milk drinkers had more fractures, in fact the consumption of milk caused de-calcification of the bones.
MYTH: Vegetarians live longer and have more energy and endurance than meat-eaters.
REALITY: Surprising as it may seem, some prior studies have shown the annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian men to be slightly more than that of non-vegetarian men (0.93% vs 0.89%). Similarly, the annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian women was shown to be significantly higher than that of non-vegetarian women (0.86% vs 0.54%). Further to add an often overlooked fact : vegetarians tend to be more concious eaters, they tend to pick a healthier diet in general. They are often non-smokers as well.
See also the Real Truth on Vegetarianism, the misconceptions, the half truths and the outright deceptions and misinformation:
there are no other alternatives : You are either healthy or you are dying
Concurrent events do not indicate causality
Probably one of the worst myths to persist in the medical world and your g.p. will be no exception
"Whenever we plan a special day out it rains".........
"I stopped smoking on May 20. Since then it has gotten warmer every day"
Would it not be silly to draw a causal relationship conclusion from these concurrent events??
But it seems to be a normal thing to do with epidimiological trials where outcomes are compared that seem to happen concurrently.
Note on the side bar column
Here we see a prime example of how even well informed and serious professionals can draw the wrong conclusions from the right research. The problem is usually the epidimiological trials where outcomes are compared that seem to happen concurrently but need not necessarily have any causal connection.
The above noted increase in fat went hand in hand with some other events : the coming on the scene of margarines, with lots of transfats; the pasteurisation of milk thereby killing the enzymes needed for the breakdown of milkprotein; the increase in consumption of simple carbs.
a prime example of how the medical world hitched its wagon to faulty science...
"The process of gradual
blocking of the coronary
arteries begins not in
adulthood but in childhood...
and the main cause of this
arteriosclerosis ('hardening
of the arteries') is the steadily increasing amount of fat in the American diet,
particularly "saturated"
animal fats such as those
found in meat, chicken,
milk, and cheeses. If there
was another disease
that caused half a million
deaths a year, you can be
sure that the public would be acutely aware of the danger, and that the cure or
prevention would be
practiced universally."
Benjamin Spock, M.D.
1903-1998
He never got any the wiser and never got to know how much damage he did with this advice based on bad science and faulty research... it never was the fat but the white bread, the loads of sugar in the soft drinks, etc..
Study Purpose
Using traditional foods along with modern foods of similar macronutrient value, the purpose of this project was to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a traditional diet intervention in treating obesity in a First Nations population over one year.
Intervention
Local medical clinic staff received training • in how to instruct patients on the diet using a handout listing allowable foods, how to manage side-effects and how to reduce medications if needed
Community support from PI, including • monthly visits to the community and medical clinic
After a comprehensive baseline evaluation, • patients were instructed to follow a traditional diet, and then to return for follow-up visits after 2, 4, 12, 24 and 52 weeks, or more frequently if clinically indicated
Traditional Diet Program Handout
The traditional or pre-contact diet of First Nations peoples consisted of fish, meat, wild plants and berries. The Traditional Diet Program uses selected modern foods in groupings similar to what people ate before contact. It is designed to treat overweight and obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
Caution: If you are taking insulin or any other medication for diabetes, blood pressure or cholesterol your need for these medications will drop rapidly and you may become ill if you continue to take them after starting the diet.
IF YOU ARE TAKING THESE KINDS OF MEDICATIONS YOU SHOULD SEEK THE SUPERVISION OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE STARTING THIS DIET SO THAT YOUR MEDICATIONS CAN BE WITHDRAWN AS YOUR NEED FOR THEM DIMINISHES.
EAT AS MUCH AS YOU WISH OF THE FOLLOWING FOODS:
Meat: beef, lamb, veal, pork, ham, bacon or any game meat (rabbit, moose, venison)
Poultry: chicken, turkey, duck, pheasant or other game birds
Seafood: any fish or shellfish including but not limited to salmon, halibut, cod, oolichan, crab, prawns, clams, oysters, mussels, squid,
octopus, any smoked, dried or plain canned fish or seafood (not cured with sugar), roe and roe-on-kelp
Eggs: whole eggs (do not eat whites without yolks)
LIMIT THESE FOODS UNTIL THE DIABETES IS IMPROVED OR ELIMINATED:
Salad Greens: 2 cups a day.
Any leafy vegetable including lettuce or other salad greens, parsley, spinach, the tops of green onions, sprouts, fiddleheads, seaweed. (If it is a leaf—you can eat it.)
Vegetables: 1 cup (measured uncooked) a day.
Vegetables that grow above the ground, including asparagus, beet greens, bokchoy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, chard, Chinese cabbage, cucumber, eggplant, green beans, kale, leeks, mushrooms, peppers, spinach, string beans, squash, tomatoes, turnips, wax beans and zucchini.
YOU MUST EAT VEGETABLES EVERY DAY.
Cheese: 4 ounces a day.
Includes hard, aged cheeses such as Swiss, cheddar, mozzarella, Monterey jack, Gruyere, goat cheese, bleu, feta and soft cheeses such as cream cheese, brie and camembert. Avoid processed cheeses, cheese spreads or cheese foods such as Velveeta.
Fresh cheese: 0 ounces a day (while on induction phase).
Includes cottage cheese, farmers cheese, ricotta and tofu.
Baseline Characteristics
Characteristic
Mean (SD) or n%
(n=40)
Age, years 52.1 (9.5)
Gender, female 27 (67.5%)
Race, First Nations 22 (55%)
Body weight, kg 97.2 (15.2)
Body mass index, kg/m2 37.2 (7.2)
Diagnosis of diabetes 7 (17.5%)
Effect on Fasting Serum Lipids
Variable Baseline mean Follow-up mean ChangefromBaseline P value
Trig/HDL ratio 1.08 (0.78) 0.66 (0.42) - 30.2 % 0.0002
Chol/HDL Ratio 4.56 (1.51) 3.92 (1.12) - 11.5% <0.0001
Results
After two decades of service in public health and a distinguished career, Métis physician, Dr. Jay Wortman, believes that the western diet which replaced the traditional diet is the primary cause of the epidemic.
"Obesity, diabetes and heart disease were unknown in these populations until very recently.
No aboriginal language has a word for diabetes."
Wortman's conviction comes from personal experience. Four years ago, he discovered that he had type 2 diabetes. "My immediate instinctive response was to stop eating any food that caused my blood sugar to rise. So I eliminated carbohydrates from my diet. Within four weeks, my blood sugar and blood pressure had normalized and I began to feel much better."
Directed by Mary Bissell, My Big Fat Diet (a CBC series chronicles how the Namgis First Nation goes cold turkey and gives up sugar and junk food for a year in a diet study sponsored by Health Canada and the University of British Columbia. Through the stories of six people, it documents a medical and cultural experiment that may be the first of its kind in North America.
Underneath are some of the first results after an average of about 7 months.
If you're still not convinced that something is really out of kilter with our western diet you should take some time to
visit Alert Bay off the coast of Vancouver Island, you'll find a picturesque fishing village inhabited by two cultures, the Namgis First Nation and their non-native neighbours. Here an epidemic is undermining the health and vitality of community. Like most aboriginal communities across North America, the rates of obesity, metabolic syndrome, and diabetes here are up to five times the national average.
Among the worst of the worst is probably the so-called China Study, which isn't really a study but a compilation of observations. See bottom of the page
Granted, in addition to Campbell’s work there are other studies showing that eating meat is bad for you in one way or another, and being vegetarian is good. But it is my belief that most of these studies get the favorable findings toward vegetarianism because most people consume cooked animal protein, which can create all kinds of toxic, cancer-causing substances in the meat.
And again, I’m willing to bet that those studies were NOT done on people who exclusively eat only organic, grass-fed meats, which I believe would make all the difference in the world.
With regards to that you kind a wealth of information elsewhere on the site.
Also, whenever meat is suggested it comes with the well meant, completely false and outdated advice to make it as lean as possible. It is not really the meat we need so desperately, but the fat, without which we cannot function properly without incurring longterm and longlasting damage. You can also compare Dr. Larry Mc Cleary
To the best of my knowledge there are no studies comparing raw animal-food-based diets versus cooked vegetarian diets. Nor are there any studies comparing grass-fed, organic, lightly cooked meat diets to vegetarian ones.
In Fact the evidence that saturated is not the evil substance the lipid theorists keep trying to make you believe keeps rolling in:
You can download the whole study, but I must warn you, it is quite voluminous. The original title is Diet, Life-style and Mortality in China and is almost 900 pages long.
Many people have commented on Colin Campbell's work and you can find references to it all over the Internet. So far I have found the best and most balanced ones to be from a.o. Dr. Michael Eades,
