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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Fat or Carbs: Which Is Worse?

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  • From: mdnagel@verizon.net
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Fat or Carbs: Which Is Worse?
  • Date: Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:22:42 -0500 (CDT)

As always, it DEPENDS!

The fats from CAFO meats have a high ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids.  This IS really bad!  Meats from grass-fed animals have a lower ratio of Omega 6 to Omega3: this is also true of eggs! (and I'm sure dairy etc...).

It's all cumulative.  One of the best discussions I've run across is this video presentation by Dr. David Servan-Schreiber:

http://www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=18160

This is a short article focusing only on the subject of Omega 6 and Omega 3 in meats and eggs:

http://www.texasgrassfedbeef.com/omega_3_fatty_acids.htm

NOTE: I realize that not all grass-farmers have access to an abundance of purslane.


-Mark Nagel
Everett, WA


Jul 5, 2010 09:28:38 AM, livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org wrote:
>
>[and this adds great support to the move to grow your own, cook from basic foods,
>and eat low on the food chain]
>
> "Through their direct effects on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates,
>starches and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes.
>They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other
>chronic diseases of modern civilization."
>-- Dr. Andrew Weil
>
>
>Fat or Carbs: Which Is Worse?
>Dr. Andrew Weil
>Founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine
>Posted: July 2, 2010 08:00 AM
>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-weil-md/healthy-eating_b_629422.html
>
>In my home state of Arizona, a restaurant named "Heart Attack Grill"
>does brisk business in Chandler, a Phoenix suburb. Waitresses in nurse-themed uniforms
>with miniskirts deliver single, double, triple and quadruple "bypass burgers"
>(featuring one, two, three and four hefty patties, respectively) dripping with cheese,
>to patrons who wear hospital gowns that double as bibs. The motto: "Taste Worth
>Dying For!"
>
>Now, there is much for a medical doctor (as opposed to "Dr. Jon,"
>the stethoscope-wearing, burger-flipping owner) to dislike in this establishment.
>If you visit, I implore you to steer clear of the white-flour buns, the sugary sodas
>and the piles of "flatliner fries" that accompany the burgers in the restaurant's
>signature bedpan plates. This is precisely the sort of processed-carbohydrate-intensive
>meal that, via this and other fast-food establishments, is propelling the epidemic
>of obesity and diabetes in America.
>
>But the Grill's essential, in-your-face concept is that the saturated fat
>in beef clogs arteries, and hamburger meat is consequently among the most heart-damaging
>foods a human being can consume. As the Grill literature puts it, "The menu
>names imply coronary bypass surgery, and refer to the danger of developing atherosclerosis
>from the food's high proportion of saturated fat..." Aimed at a certain
>crowd, this is clever, edgy marketing. Some people enjoy flirting with death.
>
>The problem? It's not true. The saturated fat lauded in this menu won't
>kill you. It may even be the safest element of the meal.
>
>Saturated fat is made of fatty acid chains that cannot incorporate additional
>hydrogen atoms. It is often of animal origin, and is typically solid at room temperature.
>Its relative safety has been a theme in nutrition science for at least the last
>decade, but in my view, a significant exoneration took place in March of this year.
>An analysis that combined the results of 21 studies, published in The American Journal
>of Clinical Nutrition found that "saturated fat was not associated with an
>increased risk" of coronary heart disease, stroke or coronary vascular disease.
>
>Although this was not a true study, it was a big analysis. It aggregated information
>from nearly 348,000 participants, most of whom were healthy at the start of the
>studies. They were surveyed about their dietary habits and followed for five to
>23 years. In that time, 11,000 developed heart disease or had a stroke. Researcher
>Ronald M. Krauss of the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Center in California
>found that there was no difference in the risk of heart disease or stroke between
>people with the lowest and highest intakes of saturated fat.
>
>This contradicts nutritional dogma we've heard repeated since 1970, when
>a physiologist named Ancel Keys published his "Seven Countries" study
>that showed animal fat consumption strongly predicted heart attack risk. His conclusions
>influenced US dietary guidelines for decades to come, but other researchers pointed
>out that if 21 other countries had been included in that study, the association
>that Keys observed would have been seen as extremely weak.
>
>Meanwhile, in the years since, there has been increasing evidence that added
>sweeteners in foods may contribute to heart disease. Sweeteners appear to lower
>levels of HDL cholesterol (the higher your HDL, the better) and raise triglycerides
>(the lower the better). That's according to a study of more than 6,000 adults
>by Emory University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and published
>in April in The Journal of the American Medical Association.
>
>People who received at least 25 percent of their daily calories from any type
>of sweetener had more than triple the normal risk of having low HDL levels than
>those who consumed less than five percent of their calories from sweeteners. Beyond
>that, those whose sugar intake made up 17.5 percent or more of daily calories were
>20 to 30 percent more likely to have high triglycerides.
>
>Science writer Gary Taubes has done more than anyone else to deconstruct the
>Keys mythos and replace it with a more sensible view, informed by better science.
>I recommend his book, Good Calories, Bad Calories: Challenging the Conventional
>Wisdom on Diet, Weight Control and Disease. It presents more than 600 pages of evidence
>that lead to these conclusions:
>
> 1. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart
>disease or any other chronic disease of civilization.
>
> 2. The problem is the carbohydrates in the diet, their effect on insulin
>secretion, and thus the hormonal regulation of homeostasis -- the entire harmonic
>ensemble of the human body. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates,
>the greater the effect on our health, weight and well-being.
>
> 3. Sugars -- sucrose and high-fructose corn syrup specifically -- are particularly
>harmful, probably because the combination of fructose and glucose simultaneously
>elevates insulin levels while overloading the liver with carbohydrates.
>
> 4. Through their direct effects on insulin and blood sugar, refined carbohydrates,
>starches and sugars are the dietary cause of coronary heart disease and diabetes.
>They are the most likely dietary causes of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other
>chronic diseases of modern civilization.
>
>My point here is not to promote meat consumption. I've written here previously
>about humanitarian and ecological reasons to avoid a meat-centric diet, especially
>if the meat comes from factory-farmed animals. Instead, my purpose is to emphasize
>that we would be much healthier as a nation if we stopped worrying so much about
>fats, and instead made a concerted effort to avoid processed, quick-digesting carbohydrates
>-- especially added sugars. The average American consumes almost 22 teaspoons of
>sugars that are added to foods each day. This obscene amount is the principal driver
>of the "diabesity" epidemic, sharply increases coronary risks and promises
>to make this generation of children the first in American history that will die
>sooner than their parents.
>
>My Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid emphasizes whole or minimally processed foods
>-- especially vegetables -- with low glycemic loads. That means consuming these
>foods keeps blood sugar levels relatively stable, which in turn lowers both fat
>deposition and heart-disease risk. If you make a concerted effort to eat such foods
>and avoid sugar, you'll soon lose your taste for it. The natural sugars in fruits
>and vegetables will provide all the sweetness you desire.
>
>While saturated fat appears to have no effect on heart health, eating too much
>can crowd out vitamins, minerals and fiber needed for optimal health. So I recommend
>sticking to a "saturated fat budget" which can be "spent" on
>an occasional steak (from organic, grass-fed, grass-finished cattle, see LocalHarvest
>for sources), some butter, or, as I do, high quality, natural cheese a few times
>a week.
>
>Andrew Weil, M.D., invites you to join the conversation: become a fan on Facebook,
>follow him on Twitter, and check out his Daily Health Tips Blog. Dr. Weil is the
>founder and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine and the editorial
>director of www.DrWeil.com.
>



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