Everyday we are finding out more and more information as to how food affects our bodies and consequently our health. For years the “health authorities” have told us that the food pyramid is the guideline for healthy eating.
This pyramid has been proven scientifically to be wrong. But still the “health authorities” stand by this long-standing mistake. Why? Who knows? Maybe it’s because grains are cheaper and more abundant than fish, meat and poultry. Basing our diets on grains means that the “health authorities” can guarantee to a certain extent that a large part of the population will be “well fed”.
However, if we just take into account one point, the food pyramid makes no sense at all. That point is:
Our digestive systems have not changed in over 10,000 years, however our eating habits have changed beyond recognition.
10,000 years ago, man ate what he could catch (fish, meat, poultry), and what he could gather, (vegetables and fruit). There were no such things as processed foods, vegetable fats that have been manufactured in a factory or refined sugars and flours. What is posing the biggest threat to our health is the processed food that the “health authorities” are trying so hard to get us to eat. Add to that our sedentary lifestyles and you have a recipe for disaster.
You don’t even have to go back 10,000 years. Our great grandparents (in some cases) and our grandparents didn’t eat processed food. They ate meat, vegetables, butter, and full fat milk but also had a more active lifestyle.
It is widely accepted that the causes of coronary heart disease are saturated fats and cholesterol, and few people date to question this. It is called the lipid hypothesis idea. This idea has dominated medical thinking about heart disease for the past 50 years.
The theory is that when we eat foods high in saturated fats and cholesterol, these substances are deposited in our arteries in the form of plaque. The plaque builds up over time, causing our arteries to get narrower until one day, little or now blood can pass through, thus a heart attack occurs.
This does make a degree of sense, and so the lipid hypothesis idea gained many followers. However, the theory that saturated fats and cholesterol causes heart disease fail to explain other observations.
In America, the rate of heart disease soared during a period when saturated fat consumption fell sharply while cholesterol intake remained basically unchanged.
Before 1900, heart disease was rare in America only affecting about 8% of the population. By 1950, heart disease caused 30% of all deaths in America. Today, it causes about 45% of all deaths.
During this period the consumption of butter fell from 18lbs per person per year at the turn of the century, to about 10lbs per person per year by 1950. Today it is even lower, however, the rate of heart disease continues de rise.
During this same period, margarine consumption rose from 2lbs per person at the turn of the century to about 8lbs per person – something that was promoted as being healthier than saturated fats.
There is strong evidence that the trans fats used in making vegetable oils and margarines are far more harmful to our bodies than naturally produced saturated fats.
To fully understand the meaning and dangers of trans fats, I urge you to go to the following website:
This is a very comprehensive web, which tells you the dangers of trans fats and where they can be found in our daily food.
Many studies have been carried out to verify the build up of plaque in different nationalities according to their diet. One of the biggest studies carried out to establish that saturated fats is the main cause of coronary heart disease was the International Atherosclerosis Project 1968, in which over 22,000 corpses from 14 different nations were examined for plaques in the arteries. This study found roughly the same degree of plaque build up in all the 14 nations studied. The same build up among people who had meat based diets as well as those who ate little of no meat. The same build up among people with high rates of heart disease as well as those with little or no heart disease.
I also recommend watching a very interesting video on www.youtube.com called Big Fat Fiasco by Tom Naughton “on how the misguided fear of saturated fat created a nation of obese diabetics”.
To this we also need to add the toxic effects of sugar. Sugar and high fructose corn syrup consumption has risen drastically over the years and can be found in the most surprising places (Heinz baked beans contains 5g sugar per 100gr of product, Special K red berries cereal 23g of sugar per 100gr of product, etc). Recently an article was published called The toxic truth about sugar by Robert H. Lustig, Laura A. Schmidt and Claire D. Brindis which states that sugar is so lethal to our health that it should have the same restrictions as tobacco and alcohol. The article states that sugary foods and drinks are the cause of illnesses such as obesity, heart disease, cancer and liver problems. They say that the damage done through sugar consumption mirrors the damage done by drinking too much alcohol (made from distilling sugar).
So what should we do to be healthy? We need to go back to a healthy and varied diet based on meat, fish and poultry, fruit and vegetables and any grains should be whole grains rather than refined grains. And, we need to move. Our sedentary lifestyles have a dramatic effect on our health. However, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to go mad and sign up for a marathon or payout an expensive gym fee. All you NEED to do is to walk, 30 – 45 minutes 5 days a week, at a pace that leaves you short of breath. Now this could mean getting off the tube or bus a few stops early. Anymore exercise than this is totally up to you. My main advice would be to find a sport that you truly enjoy, or organize a walking group so that you can do it in company – this will also motivate you, if you have arranged to meet other people, it isn’t so easy to find an excuse not to go. It really isn’t that difficult.
