Beck Anderson Yoga & Wellness Hammock

Butter.
Eggs.
Beef.

What do these have in common? They’ve all been demonized by Diet Dictocrats! Eggs have been redeemed, condemned, redeemed, condemned and finally redeemed again. And butter is a story for another day. Let’s focus on beef.

Juicy hamburgers, steaks and roasts are blamed for diabetes; high blood pressure; cardiovascular disease; bladder, stomach, colon and breast cancer; autoimmune disease; E.coli; impotence; and blindness as well causing more emissions to the planet than vehicles!

Let’s hit on a few highlights! (more…)

In the health food section at my local grocery store, there is a healthy amount of space dedicated to soy products. If an unsuspecting person decided “I want to eat healthy,” and went to the Health Food Section uninformed, he or she would assume all items in the section were healthy. But is soy healthy?

Soy was first used in Asia as a cover crop to enrich soil. Much later Asians used it to season and enrich their meals, only after the Chinese learned to ferment soy beans to make foods like tempeh, natto and tamari. In the West, soy was first used to make paper coatings, glues and even in fire-fighting foam. In the 1950s food companies began producing soy isolate and soy lecithin. Now soy is everywhere: soups, imitation meats, non-dairy creamers, infant formulas, cereals, protein powders, etc.

MYTHS and TRUTHS:

Myth: Soy foods provide a complete protein.
Truth: Like all legumes, soy beans are deficient in sulfur-containing amino acids methionine and cystine. In addition, modern processing denatures fragile lysine.

Myth: Soy formula is a good alternative to infants who are not being breastfed.
Truth: Soy food contain trypsin inhibitors that inhibit protein digestion and affect pancreatic function. In test animals, diets high in trypsin inhibitors led to stunted growth and pancreatic disorders. Soy food increases the body’s requirement for vitamin D, needed for strong bones and normal growth. Phytic acid in soy foods results in reduced bioavailability of iron and zinc which are required for health and development of the brain and nervous system. Soy lacks cholesterol, essential for the development of the brain and nervous system. Megadoses of phytoestrogens in soy formula have been implicated in the current trend toward increasingly premature sexual development in girls and delayed or retarded sexual development in boys.

Myth: Soy food can prevent osteoporosis.
Truth: Soy foods can cause deficiencies in calcium and vitamin D, both needed for healthy bones. Calcium from bone broths and vitamin D from seafood, lard and organ meats prevent osteoporosis in Asian countries–not soy foods.

Myth: Soy is good for your sex life.
Truth: Numerous animal studies show that soy foods cause infertility in animals. Soy consumption enhances hair growth in middle-aged men, indicating lowered testosterone levels. Japanese housewives feed tofu to their husbands frequently when they want to reduce his virility.

Myth: Eating soy is good for the environment.
Truth: In one soy crop in Cordoba, the monoculture has been detrimental for the forests and pasture lands. Because of the expanding soy crops, cattle raising farmers have bene displaced, increasing land conflicts and evictions, as well as deforestation. The deforestation rate in Argentina is 0.8 percent per year, twice as high as the Amazon area (0.38 percent). But in Cordoba the deforestation rate is 2.93 percent – almost four times the national average and thirteen times the global average (0.23 percent). Researches at at Cordoba’s National University stress the direct relationship with the advance of the agricultural frontier, especially the cultivation of annual crops, primarily soy.

HEALTH CONCERNS

Soy is difficult to digest, which can cause gas, bloating and general discomfort. Fermented forms, like the tempeh, natto and tamari are more easily digested.

93% of U.S. soy has been genetically modified (GM): meaning the crop has been altered by a virus or bacteria with a certain trait, most commonly the resistance to a weed killer. We have been using GM foods for the past decade so we do not know the long term effects of these foods on our health. But the studies that have been completed thus far, begin to paint a bleak picture. Article: 15 years of GM Soybeans in Argentina

Soy can interfere with thyroid function, negatively affecting your metabolism.

SUMMARY

Soy can interfere with thyroid, its difficult to digest and does not allow us to fully absorb minerals. Soy is deficient in essential amino acids, contain trypsin inhibitors leading to stunted growth and pancreatic disorders, increases our need of vitamin D, has no cholesterol content, is deficient in calcium, lowers testosterone in men and increases infertility. It may cause early puberty in girls and late puberty in boys. It is not a complete protein that our bodies can use.

Crops like soy are increasing the deforestation rate in certain countries. The more soy consumed, the more soy planted, the higher the deforestation rate.

Traditionally soy was used as a condiment in fermented form and Asian cultures always used soy sparingly and traditionally processed (fermented). Soy milk, soy powders or protein bars did not exist in that culture of healthy soy foods. Research shows that soy’s benefits are inconclusive and may prove harmful for your body and the environment. If you enjoy soy, use sparingly and find traditional ways to ferment the product.

References:

Weston A Price
Kaayla Daniels PhD, CCN
Weight and Wellness

Every half minute a person dies of a heart attack in the U.S., making heart attack the number one cause of death for adults in the U.S. (National Hear, Lung and Blood Institute Fact Book: Fiscal Year 1995). But our common conception of the cause of heart attack – that it is caused by high cholesterol – cannot be further from the truth! To lessen your risk of heart attack, we need to understand ”The Low-Down on Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs,” from Sherry A. Rogers, M.D:

• Statin drugs work by poisoning a liver enzyme that makes cholesterol. That enzyme is HMC  COA reductase (3-hydroxyl-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase). The problem? The fact that cholesterol is needed to keep the brain from aging. Aging brain = Alzheimer’s, senility, amnesia, depression, and nerve, heart and muscle damage.
• Turning off cholesterol production fuels the Viagra epidemic, because you need cholesterol to make your sex hormones like testosterone, estrogen and progesterone. Impotency and low libido are common side affects, including fatigue or exhaustion, irritability, road rage, hostile aggression.
• We need cholesterol in the cell membranes so that they can properly release cytokines. Only healthy cell membranes with sufficient cholesterol can release chemicals that we need to make inside of our cells to kills cancer cell.
• Statin drugs create a coenzyme Q10 deficiency. Statin drugs inhibit or poison the same enzyme, HMG COA reductase, that the body uses to make the fat-soluble vitamin, CoQ10. A deficiency often caused fatal cardiomyopathy, heart attack , congestive heart failure, exhaustion, cancer, myopathy (muscle diseases), fibromyalgia, depression resistant to anti-depressants, high blood pressure, gum disease and tooth loss, hair loss, liver disease, sudden complete memory loss or amnesia, cataracts, anigina, folic acid deficiency, damaged cell membranes, fatigue, accelerated aging and much more. Without sufficient CoQ10 levels, you are likely to die within 6 months (pg. 6).
• Cholesterol drugs deplete nutrients and invite cancer, which is why statin drug users have a higher rate of cancer. As well as lowering CoQ10, statins deplete vitamin E and vitamin A precursor, beta-corotene, as much as 22%.
• Statins damage the good effects of vitamin E, instead making it easier for cholesterol to stick in blood vessel walls causing coronary artery disease, heart attack, and death.
• Statin cholesterol-lowering drugs decrease the ability of insulin to metabolize sugars. Which means the body makes more insulin, which promotes arteriosclerosis, which promotes diabetes, which accelerates aging.
• Taking statin drugs increases the risk of developing polyneuropath (neurological disorder) 14-fold. Symptoms include numbness and tingling to impotency or paralysis.
• Statins can cause amnesia, within minutes. (Hopefully your taxi driver or airplane pilot isn’t on a statin!)
• Cholesterol drugs cause miserable people. “One out of three people have low energy, does not feel content, is no longer happy, and has other subtle and affective changes” (pg. 10). The brain receptors for the hormones to plug in in the brain to make us feel good are malformed when there isn’t enough cholesterol and other nutrients. So regardless of how much Prozac you take, you won’t feel better because there is no dock for the “happy hormones”.
• Cholesterol drugs guarantee an avalanche of new symptoms, especially cancer and more serious heart disease.

That is a fairly simple list for the layman to understand, but then the question always follows: WHY?!

All my conspiracy theorists will love this one! As you probably have heard, the pharmaceutical industry has its hands all up in the FDA pockets, or should I say vice versa? One of all the cholesterol-lowering drugs brings in more than five times the entire annual budget for the FDA! So of course they want to put them on the market despite scientific studies proving the drug causes side affects. Frequently drugs are taken off the market only after lawsuits emerge. If the FDA keeps adding drugs and then taking them off, why do we still trust them?

There are many examples of drugs that I could write about where the dangerous side affects of the drug were known and yet were allowed on the market. But I will spare you the gory details. Just know that the most important person to your health is not your doctor, but you.

If you continue to take statin drugs despite the dire warnings contained in this article (and this article does not contain all the trials and tribulations of cholesterol-lowering drugs), at least take the following to begin to repair your deficits and damage:

• E Gems Elite, 1-2/day
• Gamma E Gems, 1-2/day
• Cod Liver Oil, 1-3 tsp/day
• Super 2 Daily, 2/day
• Phos Chol, 1-3 tsp/day
• Liquid Multiple Minerals, 1-2/day
• Q-ODT (80 mg of CoQ10), 1-3 under the tongue, 1-3 times/day

References:

The Cholesterol Hoax, Sherry A. Rogers, M.D.

Country Crock has a whole section at the Angelis grocery store I frequent; some containers declare descriptions such as “Calcium plus Vitamin D” and “Light” and all ofthem claim “No Hydrogenated Oil 0g Trans Fat per serving*“  Oh, couldn’t you read the last part?  It clearly says “per serving.”  I’m rolling my eyes, by the way, because in fact, it is not clear!  Nor is it truthful because this product does contains trans fats!  And did you know you can get all your Calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin D needs from grass-fed, full fat animal products?

ingredients:

Vegetable Oil Blend (Liquid Soybean Oil, Palm Oil, Palm Kernel Oil, Hydrogenated Cottonseed Oil), Water, Whey (Milk) Salt, Vegetable Mono and Diglycerides, Soy Lecithin, (Potassium Sorbate, Calcium Disodium EDTA) Used to Protect Quality, Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Vitamin A (Palmitate), Beta Carotene (Color).

• Vegetable Oil Blend: cancer contributor.Partially Hydrogenated & Hydrogenated: trans fats. Food service has found a loop hole in the trans fat war – if there is less than a certain percentage of trans fat per serving they can claim “0g Trans Fat.” Are you enraged yet?
• Mono and Diglycerides: emulsifying agents – they are both hydrophilic (attract water) and hyrdophobic (repel water), so they are soluble in both water AND fat. They are used to keep oils from separating out of products and used to increase shelf life – the same reasons trans fats are used in most products. Unique, not necessarily natural.
• Soybean oil – industrially processed liquid oil, oxidation index 7.0
• Soy Lecithin: a waste product containing residues of solvents and pesticides and has a consistency ranging from a gummy fluid to a plastic solid. The color ranges from dirty tan to reddish brown, manufactures therefore use a bleaching process to turn lecithin into an appealing light yellow hue.
• Calcium Disodium EDTA: Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, known as EDTA, is a chemical salt used to separate heavy metals from dyes and other substances. This form appears in foods and cosmetic products to prevent air from spoiling them by introducing unwanted oxygen into the products’ molecular structures. Calcium dixodium EDTA is toxic to humans in high amounts.
• Citric Acid: often contains MSG, a neurotoxin.
• Artificial Flavor: may contain MSG.
• Vitamin A (artificial): toxic with excess. Overdosing leads to adverse physiological reactions. Typically added to low fat milk and other dairy products to replace the vitamin content lost through the removal of milk. High doses of retinyl palmitate has been shown to accelerate cancer in lab animals.

the better options:

Use real butter (hint: it will just say “milk” or “cream from milk”).  Using butter with an Organic label is crucial, because Organic cows have a healthier cream when compared to conventional cows (click here).  Organic Valley butter is a great brand as is Horizon organic, Biona, Calon Wen, and others. Read the ingredients.

the best option:

Whole, raw cream from a local Organic, grass-fed cow can be churned or shaken in a glass jar until it turns into butter.  The cream will separate into a lumpy ball inside the jar, butter, and liquid, whey. And whey can be used for lacto-fermented foods such as making sauerkraut.

You can find all your Calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin D needs in grass-fed, full fat animal products. Dietary fat is your friend, don’t be afraid of healthy fat!

Butter making photo credit

Most of us have the idea ingrained in our brains that fat is bad. And I’m not referring to the fat on our bodies, but the fat in our foods. In the last 100 years it has become common knowledge that to be healthy you need to skimp on butter, bacon, fatty meats, and other food that has naturally occurring fat. In fact, foods that naturally contain fat (i.e. milk) have the fat artificially taken out of the food!

Why did all this begin to happen? And is it necessary to avoid fat?

The diet-heart hypothesis was first proposed in 1953 by Ancel Keys (from the University of Minnesota) stating that dietary fats, including cholesterol, cause heart disease, and by avoiding these foods we can avoid developing heart disease.

To support his theory, Keys carefully (and unscientifically) selected 6 or 7, depending on who you ask, countries (out of the 22 available) that showed a correlation between dietary fat, cholesterol, and heart disease.

This type of scientific research would be similar to trying to prove that asthma was caused by owning a Corvette. First we would finding all the information about people who had asthma and all the people who owned a Corvette. We’d plot the information on a diagram, then selectively delete the dots that are scattered all over to end up with a straight line “proving” Corvettes caused asthma. Ridiculous, right?

Then why do we avoid dietary fat and cholesterol?

Because the authorities were desperate to find the solution to the reason heart disease was increasing and when Keys proposed his hypothesis, it was the ticket they needed. The diet-heart hypothesis is the most researched hypothesis, yet it has never been proven and heart disease continues to raise.

“The late Dr. Russell Smith, an American experimental psychologist, participated in publishing two thorough reviews of the existing scientific data on the diet-heart hypothesis with more than 3,000 references. His conclusion:

‘The current campaign to convince every American to change his or her diet and, in many cases, to initiate the drug ‘therapy’ for life is based on fabrications, erroneous interpretations and/or gross exaggerations of findings and, very importantly, the ignoring of massive amounts of unsupportive data …It does not seem possible that objective scientists without vested interests could ever interpret the literature as supportive …It is depressing to know that billions of dollars and a highly sophisticated medical research system are being wasted chasing windmills.’ “

To support his hypothesis, Keys invented what he termed the Mediterranean Diet stating the heart healthy diet is mainly vegetarian, pastas, olive oil, some cheeses, fruit. But any person who has traveled the Mediterranean knows that their food is not at all the diet Keys suggests. Whether you are in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, or anywhere else near the Mediterranean you will be served plenty of meats, fish, cheese, eggs, butter and nothing low fat.

Let’s look at some specific scientific points:

• In Britain fat consumption has been stable since 1910 while heart attacks have increase 10 times between 1930 and 1970. So in Britain, having heart disease has nothing to do with fat consumption. (Campbell-McBride p. 11)
• Since World War II the Japanese have been eating more and more animal fat, while fewer and fewer of them diet from heart attacks. On top of that, mortality from most diseases decreased in Japan as they ate more animal fat. (Campbell-McBride p. 11)
• In Switzerland, after WWII intake of animal fat increased by 20%, yet the death rate from heart disease steadily decreased. So, on can say that in Switzerland eating more fat helps against heart disease. (Campbell-McBride p. 11)
• In the USA, between 1930 and 1960, mortality from heart disease increased 10 times, while the consumption of animal fat decreased. Just from this data, one can create a hypothesis that reducing animal fat in your food causes heart disease. (Campbell-McBride p. 11)
• Children on low-fat diets suffer from growth problems, failure to thrive and learning disabilities. Incidentally, in children no connection was found between what they eat and their blood cholesterol levels. (Campbell-McBride p. 12)
• Cholesterol protects us from infections. People with low blood cholesterol are more prone to infections, and when they get an infection they have an increased risk of dying from it compared to people with high cholesterol. When people with low cholesterol and suppressed immunity were fed high-cholesterol foods their ability to fight infection was substantially boosted. For centuries before the discovery of antibiotics, a misture of raw egg yolks and cream, very rich in cholesterol, was used as a cure for tuberculosis. Cholesterol supports immunity in laboratory studies by inactivating microbial toxins and assisting various parts of the imune system in fighting infection.

Comments about RealSalt: “Tastes delicious and I love it,” Clara Douglas.

There are a couple generic types of salt: unrefined and refined.  Unrefined salt is “an excellent, traditional source of nearly 80 trace minerals.  …This natural bacteria-inhibiting preservative can be considered a mineral ‘supplement’ that is essential to life” (Weston A Price, Nutrient-Dense Eating).  Compared to refined iodized salt which, in some cases, is heated to temperatures up to 1200 degrees F, stripped of all nutrients and combined with poisonous substances including aluminum, sugar and anti-caking agents.  Which salt should you avoid?  Pure white salt, of course!  Sea salt, containing all those beneficial minerals, shows up as gray or pink, depending on the type (see photo).  Salt is important for digestion and assimilation and also crucial for the development and functioning of the nervous system.

Prescribing a low-sodium diet doesn’t always fix the problem of high blood pressure.  Lacto-fermented foods like Sauerkraut and Kimchi contain salt but also the vitamin C, MSM, and phytochemicals necessary to promote elasticity in the arteries.  In fact, to further confirm the statement, a recent article I read states that some people with high blood pressure are unaffected by sea salt and only about 3% of high blood pressure cases are related to salt intake.

Avoid foods containing extra sugar, processed carbohydrates, chemicals and oxidized fats and cholesterol.  Do consume lacto-fermented foods, healthy saturated fats, grass-fed animal meat, sea salt, organic vegetables and fruits.  The best kinds of unrefined salt includes Celtic, Himalayan, RealSalt, and Lima.  You may find these salts at your local healthy food store, in the health food section of your grocery store or other online sites such as iherb.com or swansonvitamins.com.

Resources:
About High Blood Pressure
Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Weston A Price

Do you often feel like you simply cannot say “no” to donuts, candy bars, cake or other simple carbohydrates?  Do you crave pastas, white bread, and other sugary foods?  Perhaps you think, or friends or family members suggest, you don’t have enough will power to avoid these bad foods or ability to keep on a diet.  Do not blame yourself or feel guilty: it takes much more than will power to eat healthy; it takes nourishing foods and knowledge of what food does in your body.

Our bodies need healthy saturated fats for the cells to function properly, and if we don’t get enough cholesterol from saturated fats, our bodies become deficient in the primary building block for hormones.

Cholesterol also repairs cell membranes, makes vitamin D, bile acids to digest fats along with a host of other functions.  But, in the 1900s when heart disease was steadily increasing, saturated fat and cholesterol were depicted as being the culprit for clogging arteries and causing heart disease.  This is the Lipid Hypothesis; it is still a hypothesis and has never been proven.  In fact, just the opposite is true but we’ll get into those studies (that prove healthy fats results in healthier people) another day.

In response to the lipid hypothesis, many people avoid saturated fats and anything with cholesterol.  Thankfully, the body can use the sugars from carbohydrates and turn them into a usable source of energy (although not the preferred source).

When the body does not receive healthy fats, it reacts as if there is a crisis and craves simple sugars because it can quickly use that in emergency situations.  Once we allow our body to begin using simply carbohydrates, it becomes an addiction because there is a slight serotonin boost also.  Now the body is learning to rely on sugar which comes with the risks of developing diabetes, heart disease and many other modern diseases.

Carbohydrates, sugar metabolism, insulin versus healthy fats, saturated fats, cholesterol : these are all topics I cover in my Food & Nutrition 101 classes as well at the Nutrition for Weight Loss program.

Entered in Monday Mania Carnival.

Are you getting mixed messages about cholesterol? This article, written by Dr. Natasha Cambell-McBride of the famous GAPS diet, explains exactly why it’s pointless to test your blood cholesterol levels:

“Many people ask me a question:
WHEN I TEST MY BLOOD CHOLESTEROL, WHAT SHOULD IT BE?
My answer is:
DON’T TEST YOUR BLOOD CHOLESTEROL!
IT IS A POINTLESS EXERCISE AND A POTENTIALLY HARMFUL ONE!
I will explain, why.
Your blood levels of cholesterol are maintained by your liver: when we eat more cholesterol…”
Click here to read the full article.

If you are the typical American, I know what you’re thinking and I don’t need your attitude! I bet you haven’t even had good liver, if any at all! And I’m right, aren’t I? So sit tight and quite whining.  First, read why liver is good for you, then read what kind of liver to get and then go shopping and cook it up!  Using my easy-peasy instructions, of course.

Why Liver?

Liver contains more nutrients than any other food.  Historically hunter-gatherer societies would feed the best part of an animal to the pregnant women and young children (survival of the species, you know). And what part was that? The liver of course! And other organs, but we’re just into livers today. The Weston A. Price foundation has a wonderful list in their Liver Files that I’ve copied right here – no need for me to re-create the wheel:

• An excellent source of high-quality protein
• Nature’s most concentrated source of vitamin A
• All the B vitamins in abundance, particularly vitamin B12
• One of our best sources of folic acid
• A highly usable form of iron
• Trace elements such as copper, zinc and chromium; liver is our best source of copper
• An unidentified anti-fatigue factor
• CoQ10, a nutrient that is especially important for cardio-vascular function
• A good source of purines, nitrogen-containing compounds that serve as precursors for DNA and RNA.

Where to Buy

Do not eat liver from commercial farm animals!

I repeat: do not eat liver from commercial farm animals! In fact, try not eat any meat from commercial farm animals (hint: most of the meats at your local supermarket or Walmart) because a) the animals are living the holocaust, squished together and caged in a barn versus grazing on grass outside in the sunlight and b) they become sickly and are given antibiotics, and yes that will affect your body, although you may not notice a single dose, you will notice the accumulation.

You do want to eat liver from animals that spend their lives outdoors on pasture and in the cold months, eating hay or fermented hay. If you can’t find this type of liver, go for organic chicken, beef and calves liver. If supermarket liver is your only choice, the best option is calves liver because in the U.S. beef cattle spend their first months on pasture.

Go Shopping

Go on, I can’t do this for you. Although you can click on Local Harvest, to find local farmers in your area, or Eat Well Guide for local foods in the U.S. or Canada.

How much should I eat?

“A good recommendation for liver is one 100-gram serving of beef, lamb, bison or duck liver (about 4 ounces) once or twice a week, providing about 50,000 IU vitamin A per serving. Chicken liver, which is lower in vitamin A, may be consumed more frequently.” (The Liver Files, Weston A. Price)

Bacon, Liver & Onions

Serves 2

Ingredients

2-4 pieces Liver
8 slices Bacon, cut into 2-3 inch pieces
Onion, sliced

Directions

1. In a medium sized pan, add bacon and onions.  Stir until you get your bacon the way you like it.
2. Clear out a space in the pan, place your liver pieces down and sear each side of the liver until just barely cooked through (tough liver is the worst liver).
3. Pile bacon and onions on top of liver and include a healthy helping of bacon and onions with each bit of liver.

Recently the LA Times published an article, A Reversal on Carbs, alluding to what most Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF) members already know: carbohydrates are NOT the body’s preferred method of fuel and is, in fact, the number one reason why America is fat.

Yet many people think they “need” carbohydrates to function. The accepted knowledge is this: it doesn’t matter what you eat, as long as you stay within your daily nutrient allowance of so many calories. What does science have to say about the role of fats versus carbohydrates in the body?

Firstly, in the whole history of man-kind, it has only been since the mid 1900s that carbohydrates (not including vegetables and, to some extent, fruit) become the “norm,” so this “scientific study” in the LA Times is only bringing us back to what has been normal for thousands of years.

If a person consumes a balanced diet which is about 30-80% healthy fat, protein and no or very few carbohydrates their body will automatically find it’s healthy weight. Without effort.
 
Carbohydrates turn into glucose in the body and insulin comes in to turn it into energy or storage, right? Healthy fat, on the other hand, is usable from the minute it enters the body — the body and the brains’ primary source of fuel is designed to be fat in the form of ketones — not glucose!

Furthermore, if one is not consuming enough healthy fat, ones own body will synthesize fat from other sources, most notably, carbohydrates, and absorb and store this unwanted fat. Grains (most common source of carbohydrates) cause many health problems due to its ant-nutrient content, its tryptophan-poor profile, high omega-6 levels… it’s an allery and sensitivity potential to tons of people. One only feels like one NEEDS carbs to get through the day when ones body is in glucose-burning mode (sugar addiction). Then one will have cravings. When one body is in fat burning mode, one can last without food longer between meals and will have more energy because ones body isn’t spending energy converting glucose into something usable. 

Just to clarify about “healthy” fat, this includes saturated fats, monounsaturated fats and certain essential polyunsaturated fats such as omega-3s but stay away from the poly-unsaturated vegetable oils. These last oils are simply damaging to ones body. Most of ones fat consumption should be from animal fats though, it’s only natural.  Unadulterated animal fats, preferably, are the best source of fat for ones body… so yes: butter, raw full fat cheese, raw milk, etc. God made it that way, that’s the way humans ate for thousands of years… what’s wrong with it? SCIENCE has proven it’s healthy even. It’s basic biochemistry.

As far as exercise goes, it’s good for keeping a value of life–being flexible and able to run, jump, sprint, etc and lift things, but I put very little value in exercise as far as weight control. Exercise can never compensate for an unhealthy diet, any more than supplements and drugs can. To get/maintain a healthy body and healthy weight it’s 80% nutrition and 20% exercise. I see physical activity as a fun thing, not do-it-or-you’ll-get-fat type of a thing.

About the whole calorie in/calorie out idea: if this worked, a lot of people would be normal weighted. BABIES are overweight these days, do we have a plethora of under active babies? Uh, no. They just eat, sleep and poop as they are programmed, yet they are fat. Being fat must not be about willpower or exercise. I think we have to dig deeper.

What exactly is a calorie?  A calorie is the amount of energy required to heat 1 kilogram of water by 1 degree Celsius in a bomb calorimeter. Every gram of protein and carbohydrate takes about 4 calories to heat the water while every gram of fat takes about 9 calories and alcohol takes about 7. BUT, the human body doesn’t burn calories the way a bomb calorimeter burns calories. The human body is complex with multiple organs, enzymes, hormones, brain chemicals, and more – every day new cells are made, hormones are manufactured and toxins are neutralized.  On the other hand, the bomb calorimeter is a tank. Food goes in and then goes out in the form of heat. There is no manufacturing going on, no thyroid glands or hormones to contend with.

So just because a gram of fat produces 9 calories in a bomb calorimeter doesn’t mean the body will store 9 calories from that same fat gram. Calories are used for other things in humans other than storing fat and providing energy for exercise.

Then where did the calorie in/calorie out come from? Let me quote from Nora Gedgaudas: The first law of thermodynamics states that energy in a closed system at thermal equilibrium is neither created nor destroyed. Energy can be transformed. First, is the human body a closed system? Nope.

So what does the law of thermodynamics and caloric deficit have to do with calories and weight gain? NOTHING. This law really says that the calories we eat can be stored (in fat or glycogen), burned off with work (as in exercise or digesting food), or burned off as waste (as in carbon dioxide or sweat). It simply says not all calories will go to the fat stores in our hips because some of those calories will be used to do work and some will be discarded as waste.

Summary

Animal fats are healthy and necessary for the human body and carbohydrates are not, exercise is not necessary for weight control but is good for quality of life, a calorie of food in a human is much different than in a bomb calorimeter, and the first law of thermodynamics (caloric deficit) has nothing to do with calories and weight gain.