Beck Anderson Yoga & Wellness Hammock

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.

A delectable and nutritious breakfast muffin. Much better than any fast food restaurants “muffin” selection.

These muffins are made with real bacon, not some reproduced soy piece of plastic.

Bacon, Egg & Cheese Muffins

Serves 6

Ingredients

3 pastured Eggs
2 Tb Bacon drippings
1/4 tsp Sea Salt
3 TBS Coconut Flour
8 strips nitrate-free Bacon: pastured pigs not fed soy
1/2 cup (4 oz) Cheddar Cheese: grass-fed, raw cheese
Butter, lard or paper muffin inserts

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Fry bacon in a pan until crispy.  Then cut into little pieces.
3. Mix eggs, bacon drippings and salt in a mixing bowl, then add coconut flour and keep mixing until there are no lumps.
4. Add shredded cheese and bacon.
5. Grease your muffin tin with butter or lard, or use paper inserts.
6. Pour batter into muffin tin.
7. Bake 15 minutes.

Original recipe from Cheeseslave; tweaks by me!

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.

Myth: “All fat is bad fat.”

Truth: An avocado is NOT the same fat as potato chips.  “A combination of monounsaturated fats (olive oil, avocado, peanut oil and olives), polyunsaturated fats (nuts and seeds) and saturated fats (butter, coconut oil and palm oil) is the best. All of these fats and oils should carry the label cold pressed or expeller pressed to ensure that heat or chemical processing has not damaged these fragile fats and oils. Buying organic fats and oils to eliminate pesticide and hormone residue is even smarter. For cooking, use peanut oil, coconut oil or palm oil for higher heat and olive oil and butter for sautéing at low heat.” (Nutritional Weight and Wellness)

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Myth: “You can lose weight if you cut out all fat from your diet.”

Truth: Your body’s preferred energy source is healthy fats.  When you cut out healthy fats from your diet, your body can’t function as well.  When you avoid fat, you eat more carbohydrates and protein both of which increase insulin levels in the blood and actually causes your body to take the excess sugar and store it as fat.

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Myth: “Consuming saturated fat will make my cholesterol high, clog my arteries and lead to heart attacks.”

Truth: Dozens of studies have looked at a low-carb diet versus the low-fat, low-calorie diet and have shown the heart disease risk factors improve on a low-carb diet (Gary Taubes, Reader’s Digest Feb 2011).  Many studies show there is NO direct relationship between consumption of saturated fats and higher incidences of heart disease.  In fact, Americans have cut back on saturated fat and cholesterol and still the incidence of heart disease increases.

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Myth: “Science blames saturated fat for heart disease, so?”

Truth:  Actually, science is not conclusive on the link between saturated fat and heart disease. “Prominent researchers have periodically examined the inaccurate 1950’s nutritional data blaming saturated fat for the increase in heart disease only to find no association between saturated fat intake and coronary heart disease.” (Nutritional Weight and Wellness)

• 1974: Dr. Walter Willet and Associates found “no association between saturated fat and coronary heart disease.”
• 1992: Dr. William Castelli, director of the famous Framingham Heart Study found, “The more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol and weight.”
• 1995: Dr. Walter Willet and Associates stated, “Data do not support the strong association between intake of saturated fat and risk of coronary heart disease.”

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Myth: “Fat in my food will lead to fat on my body.”

Truth: There is NO good evidence that links dietary fat with excess weight.

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For more information read: Know Your Fats : The Complete Primer for Understanding the Nutrition of Fats, Oils and Cholesterol Dr. Mary Enig, and Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Vintage) by Gary Taubes.

Today I woke up and, with unusual resolve, walked across the street to work out at the YWCA. As I was changing from my boots into my running shoes, I heard an old lady read an article headline out loud to her friend from this month’s Good Housekeeping, “Which is Better — Butter or Margarine?” She went on to read that neither is better, butter because of all the saturated fats we know clog our arteries and cause heart disease and margarine because they are “high in even-more-dangerous trans fats.” What the article suggests? I can’t believe It’s Not Butter! Sticks, with only 3.5 grams of saturated fat and no trans fats.

Well, even if you just met me yesterday, you’d know I am all about butter and bacon and coconut and ghee and lard — real food in general. So what did I do? I took the magazine from the Y (she did what??), grabbed a coffee from Nina’s, and ate [saturated] fat for breakfast: bacon and liver, real milk (not pasteurized!), and beef broth soup with a scoop of coconut ghee. Someone’s gotta offset the balance.

Butter, which can be a DIY project by shaking whipping cream in a glass jar, has been a staple since, well, a long, long time ago. Laura Ingalls Wilder made butter whenever they had a cow to milk and people made and consumed butter (not pasteurized, even) way before her.

During times of stress, the body pulls on the reserve of saturated fats. Short- and medium-chain saturated fatty acids protect us against harmful microorganisms in the digestive tract (http://www.westonaprice.org/know-your-fats/526-skinny-on-fats.html#benefits). There are many other benefits of butter and saturated fats. It’s simply the way food was before man began to try correct what nature gave us. Think about it.

Now I have a purpose in life–read all the magazines I can get my fingers on and find articles like this. I’ll write in to the editor, and alert the masses that, for this article, organic, full-fat, pasture butter is ALWAYS the healthier choice!

Today I learned an early morning lesson of frying eggs: low heat and slow.

I’ve made this exact meal for years and for the first time I lowered the heat and my results have been gratifying; the eggs are NOT sticking to the pan or burning on the bottom and still running in the top and the bacon is NOT skipping brown and turning black.

Bacon, Eggs and Feta

Serves 2

Ingredients

4 eggs
4 slices bacon

Directions

1. Place bacon in pan on low heat. Flip.
2. Crack eggs into pan.
3. Place cover on pan.
4. Pull them out when the eggs are slightly runny and the bacon is done to your specifications.