News regarding traditional wisdom and native diets regarding nutrition.
Why Fish Is the Ultimate Superfood
You’ve heard fish is good for you. But a new study shows that eating fish is better than first realized: It seems to be a factor that raises the odds of becoming pregnant, not only because couples who included fish on the menu had sex more often, but because they also conceived more quickly compared to people who had something else for dinner instead. The lead study author, Audrey J. Gaskins, a research associate at Harvard, speculates that seafood might improve semen quality and egg release for ovulation. People have been eating fish since the dawn of man. It’s been a staple for humankind in every area where fish can swim and has without a doubt been one of the foods that has kept humans alive, but now we can see in many more ways than offering mere sustenance.
Are Red Meats Really Carcinogenic?
A recent World Health Organization (WHO) report has reported that red meats are carcinogenic. There was an immediate fear-based reaction from some mainstream media outlets. The London based daily tabloid The Mirror headlined an article with “No amount of alcohol, sausage or bacon is safe according to cancer experts.” There were other similar headlines throughout the UK. The Guardian, a UK newspaper, was even more outrageous: “Yes, bacon really is killing us.” The Guardian’s take on the UK media reaction was that Britain’s diet is big on bacon, sausage, and sliced ham lunch meats, and therefore unhealthy. The WHO report was made by World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) as part of its Continuous Update Project (CUP), which updates results of international cancer researchers every few years. However, their research did not discriminate, analyze, or explain the differences among the meat and processed meat options that are available. It’s well known that epidemiologists who put out dietary surveys don’t ask the types of questions that indicate whether one consumes junk food meats, processed meats, or meats from free-range grass-fed and/or organic-fed animals without antibiotics or growth hormone injections. So we’ll do that instead in this article.
Study: People Eating Eggs Have Less Risk for Heart Disease
A new study, published by the BMJ (British Medical Journal) in May 2018, found that people consuming eggs regularly were less at risk for heart disease than those who consumed no eggs. The title of the Chinese study is Associations of egg consumption with cardiovascular disease in a cohort study of 0.5 million Chinese adults. Over a half-million Chinese, between the ages of 30 and 79, were recruited across various regions of China and surveyed for egg consumption. Those with histories of cancer, heart disease, stroke, or diabetes were excluded from the study. Those remaining, slightly under a half-million, were followed for several years to determine incidents of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and both ischemic and hemorrhagic strokes. The average egg consumption varied from none to over one a day. The study’s conclusion: "Our findings suggested that daily egg consumption (<1 egg) [actually .8 daily on average] was associated with lower risk of CVD [cardiovascular disease], IHD [ischemic heart disease], MCE [major coronary events], hemorrhagic stroke and ischaemic stroke among Chinese middle-aged adults. Our findings contribute scientific evidence to the dietary guidelines with regard to egg consumption for the healthy Chinese adult." The study noted that morbidity from strokes is higher in China than Western nations where deaths from ischemic heart disease (ISD) are higher. An average egg consumption of .8 could translate to five to six eggs per week. The Chinese study also referenced an earlier smaller Japanese study, the Life Span Study in Japan, and found that “daily egg consumption was associated with a 30% lower risk of total stroke mortality” compared to no or occasional consumption of eggs.
The Nutritional Calorie Theory for Weight-loss Benefits the Soft Drink Industry – Not Consumer’s Health
A new study has been published questioning the validity of counting food calories as an indicator of health and obesity. 22 researchers from around the world agreed that the theory stating a "calorie is a calorie," no matter what the food source, is not a theory backed by science. An enduring dietary dogma has been the emphasis on calories, even to the extent of calorie counting one’s food intake and comparing the food’s caloric values as provided by tables of calorie measurements according to food types and amounts as an indicator of whether or not a food is healthy. This theory of food nutrition lacks scientific merit, similar to the saturated fat dogma/cholesterol dogma which has been contradicted by real science. It benefits the soft drink industry, which would like everyone to believe that calories from their highly processed drinks are no different than calories from fruits and vegetables.
The High-fat Ketogenic Diet for Cognitive Health: Proven Remedies for the Alzheimer’s Epidemic
The failure of Big Pharma to develop an Alzheimer's drug has been well-documented in the corporate-sponsored "mainstream" media. As Alzheimer's diagnoses continue to increase, drug companies are scrambling to develop the next big drug to market to seniors. In modern times, the most successful drugs in sales, so far, have been cholesterol-lowering statin drugs, as one out of every five people over the age of 50 are now taking drugs to lower one's cholesterol, raking in billions of dollars for pharmaceutical companies. The sick irony to this is that lowering one's cholesterol artificially is directly linked to declining cognitive health and diseases such as Alzheimer's, since 25% of one's total cholesterol is located in the brain. The failed scientific hypothesis behind these drugs is that cholesterol is a cause of heart disease, and that diets high in saturated fats contribute to high cholesterol. However, the actual science shows almost the opposite, and when one looks at death rates, for example, lower cholesterol rates do not equate to longer life - in fact the converse is true: higher cholesterol levels lead to longer life spans. The pharmaceutical industry and the U.S. government cannot afford to reverse their warnings against saturated fats and cholesterol, however, as it would be the same as confessing that the entire statin drug industry has been a scam, and that statin drugs actually cause more harm than good. This is the main reason why the USDA must continue supporting a low-fat diet and condemning saturated fats, even though the science does not support their positions. It is no surprise, therefore, to learn that peer-reviewed scientific studies continue to show that the high-fat ketogenic diet supports cognitive health and can help prevent or reduce cognitive diseases such as Alzheimer's. Here are four new studies just published on the high-fat ketogenic diet related to cognitive health, and preventing Alzheimer's Disease.
The FREE Online Keto Edge Summit: Leverage the Power of KETONES to Return to Health
“Keto” is one of the MOST SEARCHED words on the internet today, and for good reason. Ketones help you burn fat for energy, powerfully reduce inflammation and show promise in preventing and eradicating diabetes, cancer, autoimmune and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and many, many other health concerns. The Keto Edge Summit is online and FREE from May 7-13, 2018. During The Keto Edge Summit, you’ll discover: What is ketosis (and how does it work)? Myths, and how to separate fact from fiction! How to overcome the challenges of being “keto adapted.” Whether you should start a keto diet (or not!). How to shop, live and eat on a ketogenic lifestyle. And more! Your host, Dr. David Jockers, overcame skin cancer in part by switching to a ketogenic diet. Within 6 months of diagnosis, his cancerous nodule had vanished — and, he gained significantly more energy and mental clarity. Now, he teaches patients how a ketogenic lifestyle can give them the edge to conquer disease, return to health and upgrade quality of life.
Carrageenan Approved by USDA for use in Organics in Spite of Links to Intestinal Inflammation, Cancer and Diabetes
A highly controversial natural food substance, carrageenan, a seaweed derivative used in conventional, “natural,” and some organic foods, was just reapproved by USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue. This move overrides the recommendation of the National Organic Standards Board, an expert industry panel set up by Congress. After hearing from medical and scientific experts describing carrageenan’s link to intestinal inflammation, cancer, and other human health risks, the NOSB voted to remove carrageenan from the list of approved synthetic and non-organic substances for use in organic food production. In a move unprecedented during the last quarter century of organic industry rulemaking, the USDA ignored the NOSB vote in the Federal Register without an opportunity for the public to comment on their decision before it goes into effect. “This is the latest instance of the Trump/Purdue administration siding with powerful agribusiness interests. They are running roughshod over the will of Congress that established the NOSB as a buffer to insulate organic regulations from corrupt corporate lobbyists,” said Mark A. Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst at The Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based nonprofit that acts as an organic industry watchdog.
Laboratory Manufactured Meat and Eggs: The Future of Food?
A controversial plant-based meat and egg manufacturer’s products are touted as the eventual answer to large scale factory farming that focuses on livestock for most of the population’s meat, eggs, and dairy products. This company is one of the leaders in the current trend of vegan lab produced meats, eggs, and cheese. The high-tech food start-up company Hampton Creek, now renamed JUST, and its CEO Josh Tetrick, and its financial backers with Bill Gates among them, see this as the future of food. This seems appropriate for the globalist corporate food agenda, as Gates sees GMOs as the future of food as well, and he owns a half-million shares of Monsanto stock, valued at $23 million in 2013. JUST's mission statement of providing plant based meats and eggs to prevent the slaughter of farm animals and its inherent large scale ecological damage also implies a future of genetically engineered meat products created in laboratores. “Tetrick explained how, rather than slaughtering a chicken, scientists could extract stem cells from a bird’s fallen feather and grow them into muscle cells.” Reducing factory farmed livestock foods is a noble and worthy aspiration. But are lab created meats, eggs, and cheeses really healthy options?
Bone Broth for Wound Healing
The top food for wound healing is soup, not readymade supermarket canned or packaged soups, but old-fashioned homemade bone broth. A South American proverb claims “Good broth will resurrect the dead.” Although that is surely an exaggeration, soup has a longstanding reputation for nourishing convalescents.
Evidence-Based Medical Research is Discovering Sesame Seeds’ Health Benefits
Sesame seeds are generally regarded as nutritionally inconsequential ornamental additions to bread and bagels or incorporated in culinary presentations to add visual interest and subtle flavor nuances, especially with Chinese cuisine. As is the case with most medicinal foods, consuming small quantities of sesame seeds often over time is recommended to help improve health and resist disease. Sesame seeds are high in calories, which scares some calorie counters away. But it only takes a small amount, around a quarter-cup daily of these inexpensive nutritionally dense seeds, to receive sesame seeds’ health benefits and protection against many autoimmune diseases. The medicinal aspects of sesame seeds were used by ancient cultures thousands of years ago. During the last twenty years or so, western medical research has been discovering valid clinical applications of sesame seeds and their compounds. One way to get more sesame seed into one's diet is to utilize the "nut butter" form, tahini, used in popular Asian and Middle-Eastern foods such as hummus.
Scottish Doctor Wants World to Know What is Happening to South African Doctor Being Attacked for High Fat Diet Advice
We have covered the story of Dr. Tim Noakes previously here on Health Impact News. Dr. Noakes has been attacked for giving dietary advice that does not conform with government-approved nutrition standards. Dr. Noakes is one of those scientists that have come to understand the politics behind dietary advice, which often results in poor health for those who follow it. Dr. Noakes believes in a low carb high fat diet. The reason government nutrition advice will not endorse this diet, is because to do so would be to admit that the lipid theory of disease, that saturated fats cause high cholesterol which leads to heart disease, is false, and this would destroy several very profitable businesses, including pharmaceutical drugs designed to lower cholesterol levels (statin drugs). Dr. Malcolm Kendrick is one of the leading dissenting voices world-wide on the failed lipid theory of heart disease, and he wants the whole world to know what is happening to Tim Noakes in Africa, and sign a petition for him.
Public Being Misled by U.S. Government and Corporate Media About What Constitutes the Best Diet
Dieter beware: U.S. News & World Report, in its high-profile January cover story on "best diets," calls the DASH and Mediterranean diets tops for health, though these regimens represent the failed nutritional status quo of the last 50 years. It's clear that U.S. News — which employed an expert panel to rate 40 diets on various criteria — merely recapitulated questionable dietary advice that has gone by a succession of names since the 1970s — "low-fat," "DASH," "USDA-style," "plant-based." The basic set of recommendations have remained the same, emphasizing plant foods (grains, cereals, fruits and vegetables) over animal products (eggs, regular dairy, meat), and vegetable oils over natural animal fats such as butter. According to government data, Americans have largely followed these recommendations over the last 50 years, notably increasing their consumption of grains, vegetables and fruits and eating less whole milk, butter, meat and eggs. The outcome? In that time, rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes have skyrocketed. Something has gone terribly wrong. Why would 25 doctors, dietitians and nutritionists on the U.S. News panel choose a dietary philosophy that has — so far, at least — failed us?
Conquering Sugar: Online Program to Break Sugar Addiction
Sharon Porter, a certified Nutritional Therapy Practitioner, Restorative Wellness Practitioner, and the founder of Gut Level Nutrition LLC, is offering a 28-day online program to help people break their addiction to sugar. The first session begins Wednesday, January 10, 2018. She has helped hundreds of regular people resolve a wide variety of health challenges through dietary recommendations, and she especially enjoys helping her clients restore digestive wellness. She began practicing holistic nutrition in 2009, and culminated her 25-year nutrition education with her Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and Restorative Wellness Practitioner certifications in 2014. This is a 28-day program for people who want to vastly improve their health. Sugar is the most damaging, toxic, addictive substance that once removed from your diet will unleash tremendous improvements in your vitality. The program includes massive amounts of resources and support (including live help and interactions). The first week gets you emotionally and physically prepared. The second and third weeks are a complete sugar elimination phase. And the forth week helps you to re-integrate and maintain the gains you’ve accomplished.
Pumpkin Seeds are Anti-Cancer and Provide Many Other Health Benefits
When Halloween is approaching and through Thanksgiving, pumpkins are sighted everywhere. From Thanksgiving through the Christmas holidays pumpkin pies are popular. But few know that there are diabetes and cancer fighting properties in pumpkins, as well as inflammatory reducing and immune boosting properties. Pumpkins and pumpkin seeds contain cucurmosin, which is a type of inactivating protein. It is part of the Cucurbita moschata species, which includes pumpkin and squash that have developed the cucurmosin to protect the species from pathogenic microbes and fungi. Cucurmosin has been shown to induce apoptosis in various cancer cells tested. Pumpkin pie consumed on a daily basis is not the healthiest approach for taking in cucurmosin. Pumpkin seeds can be eaten daily. Raw organic shelled pumpkin seeds are available inexpensively in most health food stores or online.
Study: Is Canola Oil Consumption Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease?
Because of its lower cost, canola oil is ubiquitous in processed foods intended for the growing "health conscious" market. Now a recently published study is confirming the suspicions of those of us who refuse to use canola oil. Philadelphia Pennsylvania's Temple University conducted an animal study to determine the validity of canola oil's health claims. Their results were published in December 2017 in the journal Scientific Reports. The study was titled “Effect of canola oil consumption on memory, synapse and neuropathology in the triple transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease.” Could canola oil contribute to the onset of Alzheimer’s Disease?
Study: Long Term High-fat Ketogenic Diet is Healthy and Safe
A German study published November 11, 2017, in the journal Clinical Nutrition, shows no long-term negative effects for those following a high-fat, low-carb, moderate-protein ketogenic diet. Ketogenic dieting has been used successfully to reverse Alzheimer’s and reduce epileptic seizures in children. Some have even used extreme ketogenic dieting for inducing remission from their cancers. The ketogenic diet was developed in the 1920s at Johns Hopkins hospital to stop seizures in children who did not respond to anti-seizure drugs. The diet fell out of favor in recent years due to the negative press on saturated fats, and fears over the long-term consequences of eating large amounts of saturated fats. Ketogenic diets focus on high amounts of fat in the diet, including saturated fats, along with very restricted amounts of carbohydrates, in order to create ketones that bypass insulin resistance in brain cells and energize their metabolic functions in lieu of glucose. This has proven efficacious for other central nervous systems problems in addition to Alzheimer’s and epilepsy. The past doubts regarding the effects of using a ketogenic diet long term as one's main diet were centered on the “official” advice to avoid saturated fats because they supposedly raised cholesterol levels, which they claim increases the risk of cardiovascular heart disease. This current study proves that such fears are unfounded, and that a high-fat, low-carb, moderate-protein diet can safely be followed as a lifestyle choice, and not simply as a short-term therapeutic diet.
Public Health SCANDAL! Sugar Industry Hid Science Linking Sugar to Heart Disease – Blamed Saturated Fats and Cholesterol Instead
For the past year, a group of researchers with the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), has reviewed historical scientific literature funded by the Sugar Research Foundation since the 1960s, which gives us a great perspective on how the war on saturated fats became public policy. These researchers at UCSF have revealed how the Sugar Research Foundation influenced Harvard medical researchers financially and otherwise to report open-ended inconclusive research that omitted a lot of conclusive negative health data. Their first article was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA Internal Medicine) in 2016. The title of the study is Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research: A Historical Analysis of Internal Industry Documents. The New York Times, which has given some press to exposing the saturated fat myth for about ten years now, was one of the few mainstream media outlets that covered the UCSF study: "How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat." NPR was another news source that covered the UCSF study in 2016: "50 Years Ago, Sugar Industry Quietly Paid Scientists To Point Blame At Fat." The same UCSF team of researchers had another paper published last month (November 2017) by the open access journal PLOS Biology titled, "Sugar industry sponsorship of germ-free rodent studies linking sucrose to hyperlipidemia and cancer: An historical analysis of internal documents.” The UCSF researchers managed to get research data that was never published. The study was not completed because the sugar industry was not getting the pro-sugar “science” they had sought. The science actually led to the conclusion that refined sugar is implicated in heart disease and cancer.
Soy — Health Food or Not?
It’s a controversial topic in the culinary world today — the perception some have that soy is a health food. Soybeans in the pod, you may know, look a little like short, puffy, green peas with peach fuzz on the outside. Representatives from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just announced a boomerang-like decision on how soy protein should be viewed from now on. In fact, the agency is proposing to revoke its long-held stance that soy protein can lower your heart disease risk. The current claim, which you may have seen on various food packages, reads: “25 grams of soy protein a day, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease.” Many health advocates claim soy must be good for you because Asian people — arguably one of the healthiest populations on the planet — have eaten it a lot, and have some of the lowest rates of heart disease, cancer and dementia worldwide, so, it appears, the rest of the world should eat soy protein products, too. However, the type of soy traditionally consumed by Asian people differs from that being heavily marketed in the U.S. Soy rose seemingly from nowhere into the American consciousness in the late 20th century. In 1999, the FDA allowed food producers to claim that soy protein was heart healthy, but continuing research has convinced government officials to take a closer look. Incidentally, there are 12 health claims sanctioned by the FDA for packaged foods, including the continued (and false) insistence that saturated fat is the culprit behind heart disease.
Study: Broccoli Good for Leaky Gut and Other Digestive Problems
Among cruciferous vegetables, which include cauliflower, cabbage, and Brussel sprouts, broccoli seems to be the most researched for its antioxidant, cancer preventative, and anti-carcinogen qualities. A 2017 study at Penn State University was centered on how broccoli and cruciferous vegetables may affect gut health, including permeability or leaky gut and other gut disturbances. Leaky gut or gut permeability has been brought to the forefront of medical concern since it has been determined to be a source of many other maladies. Two major reasons for this are: 1. It blocks nutrient absorption from the small intestines into the blood stream. 2. It allows toxins from ingested foods to escape the elimination process and enter the blood stream. These two concerns align with what Dr. Max Gerson, who created the Gerson Therapy for cancer and chronic disease, had proposed circa 1950 as the major causes of cancer and other non-infectious diseases, insufficient nutrition and overwhelming environmental toxicity.
Are Government Nutrition Recommendations Killing Us?
Latest research suggests government nutritional advice is likely killing us. The study, published in The Lancet, is the first major study to look at all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease and nutrition. Here are just two of the major takeaways: 1. High carb diets are killing many of us around the world. The study tracked over 135,000 people aged between 35 and 70 from 18 countries; those on a low fat/high carb diet had an increased risk of early death compared to those on a lower carb/higher fat diet. 2. Raw and cooked vegetables are not created equal. Broadly speaking, the study showed that consumption of raw vegetables was more protective against cardiovascular disease than cooked vegetables. As our colleagues at ANH-International point out, many phytochemicals, vitamins, and other nutrients are heat-sensitive and may be damaged by heat. These findings, particularly on fat versus carbs, echo our criticisms of the government’s Dietary Guidelines for Americans that were released in 2016. Those guidelines encourage Americans to reduce consumption of saturated fat, based on the outdated notion that fat leads to heart disease. Don’t wait until 2020 when the US government next updates its Dietary Guidelines. History tells us the revised guidelines won’t change much. Pressure from Big Food, Big Ag, Big Biotech and their revolving doors with the USDA, NIH and FDA will likely still override the state-of-the-art of nutritional science. The bottom line is that government should not be in charge of doling out nutrition advice.