(This is Part 14 of a series. Go back to Part 13.)
3. Eat foods low in fat.
The China Project, the largest epidemiological study ever undertaken, clearly linked high-fat diets with the modern degenerative diseases. And the effect was linear, meaning that there was no lower threshold beneath which harmful effects did not occur.
Virtually all animal foods are high in fat. Even so-called "2%-fat milk" is actually 30% fat by calories. And animal fat is saturated fat, the kind most implicated in clogging arteries and a host of other damaging effects.
Even non-fat animal products, such as skim milk, promote bone and kidney disease. Animal protein, in the process of digestion, creates a number of acidic byproducts which circulate in the bloodstream. Since the body must at every moment preserve the alkalinity of the bloodstream, it pulls calcium out of the bones to neutralize the acidity.
Osteoporosis is not, as commonly portrayed in the press and in advertisements by the milk industry, a disease of insufficient calcium intake; rather, it is a disease of excess calcium losses. It's worth noting that those countries with the highest intake of dairy products also have the highest rates of osteoporosis.
It is sometimes thought that switching from beef, lamb and pork to poultry and fish is a dietary improvement. It is, but only slightly. Chicken, turkey and fish are still high-fat foods (25% or more) and they contain as much cholesterol as beef, lamb, pork or eggs.
Moreover, the fat is still saturated. Even fish oil, often touted as a health supplement, contains 15-30% saturated fat. And fish are without a doubt the most polluted food we can eat, containing huge amounts of mercury, lead, cadmium, PCBs, polyphenols and other toxic wastes (the wastes wash from the land to the sea).
And "farmed" fish are no better; farmed salmon recently were shown to have mercury levels ten times higher than the already-high levels in wild salmon. Several friends who have been big eaters of fish—believing it a healthy choice—have recently become alarmed at the high levels of toxic metals found in their bodies.
High-fat foods also impair the functioning of insulin in the body. Insulin cannot function well in an oil slick; thus after a high-fat meal its efficiency goes down and it has trouble getting sugar to enter the cells.
In turn, this tends to produce a high bloodsugar level (a hallmark of diabetes). To compensate, the body produces more and more insulin and eventually gets the sugar into the cells. In the meantime, however, the high insulin level curtails fat-burning. This of course works against anyone trying to lose weight.
The bottom line here is that high-fat foods severely impair the body's ability to handle sugar properly. It is estimated that as much as 25% of the U.S. population has diabetes, most of it undiagnosed. Undiagnosed diabetes (along with the build-up of toxicity in the body) may well be a major factor in the fatigue reported by so many people.
Finally, high-fat foods curtail the functioning of leptin in the body. Leptin has been called the "thin hormone" since it lessens appetite while raising metabolism (thus burning calories faster). But leptin's efficiency goes down in the presence of too much fat, and less of it is created.
Thus, in addition to contributing so many calories, high-fat foods also lessen the production and efficiency of the primary hormone involved in keeping the body's weight at its proper level.
In the developed world, 30% of calories from fat is often described as a "low-fat diet". But it's not; it's a high-fat diet. It's been proven that this level of fat intake will continue to clog arteries. And that doesn't just affect the heart. Many cases of stroke, erectile dysfunction, kidney problems and so on also result from clogged arteries.
The healthiest peoples on earth—hunzas, vilcambans, etc. —get on average about 7-10% of their calories from fat. And in studies, this was the level of fat in the diet which promoted a natural, gradual cleansing of clogged arteries.
A diet of unprocessed "fruits, greens, grains and beans" is naturally low in fat and contributes in this and many other ways to our health, vitality and longevity.
(This is the end of Part 14. Go to Part 15.)
—jim sloman, 9.29.04 for Nov 21
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