Yearly Archive: 2011

Several interesting studies are starting to test mortality rates relating to cholesterol levels and here’s the latest I’ve seen. Published in the Journal of Epidemiology, the Jichi Medical School Cohort Study investigates the relationship between low cholesterol and mortality and examines whether that relationship differs with respect to cause of death. 12,334 healthy adults aged 40 to 69 years were studied for levels of cholesterol related to cause of death. They found that the risk of death was significantly higher for those with the lowest cholesterol levels for hemorrhagic stroke, heart failure (excluding myocardial infarction), and cancer mortality. Those with the lowest cholesterol (under 4.14mmol/L – 160mg/dL) had around a 50% higher death rate than those with cholesterol up to 5.17mmol/L – 200mg/dL. High cholesterol (above 6.21mmol/L – 240mg/dL) was not a risk factor. Read that again; High cholesterol WAS NOT a risk factor.

Do you remember the 1970’s? If you’re like me, you’ll remember the Low Fat campaign waged on America and the concern shown towards reducing cardiovascular disease by eating less fat and more carbohydrates. Everyone I knew became concerned about the greasy burgers we ate and all the butter our moms always drenched everything in. Margerine became all the rage and “Chemists Gone Wild” invented all sorts of hydrogenated, hydrolized, concoctions and fat substitutes. Fast forward 40 years and oh yeah, transfats are poison. Obesity rates have trippled until now, some 75% of Americans are considered over weight. Diabetes rates have increased from 1% to 8%. Obesity rates have even doubled globally. Heart disease is still the most likely reason you’ll die. Oh yes, mortaility rates from heart disease have declined ( thanks to medical advancements ) but nearly a million people die annually. “We’re delaying the disease, but we’re not preventing it,” said Dr. Steven Nissen, president of the American College of Cardiology and chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, in a 2006 CNN Health article. What if It’s All Been a Big Fat Lie? – That’s the title of a New York Times article written…
Read more

Before I start on the stuff that really isn’t much fun, I want to point out that I’m not pioneering anything here. Everything that I mention comes from the hard work of others in the research and medical sciences fields. It will help me lay the groundwork for why I decided to do what I am doing and provide everyone else ways to investigate these topics further. In addition, genetics and gene expression play a critical role in most of the problem foods today that simply didn’t exist for our ancestors. People indiginous to particular locations may slowly developed tolerances for and adaptations to certain foods. However, there’s rarely a complete pass for anyone on all of these foods. So, Paleo considers grains, legumes, and dairy to be problematic for many people. While sugar just plain isn’t good for anyone. Let’s break this down and examine what is going on here and why we want to limit foods from these groups. Wheat This includes grains in general but the big offenders are wheat, rye, and barley. Have you noticed the “Gluten Free” labels showing up on so many things in your market? Gluten is the protein that comes from the…
Read more

{EAV_BLOG_VER:dacf50bedd548425} There’s a whole movement centered around ancestral health and the Paleolithic diet which has its roots in evolutionary biology. What keeps this from being just a fad diet? Most notably the fact that it’s what humans ate for at least 100’s of thousands of years prior to the agricultural revolution. It’s a diet in the “this is what we eat” sense and not in the “I want to lose weight” sense. Although you’ll find that pretty easy to do as well. Wikipedia states “Centered on commonly available modern foods, the “contemporary” Paleolithic diet consists mainly of grass-fed pasture raised meats, fish, vegetables, fruit, roots, and nuts, and excludes grains, legumes, dairy products, salt, refined sugar, and processed oils.” Unfortunately, that is about the only helpful piece of information in the first 3 paragraphs of the page. The rest is repeated fear mongering of other news stories based on biased and misinformed people. Those who make it passed the initial cries of alarm will find a decent reference of the history and science of the last 40 years of research that has led to this. Let’s take a look again at that list of foods again… Beef Fish Vegetables Fruit…
Read more