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How To Health & Fitness Fat For Thought
How To Health & Fitness Fat For Thought
| Fat For Thought |
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| Written by Bruce Burnett |
| Saturday, 01 March 2008 02:13 |
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The politically incorrect truth about saturated fat is this—eat it for better health and performance “For every complicated problem,” wrote H.L. Mencken, “there is a solution that is simple, direct, understandable, and wrong.” Case in point, the cliché that saturated fat is unhealthy and causes heart disease. This notion is simply wrong. Especially for physically active people such as serious kayakers and other athletes. Myriad studies prove this, supported by statistics. For example, 100 years ago, per capita consumption of butter in the United States was 50 times what it is today. Heart disease was almost unknown. Yes, a number of people who, say, died of an infectious disease at 45 in 1885, may have eventually succumbed to a heart attack if they had lived to 75. But of more relevance is the question of why we cling to the statistically unsound and absurd hypothesis that saturated fat causes heart disease, when after a century of increased consumption of margarine and other processed vegetable oils, heart disease has consistently been the No. 1 or No. 2 killer in America. The answer, frankly, is that we’ve been misled by propaganda from the processed-food industry and, even worse, Big Pharma. In the Framingham Heart Study, which began in 1948 and involved 6,000 people from Framingham, Massachusetts, two groups were compared at five-year intervals—those who consumed little cholesterol and saturated fat and those who consumed large amounts. After 40 years, the director of this study had to admit: “In Framingham, the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person’s serum cholesterol . . . we found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active.” So, forget about that carb-loading spaghetti dish before your next major kayaking or canoe trip and chow down a good steak instead. According to the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation (www.ppnf.org), “Carb-loading for athletes is not such a good idea.” Following studies done on athletes in New York and South Africa, athletes who “carb-loaded” had significantly less endurance than those who “fat-loaded” before athletic events. The Iowa State University Extension Sport Nutrition website (www.extension.iastate.edu/nutrition/sport/index.html), reports that energy obtained from fat plays an important role for both high-intensity and endurance sports. The site claims that fat serves as the primary fuel for low-intensity and long-duration activities such as expedition sea kayaking. In high-intensity activity, such as playboating, where carbohydrate is the primary fuel, fat is necessary to fully release the available energy in carbohydrate. In a study conducted by Peter J. Horvath and his colleagues at the State University of New York at Buffalo, six members of the track team were able to run 20 percent longer and achieved higher maximum oxygen consumption on a diet moderately high in fat than on a high-carbohydrate, low-fat regimen. “Our data are consistent with a number of investigations that have shown muscular adaptations to a high-fat diet, which result in increased endurance,” said John J. Leddy, associate director of the school’s Sports Medicine Institute and a co-author of the study. “Furthermore, our findings present evidence that severely restricting dietary fat may be detrimental to endurance performance.” Dr. Weston Price (author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration) spent the 1920s and ’30s roving the globe and studying the dietary habits of indigenous peoples. Unfailingly he found that groups adhering to their native diets consisting largely of animal-based foods, enjoyed robust health. He never once encountered an entirely vegetarian culture, and heart disease and cancer were virtually non-existent. Those peoples who had adopted the western “civilized” diet of processed, sugar-laden foods quickly fell victim to cardiovascular disease, cancers, arthritis, dental decay, and all the other ills of modern man. For example, the Masai people of Kenya still live almost exclusively on the milk, meat, and blood of their cattle herds. They are a tall, lean, handsome, athletic people who have given the world some of the greatest long-distance runners. Heart disease is unknown to them. Given these facts, why is saturated fat so firmly imbedded in our consciousness as the instigator of heart disease? Dr. Ravnskov, M.D. PhD, author of The Cholesterol Myths: Exposing the Fallacy that Saturated Fat and Cholesterol Cause Heart Disease, says “[public health officials, cardiologists, etc.] have confused a statistical association with causation,” he observed. “It’s as if they saw a house burning and determined that the bigger the fire, the more fireman are present, and then concluded that firemen cause burning houses.” Malcolm Kendricks, M.D. (www.redflagsweekly.com), asserts “If you want to protect yourself against heart disease, do the following things: Don’t smoke, take exercise, lose weight, relax when you eat, and eat slowly, if you feel ‘trapped’ in your life, change it, don’t disrupt your social network—or create a good social network.” And he adds, “What about high cholesterol levels? Well, what about high cholesterol levels? This red herring has thrown researchers off the scent for the last 60 years. Only when it is abandoned as a risk factor will mainstream researchers be able to make sense of heart disease.” Mary Enig, PhD, Fellow of the American College of Nutrition and President of the Maryland Nutritionists Association and an expert in lipid chemistry, believes that the rise of obesity is related to types of food Americans have been encouraged to eat by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the food industry, and consumer groups. “(People are eating) a diet high in grain and inappropriate fats, instead of the natural animal fats, such as lard, tallow, chicken fat, goose fat, and the natural vegetable fats, such as olive, palm, and coconut oils, that we used to have in our diets.” And contrary to the current “propaganda,” she explains that these fats and oils are essential components in a healthful diet. These fats provide the major fuel for the heart, kidneys, and skeletal muscles and adds that the inappropriate fats are the highly processed polyunsaturated fats, such as soybean, canola, and corn oils, which are ironically promoted as heart protective. According to the International Network of Cholesterol Skeptics (www.thincs.org), “For decades, enormous human and financial resources have been wasted on the cholesterol campaign, more promising research areas have been neglected, producers and manufacturers of animal food all over the world have suffered economically, and millions of healthy people have been frightened and badgered into eating a tedious and flavorless diet or into taking potentially dangerous drugs for the rest of their lives. As the scientific evidence in support of the cholesterol campaign is non-existent, we consider it important to stop it as soon as possible.” As Sally Fallon, journalist and nutrition researcher, says in her excellent book, Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats, “Animal fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection from disease, and optimum energy levels.” So, paddlers, don’t fall for the dictates of the food fascists. Enjoy that steak, cheese omelet, and pork tenderloin. You’ll enjoy life more and paddle stronger. Bruce Burnett eats two eggs for breakfast every morning, red meat several times a week, and slathers butter heavily on everything. According to his doctor, the 65-year-old Chartered Herbalist and award-winning author has the cholesterol and blood pressure of a 16-year old. WEB EXTRA Pork Tenderloin in Puff Pastry Lip Smacking, Fat Loading for Paddlers • 2 large pork tenderloins • 1 package of frozen puff pastry • 4 slices of lean bacon • ½ cup of Dijon mustard • 2 cloves of garlic, crushed • Juice of ½ lemon • 2 tsp. of fresh thyme leaves • 2 tsp. fresh winter savory, chopped • 1 tsp. of olive oil • ½ tsp. of salt • 1egg yolk, beaten • Freshly ground black pepper to taste • Fresh parsley for garnish Thaw the puff pastry in the refrigerator and role out sufficient sheets to totally enclose each pork tenderloin. Look for frozen puff pastry packaged in two blocks. Roll out each block to a 12-inch square for each tenderloin. In a bowl mix together the mustard, garlic, lemon juice, thyme, olive oil and salt and pepper. Coat the pork tenderloin with this mixture and set aside. Lay one slice of bacon as a base on the puff pastry. Coat this bacon with a layer of the mustard/thyme mix and lay the tenderloin on top. Cover the tenderloin first with the mustard/thyme mix and then place the other bacon slices on the sides and on top of the tenderloin. Wrap the puff pastry around the tenderloin and bacon, ensuring that the seal overlaps. Seal it well along the seam and at both ends with a little water. You can get creative with left over pieces of puff pastry by using them as raised relief designs. Brush with the beaten egg yolk, adding a little milk if necessary to increase quantity. Bake on a lightly greased baking sheet in a preheated 350º oven for one hour. Recipe excerpted with permission from HerbWise: growing, cooking, wellbeing (HerbWise Inc. 2002), by Bruce Burnett, CH. Originally Published, Paddler March-April 2008 |
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