I'm about halfway through Gary Taubes' "Good Calories, Bad Calories," and I'm beginning to really dislike going to the grocery store. From all the exaggerations we've been told about the benefits of Fiber (Nope, no colon cancer cure there...the only thing it really helps is constipation), misinformation about the cause of heart disease (nope, it's not cholesterol... that means we can eat our bacon and eggs!), and the silly notion that somehow refined grains and sugars are better for you than their unrefined counterparts (luckily this died out a while ago...), how can we really believe anything we hear?
I just linked some random articles I could find within a few seconds, but there are tons of studies done that dispute those "facts" that are deeply ingrained in our heads. The bad connotation of fat (saturated in particular) on the nutrition facts is probably the worst of them all. Since I'm having trouble deciding what to believe, I decided to shop for things closest to what I might find back when we didn't have to get our food at a grocery store (with a few exceptions). Here's what I came up with...
2% Milk
Unpeeled carrots
Sliced Mushrooms
Cottage Cheese
2 cartons of eggs
Chicken Thighs
Strawberries
Kiwis
Peaches
Avocado
Organic Peanut Butter
Milled Flax Seed
Cheddar Cheese
Canned Pumpkin
Whole Wheat w/flax flatbread
Lime Fruit Bars (A little off here...)
Chocolate Syrup (for post-workout choc milk!)
I feel like this is a good start towards healthy eating, not to mention the HUGE Spaghetti Squash, Eggplant, and Sweet Potato plants we have growing currently. I can't wait to get some of that!
Monday, June 15, 2009
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another book recommendation for you: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kinsolver. She and her family moved to like, Vermont or something and spent a year eating only what they grew/raised or stuff from right down the road. It's a great concept and it's Barbara Kinsolver, so it's a really good story :)
I didn't take the time to go back and look at the actual research articles that were cited, but I do want to say a few things about this subject. The first issue that I take with this is that the majority of doctors are not out there saying that cholesterol is the cause of heart disease. As was pointed out in the beginning of the article, cause and risk factor are not the same thing. As with any disease process there are always multiple risk factors. Picking a completely arbitrary number here lets say there are 10 total risk factors for developing heart disease and you must have three of these before you develop heart disease. Now cholesterol is a risk factor, but you can certainly have 3 risk factors and one of them does not have to be high cholesterol. So this notion that some people have high cholesterol and never develop heart disease or that some people have low cholesterol and DO develop heart disease means there is no link between cholesterol and heart disease is actually quite illogical. There are certain genetic diseases that cause a person to have extremely elevated levels of cholesterol(upward of 1000mg/dl) these people tend to develop heart disease at a very young age. When a person has a blockage in a coronary artery, if you were to biopsy the blockage you would find an abundance of cholesterol in the lesion. I do agree with the idea that we need to put some focus on why there is injury to the artery in the first place. Such things as hypertension and systemic inflammatory responses are believed to be a big cause in this damage. As for the issue of cholesterol not being a risk factor for heart disease in woman...what the author leaves out here is the age of the woman he is talking about. Pre-menopausal women have much lower rates of cardiovascular disease than men of equal age. The theory behind this is that estrogen has some kind of cardioprotective effect. However, in post-menopausal women the rates of cardiovascular disease parallel that of men. There is certainly some validity to what the author is saying, but it seems that the majority of the data has been twisted to fit what he wants it to say.
Sweet, thanks for the input! That's why I invited you in here, I want to get some discussion going!
I guess I should start by saying that when I say things are taught, I mean what the "general public" assumes. Any conversation I get in with just any random person around here about food results in the same conclusions: cholesterol and saturated fats are all bad, limit your fats, fiber is great! You know? It's subconsciously part of many people's eating habits.
As far as the elevated levels of cholesterol due to genetic disease, isn't 1000mg/dl way higher than the national average? That person wouldn't necessarily fit in with this type of statistic, right? I mean, if we were to just base this on an average person's (which I guess would be someone who is overweight) diet/exercise, it would be impossible to hit even 500mg/dl. I'm obviously not the doc here, but if we were referring to most heart disease issues, would you say they were due to cholesterol resulting from fat intake or carb intake?
Just questions, I've been wanting to start some sort of dialogue for some time now... Like I said, not the doc here, but I'm glad you're willing to clarify.
Hey i'm always glad to give my input on subjects like this. You are absolutely right that 1000mg/dl is absurdly high...much higher than you would get just by a bad diet. My point in saying that was to refute the authors notion that cholesterol has no relationship to heart disease. Just for some reference, in clinical medicine we typically start treating someone when their cholesterol reaches 200mg/dl. In a sedentary person their cholesterol level is going to be directly related to the amount of cholesterol they consume in their diet.
As I have been told multiple times by health and fitness individuals, the actual aisle's in a grocery store should be avoided. Focus on the exterior items like fruits, veggies, grains, protein, dairy, etc and you should be good to go. Very rarely do I venture down the other aisle's now. I focus on fresh and not mass produced food
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