Sifting Through the Food Lies.

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Trying to eat healthy shouldn't be this hard. We should be able to get the facts we need from our doctors and trust it. We shouldn't have to sift through all the data and continue poking and proding and peeling back layer after layer until we finally get the facts we need. I have been pursuing the facts associated with nutrition and alternative healing for three years and I just finally feel like I'm starting to get the facts I need, not only for my health but for other people's health as well. Why is it so hard? Well, the answer is pretty simple. It's all thanks to bad science.

Back in the 1940's a scientist named Ancel Keys had a hypothesis that the consumption of saturated fats was a contributing factor in heart disease. He was so passionate about his hypothesis, that he conducted an observational study covering roughly twenty countries and he concluded that his hypothesis was true. However, it was a manipulated truth.

Photo courtesy of google images.

A good scientist is someone who remains objective in their experiments. They collect all the data, observe it and come to an unbiased conclusion. A conclusion based on data. Ancel Keys was anything but objective. He wanted his data to be correct so badly, that he manipulated the data until it fit his hypothesis. It's true that he did find in countries such as the U.K. and United States that there was a correlation between saturated fat consumption and heart disease, but he also found the opposite to be true in Chili where saturated fat consumption was low and heart disease was high or in Holland where saturated fat intake was high but heart disease was low. Ancel Keys simply cut out all the data he didn't like and molded the data he liked to fit his hypothesis. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like very good science to me.

This theory was called the lipid hypothesis theory and was the beginning of a very bad thing in our history of health. The American Heart Association fought against this theory for years until finally caving in and accepting it as their own personal truth. I wonder why? I mean, did they have some sort of incentive or get bullied into accepting something they fought for years?

The result of this was damaging to our health for two reasons. The first reasons is because it introduced trans fats into our diets such as margerine and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. The second reason is because it kicked off the whole "Low-Fat" diet craze which upped the sugar in products in place of taking out the fat (I mean you have to put something in the food to make up for flavor, right?). If your brain works like mine, it grasps things better when it's layed out in facts and numbers. so lets take a look at these facts:

• Consumption of fat and lard began to go down in the 50's and 60's, which is about the same time use of margarine and partially hydrogenated oils began to go up.

• The "Low-Fat" diet craze began to take popularity in the 50's has continued to do so until just the past 15 years or so.

• Heart Disease rates started to increase dramatically in the 1950's. As of 2015 heart disease is the number one cause of death in America. In the early 1900's, heart disease was almost non-existant (side note: cancer was almost non-existant as well).

• Type two diabetes began to steadily increase each year starting in the 1950's. Their is also a profound link between diabetes and heart disease. It is estimated that one in ten people in America have diabetes.

Aside from these facts, there ae two keys things most of are aware of. Trans-fats and sugar have absolutely NO NUTRITIONAL BENEFITS, NONE! Healthy fats have several benefits:

• Omega-3 fatty acids are unsaturated fats that are found in fish. Omega 3's are essential for a healthy brain and a healthy heart.

• Saturated fat also contains butyric acid which is a component in cancer prevention.

• Healthy fats are essential for healthy hormone function.

• Too little of the right fats in your diet are worse for your health than too many of the good fats.

The key is that fat is not black and white. It's not either good or bad. Some are bad (like transfats), while others are much better. Fat's wether they are unsaturated plant sources or they are organic grass fed saturated animal source fats are essential!!!!

My point is this: You can't rely on everything you see or hear, sometimes you have to go digging for yourself. Unfortunately, you we don't live in a world where facts are undeniable and people do what's right based on their own moral compass. We live in a world where information is sold to the highest bidder and is manipulated to whatever is going to increase the size of their pocketbook. Until this changes, it's up to people like you and me to do our own digging and find the real facts when it comes to our nutrition and our health. My health is not for sale.