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Sunday, June 22, 2014

In the health news ...


- bring on the ice cream :)

Is Fat Our Friend?

[A] decade after that conversation, the science is swinging back to a reconsideration of what fat does—and more important, what it doesn’t do. How that happened turns out to be a fascinating story of the limitations of science and the influence of agribusiness, and of how hard it can be to change public policy on health.

The emerging understanding of fat’s influence, and in where the science went wrong, is captured in “Ending the War on Fat,” a new Time magazine cover story by Bryan Walsh that announces itself with an arresting close-up of an appetizing curl of butter. The story is behind a subscription paywall, but here’s what it says:

* …the experiment was a failure. We cut the fat, but by almost every measure, Americans are sicker than ever. The prevalence of Type 2 diabetes increased 166% from 1980 to 2012. Nearly 1 in 10 American adults has the disease, costing the health care system $245 billion a year, and an estimated 86 million people are pre-diabetic. Deaths from heart disease have fallen — a fact that many experts attribute to better emergency care, less smoking and widespread use of cholesterol-controlling drugs like statins — but cardiovascular disease remains the country’s No. 1 killer. Even the increasing rates of exercise haven’t been able to keep us healthy. More than a third of the country is now obese, making the U.S. one of the fattest countries in an increasingly fat world. “Americans were told to cut back on fat to lose weight and prevent heart disease,” says Dr. David Ludwig, the director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. “There’s an overwhelmingly strong case to be made for the opposite.” *

This paradox—that eating something we have been persuaded is unhealthful might, in fact, have been healthier for us—is also explored in a new book, The Big Fat Surprise, by Nina Teicholz. And it’s been the professional life’s work of Gary Taubes, whose 2004 New York Times article “What If It’s All Been A Big Fat Lie?” led to two books and the founding of a research nonprofit. Taubes’ work is arguably responsible for igniting enthusiasm for low-carb (now “paleo” and “primal”) diets, whose popularity had foundered with the 2003 death of low-carb pioneer Dr. Robert Coleman Atkins ......

5 Comments:

Anonymous Richard said...

I was talking with my daughter about this yesterday. She was noting how skinny everybody seemed in our old family pictures. Calories are so much more accessible these days; the fast food, convenience food infrastructure just didn't exist 40 or even 30 years ago. For most of us I think it still comes down the right balance of diet and exercise and developing a sensitivity to what makes us feel better in the long run.

8:27 AM  
Blogger crystal said...

I bet for many people, the luxury of "healthy" eating is just beyond them because of finances or time constraints or availability of certain foods.

12:11 PM  
Blogger Victor said...

Richard and Crystal, we humans can keep telling each other that putting on a little fat is because eating has been a luxury during these last 30 and/or so 40 years but truth be known, "IT" is simply unwanted alien cells who mean no harm and only want to help humanity. YA see Victor won't co-operate and let these parasite brain cell alien leaders, "I" mean US (usual sinners), no, no, "I" meant to say us godly skitso cells convince his "Jesus" that the more we alien cells can stick, "I" mean stock UP, the better chance we'll have of surviving when "Armageddon" comes around and.....................
and...........................and................

END YA SAY sinner vic? BE NICE! DON'T BE LIKE THAT NOW!

Don't pay sinner vic any....... WHATEVER! cause we all know that too much of anything can do us harm.

As for weather, GOD, Satan, Angels and/or alien cells exist, let's just say that "IT" would be easier to try and figure out where Golden Guitars come from.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C6xDvaQEAo

Keep praying for "ME", "ME" and "ME" folks! LOL :)

God Bless Peace

12:30 PM  
Anonymous Henry said...

I think this is a topic we can agree on!!! : )

I have been doing a lot of research into the modern food industry and it's frightening what is being done to food. We both have disabilities and I have noticed, for some time now, that kind of food I eat has a big impact on how well I feel mentally and physically. What saddens me though is that doctors seem not to care about "why" something happens.

For example, I was walking - just walking - and I tore my calf muscle! It was, as you can imagine, really painful and I was out of work for two months. When I asked the doctor why - his answer was "well, we will never know" (which I know is probably true) but he wasn't even the least bit curious, and that upset me! Of course, some can say that things like that happen as one gets older, but is it possible that it is a side effect or sign of some internal changes that are happening.

Well, my curiosity has prompted me to explore alternative medicines, ways of eating, etc. and I am learning some great things. It's hard to sort out opinion from fact though. If you have any tips, let me know.

7:34 PM  
Blogger crystal said...

I do think what we eat has a big impact. Did you see that there's nano-encapsulated metal in some foods, like dairy products? ... http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/05/nanotech-food-safety-fda-nano-material ... eek!

I think a lot of doctors just treat symptoms and don't even seem to care much about causes. We really have to look out for ourselves, I guess.

I don't know much about alternative medicine but my sister is more into that and takes a lot of supplements - herbs, vitamins, probiotics, etc. - and she's much more healthy than me. I do visit Dr. Weil's site sometimes but I'm not sure if he's always right ... http://www.drweil.com/ ... he was a student of the famous Dr. Richard Evans Schultes :)

9:44 PM  

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