Download Food Myths and other Hoaxes

Food Myths and other Hoaxes
Eating a lot of salt causes high blood pressure. We should restrict our salt intake to
less than 2 grams per day.
This is a myth. Only about 40% of people with hypertension are salt
sensitive. The rest can eat as much salt as they like and not suffer any
consequences.
It is a totally false notion that eating too much salt causes high blood
pressure. As for the 2000 mg. daily limit, this is a completely arbitrary
guideline and there is no research that tells us that this amount is
correct.
Further, sodium is high in most vegetables, fish and meats. When
calculating the total salt intake this fact is often ignored. In fact humans
are mostly dependant on this sodium rather than the one added to foods
at the time of cooking or at the table.
Sodium ions, those found in salt, are essential to many bodily functions,
including heart rhythm; it is a very important electrolyte. Any imbalance
in the sodium levels can have very serious consequences. The body has
the ability to self regulate sodium. The lack of such regulation by the
body points to serious illness, which should be attended to promptly. To
restrict the amount of salt may not only be unnecessary, it could be
dangerous.
People are avoiding fats nowadays like they were poison also, now everything is ‘low
fat’, ‘no fat’ or ‘reduced fat’
The low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet of the last 40 years has caused the
early deaths of millions of people and untold suffering, both of which
continue unabated to this day.
What is so bad about fat? The fact is that fat along with protein and
carbohydrates is considered essential for life and is the basis of human
diet wisdom throughout the ages. This was the time before smart
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commercial interests started to distorting the facts with a fog of
disinformation with intent to deceive the gullible public. The foolish are
easily manipulated and as is usually the case the false prophets preaching
‘low fat’, ‘no fat’ or ‘reduced fat’ foods are glorified and very religiously
followed.
The fact is that we should have about 30% of our daily diet in the form
of fat. It is an essential nutrient and when eaten in moderation, causes
no adverse effects on the body. The only requirement is that it should
be from natural sources. Avoid processed fats sold commercially.
Your body weight and shape is controlled largely by your heredity and
not by the amount of food that you eat. Obviously, you can stuff
yourself and put on a few pounds, or starve yourself and loose a few
pounds, but by and large, your weight is an intractable part of your
existence. The fact is, most diets fail because hereditary factors that are
not within your power to change, are mostly in control.
A diet high in animal fat and cholesterol is dangerous to your heart.
Proponents will cite a study which shows an increase in saturated fat in
the diet will raise the blood cholesterol level, a claimed precursor to
heart disease. Other studies claim saturated fats increase the risk of
breast cancer in pre-menopausal women. These studies always include a
large portion of carbohydrates which are never blamed. They will cite
studies which show some country that eats a higher amount of saturated
fat than another country and has a greater incidence of some form of
cancer while ignoring a vast amount of other differences between the
two countries.
This myth is so widespread and often repeated that it is believed by most
people without question. Let us examine the facts of the matter in an
unbiased manner.
There are two types of cholesterols.
• Serum cholesterol
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• Dietary cholesterol
When the dietary cholesterol intake is high the serum cholesterol goes
down and visa versa. This is a self regulating mechanism created by nature
and it does not require any human intervention. Eating a low cholesterol
diet does not reduce blood cholesterol because the liver simply produces
more. The liver produces cholesterol which is necessary for the transport
and storage of body fat.
Some people have a higher level of cholesterol in their system genetically
and it is not a disease that requires any kind of treatment. But unfortunately
the drug industry through clever manipulations of facts and good old scare
mongering has managed to create a lucrative market for their products
which have done nothing to help but has often created bad side effects.
Millions of people all over the world are on statin drugs needlessly. The
manufacturers of these useless products and the pill pushers the so called
cardiac specialists are laughing all the way to the bank. This is a classic
medical scam. The strange fact is that this licensed ripoff has the blessing
of Governments across the world.
The idea that too much animal fat and a high cholesterol diet are
dangerous to your heart and blood vessels is nothing but a myth.
Cholesterol is not a deadly poison, but a substance vital to the cells of all
mammals. There are no such things as good or bad cholesterol, but
mental stress, physical inactivity and change of body weight may
influence the level of blood cholesterol.
High cholesterol is not dangerous by itself, but may reflect an unhealthy
condition, or it may be totally innocent. High blood cholesterol is said
to promote atherosclerosis (the scientific name for arteriosclerosis) and
thus also coronary heart disease. But many studies have shown that
people whose blood cholesterol is low or forced to be low with drugs
become just as arteriosclerotic as people whose cholesterol is high.
Your body produces three to four times more cholesterol than you eat.
The production of cholesterol increases when you eat little cholesterol
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and decreases when you eat much. This explains why the ‘prudent’ diet
cannot lower cholesterol more than on average a few per cent. There is
no evidence that too much animal fat and cholesterol in the diet
promote atherosclerosis or heart attacks. This is the scare mongering
part.
For instance, more than a dozen studies have shown that people who
have had a heart attack have not eaten more fat than other people, and
degree of atherosclerosis at autopsy is unrelated with the diet. The only
effective way to unnaturally lower cholesterol is with drugs, but neither
heart mortality nor total mortality rates have been improved with drugs
the effect of which is cholesterol-lowering only.
On the contrary, these drugs are dangerous to your health and may
shorten your life. The new cholesterol-lowering drugs, the statins, do
not prevent cardio-vascular disease; this is due to other mechanisms
than cholesterol-lowering. Unfortunately, they have been shown to
stimulate cancer in rodents tested in labs. Many of these facts have been
presented in scientific journals and books for decades but are rarely told
to the public by the proponents of the diet-heart idea. The reason why
laymen, doctors and even scientists have been misled is because
opposing and disagreeing results are systematically ignored or misquoted
in the scientific press under the influence of the powerful drug lobby.
The profit motive behind specialty foods, prescription cholesterollowering drugs, blood testing, and doctor visits results in billions of
dollars of business each year. The amount of money spent to keep this
myth going is astronomical. The hundreds of millions of dollars are spent
funding studies to support this myth only to fail in proving any
connection between cholesterol and heart disease. Half of the people
with heart disease have normal cholesterol levels. The only connection is
among people with hypercholesterolemia which is a rare disease of
extremely high cholesterol. There are strong indications that low HDL
cholesterol is related to an increase in heart disease, and this is common
in people with low total cholesterol readings, not high cholesterol.
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Low cholesterol increases the risk of cerebral hemorrhage (stroke),
gallbladder disease and many types of cancers.
For almost forty years, the lipid hypothesis or diet-heart idea has
dominated medical thinking about heart disease. In broad outlines, this
theory proposes that when we eat foods rich in saturated fat and
cholesterol, cholesterol is then deposited in our arteries in the form of
plaque or atheromas that cause blockages. If the blockages become
severe, or if a clot forms that cannot get past the plaque, the heart is
starved of blood and a heart attack occurs.
Many distinguished scientists have pointed to serious flaws in this
theory, beginning with the fact that heart disease has increased many
fold during the period when consumption of saturated fat has
decreased.
“The diet-heart idea,” said the distinguished Dr. George Mann, “is the
greatest scam in the history of medicine.” And the chorus of dissidents
continues to grow, even as this increasingly untenable theory has been
applied to the whole population, starting with low-fat diets for growing
children and mass medication with cholesterol-lowering drugs for
adults.
Two major factors in the cause of heart disease are lipoprotein, Lp (a)
and homocysteine, neither of which is normally checked by doctors. A
lipoprotein reading of 20 mg/dl is normal and above 30 mg/dl is
elevated. Homocysteine readings below 13 micromoles/L are normal.
Michael DeBakey, world renowned heart surgeon from Houston, who
has devoted extensive research into the cholesterol coronary disease
theory, states that out of every ten people in the United States who have
atherosclerotic heart disease, only three or four of these ten have high
cholesterol levels; this is approximately the identical rate of elevated
cholesterol found in the general population. His comment: “If you say
cholesterol is the cause, how do you explain the other 60 percent to 70
percent with heart disease who don’t have high cholesterol?” In 1964
DeBakey made an analysis of cholesterol levels from usual hospital
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laboratory testing of 1,700 patients with atherosclerotic disease and
found there was no positive or definitive relationship or correlation
between serum cholesterol levels and the extent or nature of
atherosclerotic disease.
Saturated fats are your enemy and you must avoid it at all cost
Once again this myth is so widespread and often repeated that it is
believed by most people without question. Let us examine the facts of
the matter in an unbiased manner.
Many people mistakenly think all fats are nutritional villains responsible
for everything from coronary artery disease to obesity. To the contrary,
many health problems may actually be caused by deficiencies of certain
fats—even the much maligned saturated fats. Fats serve an array of
important functions, including cushioning our organs against shock and
insulating vital tissues against cold. Saturated fats actually heal the body
and are highly resistant to oxidation and attack from free radicals.
Saturated fats help prevent diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and bowel
diseases. They also influence body temperature regulation, pain
sensitivity, appetite control and cognitive performance. Numerous
studies show that these fats play many beneficial roles in our bodies,
such as enhancing the immune system, protecting the liver and helping
build healthy bones.
A quick review of the health and diet of people in 1900 easily shows
they ate a very high level of saturated fat from meat, butter, and lard but
had virtually no heart disease or cancer.
The people of France eat a diet very high in saturated fat but had a heart
disease rate only one third that of the United States. The French people
have a much lower intake of carbohydrates and a higher intake of
saturated fats, which are the true reasons for their superior health. The
French are noted for the high amount of cheese in their diet. Cheese has
no carbohydrates but is high in saturated fats. Cheese is a perfectly
healthy food as the French have proven. Unfortunately, the French are
beginning to turn away from their natural foods to manufactured
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unhealthy foods under the influence of brainwashing by commercial
interests.
Cholesterol in eggs does not cause heart disease. Saturated fat in red meat
does not cause heart disease. Actually, they cure it. There are many studies
which provide the proof.
The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Framingham
Study has been ongoing since 1948. According to NHLBI Director Dr.
Claude Lenfant, “This study suggests that obesity is an important risk
factor for heart failure in both women and men.” The study found a
small correlation between heart disease and elevated LDL cholesterol
and total cholesterol; however, these are dependent variables because
high cholesterol is associated with obesity.
The Framingham study also found that those who ate the most
saturated fat, the most calories, and the most cholesterol were the most
physically active. They also weighed the least and had the lowest levels
of serum cholesterol. The people who ate the most saturated fat were
the healthiest and had the lowest risk of heart disease.
The edible oil industry wants people to buy more of their vegetable oil
products.
The edible oil industry produces omega-6 polyunsaturated vegetable,
seed, and grain oils such as corn oil, soybean oil, Canola oil, safflower
oil, sunflower oil, and cottonseed oil. Monounsaturated omega-9 fats as
found in olive oil, and polyunsaturated omega-6 fats as found in grains,
seeds, and nuts increase the risk of breast cancer, especially omega-6 fats
as found in grains, seeds, and nuts.
These oils are highly suspect as one of the leading causes of heart
disease and cancer, both of which increased in concert with increases of
omega-6 fatty acids in the diet. Omega-6 fatty acids are proinflammatory and proven to cause or contribute to a long list of
autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple
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sclerosis, Crohn's disease, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome,
inflammatory bowel disease, and many others.
The edible oil industry also produces hydrogenated forms of these oils.
These hydrogenated oils are the deadly ‘trans fats.’ The real enemy of
your health is these trans fat, which lurks in many processed foods. This
man made substance does not exist in nature and is toxic to the human
body in any form. Yet most ready to eat products are made with this
poison, with the blessing of the governments of all nations.
Saturated fats, found in large proportions in meat, eggs, butter and other
animal products, as well as in such tropical vegetable oils as palm and
coconut, are usually solid at room temperature.
Saturated fats and omega-3 fats as found in red meat and fish were not
associated with an elevated risk for breast cancer in postmenopausal
women. The excellent results of using these are just the opposite to the
myths, distortions, and lies promoted by manufacturers of processed oils.
Natural saturated fats do not cause heart disease or cancer and never
did. Saturated fat in a low-carbohydrate diet improves cholesterol ratios.
Triglycerides are lowered while the good HDL cholesterol is increased.
Saturated fat in the diet is necessary for healthy body cells. Saturated fat
produces strong cell walls that would otherwise be soft and floppy. The
saturated fat resists penetration of the cell by invaders and oxidation and
attack by free radical molecules, ions, and elements. “Unsaturated free
fatty acids (FFAs) stimulated the proliferation of human MDA-MB-231
breast cancer cells, whereas saturated FFAs inhibited it and caused
apoptosis (process limiting growth of tumors).”
It is intuitively obvious and proven from the study of primitive tribes
that humans and carnivorous animals prefer and eat the meat with a lot
of fat.
People are brainwashed into thinking fat is unhealthy. Do not believe
the myths, distortions and lies propagated against saturated fats.
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Dietary Fat Should Be No More Than 30% of Calories.
This myth seems so true, innocent, wonderfully healthy, and wholesome
that most people swallow it without question, but it is the most deadly
myth of all dietary dogma and lies. The fat phobia is the result of
worldwide brainwashing. One does not have much choice but to
increase carbohydrates in the diet to replace a reduction in fats, and
therein lays the road to obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and the
entire medical book of autoimmune diseases. Carbohydrates are slow in
their destruction of the body, but they eventually prove to be extremely
deadly. The delay between the start of a high-carbohydrate diet and
disease has been labeled as the ‘20-year rule.’
The dual keys to the prevention and removal of artery plaque are to
keeping insulin low and HDL cholesterol high.
Low-fat Diet Causes Gallbladder Disease.
The gallbladder resembles a pouch and collects green bile fluid as it
drains from the liver through the common bile duct. This bile fluid is
made, in part, to help with digestion (the salts in bile make it easier for
you to digest fats).
However, bile also contains some waste products including bilirubin
(generated when old red blood cells are destroyed to make room for
fresh ones) and cholesterol.
Gallstones form when cholesterol or bilirubin particles begin to cluster
together into a solid lump. The stone grows in size as the bile fluid
washes over it; much like a pearl can form inside an oyster.
The gallbladder collects bile fluid but does not discharge it all when a
low-fat diet is eaten. This bile fluid stagnates, and gallstones are formed
from the precipitates. The gallstones get large enough to plug the
discharge of the gallbladder bile duct. A single meal of fatty food can set
off a gallbladder attack when the gallbladder attempts to discharge its
contents, including the stone or stones. Doctors generally remove the
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gallbladder rather than attempting to remove the stones. The common
bile duct at the junction of the liver bile duct and the gallbladder bile
duct cannot be removed when plugged; therefore, the stone must be
removed.
A high-fat diet prevents gallbladder disease by causing the gallbladder to
discharge the bile fluids for the digestion of the fats. The system remains
healthy on the high-fat diet. Gallbladder disease has become epidemic as
more people have switched to the low-fat diet during the last 40 years.
You can go on a low-fat diet; you may not lose any weight, but will lose
your gallbladder for sure.
Here are a few other items that come to mind:
Asbestos is a serious health threat that must be removed from where it is found and
disposed of properly.
First of all, asbestos is not a toxic substance, it is a mineral. While it is
true that in some cases it is a carcinogen, the type of lung cancer that is
said to be caused by asbestos is extremely rare and there are only a few
thousand cases each year.
Asbestosis, a condition of the lung, is a consequence of the long-term
inhalation of asbestos fibers, such as would occur in mining, milling,
manufacturing or application of asbestos products. Workers who are
susceptible are brake-lining, insulation, shipyard and demolition
workers.
In many cases it is difficult, if not impossible to prove a cause and effect
relationship with asbestos inhalation. By the way, that is the only way to
be affected by asbestos, by inhaling the fibers into your lungs. Handling
pieces of asbestos presents no danger. In addition, the only time that
asbestos is harmful in any way is when it is in the form of fine particles
or dust. In most cases, asbestos in a building is intact and can be made
safe just by painting over it or covering it. In fact, trying to remove it
might present a much greater risk because the removal process releases
asbestos dust, which can escape into the air and be inhaled. Asbestos
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removal workers are at greatest risk if they do not take precautions
against inhaling the dust.
It is also true that there are many additional pollutants in the working
environment that are at least equally harmful as is asbestos, but they are
not regulated. Soot from chimneys can cause skin cancer in exposed
workers, miners and those who work underground are subject to
exposure to radon, which also causes lung cancer. PCB’s in hydraulic
fluids and insecticides can cause liver and skin cancer. Painters are
exposed daily to carcinogenic solvents. Nuclear and medical workers are
often exposed to ionizing radiation that can cause bone cancer and
leukemia. Hairdressers and barbers, and their customers are exposed to
hair dyes, insulation workers are exposed to fiberglass fibers and other
silicate fibers, railroad and bus workers, as well as pedestrians are
exposed to diesel and gasoline fumes and exhaust and exterminators are
exposed to arsenic compounds.
In all these cases, the threat is small compared to the cost and difficulty
of protecting people from it. Why is asbestos different? With such a
microscopic risk, why does everyone get so worked up about it? It is not
lost on us that lawyers and asbestos removal companies are making
millions of dollars off of the fear of asbestos.
Exercise is good for you and will help you to live longer.
Not necessarily. In fact, exercise could very well kill you. There is no
evidence that exercise of any kind can decrease mortality and allow you
to live longer. In fact, if you suffer from arteriosclerosis, cardio- vascular
disease or hypertension, strenuous exercise could well prove fatal. Most
people get all of the exercise they need just going about their daily lives.
And if you think that exercise can help you lose weight, think again. In
most cases, your body weight and shape are determined by your
hereditary components and are by and large intractable. In addition to
the risks to your health, it is also clear that you could be hit by a car
jogging, you could damage your shin and hip bones by jogging on hard
surfaces such as roads due to repetitive stress injuries, you could be
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mugged in the park at night or you could trip and fall and break an arm
or a leg or be bitten by street dogs. Not to mention the fact that most
exercise is just plain hard and stressful work!
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