People who eat predominantly traditional fats like butter and coconut oil usually have nice skin. It's smoother, rosier and it ages more gracefully than the skin of a person who eats industrial fats like soy and corn oil. Coconut is the predominant fat in the traditional Thai diet. Coconut fat is about 87% saturated, far more than any animal fat*. Coconut oil and butter are very low in omega-6 linoleic acid, while industrial vegetable oils and margarine contain a lot of it.
I saw a great movie last week called "The Betrayal", about a family of Lao refugees that immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1970s. The director followed the family for 23 years as they tried to carve out a life for themselves in Brooklyn. The main fats in the traditional Lao diet are lard and coconut milk. The mother of the family was a nice looking woman when she left Laos. She was thin and had great skin and teeth, despite having delivered half a dozen children at that point. After 23 years in the U.S., she was overweight and her skin was colorless and pasty. At the end of the movie, they return to Laos to visit their family there. The woman's mother was still alive. She was nearly 100 years old and looked younger than her daughter.
Well that's a pretty story, but let's hit the science. There's a mouse model of skin cancer called the Skh:HR-1 hairless mouse. When exposed to UV rays and/or topical carcinogens, these mice develop skin cancer just like humans (especially fair-skinned humans). Researchers have been studying the factors that determine their susceptibility to skin cancer, and fat is a dominant one. Specifically, their susceptibility to skin cancer is determined by the amount of linoleic acid in the diet.
In 1994, Drs. Cope and Reeve published a study using hairless mice in which they put groups of mice on two different diets (Cope, R. B. & Reeve, V. E. (1994) Photochem. Photobiol. 59: 24 S). The first diet contained 20% margarine; the second was identical but contained 20% butter. Mice eating margarine developed significantly more skin tumors when they were exposed to UV light or a combination of UV and a topical carcinogen. Researchers have known this for a long time. Here's a quote from a review published in 1987:
Nearly 50 years ago the first reports appeared that cast suspicion on lipids, or peroxidative products thereof, as being involved in the expression of actinically induced cancer. Whereas numerous studies have implicated lipids as potentiators of specific chemical-induced carcinogenesis, only recently has the involvement of these dietary constituents in photocarcinogenesis been substantiated. It has now been demonstrated that both level of dietary lipid intake and degree of lipid saturation have pronounced effects on photoinduced skin cancer, with increasing levels of unsaturated fat intake enhancing cancer expression. The level of intake of these lipids is also manifested in the level of epidermal lipid peroxidation.Here's a quote from a study conducted in 1996:
A series of semi-purified diets containing 20% fat by weight, of increasing proportions (0, 5%, 10%, 15% or 20%) of polyunsaturated sunflower oil mixed with hydrogenated saturated cottonseed oil, was fed to groups of Skh:HR-1 hairless mice during induction and promotion of photocarcinogenesis. The photocarcinogenic response was of increasing severity as the polyunsaturated content of the mixed dietary fat was increased, whether measured as tumour incidence, tumour multiplicity, progression of benign tumours to squamous cell carcinoma, or reduced survival... These results suggest that the enhancement of photocarcinogenesis by the dietary polyunsaturated fat component is mediated by an induced predisposition to persistent immunosuppression caused by the chronic UV irradiation, and supports the evidence for an immunological role in dietary fat modulation of photocarcinogenesis in mice.In other words, UV-induced cancer increased in proportion to the linoleic acid content of the diet, because linoleic acid suppresses the immune system's cancer-fighting ability!
It doesn't end at skin cancer. In animal models, a number of cancers are highly sensitive to the amount of linoleic acid in the diet, including breast cancer. Once again, butter beats margarine and vegetable oils. Spontaneous breast tumors develop only half as frequently in rats fed butter than in rats fed margarine or safflower oil (Yanagi, S. et al. (1989) Comparative effects of butter, margarine, safflower oil and dextrin on mammary tumorigenesis in mice and rats. In: The Pharmacological Effects of Lipids.). The development of breast tumors in rats fed carcinogens is highly dependent on the linoleic acid content of the diet. The effect plateaus around 4.4% of calories, after which additional linoleic acid has no further effect.
Conversely, omega-3 fish oil protects against skin cancer in the hairless mouse, even in large amounts. In another study, not only did fish oil protect against skin cancer, it doubled the amount of time researchers had to expose the mice to UV light to cause sunburn!
Thus, the amount of linoleic acid in the diet as well as the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 determine the susceptibility of the skin to damage from UV rays. This is a very straightforward explanation for the beautiful skin of people eating traditional fats like butter and coconut oil. It's also a straightforward explanation for the poor skin and sharply rising melanoma incidence of Western nations (source). Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer. If you're dark-skinned, you're off the hook:
I believe the other factor contributing to rising melanoma incidence is sunscreen. Most sunscreens block sunburn-causing UVB rays but not melanoma-causing UVA rays. The fact that they allow you to remain in the sun for longer without burning means they increase your exposure to UVA. I've written about this before. Sunscreen also blocks vitamin D formation in the skin, a process that some researchers believe also promotes cancer. I'll end with a couple more graphs that are self-explanatory (source). "PUFA" stands for polyunsaturated faty acids, and primarily represents linoleic acid:
*Not only do Thais have clear skin, they also have clear arteries. Autopsies performed in the 1960s showed that residents of Bangkok had a low prevalence of atherosclerosis and a rate of heart attack (myocardial infarction) about 1/10 that of Americans living in Los Angeles.
55 comments:
http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/index.php?Article_ID=10539
This looks like the opposite cardiovascular result you are claiming.
^^^^
The study you are talking about http://content.onlinejacc.org/cgi/content/full/48/4/715
This study doesn't state if organ virgin coconut oil was used, so I am a bit suspicious. There were studies done in the past where oxidized cholesterol was used.
Also, I wonder if all that sugar in the meal had anything to do with the results. Sugar intake spikes your insulin which makes you store fat. I know that the process of storing fat is pretty detrimental to health, perhaps saturated fats is easier to store. I also think that most of the fat stored in the belly is saturated fat, no?
I'll let Steven handle this.
-----
Another topic altogether: I use New Zealand Gree (New Zealand is home to some of the most organic and grass-fed cows in the world =D). It is far more yellow than my trader joes organic butter. Is there anything in butter that I cannot get from ghee? Will I be missing out if I completely switch to ghee?
Short clinical studies have very little to do with long time health effects, as adaptation takes time.
Similarly coconut oil was found to cause similar changes to chickens, bun only for the first days of trial. After that the effect was more than reversed. So it is not surprising that the long run, natural saturated fats have been much safer for both humans and for test animals, in both epidemiological and clinical tests.
Luckily our bodies are meant to last for a lifetime and not only for a couple of hours.
Regards,
LeenaS
Do you think that the problem with suncreens is the increased UVA exposure, period, or is it the combination with a lack of UVB (like vitamin A toxicity is really a vitamin D deficiencty)? What's your opinion on European sunscreens that use Mexoryl or Tinosorb to block UVA? While I've lightened up over the past year because of all my reading on the subject, I've been pretty obsessive about sunscreen since I was a teen--I inherited my father's fair skin, and that side of the family doesn't age anywhere near as well as my olive-skinned mother's, so I'm careful with the sun. For the last few years I've used European sunscreen for the UVA protection.
Interestingly, since I quit the sugar and carbs and increased saturated fat I can stay a lot longer in the sun without protection and not get burned. I was in the Caribbean last summer and frequently forgot to apply sunscreen, and I didn't burn at all...I actually got a nice tan.
Hi Stephen
What would you say is the minimum amount of fats needed in each meal? I have to conserve my money and food. Like how much butter per meal?
Thank You
I think an obvious question that deserves a scientific study is whether there is a difference between rancid, oxidized linoleic acid and fresh linoleic acid. Obviously most supermarket sources of O-6 PUFA are rancid, but it is possible to buy refrigerated oils -- my supermarket has both hemp and flax oil on a refrigerated shelf, in dark brown bottles.
I use to think it was starch and carbohydrates that caused my acne, so called high insulin. I also thought i had a wheat intolerance and gluten sensitivity, turns out i wasn't eating enough butter, coconut oil, cream, and milk. Getting lots of sunlight is like icing on the cake.
Eat your saturated fat and don't put sunscreen on.
troy
I recently visited Thailand and definitely noticed that the Thai people are quite healthy in appearance. I didn't see one overweight Thai during my two week stay.
Of course, I paid close attention to diet while I was there, and there was distinct lack of fat in the foods. Their diet was generally very high-carb, moderate fat and protein. The fat that was in the foods came from fatty meats (like duck) and coconut milk (curries). I constantly had to request extra butter with my meals (which is common now thanks to the king and his fondness of dairy cows).
The principle fat Thai cuisine comes from coconut milk, although one might also consider white rice as a sort of fat, as it can be converted to palmitic acid in the body. Lots of white rice is a cornerstone of every meal in Thailand.
I wonder: what is the significance of palmitic acid from carbs in overall health? Beneficial? Neutral? Detrimental?
Stephen: I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this recent study linking red meat consumption to increased cancer incidence: http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/03/23/too-much-red-meat-may-shorten-lifespan.html (I couldn't find the actual text of the study or the abstract). Unlike some previous studies of the same subject, it attempted to control for confounding factors, though apparently it did rely on self-reporting of the dietary intake (which is clearly not very reliable).
If I read the Red Meat Consumption report correctly, the Highest Red Meat Consumption Catagory had 3 times more smokers than the high White Meat Consumption Catagory.
Lowest Red Meat Consumption Catagory exercised (vigorous physical activity > 5 times per week) twice as much per week as the Highest Red Meat Consumption Catagory. Hmmmm.
I skimmed the full text of this study. This study didn't control for PUFA or carbohydrate consumption of any kind. Except vegetables. I got disinterested after that.
Thanks Stephan great post.
There is a mass of evidence that omega 6 LA increases and omega 3s decrease the risk of a whole range of cancers through a number of mechanisms.
Epidemiological studies and experimental data suggest Omega sixes stimulate, and omega threes inhibit development and progression of a range of human cancers including melanoma. DHA inhibits growth of cultured melanoma cells. Arachidonic acid and omega six linoleic acid increase invasiveness, and DHA and EPA inhibited invasiveness of brain metastic melanoma. Omega-3 alpha linolenic acid markedly reduces sunburn.
In one trial looking at breast biopsy results, and doing an analysis of the breast tissue for fats, which split the result into quartiles, showed that women with the highest levels of omega-3 DHA and EPA had a 70% lower risk of the lumps being invasive.
This is essentially my thread looking at impact of omega six and three on breast cancer.ex
http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=24410&highlight=greek+diet
Half Navajo.
There was a trial looking at the incidence of acne in Kitava. essentially they didn't find any serious acne at all. As the Stephan has previously posted in Kitava, Omega six intake is low, they eat a lot of fish, and a lot of coconut.
Author
Omega Six The Devils Fat
www.omegasixthedevilsfat.com
I find that when I eat omega 3s my skin quality improves tremendously. I've been eating salmon all week, and my skin feels like I am a princess because it is so fair and unblemished... it's like an infant's skin. I always had nice skin since being low carb, but now that I am actually working on eating the right fats too (more omega 3, less omega 6) it looks almost perfect.
Most people eat enough sat fat, they would benefit by eating more omega 3. Eating sat fat is an improvement over omega 6, but omega 3 is an improvement over both, because most of us are grossly deficient in omega 3s due to a prior history of high omega 6 intake coupled with hyperinsulinemia.
Oh and I am noticing changes in how I think and feel due to eating salmon and avoiding chicken (chicken, a previous staple, has been replaced with salmon).
Since eating more salmon, I am noticing the world looks more "sharp" and "clear"... I feel more focused and calm... but there are no signs of hypomania involved (I have bipolar spectrum disorder so usually whenever I get signs of dopamine like sharpness of color and clarity of vision, it usually means I"m pretty crazy).
Basically, I feel like omega 3 is somehow actually improving how dopamine works in my brain because all of the mental changes I am experiencing are very specifically dopaminergic ... I feel calm, focused, my vision is sharp and colors are bright... but there is a lot less flux between high and low points. I noticed this occurring after 1 week of changing the types of fats I eat. I KNOW something must have changed because never in my life have I been able to experience this (sharp vision, bright color) without also having some sort of stimulant-manic symptoms. I am actually more calm and centered than usual.
I think omega 3s are probably one of the most important supplements in existence for people with medical problems... perhaps they are less important for people who have no diseases, but for people with diseases, it's almost always true omega 3 helps.
Our society, our way of life, has resulted in gross and severe omega 3 deficiencies. I think the epidemic of bipolar disorder, obesity, diabetes, a major part in this is that omega 3 fatty acids are becoming progressively more deficient due to high carbohydrate (insulin) and omega 6 fatty acid intakes. The effects of omega 3 deficiency are most devastating prenatally, particularly in relation to brain development, and I would not be surprised to discover that this is also true for risk of diabetes/obesity since omega 3 regulates insulin sensitivity in addition to brain development.
Insulin, high insulin, is both a cause and a symptom of omega 3 deficiency, as insulin encourages metabolism of short chain precursors into the active long form. If the diet contains a glut of omega 6 with scant omega 3, high insulin is pretty much like putting a match on a pile of oily rags.
robert brown,
exactly, the kitava ate low omega six and three. The fish they ate were leaner, more protein, vitamins, and trace minerals, not fatty omega 3 fish. There diet was 50% saturated fat from the coconut. They ate the whole fish also... not just the fillets like modern people.
Omega 3 oils are another scam by big corporations and the fishing industry, to sale, sale , sale, money, money, money. First they led the public into veggie oils, and now omega 3's... anything to keep the public away from saturated tropical and animal fats.
Saturated fats are the most important.... period. If you live in a area without sunlight, take the blue ice fermented cod liver oil, or the vital choice salmon oil. Or you could just take the carlson vitamin d drops. Vitamin D is way more important than omega 3 fish oils they sale on grocery store shelves.
again, eat your saturated fat, and don't put sunscreen on.
troy
Fboness,
The study you linked to measured the effect of one meal on surrogate markers of heart disease. That doesn't exactly qualify as a challenge to a study that looked at actual heart attacks in people eating coconut fat for their entire lives. The study you linked to got a lot of media hype, but if you want to read an alternative explanation of the findings, here it is.
Santosh,
I think ghee is a great fat. There may be some things that raw butter or cream has that ghee doesn't, but there's probably not much nutrient loss between pasteurized butter and ghee.
Leena,
Another thing to note is that coconut oil has a potent HDL-raising effect in controlled studies.
Leniza,
The lack of UVB may well be a factor. My opinion is that sunscreens that block both UVA and UVB are a better choice, but preventing burns with clothing is even better. I've also noticed an improvement in my sun tolerance since improving the fat quality of my diet. I used to burn so easily but now I can tan again like I could when I was a kid.
Daiikkon,
There isn't really a minimum amount. I think quality is more important than quantity, so just eat as much as you can afford.
Robert,
I don't really know because I haven't looked into it yet but I suspect rancid fats are worse. The thing is, LA becomes rancid in the body to a certain degree even if it didn't begin that way, for example in the skin when it's exposed to UV. High-LA diets also deplete vitamin E, suggesting that they're using up the body's antioxidants.
Ryan,
Thanks for your anecdote about Thailand, that sounds like what I've heard from others. Some researchers say that palmitic acid is the worst saturated fat because of its supposed effects on insulin sensitivity, but that doesn't make any sense to me given that it's the primary fat synthesized by the liver from carbohydrate. Are our livers trying to kill us?
Adam,
Yes, I've seen that. I'm probably going to address it at some point in a post called "Modern Diet/Health Epidemiology: a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy". Basically, I'm going to make the same point Carlos did above: these are people with an unhealthy life pattern in general.
Robert,
I thought you might like this post! I checked out the forum you linked to, that's a nice body of evidence you rounded up.
Itsthewoo,
Interesting that you see such an improvement with omega-3s. Your experience is in line with large and growing body of evidence implicating excess omega 6 / insufficient omega-3 in psychiatric conditions. I wonder what the turnover rate is of fatty acids in the brain? Maybe longer-term changes are also possible.
I think the main problem is the excess LA. If your diet is low in LA, you need very little omega-3 to balance it. Dietary saturated fat also allows more omega-3s to be stored in the tissues.
Half Navajo.
You said
“exactly, the kitava ate low omega six and three. The fish they ate were leaner, more protein, vitamins, and trace minerals, not fatty omega 3 fish. There diet was 50% saturated fat from the coconut. They ate the whole fish also... not just the fillets like modern people.”
We are not so far apart (-;. I understand your concern is that health recommendations are driven by market forces rather than a true objective assessment of the evidence.
But I cannot agree that vitamin D is way more important than omega-3. They are both essential to function. We have unjustly demonised saturated fats, but ultimately they are only one of three families of fats, saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. They are all equally important to health.
Itsthewoo,
Great summary, and it is excellent to hear the comments of people who feel that they have benefited by adjusting their omega 3 and 6 intake.
Omega-3 and bipolar disorder - There are quite a few trials that suggest omega-3 may assist in bipolar disorder. You should find this paper interesting. Stephan has posted it before. Have a look at the graph on bipolar depression. It also usefully sets out the arguments behind the importance of the omega-3 6 ratio.
In respect of fish, a high proportion of fats in the retina are long chain omega-3. Higher levels of long chain omega-3 have been reported as increasing sensory functions. Women have the ability to make more long chain omega-3 that the men. There are reports of women enjoying more satisfying sex when they increase their intakes of long chain omega-3.
It appears that DHA is necessary to the manufacture of both dopamine and serotonin. Historically fish intake has long been associated with calm and intellect. A person following the religious mores a few hundred years ago would have been eating fish on a significant number of days of the year. Joe Hibbeln who makes the point in his lectures a hero in the lipids world from memory suggested the figure was about 180 days.
Author
Omega Six The Devils Fat.
www.omegasixthedevilsfat.com
Hi Stephan (long time fan of the blog), I was wondering what you thought was the most important factor regarding omega3/6: the ratio regardless of quantity, or keeping levels of o-6 low per se. I eat tonnes of nuts/seeds as a staple, for example, since going low carb, but eat enough flax/oily fish to keep my 3:6 ratio about 1:1/1.2 but I still eat a pretty high amount of o-6 as a result. Is this likely to be a good situation or not?
N.B. Luckily the rest of my diet provides a whole mass of fat-soluble anti-oxidants, so hopefully that helps regardless.
Thanks!
With regards to acne, for me it was the removal of all dairy that fixed it for me. Not changing from PUFAs to saturated fats, not removing grains, not vitamin D, but dairy.
Stephen,
In the results section of the 1996 study by Reeve, Bosnic, & Boehm-Wilcox, they report the fat composition of the diets as follows: "The fatty acid composition of the two dietary fats-is shown in Table 2. In sunflower oil, the major fatty
acid (64%) was CI8:2 (linoleic acid). with a 26% component of C18:l (oleic acid). However neither
linoleic nor oleic acids was detected in the hydrogenated
fat. in which the major fatty acid (69%) was trar~C I 8: i (elaidic acid). The hydrogenated fat also contained significantly greater levels of C16:O (21%) and C18:O (9%)."
The most "protective" diet in terms of tumor suppression/rejection was the one lowest in polyunsaturated FAs, but highest in trans fat! It would be interesting to see if the mice on the high trans-fat diet were more likely to suffer from CHD by old age (about 2 years old for a mouse).
Another tidbit from the discussion of the same paper worthy of mention: "However, in direct contrast, detailed studies of the
promotion of chemically-initiated cutaneous carcinogenesis in the SENCAR mouse have consistently
demonstrated tumorigenesis to be reduced as dietary polyunsaturated fat content was increased [19]. When mixed fat diets containing corn oil and coconut oi I in
graded proportions were fed in a protocol similar to the dietary regime we have used, the highest tumoripenesis resulted from diets with the highest saturated
coconut oil content 118)."
So is the SENCAR mouse or the hairless mouse the better model for the lipid-carcinoma relationship in humans?
Dave,
From my reading, it appears both the ratio and the total quantity are important. I would be careful relying too heavily on nuts. If you do, you may be better off with low-LA nuts like macadamias or hazelnuts.
Aaron,
Yeah I noticed that too. Apparently trans fat doesn't promote UV carcinogenesis.
I looked into the studies you mentioned. A couple of points. They were looking at chemical carcinogenesis using two carcinogens rather than UV carcinogenesis. The other thing is that the strain of mice they used was deliberately inbred to be highly tumor-prone. Who knows what mechanisms are operating in that strains. I prefer to believe the results from animals not specifically bred for tumor susceptibility, which are consistent across species.
Still, there's something else going on in the SENCAR mouse that makes it react differently and I can't explain it.
Fboness, Stephan,
Here is another explanation of the sat fat study that I personally find more convincing:
http://blog.plantpoisonsandrottenstuff.info/2006/08/21/that-saturated-fat-meal-thats-bad-for-your-arteries/
Dave Moss
It is important to differentiate between the plant-based Omega threes and sixes and a long chain fats.
It is argued be necessary to more or less balance the plant-based fats, but that does not apply to the longer chain fats. The plant-based and longer chain fats have very different roles and functions in the body.
So in balancing the Omega threes and sixes is necessary to look at the plant-based fats, and the long chain fats should not be included as part of that balancing equation.
If the long chain omega-3 DHA intake is not required it will simply be used for energy.
The level of plant-based Omega 3 and 6 available in natural food chain with the exception of seeds and nuts, which are seasonal, in nature is low. It would have probably been difficult year round to get more than 2% of calories as Omega six in a natural diet.
The amount of Omega 6 required for health is low. Populations on non-Western diets are healthy on levels between a ½% and 2% of calories. The absolute minimum requirement may be a lot lower than a ½%. This is the ISSFAL recommendation.
http://www.issfal.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=23&Itemid=8
No recommendation as to a maximum is made.
My own best guess would be 2% and under as a maximum. Some researchers suggest a maximum of 1% of calories, but at this time there is no consensus.
The body heavily stores Omega 6 and does not store omega 3s so it is necessary to get their regular intake of Omega 3.
Author
Omega Six The Devils Fat
www.Omegasixthedevilsfat.com
Many thanks for the information Stephan and Robert Andrew Brown.
Also Stephan, the reason why I chose the o-6 containing foods as staples in the first place is for their particular vitamins/minerals rather than calories per se. So couldn't just swap in hazelnuts for what I do eat (sunflower seeds, almonds, sesame seeds). I actually made a couple of huge charts of the various nut/seed options so I could see how I could plausibly get some nutrition given a highly constrained catering situation!
I know quite a few Thai people and haven't noticed that they have particularly exceptional skin - is there some actual evidence for this? The autopsy study you cite was published in 1962 based on autopsies peformed in the previous years, so we can assume that the subjects developed atherosclerosis in the 1930', 40's and 50's, where your chart shows that butter consumption was relatively high and PUFA consumption was relatively low. Heart disease in the US has decreased significantly since the 1950's (of course smoking is the biggest factor in that decline), but given the dramatic change in the composition of the diet, if omega-6 and butter were such important factors in atherosclerosis, I would expect to see movement in the oppsosite direction.
Also, I find the recommendation to avoid nuts troubling. Nuts are one of the foods most robustly associated with protection from death and cardiovascular disease in a large number of epidemiological studies across virtually all subgroups analyzed (men, women, vegans, non-vegans, etc.) and show a clear dose response relationship with these endpoints. Also, seventh day adventists in the US are the longest living population in the world on average and most have a vegan lifestyle which I imagine is filled with wheat and vegetable oils (and, yes, seventh day adventists who consume high levels of nuts have half (half!) the mortality of those that do not consume nuts).
Stephen,
Do you think it is important to balance out o6 every meal with o3 or does it not matter when you take the o3 just as long as it's within a certain time frame. For example: taking o3 in the morning and before bed.
Thank You
Hey Stephan ( and others ),
I wonder if you've read at all about Bruce K's " high everything " diet and have an opinion
Thanks
PS
Here's their manifesto:
"
The 10 Golden Rules of the High-Everything Diet.
Otherwise known as: The Diet To End All Diets.
1. Eat all the fat you want, especially saturated fats like coconut oil, butter,
cream, whole milk, half-and-half, cheese, beef, and lamb. The other good fats are
macadamia oil, cocoa butter (not chocolate), with olive oil perhaps in smaller
amounts. PUFAs are best avoided, like mayonnaise, salad dressing, chicken fat,
turkey fat, and other things. Pork, duck, and goose can be used sparingly.
2. Eat generous amounts of starches - bagels, white pasta or brown, white bread
or whole wheat, white rice or brown, corn, white flour, potatoes, beans, lentils,
etc. Do not have any fear of eating starches. They will help you to heal. Do not
believe anyone who tells you that starches are fattening. It is only true for an
unhealthy person. There is nothing fattening about starches for a healthy person
and starches will help you to get healthy faster than anything (with fat). Eat at
LEAST one bagel per meal, 2 potatoes, 1/3 cup rice (dry), or 2-4 pieces of bread
so that you have 50g of starch per meal. The more saturated fat you have with the
starch, the better. As you heal, you can eat less starch.
3. Eat all the protein you want, animal or vegetable. Do NOT eat a vegan diet and
preferably not vegetarian either. Aim for like 10-30g protein per meal.
4. Eat natural sugars cautiously, like fruit, fruit juice, maple syrup, or honey
(preferably "unheated" honey), etc. Eat starches before trying sugars.
5. Eliminate white sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and other refined sweeteners
from your daily diet. Preferably avoid anything with high fructose corn syrup, as
in most ketchup and bread in the USA. A small amount of sugar in breads maybe OK,
but don't eat anything high in refined sugar (like more than 10% of its calories,
or with sugar in the first few ingredients).
6. Eat unlimited calories. Eat when hungry. Preferably eat before you get hungry,
in anticipation of hunger. Eat at least 3 meals a day.
7. Once or twice a week, increase your calories by eating more sugars like fruit,
fruit juice, unheated honey, or maple syrup. You can have desserts occasionally,
like cheesecake, tiramisu, high-cream ice cream, chocolate, coconut macaroons, or
pancakes with lots of butter and maple syrup. Higher fat is better, so look for
ice cream with cream as the first ingredient preferably.
8. Eliminate all coffee, tea, chocolate, and stimulants from your regular daily
diet. You can have these once or twice a week, but not regularly. Also, don't eat
ANY artificial sweeteners or diet sodas. All they do is make you hungry and fat,
messing up your body's ability to respond to foods naturally. And don't eat toxic
protein powders, protein shakes, or protein bars.
9. Don't worry if you gain weight. "You have to get healthy to lose weight", not
the other way around. The healthy person will lose weight on the high-everything
diet if they need to lose weight. The unhealthy person might gain weight if they
need to gain weight. Stop dieting and let yourself heal.
10. Challenge yourself to eat more fiber and starches by eating things like bean
burritos, multi-grain chips (ex: Sun Chips), rice chips, and so on occasionally.
Start with small amounts and work up, after you've been eating the HED for a few
months perhaps. A fast metabolism tolerates fiber.
Everything most people *think* they know about diet and health is 100% wrong.
Eating saturated and mono-unsaturated fats with generous amounts of high starch
food is perfectly healthy - even occasional burgers, pizzas, tacos, burritos,
pasta, hot dogs, etc. Junk food and sugar can be healthy - as long as you don't
eat them often. Comfort foods can be more healing than "high quality" foods. The
true dietary villains in fast food are refined sugar, HFCS, PUFA oils, and trans
fats, i.e. the sodas, desserts, shakes, ketchup, and fries.
Diets Don't Work & Calories Don't Count.
Death To Diets. Eat Everything and Heal.
__._,_.___"
Hey Stephan
Did you by any chance grow up in San Diego area?
Jana,
Thanks for the alternative perspective.
David,
Coronary heart disease peaked in the U.S. in the 1950s. As you can see from the graphs I posted, margarine began to replace butter around 1940 and vegetable oil consumption had been continuously increasing since the turn of the century. What I didn't post is trans fat consumption, which began in the 1920s and increased continuously through the 1970s. That places all of these factors well within the range that would be required to affect CHD in a study published in 1962.
Heart disease mortality has decreased since the 1950s, but incidence has not. The same number of people are having heart attacks, but fewer are dying because we're better at saving lives using modern medicine. This conclusion comes from the Framingham Heart study among others. The fact that incidence hasn't decreased lately despite a decline in smoking suggests that some other factor has compensated for the expected improvement.
Do you have any studies pointing to a causal effect of nuts on CHD? All I've seen are observational studies.
The long-lived seventh-day adventists in the California population you're referring to are about half vegetarians. Half of them eat meat. And most of the other half are not vegans, but lacto-ovo vegetarians.
In addition, SDAs have an overall lifestyle that's healthier than the general population. They smoke less, eat less processed food, drink less alcohol, and many of them fast on the sabbath. That's the reason you can't rely on observational studies of the health of vegetarians: you're comparing between populations that are different in many ways.
If you look at meat eaters who have a healthy overall lifestyle, they live longer than the general population. This conclusion was supported by an 8-year study of Mormon priests in CA who don't smoke, don't drink and exercise. Reductions in CVD and cancer were between 66 and 86%, far more than you see in vegetarian populations.
I'll also note that at least three other large observational studies have found no difference in overall mortality between vegetarians and non-vegetarians: the Health Food Shoppers Study, the Oxford Vegetarian Study and the EPIC-Oxford Study.
The statement you made "most have a vegan lifestyle which I imagine is filled with wheat and vegetable oils" is not correct. SDAs eat less processed food than the average American and the majority eat animal foods.
Sverlyn,
I noticed the hubbub over the "high-everything" diet. There's definitely some truth in there, but overall I find it tiresome.
Daiikkon: no I'm from the East coast originally.
Stephan
Re your last response.
You are a mine of information, and you put things cgently and with great clarity.
Many thanks for all your hard work which is very much appreciated.
100/100 Top marks (-:
Thanks Robert, I appreciate your work as well.
Stephan,
Sorry for the mis-spell of your name earlier; it was a typo I did not catch. Hopefully now you'll answer :)
Do you think it is important to balance out o6 every meal with o3 or does it not matter when you take the o3 just as long as it's within a certain time frame. For example: taking o3 in the morning and before bed.
Thank You
Grassrootshealth have put a useful video here Skin Cancer/Sunscreen - the Dilemma that details the way sunscreens lower the UVB content of sunlight and increase the UVA spectrum.
For those who may prefer to skip the video the slides used in that presentation are here and most readers here will be able to grasp from them the gist of what is said on the video.
Skin Cancer/Sunscreen -- the Dilemma
by Edward D. Gorham Slides pdf
darnoconrad,
Sorry, I must have overlooked your message. If I didn't respond to everyone who misspelled my name, I wouldn't respond much at all! Same goes for pronunciation.
I doubt it matters when in the day you take your n-6 and n-3.
Ted,
That is an awesome presentation, thanks for linking to it. I may have to point it out in a post.
Ted,
Thanks for the link to the presentation on Vitamin D. I didn't realize how important warmth was to the conversion process. That might also be a contributor to the poor ability of the skin to synthesize vitamin D in the winter.
Stephan,
Are you familiar with dr Mary Newport's story?
http://coconutoil.com/ AlzheimersDiseaseDrMaryNewport.pdf.
Quite moving I'd say
James
James,
I did hear about that. I have it filed away in the back of my brain.
"There's definitely some truth in there, but overall I find it tiresome."
Stephan, the dogma of avoiding foods is tiresome. I've heard more people benefit rapidly and dramatically eating the HED (high-everything) than ever before in my life on many extreme diets that limited foods (Primal Diet, paleo, low-carb, and Weston Price type diets). People with a lot of chemical sensitivities eliminated them within a month. People who couldn't tolerate fruit or milk or other food are now eating them every meal without any reaction, improved digestion, and better energy. In a year or two, I think there won't be anybody with a clue who avoids foods or limits macro-nutrients, i.e. a person following a "diet." You won't be able to sell a book pushing elimination of food or restriction of food. The key is the metabolic exercise concept. That people are sick and unhealthy because of a weak or damaged metabolism, not due to eating carbohydrates or grains or starch or fats or calories in excess.
Dieting is dead. High-Everything is the new way of eating. Healthy people don't diet. They eat everything.
High-Everything-Diet · Healthy People Don't Diet.
BTW, the HED rules given by sverlyn are considerably out-of-date. Here is a new version with HTML, bullet points, and a lot of other improvements. This version also includes links at the bottom to my group and Matt Stone's two posts, which talk about the HED concept of metabolic exercise and enhancement.
The 10 Rules of the High-Everything-Diet
180 Degree Health... Bloggie-Style: The Hamburglar's Metabolism
180 Degree Health... Bloggie-Style: Plower vs. Force Revisited
Cheers, Bruce
The link to Matt's first post was messed up. Sorry, I didn't check it. Here's the link to his original article that talked about my experiences with HED.
180 Degree Health... Bloggie-Style: The Hamburglar's Metabolism
Hi Bruce,
As far as I can see, the 'high-everything' diet also restricts a lot. Actually only sat fat, starches and calories are not limited. For example, Kwasniewski differs from this diet more or less only by not allowing too many starches (but they are also the preferred carbs in his diet).
May I ask, which foods have you been eating on this diet?
Well, I checked this HED diet out a bit and I'm already sorry I asked anything more about it. Could very well be it has its benefits, but I'm suspicious about its effects on mental health...
(and Stephen, you don't have to publish my comments if you find this debate tiresome :))
Jana:
"As far as I can see, the 'high-everything' diet also restricts a lot. Actually only sat fat, starches and calories are not limited. For example, Kwasniewski differs from this diet more or less only by not allowing too many starches (but they are also the preferred carbs in his diet)."
But other diets restrict one or more of those things (carbs, fats, calories). So the HED is unique and it's not really a diet. It's ANTI-diet or NON-diet. There is no reason to limit anything, like JK does. The body will heal much faster by eating High-Everything (carbs, fat, and calories), with the exception of refined sugar, HFCS, artificial sweeteners, and junk fats (PUFAs and Trans Fats).
"May I ask, which foods have you been eating on this diet?"
I eat anything and everything with great digestion, energy, focus, and attitude. That's the whole point of HED - getting to where you can eat everything (gluten, wheat, lactose, casein, potatoes, beans, fiber, fruit, 100% fruit juiice, honey, maple syrup, occasional sugar). You are not dieting by my definition of the word which is to "avoid foods, restrict *ANY* macro-nutrients, or restrict calories."
I can eat a dozen different foods at the same time and have perfect digestion, no bloating, calm stable energy, no fatigue or indigestion or anything. And I am NOT the only person eating HED who can - the HED has many followers who attained the health I have or discovered they already had it when they gave up dieting. People have improved their health rapidly and dramatically, eliminating allergies and chemical sensitivity, food intolerances, and other problems simply by eating the HED. And you will notice that the final rule of the diet says you should try to overcome the rules. That is what brings you to an entirely new level of health - the level where the rules fade, and you have even more freedom than the HED has given you from the start.
In short, the HED is not a diet. It's a way of overcoming diets and living your life free of dietary rules and dogma. I hope you will consider the ideas with a calm and open mind. Read the testimonies that have already been given on Matt's blog and the HED website. Forget about stupid rat studies cited by people like Stephan and Peter. Rats can't tell you how they feel. Go with your heart and mind and instincts.
The HED will bury all other diets.
Join us or watch us surpass your health by an increasing margin.
Hey Stephen, this is unrelated, but what do you think about the anti-fungal diet for overall health and fighting against cancer? (e.g., The Fungal Link by Doug Kaufmann)
Thanks,
Nick
Hi Nick,
I don't know the first thing about it, sorry.
Hey Stephan, a quick question if you don't mind?
I have a perplexing situation that just doesn't seem to make sense. My wife gets sick after sunbathing.
This has happened three times the last three times she's been in the sun to a point of slight redness, this year and last. The next day she's got a sore throat and a cold. She's a healthy, natural food low-carber. I've been even inclined to listen to Marshall about the immunosupressive effect of vitamin D... I know, it's the Dark side for sure ;)
Is it just a coincidence?
Thank you for your time, really appreciate it!
Hey Stephan, a quick question if you don't mind?
I have a perplexing situation that just doesn't seem to make sense. My wife gets sick after sunbathing.
This has happened three times the last three times she's been in the sun to a point of slight redness, this year and last. The next day she's got a sore throat and a cold. She's a healthy, natural food low-carber. I've been even inclined to listen to Marshall about the immunosupressive effect of vitamin D... I know, it's the Dark side for sure ;)
Is it just a coincidence?
Thank you for your time, really appreciate it!
Belmondo,
Sunbathing can suppress the immune system if you get burned. As far as I know, it's not due to the vitamin D.
@ Belmondo
UVGUIDE Vitamin d and sunshine
This site explains how vitamin D3 is made by the action of UVB on cholesterol in skin.
If you look at the second animated diagram you will see that the process is self limiting in that after the D3 is made further exposure processes it into substances the body doesn't use.
So while almost going pink is usually fine, getting even slightly burnt can be counterproductive in that damage is being done and there isn't, because the D3 has been processed into supra sterols, sufficient available to deal with the inflammation.
Preparing your skin prior to sunbathing by reducing omega 6 intake, improving omega 3 status and also improving vitamin D3 status will speed up the tanning process.
It may also be worth having sessions of UVB exposure from a SUNBED occassionally through the winter to keep the skin hardened to UVB.
The active metabolite 1,25(OH)2D3 does have well-known immunosuppressive actions and may shut down an ongoing immune reaction, thus preventing unrestricted immune
responses.
There is a complex system of immune regulation with negative feedback loop mechanisms that may serve as an internal rescue system to avoid excessive 1,25(OH)2D3 levels. But it's too complicated for me to understand sufficiently to explain.
@Belgardo
You may also be interested to read
The Vitamin D Council, Dr Cannell's response to a question about Marshall scroll to the bottom of the page.
Sorry to come to this so late, but I wanted to post my experience since switching to a ketogenic diet, cutting out processed sugar/startch and trans-fats and increasing consumption of saturated and monounsaturated fats by eating more dairy, meat, fish and nuts. I noticed a general improvement in my skin, but especially on my elbows. I used to have dry scaly skin on the back of my elbow like most men, but now the skin there is as soft as a woman's now. The transition was fairly rapid, and has remained that way for over a year now.
Just what I was looking for to back up an article on coconut oil. Thought I might add that studies on PABA (para amino benzoic acid) showed the B vitamin protected skin cells from sunburn when given to albinos. You're doing a great job, much appreciated!
Melske
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