Breaking the chains of anti-egg slavery! (contd. — part 2)

If as is almost absolutely true, its a fact that carbohydrate is not an absolute dietary essential — the essential sugars, can all be synthesized in sufficient amounts (in the absence of disease, and adequate protein and fat supplies) for the body's needs — then appropriate carbohydrate supply (under these conditions) must be proportional to life-style activity levels. For the typical modern western life-style 'couch potato' or 'desk jockey', that means their carbohydrate needs are minimal. Such people should get up to speed with the facts, educate themselves about low Glycemic Load diets (aka Low Carbohydrate Diets) and seriously implement such info. All the so-called experimental evidence against eggs and butter has been confounded by the simultaneous use of fairly high Glycemic Load (read: Carbohydrate Load) experimental diets or otherwise. There is a growing mountain of evidence indicating that saturated fat and even cholesterol laden food, are not per se the culprits in increased risk of adverse cardiovascular events. Take the well known example of the Eskimos (aka Inuit or Esquimaux) who for ages consumed a diet almost totally devoid of starch and other carbohydrates. However their diets were virtually exclusively comprised of the very foods forbidden by the anti-fat demi-gods — cholesterol rich blubber, meat, fish and animal flesh. Yet as a number of studies concluded, these people have a total absence of cardiovascular disease . . . until they begin to consume imported carbohydrate and starch-rich foods such as sugar and flour. Similar well-cited studies were done on the Masai people of East Africa, whose traditional diets largely comprised meat, blood, and milk! Again the same pattern was shown:— no heart disease (and accompanying diabetes, obesity, hypertension etc) . . . until they begin to consume western style carbohydrate loaded diets. One of the biggest (yet almost unknown to the general public) cardiovascular risk factors is triglyceridemia — high triglyceride levels in the blood. It is undisputed that a high carbohydrate load diet raises the levels of triglycerides in the blood. Research trials consistently show that very low carbohydrate load diets have highly significant beneficial effects on major cardiovascular risk factors including:— serum triglycerides, cholesterol lipoprotein fractions, fasting insulin, and blood pressure. And this is in spite of having high levels of the so-called 'killer foods' — animal fats etc. This completely turns upside down (now perhaps they will get it the right way up!) the recommendations and warnings of the American Heart Association for the last 50 years. But it may take quite a while for this information to filter through to the general public, and even then, not without a lot of obfuscation (obfuscate: to darken, to obscure) from the margarine companies, and the vegan societies etc. In the meanwhile, if you value your health, be prepared to reconsider everything that you have been led to believe by the American Heart Association. I believe that probably the majority of westerners (including myself!) unless they adopt a more physically active lifestyle, will also need to adopt a low or limited carbohydrate diet. And in conjunction with this,start eating the healthy sort of natural saturated fats (what these are, again, I'll leave for a future post), which have been shown to have a favourable effect on lipid profiles in the context of LOW CARBOHYDRATE DIETS. Dont just take my word for it without checking it out for yourself. In a future post I intend to give some links to references to give you the evidence for yourself.

Breaking the chains of anti-egg slavery!

Have you succumbed to the anti dietary cholesterol propaganda myth?

Many people are averse to consuming more than a few eggs per week, out of fear that they might be jeopardizing their cardiovascular health.

However, the real bottom line of all the research, seems to indicate that egg (and butter etc) consumption is safe within the context of an appropriate carbohydrate intake.

What on earth is an APPROPRIATE CARBOHYDRATE INTAKE? Quite logically, since carbohydrate serves basically one physiological function only — the supply of metabolic fuel — the appropriate carbohydrate intake is matched to one's metabolic fuel requirements.

First lets understand that carbohydrates are not ESSENTIAL in the diet. They can be replaced by appropriate amounts of fats and proteins.

I repeat: Carbohydrates are not essential nutrients (sorry you Mannatech maniacs!). Your body can normally manufacture all the carbohydrates (sugars etc) that it needs, as long as it is adequately supplied with protein. On the otherhand, if a person is placed on a totally lipid (fat) free diet, it wont be too long before their health is jeopardized, and if prolonged, before too long will become an undertaker's specimen! The same goes for protein. Thus fat and protein are esential dietary components — neither can be totally eliminated from the diet in the long-term. Whereas, sufficient of either of these these can totally substitute for carbs.

In my next post I will expand on this topic a bit more.

Welcome to Nutrition Revolution Update !

I am constantly investigating a variety of health problems, and in the course of doing so I come upon mind-expanding info which has practical implications for myself as well as for the rest of you out there.

The world of nutritional information is a jungle of confusion — truth and error — and varying degrees of dangerous, to merely harmless, mis-information. Its very hard for the general public to keep updated with accurate information on nutrition and health. I make it my business to sort through the mountains of mis-information mixed up with true information, to arrive at as accurate knowledge as nutritional science allows, so I can impact my own health, and hopefully, help you to do the same!

I intend to post snippets of new and relevant nutritional information here from time to time. So check back often!

David L. Figenschou