This is Part 2 of a series of blogs that I am writing. It won’t make total sense without reading Part 1. More parts are going to be published after this one.

The really important thing, for me at least, was that this four to five week episode woke me up to the dangers of the so-called Western diet. Remember all those “Milk” ads you used to see everywhere? Saying it does a body good? Well, that’s a lie. There’s no doubt in my mind that a regular cow milk drinker is damaging their body and has a significantly higher likelihood of all sorts of problems. To use an analogy, milk has a lot of smoke around it when it comes to things like cancer, osteoporosis (yes, I know, most think it helps build strong bones) and even diabetes. And, as you know, where there’s smoke there’s fire. Books like The China Study show you just how damaging milk and any dairy product is for you. Milk, cheese, butter, cream, etc. I’m not even talking about the well-known problems that butter or other fattening dairy products cause for your heart. I’m even talking about the organic grass-fed free-range hormone-free skim milk that you buy at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. It’s all bad for you. No, it won’t make you fat. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t promote disease. If you don’t believe me, read this book.

I’m not totally convinced that gluten is as bad for humans as dairy products are but there’s no doubt in my mind that it isn’t good for you. Even the whole grain super healthy cardboard-like stuff that you get at premium supermarkets is not good for you. It isn’t as bad as processed grains but it is not a good food for ideal long-term health. And the crappy “fake” whole wheat bread you can buy in some bread aisles is actually highly processed junk food. There’s no doubt that stuff is poison. Anything that says “enriched” on it, almost by definition, is awful for you. That means they processed the vitamins, minerals and nutrients right out of the grain (the only redeemable characteristics of the grain) and added a few back in. If they have to do that, don’t buy it.

And, of course, the old meat issue. Obviously the low-carb crowd thinks they’re doing great because they lose some weight on their bacon, eggs, cheese, sausage, burger meat and whatnot. Yes, they will lose weight in the short term but they’re destroying their heart along with raising their risk for other disease. The China Study actually lays out a fairly convincing argument that any decent amount of meat or other animal products (eggs, cheese, mayo, etc) will lead to serious long-term issues including the obvious ones such as heart disease and less obvious ones such as cancer. Other diseases are also affected by so-called “animal proteins”. I remain unconvinced that occasional (read, once a month or so) meals centered around healthy poultry (chicken breast or something like that) and fish are going to cause long-term complications. There are numerous documented health benefits thought to derive from fish so I can’t get behind a recommendation to cut out all meat and fish but I do think it makes sense to eliminate red meat and keep other animal consumption low. Don’t make meat a centerpiece of your diet or else you’re asking for long-term problems.

My issue with all of this is that people simply don’t know how bad certain foods are for you. So many people claim to want to be healthy but they don’t know how to be healthy. They buy granola instead of Frosted Flakes because they think anything that says “granola” on the front of the box is healthy. And, to be fair, it is better for you than Frosted Flakes. But most granola still has an absurd amount of sugar in it. And even the people who know to check out things like sugar content on granola don’t realize how bad almost all salad dressing is for you. Okay, so they avoid the white colored ones because they’re usually creamy and bad for you. A lot of people know that putting ranch dressing all over your salad is one way to turn a good meal into a bad one. So they pick up an Organic All-Natural Balsamic Vinaigrette. Little do they know that it’s packed with high fructose corn syrup. Or they make their salad with nutrient-free (basically) iceberg lettuce and croutons. Some argue that no one wants to hear the full truth about their damaging diets. Or that their family member who died from cancer or heart disease could have avoided a large part of the risk if they’d changed their diet. But I feel like it’s necessary for people to at least know the full, whole and accurate truth so they can make a decision for themselves.

The education of the American public as a whole on the issue of nutrition is absurd. Newspapers and other media make health way too confusing. You see headlines like “Eggs not as bad for you as nutritionists once thought” and then you see an article titled “New study shows strong direct link between blood cholesterol levels and heart disease”. You think to yourself, wait, if eggs tend to raise my blood cholesterol then how are they not bad for me? Isn’t a heart attack a bad thing? There are constant conflicts. No one seems to know how much of a certain vitamin you should get or what % of your diet should be protein or whatever. Nutrition is a world of fads. One day it’s how bad trans fat is, the next day it’s how antioxidants will save you from cancer. Years ago it was simply how bad fats were (oddly enough, transfats arose partially out of the desire to lower intake of saturated fat) and how good grains were. That logic has since been flipped by the Atkins diet and the like. What do you believe? Do you believe the latest thing (Acai berries!) just because it is the latest thing and hasn’t been discredited yet? There’s no doubt it’s confusing even for the best-informed.

A journalist named Michael Pollan (60 min talk on YouTube here) has written a few books that have made him a bit of an icon to the health food movement. Although he isn’t a scientist or nutritionist by trade, he brings some great real-world insight to the table. He likes to come up with more general “principles” as opposed to giving people a handbook with detailed figures on how much Vitamin C to get on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. He says things like “shop only on the perimeter of the supermarket” or “don’t buy food where you fuel your car” or simple things like that. He also says to forget trying to control your intake of specific nutrients, especially in supplement form. Forget about getting enough beta carotene, lycopene or the antioxidant content of your food. Just eat carrots, tomatoes, blueberries and lots of other whole foods in a balanced manner. Don’t take supplements for nutrients. Just eat real whole food. According to him, if your grandmother and great-grandmother would recognize it as food then it’s not all that bad. Of course, he isn’t totally correct. Things like dairy are awful for you and your ancestors would definitely recognize it. But the beauty of his rules is that they’re VERY simple and, actually, almost anyone can understand them and, more importantly, follow them. No, the person who follow’s Pollan’s rules won’t be eating the “ideal” diet but at least it will get a large chunk of the bad food out of someone’s diet. That’s more than can be said for the myriad of other nutrition recommendations that just confuse people with mg-level nutrient recommendations, daily calorie % levels, etc.

The same issue of confusion exists with health care, drugs and doctors. There’s always a promise of a new drug to treat such and such cancer. Or some new therapy. Even one week ago I saw a segment on 60 Minutes about a new method to reduce/eliminate certain cancers using radiowaves. It’s currently getting ready to undergo human trials in the next few years. Do I know whether it’s going to work or not? Of course not, I have no idea. It’s way out of my league technically. But the issue is, things like that have been on the horizon for years and years. Outside of surgery, chemo, radiation and a few select drugs for certain specific cancers, there are few options for dealing with cancer. Those treatments are either highly risky, highly toxic or simply not all that effective. Very few cancer treatments are low risk (relatively speaking, all cancer is high risk to the person who gets it) except for certain cancers that are caught early. But that doesn’t stop TV shows and newspapers from hyping the latest possible drug or treatment option which is “only a few years away”. There’s always a new hope or promise on the horizon. Yet, progress on cancer has been turtle-like at best. Certain cancers have made progress, some haven’t made any progress worth noting. Of course, every disease has some new supposedly promising treatment or early detection test being worked on but the reality is that most of them don’t pan out.

And big pharmaceutical doesn’t really have a high bar set for itself on issues like cancer. They’re able to sell “life extending” drugs to patients for many thousands of dollars because usually insurance covers it and patients in a desperate situation are usually willing to try almost anything. Extending the life of a struggling patient by two months on average really isn’t anything to write home about. And that’s what a lot of cancer drugs actually do. There’s no incentive for these companies to educate the public on issues like diet and lifestyle changes because they make incredible amounts of money from drugs for things like blood pressure and high cholesterol. They RELY on people having these problems. I’ve read some articles about how Pfizer is basically in a panic about what to do once Lipitor loses patent protection in 2011. This is a drug that has produce billions and billions of dollars every year for Pfizer and is, by most accounts, the best selling drug of all time. The general drug class of statins (which Lipitor is) includes a number of other immensely popular drugs such as Crestor. And there is overwhelming evidence that plant-based diets would come close to completely eliminating any need for cholesterol medication. While it isn’t a “sure thing” I would be willing to bet that over 99% of the population in the US could achieve the same effect (over the long-haul — the drug probably works better in the short term) as Lipitor by changing their diet.

Doctors are partially to blame as well. What percent of doctors do you think alert patients to the dangers of dairy? I can’t imagine it’s even above 5%. I’d be shocked if it was that high. Of course, I would hope that pediatricians would explain that feeding cow milk to a baby is asking for Type 1 diabetes but I really don’t know how many forget to mention that “little” detail which will affect a child for the rest of their life. Also, Celiac is one of the most undiagnosed diseases because doctors are generally unaware of it in detail. Sure, most doctors have heard of it but they don’t look for it or consider it most of the time. I had an endoscopy done when I was having tons of Celiac symptoms and the gastroenterologist never even suggested Celiac to me or even considered the idea of taking a tissue sample for testing. It’s estimated that millions of people are living with Celiac completely unaware of what’s happening to them and also unaware that they’re at much higher risk for colorectal cancer because of their disease. Why don’t doctors diagnose Celiac? It’s sad to say but it’s because there’s no pill for it. The only known treatment for Celiac is a life-long avoidance of gluten. No pills. No prescription to write or surgery to recommend. The pharmaceutical companies spend their in-office visits with doctors promoting drugs like Lipitor and beta blockers for high blood pressure. And why would they promote anything else when they have limited time to sell doctors on the benefits of their drugs? The natural outcome is that those doctors focus on the diseases and drugs which are marketed to them in their regular meetings with drug companies. And diseases like Celiac and prevention techniques (ie, diet, lifestyle) falls by the wayside. I don’t blame the companies for operating within the system but I do blame the doctors for not taking a more proactive approach in warning patients and explaining a proper diet. But, doctors get paid more when they see more people so I don’t foresee any speeches, discussions and question/answer sessions in the future when I visit my doctor.

Part 3.

Related posts:

1. Health: Part 3
2. Health: Part 1
3. Short break from the health stuff
4. Part 2: Mega Trip Report – Vegas to Philly
5. Absolute Poker Costa Rica Trip: Part 2