Health: Part 3
This is Part 3 of a series of blogs that I am writing. It won’t make total sense without reading Part 1 and Part 2. This is probably the last one in the series.
So, the issue is, why do we have this problem? And how can we fix this mess of a system? Beyond increasing dietary knowledge and doing more studies so we learn more about diet and health, I think it starts with culture. Our culture sees a high meat diet as manly. Most young American males (even more so than females, although both are subject to the same dietary culture) are indoctrinated into this thought process and they can’t ever find their way out. Few people see a problem with an eggs, toast, hash browns and milk breakfast and a steak, buttered green beans and mashed potatoes dinner. Actually most people who read that problem think “wow that sounds great, I’d eat that.” You also see tons of ads hyping things like tailgating. The Bud Light “grooler” is a relatively slick and entertaining way of further promoting a crappy diet at tailgates. When was the last time you saw raw vegetables, fruit and water at a tailgate? Or even those combos with some beer? Never. It’s like sacrilegious to even suggest the idea. Most people would be like “wow that’s gay” or something along those lines. Like the idea of not eating meat somehow challenges their manhood. They’re basically brainwashed into thinking that how they’ve been brought up is the only way to do things. It will take years and possibly even generations to enact serious dietary attitude change on a nationwide (and even worldwide) basis.
On the one hand, I feel like it’s impossible to enact widespread change. Westerners are hooked on their unhealthy food and the big companies who make large profits off the current system aren’t going to standby idly and let some vegans get in their way (not that I endorse a vegan diet — but just the fact that the phrase made sense to you shows what our culture thinks of vegans). The media will likely continue to publish stories about the latest study which conflicts the study from six months ago. Nutritionists will probably continue to blunder around and anoint new nutrients the “key” to long-term health while also demonizing things they once held up as healthy. Sooner or later you’ll probably read about how too many antioxidant supplements cause cancer or something like that. Or how we’ve been taking the wrong antioxidants in supplements. On the other hand, the change in culture over the last 10, 20, 30 years is noticeable. Things like smoking bans have finally caught on and are now widely implemented. Do you think the characters in Mad Men (ie, New Yorkers in the early 60s) could imagine a city-wide smoking ban in bars? I doubt it. The same way I can’t imagine a widespread media movement against dairy. The popularity of stores like Whole Foods and such is great but those stores still sell dairy, refined carbs (although a lot less refined carbs), fatty red meat and many other things you shouldn’t eat. You could shop only at Whole Foods and eat all junk food. As a society, we need to find ways to get people to spend more time in the fruit and vegetable aisle. Somehow, someway, fruits and vegetables have to become cool and red meat, dairy and other crap has to be uncool and reviled. It’s unlikely anyone reading this blog will live to see the day that our culture has evolved to that point.
If I was an Army General planning out an attack on bad food, I actually think I would attack on two fronts. First, cost. Yes, organic super-premium produce is expensive. But that’s partially because of the supply chain and overall lack of economies of scale. As demand goes up, those costs will go down. “Normal” produce, which is far superior to junk food and arguably isn’t really all that much worse than premium organic product actually is generally pretty cheap. Will produce ever get cheaper than junk food on a per calorie basis? No, it won’t. But, on an overall cost basis including doctor visits, drugs, etc, I think the argument can be made that health food is a much cheaper way to go. Of course, such a marketing campaign would have to be slickly done and be done over the course of years and years. It would need to be pushed in the media, Hollywood, local communities, traditional ads, etc. It would not be a short process. But people listen to cheaper if it can be sold in the right manner.
Second, I would attack with fear. Yes, that might seem wrong. But fear is an incredible motivator. If you read my four-part “Website Success” series almost two years ago (they’re linked in the right sidebar) then you know that I believe you have to market to human emotions because they are a great way to encourage action. And the fears you would need to bring out in people won’t require any stretching of the truth. Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, back pain, bad knees, foot pain, breathing problems, etc. They can all be reduced through diet. Of course, diet is not a cure. People will still get cancer and bum knees. But diet is the best and cheapest way that we know of to get rid of the vast majority of problems a significant percentage of the time. In other words, a lot less people will need to face costly health problems and extensive amounts of pain and anguish at relatively young ages. Does anyone want to deal with bypass procedures in their middle age? Even if you do survive and find relief from chest pain, the long-term outlook from a successful bypass surgery is not good without dietary change. Pain, pain and more pain. Unpleasant and expensive procedures with ugly complications. Bottles and bottles of expensive medication with both known unpleasant side effects and the possibility of really harmful unknown side effects.
A marketing campaign that truly exposed all of those subjects and showed the unpleasantness of the middle and later stages of life for unhealthy people would be really effective. I can think of at least a few times that I’ve seen videos where a smoker ends up with lung cancer and you see them coughing away their last days in a hospital. Or you see healthy lungs versus the lungs of a smoker. Things like that leave a long-term impression on many people. Visual anecdotal evidence, while not scientific in nature, can change mindsets. What our society needs is a well-organized and well-funded long-term movement against our “typical” diet along with a similar campaign showing the benefits of a better diet. Slowly and surely the minds of the American public will shift in the right direction. The question is where the movement going to come from, how it will overcome big business (it’s amazing that Big Tobacco was defeated) and how long it will take to reverse the current slide in Western dietary habits.
The bottom line is that the old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is truer than ever in today’s Western culture and diet. I really hope I convinced some people to change before it’s too late. If you’re older, it never hurts to change your ways. Lots of studies have shown health benefits for elderly people who changed their diet. If you’re young you can still reverse a lot of ill effects of an unhealthy lifestyle. You DEFINITELY don’t want to live the later years of someone who abused their body in their youth.
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hahah there already are studies that excess through some dietary supplements does cause cancer…
google ATBE, CARET, SELECT (these showed increased rates of lung cancer among smokers who took beta carotene; Select showed increase rates of diabetes among those who took high levels of vitamin e)
These were all major cohort studies that looked at the effects of supplementation at high levels. At present, supplements beyond the %DV are generally cautioned against, unless one has a nutritional deficiency (which most people in developing countries do not). But generally speaking, normal levels of antioxidants in regular foods have shown protective, although minimal protective effects. Fiber is one of the stronger ones…and that is not an antioxidant
h
November 2, 2009
http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/pr2009/pr057-09.shtml
New ad campaign in NYC against sugar-sweetened beverages
h
November 2, 2009
awesome
Nat
November 2, 2009
We’re not going to “fix” the problem of diet until we fix the problem with Congress. The meat and dairy industries have powerful lobbies in Washington, so the truth about the dangers of dairy and meat consumption never gets out. The dairy industry is the one who created the Food Pyramid. Meat and dairy are given huge federal subsidies (which is why they are so cheap), while there are few subsidies for fruits and vegetables.
The president just named an obese woman as Surgeon General. So, it will be business as usual coming out of Washington, with nary a word about the deleterious effects of consuming dairy products and the filthy meat (which most of Europe refuses to purchase from us) coming from our feedlots.
To learn how to save your life and avoid heart surgeons and prescription pads, go to http://www.drmcdougall.com
The McDougall Program enabled me to regain my health, lose 155 pounds (at age 60), and keep it off.
Nettie
November 4, 2009
Nat,
Thanks for writing this.
After reading all 3 installments, a few questions/comments/observations:
1) I think you mentioned early in the series that you had studied information on lifespans, but you never referred to that information later on in the reporting.
Without having done any of that research myself, I was under the impression that generally people today live longer than we did in previous generations, which ought to present some sort of argument that our nutritional/medicinal progress hasn’t exactly been s total dud. I am certainly open to arguments to the contrary.
2) With that in mind, it seems like your overall approach to this matter verges beyond cynicism into some really dark territory in spots. Are you telling us pharmaceutical companies would rather NOT have a cure for cancer than have a cure for cancer? Have they somehow stifled research into discovering a cure for cancer? Is there some overarching conspiracy between the media, the drug companies and the doctors to keep us as stupid and unhealthy as possible?
3) I think I saw someone mentioned Gary Taubes in one of the comments, but I don’t think anyone linked to the NYT Magazine piece, “What if’s All Been a Big Fat Lie,” that became his book “Good Calories, Bad Calories”…http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/07/magazine/what-if-it-s-all-been-a-big-fat-lie.html
Gary is a well respected science reporter, and his piece is probably essential reading on this subject, although I am pretty sure you won’t agree with everything he writes.
4) Some little things
- I thought pharmaceutical companies were allowed to branch out into the generic market (it would seem like they’d have the right to produce a cheaper version of their own drug, too, right?) It has relatively little to do with the overall subject, but I am kind of interested in the subject of generic drug sales since u mentioned Lipitor.
- As you allude to, the grandmother/great grandmother rule seems like the worst possible example to help “simplify” things for people! My great grandmother would recognize a ham sandwich on white with mayo, a beer, and a pack of M&Ms for desert.
- I agree with your basic point about smoking and health consciousness in culture, but has Big Tobacco really been “defeated?”
Shane (shaniac)
November 5, 2009
1) Lifespans are longer than they were in the past but that, in my non-scientific opinion, is largely due to medical and technological breakthroughs in many areas. For instance, we’ve greatly improved our understanding of and ability to deal with polio, malaria, influenza and many other health threats.
Even diet related illnesses like Type 2 diabetes (a virtual death sentence even 50 years ago) are now mostly manageable even if it lowers quality of life. Jackie Robinson died in his 50s because medical technology and understanding at the time was not sufficient to control his diabetes. A person in their 50s today is very unlikely to suffer the same fate.
Also, I believe that our current obesity epidemic has yet to fully reveal itself in lifespan figures. If you’re 16 years old, you can eat almost anything and put on a huge amount of weight and, most of the time, your body will find a way to deal with it and you won’t die. That isn’t the case in latter years and I think as America’s obese progress through their lives we’ll see a lot more problems down the road. Most of the people at major risk for death were born in the 50s or before — before America became so incredibly fat (not to say diets were good back then but they weren’t this bad).
2) I think pharmaceutical companies spend their R&D money on the basis of EV. If they can make a bunch of mostly useless drugs that people will buy for obscene amounts of money then they do it. It doesn’t matter that it doesn’t help with quality of life or even much in the way of life extension. The companies have no real incentive to really step out into the long-shot area and try to make real progress against cancer. There is currently a ton of money being spent by drug companies to develop cancer drugs so maybe they’re finally taking the next step. I don’t think they’re intentionally try to avoid finding a cancer cure but I don’t think they’re as focused on the human element as the short-term money element. Executives are mostly concerned with being able to announce new drugs that will sell — not new drugs that will both sell AND change the world. The second is a nice bonus for them but not a necessity.
3) I don’t have time to read that whole thing right now. But there’s no way that large amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol can be good for you. I don’t equate losing weight with healthy. Maybe there’s something in there showing something else but I haven’t had time to read it yet.
4) I’m not sure what you’re saying about the generic thing.
Yea, I agree the grandmother rule isn’t a good one per se. But if you follow the rule to shop the perimeter of the supermarket then you won’t end up with candy, etc. I think there’s a balance between simplicity and idealness. I’m not totally sure where it is but Pollan is pretty close.
I think smoking has been made less and less cool. And almost everyone knows that it is bad for you and that it raises your risk of disease. So, in that sense, I believe tobacco has been defeated. I don’t propose that we ban milk or red meat.
Nat
November 5, 2009
Re: the cost issue, it’s not just the economies of scale related to mass production, it’s that the government subsidizes the sh*t out of corn, which is a major input into practically every junk food out there. The movie “Food Inc.”, featuring parts with your friend Michael Pollan, has some details.
bruechips
November 5, 2009
Yea, I actually forgot to mention the corn issue. It’s discussed in Pollan’s book “Omnivore’s Dilemma” which shows the huge role of corn and petroleum in the American diet.
Oh well, shoulda coulda.
Nat
November 5, 2009
Hey Nat,
Great series of posts. I’ve been having some issues with constant hunger pain and feeling tired very often. I had some blood work done, but I believe they only tested for diabetes and thyroid disease both of which came back negative.
I’m at a point now where I’m willing to change my diet in any way possible to try and correct this and feel better on a day-to-day basis. Aside from The Paleo Diet book you suggested, are there any other books or reading materials you would suggest?
Currently I do in fact eat a lot of meat and dairy, so that’s one area of change. When you were experiencing your stomach pains were you also experiencing tiredness at any point along with it? A lot of what you were describing at that time is what I was and continue to go through.
jechtsphere
November 6, 2009
jechtsphere,
Tiredness was never a huge problem for me but I did have a lot of energy swings when I was eating poorly. I would have a lot of energy one minute and then crash hard.
I would also recommend reading “The China Study”, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “In Defense of Food”.
If you’re going to change your diet, I recommend two things:
1) Don’t do it all at once. Lay out like a three week plan where you go from meat 5x/week to 3x, 2x, 1x, then none. If you try to do it all at once it can make it hard to stick with it. Just lay out the plan to reach a better diet in a few weeks and stick to the plan.
2) Stick with the vegetable and fruit diet for at least six weeks (after you do the three week thing, so nine weeks total) to give it a fair shot. It took my body some time to adjust. I actually felt worse (stomach problems) for a bit. But in the long-run I have felt much better.
Nat
November 6, 2009
Nat-
I think its best if people do the diet all at once. Then they can feel the great affects right away, gain back their taste buds, and also lose their addiction to the SAD(standard american diet). People also take moderation to the extremes too. And its not a vegetable and fruit diet, I think thats scary to people. It consist of all whole foods, based mainly of of starches- rice, potatoes, whole grain noodles, etc. The stomach problems you talk about happens to only some people and its for the first week or two on the diet, because your body is making some serious changes. You might at first feel some mild headaches as well, but its not because your not eating the right foods. I have been ont his diet (or lifestyle now for me) for about 6 months and I have lost about 35-40 pounds. Its very easy for me, because I can eat all the food I would like and never starve. Anyone can accomplish this if they only eat the whole-food plant based diet. The reason you can lose so much weight with eating as much as you want is because of the low-calorie dense foods. You are taking in a lot of substance without a lot of calories, also with a lot of fiber, so you get full a lot quicker, without taking in as many calories. On this diet I also have got rid of all of my daily ups and downs and I am now more on a level ground. I also don’t experience the tiredness after eating, but rather I am re-energized. I could never go off this diet either, because I am convinced 100 percent of its great affects. I have read many books and watched many DVD’s and there is tons of great evidence backing this diet. The only conflicting parties that try refuting this kind of diet is people that have lots of money, such as the dairy and meat industries, who obviously care more about making money over the health of the people. They will say or do anything if it will help their sales.
I want to say a little about the protein and calcium that everyone is always so worried about. For one, has anyone heard of a calcium or protein deficiency in someone that eats enough calories to support them daily? No, because there are none. These deficiencies are only found in people that are starving to death, like the people in Africa. Any combination of food you eat, with the right amount of calories, will give you enough protein and calcium to support you. Now people might say, what about osteroperosis. If you do some research you will find that osteroperosis is not a calcium defiency, but rather it comes from a diet rich in acids. The foods that contain the most acid are those that are rich in animal protein. Your body is naturally alkaline, and when you take in large amounts of acid in your body, you have to neutralize that acid somehow. The calcium in your bones acts as a buffering system and reduces the acid load. If you look at graphs with dairy consumption on a world-wide basis, you will see taht the countries that have the most osteoperosis are the countries that take in the most amount of dairy. You might also be surprised that the World Health Organization recommends that we get 500mg of calcium and the United States recommends 1500mg of calcium daily. How are the numbers so much different? No way it could be lobbying from the dairy industry. Or the reason we have cheese on the food pyramid, which has 70 percent fat and 50 percent saturated fat. How can that be good for someone?
Now to protein. At a time when you are growing the most, when you are a baby, you require breast milk. In breast milk there is 5 percent of the calories that come from protein. The World Health Organization(WHO) has done studies to find out how much protein you actually need when you are an adult and no longer growing. They found that people require different amounts, and the people that require the most, need 2.5 percent calories of their calories to come from protein. Now they wanted to be safe, so they doubled that and came up with 5 percent. If you are pregnant, they upped that to a wopping 6 percent. Now you might also be surprised to find that there actually is protein in vegetables, at levels much higher than 5 percent(google them if you’d like). What do people thing happens with the protein they take in protein shakes and bars? I can tell you it doesn’t go straight to their muscles. Your body has to overwork and process this protein and then you piss it out. If you think you need more protein when you work out, well you are right. When you work out you will also be eating more food (because you burned more calories), therefore consuming more protein.
There is a ton of evidence supporting this whole food plant based diet. There are many educational DVDs out there and many great books. Some of the leaders in this right now that you will want to look up are Dr. McDougall – drmcdougall.com, Dr. T. Colin Campbell (China Study-awesome book!), Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn (heart disease), Dr. Neal Barnard – pcrm.com (diabetes), Howard Lyman – madcowboy.com, Robert Cohen, notmilk.com, and many others.
This diet could save your life and peoples lives in your family. These doctors don’t know of anyone they have treated that had a cholesterol of under 150 and had a heart attack. If you know someone that is high risk for this, or is getting a bypass or stint, please have them read Preventing and Reversing Heart Disease by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn. This is a great book and it shows us that heart disease is a disease we made, and a disease of affluence. It is the leading killer of people in the United States, and it can be completely reversed or prevented by diet! Over 30,000 people a year just die during the operations that they don’t have to receive.
Please anyone that reads this, just try out the diet for a couple weeks and you will find that this diet has a wide variety of a benefits. Also get yourself educated this. What Nat said is a 100 percent right and our diet is killing us. We need to stop relying on drugs and operations to save us, because even after using the drugs and having the operations, we are still indeed sick! Diet is a powerful medicine when used in the right way….
AP
November 7, 2009
I don’t see any need to base my diet on grains or starches. Gluten triggers a lot of autoimmune problems in the same way as dairy and I’m not seeing a whole lot of nutrient value in rice and potatoes. I don’t have a problem sticking to fruits and vegetables (I use some olive oil and tree nuts to make sure I don’t go too low on calories) although I suppose everyone is different.
Nat
November 7, 2009
Nat-
Rice and potatoes are very high in nutrients and they are the staple foods in the majority of the countries around the world. The Mayans and Incans have shown us that we can primarily live off these foods. The Okinawans and Chinese centenarians lived mostly off sweet potatoes and the Irish on potatoes. People in Thailand, India, Japan, etc, primarily live off rice, and can do so because of high number of nutients. Beans should be added to the main course meal list.
NUTRITIONAL CONTENT OF POTATOES
http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/nutritional-value-of-potatoes-5739.html
NUTRITIONAL CONTENT OF RICE
http://lifestyle.iloveindia.com/lounge/nutritional-value-of-brown-rice-6210.html
These foods are very high in carbohydrates, which is fuel for your body and mind. I do not see problems by eating just vegetables and fruits, but it is very hard to get enough calories and it makes the diet that much harder to do(for most people). I don’t think advocating a diet of just fruits and vegetables is the way to go. If you are eating a whole food-plant based diet, you are on the right path. I think nuts are a good source of extra calories if you need them(they should be at a minimum for everyone else, very high fat content) and I do not regard oils as a health food at all. It is highly-processed fat (yes I know it comes from vegetables), and you should be getting your food in its natural form. There are many studies showing implications from eating oils. It should also be noted that they are the highest calorie dense food out there, along with butter, and many oils contain high amounts of saturated fat (olive oil at 14 percent, many even higher). Oil doesn’t have much nutritional value either.
USEFUL INFORMATION ON OILS
http://www.drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5868
There are also some very interesting topics on this page (scroll down a bit):
http://drmcdougall.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7828
I do think you have it down Nat, but I am just saying for most others, this is a much easier and more sustainable diet.
AP
November 7, 2009
90% of my diet is microwave popcorn (light butter), coffee (no cream, no sugar), and jack daniels (straight, one ice cube). is this bad? please advise.
Eric
November 24, 2009