Neal Barnard MD discusses the science behind food additions. Willpower is not to blame: chocolate, cheese, meat, and sugar release opiate-like substances. Dr. Barnard also discusses how industry, aided by government, exploits these natural cravings, pushing us to eat more and more unhealthy foods. A plant-based (vegan) diet is the solution to avoid many of these problems. Neal Barnard is the founder of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM).
Posted 4 years, 1 month ago by
anonymous
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I appreciate Neal's efforts to bring healthier food to people, but his supposed science about meat and fat are off target. Milk from a grocery store is unhealthy because it's pasteurized and homogenized. I've seen several videos with adults and children who switched from store bought milk to raw milk. They said their allergies disappeared and they felt much better. It was the same story for people who switched from typical beef to grass feed, free range beef. And grass fed beef has more tryptophan, which your body turns into serotonin and melatonin, so you'll feel happier and sleep better! And Neal is still suffering under the illusion that fat is bad for you. The idea that fat is bad for your heart and your arteries started with a researcher in the 1950's named Ancel Keys. (You can find this on Doctor Mercola's website.) Later studies proved that he was wrong, but unnamed people in the food industry backed his research because they wanted to sell more junk food. As more studies have been done, the low fat crowd has had to back off their - all fat is bad for you - stance. A few years ago they were saying - Well, you need some fats, like omega 3 fats, but saturated fat is still bad for you. I just read about a 2 year study done in Israel that showed the low carbohydrate group lost an average of 10 pounds each, the low fat group lost 6 pounds each. The low carbohydrate group ate plenty of saturated fat, so I'm interested in how their cholesterol levels shifted. Only about 20 percent of the cholesterol in your body comes from the food you eat. If you eat fewer foods with cholesterol, your liver will make more cholesterol to make up the difference. Eating eggs and other foods that contain cholesterol does not raise the cholesterol in your blood. Eating sugar, white flour and white rice will raise your cholesterol. It takes about 2 minutes to explain the biology of how that works. Do a search on - cholesterol study - and read for yourself. Cholesterol is needed to make cell membranes, the steroid hormones and receptor sites for serotonin. People who have low levels of cholesterol, under 140 milligrams per deciliter, have an elevated risk for depression, they can even get suicidal. You also need fat to beef up (That pun was intentional.) your immune system. If you're not eating fat, you'll get sick a lot more. You can get vitamin D from sunshine or meat sources. You can only get vitamin B-12 from meat sources. You also need fat to keep your skin soft. If you want proof, find a few people who have been vegetarians for decades. They'll be wrinkley. I read an article about a woman who became a vegetarian and the skin on her hands got so wrinkley. When she went back to eating meat, the skin on her hands improved. Many years ago I read an article about a man who was a vegetarian for 5 years. He didn't think about vitamin B-12 and the myelin sheaths around his nerves (myelin is like the insulation around a wire) deteriorated. He lost the fine motor control in his hands. He got a brain wave, as the British say, and went back to eating meat. His ability to control the fine movements of his hands improved, but he still had shaky hands. And I've certainly seen a few women vegetarians who were very overweight because they ate so many carbohydrates. All these health problems that the vegetarians claim are caused by meat and fat are not caused by meat or fat, they're caused by our natural foods being screwed up with hormone injections, feeding cattle corn or grain instead of grass, mono-cropping, pasteurizing, homogonizing and who knows what else. Meat is full of protein, healthy fat and yumminess! Our ancestors were hunter gatherers for at least 250,000 years, probably much longer than that. One of the reasons we have such large brains is our ancestors ate high energy meat and fat. I admire the vegetarian idea that they don't want animals to die for their meals, but they're so quick to assume that what they feel is morally correct for them is also nutritionally correct. It is not. Our species grew up hunting and eating animals. They needed bigger brains to plan a hunt, to work out how 12 guys could bring down a mammoth, and to make tools to butcher their dinner. Suggesting that those hundreds of thousands of years of hunting and adapting to an omnivorous diet was somehow not right for us is absolutely ludicrous! If our ancestors had not started eating meat, we would still be living in trees or grasslands without even the technology of stone tools or fire. The part about food addictions I definitely agree with. Ask anyone who eats sugar to give it up and he or she will tell you that is not going to happen. There's a company in the Netherlands (From an article in Popular Science. The article did not mention the company's name.) and another group at Stanford University who are working on growing meat from stem cells and glucose. The Dutch company expects to have lab grown bacon on the market in 2010. That would knock out the objection about an animal died for this meal. And I trust they can grow meat in a lab without injecting it with hormones. There are plenty of videos, articles and studies available on any topic concerning nutrition you're interested it. Have a look and think for yourself. Happy Trails, Anthony
Awesome article. I was a vegetarian for a few years 2-3. I have been eating meat for 10 years or more now. But realizing I am responsible for my individual health, I like to now what my body is doing. There is a great program available on line, where you can look into the body 3d graphically. Have a look at that too. I correlate a lot of reading with video, so youtube is a good source for information about human biology as well (the science stuff, not the sales spots so much). Again Think about this statement. " 'vegitarians are' so quick to assume that what they feel is morally correct for them is also nutritionally correct." WE are meat eaters like or not. peace, out.
Meat eating is certainly something that is necessary for some "blood types" and for those folks who have ancestors that were hunter/gatherers,such as "O" but some humans have no ancestors that were hunters but were cultivators and nomads. I have seen this to be true. "O" Blood types must have meat and fat from meat to do well. If they attempt to be vegetarians and eat grains they blow up like balloons and are fat as grain fed hogs. So certainly those folks need meat and milk fats to do well and real vegetable and not vegetable based products made to appear and taste like meat. Yet "A" blood types seem to do very well on them, but better on whole grains rather then fake meat. They do expertly on vegetables of all kinds and vegetable fats, while "O"s need those occasional animals fats like real butter. Margarine is a killer to everyone. "B"s are the nomads who must moderate meat and veg and just a little grain. The obese folks are those who are "O" and eat too much processed grain foods such as granola bars and cereals that are considered "comfort foods" are their down fall. "AB"s are a little of the "A" and a little of the "B" and they have to find that happy medium for themselves. I had attempted to be a vegetarian and I became over weight. I had to go back to meat, yet I never did eat much of it to begin with and I don't eat much now but I do attempt to stay away from bread and grains like rice. I love them but they hate me. I love milk but there is sugar there and hunter/gatherer "O" blood types do not do well with sugar, yet I believe that none of the humans do well with sugar at all. (Sugar turns our internal parts to "crispy" material. Cook sugar in water to a boil and view the results of the hard candy you create. That is what is happening with your biological shell when you eat sugar and that is maintained in a temperature of 97 to 104 degrees constant. You cook slowly and crisp as you age.) We all crave that sugar, but it is a killer to us and I discovered is very close in chemical structure to cocaine, as is chocolate and coffee...no brainer there, huh? I would love all of us to stop having to kill anything even those lovely carrots and celery and garlic and onions and oregano and comfrey and loads of other live beings along with those with faces and eyes that look up at us to plead for their lives, "Oh please don't eat me." yet until we can live off the surrounding atmosphere and the sun's rays that give us the vitamin D and C and A and E and the minerals in the mist of the morning, we are relegated to consumer live beings to live. Eating less is the key. Eating only a few days a week in the cold of the winter has shown to result in longevity from the lowly earthworm to the human. We all need moisture and water is essential to everything that is us and our surroundings. We also need those fats that form the structure of the cell wall the keeps the moisture of the water surrounded inside. Everything does better on less then more. So don't over do it and stop watching TV where you are sucked into ads between the programs to go out and get your KFC or follow the KING to the burger.. Don't bring home a pizza for dinner.. Make food in crockpots. Grow gardens of food and herbs for medicinal purposes as well as food and stop growing putting greens on your property. Humans can't eat grass to live. Grow food on every inch of your land so that everyone gets back to those meals together that are made from scratch and not from some package or some premade food from Tyson or Boston Market. You'll live happier and less depressed emotionally and maybe even longer without falling to that illusion of "aging" that everyone believes we must do as the years go by. Stay healthy and eat less..
The last post was made by Phyllis Georgic. I would be happy to take any comments at georgic@salsgiver.com from whoever would care to discuss. I am a healer and health educator. I have studied homeopathy, Qigong, nutrition and ancient medicine for over 25 years.
Great Info...a real "eye-opener"!
anonymous wrote 3 years, 10 months ago | Reply