Plant Positive Strikes Back: Nutrition Past and Future

Plant Positive has released a brilliant new series on YouTube titled 'Nutrition Past and Future', featuring 44 videos that address the misleading claims of Paleo, Primal and Low-Carb diet advocates including Gary Taubes, Robert Lustig, Loren Cordain, Mark Sisson, Robb Wolf, Andreas Eenfeldt, Anthony Colpo, and members of the Weston A. Price Foundation among others. This new series expand on Plant Positive's two previous video series, 'The Primitive Nutrition Series Playlist' and 'The Primitive Response Playlist'.

The Journalist Gary Taubes

Taubes gained prominence as an advocate of the low-carb diet following the publication of his article "What If It's All Been a Big Fat Lie?" in the New York Times in 2002. A follow-up article expressed the concerns of scholars that Taubes interviewed who complained that Taubes misinterpreted their statements and ignored much of the research that they presented, including research linking red meat with colorectal cancer. It was already clear from this point that Taubes was a snake oil salesperson and Plant Positive makes this fact even clearer in Nutrition Past and Future which in particular addresses Taubes's book Good Calories, Bad Calories. 

The Journalist Gary Taubes 1: Controlling History

Ancel Keys and John Yudkin

In Nutrition Past and Future, Plant Positive addresses the controversy over the classical research produced by Ancel Keys and John Yudkin. The first video below addressed Keys classical paper from 1953, Atherosclerosis: A problem in newer public health regarding the cross-sectional study of dietary fat intake and coronary heart disease mortality in six countries, not to be confused with the Seven Countries Study which was a longitudinal prospective cohort study published a number of years later. Plant Positive explains Keys views on nutrition and the literature at the time of this publication, as well as the plausible reasons as to why Keys selected the six specific countries to be included in the analysis. As Plant Positive explains, Keys omitted countries from the analysis that experienced major population shifts and changes to diet caused by the war, as well as those countries with very small populations. Keys also addressed this issue in a later in response to the international comparisons carried out by Hilleboe who included countries that had experienced these significant populations shifts and changes to diet.1

Plant Positive also pointed out that Keys limited the analysis only to countries that used reliable death records which classified deaths closely to that of international standards, and that Keys clearly asserted that:2

So far it has been possible to get fully comparable dietary and vital statistics data from 6 countries

Another point that the cholesterol skeptics ignore is that even when all the other countries were considered, intake saturated fat was still a strong predictor of coronary heart disease mortality [reviewed previously]. Even Hilleboe admitted this in 1957:1

Human diets with unrestricted fats, especially some of the saturated fatty acids, appear to be associated with coronary atherosclerosis, particularly in adult males

Keys however criticized Hilleboe's claim that this association ‘is not a causal relationship’ as Hilleboe provided scant evidence to refute the possibility of a causal relationship.1

The Journalist Gary Taubes 3: Ancel Keys Was Very Bad 1

The Journalist Gary Taubes 4: Ancel Keys Was Very Bad 2

As can be concluded from Plant Positive’s videos, it is ignorant to suggest that Ancel Keys cherry-picked these six countries without giving the reason for the selection criteria. In Denise Minger’s post regarding Ancel Keys 1953 paper where she attempted to plagiarize Plant Positive’s work, like Yerushalmy and Hilleboe, Minger ignorantly claimed that ‘Keys cherry-picked six countries and never told us why.’ It is clear that Minger has either simply not read or is ignorant of the data presented in the Keys paper that she criticized, yet still claimed that she ‘did a deeper analysis of the 1950s data than Keys himself probably did’.3 This is the same level of ignorance that Minger applied to her criticisms of the China Study [reviewed previously].

Plant Positive also provided an informative review of the controversy over John Yudkin's claims about sugar intake and the risk of  coronary heart disease.

The Journalist Gary Taubes 5: John Yudkin Was Very Good

In a later review, Keys again addressed Yudkin’s claims regarding sugar intake and coronary heart disease in international comparisons:4

In regard to international comparisons, there are countries with a high per capita consumption of sugar and of saturated fats; those countries tend to have high CHD death rates. And there are countries with low per capita sugar and saturated fat intakes; these have low CHD rates. When all these countries are put together, statistical calculation naturally shows CHD mortality is correlated with both sugar and fat intake. However, partial correlation analysis shows that when sugar is held constant, CHD is highly correlated with per capita saturated fats in the diet but when fat is constant there is no significant correlation between sugar in the diet and the CHD incidence rate. It should be noted, too, that Yudkin carefully avoids mentioning the fact that 2 countries with the highest per capita sugar consumption, Cuba and Venezuela, suffer low CHD mortality; it is notable that the dietary intake of estimated fats is low in both Cuba and Venezuela. 

Another flaw in Yudkin’s hypothesis about sugar and coronary heart disease that Plant Positive addressed was the contradictory evidence from animal experiments of atherosclerosis. When diets rich in dietary cholesterol and saturated fat, such as egg yolks are used to induce atherosclerosis in non-human primates, the atherosclerosis process has actually been reversed when these atherogenic components are replaced with chow very rich in sugar.5 6 This does not suggest that sugar should be considered a heart healthy food, but does emphasize the fact that sugar alone cannot induce atherosclerosis in the absence of dietary cholesterol and elevated blood cholesterol, and therefore cannot not explain the coronary heart disease epidemic.

Primitive Populations Revisisted

In Nutrition Past and Future, Plant Positive reviewed a number of high quality studies that strongly contradict the claims of low-carb advocates such as Taubes. These studies include the observations from the China Study and numerous earlier observations in China that are in general agreement with Dr. Colin Campbell's findings. For example, the observations that the nomadic Sinkiang in northern China who consumed diets rich in organic grass-fed animal foods experienced a 7 fold greater incidence of coronary artery disease than the Chinese living in Zhoushan Archipelago who consumed a diet much richer in plant based foods. These findings resemble even earlier observations from the 1920's of the nomadic plainsmen in Dzungaria in northwest China and across the border in Kyrgyzstan who consumed enormous amounts of organic grass-fed animal foods and experienced severe vascular disease at young ages [reviewed previously].

The Journalist Gary Taubes 15: Pesky Facts

In Nutrition Past and Future, Plant Positive provides an very informative analysis of the blood cholesterol in hunter-gatherer populations and the factors, such as parasites which are responsible for the observed low blood cholesterol in many of these populations. As Plant Positive addressed, George Mann contributed unnecessarily to the cholesterol confusion. Nevertheless, Mann has provided an excellent critique of a poor quality autopsy study authored by Biss et al. that cholesterol skeptics frequently cite to claim the traditional Masai did not develop atherosclerosis. Mann stated:7

Biss et al. have published their findings with 10 autopsies of "Masai" done at the Narok District Hospital in Kenya. They described "a paucity of atherosclerosis" with only "occasional fatty streaks and fibrous plaques" in subjects presumed to be Masai. The authors did not give details of selection of the subjects, a description of the causes of death, the methods of evaluation or even the ages. They measured the thickness of the coronary arteries with a caliper and found that "the Masais' coronary arteries had much thinner walls than those of whites in the U.S., matched for age and sex." Those measurements were not shown nor was the comparison population further described.

It is interesting that the cholesterol skeptics hail George Mann’s work as good science, but ignore this criticism about one of their frequently cited studies. Mann's critique suggests that the autopsies described in Biss et al. may not have even been carried out on Masai and that the authors did not even provide the information required to make an informed conclusion about the degree of atherosclerosis in this very small sample of people presumed to be Masai.

Ancestral Cholesterol 1

Ancestral Cholesterol 2

Please post any comments in the Discussion Thread. 

Perfect Health Diet Update and Why I’m Transitioning to The Whole 30

The Perfect Health Diet experiment was a bust. I think my approach to it was all wrong and I was really just indulging some cravings for starchy foods. I have no doubt that many people find success with it, but from where I’m coming from (low carb Paleo), it was just too difficult a transition.

Things I noticed in the short time I was eating more starch:

 - Bloating

- Increased appetite, especially for starchy food
- Wild energy fluctuations
- Sugar crashes resulting in extreme hunger
- Caffeine cravings returned
- PMS came back with a VENGENCE
- Menstrual cramps returned
- More frequent headaches
- Evil/tired wife of my previous life returned (Cute Man bears the brunt of my carb-induced moodiness).

And all this in less than 2 weeks of adding more starch to my diet. Message received, body! It is sad to think that I am so broken that even a “low-moderate” amount of carbs can make me feel so poorly so quickly. But it is what it is and I choose to look at it in a more positive light – thank goodness I do know what does work for ME. I just need to tighten things up and get back on my merry way.

Enter: The Whole 30. I’ve done this (or should I say, attempted) this before, more than once. I do have trouble with hard and fast rules but I’m actually really looking forward to it at this point. I guess if you feel crappy enough, the thought of doing something to improve the situation is appealing, not restrictive. A bit of structure without the need for calorie counting sounds really good right now. I’m taking the next few days to ease into it – mostly following the guidelines but getting whatever cravings for chocolate or whatever out of my system now without going crazy about it. My official start will be January 1st.

I’m excited to see that Holly is doing the program as well! I plan to follow along with her for an added layer of support. Make sure to pop on by if you’re curious about The Whole 30, want some good info about it, or just want to get a bit of encouragement. Also, let me know if you're giving it a shot as well - the more support, the better!

Simple tips for a healthy life naturally

Modern life in the digital age makes most people very rarely to enjoy natural food. Everything is fast-paced, instant food that was chosen. This fact is usually the case in large cities. In general, more and more people leaving natural healthy way of life, and has given rise to several new diseases that have never been seen before. Various life threatening diseases you could have been avoided if you do a variety of healthier living habits naturally. This habit does not require a lot of money, and of course, safe and easy to do.

Image: vemale.com

Basically everyone wants to live healthy from an early age to old age. Different ways you can do such a positive activity exercise regularly and enjoy food and drink nutritious and fibrous. You can implement healthy 
living tips as mentioned below:

1. Get used to wake up early and do not sleep in the morning.

Your health could be compromised if at 6 and 11 o'clock in the morning you are still sleeping. Bad habits have been studied previously by experts. If possible, the afternoon is an excellent time to sleep, even at night you are not getting enough sleep. You have to get used to always sleep enough each day, so your body is not tired, then it is highly recommended not to sleep late at night and try to keep enough sleep each day.

2. Avoid all bad habits.

Bad habits are actually a lot of people do like to consume beverages that can increase stamina, alcohol and soft drinks, smoking etc. There are factors that can actually worsen a person's health. Slowly but sure the cells of your body will be damaged if you are still smoking and drink too much alcohol. 

Image: monatalina.wordpress.com

3. Avoid negative prejudices and stress.

Your health could be affected by both. Refreshing a way that can be done so sick and tired of feeling can be lost. Various activities can be done such as talking with friends - friends, watching movies to theaters, roads - roads, reading books and so forth.

4. Stretch before bed.

Stretching the body or muscle will help you in your sleep so soundly, and fit when you wake up. The movement of the stretch there are various such few seconds you hold the straightened leg position, and kissed the knee. You can do it while sitting on the bed or on the floor. Yoga and meditation can be a very good choice before bed.

5. Maintain cleanliness.

A very easy thing to do is to maintain personal hygiene and the environment. You can do things - things that are easy to do on a regular basis as in change clothes and shower. Remember, germs that cause a variety of diseases and viruses that can harm you prevent by keeping sanitation in the environment around us.

6. Regular exercise

If it is needed you can come to the gym or fitness center. But do you know if those that exercise can be done without having to spend money, for example, perform gymnastic movements while jogging. Your body will be healthy and fit when you are jogging or exercise at least half an hour each day.

7. Reduce consumption of oily and fatty foods

Reduce to consume a variety of foods such as fried foods, red meat and food soupy coconut milk. Do not consume these foods every day.

8. Drinking milk high in calcium

Bone loss will not be easy and it will become stronger if the routine consumption of high calcium milk. Besides drink 8 glasses of water a day.

 

9. Start with yourself healthy life every day.

In this case, healthy living very closely linked to foods and beverages every day into our bodies. Nutritional quality of the diet plays an important role in one's health. You can always eat foods with rich nutrients such as fruits and vegetables.

In general, people always see the number of calories in food. From now on, consider also what kind of colors contained in one serving. What kinds of vegetables are eaten in a single day? Do not let the food consumed too 'doughy' there are no colorful veggies in it. The more colors of vegetables consumed, the better, as a sign of antioxidants, vitamins and fiber that consumed even more also.

Enough fiber at breakfast will make your stomach full until lunch time. This can be overcome by eating cereal or oatmeal combined with a piece of fruit such as bananas and strawberries. If you cannot eat cereal, bread could be his successor. Choose breads made from wheat flour, and mix with peanut butter or fruit jam.

Living healthy is actually very simple and easy. Start today with good habits and healthy so you can enjoy a comfortable and happy life.

Carbs! (Perfect Health Diet Experiment)

OK, so are you SICK of all my food experiments yet? You know, the ones I start and am so excited about and then… [radio silence]. Yeah, me neither! Needless to say, the ketogenic dealio sort of petered out. First I got sick of tracking, then I got distracted by All. The. Cookies. It certainly did seem to “work”. If I kept my calories to about 1650 and under 75 carbs (I was shooting for under 50), I seemed to slowly drop weight. It really seemed to be more about the calories and less about how many carbs I ate, quite honestly. But tracking calories gets BORING and I sort of started to rebel against the idea. Then, I started baking. Need I say more?

Yes, all the baking I do is grain-free. But almond flour combined with things like maple syrup and chocolate chips? Kinda calorie-dense, as they say. The wonderful thing about this whole Paleo thing, though, is that due to how spot on everything else is, I’ve managed to stay in my current cache of pants. I call that a win! I haven’t been weighing myself but apart from noticing an ever so slightly more poochy belly, all of my clothes are fitting just fine. Whew. Bullet dodged. This is particularly remarkable because this spiral into daily cookie baking (I’m serious – it was pretty much every day) coincided with a relatively nasty back injury which kept me away from my normal level of activity for the same period. Hmmm… maybe out of the ordinary pain is correlated to cookie baking? Makes sense!

On to the real subject of this post… The Perfect Health Diet (PHD). A new version of this came out this week so the author, Paul Jaminet, was doing the Paleo podcast circuit (like the Fat Burning Man Show). I have to admit that I always dismissed the whole “safe starches” thing as completely bogus. As far as I was concerned, the fewer the carbs the better. Period. But, I decided to listen and something sort of clicked for me. The PHD is not a high carb diet, it’s just not as low as more traditional versions of Paleo, especially as it’s articulated for weight loss. Sure, athletes should eat more starch and fruit to correlate to their activity, but us fatties trying to shed a few pounds? Low carb was the way to go. And it was – I lost 50 lbs. that way. But then, I didn’t. Whether it was looser compliance or some sort of adaptation that made it stop working, I don’t know. A combination? Regardless, it just got harder. It came down to me having to count both calories and carbs explicitly in order to shed pounds. I came down with some serious diet-fatigue. This is like a part-time job that never ends!

Listening to (and then reading, after I bought the book) Paul Jaminet talk about eating things like rice, white potatoes, and sweet potatoes started to make those items swim in front of my eyes! Could I really be able to eat those things? I’m still not sure, but his argument started to resonate. Whether it’s wishful thinking or not, I’m willing to give it a shot. If, for no other reason, then to mix things up and relieve some of that diet fatigue. What really made me think was that this plan is shooting for sufficiency for all nutrients – macronutrients like Carbs, Fat, and Protein as well as Micronutrients like Vitamins and Minerals. The key, according to Jaminet’s theory, is to get just enough of everything. Not too much, not too little. Both overdoing it and underdoing it have consequences. If you are deficient in any of these variables, your appetite will be high, trying to get you to eat what you’re missing. If your diet just doesn’t contain that missing thing, overeating will result in added weight but still leave you malnourished, continuing to seek relief through eating yet more. This made perfect sense to me.

The basic idea is to shoot for 30% carbs, 15-20% protein, and 50-55% fat by calories. Jaminet does admit that to lose weight ultimately a calorie deficit must occur. He contends that for most people, it will happen spontaneously based on the satiation of this macronutrient ratio coupled by the recommended supplements which should also bring micronutrients into sufficiency as well. I haven’t started any of the supplements yet, although I already take Vitamin C and a multivitamin (not necessarily advocated with the PHD) daily as well as fermented cod liver oil/butter oil blend which offers a good deal of Vitamin A, D, and K2. Even so, the last couple of days of higher carb meals have left me extremely satisfied! I used to think that any appreciable whack of carbs would automatically send me into a carb binge. This has not been the case so far. I really think it IS wheat and sugar in particular for me when it comes to trigger foods. Starchy foods and even fruit seem to be OK so far. And I must be honest – just the novelty of being able to eat these things is making me extremely happy without any desire to go crazy with them. Amazing! I also haven't baked any cookies for 4 days even though I have a ton of dough in the fridge (for our upcoming cookie themed holiday party - smart thinking, that one!)

I am plugging stuff in to My Fitness Pal again (I know, I know, the calorie counting DOES make me crazy) but just for the short term. I don’t yet feel confident in my eyeballing skills to get me to the right ratios. I’ll give it a few weeks and see how I do. It’s new and fresh again – it’s interesting to see how it all works out when I’m aiming for different goals. Hopefully, after I build my confidence a bit, I’ll be able to let go of the training wheels. The general idea is this:

• Skip breakfast - can use Bulletproof Coffee since fat doesn’t interfere with benefits of fasting. Yes, I AM returning to this and giving caffeine another shot. It’s a great easy way to start the day and allows me to eat more later, when I really want the food anyway. I am in no way forcing this. If I am hungry before noon, I’ll eat.
• Protein – 12-16 oz of meat/eggs/fish per day, which works out to two good 6-8 oz portions at lunch and dinner.
• Starchy Carbs – four fist-sized servings of starch per day (potatoes, rice, etc), which works out to be 1-2 fists at lunch and dinner; it’s key to eat starch coupled with fat, non-starchy veggies, and some sort of acid like lemon juice or vinegar for blood sugar regulation reasons.
• Sugary Carbs – up to 3-4 fruits or sugary veggies a day (probably more like 2-3 for me).
• Non-starchy Veggies – add to meals for flavor, micronutrients, and the blood sugar modulating effects of fiber.
• The above should work out to a plate consisting of 1/3 meat, 1/3 starch, 1/3 veggies with fat used at will to make things taste good but not be greasy.

That, in theory, should make things balance out to the intended ratios. But, I’m still new at this so I’ll dutifully measure my portions and track in My Fitness Pal for a bit to get the hang of it. So that’s it in a nutshell. I will keep you posted on how it goes (or not, and then you’ll know I’ve flaked out again). Anybody else have some good food experiments going or is just me with this particular brand of crazy?

Find Healthy World Cafe at the Gifts That Give Hope Fair

Healthy World Cafe is amped to be sharing some other news with our loyal friends and volunteers:

This year, we'll be partnering with other York-area nonprofits for the Gifts That Give Hope Fair to kick off at Brown's Orchards & Farm Market in November and run through Dec. 28.

Patrons who come into the fair will receive a list of each of the 15 nonprofits who are participating -- find all the organizations at giftsthatgivehope.org/york -- plus the three gifts each of us are offering for the holiday season.

The idea behind Gifts That Give Hope is to bring together nonprofits and community organizations working to make a difference in their area -- as Healthy World Cafe does in providing locally sourced, healthy meals to anyone, regardless of their ability to pay. Folks can purchase one (or more!) of three "gifts" on behalf of a friend or family member, then fair organizers provide a card that explains how the donation benefited the organization. Givers and receivers can feel good about supporting community-focused organizations (and stop worrying about what to get Aunt Sue).

For Healthy World Cafe, our three gifts are:
-- $20 toward the purchase of produce from local, small-time farmers that will form a salad to be served at one of our monthly lunches
-- $40 toward the purchase of locally raised, healthy (happy!) chickens from a southcentral Pennsylvania farmer that will form the basis of a dish at one of our monthly lunches
-- $60 toward covering the costs of 10 lunch patrons who are otherwise unable to afford a healthy meal -- or any meal at all

All three levels support our essential mission: To build community in York; support sustainable farming in York, Adams and Lancaster counties; and provide delicious, healthy food for anyone who walks in the door -- whether he or she can pay full price or not.

Donations will be open through Dec. 28.

If you have questions on the Gifts That Give Hope Fair, send us an email at healthyworldcafe(at)gmail(dot)com.