The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth

Tax on Sugary Food and the Food of Cancer, Obesity and Diabetes

These are two seemingly separate and distinct issues but when you stop and think about them, they have a lot in common.

A recent article in the NY Times discussed the idea of placing taxes on sugary beverages in an effort to curb obesity. While it is true that increased sugar consumption is by far the fastest and quite frankly, the only way to become obese, what's next? A fat tax? An exercise too little tax?

To reduce their circumferential measures, people need to be educated, not taxed.

The proposition of a tax to curb obesity is just our governments way of saying "You Americans are too weak of will and stupid to control yourselves, and we're too lazy and dumb to educate you so, we'll just tax you and profit by it instead." So what else is new.

Lightbulb: What about a reward system rather than one of punishment? EX: If you keep your body weight within 20 pounds of your optimal body composition, you get an income tax reduction. And who cares HOW you do it? You can eat very healthfully and still have a Snickers bar, a can of ginger ale and be no worse for the wear but heavenforfend! Not that I advocate eating this sort of fare, but hey - healthy is healthy. I enjoy my wine and I'm very healthy. Why can't someone enjoy a can of soda without being shaken down?

Here again we see the government looking for their lost keys where the light is better. The cure for obesity, diabetes and perhaps for most cancers and autoimmune disorders is to eat as we would before the advent of agriculture.

Animals in the wild do not get cancer. (Note added September 22nd 2009: What I mean to say by this is it is my opinion that animals in the wild that have no contact with man do not suffer from cancers. Some animals do get cancers in the wild, but it is suspected and theorized that these cancers are caused by environmental pollutants caused by man. Some are caused by viruses but these are rare.) They do not become obese, diabetic, asthmatic or arthritic. Only when humans invite them into their lives or influence their lives and habitats do these ills descend upon them. No, no - it's not because they don't live long enough in the wild to experience these problems. Young humans get cancer, fat and arthritic too.

By cracky, it's what we feed our pets and what we feed ourselves that may very well be THE cause of most of our ills and certainly increases them. We feed our animals and ourselves foods that would never be eaten in our natural habitats. Dog and cat foods are laden with carbohydrates (and other fillers) - a macronutrient that is entirely unnecessary in their diet (or ours for that matter). Carnivores, like us, do not need carbohydrates in any amount to survive and survive quite well, yet it is what the government food pyramid stresses as the main nutrient for humans and what is boasted in most if not all pet foods. I saw a dog food commercial the other day that said: "Now, with carrots and even oatmea!" Oatmeal - for a dog?

From the Dietary Reference Intake which is "a series of reports on the dietary reference values for the intake of nutrients by Americans and Canadians. They include details on the application of statistically valid methods and reviews the roles that macronutrients play in traditional deficiency diseases as well as chronic diseases." DRI's page 275:

"The lower limit of dietary carbohydrate compatible with life apparently is zero, provided that adequate amounts of protein and fat are consumed."

There you have it sportsfans. We need zero carbohydrates in our diet yet carbohydratesmake up over 70% of the govenment food pyramid. Will someone please explain this to me?

Cancer, obesity, diabetes and arthritis do not float in the sky, land on and infect us. You can't breathe them in, get them from an insect or contract them from others. These ills are, for the most part, self inflicted. They arise from what we do and don't eat. FE: Cancer feeds on sugar. We've known this for decades. Carbohydrates are sugars. Remove the sugars and you remove the potential cause of and certainly the food for cancers. Yes my friends, it may very well be that simple. Sounds crazy, right? But why - why does it sound crazy? Stop and think about this for just a moment. Do animals in the wild get cancer? Become obese or diabetic? What do all of of these maladies have in common? The ingestion of excess sugar.

I believe that our society has no idea how brainwahsed and dumbed up and down we have become by clever marketing and advertising. Even Dr. Oz is telling people to eat oatmeal and shun meat. Would you put oatmeal into your dogs food bowl? Heck no. So then why are you putting it into yours - or your childs? Most answer that we are humans and dogs are dogs and thus we have different digestive systems. This is not exactly true.

Let's not tax sugary foods Mr. Obama (not that you're 100% for it). Let's instead educate people how dangerous sugar is in all its forms and put an end to the ills caused by this macronutrient once and for all. I am calling for a 3 month moratorium on sugar and grain based carbohydrates. Rather than all join hands and walk for the cure, let's instead join minds and eat for it.

Wheaties - the breakfast of champions or just sea monkeys?

Marketing can be awesomely powerful. A good marketer could sell catnip to a dog. We've all been hoodwinked into buying some sort of product at one time or another in our lives that turned out to be a dud or a downright lie. Sea Monkeys comes to mind. I can remember being so disappointed when my sea monkeys, bought with a zillion box tops of Captain Crunch, turned out to be nothing more than brine shrimp i.e., fish food.

It appears that Wheaties, the breakfast of champions, is now spending millions of dollars in an attempt to brainwash people - specifically athletes - into thinking a bowl of sugar is good and will enhance athletic performance.

 

Take a look.

Don't let the hype fool you sportsfans. Cereal grains are nasty stuff. Grains are chock full of antinutrients and when refined for consumption and fully digested, are nothing more than simple sugar.

Sugar is extremely caustic to the human body. It is responsible for a host of inflammatory ills and is linked to damage to the endothelium. 

The endothelium is the thin layer of cells that line the interior surface of blood vessels. Not a good thing to mess with. 

A cup of Wheaties has 24 grams of carbohydrates (essentially sugar). The typical adult has a only a few grams, more or less, of sugar in her total blood volume. (My co-author and friend Dr. Michael Eades says it can be even less than a few grams - as little as one gram even a bit less.) And who eats a mere cup of cereal for breakfast - especially an athlete? When I was a wee lad, I typically ate 2-3 bowls of cereal. (And as you now know, Captain Crunch was my favorite.)

Wheaties cereal is fake food. In fact, I wouldn't call it food at all. I've never seen a Wheaties tree or a cereal bush. All commercially made cereal is among the worst foods one can eat and is especially bad for children. And at five to seven dollars a box, you're paying top dollar to kill yourself. You could buy 3 dozen, muscle-building, bone densifying eggs for that price.

The real breakfast of champions would consist of real foods - meat, eggs, fish,  vegetables and fruit - foods that actually exist in real life.

Be a real champion. Eat real foods. Don't be fooled by nutritional sea-monkeys!

Gary Taubes

Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories Bad Calories will be giving a talk/book signing in Phoenix AZ, Saturday May 2nd at Dr. Ben Bocchicchio's training center.

Check it out on Dr. Ben Bocchicchio's website! (The website says the 8th but it's the 2nd).

Please attend if you can! I will be there to take questions as well.

Saturated Fat Vote

A UK magazine called Healthy is doing a poll - is saturated fat bad or good for us?

Scroll to the bottom and vote!

Red Meat Increases Mortality Risk

Well...sort of.

Many of you have emailed me asking for some clarity on this new 'study' recently published called Meat Intake and Mortality.

First, this study is an observational study. Observational studies (really surveys) by their very nature can only suggest an association. They absolutely do not prove cause and effect. There are so many other confounding variables that were left unchecked you might as well use this study for your new puppy's poop.

From the study:

"The inherent limitations of measurement error in this

study are similar to those of any nutritional epidemiological
study that is based on recall of usual intake over a
given period. We attempted to reduce measurement error
by adjusting our models for reported energy intake.
15 The correlations for red meat consumption assessed
from the food frequency questionnaire compared
with two 24-hour recall diaries were 0.62 for men and
0.70 for women, as reported previously by Schatzkin et
al.7 The problem of residual confounding may still exist
and could explain the relatively small associations found
throughout this study despite the care taken to adjust for
known confounders."

Uh huh. They also suggest that vegetarians are somehow healthier than meat eaters:

"Vegetarians have lower arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic
acid levels and higher linoleate and antioxidant levels
in platelet phospholipids; such a biochemical profile
may be related to decreased atherogenesis and thrombogenesis."

But in another recent study published in March 2009, Mortality in British Vegetarians researchers found no difference in mortality between meat eaters and vegetarians. From the study:

"The mortality of both the vegetarians and the nonvegetarians
in this study is low compared with national rates.Within
the study, mortality from circulatory diseases and all causes is not
significantly different between vegetarians and meat eaters.."

Let's use a little common sense. If eating red meat was so unhealthy, how in the world did humans come to exist? We've been eating red meat for hundreds of thousands of years.

If you torture the data enough it will confess...

Eat your red meat and enjoy it. What you don't want to eat is grain fed, hormone ridden and processed meats.

Great Seafood

Vital Choice. When you can't bring yourself to the sea....

The experts speak

Here is a promo video that everyone who is interested in low carb eating should watch. My Co-author Dr. Michael Eades as well as my friend Gary Taubes are part of the video.

We need more of this sort of thing to get onto the radar screen of physicians and registered dietitians.

More good info here.

Enjoy.

Count your carbs

Here is a great resource for doing so: Nutrition Facts and Analysis.

As a reminder:

Eating carbs (save for leafy, cruciferous veggies only) = sharp increases in insulin production = body fat storage = obesity and type II diabetes.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away

Notice that the adage says 'an?'

Smart.

Make a change at the USDA

You now have just 1day left to submit comments for consideration at the Jan 29th meeting to change the USDA food/dietary recommendations.

Attachments may accompany your comments.

To submit or view written public comments related to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines revision process, please go here.

Hurry!