Wednesday 27 November 2013

Testosterone

I am going to be talking to Phil Johnson on AM1150 today about testosterone.  Low T seems to be becoming more common than it used to be.  We have to careful to not mistake common for normal. (1)  A gradual decrease in Testosterone is a normal part of aging, but the low levels that are becoming more common are not normal.

Is Low T really that bad? 


Low Testosterone is associated with lower muscle mass(2), low libido(3),  depression(4), low bone density(5), and even death.(6)

There are two main causes of low T. Primary hypogonadism  is caused by a problem with the testes.  Secondary hypogonadism is caused by imbalances in the bodies hormonal system.  As with most health issues diet, lifestyle and exercise play a huge role in Secondary hypogonadism.

War on Cholesterol strikes again! 

 

It isn't surprising that low vitamin D levels are associated with low testosterone (7) since both vitamin D and Testosterone are made from cholesterol.  Without cholesterol we cannot make any of our steroid hormones, including testosterone.  We have been told to "Go Lower" and try and get our cholesterol as low as possible without realizing that cholesterol is one of the most important molecules in our bodies. (8)   There are 65 year old men with low testosterone trying to lower their cholesterol even though studies have shown that in elderly people, those with the highest cholesterol live the longest!!(9) , (10) , (11)

Saturated fat has also been vilified so many men have switched to a low fat diet.  Research has shown that low fat diets can reduce Testosterone in middle aged men (12).   Saturated and monounsaturated fat intake has been positively associated with testosterone levels (13)

Your Stressing me out!

 

Lifestyle factors are also associated with low T.  Stress can raise cortisol which can lower testosterone.  Cortisol levels can also be altered by disruption of circadian rhythms.  Too much light late at night from TV and computer screens and not enough bright light in the day can disrupt sleep patterns which can affect Testosterone (14).


Lift Heavy Things! 

 

Most men either don't exercise or don't do enough of the type of exercise that supports Testosterone.  Long, steady state, chronic cardio can have the same effect on Cortisol that stress has.  Excessive endurance training can cause testosterone and reproductive dysfunction in men (15)

Lifting weights has been shown to increase post workout testosterone levels (16).  Sprinting has also been shown to increase testosterone (17).  Instead of spending an hour on the treadmill at the gym a better option might be to do a 4 minute tabata sprint training session (18)




Wednesday 30 October 2013

Good Week for Saturated Fat!!

Saturated fat has had some good press the last couple weeks. 

Dr. Perlmutter was on the Dr. Oz show extolling the benefits of butter. 

BMJ published a review article by British cardiologist Asseem Malholta in which he states that saturated fat and cholesterol are not the major issue causing heart disease. (1)

Catalyst, as news show on the ABC network in Australia aired part 1 of a 2 part series with many doctors and researchers who believe that saturated fat and cholesterol do not cause heart disease. (Part 2 will be on next week) It included a quote from George Mann, a retired professor of biochemistry and medicine at Vanderbilt University who worked on the Framingham heart study:

"One of the Framingham researchers became so dismayed with the results, he wrote a scathing review of the whole diet-heart hypothesis, saying that people had been misled 'by the greatest scientific deception of our times, the notion that animal fat causes heart disease'."


Recent Research

 

A 2010 meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition Concluded that:(2)

" A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD."

Earlier this year a group examined data from The Sydney Diet Heart Study which was done in the 1970's.  In this study the experimental group decreased the saturated fat in the diet and increased the amount of omega 6 polyunsaturated fat. (polyonsaturated fats are the ones the various health agencies claim are heart healthy) 

 When originally published in in the 70's it did not include any data on Cardiovascular deaths.  I find this rather odd since it was called the Sydney Diet HEART Study.  Since the CVD deaths data was omitted I have seen this study used to support the theory that saturated fat causes heart disease since cholesterol was lowered in the low saturated fat group.

When the data was recovered and analyzed it showed that the group eating more saturated fat had lower  rate of CVD deaths than the group eating more polyunsaturated fats which led to the conclusion:(3)

" Advice to substitute polyunsaturated fats for saturated fats is a key component of worldwide dietary guidelines for coronary heart disease risk reduction. However, clinical benefits of the most abundant polyunsaturated fatty acid, omega 6 linoleic acid, have not been established. In this cohort, substituting dietary linoleic acid in place of saturated fats increased the rates of death from all causes, coronary heart disease, and cardiovascular disease. An updated meta-analysis of linoleic acid intervention trials showed no evidence of cardiovascular benefit. These findings could have important implications for worldwide dietary advice to substitute omega 6 linoleic acid, or polyunsaturated fats in general, for saturated fats."

 
 If all this is true why did all the health organizations start giving our dietary recommendations to cut saturated fat in the first place?


 Some bad science.


In the 1950's a researcher named Ancel Keys presented an observational study comparing the percentage of fat in the diet to death from heart disease in 6 countries shown below.  Thanks to Peter from Hyperlipid for the graphs.
 
 


As you can see Keys graph showed a correlation between fat intake and heart disease, it is almost a perfectly straight line.  There were a few problems with his study.  First it was an observational study so although it can show correlations it cannot provide any information on cause and effect.  I discussed the limitations of observational studies in a previous post.

Keys used 6 countries (Japan, Italy, England and Wales, Australia, Canada and the USA) in his study but there was data for 22 countries available when he did his study.  Using 6 other countries  shows a negative correlation between fat in the diet and deaths from heart disease.




 
  When all 22 countries are plotted on a graph they are all over the place and there isn't much of a correlation.  There are countries like the Netherlands that eat a lot of fat and a low rate of heart disease deaths.  In Finland they eat less fat than the Netherlands yet they have rate of heart disease deaths over 3 times as high.  The red dots below are data added from some hunter gatherer populations that eat a high fat diet and have very low rates of heart disease ( Masai, Inuit, Tokelau and a few others)



 


Politics in the American Heart Association


Keys study was initially met with skepticism.  The American Heart Association (AHA) did not immediately accept the diet heart hypothesis.  They acknowledged the correlation in the study but that did not mean there was any proof that reducing fat in the diet would reduce heart disease deaths.  Clinical trials needed to be done that showed a reduction in dietary fat would lead to lower heart disease deaths before they could give a diet recommendation to the American people.  By 1961 the AHA had changed its position and was now recommending a low fat diet.  Does this mean that the clinical trials had been done that proved a high fat diet caused heart disease?  No, those trials had not been done.  What had changed was that now Keys and a few other like minded people were on the AHA committee that made the decision to support Keys research.


The government will makes things better, right??


In 1968 a Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs was formed headed by George McGovern.  Originally its mandate was to eliminate malnutrition but in the 70's they started looking into the link between diet and chronic disease.  At the time there was a controversy in the scientific community as to whether lowering the amount of fat in the diet would lead to improvements in health.  The committee  sided with Keys and the AHA despite protests from other researchers.  When the dissenting researchers told McGovern that there wasn't enough evidence to make these recommendation McGovern replied,

 “we Senators don’t have the luxury that a research scientist does of waiting until every last shred of evidence is in.”  

The following clip is from Tom Naughton's documentary "Fathead":





They were so sure that the theory that saturated fat causes heart disease was right they decided to release the guideline without proof they were correct.  They assumed that once the research was done it would validate the theory. ( You know what they say about assumptions )  For the last 40 years they have done study after study spending billions of dollars but have yet to prove that the theory is correct.  During that time people have been following that advice and we have become fatter and sicker.  Obesity and diabetes rates are skyrocketing.  I am hoping that the recent will convince people that the natural saturated fat we have been eating for thousands, if not millions of years is healthy and that the man made vegetable oils, sugars and refined grains that we have only been eating for about 100 years are the real problems in our diets. 





Wednesday 2 October 2013

Re Post: why nutrition science is so bad

I am posting this article again to put it on the front page as I will be talking to Phil on 1150 am about it today.  

When I first started looking into nutritional science, I was shocked at how badly it was done.    To be fair, nutrition science if very difficult.  There are so many lifestyle and nutrition choices that can have a positive or negative influence on health, that it is hard to isolate the effect of any one food or group of foods.  There are two main types of studies; Observational (Epidemiological) studies and Controlled Experiments.  Tom Naughton has a really good video called “Science for smart People”  that explains the difference in an informative and humorous way.

The gold standard of science is the controlled experiment.  In a controlled experiment, you hold all variables constant except for the one variable that you are studying.  For example, if you wanted to study the effect of a fertilizer on growing plants, you would plant two groups of the same seeds.  You would use the same soil, same size pot; put the pots in the same area where the temperature and light exposure are the same, and give them the same amount of water.  You would put fertilizer in one but not the other.  If the plants in the fertilized pot grow faster and larger, then this would support your hypothesis that fertilizer helps plants grow.  


It is very hard to do this in a nutritional study.  The only way to be sure of the quality and quantity of food consumed, would be to lock people in a metabolic ward where food could be controlled.  You would have to weigh and measure all the food served, as well as all the food that wasn’t eaten.  Since most people are interested in being healthy for the rest of their life, and not just for the next 6 months, these studies would have to last 10 to 20 years to be really meaningful.  Not too many people would volunteer to be in a study that would lock them in a metabolic ward for 20 years!  (well, maybe Al Bundy would volunteer).  Even if you could do a study like this, it might not be relevant to the real world.  In a metabolic ward you have to stick to the diet; there is no other food choices.  In the real world, there are food choices on almost every street corner.  People have to be able to stay on a nutritional lifestyle long term for it to be useful. 

Very few controlled studies are done in nutritional science.  Almost all the studies we hear about are observational studies.  In these studies information is gathered on what people eat, usually with food frequency questionnaires.  These people are followed for a number of years and their health outcomes are observed.  Correlations are made between the food people ate and their health outcomes.  These types of studies have many limitations, the biggest being that they cannot provide any information on cause and effect.  Observational studies are useful for coming up with a new hypothesis, but then the hypothesis has to be tested in a Controlled Experiment.  A couple hypothetical studies from Tom Naughton's video might explain why this is.

If we were to do a study of the BMI of marathon runners compared to the BMI of the average person, you might find that running marathons is correlated with a lower BMI.  The conclusion of the study could say that running in marathons was linked, or correlated, or associated with a lower BMI.  They could not say that running in marathons causes you to become lean and have a lower BMI, even though most people hearing about this study would think that running marathons does cause people to have a lower BMI.  It conforms with our preconceived notions about exercise and weight, so we assume that causation is proved by the study.   If we look at another hypothetical study, it will illustrate why this is not the case.  If we did a similar study but used professional basketball players and height, we would find that playing basketball is correlated with being taller than the average person.  Does that mean that playing basketball causes you to grow taller?  If you are 5’6” and want to be 6’ tall, can you play basketball for a few years and expect to  grow?  Of course not!  Playing basketball doesn’t cause you to grow taller; it’s just that if you are tall you are more likely to play professional basketball.  The same logic can be used in the other study: Running marathons might not make you lean, it’s just that lean people are more likely to run marathons.  

When something in a study (A) is correlated with something else (B) it is easy to jump to the false conclusion that A is causing B.  A may or may not be causing B, as there is no way to know just from an observational study.  A may be causing B.  B may be causing A.  A third variable, C may be causing A and B.  This third variable C is what is called a confounding variable.  An example of this is that ice cream sales in Florida are correlated with shark attacks.  Does this mean that eating ice cream causes shark attacks?  Maybe the sharks like the ice cream dripping down your chin so they are more likely to attack.  Of course this is silly.  When it is hot, people eat more ice cream and they also go swimming more, which leads to more shark attacks.    Observational studies are full of confounding variables.  There are two main groups of people that influence the outcomes of nutritional studies.  There are people who are very health conscious and do whatever they can to be healthy, and those that do not care about their health and make food and lifestyle choices that are purely based on giving them pleasure.  People who are health conscious tend to have better health than people who are not health conscious.  They follow the health advice that has been generally given the last 40 years; they smoke less, drink less alcohol, exercise more, take vitamins, eat less calories, eat less sugar, eat less refined processed foods, and eat more vegetables.  Any one of these variables could be contributing to their good health, but from an observational study you can’t tell which one.  You would need a controlled experiment to do that.   

Another problem with observational nutritional studies is that the data collected is not very reliable.  It is usually collected using food frequency questionnaires.  In these studies people are asked to recall what they ate in the last day, month, year, or even four years.  You can find an example of a questionnaire here.  Most people can’t remember what they ate last Tuesday, let alone what they ate three years ago.  People who see themselves as healthy tend to overestimate foods they consider healthy and underestimate foods they consider unhealthy. Who wants to admit that their breakfast consisted of twinkies and oreos?  If the data that the study is based on is not accurate, then how useful is the study?

Some scientists can have such a strong belief in what the outcome of their study will be that they become biased.  Since there are so many confounding variables, you can make the outcome of a study say pretty much whatever you want it to say.  Most studies will try and account for these variables, but it is almost impossible to know exactly how much of a part each one played in someone’s health.  Some researchers will use a third variable to link two items when there is no direct link.  A good example of this is saturated fat, cholesterol and heart disease.  Many studies (such as Dr. Jolliffe's Anti-Coronary Club experiment mentioned here) will claim to show that saturated fat causes heart disease even if the data in their data shows that people who ate more saturated fat had a lower incidence of heart disease.  They do this by saying that saturated fat intake was associated with higher cholesterol, which is claimed to be a marker for heart disease. (Even though it has never been proven that high cholesterol causes heart disease)
 

This is why we get so many mixed messages from the so called “nutrition experts”.  The way Observational studies are reported, it gives the idea that they determine cause and effect when they really only show correlation. In one group of people a certain food may be correlated with high cancer rates, in another group they may be correlated with low cancer rates.  The truth may be that the food has NO impact on cancer rates.  As long as we remember the limitations of the study we won’t get sucked into these false assumptions.  So the next time you hear about the latest study telling you to stay away from a certain food, or that another food is a miracle cure, remember that 99% of these studies don’t actually prove anything.  

It is time to stop funding these types of observational studies.  How many studies do we need that give sensational headlines but do not add to our knowledge.  We have enough hypotheses about health and nutrition.  We need to start doing controlled experiments to find out which hypotheses about diet and nutrition result in healthy outcomes.  With obesity related diseases and health care costs skyrocketing, we need to find these answers now. 



Wednesday 11 September 2013

Artificial Eggs??

Saw this article yesterday about artificial eggs.



I got me thinking how they are made.

We have been told eating animal products is bad for the environment.

We have been told recycling is good for the environment.

100 years ago most kitchens had one of the best recycling systems in history....Chickens.

Every day people would throw their kitchen scraps into the back yard to their chickens.

Every morning they would come into the kitchen with a basket of eggs. But then came progress.

Now we put our kitchen scraps out on the street so they can be picked up by a deisel powered truck to be taken to the city compost. 

The compost is then taken by another diesel truck to a large organic farm where it is spread by a diesel powered tractor.

Almost all the plants and animals that once lived on that farm are no longer there, the land was cleared to make way for the farm.

Tractors are used to plant and harvest the plants that are grown.

The plants are taken by another diesel truck to a processing plant that is powered by electricity probably generated from coal or nuclear energy.

The natural plant material is processed by mechanical, chemical or heating  methods until it becomes an egg substitute.

The egg substitute is then put on yet another diesel truck so it can be transported to supermarkets around the country where people living in suburbs put it in their gas powered cars and take it home to feed their family's.

We do all this because we have been told that recycling and eating a plant based diet is good for the environment and eating animal products is bad for the environment.

It never ceases to amaze me how much knowledge we have gained in the last 100 years, and how much wisdom we have lost!




Monday 4 March 2013

Another reason why sunlight may be better than Vitamin D supplementation

Low levels of vitamin D have been associated with hypertension and increased rates of cardiovascular mortality. (1) Most of this evidence is from observational studies that don't have to power to determine cause and effect.  A 2011 Institute of Medicine Report for intake of calcium and vitamin D concluded "the evidence that vitamin D prevents CVD, diabetes or other cardiometabolic outcomes was inconsistent and inconclusive and did not meet criteria for establishing a cause and effect relationship" (2)

A recent study suggest that it may not be the vitamin D that reduces cardiovascular disease.  (3)  In a Tedx Talk that can be found below Richard Weller discusses the research that Vitamin D status might just be a marker for sunlight exposure.  The sunlight exposure itself may have  cardiovascular benefits, even without increases in vitamin D levels.



The research has found that our skin contains large stores of nitrate, nitrite and several reactive nitrogen oxide species.  When the skin is exposed to UV rays from the sun, these stores are converted to nitric oxide.  They have shown that 30 minutes of sun exposure can increase circulating nitrite, lower blood pressure and increased blood flow.  Nitric oxide is a vasodilator which lowers blood pressure.  Nitrite not only dilates blood vessels but also protects organs against ischaemia/reperfusion (I/R) damage. (4) 

Chris Masterjohn stated at his website Cholesterol-and-Health:

"Endothelial cells produce nitric oxide, a gas that protects LDL from oxidation, increases blood flow, decreases the adhesion of monocytes to the endothelium, and decreases blood clotting. Oxidized LDL impairs the endothelial cell's ability to produce nitric oxide" (5)

Vitamin D may very well have its own benefits when it comes to cardiovascular disease.  While supplementing with D3 may be beneficial at times of the year when we do not get enough sunlight, this study demonstrates that we would be better off getting our vitamin D from the sun.  It is always better to get nutrients from natural sources as much as possible.  Whole foods, as well as sunshine, may have benefits that we have not yet identified.  Supplements can supply some nutrients, but we miss out on all the unknown benefits found in nature.

This study also emphasizes why observational studies should be the starting point in science, not the end point.  If these researchers had just accepted the epidemiology and concluded it must be just the vitamin D protecting against heart disease they would not have made this discovery.  Not only do you risk giving credit or blame where it is not warranted, you miss the opportunity to ask the question, "What else could be causing this effect?"





Saturday 23 February 2013

Cholesterol, Part 1

Are you scared of Cholesterol? 

 

Why do we hear so much about trying to lower our cholesterol levels?  The story told by most doctors and drug companies is that  eating animal products that contain saturated fat and cholesterol clog your arteries and cause heart disease.  Saturated fats are solid at room temperature and will clog up your kitchen sink if you try and pour them down the drain so they will do the same thing in your blood vessels.  ( Even though you blood vessels are 15 C warmer than your kitchen pipes)  The scientists who believed cholesterol caused heart disease knew that analogy was ridiculous.  Their theory was that when there is too much cholesterol in the blood it gets stuck in the arterial wall which leads to the build up of plaque and atherosclerosis.


This Means War!


There is a  group of doctors and scientist who are waging a war on cholesterol.  They are trying to get your cholesterol levels as low as possible.The seem to believe that any amount of cholesterol is dangerous and their views can be summed up in the following quote:  "Eating foods that contain any cholesterol above 0 mg. is unhealthy"   T. Colin Campbell, PhD, author of The China Study

There is another group of "Cholesterol Skeptics" who say that cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease.  They claim that measuring cholesterol at all is a waste of time.  I was confused so I started looking for the truth.  What I found that was there was some truth to both sides.  High cholesterol does not cause heart disease but the metabolism of cholesterol does play a role in heart disease.  I will expand on the latest theories of heart disease in this blog post series.  I found two websites that had a lot of well referenced material run by two incredibly smart people.   Chris Masterjohn, PhD  at his website "Cholesterol and Health" and Peter Attia, MD at his website "The Eating Academy" 


So what is cholesterol??  Is it really a dangerous substance?


Cholesterol is one of the most important molecules in the human body.  Every cell in your body has the ability to make cholesterol since every cell in your body needs cholesterol.  It is a critical part of cell membranes and is essential to cell membrane permeability.(1)

Cholesterol is needed for brain function.  It is involved in the development of synapses,(2) which enables brain cells to communicate with one another.  It is essential for myelin membrane growth which insulates neurons. (3)  The brain represents 2% of the mass of the  human body but it uses 25% of the cholesterol.  Cholesterol is vital to brain health.

Cholesterol is a precursor to all steroid hormones, which include sex hormones and adrenal hormones.(4)

Cholesterol is a precursor to Vitamin D.(5)

Cholesterol is essential to bile acid production which is used to digest and absorb fats and fat soluble vitamins.(6)



What happens to us if we don't have enough cholesterol?


Smith-Lemli-Opitz Syndrome (SLOS) is a metabolic disorder in which sufferers can not make enough cholesterol to support normal growth and development.  Symptoms of SLOS include mental retardation, poor growth, cleft palate, malformed genitals, extra fingers and toes, heart defects, hearing or sight loss and autism.  The most serious cases (produce almost no cholesterol) are spontaneously aborted during pregnancy or die a few months after birth. (8)


Low Cholesterol levels have also been linked to cancer (9), Depression and suicide (10), stroke (11), Infectious disease (12), autoimmunity (13), inflammation (14), and premature birth (15).


What about high cholesterol.


So we know cholesterol is an essential molecule but is too much cholesterol dangerous. Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH)  is a genetic defect in which cholesterol levels are extremely high.  People with FH have an increased risk of heart disease.  This would suggest that high cholesterol is involved in heart disease.

But we also know that people with low cholesterol also get heart disease.  If high cholesterol causes heart disease how could you get heart disease if you had low cholesterol.  A 2008 study found that 73% of patients admitted to hospital with coronary heart disease had normal or low cholesterol levels. (16)  


Will eating eggs kill me


Many people do not eat eggs because they are trying to keep their cholesterol low.  Does eating cholesterol raise your cholesterol?  It turns out that cholesterol consumption has no effect on blood cholesterol for 70% of people.  Since about 75% of the cholesterol we need is made by our body if we eat more cholesterol our bodies respond by making and absorbing  less.  There is a slight increase in blood cholesterol in 30 % of people, but their HDL (the so called good cholesterol) goes up as much as their LDL  (so called bad cholesterol) so their cholesterol ratios actually get better.  

Even Ancel Keys, the father of the "lipid hypothesis", knew that eating cholesterol does not cause heart disease.  In 1997 he stated:

“There’s no connection whatsoever between the cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood. And we’ve known that all along. Cholesterol in the diet doesn’t matter at all unless you happen to be a chicken or a rabbit.”

Dr. William Castelli, the director of the Framingham Heart Study, stated in a 1992 editorial that:

 "... in Framingham Mass., the more saturated fat one ate, the more cholesterol one ate, the more calories one ate, the lower the person's serum cholesterol ... we found that the people who ate the most cholesterol, ate the most saturated fat, ate the most calories, weighed the least and were the most physically active."



So as you can see cholesterol in not an evil toxin.  It is a vital molecule that is needed for life.  In the next post we will examine how it came to be regarded as a dangerous substance.


Sunday 17 February 2013

What Paleo Means To Me

I am often asked, what is the Paleo diet?  When most people think of the Paleo diet they think about eating a lot of meat like a caveman.  To me, Paleo is more of a lifestyle than a diet. It includes exercise, sleep, and sun, as well as diet.  The book I recommend most to people when they ask about it is "The Paleo Solution" by Robb Wolf.  He is a very entertaining writer who packs a lot of well referenced information into a book that is fun to read.

Although animal protein plays a large role in the Paleo diet, it is much more than just eating meat like a caveman.  Since I started eating a Paleo/Primal type diet the biggest difference isn't an increase in the amount of meat I eat, it is an increase in the amount of vegetables I eat.  Most people eating a Paleo diet will eat more vegetables than a lot of vegetarians (if the vegetarians rely on grains and legumes for most of their calories.)

Nutrients, not Anti-Nutrients.


For me there are two main goals in a Paleo diet; 1. Reduce inflammation by eliminating problematic foods, 2. Eat the most nutrient dense foods available. 

All living things have a way of defending themselves from predators.  Animals have claws and fangs to fight back, they have legs so they can run away.  Plants don't have any of these defenses so they rely on chemical warfare to protect themselves.  They have things like phytates that bind minerals (1), phytoestrogens that disrupt predators reproductive systems (2), they have saponins (3) and lectins that can damage the digestive systems (4).  Probably the most problematic for humans are prolamines, large proline rich proteins that are very hard to digest.

But I don't have Celiac!


The most well known of these proteins in gluten. Gluten is found in wheat, rye and barley.  Gluten is best known for causing Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system starts attacking the lining of the small intestine (5).  The latest research is indicating that gluten may be involved in all autoimmune diseases (6).  The lining of the digestive tract is designed to keep large undigested molecules from being absorbed.  Gluten causes the release of zonulin which damages the tight junctions in the gut causing intestinal permeability ( leaky gut) which enables large undigested molecules to leak into the blood stream.(7)  This antagonizes the immune system and results in inflammation and possible autoimmunity. 

All grains contain prolamines that can cause digestive distress and inflammation even if they don't contain gluten.  Some examples are: zein in corn, avenin in oats, and oryzenin in rice.  Although these proteins do not cause celiac, they can result in intestinal permeability and inflammation.  Avoiding all grains will reduce inflammation.

What about the musical fruit? 

 

Legumes also contain proteins that are hard to digest and can cause inflammation.  They also contain a lot of fibre which humans cannot digest, but we do have bacteria in our digestive tract that can digest some fibre.  It is this bacterial fermentation in our lower intestine that can cause the gas that led to beans being called "the musical fruit"  For these reasons, beans are not a good food for anyone with digestive issues.


Don't Vegetable Oils have a "heart healthy" stamp?

 

Industrial seed oils and vegetable oils ( corn oil, canola oil, safflower oil) are polyunsaturated fats that are high in omega 6 fatty acids.  Omega 6 is one of the essential fatty acids (omega 3 is the other) that we need to consume, but we don't need very much.  Omega 6 oils are inflammatory, while Omega 3 oils are anti- inflammatory.  Ideally we should be consuming Omega 6 and Omega 3 oils in a 1-1 or 2-1 ratio.  It is estimated that the average North American consumes a ratio of around 20-1 .  Excess Omega 6 vegetable oils can lead to systematic inflammation.(8) 

Polyunsaturated fats are also very unstable and oxidize easily, compared to monounsaturated and saturated fats.  It is ironic that vegetable oils get a heart healthy stamp since they cause inflammation and oxidation, two of the main components of heart disease!

We can all agree on sugar, right?

 

Ok, here's an easy one. About the only people that will disagree is the soft drink industry.  Sugar is bad, high fructose corn syrup is bad and agave nectar is probably worse,  'nuff said.

Cavemen didn't drink milk! 

 

This is where we have to start looking to science instead of just doing what cavemen did.  Many people do have problems digesting milk sugar (lactose) and some milk protein ( mostly casein ).  Dairy fat from cows that eat grass seems to be well tolerated by most people and has been shown to have health benefits. (10), (11), (12), (13)  Most `Paleo Gurus` are recommending ghee ( clarified butter ), as the sugar and protein has been removed and many are ok with high fat dairy like butter, whipping cream, cheese, full fat sour cream and full fat yogurt if it is well tolerated.  Grass fed is better and many recommend raw milk and cheese, although it is illegal in many parts of North America.  Mark Sisson from the "Marks Daily Apple" website was one of the first Paleo Guru's to allow high fat dairy in his version of Paleo (called Primal) that he wrote about in his book "The Primal Blueprint" 

OK, you took away my bread, pasta and french fries.  What am I supposed to eat?

 

Now that we have removed the problematic foods we get to the second part of the Paleo template, Eating the most nutrient dense foods on the planet.  The most nutrient dense foods are:

meat (especially organ meat and bone broth)
fish and seafood
eggs
vegetables
poultry
healthy natural fats ( butter, animal fats, coconut oil, olive oil )
fruit
nuts and seeds
fermented foods (yogurt, kefir, sauerkraut)


Robb Wolf has stated that most people have eaten a lot of Paleo meals.  He points out that if you've ever had an omelet with some veggies in it for breakfast, that's Paleo.  If you've ever had a salad with some grilled chicken or fish on it for lunch, that's Paleo.  If you've ever had a grilled steak or ribs with some asparagus and a glass of red wine for dinner, that's Paleo.

But what about fibre?


Most nutritionists and dieticians will say that without grains you won't be getting your fibre.  Grains are actually not that good of a source of fibre, compared to vegetables.  They may point out that 100g of whole wheat bread has 6 g of fibre and 100 g of spinach only has 2 g of fibre.  This is true, but what they fail to tell you is that 100 g of bread has 278 calories and 100 g of spinach has 23 calories, so calorie for calorie spinach has much more fibre.  If you wanted to get your recommended 38g of fibre a day from whole wheat bread you would need to eat 1760 calories of bread, but you would only need to eat 437 calories of spinach to get the same amount of fibre.(14)  (15)

Isn't all that saturated fat and cholesterol going to give me a heart attack?

 

I plan on going into more detail about the myth that eating saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease in future posts and write about what the latest science is telling us about heart disease. 

For the purposes of this post I will just say that there has never been good evidence that eating saturated fat is unhealthy. A meta-analysis was done in 2010 on the association of saturated fat and cardio vascular disease. (16)  The study found:

"A meta-analysis of prospective epidemiologic studies showed that there is no significant evidence for concluding that dietary saturated fat is associated with an increased risk of CHD or CVD."

For more information on saturated fat check out these blogs.(17)  (18)

Isn't the Paleo diet just another version of Atkins?

 

When most people switch from the standard grain based diet to a paleo/primal type they will reduce the amount of carbohydrates they consume.  This doesn't mean that Paleo has to be low carb, it's just that the standard grain based diet is very, very high in carbohydrates.  There is not a set level of carbohydrates for the Paleo diet.  The amount of carbs will vary from person to person.  People who are lean and active doing a lot of high intensity exercise are going to need to consume more carbohydrates to fuel these intense workouts.  People who are less active or do low intensity exercise can get more of their fuel from healthy fats.  People who have metabolic disorders, diabetes or want to lose weight would get the best results by starting on a low carb version of Paleo.  Later they may want to start to experiment with adding in some carbs and checking their blood sugar response. 

There was no single Paleo diet.

 

Another criticism I hear is that the Paleo diet varied a great deal depending on where in the world you lived.  Paleolithic people in the arctic ate a much different diet than Paleolithic people on a tropical island.  This is true but I think of this more as an advantage.  Paleo to me is not a strict set of rules, its more like a set of guidelines.  Chris Kresser calls it a Paleo Template.  Its a place to start but everyone has to experiment and find a version that works best for them.  A hard charging 25 year old athlete doing three hours a day of intense exercise is going to need to eat a lot more calories and carbohydrates than a 55 year old, overweight, inactive diabetic office worker.  A food pyramid that gives the same recommendations to both does not work.  Some can eat more fruit and starch while others have to limit them.  Some can have white rice, quinoa and lentils occasionally while others can't tolerate any.  Our bodies also change over time so we have to be flexible and willing to tinker with our lifestyle.

I'll never be able to eat in a restaurant again!!!

 

I believe in the 80/20 rule.  This means, although I try and eat 100% Primal, I don't worry about it if up to 20% of my meals aren't Primal.  Everyone has to figure out what 80/20 is for them.  Some can eat anything they want as their 20% and not get any large reactions.  Others may be bloated, get brain fog or sore joints from half a slice of bread.  It doesn't take long for most to realize that some foods are just not worth eating so they completely avoid them.  They adopt the 80/20 rule, but feel so much better when they eat Primal that they end up having more of a 90/10 or 95/5 rule.  I have autoimmunity issues so I am 100% gluten free. I try to make smart choices at restaurants but I don't want to be "That Guy" who can't eat anything whenever he goes out with friends. I recommend being strict for the first 30 days then experimenting to see what you can tolerate. 

Remember, diet is just part of the Paleo lifestyle.  Exercise, sleep and vitamin D from playing in the sun all contribute to good health.  Chronic stress can also be detrimental to health. Constantly worrying about what you eat can negate some of the positive affects of a good diet.  If you have a bad day and eat a lot of unhealthy food, don't worry about it, tomorrow is another day and a chance to make better choices.



Wednesday 23 January 2013

Alzheimers

A quick post today with some links to back up the statements I made talking to Phil on AM 1150 in Kelowna.



Some researchers are calling Alzheimers type 3 diabetes.  They are finding that brain insulin resistance and the resulting inflammation plays a role.


Research has also shown that eating a diet high in carbohydrates increases the risk of mild cognitive impairment in the elderly.


Because the brain is insulin resistant it has a hard time using glucose for energy, this lack of energy causes damage.  The brain can also use ketones for energy.  The best way to increase ketones is with starvation( not a good option ),  a very low carb diet or with Medium chain triglycerides found in coconut oil.


 There also seems to be problem with cholesterol metabolism in Alzheimers Disease.  The brain represents 2% of the mass of the human body but it uses 25% of the cholesterol.  Cholesterol is vital to the repair and maintenance of neurons.  The "War on Cholesterol" that has encouraged us to "Go Lower" trying to get our cholesterol as low as possible could be contributing to many of our brain disorders.

There is evidence that insulin resistance results in lower cholesterol and fatty acid levels in the brains of those with Alzheimers Disease.

http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/retrieve/pii/S1550413110003980




There is not alot of research in this area since there is not alot of money to be made in a dietary approach.  All the money is going to try and find a magic pill to cure alzheimers.

Here are a couple academic papers that have come our related to dementia and ketogenic diets and glucose metabolism.

 http://www.nutritionjrnl.com/article/S0899-9007%2810%2900280-7/abstract


http://www.neurobiologyofaging.org/article/S0197-4580%2810%2900439-2/abstract