Sorry it's taken so long to reply, Roberta.  It's been pretty hectic around
here and I 've had to wait until tonight to read my mail since Wednesday.
I've copied this to the rawfood lists.

Udo Erasmus gave a very interesting talk. Mostly said what was in his book
but there was much to absorb.  I was pleased that he is quite an advocate
for raw foods -- and seems to eat them himself much of the time.  But in
general he is a realist -- e.g. doesn't expect people to change radically --
and also trying to sell his products, so he wasn't too interested in
discussing how one can get enough EFA;s from food alone.

Answer's to Roberta's questions:
>1.  Is there any new data showing the optimum amounts of fats to
>consume, and if so, how much of what types are thought to be optimal for
>the average moderately active adult?

NO DATA, most of what is in the USDA tables is inaccurate.  The best way to
tell if you have enough is by your skin. If your skin is soft -- and not dry
-- then you are probably getting enough EFA's.
>
>2.  Lamb contains fats, including stearic acid, and conjugated linoleic
>acid.  Stearic acid may lower blood pressure, but it is generally
>avoided because it is a saturated fat.  CLA has been shown to help
>cancer in lab animals.  However, no good studies are known - some people
>avoid lamb due to its fat content.  Do you have an opinion on consuming
>lamb?
 HE THINKS lamb is fine and he eats it occasionally; eats small amounts of
saturated fats.  The 'secret' is to get more of the EFA's through vegetable
fats to offset the stickiness of saturated fats.  He is totally opposed to
no fat diets, has been trying to convince Pritikin and Ornish for years to
allow more healing fats, and believes that sugar and processed carbohydrates
and too much carbohydrate in general are the principal cause of heart
disease, as sugar turns to hard fat in the body.

>3.     Is there any book you can recommend that gives good data on how much
>of what types of fat is present in common foods?

UNFORTUNATELY, NO

>4.     I note that your book states that cooking fat alters them for the
>worse, and that as a result, people are getting excessive trans-fatty
>acids and inadequate raw vegetarian fats.  In that same line of thought,
>does cooking fish and meat injure the fats in them to make them less
>healthful to humans?

YES.  Cooking alters all fats.  They should be eaten raw (or he believes you
can offset this by taking large amounts of balanced oils such as his Udo's
choice as well as food enzymes to aid the digestion of cooked foods.)


------
Aaron asked about sprouting nuts.  Erasmus agrees that this is optimal, that
sprouting makes the nuts much easier to digest.  But again, he wasn't
interested in advocating this to the general public who have a hard enough
time spending $20 on a bottle of oil and taking 2-3 TBSP a day and aren't
willing to change their diet.

-----
Some other interesting factoids.

EFA's protect from toxic effects of pesticides; they used his oil in a study
of Vets poisoned with Agent Orange put them in a sauna for 30 min. daily and
gave them EFA's and found that they sweated out the agent orange in the oils
they sweated out and then took in healthy oils to replenish it.

When I get around to typing up my lecture notes, I will send them out on
this list.

Janis
                           Janis C. Bell
320 Oakland Park Avenue               Visiting Scholar
Columbus, OH 43214                       Art History OSU
home tel: 614 447-8983 fax: 614 447-8783                   [log in to unmask]
           Associate professor, Kenyon College, on leave
                      alternate e-mail:  [log in to unmask]