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Kim Tedrow wrote:
>
> Anybody care to translate this into English for us?
My apologies!
> I'm not being facetious, I'm genuinely interested. Is the animal fat we're
> consuming *now* (I'm talking the beef we get at the grocery store) compatible
> with our systems, a good thing, a bad thing?
This is a tough question to answer in the yes/no genera. I often wonder
this myself, however, I do have some strong ideas and feeling on the
subject. Fellings of which are tempered by my grasp of the
biochemistry. Saturate fatty acids found in comercial beef are believed
to be readily converted into cholesterol and this might be considered
bad in my view if you are simultaneously eating insulin raising
carbohydrates. This sounds like the meat and potatoes thing. The
double-edged sword is this, high carb diet raises insulin and insulin
triggers massive endogenous production (produced by your liver) of
cholesterol. at the same time you're consuming large amounts of
saturated fatty acids. You end up causing a hugh load of cholesterol
and cholesterol precursors to meet and accumulate in the blood. This
would be bad news. However, eating meat with high fiber fruits and
vegetables which do not have the insulin raising effects as would starch
is beneficial in several ways. 1) high fiber traps intestinal/dietary
cholesterol and passes it with the stool; 2) fruits and vegetables
contain levels of vitamin C and other bioflavanoids ... the presence of
bioflavanoids will serve as intestinal antioxidants thus sparring
vitamin C allowing the Vit c to enhance the absorption of iron and
copper; 3) Eating high fiber fruits and vegetables with your meat
reduces the quantity of meat you can eat at the meal.
A personal asside: I've been paleo for little over a year. I put
patients on as paleodiet as they care willing to commit to. Many of my
students have tried it and are astounded by the results. In the first
six week eating paleo I lost 30 pounds. I am constantly experimenting
with different foods with mixed results. The best advice I give to
patients is to systematically substitute fresh fruits and vegetables
where they would have otherwise eaten a glucose-loaded starch or sugar,
e.g. instead of steak and potato/bread have steak and oranges and
strawberries (one of my favorites).
The information available in the peer-reviewed scientific literature is
indirectly supportive of this dietary method. I am recalling what was
referred to in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition as the Spanish
Paradox where the incidence of heart disease significantly decreased as
spanards significantly increased their intake of meat. This was an
epidemiological study. I have close to 500 journal articles which lend
indirect support and the number of articles that I've read and am
collecting grows weekly. There is strong indirect evidence for what the
list members are doing inspite of the "conventional wisdom" to the
contrary.
> How about Borage oil (which I keep on hand for PMS-time)?
I'd keep it on hand and use it as needed. I just question the
conventional wisdom that suggests that a rich supply of dietary n-6 FA
such as linoleic or GLA (gamma linolenic) acids are GOOD. AA
(arachidonic acid) which is a near immediate precursor for inflammatory
prostaglandins is an n-6 FA which can build up inside cell membranes as
can LA another n-6 FA. So in the short term you can "block" pain
(prostaglandin production) by taking supplemental borage (contains GLA
and LA), but the next bout of pain can return with a vengance because
there is now an abundance of proinflammatory precursors in the cells'
membranes. Saturated fats such as steric acid cannot be converted into
n-6 FA.
I'd say enjoy the saturated fats with a generous helping of fiber
containing foods (staying clear of grains of course). This prevents you
from making your own cholesterol in malignant quantities to mix with the
saturated dietary fats. In addition, such a recommendation lowers your
bodies stores of proinflammatory FA. Realize that your body requires
some amout of these proinflammatory FA. They are not BAD per se, they
just need to be tempered metabolically.
> Somewhere in all this metabolic vocabulary I lost the thread.
If you'd allow me a tangent: The nutrition industry thrives on our
ignorance. Please I am by no means insulting you. Chemistry and
esspecially biochemistry are difficult subjects, cryptic to most of us.
Unfortunately, this is often used against us. Lobbies and people
advancing special interests often rely on us to be ignorant so they can
slip us a fast one. I am constantly annoyed when I read the literature,
chase down an author's references only to find the references to be
based on misunderstandings and misinformation. My apologies.
Hope this helps, I'll wait to hear from you.
Andrew =8-)
--
Andrew S. Bonci, BA, DC, DAAPM
Assistant Professor, Department of Diagnosis
Cleveland Chiropractic College
6401 Rockhill Road
Kansas City, Missouri 64131
(816) 333-7436 ex39
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