Live a healthier life, avoid cancer, heart issues, diabetes and arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
Death in America is largely a foodborne illness. Focusing on studies published just over the last year in peer-reviewed scientific medical journals, Dr. Greger offers practical advice on how best to feed ourselves and our families to prevent, treat, and even reverse many of the top 15 killers in the United States.
Scallops are a type of shellfish that provide you with a number of nutritional benefits. There are two main types, bay scallops and the larger sea scallops. A 3-ounce serving of scallops contains only 80 calories from 14 grams of protein, 20 percent of the daily recommended value for phosphorus and vitamin B-12, 10 percent of the daily value for magnesium and smaller amounts of other essential vitamins and minerals. Scallops also are a source of dietary cholesterol.
Your body uses a small amount of cholesterol for making healthy cells. It makes all of the cholesterol it needs, so consuming foods that contain a lot of saturated fat, trans fat or dietary cholesterol can cause your blood cholesterol levels to become too high. This increases your risk for heart disease, stroke and heart attack. Other factors besides diet can affect your cholesterol levels. Being overweight or inactive, smoking, or having a family history of high cholesterol can predispose you to having high cholesterol. You are also more at risk if you have diabetes, heart disease, a history of strokes or heart attacks, or clogged arteries. If your cholesterol is too high, your doctor may prescribe cholesterol-lowering medications.
The American Heart Association recommends you limit your dietary cholesterol consumption to 300 milligrams or less per day for healthy individuals and 200 milligrams or less per day if you have high cholesterol or heart disease. Scallops contain 30 milligrams of cholesterol in a 3-ounce serving, which is 10 percent of the recommended intake.
Fat, particularly saturated fat, has a greater effect on your blood cholesterol levels than dietary cholesterol. Scallops contain less than 1 gram of fat per serving, part of which is healthy omega-3 fat that can help lower cholesterol. Cholesterol is part of a group of compounds called sterols. Scallops contain some cholesterol, but also contain other types of sterols which may help reduce your body’s absorption of cholesterol. Because of the low levels of fat and cholesterol in scallops and the beneficial effects of the omega-3s and non-cholesterol sterols, the effect on your blood cholesterol levels of eating scallops in moderation is minimal.
Other types of seafood, such as shrimp, can contain higher levels of cholesterol, making scallops a healthier option. You can bake, saute, boil, steam or broil scallops. Consider adding them to pasta dishes or salads or using them in recipes in place of seafood that is higher in cholesterol. Bay scallops are sweeter than sea scallops, but sea scallops are better suited for pan-searing. Since scallops are low in both cholesterol and mercury, you can consume up to 12 ounces per week as part of a healthy diet.
Other Common Sense Arguments Against Low-Carb Diets
Saturated Fats
Humans are large primates and their diets should be a diet of large herbivorous primates that is rich in plant foods. The human body was designed to operate in an environment where the food consumption is low in saturated fat (most plant foods have little to no saturated fats). This explains why our body can synthesize and make saturated fat. Consequently, saturated fat is not an essential nutrient. There is no need for saturated fat in the human diet. You don’t have to believe me, just check the nutritional guidelines from the National Institutes of Health (link here, select the Dietary Reference Intakes Table for macronutrients and search for “saturated”) . Saturated fat is dangerous and its consumption should be minimized or avoided completely from your diet. Do not believe the low-carb snake-oil salesmen and fake gurus. Their advice is irresponsible and dangerous.
Here is a quote from the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 (Released 1/31/11) Chapter 3, page 24, “Saturated Fats”
Saturated fatty acids – The body uses some saturated fatty acids for physiological and structural functions, but it makes more than enough to meet those needs. People therefore have no dietary requirement for saturated fatty acids.
Dietary Cholesterol
Just like saturated fat is not an essential nutrient, cholesterol is synthesized by the human body and is not required in our diet. Actually, the body has a limited ability to release extra cholesterol so consumption of cholesterol through food intake does result in excessive levels of cholesterol in the blood. How many people do you know were hospitalized because of cholesterol deficiency? The answer is probably none. Cholesterol deficiency does not exist. There is no medical name for such condition. Dietary cholesterol is dangerous and its consumption should be minimized or avoided completely. Do not believe the low-carb snake-oil salesmen and fake gurus. Their advice is irresponsible and dangerous. Yes, your body can eliminate some cholesterol but it can’t eliminate all of the excess.
Here is a quote from the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 (Released 1/31/11) Chapter 3, page 26, “Cholesterol”
Cholesterol – The body uses cholesterol for physiological and structural functions, but it makes more than enough for these purposes. Therefore, people do not need to eat sources of dietary cholesterol. Cholesterol is found only in animal foods.
Bottom line on Saturated Fat and Dietary Cholesterol
The bottom line is that saturated fat and dietary cholesterol are not needed in your diet. There are ABSOLUTELY NOT NEEDED. In fact, their consumption is associated with chronic diseases. Have you ever heard of someone admitted to the hospital because of saturated fat deficiency or cholesterol deficiency? The answer is no. There is not even a name for such a condition because it does not exist.
Do not believe stories from “low-carb gurus” that there is a conspiracy out there from health authorities to lie to you and keep you in the dark. Just because your brain consists of saturated fat does not mean you should eat saturated fat. If you follow that line of logic, why not eat animal brain in order to help out your brain? Your body also has blood and bones, are you going to chew some bones like your dog or drink blood like a vampire? No, you won’t because you are smart and are using your head to make a decision. Please use your head, logic and common sense and ignore the quacks like Mercola, Mark Sisson, Atkins, South Beach, etc. who promote dangerous diets.
All Respectable and Reputable National Health Authorities Warn the Public Against Low Carb Diets (references are here)
A large number of respectable health authorities have come out over the years and warned the public against the dangers of low carb diets. These authorities include:
And this it just in the United States. Around the world, health agencies have issued similar warnings and criticized low-carb diets by calling them health hazards. Why would all these health authorities warn the public against low carb diets if there was no danger? All are these scientists crazy or working together to conspire against the “low carb” movement? No, these authorities have done their homework and they came out against low carb diets because the dangers are real, understood and documented. Please be an informed responsible adult and read what these institutions have to say and their reasons before following the advice of gurus, health coaches or gym trainers that promote low carb diets (very common in the cross-fit world).
Ask yourself the following the following questions about the person giving you the low carb advice:
Don’t settle for second-class nutritional advice. You deserve better.
Summary
Low carbohydrate diets come under different names and flavors, but they essentially promote the same things: juggling the ratio of macronutrients by restricting carbohydrates and increasing the intake of fats and proteins. The whole concept revolves around the avoidance of carbohydrates, especially refined and processed foods made with white flour, sugar, high fructose corn syrups, etc. In addition, the diet suggests increasing the intake of saturated fat and animal proteins from coconut oil, butter, grass-fed beef and other animal-based products. Most of these low-carb diets throw the baby with the bath water by restricting fruit intake as well as starchy vegetables and legumes. All carbohydrates are often lumped together and considered bad, without making a distinction between unhealthy refined carbohydrates (cookies, white pasta, white rice, bread, etc.) and healthy whole unrefined carbohydrate-rich plant foods (oatmeal, corn, beans, fruits, etc). The most common versions of low-carb diets are listed below:
-Roger MasonMilk and dairy products are the number one allergenic food in the world. All adults of all races are allergic to milk and dairy because of the LACTOSE (milk sugar) and casein content. Children lose the ability to produce the enzyme lactase at about the age of three years old. Only humans drink milk after weaning. We choose cow milk, which is meant for calves and not people. Lactose does not just pass harmlessly through the body undigested, but causes a lot of problems – including CANCER. That’s right; people who drink milk and eat dairy products get more cancer of most kinds, especially prostate and breast cancer. They also get more heart disease, diabetes, and other conditions. Blacks, Amerindians, and Asians have the worst problems with milk and milk products. A study was done for 11 years running of over 20,000 doctors. This was appropriately called the Physician’s Health Study. An article appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (volume 74) specifically on prostate cancer and dairy consumption. The authors concluded, “These results support the hypothesis that dairy products… are associated with a greater risk of prostate cancer.” This applies equally to breast cancer, as prostate and breast cancer are almost the exact same diseases, with the same causes, and the same natural cures basically. “In conclusion, this report supports and extends previous observations that high intakes of dairy products…are associated with an increased risk of prostate cancer.” The doctors who ate little or no dairy had much less cancer than the ones who ate dairy regularly. The ones who ate lots of dairy had the highest of all rates by far.
Other published international studies show repeatedly that intake of milk and dairy products leads to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and mortality. The more dairy foods you eat the sooner you’ll die. Take dairy completely out of your life. Humans and animals were never meant to eat milk or milk products after weaning. Dairy is the worst allergenic food on earth. Go to websites like www.notmilk.com to learn more. Milk is poison. |
On Sunday, the Boston Globe Magazine featured a profile of Harvard professor Walter Willett, calling him the “world’s most influential nutritionist.” Willett’s influence comes as much from his ability to debunk or reframe studies about food and nutrition as it does from his original work.
In the long and very interesting article, Globe writer Neil Swidey mentions a recent study of Willett’s that was released in June: A new look at the 123,000 people involved in a 20-year study ending in 2006 found elevated red-meat consumption to be linked with an increase in diabetes.
According to the study, conducted by Willett and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, participants who ate at least a half serving more red meat over a four-year period were 48 percent more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes in the following four years. Conversely, those who lowered their meat consumption by more than half a serving per day decreased their diabetes risk. The research was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Previous studies have connected red meat intake with an increased risk of diabetes, but Willett’s study was the first to show that eating more meat raises a person’s risk—and vice versa. Red meat is defined by the United States Department of Agriculture as that which comes from mammals, while white meat comes from poultry and fish.
Not surprisingly, the meat lobby strongly refutes such claims—“nothing to see here, folks!”—and frequently attempts to dismiss studies that are critical of meat on propaganda websites like MeatPoultryNutrition.org and MeatSafety.org.
“While some recent studies have generated headlines linking meat to different ailments, it is important to remember that conditions like heart disease, cancer and diabetes are complex conditions that cannot simply be caused by any one food,” American Meat Institute spokesman Eric Mittenthal told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
On the FAQs page of MeatPoultryNutrition.org, a site run by an industry lobby group called the American Meat Institute, pleads for readers to not give up their meat: “The wisest course of action is a balanced diet, weight control, plenty of exercise and a healthy degree of skepticism about the ‘study of the week,’ ” the site reads.
But Willett’s four decades of research and consistently reliable findings are difficult to dismiss wholesale. And while he admits further study is necessary to account for lifestyle and other health factors, Willett and his colleagues believe the strong connection found between red meat and diabetes warrants people cutting back on their consumption of beef, pork or lamb (giving up meat on Mondays may be a good place to start).
And as we’ve reported numerous times, we are eating less meat, overall.Americans’ meat consumption dropped by more than 12 percent between 2007 and 2012—an amount that equals a half-pound of meat per person, per day.
If Willett’s findings hold true, the result of a less meat-centric diet may be a reduction in the instances of diabetes among Americans, which has skyrocketed in recent years. And that will be great news indeed
Dr John McDougall
Diet Benefits Prostate Cancer (Another Ornish Contribution)
Clinical events in prostate cancer lifestyle trial: results from two years of follow-up by Joanne Frattaroli published in the December 2008 issue of the journalUrology found, “Patients with early-stage prostate cancer choosing active surveillance might be able to avoid or delay conventional treatment for at least 2 years by making changes in their diet and lifestyle.” By 2 years of follow-up, 13 of 49 (27%) control patients and 2 of 43 (5%) experimental patients—those encouraged to adopt a low-fat, plant-based diet, to exercise and practice stress management, and to attend group support sessions—had undergone conventional prostate cancer treatment (radical prostatectomy, radiotherapy, or androgen deprivation).
Comment: This is the second report of the Prostate Cancer Lifestyle Intervention Trial started by Dean Ornish, MD. Given the honest facts about standard prostate cancer treatments, most patients would elect diet, and delay or avoid surgery, radiation, hormone deprivation (pills or cutting off their testicles), and chemotherapy. These damaging treatments fail to produce consistent survival benefits—and every doctor and patient should know the results of a century of research. Doing nothing would be a better option for most patients. Research also shows that the high-fat, meat- and dairy- rich Western diet causes this disease. Common sense says “Don’t throw gasoline on a fire.”
Frattaroli J, Weidner G, Dnistrian AM, Kemp C, Daubenmier JJ, Marlin RO, Crutchfield L, Yglecias L, Carroll PR, Ornish D. Clinical events in prostate cancer lifestyle trial: results from two years of follow-up. Urology. 2008 Dec;72(6):1319-23. Epub 2008 Jul 7.
Dr John McDougall
Starch grains on human teeth reveal early broad crop diet in northern Peru by Dolores Piperno reported in the December 16, 2008 issue of the Proceeding of the National Academy of Science, found plant parts on the teeth (dental plaque) of people who lived in Northern Peru as long as 11,200 years ago and concluded, “Starch grain studies of dental remains document plants and edible parts of them not normally preserved in archaeological records and can assume primary roles as direct indicators of ancient human diets and agriculture.”1
Researchers examined 39 human teeth found in northern Peru’s Nanchoc Valley from six to eight individuals. Some of the grains had been cooked. The diet of these people was considered stable for possibly 5000 years (until 6000 years ago). These people cultivated their crops close to their circular houses. Starch granules from Lima beans, common beans, peanuts, nuts, squash, grains, and fruits were identified.
Comment: Often the only findings reflecting the diet of ancient people are the hard bones of animals that are found near their ruins. Any plant material has decayed and disappeared. Because of this many people have come to the wrong conclusion that early people were primarily hunters and their diet was largely of meat. However, this research adds support for my often-stated position, that all large populations of trim, healthy people, throughout written human history, have obtained the bulk of their calories from starch.
The early ancestors of modern humans, from at least 4 million years ago, followed diets almost exclusively of plant-foods. Beginning at least 250,000 years ago, people survived as hunter-gatherers with a subsistence standard of living, eating foods that extended from one extreme to the other in proportions of plant vs. animal foods—from the raw flesh and fat of marine mammals; the Arctic Eskimos—to diets composed largely of wild plants of the Western Desert; the Australian Aborigines.2 Hunter-gatherers took advantage of any dependable sources of food from their wild local environments. Because of the ease and dependability (compared to obtaining animals), gathering fruits and vegetables was a primary source of food for most hunter-gatherer societies. The emphasis on hunting increased in higher latitudes because of plant scarcity.3 Examination of the dental remains of this ancient culture provides more clear evidence that the natural human diet is starch based.
1) Piperno DR, Dillehay TD. Starch grains on human teeth reveal early broad crop diet in northern Peru. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Dec 16;105(50):19622-7.
2) Milton K. Back to basics: why foods of wild primates have relevance for modern human health. Nutrition. 2000 Jul-Aug;16(7-8):480-3.
3) Milton K. Hunter-gatherer diets-a different perspective. Am J Clin Nutr. 2000 Mar;71(3):665-7.
The Way To Eat 