Calcium Absorption, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods

How to Maximize Calcium Absorption

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So many people today suffer from serious problems having to do with calcium absorption. People are purchasing calcium supplements by the tons in hopes of preventing calcium deficiencies. We have epidemic numbers of people with osteoporosis, poor dental health, weak bones and diseases that have to do with calcium being deposited in the wrong places, like the arteries and organs. What are some of the factors of this trend?

First, most diets do not have adequate vitamins A and D from natural old fashioned foods like high quality fermented cod liver oil, egg yolks and liver. Without these key nutrients, the body cannot absorb calcium or any other vitamins well.

Second our diets are low in vitamin K2, which is ample in foods from animals on pasture. Vitamin K2 acts like the mortar for the bricks of both vitamin A and D in putting calcium in the right places in the body, like the teeth and the bones and not in the arteries. With the corn feeding of our livestock, we have an entire population deficient in this vitamin.

Third, low fat diets do not support calcium absorption. Without traditional fats in the diet like butter, coconut oil and lard, we cannot utilize calcium properly.

Next, our diets lack the easy-to-digest traditional foods that are rich in calcium. Bone-broth soup and cultured raw dairy from grass-fed cows and goats are foods that were eaten for thousands of years, yet they largely disappeared from our diets with the industrialization of our food supply.

Finally, diets lacking the probiotic foods that support good digestion, will also hamper calcium utilization.

Unfortunately all the calcium supplements in the world will not make up for the nutritional building blocks available in real food–no matter how much they cost or how many commercials support that product!!

The key to  improving calcium absorption is eating a nutrient-dense, traditional diet. For more information see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Digestive Disorders and Healing Diet, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods

Do you take time to chew your food?

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As silly as this question sounds, it is a very important subject for good health. Sitting down to enjoy eating a meal and taking the time to chew each bite is another step you can take for maximizing the digestion and nutrient availability of your foods. The impact this ritual will make in your life can be astounding. As you literally bless the food with gratitude for nourishing your body and take the time to appreciate the every aspect of your meal, you will also notice over time an increased awareness of your connection to the earth and all its amazing gifts.

My favorite mantra is “Present moment–I am grateful.” May you be strengthened and enriched by each bite of life!

For more information on a healing diet and nutrient-dense foods see www.performancewithoutapain.com.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Digestive Disorders and Healing Diet, Enzymes and Healing, Fermented Foods and Digestion, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods

Enzymes in our foods–why they are so important

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Eating a diet that is high in enzymes is very important to healing and building optimal health. Enzymes are not only necessary for digestion of our foods, they play an important role in every process of the human body. Dr. Edward Howell’s research on enzymes determined that we have an “enzyme bank, ” and for good health and longevity, it is important to eat foods that will not draw upon these reserves. (See  his books Enzyme Nutrition and Enzymes for Health and Longevity.) Eating a diet where the foods themselves are high in enzymes keeps the pancreas from having to secrete them for digestion, thus saving them for the repair and maintenance of cells, organs, tissues, muscles and tendons.

High-quality, naturally raised raw proteins like raw and cultured dairy, raw egg yolks, raw meats and fish are the highest in enzymes. However, eating cooked foods with high-enzyme fermented vegetables like unpasteurized sauerkraut, pickled beets and kimchee as well as cultured beverages like beet kvass, kombucha and lacto-fermented drinks also saves the body’s enzyme reserves.

Some raw foods  have anti-nutrients and enzyme inhibitors, and require special preparation to digest well. Nuts, seeds, grains and legumes all contain these difficult-to-digest elements in their raw form and need to be soaked in acidulated water to break down these components.

Our book, Performance without Pain, contains a wealth of information on high-enzyme foods, preparing cultured foods and the proper preparation of foods containing enzyme-inhibitors. It can get you started on understanding how to maximize the healing energy of your diet. For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Autism and Vaccination Choice, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, Vaccinations

Vaccines–the track record may surprise you!

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The media entices people into thinking that using vaccines protects people from many serious illnesses. What is reported in the media about vaccines and what has historically occurred with vaccines is quite different. But the actual track record may surprise you. In fact, from the beginning of their use, there was never clear evidence that the vaccines were alleviating the diseases for which they were created.

When we look at both polio and small pox we will see the evidence for prevention through vaccine is very questionable. The death records from about a ten year span before both polio and small pox show that the numbers of people dying from these two diseases went down significantly. And when the vaccine was introduced with polio, the amount of people who contracted polio went up!! With small pox, the disease had also already gone down significantly before the vaccine was produced and the person who developed the vaccine reported years later that it was a failure! Measles was yet another illness that had declined by 98% between 1915 and 1958 just before the vaccine was introduced.

The other very serious problem with vaccines is that they have many toxic ingredients. Many of them still many still have thimerosal–which contains mercury. The adult flu vaccine still has this ingredient unless you ask for a “thimerosal-free” dose. Mercury in very small doses is extremely toxic. In fact, after a three hour exposure, mercury causes cell membrane damage and death in only “very tiny ” amounts. In many of today’s vaccines, aluminum–also toxic–is replacing mercury. It depletes minerals, targets the myelin tissue, can cause fatigue, numbness, paralysis etc.

With so many vaccines being developed today, there has never been a scientific study (double-blind, controlled) proving their efficacy! Yet, we are told that our children need to receive a record amount of vaccines throughout childhood! This is very disturbing. Luckily, many people are “going against the grain” and the entire Autism community has clear guidelines against vaccines for the health of children.

The following are websites to give you more information:
www.thinktwice.com
www.uninformedconsent.org
www.safeminds.org
www.opednews.com
www.thimerosal-news.com

In the worldwide studies of 14 healthy cultures, Dr. Weston A. Price found that immunity to all disease was clearly through a nutrient-dense diet. He saw that “All disease is caused from malnourishment.” For more information about healing and building optimal health with traditional, nutrient-dense foods see www.perfromancewithoutpain.com.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods

Some Inspiring Thich Nhat Hanh to Inspire Mindfulness for Nutrient Dense Foods Daily Eating Discipline

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This being the 3rd of three days of your substitute blog writer’s (Paul Yeager’s) appearance, I thought I would just shortly share a powerful and inspiring quote from Thich Nhat Hanh’s “Peace is Every Step” which has helped me foster the energies of spiritual creativity, concentration, and gratitude necessary to maintain a diet of nutrient dense foods and to eat this way on a consistent basis, eating and living more fully in the present moment.

It’s no easy feat to resist the temptations of Standard American Diet at every turn, and running these thoughts through my head (and through my energy and heart) on occasion have really helped me return to my daily practice of eating according to nourishing principles, instead of sliding back into the “old way” of fast food, lousy restaurants, and inferior eating choices.

And eating in gratitude, aware of the immense fortune of being able to eat this way, and having that in perspective–I find this is the ultimate starting point for optimal digestion. I may often be eating nutrient dense, traditional food, but if I am not present to taste this food, which so few are able to have and eat, then it is not as nourishing.

On page 23 of “Peace is Every Step” in “Eating Mindfully,” Thich Nhat Hanh states:

“Eating a meal in mindfulness is an important practice. We turn off the TV, put down our newspaper, and work together for five or ten minutes, setting the table and finishing whatever needs to be done. During those few minutes, we can be very happy. When the food is on the table and everyone is seated, we practice breathing: ‘Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile,’ three times. We can recover ourselves completely after three breaths like this.”

Acid Reflux Healing, Digestive Disorders and Healing Diet, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods

Just how erosive is erosive GERD / Acid Reflux? What can we do about this problem?

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Hi there. Kathy Pirtle’s substitute blog writer Paul Yeager has resurfaced for the 2nd of three days that Kathy Pirtle is away at the Weston A. Price Conference in Chicago!

Today I’d like to write about erosive gerd / acid reflux.

Just how erosive is erosive GERD? Is it really more erosive than nonerosive acid reflux? What defines it as more erosive? Is nonerosive gerd really *completely* nonerosive? Or is one just more erosive than the other? Just how advanced is modern science in making these kinds of distinctions? Well, I was interested in understanding the answers to these questions, so I started searching PubMed for some solid research literature.

Surprisingly like many things in modern science, I found the “most cutting-edge” answer I could find to be puzzlingly full of seemingly circular logic, with hordes of observations seeming to be made based on assumptions with little or no reference material. It surprises me that such studies even make it into PubMed, but then again, how scientific is science? Is science not based fundamentally on observations, or perhaps more often *our perceptions*?

For instance, Sir Isaac Newton and others found the acceleration rate of gravity to be quantifiable as 9.8 meters per second squared. He could throw an apple up into the air 10,000 times and predict with reasonable certainty that it was going to accelerate towards the earth at that rate. But then Einstein came along. And then Niels Bohr. And Schroedinger, etc. They–and then we (by going to space, studying eclipses, etc.)–discovered that that “law” had only been the result of living within the confines of our earth’s gravitational field–it still of course had an application, but it wasn’t *completely true* everywhere, all the time.

And such is HARDLY the case concerning distinctions such as those between erosive gerd and nonerosive gerd–here we’ll find that the conclusion simply completely contradicts the initial assumptions. At least with Newton, he started out with the “hunch” that there was something uniform about gravity and then found out he was pretty much right. Here we start out with the assumption that erosive gerd is more erosive than nonerosive gerd (or better yet that erosive gerd is just plain erosive and nonerosive isn’t) but we seem to find out, well… I won’t spoil it just yet. I’m just going to copy-paste the study I found below:

”

Relevance of ineffective esophageal motility with erosive and nonerosive gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Foroutan M, Doust HM, Jodeiri B, Derakhshan F, Mohaghegh H, Mousapour H, Poursaadati S, Kiarudi MY, Zali M.

Department of Gastroenterology, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran. swt_f@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION: Ineffective esophageal motility (IEM) is a frequent finding in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). It is responsible for delayed acid clearance as it affects esophageal emptying and saliva transport. Since erosive GERD is a more severe disease than nonerosive GERD, it may be associated with IEM, which delays esophageal clearance. Objective : We investigated the role of IEM in patients with erosive and nonerosive GERD. METHODS: We enrolled 100 patients with heartburn and a primary diagnosis of GERD referred to the GI motility department of RCGLD of Shahid Beheshti University between January 2002 and January 2005. Based on endoscopic findings, the patients were classified into two groups of erosive GERD and nonerosive GERD. Manometry and 24-hour ambulatory pH-metry was performed in all patients. RESULTS: Seventy-seven patients completed the study: 31 (40.3%) with erosive GERD and 46 (59.7%) with nonerosive GERD. IEM was present in 38.7% of patients with erosive GERD and in 28.3% of those with nonerosive GERD (p=0.18). A low lower esophageal sphincter pressure was present in 45.2% of patients with erosive GERD, and in 45.7% of those with nonerosive GERD (p=0.97). Abnormal acid reflux was present in 32.3% and 41.3% of patients with erosive and nonerosive GERD, respectively (p=0.42). CONCLUSION: There was no difference in the prevalence of IEM between patients with erosive and nonerosive GERD. IEM could be an integral part of GERD and may not always be associated with mucosal injury.
”

Now wait a minute. The study says at the top “Since erosive GERD is a more severe disease than nonerosive GERD, it may be associated with IEM, which delays esophageal clearance.” But WHY is erosive GERD a more severe disease than nonerosive GERD?! The study just assumed that was known right off the bat! And then after making such assumptions, the study actually winds up proving that this IEM (“ineffective esophageal motility”) is actually only a little more than 10% more prevalent in the erosive gerd control group?! So first we have an assumption that erosive gerd is more “erosive” than nonerosive gerd, and then we have evidence to show that nonerosive gerd is actually ALMOST AS EROSIVE AS EROSIVE GERD!

This is entirely broken circular logic!

Here’s why I suspect the logic is broken: because as the study clearly provides statistics to support (which is the statistic showing that 28.3% of the supposedly nonerosive gerd group HAD “ineffective esophageal motility” aka EROSION), nonerosive GERD is actually VERY EROSIVE!

And what would happen if that many more people with gerd (which we know from Kathy and John Turner’s ebook on a true diet for acid reflux make up 1 in 5 people in the population at large) were to be told by doctors that their “plain ol’ not-a-big-deal gerd” (which they’re currently happy swallowing a purple pill for) is in fact EROSIVE–yes, only 10% less erosive than “erosive GERD” (har har, yah whatever) but EROSIVE all the same? Actually, erosive would be a more apt description for GERD altogether…

They might think “woah, this is a serious disease!” And guess what? This IS ALREADY a serious disease, because as the above study clearly proves, nonerosive gerd is “erosive.” Just 10% less erosive than “erosive gerd.” 😉

So what can we do about this erosion, both of our GI tracts and of our ability to think clearly (with its attempted subversion by the poor logic in studies such as that above, AND by inferior food choices)? This is another reason many doctors might not want folks to think their gerd is creating erosion, because what we CAN do is change our diets.

We can start eating nutrient-dense, traditional foods consisting of the building blocks of optimal digestion and optimal assimilation, these being the true cornerstones of good health all around. These foods are the foods that countless ancestors of traditional isolated peoples have been eating for millenia: saturated animal fats high in cholesterol and therefore GOOD, bone-broth from cartilaginous and marrow-rich bones with its high content of colloidal stomach-acid-ATTRACTING (yes, that’s GOOD for gerd! not bad!) properties, truly lacto-fermented foods with its high content of probiotics, enzymes, and lactic acid, plenty of high-quality protein from pastured animals, and a wide array of plant-based vitamins and minerals from seasonally-attuned veggies like squash, zucchini, collards, kale, etc.

We can make these changes now, regardless of whether our acid reflux has been labeled erosive or nonerosive–which as we have seen, is largely a misnomer anyhow, possibly even designed simply to keep people thinking their nonerosive gerd is no big deal.

Acid Reflux Healing, Digestive Disorders and Healing Diet, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods

What might GERD aka Acid Reflux, and Bad Breath have in common?

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Hi there. My name is Paul Yeager and I’m a close friend of Kathy Pirtle’s. I also happen to be the developer/webmaster for PerformanceWithoutPain.com. Both Kathy and I have been eating nutrient dense, traditional foods for years now and we in fact met initially over the Internet, as the result of our crossed healing paths. We also both happen to be classical musicians with an immense love for music.

Kathy asked me to do a little writing on the blog in her stead, as a result of her immense dedication to as-close-to-daily-as-possible blog writing. I have to say, in all my years of reading–and then developing–blogs of various sorts, I have NEVER in my almost 20 or so years of life on the Internet seen *anyone* write such high-quality material on such a constant basis, and on such an important issue as this one.

So, when she asked me to be her substitute blog writer, I was greatly humbled and made sure to tell her, as I am telling you, that I am not the kind of writer she is, but that I would try my best to measure up. However, having gone through quite a bit of health crisis and resulting healing crises of my own, I do feel qualified to write on a few things (just not as elegantly and clearly), so I went ahead and created myself another administrative blog account named paulchfs–chfs stands for Certified Healing Foods Specialist by the way–and so here I am.

I’ve learned from Kathy and others some remarkable things about acid reflux, and this has been an incredible learning curve for me, not only because I know what she and others are saying is strikingly true about powerful, traditional, nutrient-dense foods healing acid reflux–from first hand experience–but also because the new things she keeps telling me about this disease make me realize that to some very degree, I am very much STILL healing from it!

Not only that, but I think I, just like the rest of society to some degree, tend to disregard many of the facets of this disease as “normal” when such a state of health is in fact, not normal at all. Kathy’s work continues to guide me in this way.

One thing that continues to startle me is that 1 in 5 people have acid reflux disease; ONE IN FIVE. Go back and read that again, because it means there’s a one in five chance you have acid reflux disease! That’s just a “delicious hors d’ouevre” of the plethora of startling acid reflux facts and statistics Kathy’s got around. Another is that last year there were 470,000 hospitalizations and 1.9 million visits to the emergency room for this illness.

The last one doesn’t startle me quite as much because I am actually amongst those people; just three or four years ago, I went to the emergency room with this illness! My acid reflux had turned into what the ER doctor labeled “acute gastritis” and he just told me I had too much stress and to go home and take it easy. Let me tell you, there’s a lot more to this disease than “go home and take it easy.” I mean sure, the life of a professional violinist and computer coder geek is stressful, but if there are 1.9 million visits to the ER over this thing, than that obviously isn’t a complete explanation!

Thankfully, I started talking to people like Kathy more than ER doctors. Kathy has enlightened me also to the fact that asthma and ear infections are a symptom of gerd, and all throughout my childhood I suffered from chronic ear infections and asthma! (By the way. all of this incredible information and more, along with what kind of acid reflux diet to have on a regular basis, will soon be able to be found in her ebook via the previous link.)

In relation to acid reflux and these symptoms of it I now know about, my health-life begins to make a lot of sense. Basically, I realize now that I had BAD acid reflux all my life until, about five years ago, I found out about and started constantly consuming traditional foods like fermented cod liver oil, bone broth from cartilaginous and marrow bones from pastured animals, lacto-fermented sauerkraut and other fermented foods (fermented the way our great-great-grandparents made things like this, not just jars of pickles from off the store shelf), and powerful healing fermented drinks like beet kvass and kombucha.

Also incremental to healing my acid reflux was the fact that I realized, with Kathy’s help and the help of Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s books and the Weston A. Price Foundation, that saturated animal fat is GOOD FOR ME! That’s a lengthy subject all on its own, and for another post.

By now you might be wondering OKAY OKAY so what might acid reflux and bad breath have in common? Well get this: there are approximately 20 people a day google-searching for “gerd bad breath” –advertisers are willing to pay OVER a dollar per click to get potentially interested buyers to find them via their google search for “gerd bad breath” (oh, being a web developer is fun stuff)!

Along with my asthma and chronic ear infections, all my life prior to beginning to heal my gerd/acid reflux, is it possible that this has been another of my symptoms as well?! My mother and sister have complained of my bad breath literally ALL my life, until the complaints began to finally sizzle out STARTING five years ago when I got on traditional foods and began to heal my gut.

And that is what acid reflux and bad breath seem to have in common: they are both results of poor digestion and malnourishment. Both occurred all MY life UNTIL I began to fix my digestion with traditional foods in the ways that Kathy Pirtle eBook describes. This ebook also described chronic belching and flatulence as a symptom of this disease, and these are things that I’m not afraid to admit largely healed as well when I stopped eating Standard American Diet and ultimately switched to a traditional foods, Weston Price diet.

And also admittedly, these things (chronic belching, flatulence, and bad breath) are things that will come back if I begin to fall off the wagon (i.e. I love to eat Thai food out at restaurants out on occasion, but I know that if I do, these signs–and eventually gerd itself–will return since my digestion is “sliding backwards”). And now I know I’m not alone on my thinking that gerd and bad breath have something to do with each other–I’m simply amongst a statistic to add to Kathy’s incredible acid reflux statistic-heap: 20 people a day are google searching for gerd bad breath! That’s 20 * 365 = 7300 people a year! Coincidence?

Ah, the beauty of the Internet.

Ciao, Paul

Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, Soy Foods

Soy is Not a Health Food

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Soy foods and beverages have been given tremendous attention in the media as a wonderful health food. Soy is advertised as a great protein, a nutritious milk substitute and an aid for the symptoms of menopause and bone loss.  It is also widely used in infant formulas. Unfortunately, the research dollars aimed to taut soy’s attributes are coming straight from the soy industry.

Historically, cultures that consumed soy, did so by a long fermentation preparation as in miso, natto or tempeh. (See www.southrivermiso.com) This important traditional process breaks down the difficult-to-digest phytates and enzyme inhibitors. Additionally, cultures who consumed soy, did so in small quantities and most often with meat or fish.

Commercial soy products are made from unfermented soy or refined protein isolates that are highly processed at very high temperatures, thus making the proteins indigestible. They are also high in mineral blocking phytates, thyroid-depressing phytoestrogens and enzyme inhibitors that hamper digestion and may be a factor in cancer. Soy in infant formulas have caused many problems for the long-term health of growing children.

The book, The Whole Soy Story, by Dr. Kaayla T. Daniel, CCN, PhD, is a superb guide to the enormous problems with the modern consumption of soy.

The best way to build health is to eat a diet rich in nutrient-dense, easy-to-digest traditional foods.

For more information see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, Inflammation and Healing Diet, Performing Artist's Health

Normal muscle soreness vs. chronic muscle and tendon inflammation–the gut relationship

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The physical challenges that performing artists and athletes face have a lot in common especially in the area of pain in muscles and tendons. It is normal to have occasional muscle soreness after a heavy workout or practice. However, as most people know the difference between muscle soreness and chronic inflammation, it is important to understand that there is often a biochemical component in chronic inflammation that may not addressed even in traditional holistic therapies including massage and chiropractic.

Chronic inflammation is a frightening condition as pain may be present even when you have done very little and may be excruciating if you do the slightest bit more. It often does not go away–even with rest– and it can haunt you day and night.It also often moves from one area to another and you can end up literally “chasing” the pain in your physical therapy sessions to no avail–for just as you solve the problem in one area, another area becomes sore.

Ongoing inflammation cannot be solved permanently with physical therapy–sorry–as this kind of inflammation is systemic. If you don’t look at the “why” deeply, you will continue to suffer and this symptom may be just the start of more serious health problems down the line.

Systemic inflammation often is a sign of poor digestion and “leaky gut syndrome.” Leaky gut is most often caused from eating difficult-to-digest, nutrient-poor foods that create intestinal flora imbalances like Candida overgrowth. With poor gut flora or “gut dysbiosis,”  intestinal damage is likely. When the intestinal tract becomes damaged, undigested proteins can “leak” through the intestinal wall, causing an immune system response and inflammatory chemicals to constantly circulate throughout the body.

Permanent healing is possible if you change your diet to focus on easy-to-digest, nutrient-dense, traditional foods that will heal the intestinal tract and build optimal health. Although at first this may seem like a daunting task, the benefits far outweigh the difficulty. You have spent your entire life dedicated to top performance, so isn’t your future worth the care that it took for you to come this far? Remember–“Your health is your wealth!”

For more information on building health and healing with nutrient-dense foods see Performance without Pain and our new e-book on healing acid reflux.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle

Cholesterol, Traditional Fats and Your Health, Healing and Building Health with Nutrient-Dense Foods, USDA Dietary Guidelines, Nutrient Deficiencies and Degenerative Illness, Vegetarian Diets

Myths and Truths about Nutrition

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This is an interesting article from the Weston A. Price Foundation website.

Myths & Truths About Nutrition

Myth: Heart disease in America is caused by consumption of cholesterol and saturated fat from animal products.

Truth: During the period of rapid increase in heart disease (1920-1960), American consumption of animal fats declined but consumption of hydrogenated and industrially processed vegetable fats increased dramatically. (USDA-HNI)

Myth: Saturated fat clogs arteries.

Truth: The fatty acids found in artery clogs are mostly unsaturated (74%) of which 41% are polyunsaturated. (Lancet 1994 344:1195)

Myth: Vegetarianism is healthy.

Truth: The annual all-cause death rate of vegetarian men is slightly more than that of non-vegetarian men (.93% vs .89%); the annual death rate of vegetarian women is significantly more than that of non-vegetarian women (.86% vs .54%) (Am J Clin Nutr 1982 36:873)

Myth: Vitamin B12 can be obtained from certain plant sources such as blue-green algae and soy products.

Truth: Vitamin B12 is not absorbed from plant sources. Modern soy products increase the body’s need for B12. (Soybeans: Chemistry & Technology Vol 1 1972)

Myth: For good health, serum cholesterol should be less than 180 mg/dl.

Truth: The all-cause death rate is higher in individuals with cholesterol levels lower than 180 mg/dl. (Circulation 1992 86:3:1026-1029)

Myth: Animal fats cause cancer and heart disease.

Truth: Animal fats contain many nutrients that protect against cancer and heart disease; elevated rates of cancer and heart disease are associated with consumption of large amounts of vegetable oils. (Fed Proc July 1978 37:2215)

Myth: Children benefit from a low-fat diet.

Truth: Children on low-fat diets suffer from growth problems, failure to thrive & learning disabilities. (Food Chem News 10/3/94)

Myth: A low-fat diet will make you “feel better . . . and increase your joy of living.”

Truth: Low-fat diets are associated with increased rates of depression, psychological problems, fatigue, violence and suicide. (Lancet 3/21/92 v339)

Myth: To avoid heart disease, we should use margarine instead of butter.

Truth: Margarine eaters have twice the rate of heart disease as butter eaters. (Nutrition Week 3/22/91 21:12)

Myth: Americans do not consume enough essential fatty acids.

Truth: Americans consume far too much of one kind of EFA (omega-6 EFAs found in most polyunsaturated vegetable oils) but not enough of another kind of EFA (omega-3 EFAs found in fish, fish oils, eggs from properly fed chickens, dark green vegetables and herbs, and oils from certain seeds such as flax and chia, nuts such as walnuts and in small amounts in all whole grains.) (Am J Clin Nutr 1991 54:438-63)

Myth: A vegetarian diet will protect you against atherosclerosis.

Truth: The International Atherosclerosis Project found that vegetarians had just as much atherosclerosis as meat eaters. (Lab Invest 1968 18:498)

Myth: Low-fat diets prevent breast cancer.

Truth: A recent study found that women on very low-fat diets (less than 20%) had the same rate of breast cancer as women who consumed large amounts of fat. (NEJM 2/8/96)

Myth: The “cave man diet” was low in fat.

Truth: Throughout the world, primitive peoples sought out and consumed fat from fish and shellfish, water fowl, sea mammals, land birds, insects, reptiles, rodents, bears, dogs, pigs, cattle, sheep, goats, game, eggs, nuts and milk products. (Abrams, Food & Evolution 1987)

Myth: Coconut oil causes heart disease.

Truth: When coconut oil was fed as 7% of energy to patients recovering from heart attacks, the patients had greater improvement compared to untreated controls, and no difference compared to patents treated with corn or safflower oils. Populations that consume coconut oil have low rates of heart disease. Coconut oil may also be one of the most useful oils to prevent heart disease because of its antiviral and antimicrobial characteristics. (JAMA 1967 202:1119-1123; Am J Clin Nutr 1981 34:1552)

Myth: Saturated fats inhibit production of anti-inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Saturated fats actually improve the production of all prostaglandins by facilitating the conversion of essential fatty acids. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)

Myth: Arachidonic acid in foods like liver, butter and egg yolks causes production of “bad” inflammatory prostaglandins.

Truth: Series 2 prostaglandins that the body makes from arachidonic acid both encourage and inhibit inflammation under appropriate circumstances. Arachidonic acid is vital for the function of the brain and nervous system. (Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation Journal 20:3)

Myth: Beef causes colon cancer

Truth: Argentina, with higher beef consumption, has lower rates of colon cancer than the US. Mormons have lower rates of colon cancer than vegetarian Seventh Day Adventists (Cancer Res 35:3513 1975)

© 1999 Weston A. Price Foundation All Rights Reserved.

For more information on building optimal with nutrient-dense foods and a healing diet, see www.performancewithoutpain.com.

Best in Health,

Kathryne Pirtle