|
Traditional fats are good
medicine!
By Vicki Poulter, Nourishing Australia
We have a health crisis
today. Our children are suffering from allergies, asthma, learning and behavioural
problems. Obesity, diabetes, degenerative diseases and infertility are
increasing and our medical systems and hospitals are in chaos.
There is much agonizing and
discussion about what is causing these problems but a large part of the answer
is blindingly obvious and there is a great body of research already done!
In the
1930s, Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist from Ohio, travelled the world to study the diets
of indigenous peoples who exclusively ate local traditional foods. He compared the glowing
good health, freedom from tooth decay, excellent bone structure and mental stability
of these indigenous peoples to the Americans of his day who were suffering from
dental problems, mental illness, allergies, arthritis, asthma, heart disease
and cancer. His book, Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration, documents his research and has become a classic work
in the field of nutrition. It is still published by the Price-Pottenger
Nutrition Foundation.
He found that when indigenous people
adopted diets consisting of processed and denatured foods such as white flour, sugar,
canned foods, vegetable oils and pasteurized and reduced-fat dairy products,
they developed the same chronic diseases that plague us today.
Dr Price analysed the foods that the
healthy people he found were eating. He
discovered that traditional diets contained an abundance of
minerals & vitamins, especially vitamins A and D found in seafood, eggs and
the fat and organ meats of grass-fed animals. Traditional diets varied tremendously
throughout the world - however all traditional diets contained at least four
times the minerals and water-soluble vitamins and ten times the amount of
fat-soluble vitamins as the ‘modern' diet of his day. It is these fat soluble
vitamins that are missing in our diets today.
And why is this so? Because fear of saturated fat and cholesterol underpins most nutritional
advice and makes us afraid to eat traditional foods rich in natural fat
and cholesterol such as butter, cream, full-fat natural milk in addition to
organ meats, tallow (beef and lamb fat) and
lard (pork fat). Many traditional cultures valued foods high in animal
fat and rich in nutrients. Our bodies require these nutrient-dense foods to
function properly at a cellular level and for reproduction.
These fats do not cause obesity or
heart disease and cholesterol is needed for many vital processes in the body.
However we are told to avoid these foods and ‘low fat' and ‘cholesterol free'
are promoted - even for children just 2 years old!
Fear of
fat is making us sick - and fat! Think back to our grandparents' day. Children did not
have masses of allergies and learning problems or get fat when they were eating
eggs and butter for breakfast instead of dry processed breakfast cereals,
processed fruit juices and toast with margarine and jam! They also ate plenty
of grass fed meat - chops with the fat on them and roasts with all the fat in
the gravy. Nor did they eat foods cooked in unstable polyunsaturated vegetable
oils and trans-fats.
We are becoming malnourished
by over-eating the wrong foods. Generation after generation, we are
depleting ourselves and reducing our ability to reproduce. Our reliance on
synthetic substitutes is dangerous: foods labelled ‘health foods' - soy infant
formula, highly processed breakfast cereals and health food bars for example are
often nutrient-poor foods, high in sugar, additives, fillers, artificial
sweeteners and trans-fats. We are literally ‘starving' ourselves of essential
nutrients whilst becoming overweight.
A huge amount of the food in our supermarkets
is based on sugar, refined carbohydrates, refined vegetable oils, soy additives
and transfats - all produced for shelf life and profit. Next time you are in a
supermarket, look at the relative shelf space of butter and margarines! When
was the last time you saw a TV ad telling you how good butter is?
Modern science is confirming that butter from grass fed cows is one of
the healthiest whole foods you can include in your diet. Despite unjustified
warnings about saturated fat from well-meaning, but misinformed nutrition and
health "experts", the list of butter's benefits is impressive indeed.
It is a rich source of easily-absorbed vitamin A - needed for a wide
range of functions in the body from maintaining good vision to keeping the
endocrine system in top shape. Butter also contains all the other fat-soluble
vitamins (E, K, and D). It is rich in trace minerals and also contains butyric
acid and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) both of which are known to help protect
against cancer. Only grass-fed cows produce good levels of CLA in their milk
and tallow (meat fat) so avoid "grain fed"!
Butter from grass fed cows also has small, but equal, amounts of omega 3
and 6 fatty acids, the so-called essential fatty acids. Margarine on the other
hand is an imitation food full of synthetic additives and colours and made from
highly processed omega 6 rich vegetable oils which distort the omega 3/omega 6
balance and generate many health problems!
So enjoy your butter! We can be happier and healthier and
maintain normal weight by eating the nutrient-rich foods we have avoided for so
long!
|
