nutritioninformation
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04:10:58 pm on August 10, 2008 | # |
As a nutritionally oriented sports surgeon and antiaging specialist, I was delighted to see the appearance of this work from one of America’s leading researchers on the effects of diet on health.
The cover states: “Unique and authoritative, Eat, Drink and Be Healthy will teach everyone a new and fun way to eat.”
Dr. Willett starts by attacking the USDA Food Pyramid. “At best, the USDA Pyramid offers wishy-washy, scientifically unfounded advice on an absolutely vital topic- what to eat. At worst, the misinformation contributes to overweight, poor health, and unnecessary early deaths.” “The thing to keep in mind about the USDA Pyramid is that it comes from the Department of Agriculture, the agency responsible for promoting American agriculture, not from agencies established to protect our health…And there’s the root of the problem- what’s good for some agricultural interests isn’t necessarily good for the people who eat there products.”
He then goes on to propose his own “Healthy Eating Pyramid” with red meat, butter, white rice, white bread, potatoes, pasta, sweets to be “used sparingly, and whole grain foods and plant oils “at most meals.”
Dr. Willett attacks the US dietary “attack on fat.” “The all-fat-is-bad message has started a huge national experiment, with us as the guinea pigs.” The “rise in the amount of trans fats made and eaten in the United States suspiciously parallels the rise in heart disease throughout much of this century.” Finally! A researcher from the mainstream medical establishment (sorry Mary Enig…you were too far ahead of your time to ever be allowed back into the mainstream! <see Mary Enig’s Know Your Fats for more>) has come out in a major publication to explain the evils of trans fats to the public (although the section in Drs. Eades Protein Power Life Plan and Dr. Enig’s book Know Your Fats are better).
He also joins the bandwagon to watch your carbohydrate intake. “Carbohydrates…contribute more toward weight maintenance or weight gain than any other nutrient.” He briefly mentions insulin resistance, barely touches “The Metabolic Syndrome” and points out that “HIGH CARBOHYDRATE DIETS ARE ESPECIALLY BAD FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE OVERWEIGHT.” “Experiments in which volunteers were asked to follow high-carbohydrate, low-fat diets ended up with heart-unhealthy changes in levels of HDL and triglycerides, not to mention higher levels of blood sugar and insulin, and these changes were the most pronounced in overweight people.” “Dark bread can have just as high a glycemic index value as white bread if the flour is finely ground.”
Dr. Willett goes on with well-written and informative chapters on protein, calcium, fluids and supplements, a lot of good recipes and an excellent list of resources for those trying to find whole grain foods that really are whole grain (which alone may be worth the price of the book).
In summary, Dr. Willett has provided an excellent summary of the medical establishment literature to date. But I wonder how many times he has sat across an exam table from a 275 pound woman who still thinks bagels (even whole grain bagels) are health food and got her to lose weight with this diet.
Dr. Willett bans the regular inclusion of red meat in the diet and limits other animal protein sources (to 0-2 times per day) but offers surprisingly little evidence to support this ban. “Too much protein … can draw calcium out of the skeleton and possibly lead to osteoporosis and broken bones.” He ignores the countless other ways that modern diet causes chronic metabolic acidosis (the medical term he is referring to) , particularly phosphates in sodas.
Dr. Willett bans saturated fat from the diet (hence the ban on red meat and butter) despite evidence that eating saturated fat (especially from hormone free meat) does nothing to promote insulin resistance. And he completely ignores legitimate concerns that more then small amounts of even complex carbohydrates are bad (and potentially very bad) for us (see “leaky gut syndrome”).
We live in an epidemic of obesity caused by Metabolic Syndrome which itself is caused by insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is not just related to, but is THE primary (but not only) cause of diabetes, heart disease, peripheral vascular disease and a host of other degenerative conditions. INSULIN RESISTANCE IS THE BUBONIC PLAGUE OF OUR TIME. Restriction of carbohydrates is the only dietary treatment to date which helps correct insulin resistance.
Conventional medicine, unfortunately, is always “one step behind” leading health practitioners, because conventional doctors insist on study after study before changing current practice. There ARE STILL over 2,000 babies born per year with neural tube defects in America, despite the fact that we have known how to stop them since 1976 with folic acid!
Dr. Willett is to be commended for the book which shows how far “mainstream” medicine has come. This book will do a lot to get the word out that trans fats are poison and unsaturated fats are good. But Dr. Willett himself just can’t bring himself to admit that his own institution’s data shows that saturated fat, while not necessarily good for you, is a dietary “neutral” and is much better then complex carbohydrates at improving insulin resistance.
BOTTOM LINE:
-A “must read” for those interested in nutritional medicine.
-Excellent reference source for increasing intake of whole grains, but makes no mention of dietary problems with whole grains. THIS IS A GREAT BOOK FOR THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY LOST WEIGHT AND ARE SEARCHING FOR SOURCES OF WHOLE GRAINS TO INCLUDE A SMALL AMOUNT IN THEIR DIET.
-Excellent section on trans fats.
-This is NOT the book to read if you need to lose weight. If you insist on trying, give it 12 weeks. If it doesn’t work, buy Dr. Atkins New Diet Revolution (2002 edition).
-Dr. Willett “cherry picks” nutritional information to match his pyramid, and ignores (or at least does not include in his book) scientific concerns about excessive carbohydrate intake (particularly “leaky gut syndrome”).
