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Health
Myths
The
Four Biggest Health Myths
by Cindy Clayton, DC &
Nutritionist
Myth
# 1
Diets
High in Fat Cause You to Get Fat
Advertisers
have promoted low fat everywhere and so many people are obsessed with cutting
fat from their diets. But did you
know that eating healthy fat actually helps you lose weight? When you eat low
fat foods your metabolism drastically shuts down. When your metabolism shuts
down, so does your fat burning furnace. If you want to speed up your metabolism
and lose weight – consume more healthy fat. Fat also tells your brain that
you’re full. It will greatly cut your appetite. Have you ever eaten at a
Chinese restaurant and been hungry an hour later? That was because of the high
carbohydrates. It is the carbohydrates that cause you to get fat and make you
hungry, especially sugar and refined grains. We’re not talking about the
artificial margarine, oleos or the heated, trans fats. We’re talking about
eating more raw nuts, olive oil, flax oil, coconut oil, cod liver oil, real
butter, cheese, eggs and meats as good sources of healthy fat (organic and
hormone free).
Myth
#2
High
Carbohydrate, Low Calorie Diets Help with Weight Loss
The problem with a high
carbohydrate, low calorie diet is that bread, pasta, cereal,
and other carbs break down into sugar very rapidly. This triggers an
increase in insulin. Insulin takes high sugar that’s in the blood and puts it
into storage as fat. This data can be found in almost every medical textbook on
the subject of insulin and carbohydrate metabolism. When insulin is released it
also inhibits the action of enzymes that break fat down.
Your organs need calories to
keep functioning, including the heart, liver, kidneys and brain. Low calorie
diets actually starve these organs. They
will eventually start to malfunction. A low calorie diet will also cause your
metabolism to slow way down which will cause your body to expand it’s fat
cells and make it very hard to lose weight.
Protein
on the other hand increases a hormone which has a function that is the
opposite of insulin. It will
cause your body to dissolve fat rather than store it. In the process of
dissolving the fat, it gives you energy. By taking grain carbohydrates and
sugar out of your diet and increasing vegetables, proteins and healthy fats,
you will lose weight with less hunger and will have more.
Myth
#3
Eating
Saturated Fats Causes Heart Disease
The Ancient Egyptians consumed a diet of high carbohydrates and low
fats. When mummified bodies were dug up it was routinely found that their
arteries were filled with cholesterol, their teeth were rotted and they were
obese. The Eskimos consumed a 70% fat diet and had practically no heart
disease. Africans, Indians, Mediterranean cultures, inhabitants of Crete,
Puerto Ricans, Swiss, French and New Zealanders also consumed diets high in
saturated fats with virtually no heart disease.
Despite
popular belief, there are no scientific studies that show that eating a high
fat diet and high cholesterol diet will in any way cause heart disease or
heart attacks. However, a low cholesterol diet can cause you to develop
cataracts (vision loss), age more quickly and weaken your immune system. It
can also cause your body to overcompensate and to develop high cholesterol.
Heart
Disease was very rare a hundred years ago. Heart disease started to increase
from nothing in 1910, to a major epidemic in 1945 (50% of all deaths). From
1910 to 1970, the consumption of animal fats has actually declined, butter
consumption has declined, cholesterol consumption has increased only 1% yet
heart disease has increased a lot. Refined foods, sugar consumption,
margarine and artificial oil intake has increased tremendously during this
same period. It is these refined foods that increase cholesterol and destroy
the heart.
Refined
foods are depleted of all their vitamins, minerals and enzymes, especially B
vitamins. Scientists have now proven that it is the B vitamin deficiency
that causes heart attacks. You may be saying to yourself that you already
take B vitamins but chances are you may be taking synthetic B vitamins, made
from petroleum which will not supply the B you need and will actually create
deficiencies. Standard Process makes Cataplex B and G, whole food organic
supplements that will give you the entire B complex which will feed your
heart and body. Cataplex B is the half that will help you heart, nerves and
carbohydrate metabolism. Cataplex G is the half that helps stress,
relaxation and fat metabolism.
Here
is a list of fats with the proper ratios you should have in your diet (You
should have 1 part saturated fats to one part Omega 3 unsaturated fats to 1
part Omega 6 unsaturated fats – 1:1:1):
SATURATED
FATS: Meats, Cheese, Eggs, Raw Milk, Butter
OMEGA
3: Fish Oil, Flax oil
OMEGA
6: Vegetable oils, Raw nuts, Olive oil
Myth
#4
Eggs
Will Raise Your Cholesterol
Egg whites contain one of the best sources of protein. Egg yolks
contain a small amount of cholesterol and a large amount of lecithin which
breaks down the cholesterol.
The way to maintain normal cholesterol levels is not to avoid
cholesterol, because that will cause your body to produce more. This occurs
because of an internal mechanism in your liver. The less cholesterol you
consume, the more your body makes.
What you want to do is eat foods that are high in lecithin and forget
about cholesterol. It just so happens that all high lecithin foods contain
high fats. That’s the way nature designed it. And that is the problem with
refined and heated oil—they destroy lecithin.
Eggs don’t raise cholesterol levels. In fact, they do just the
opposite—they decrease cholesterol levels. The best way to lower
cholesterol is to eat organic eggs because of the lecithin factor.
Cholesterol is not a deadly poison, but a substance vital to all your
cells. most of your hormones are made out of cholesterol. Your nerves could
not conduct electricity without cholesterol. Your brain couldn’t function
without cholesterol—in fact 70% of it is cholesterol. Cholesterol also
makes vitamin D, which helps in the absorption of calcium.
So be sure to make organic eggs part of your normal diet.
Cindy
Clayton, D.C. is a Doctor of Chiropractic and Nutritionist who is practicing in the LA area at 3020 Glendale Blvd.
Suite 500, Los Angeles, CA 90039, 323 668-2639 See her
website
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