The business of health in this country is just that, a business. That has certain implications for the health-minded consumer who wants to be informed about the health choices they are making. Take the popularity of vegetable oils. Vegetable oils (corn, safflower, Crisco, soy) rose in popularity in the 1960?s when the vegetable and food processing industries began promoting the findings and funding the research of Ancel Keys, someone whose initial research supported the health benefits of vegetable (unsaturated) fat over saturated fat. This despite the numerous subsequent studies which have questioned and even contradicted his findings.
Over the last 40 years, the American public has been weaned on the notion that [tag]saturated fats[/tag] (like butter and animal fats) are ?bad? for you, and contribute to heart disease, high cholesterol and a host of other ailments. Paradoxically, during this time we have seen a rise in these same ailments. It would appear that vegetable oils are good for the vegetable industry and bad for humans!
The good-fats/bad-fats controversy continues to rage, and it would be presumptuous of me to try and give you the ?skinny? on it. (Though it does make a provocative title, don?t you think?) What I can do is brief you on some of the issues that are impacting the publicity and availability around dietary fats, and point out some resources.
The mainstream medical approach, and, therefore, the mainstream approach, to health carries the assumption that one?s health is at risk at any given time (from outside pathogens, stress, or any number of other threats) and that the solution is to develop ever more powerful drugs and technological breakthroughs. Staying healthy in this world is considered complicated and assumed to require regular intervention by the ?experts.?
An alternative viewpoint championed by holistic health practitioners and health-concerned individuals examines health from the standpoint of what has worked in the past. The underlying assumption is that health is not any more complicated now than it was in the past, but that the stress of our lives and an overpolluted environment make it so. Humans are still basically the same as we were 100 years ago.
A dentist named [tag]Dr. Weston Price[/tag] back in the 1930?s conducted a voluminous research study over many years in communities all over the world. His findings form the basis for understanding how societies maintained their health over the millennium, and how the advent of modern food techniques (and the discontinuance of traditional methods) contributes to ill health and disease. In communities as varied as the Hebrides Islands off of Scotland and the native tribes of Kenya in Africa, Dr.Price discovered that these populations were remarkably disease free with none of the chronic or progressively fatal health conditions we see in modern society today like diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, and cancers.
Many commonalties in food-preparation and health practices existed among these communities including the liberal use of seafood or other animal proteins and fats in the form of organ meats and dairy products; the consumption of fats, meats, fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds and whole grains in their natural, unrefined states; the consumption of raw foods, both animal and vegetable; and the pickling or fermentation (not with vinegar) of grains, milk products, vegetables, fruits and meats.
The watchword or phrase of this alternative approach is ?Eat like your ancestors.? A hundred years ago, the only doctor available was often hours away by horseback. Communities learned how to stay healthy through their [tag]dietary habits[/tag]. Perhaps we can too!
(Recommended resources and sources used for this article: Fats that Heal, Fats that Kill byUdo Erasmus; Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon; Traditional Foods Are Your Best Medicine by Ronald F. Schmid, ND; The Weston Price Foundation – www.westonaprice.org)
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