By Dr. Mercola
Michael Pollan's PBS documentary "In Defense of Food" is
based on Pollan's book by the same name. The title may seem odd
at first. What kind of defense might food be in need of?
According to Pollan, food must be defended for the simple
reason that the majority of what people eat today is not
actually real food: it’s "edible food-like substances" that have
no counterpart in nature.
You don't have to go very far back in history to get to a
point where "what should I eat?" was a nonexistent question.
Everyone knew what "food" was. They harvested food off trees,
bushes and out of the ground, and they ate it, either raw or
cooked in some fashion.
Our current confusion about what to eat is basically
the result of forgetfulness. The food industry and nutritional
science both stand to gain from this kind of confusion.
They keep trying to "help" you, yet for all their expert
help, people have only gotten sicker. Neither of these
industries has outsmarted or outperformed nature as of yet.
Pollan also argues that you cannot divorce yourself from the
health of the food chain of which you are a part.
Soil health, for example, is a crucial component as it
affects the health of the food grown in it, so how and where
food is grown is a factor to be taken into consideration.
A Healthy Diet Cannot Be Reduced to Individual Nutrients
The food industry has radically altered — or as Pollan says,
destroyed — our diet; reducing "food" to a list of
individual nutrients listed on a box. Some of these nutrients
are said to be "good," whereas others are said to be "bad." And,
which is which changes at regular intervals.
Advertising also plays a role, with all manner of
junk food being presented as having some sort of benefit.
The tendency to think about food in terms of nutrients is also
fueled by the food industry's practice of making health claims
for specific nutrients added to or removed from their products.
As a result, confusion reigns when it comes to what foods
should be on the plate. Pollan refers to this as "The American
Paradox: The more we worry about nutrition, the less healthy we
seem to become."
The Key to Healthy Eating — Eat REAL Food
The success of the processed food industry has come at a
tremendous price. As noted in the film, diet-related disease is
at an all-time high, and people's lives are at stake. But while
many realize that their health problems are in fact related to
their diet, they're at a loss as to the changes that need to be
made.
"We're looking for dietary salvation," Pollan says.
What is the answer to our problems? Many are convinced that
eating healthy is a complicated equation requiring loads of
nutritional data. But they're wrong. As noted in the film, "You
don't have to be a scientist to know how to eat."
It's actually much simpler than you might think.
Pollan offers the following seven-word guide to healthier
eating: "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." I
would specify that further by pointing out that what he's
talking about is REAL food, i.e. food as close to its
natural state as possible.
Other practical advice offered throughout this program
includes the following:
Real Food Diets May Differ, but Most Are Healthy
Science actually confirms that a wide variety of diets can be
healthy — provided they're based on real food, as unadulterated
foods contain all the nutrients your body needs, and in far more
ideal ratios than nutritional scientists can guesstimate.
In the film, Pollan journeys across the world, looking at
people's diets and the results thereof. Repeatedly, he confirms
this truth: Those who eat historically traditional diets are
healthier and live longer.
This holds true for hunter-gatherers on the plains of
Tanzania, Seventh Day Adventists in California who are primarily
vegetarians, and the French, whose diet is still steeped in
culture and tradition. The specific foods and ratios thereof may
differ, yet they all reap the benefits of good health.
Another example is the Mediterranean diet, of which there are
many variations. But the primary hallmark of all of them is
again fresh, whole, minimally processed foods.
Vitamins and Other Nutrients Are Best Obtained From Real Food
Pollan also explores the trends of vitamin supplementation,
showing that while vitamins are indeed good for you, the best
way to obtain them is from real food. One of the primary reasons
we have to supplement with vitamins in the first place is
because they've been removed or destroyed during processing.
The other challenge is that industrial farming practices have
radically diminished the minerals in most soils, which
secondarily depletes the nutrient density of many foods. Take
beef for example.
Beef raised in concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs)
doesn't have the
omega-3 and CLA content of organically raised, grass-fed
beef, because the animals are fed an unnatural diet of grains
and other additives, including sugar (molasses) and
artificial sweeteners.
Hence, many processed foods make bold health claims based on
the vitamins added back in; some of which are more nonsensical
than others. For example, Schlitz once advertised Vitamin D
beer! Other examples include breakfast cereals boasting
heart-healthy fiber and vitamins, despite the primary ingredient
being sugar — one of the most health-harming substances on the
planet.
Ditto for yogurt. While most commercial yogurts contain
beneficial bacteria, they can also contain as much sugar as a
can of soda, which effectively counteracts any good those
microbes might do.
Moreover, commercial yogurts are almost always pasteurized,
which kills off any and all bacteria. Select groups of bacteria
are then added back in, but the end result is a far cry from
traditionally cultured yogurt made from unpasteurized (raw)
milk, in which the bacteria are allowed to multiply and thrive
normally.
The Cornucopia Institute has evaluated 130 different
commercial yogurt brands, scoring them based on information from
ingredient labels, independent testing and, in the case of
organic brands, the score brands achieved on Cornucopia's
organic dairy scorecard.
So before you buy another commercial yogurt, take a look at
their
Yogurt Buyers Guide, and remember, your healthiest
option is to buy yogurt made from raw milk from your local
farmer or farmer's market.
How Nutritional Guidelines Have Decimated Public Health
While nutritional guidelines have often been less than ideal,
influenced as they are by various industries (such as the sugar
and beef industry), perhaps one of the most serious flaws has
been the recommendation to avoid dietary fats. It's difficult to
estimate just how many premature deaths have resulted from the
low-fat diet recommendation, but my guess is that this is easily
into the hundreds of millions.
Many studies have confirmed the disadvantage of low-fat
diets. As just one example, a 2013 Spanish trial,1,2
which included nearly 7,450 volunteers between the ages of 55
and 80, was halted for ethical reasons after eight years, as the
control group was deemed to be at a dangerous disadvantage.
The two intervention groups ate a Mediterranean-style diet —
low in red meat, sugar, processed carbs, and junk food; and high
in most everything else, including healthy fats, vegetables,
fruits, legumes, and seafood, supplemented with either 30 grams
of nuts per day (15 grams walnuts, 7.5 grams almonds, and 7.5
grams hazelnuts), or 50 ml of virgin olive oil per day instead
of nuts. The control group ate a low-fat diet.
There were no calorie restrictions for any of the groups, nor
was physical activity promoted or required. Compliance with
olive oil and nut consumption was tested via blood and urine
analysis. The primary end point was a composite of myocardial
infarction, stroke, and death from cardiovascular causes.
Secondary end points were stroke, myocardial infarction, death
from cardiovascular causes, and death from any cause.
Remarkably, in less than five years, the two intervention
groups achieved a 30 percent relative risk reduction for
cardiovascular disease, and stroke reduction was an impressive
49 percent. According to conventional wisdom, such benefits have
been seen in the low-fat group, but the converse turned out to
be true, and the study was stopped early to protect the health
of the control group.
As a General Rule, Whole Foods Contain Healthy Fats
So for the last 60 years, people have been admonished to eat
a low-fat diet to protect their heart health. Unsurprisingly,
all this time, that dangerous recommendation has actually
fueled the very problem it was said to treat — a sad
testament to the dangers of following nutritional guidelines
based on ideas about nutrients rather than real food. Low-fat
foods exist in abundance in nature, and they're called fruits
and vegetables.
Other foods, such as olives, avocados,
coconut oil, butter from raw milk, and beef, are high in
fats, and that's a good thing. Your body needs fat
for energy, the production of hormones, nerve and brain
function, vitamin conversion, mineral absorption, and a host of
other biological processes. As a general rule, if the fat comes
from real food, it's "good."
The real problem with dietary fat arises from the processing.
Harmful trans fats, for example, are formed when vegetable oil
hardens, a process called hydrogenation. Science has now
confirmed that the health risks previously attributed to
saturated fat are actually caused by trans fats, and this
includes raising your LDL cholesterol, lowering HDL, clogging
your arteries, and promoting heart disease and other serious
health problems.
Fat Versus Sugar — Which Actually Causes Obesity?
Reducing fat in our diet has also increased obesity — another
health problem the low-fat diet was said to solve — and the
reason for this is because the food industry replaced the fat
with sugar. The documentary "The Secrets of Sugar,"
which you can view in my previous article, "Sugar
Industry Secrets Exposed," tells the story of how the food
industry has known for decades about the links between a
processed food diet and disease.
On a mission to change how the sugar industry operates,
Colorado Community Care Dentist Cristin Kearns Couzens stumbled
upon evidence that they were already worried about sugar's role
in heart disease as far back as the early 1970s.
She unearthed more than 1,500 pages of internal memos,
letters, and reports, buried in the archives of now-defunct
sugar companies, as well as in the recently released papers of
deceased researchers and consultants who played key roles in the
industry's strategy.
The sugar industry was sweating the impending book, "Pure
White and Deadly," (1972) by British nutritionist John Yudkin,
in which he presented decades of research pointing at dietary
sugar — rather than fat — as the underlying factor in obesity
and
diabetes.
The Sugar Association secretly funded a white paper called
"Sugar in the Diet of Man" that claimed sugar was not only safe
and healthy, but important. Not only did they fund it, but they
made it appear to be an independent study.
The Sugar Association's biggest apologist was Ancel Keys who,
with industry funding, helped destroy Yudkin's reputation by
labeling him a quack. The smear campaign was a huge success,
bringing sugar research to a screeching halt. Keys' flawed
research was also used as the basis for the low-fat
recommendation.
Today, the research overwhelmingly supports Yudkin's initial
warnings about sugar being a primary culprit in obesity,
diabetes, and related health problems, including cancer and
heart disease — two primary killers of modern man.
The Links Between Your Gut Microbiome, Diet and Health
Pollan's film also delves into some of the latest studies
showing the role your gut bacteria play in your health, the
importance of a plant-based diet, and how the Westernized diet
has altered our gut microbiome in ways that beget poor health.
Fermented foods are important for gut health, but so is
fiber. Soluble fibers, such as psyllium, are probiotics that
help nourish beneficial bacteria. These beneficial bacteria
assist with digestion and absorption of your food, and play a
significant role in your immune function.
When it comes to fiber, the food industry and nutritional
sciences have again done more harm than good by promoting grains
as an ideal source. While this may have been true 100 years ago,
agricultural practices and modern food processing techniques
have made most grains less than beneficial.
For starters, many modern grains, including non-organic
wheat, are contaminated with
glyphosate, which is now recognized as a probable human
carcinogen. Glyphosate has also been linked to celiac disease
and other gut dysfunction, which is the exact converse of what
you're trying to achieve by adding fiber to your diet.
Secondly, most grain products on the market are highly
processed, which further deteriorates their value. Instead,
focus on eating more vegetables, nuts, and seeds. The following
whole foods, for example, contain high levels of soluble and
insoluble fiber.
Psyllium seed husk, flax hemp, and chia seeds |
Berries |
Vegetables such as broccoli and Brussels sprouts
|
Root vegetables and tubers, including onions, sweet
potatoes, and
jicama |
Almonds |
Peas |
Green beans |
Cauliflower |
Beans |
Feed Your Children Real Food From Birth
It's bad enough that most children are eating processed foods
and junk food by the time they're old enough to chew, along with
excessive amounts of sugary beverages like sodas and fruit
juices. What's worse is that
sugar addiction is in many cases promoted from day one.
There's a big difference between breast milk and commercial
baby formula — the latter sometimes containing concerning
amounts of added sugars3,4
(beware that the amount of sugar is typically not listed on the
label).
Sadly, many women do not have access to the truth about
breastfeeding and have been misled by infant-formula
marketing to believe they must spend thousands of dollars a year
to provide the best nutrition for their babies. In reality (and
barring any extreme exceptions such as certain transmittable
diseases or drug use), breast milk is the best food for babies,
period.
As noted by Pollan, the more we discover about breast milk,
the more we realize that formula just isn't as good as breast
milk. For example, breast milk contains undigestible
oligosaccharides — sugars unique to breast milk alone — that
nourish
healthy bacteria in your baby's gut.
Ideally, you'll want to strive to breastfeed your baby
exclusively for the first six months, at which point you can
begin to supplement with solid foods and continue to breastfeed
for a year or longer. But remember, even breastfeeding for as
little as one month can impart great health benefits for both
you and your baby.
The next best alternative to breast milk is to make a healthy
homemade infant formula. There may be others, but here is one
recipe for homemade formula created by the Weston Price
Foundation, which I believe is sound.
'Eat Real Food, Mostly Plants'
Pollan covers a number of other topics in his film, including
the impact of sugary beverages, which is a major source of
calories for most Americans, including kids; New York City mayor
Bloomberg's attempts to limit soda sizes in restaurants; and
Mexico's national
soda tax, which I discussed in a recent article.
There's no doubt that cutting out sweetened beverages of all
kinds, including fruit juices and artificially sweetened drinks,
can go a long way toward warding off unwanted pounds, insulin
and leptin resistance, and related diseases. Remember, when it
comes to diet, eating healthy is really not such a complicated
affair. It's simply a matter of remembering to eat REAL FOOD. To
recap the advice given by both Pollan and myself:
- Eat real food. Not too much. Mostly plants
- Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't
recognize as food
- Eat only foods that will eventually spoil or rot
- Go easy on the meat, and eat only high quality
grass-fed/grass-finished or pastured meats