This article is about  the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics,  the world’s largest organisation of food and nutrition professionals and their review of recommendations for  “2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans”.

Some quotes….

“the Academy supports the DGAC in its decision to drop dietary cholesterol from the nutrients of concern list and recommends it deemphasize saturated fat from nutrients of concern, given the lack of evidence connecting it with cardiovascular disease.”

“a growing body of research suggesting that the low sodium intake levels recommended by the DGAC are actually associated with increased mortality for healthy individuals“

“the evidence is strongest that a reduction in the intake of added sugars will improve the health of the American public”

Have you ever tried checking out where the frozen berries come from? See this picture of 6 shelves of Berries at Woolworths Supermarket…  well last time I checked the bottom 5 shelves are all imported from China or Chile, the top right single packet (OOB) are Organic from the USA. None are from Australia.

This week 4 cases of Hepatitis A  through frozen berries imported from China.

And how about this: “Senior media advisor at the health department Bram Alexander urged Victorians with the berries in their freezer to throw them out, as they may be tainted.”

Genius! Throw them out so that (1) it’s you who lose your money not the supermarket who has to refund them if you take them back and (2) if you do happen to develop Hepatitis there’s no evidence that it’s from the  berries!!!

And if I can just climb onto my hobby horse for 1 second to point out the obvious: why are we allowed to buy frozen berries from China, where we have no idea what’s going on, but it’s illegal to buy raw milk from the farmer next door? (Climb back down now.)

Who’s funding that research?

This (long convoluted) article shows where they went wrong.

RAW MILK IN NZ AND FRANCE

A NZ current affair program was running an episode on whether NZ should legalise raw milk for sale in supermarkets. (Currently it’s only available at the farm gate.) They held out France as the most progressive nation (in France you can buy raw milk from vending machines), and Australia as the most backward country (in Australia it’s actually illegal to sell raw milk to drink!)

FLOURIDE IN DRINKING WATER IN NZ

In Australia there doesn’t seem to be any debate about fluoridation of water. It’s the done thing, except if you’re a hippie. In NZ it was in the newspapers almost every day. Councils are debating the issue. Some councils do it, some don’t. There are leading dentists on both sides of the debate. They were challenging many things most Australians just believe without thinking.

FAT IN SWEEDEN

Earlier this year Sweeden bought out new national guidelines for Saturated fat. This report turns the current concepts upside down and advocates a low-carbohydrate high-fat diet as the most effective weapon against obesity. They reviewed 16,000 scientific papers and revised their guidelines. “Butter, olive oil, heavy cream, and bacon are not harmful foods. Quite the opposite. Fat is the best thing for those who want to lose weight. And there are no connections between a high fat intake and cardiovascular disease.” In Australia our food standards are exactly the opposite and recently Pete Evans was criticised by the Australian Heart foundation for promoting a Paleo diet high in saturated fat!

COLOR 160B IN USA

In Australia it is almost impossible to buy margarine or ice-cream without color 160b. (It’s the color of egg yolk). Sometimes it’s listed as ‘color 160b’ other times it’s ‘natural color – annato extract’.

What surprised me when I went to the USA is that you can’t find 160B in anything.

In the USA and Europe they use 160A or 160C, which are the same colour, but non-toxic. So all the 160b gets dumped in Australia.

Fed Up website talks about this also.

And get this – the same ice-cream  from the same manufacturer (magnum) has 160b in Australia but 160A overseas. So companies manufacture for where they sell, and they put 160B in for us Aussies because we don’t’ care about getting poison in our food.

Where did you get your ideas about saturated fat? Are you a product of the 1980’s when we were brainwashed into switching from butter to margarine.

Here are some journal articles to get you thinking.

Saturated fat, cholesterol and the brain:  ” Indeed, high cholesterol level is positively correlated with longevity in people over 85 years old, and in some cases has been shown to be associated with better memory function and reduced dementia…We suggest that a diet high in high-glycemic index carbohydrates, particularly fructose, and relatively low in fats and cholesterol, leads to a destructive process… Neurons begin to suffer damage as well… Simple dietary modification, towards fewer highly-processed carbohydrates and relatively more fats and cholesterol, is likely a protective measure against Alzheimer’s disease. ”

High cholesterol and old age: “In conclusion, after adjusting for other factors associated with longevity, higher HDL cholesterol levels were significantly associated with survival to 85 years of age.”

Cholesterol and Dementia “High cholesterol in late life was associated with decreased dementia risk, which is in contrast to previous studies suggesting high cholesterol in mid-life is a risk factor for later dementia…”

Mediterranean diet vs cholesterol lowering medication.  The Mediterranean diet improves heart health without lowering cholesterol levels. The Mediterranean diet is better than statins for reducing heart attack, even though it doesn’t  lower cholesterol levels. But in the conclusion it does a backflip and says keep taking your drugs to keep drug companies happy, oops, I mean, to keep your cholesterol low.

“An astonishing 70% reduction in the incidence of subsequent death and nonfatal myocardial infarction was reported in patients on the Mediterranean diet…. Even more remarkable is that this mortality benefit occurred despite no difference between the study and the control populations in follow-up LDL and HDL cholesterol levels.”

Saturated fat reduces fatty liver disease in rats. ” The data indicate that a diet enriched in saturated fatty acids (groups 3 and 4) effectively reverses alcohol-induced liver injury, including fibrosis.”

Note there are different types of Saturated fats.

The good ones are raw vegetable fats and and grass fed animal fats and fish.

This is where we started out on our journey for good health via real food.

Food colours and flavours do affect your kids behaviour. If you suggested that to people 20 years ago people may have thought you were a bit paranoid. It’s more accepted in Australia nowadays, but still our food is full of junk and our kids have all sorts of behavioural issues and skin conditions.  

In Australia up until a few years ago it was very hard to buy bread without Preservative 220 in it. Preservative 220 sends our kids up the wall. Our kids went ballistic after some bread from the bakery in a local supermarket in Dubbo. I spoke to the baker and they admitted that they put 220 in the bread but it wasn’t on the label.  Baker’s delight  never uses Preservative 220 so they are safe. Thankfully lots of other brands have abandoned 220 as well.

But it’s not just 220. Various colours, flavours and other goodies are bad for you too. A great site for information is this one by Sue Dengate, Author of ‘Fed Up’

This reference is good guide to which additives are banned in which countries. Click on the category on the left (eg colours) then look up the number.

I love these journal articles. Yes, raw milk is better for allergies, but we don’t recommend drinking it because we haven’t worked out exactly why it’s good.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2222.2010.03665.x/abstract

“Although the epidemiological evidence consistently suggest a protective role of unprocessed cow’s milk consumption on the development of asthma, hay fever and atopic sensitization the underlying mechanisms are not yet understood and the consumption of raw milk cannot be recommended as a preventive measure for allergic diseases.”

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17456213

But just so I don’t get sued, before you drink raw milk have a look here http://www.realrawmilkfacts.com

Woolworths Macro brand is grass fed.