http://wayneconnor.com/theres-nothing-healthy-about-a-tan.html

and here’s some new research to help us relax as we soak in the sun!

 Persons who used sunscreens did not have a decreased risk of malignant melanoma. Instead, a significantly elevated odds ratio (OR) for developing malignant melanoma after regular sunscreen use was found…

Check out this study of 30,000 people in Sweeden over 20 years.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/major-study-suggests-mortality-rate-higher-for-people-who-stay-of-the-sun-than-those-who-dont-9338516.html

Here’s another study:

http://millerfamilydermatology.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/joim12251.pdf

and

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1097-0215%2820000701%2987:1%3C145::AID-IJC22%3E3.0.CO;2-3/abstract;jsessionid=9D1E0F485791649882D43933519302A5

 Persons who used sunscreens did not have a decreased risk of malignant melanoma. Instead, a significantly elevated odds ratio (OR) for developing malignant melanoma after regular sunscreen use was found…

On ABC radio yesterday they reported on an Australian study by  Lisa Wood that shows saturated fat can worsen asthma. The article is transcribed here: “Associate Professor Lisa Wood discusses a new finding that an unhealthy diet high in saturated fats and low fresh food can exacerbate asthma and make it more difficult to treat.”

This was a little surprising to me because it goes against all the recent research showing that saturated fats are highly beneficial to our health. So I did a little bit of research only to find that the article itself by Lisa Wood says the exact opposite  of what ABC radio has reported it as saying.

Lisa Wood in her article says that polyunsaturated fat is what makes asthma worse.  But by the time this makes it to an interview on ABC radio they are reporting that it is saturated fat that makes asthma worse! How does misinformation like this keep being propagated?

GONE VIRAL!

It gets worse. A google search on ‘fat worsens asthma’ shows this Australian study has gone viral. Everyone is quoting it around the world as fact…

The United Kingdom

“High saturated fat diets can render asthma inhalers ineffective.” (Daily Mail UK)

Australia

“Inflammatory foods include those high in saturated fat and refined sugar.” (SMH Australia)

“We have shown that a higher saturated fat intake causes airway inflammation.” (ABC Australia)

USA

“High-fat foods may trigger airway inflammation, study finds.” (LA Times)

And the list goes on. They are all spring-boarding off one another with this sensational news that saturated fat worsens asthma.

THE ORIGINAL RESEARCH SAYS THE OPPOSITE!

So I checked out the Author Lisa Wood’s research.  She has written a book called “Asthma and inflammation, Nutrition and Physical Activity in Inflammatory Diseases”

So what does she say in the section on saturated fat and asthma?

It’s actually an increase in polyunsaturated fat that has lead to an increase in asthma, not saturated fat. Read it for yourself…

On the other hand Omega 3 fatty acids (found in grass-fed beef and fish) actually reduce asthma.

So what about saturated fat and asthma?

Well according to the book it’s inconclusive – read the quote below.

The first study of 1166 adolescents quoted in the paragraph above was  a study of teenagers in Taiwan filling in a diary of the food they ate. So yes, you can probably guess where the saturated fat came from… I doubt these teenagers were eating grass fed beef or coconut oil, more likely junk food full of sugar and carbs as well as fat.

On the other hand, 6  studies show that saturated fat does not worsen asthma. And she states that Omega 3 fats found in butter and lard are good for asthma.

But what ends up getting reported all over the world? The opposite! And people continue on with the myth that all saturated fat is unhealthy.

There is always more to the story than meets the eye.

A diet containing good saturated fats such as olive oil, egg yolk, coconut oil and grass fed beef may be good for asthma, yet the media is in a frenzy spreading the exact opposite message.

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.

In Australia there’s an add on TV with the punchline “There’s nothing healthy about a tan.”

This add  is complete a lie by the Australian Government, there’s  plenty healthy about a tan.

I’m not sure how the government can run this add in a nation where 1/3 of adults are vitamin D deficient.  Anyway, how much sun is good for us? How much is really unhealthy? Read on… 

Vitamin D comes from the sun. But how much sun do you need?

According to this article, you need 10-15 minutes (full body) on a standard UV index of 7 day. If you start to go pink that’s too much. (That’s significantly less that the Australian Cancer council claims we need – see here. You’ll have to work out which one you trust. One has 30 footnotes, the other has 2.)

Full body = front and back on the body, arms & legs. Any longer and you start to burn. Once you’ve received your 10 minutes for the day, you need to wait 24 hours before you body replaces the oils on your skin to make more Vitamin D. So getting a lot of Sun on just your arms or face is bad. Getting a bit of sun all over your body is great!

Where I live in Dubbo that’s about 5 minutes sun-baking on each side (full body),  in the middle of summer (UV index 14) or  30 min in the middle of the day each side in winter. (Max UV index 3).

UV index is here:
http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/uv/index.shtml

This is a very  good article on Vitamin D:
http://www.overcomingmultiplesclerosis.org/Recovery-Program/Sunlight-and-Vitamin-D/

“This study showed that the correlation between low ultraviolet radiation and MS was considerably stronger than that between high UV and melanoma.”

Vitamin D and coeliac:

http://www.celiac.com/articles/21476/1/Vitamin-D-Preserves-the-Intestinal-Mucosal-Barrier/Page1.html