Animal fats don't make you fat: sugar does.
That
was a main point made Tuesday at the Bradfield Community Center by a
doctor who advocates a return to a diet low in refined sugars and
carbohydrates and rich in animal fats, cream, butter, fish, olive oil
and other nutrient-dense, traditional foods.
“I'll bring a bushel
of soybeans and a bushel of corn over to your house, and we'll see if
we can make vegetable oil out of them. You can't do it,” said Dr. Wayne
A. Feister, a general practice physician from Rawson. “The point is, if
you're biblical, if you believe the Earth's been here 6,000 years, for
5,900 years, man has lived on this type of fat.”
The
modern, fast-food diet is slowly killing us, said Feister, a clinical
assistant professor with the Ohio University Heritage College of
Osteopathic Medicine. Processed carbohydrates, preservatives, additives
and vegetable oils proliferate as the nation's rates for diabetes, heart
disease, cancer and obesity continue to increase, he said.
Feister
is an advocate of the Weston A. Price Foundation and has helped
establish eight local chapters. He said he has lectured on the topic
about 500 times during the past 12 years.
Weston
A. Price was a Cleveland dentist in the 1930s and '40s who conducted
research in the diets of native cultures around the world. The founder
and head of what's now the American Dental Association's research
institute, Price espoused a theory that nutrient-dense diets, including
animal fats, are crucial to human health and development.
Feister
shared photos taken by Price of two generations of indigenous people
around the world: those raised on their traditional diets; and their
offspring, raised on refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils. The
younger generation's faces tended to be narrower, with eyes closer
together and teeth crowded together.
“Without
adequate nutrition, the middle third of their face doesn't grow,”
Feister said. This causes crowded teeth, and sinus problems, he said.
Price
concluded animal products, including fat, natural cheeses, eggs, raw
milk and butter, provided enzymes and minerals essential for growth. At
least some of these animal products are served raw. Modern processed
foods either kill or strip away these essential nutrients and give
others, like cholesterol, a bad name, Feister said.
Animal
products are rich in Vitamins A, B12 and D as well as very long-chain,
super unsaturated fatty acids. An animal-based diet also makes the body
more able to absorb and use calcium, Vitamin B6, magnesium, iron, zinc
and copper, Feister said. And natural salt — not the stuff in the blue
canister — is the most abundant source of minerals.
“It
is possible to starve for minerals that are abundant in the foods
eaten, because they cannot be utilized without the adequate quantity of
the fat-soluble activators” that come from a diet rich in meat and
animal products, Feister said, quoting Price's 1939 book, “Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration.”
Source: www.limaohio.com.
