My wife had a health assessment done at her work a little while ago. They took her blood pressure, BMI, and a blood sample to measure her cholesterol and blood sugar levels. I though the results interesting since it defies the conventional medical establishment's beliefs and "research".
Our family is on a diet that is about 90% raw food and 10% cook and 99% of it is organic (100% of the animal food we eat is organic). On a DAILY basis, was consume large amounts of raw beef, raw cream, raw whole milk, raw butter, and raw cheese from 100% organic grass fed cows. We eat numerous raw whole eggs from pasture raised chickens every day. We also consume a lot of raw shellfish. All of these foods are ones which the medical establishment has warned against consuming large amounts of. They talk about the dangers of the saturated fats and the high levels of bad cholesterol in those foods. They talk about how eating foods high in bad cholesterol and fats will increase the bad cholesterol and fat in your body.
Well, my wife got the results from her health assessment. Her cholesterol levels are excellent. Her blood sugar levels are excellent. Her blood pressure is excellent. Despite eating lots of foods that have what the medical establishment claims is "bad" cholesterol, her "bad" cholesterol levels are very low. Despite eat a lot of meat and fat in her diet, my wife is not overweight and those tests show no negative effect from eating such things. Obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes is out of control on her side of the family, so no one can claim that her good health is a result of genetics.
My step father is a doctor and I have aunts and uncles who are scientists. I debate with them all the time about food. It was my argument that all the medical research is wrong from step #1 since, for example, they do not differentiate between the fat from a 100% organic grass fed cow versus the fat from a cow fed genetically altered corn, pumped with steroids and antibiotics, and rinsed with ammonia. With eggs, they don't differentiate between the commercial industrial farmed chicken eggs versus eggs from chickens that live freely and eat bugs. My argument that those foods aren't inherently bad for people, but rather the bastardized versions of those foods produced by commercial industrial farming that causes problems for people. The ironic thing is that despite my wife's results, family members of mine still fear eating too much shrimp or crab and they shy away from our 100% grass fed butter, but they still continue to go to restaurants and eat the meat that is pumped with steroids and antibiotics.
I was fortunate enough to listen to a talk given by a lipidologist. Similar to your belief, he mentioned wild salmon vs farm raised corn fed salmon is better for you. As with wine. Most studies were done on French wine. Not California wine.
It's insane that people have figured out a way to feed corn to a fish. Feeding corn to a fish changes the color of the meat, therefore, artificial coloring is added to the fish to make it the color that we expect it to be.
The fat from corn fed cows is also visibly different from the fat from a grass fed cow. The color of the fat is actually different.
there is no comparison
organic food is far superior. In taste, in ethics and in nutrition.
also, I've been a BIG fan of Vin Naturel (wine made without the addition of sulfites to stabilize the wine, or pesticides). again: because of taste, eco-responsiblilty & health...
it's definitely not a cheap diet, but I feel food = life...
I don't drink alcohol, but I'm going to have to look in that wine you mention. It bothers the hell out of me that, when I visit my family, they give my wife wine and when I read the label it says that it contains sulfites.
When I am with my family and my wife's family, I bothers me to see everyone's health- seeing the complain about their aches and pains, seeing them overweight, hearing about their high blood pressure, high cholesterol, etc... I feel as if I need to condition myself not to care about them.
Besides the health benefits, another reason I choose to eat clean food is because what has been done to our commercial industrial food was not done for our health. It was done so someone else could make more money. I feel people are given and accept the attitude of "don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain". People seem to accept this as long as the food is cheap and they can continue to have fun. Personally, I choose to take a stand with the money I spend and food I eat to say that what has been done is unacceptable and I will not allow myself to be fooled.
controlling your own consumption - especially food - is one of the few ways you can actually have a positive effect on the world.
I cut out refined sugar and food containing high fructose corn syrup out of my diet years ago.
this is a nice read on vin naturel.
note that there is a diffirence between bio-wine (Agriculture Biologique) and vin naturel. AB relates to the way the grapes are grown (no pesticides, etc) but sometimes chemicals are still added after the press & bottling to force and speed up the development of the win, and to 'stablize' the wine for storage, transport and fluctating temperatures.
Vin Naturel refers both to the way grapes are naturally grown and harvested, and the way the wine is allowed to develop flavour - this takes more time, and the wine can become 'unstable' more often. "clean" wine would be a better name. Hence more risk for the farmer and a higher price per bottle.
Both approaches almost always DO use a little bit of sulfite (especially the white wines). But WAAAAY less then the average wine. It's easier to find red, sans sulfites...
http://www.organicwinejournal.com/
It's also interesting to realize that pasteurization is not done for our health, but rather to increase shelf life so producers don't lose money.
Bolo,
How do you ensure that the meat you get is 100% organic grass fed?
Every farmer/rancher I have come across who sells 100% grass fed beef, raw milk, or pasture raised chicken doesn't mind if you stop by and check out their operation. These farmers feel they have nothing to hide unlike commercial industrial farming that tries their best to hide everything that they do.
Besides that, once you are accustomed to "clean" food, commercial industrial farmed food looks, tastes, and smells different, especially when raw. As a mentioned before, the fat from a grass fed cow is a different color from a corn fed cow. The smell or a pasture raised chicken or turkey is completely different from ones you buy that the store. You can also see the difference in the size and structure of their bones. The yoke and white from eggs from pasture raised chickens are a different color that the commercial industrial farmed eggs.
Bolo,
Question and comments.
First the question: You actually eat "raw" beef? Eeeew!!!!
Another question: Have you ever heard of or studied the so called Mediterranean diet (which actually isn't a diet but rather a dietary pattern)?
Another question: Waht is your opinion on immunization for chldren?
Finally here my comment: Organic foods may be good for you but they are very expensive. It is ironic how the supposedly healthy food is more expensive, uncommon and harder to get whereas the bad food is inexpensive, common and readily available. Of course people will get sick and die if the things that kill them are so inexpensive, common and available.
-Yes, I eat raw beef. I either eat it in the form of beef jerky which I dehydrate under 105 degrees or I can eat it in its regular raw form. If I eat it in it regular raw form, it is much more palatable when it is room temperature rather than cold. I noticed that eating raw beef doesn't make my stomach feel "heavy" like when I eat cooked beef.
-Yes, I have some familiarity with the Mediterranean diet. It is one of the diets that is discussed in the book "The Jungle Effect" which I have talked about.
-I do not believe in immunization for my kids. In my opinion, if you look at the natural world, disease is nature's way of correcting an imbalance. Our society is one which tends to focus on symptoms rather than causes especially if correcting the cause means needing to make a fundamental change in our society. I also believe that the increase in immunizations will cause additional problems for people in the future.
-Bad food is inexpensive because the ingredients in it are subsidized by the government. Corn and soy is heavily subsidized by the government and it is used is a majority of "bad" food.
Great thread.
Raw beef tastes better to me also
A student of mine, who is also a forum member, has a son who had eczema since infancy (the boy is about to turn 6). I had always noticed dry flaky patches of skin on his body, cracking dry lips, and the skin on his the palms of hands were very dry and coarse. Doctors prescribed various creams and my student would use that stuff and lotions, but the issue was always there. The eczema itched and was very uncomfortable for the boy at times.
I eventually told my student that I felt his boy's diet was not very balanced, but the main thing was that the boy did not consume enough raw animal fat. Eventually, my student started to give his son raw milk and added raw creme to increase the fat content.
Last week, I was looking at his son and I noticed that the his skin looked so much better. My student said that after the addition of raw whole milk and creme, his son's eczema eventually went away. The boy's lips were no longer cracked, he no longer has white patches of dry skin on his body, and he palms of his hands felt normal.
When I told my wife what happened, she said that she had recommended raw milk to a co-worker who had a son who had psoriasis. After consuming raw whole milk for a while, the boy's psoriasis went away.
When I see and experience things like this, it only continues to validate my distrust in the medical establishment and the paradigm from where they are working from. My student and I agreed that no medical doctor would have recommened what I had recommended.
Medical science is NOT perfect or infallible.
Furthermore medical science is NOT the only source of knowledge and information.
true on the medical science issue. Funny how there are many ways of dealing with things around the world, that have verifiable scientific validation even through studies, and yet the medical community will ignore it at times.
My issue is not the expectation of perfection, but rather that it has headed in the direction of a certain paradigm and the refusal to shift away from the paradigm. The refusal to shift away from that paradigm is disguised in the claim that what is done is scientifically based or a result of comparing all the best options. People look at medical doctors like gods and some doctors have god-complexes. Doctors get paid a huge amount of money for a lot of things that don't work. Even when things don't work, people keep going back.
I make this point because, in the past on another thread, I said that I felt that there were many things that the medical establishment was wrong about and someone asked me for some examples. I said that there were too many, so over time I have made posts here and there siting some examples.
Bolo, whats your oppinion of medical marijuana...or even recreational marijuana as compared to alcohol or some of the other drugs that are legal???
Quick example, I have a inlaw whos had alot of trouble sleeping in the past...i think he taking taking lunesta which was helpin him sleep but was really bothering his stomach. Reading the side effects of that drug its states a whole laundry list of side effects including seeing hallucinations. He stopped that drug and has tried Marijuana and sleeps fine with no side effects.
Would this be an example of the paradigm your speaking of or since its illegal do you think it just should be disregarded completely??? like im guessing the federal government is trying to do
First, I am not a fan of cigarettes and alcohol. Personally, I don't drink or smoke as I believe the potential negative effects outweigh the possible benefits. If you look at our society as a whole, the healthcare costs and negative effects associated with drinking and smoking pretty substancial. In Russia, deaths related to alcohol is staggering. I'm not a fan of marijuana either. With that being said, since cigarettes and alcohol is legal, I don't understand why marijuana should be illegal. In my opinion, either make it all legal or all illegal. I feel it is hypocritical to have cigarettes and alcohol legal, yet marijuana illegal.
Second, when it comes to any medication, I think one should look at whether you are dealing with the symptom or the cause. Most drugs tend to deal with the symptom, not the cause. With the example of sleep, I found that I got so much better sleep when I increased the muscular balance of my body, improved my diet, and managed my mental stress. I realized that the imbalances and chronic pain I had in the past was stressful on my body and that stress prevented me from getting good quality sleep consistently. I realized that eating things that were not optimal for my body stressed my body which decreased the quality of my sleep. Of course when I would stress out or get angry more often about things, that would decrease the quality of my sleep.
When I improved the muscular balance of my body, my diet, and my mental/emotional state, I not only got better sleep, but I also experienced many other benefits in my life. However, doing all that was not easy and took a lot of work. Sure, it would have been a lot easy to just smoke some marijuana to get some better sleep, but that wouldn't have solved my underlying problems. Personally, I don't think it is much a of change if you are just replacing one drug for another. I'm not saying that what helped me sleep better will absolutely work for your relative as I don't know that person's situation, but the real change in paradigm would be to look at the cause of the problem, and using the example of my situation, that would require a complete change in the paradigm of how the medical establishment and our society deals with such issues.
Bolo,
I see what your saying about dealing with the cause and not just the symptom. And I do agree with you in that EVERYTHING we do (including what we believe and feel) has an affect on other aspects of our lives. We don't live in a vaccum.
I do see your point about muscle imbalances and unhealthy diets as well as simply bad physical habits, such as physical inactivity.
BUT those are mostly physical things. And you're kind of taking the approach of how the "physical" is affecting the mental/emotional. But what about the other way around?
Some of the "imbalances" in ones life are NOT just physical in nature but are actually behaviorial, or emotional, or even spiritual. For example think of people who are in bad relationships or who are extremely promiscuous, or who partake/engage in activities which they know are not only unhealthy for themselves but also others. Obviously their "behavior" is going to have an affect on everything else they do including their own physical health.
Or what about those individuals who do absolutely nothing to build up and develop their emotional and spiritual health? I'm sure their poor emotional and spiritual condition has to have a negative affect on their physical bodies.
I agree that dealing with mental/emotional issues is very important. As I had mentioned in my earlier post, one of the things that I did that help me get better sleep was dealing with some mental/emotional issues.
Many people have many mental/emotion issues that result in negative effects on their well being. I find that addressing the physical is sometimes a way to get to the mental/emotional. I can tell you that with every person I have come across who has not be able to resolve their chronic pains or improve their healthy, I see some mental/emotional issue that is the cause and not some physical impossibility.
I'm not sure about the spiritual health though. I don't wish to get into a discussion abour religion. All I can say is that for myself, I have felt tremendous mental liberation, freedom, and satisfaction when I got religion out of my life.