Ross Walter Nutritionist and Naturopath health articles and blog

More LOW FAT GUIDELINES PROVEN WRONG

29/10/2017

I love looking at how nutrition affects your health, in positive healthy ways as well as the negative effects of some foods or nutrients. Heart disease is, well... close to my heart, as it runs in my family. Despite the "heart health" food guidelines of low fat, and low salt over the past few decades, heart disease is still the largest killer of men and women in Western countries. Have the government food guidelines since the 1970s caused this? I say it has...

A very recent new study was published in The Lancet (one of the world's most prestigious medical journals) on 29th Aug 2017, finding that a higher intake of carbohydrates was associated with a higher risk of earlier death, whereas a higher intake of healthy fats, including saturated fat, actually reduced the risks and incidences of heart disease and other conditions.

The study was admittedly not of a high quality, being based on questionnaires about food intake (carbs vs proteins vs fats), body measurements, lifestyle choices, medicines, and medical history including cardiovascular events (heart attacks, stroke, and other symptoms) and other non-heart related conditions. As such, there is an element of possible inaccuracies about what people may answer in the questionnaires compared to their truth. But the number of people investigated was high - over 135,000 adults from 35-70 years, from low, middle and high income groups in many countries on five continents. Respondents were followed up at 3, 6 and 9 years later, with repeated measurements and questionnaires to assess changes, nutrition, health, deaths and other factors.

People in some countries obtained most of their energy from a very high carbohydrate intake, even up to 70% or more, which is higher than Australia's food guidelines of 45%-65% carbohydrate intake, and certainly higher than what I see in my clients at 50-60% carbohydrate intake. Another issue with the study is that there was no differentiation between "good" carbohydrates of vegetables and fruit, compared to the "bad" carbs of sugar, grain products, alcohol etc. This is a huge flaw in the study, as some people in rural Asian countries eating mostly a plant-based diet with some animal protein and healthy fats (and thus being very healthy) are being seen the same as people in modern Western towns eating a truckload of sugar, bread and alcohol, with massive grain-fed steaks.

Another flaw of the study was the implied assumption that all people from many different countries, cultures, and ethnicities, are somehow all the same and should eat exactly the same foods! Different ethnicities have different genetics, and as such, have different nutritional needs due to different biochemical and metabolic physiologies.

While the attention-grabbing news headlines of the study suggests that eating more carbs and less fats contributes to increased heart disease and death, or that eating more healthy fats leads to less heart disease, the truth (in this study at least) wasn't so exciting.

Some of the findings were:
- Higher carbohydrate intake was linked to increased risk of mortality
- Higher carbohydrate intake was NOT linked to an increased risk of heart disease
- Total fat intake was associated with lower risk of mortality
- Higher saturated fat intake was associated with a lower risk of stroke, but not other heart disease conditions.

Another interesting result from the study was that a higher animal protein intake was associated with a lower risk of mortality, but no association was found with regard to plant protein.

The study concluded with: "Global dietary guidelines should be reconsidered in light of these findings.". No, they shouldn't! As much as I would love to see the dietary guidelines changed, away from their current food industry sponsored/biased advice, to more current scientific evidence as seen in many other better quality published studies, the guidelines shouldn't be changed based on this poor quality and flawed study!

What is my message from this study? Ignore the sensationalist news headlines or articles for this study, as it doesn't tell the full story! There are much better studies showing the association between eating "bad" refined/processed carbs and heart disease, or saturated fat intake not being associated with heart disease.

And for the best nutrition and health advice, see your Nutritionist or Naturopath, who can tailor a nutrition plan specifically for you, taking into account your health history and your health goals!

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sugar is linked to heart disease, not saturated fat

30/3/2017

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If you have read some of my articles, you will know that there is a lot of misinformation on many topics of health and nutrition, and I try to correct those stories with real scientific facts. Some of the misinformation is just from urban myths, hearsay or unsubstantiated stories. Other health or medical stories are manufactured from poor scientific studies funded by the industry or the company who intends to profit from a positive result. This happens all the time, sadly.

Once such biased and corrupted story which has amazingly gone on for almost 50 years was conducted by the American sugar industry in the 1960s. At the time, research was starting to emerge that showed heart disease was being linked to a higher intake of sugar at that time. The sugar industry was understandably concerned about this, and decided to respond by funding scientists to write studies which falsely linked saturated fat to heart disease, while exonerating their own product - sugar.

The sugar industry then lobbied government policy-makers to introduce low-fat health measures, which are, for the most part in government and medical areas, still being promoted today. New published research in late-2016, uncovered old papers and letters showing that the sugar industry did manipulate research and government food guidelines in the 1960s and ever since.

The practice of industries funding research into their own products (as opposed to independent studies which are less prone to bias) still happens today. For example, Coca Cola in 2015 were shown to be sponsoring studies which showed sugary soft drinks were not linked to obesity! There are many more like this. Luckily some journalists or independent scientists are suspicious of such research results and investigate them deeper, and the public are becoming more wary of such blatant bias, and they are not falling for it.

The conflicts of interest in modern science needs to stop. The editor-in-chief- of the most prestigious medical journal "The Lancet" in 2015 said that a lot of the scientific literature published (and peer-reviewed) was simply false. His counterpart in another of the oldest medical journals, The New England Journal of Medicine, similarly said that it was impossible to believe much published research, or to rely on the judgment of doctors or medical guidelines. This is a sad indictment of science today - it's all about profits for the company funding their own research, or getting funds to do research or perhaps for the ego of the scientists writing the papers, but very little to do with improving your health. A lot of this "scientific" fiction is actually harming people and their health.

Most, if not all, of the independent scientific research (which is less prone to poor study designs and biased results) shows that saturated fats are NOT a major factor at all in the development and progression of heart disease! It IS sugary foods and drinks which are linked to heart disease instead, and other refined carbohydrates (grain products, alcohol etc) which causes heart disease - by causing chronic inflammation, damaging blood vessels, raising blood sugars and causing insulin resistance (ie, diabetes), increasing blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels.

Be careful what and whom you believe when it comes to health and medical advice! When different scientific results come out, have an open mind and do your own research, or just ask a practitioner (Doctor, GP, Naturopath etc) for evidence, then check it out for yourself. Be prepared to change your opinion, depending on what you find!

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which fats/oils are the best for your health or cooking?

27/9/2016

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In the 1970s-80s we had the "low/no fat" scare campaign, because all dietary fat was apparently evil, as what fat we ate became the fat that we put on... which is a total lie! Because of this scare marketing, almost all homes and restaurants changed from using lard or animal fats (ie, saturated fat) for frying or cooking, and replacing with "cheaper" and "healthier" vegetable oils, or more correctly called seed oils. What the seed oil companies didn't tell the restaurants or home cooks was that the seed oils went rancid quicker and didn't last as long, which meant that you had to buy them more often! While seed oils were initially cheaper, buying them more frequently meant it actually cost you MORE money, and made the seed oil companies MORE profits!

Many plant-based oils can be very good for you, such as olive oil, coconut oil, and others. But again like some other foods on this list, the devil is in the details... Many of these same plant-based oils can be incredibly damaging to your health in certain circumstances.

Oils and fats do not contain just one type of fat - they are mixture of several different types, as shown in the picture below.

A definition of the different types of fats and oils is needed here:
- A monounsaturated fat has one (ie, mono) double bond in its chemical structure
- A polyunsaturated fat has two or more (ie, poly) double bonds in its chemical structure
- A saturated fat has no double bonds
- Double bonds make the oil or fat more liquid but less stable, or in other words, more unstable in the presence of oxygen or heat
- By definition and having more double bonds, polyunsaturated fats are the most unstable and tend to oxidise very quickly when exposed to heat, or even at room temperature
- Oxidised fats and oils become rancid very quickly, being very sticky and having a "not right" smell
- Oxidised fats and oils are very inflammatory to your body
- Oxidised fats in your blood is what causes atherosclerotic plaques in the walls of your blood vessels and increases your risk of heart disease or heart attacks
- Saturated fats are stable in the presence of oxygen, tend to be more solid at room temperature (ie, lard, butter and coconut oil), and are much more stable when heated or exposed to oxygen
- The "smoke point" of an oil is irrelevant as to whether it is a healthy oil or not!

One of the worst things you can do with some oils or fats is to HEAT them! This exposes them to more oxygen, breaks the unstable double bonds and turns the oil into an oxidised, rancid and inflammatory oil. As you can see from the figure above, the oils to absolutely avoid for cooking are the polyunsaturated seed oils - those with a higher % of blue or orange shown in the figure above. Amazingly enough, this includes many oils which we are told in their marketing (aka "lies") are "healthy" for you - canola, sunflower and soybean oil and others!

Do NOT use polyunsaturated seed oils for cooking! Especially not canola, safflower, sunflower or olive oils. In fact, with the exception of flaxseed oil, all of your polyunsaturated oils should be thrown away as they are already likely to be rancid and oxidised and causing you adverse health effects.

Monounsaturated oils are not that much better - they will still oxidise and become rancid when heated or exposed to oxygen. So these oils having a high % of yellow in the picture, should NOT be heated either. With the exception of olive oil and perhaps flaxseed oil (which is only kept in the fridge - because it oxidises far too quickly), all the other monounsaturated oils should be thrown away.

Saturated fats on the other hand are stable when heated (as they have no weak double bonds) and do not oxidise as quickly as the other types of oils. Hence ONLY saturated fats should be used for cooking! This means butter and coconut oil. Lard is ok, but has a high polyunsaturated fat % which can oxidise to be rancid.

For making dressings on your salads or vegetables, use olive oil or flaxseed oil. Flaxseed oil can be very healthy as it has a very high % of a plant-based omega-3 oil, which is an anti-inflammatory oil. But this oil is VERY unstable to heat and oxygen, must be kept in the refrigerator and used quickly. Olive oil is very healthy (preferably organic and extra virgin) but for dressings only!

I hope this explains which oils are good for you and why, and which to only use for cooking!

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How times have changed on fat and cholesterol research

18/1/2016

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I have written previously about how low fat diets actually cause more negative health issues than they are supposed to prevent (see other articles below) and even more recent scientific research backs this up.

Unfortunately the old paradigm of low fat and low cholesterol foods are healthy and reduce the risk of heart disease was based on shonky observational studies (by reviewing peoples' diet diaries) done in the 1950s to come up with their conclusions, and not by any clinical studies done in the laboratory to prove that dietary fat actually causes the issues in peoples' bodies. Hence we have had 50 or more years of misinformation and conflicting advice by those who want to stick to the old low fat paradigm (Doctors, Dietitians and many personal trainers), and those (like me) who look at more current clinical research studies which shows that low fat and low cholesterol diets are not recommended because of the health risks they cause.

So what does actually cause heart disease, high cholesterol and atherosclerosis (thickening and hardening of arterial walls that lead to blockages, clots and strokes)?

According to recent research, it's trans-fat (from processed and fried foods and margarine), SUGAR and WHOLE GRAINS which are the main culprits in heart disease and arterial damage, and not healthy fats, especially not saturated fats, which appeared to have a protective effect on the heart! Saturated fats (such as in butter and coconut oil) increase your "good" HDL cholesterol, but trans-fat, sugars and grains do the reverse - they increase your bad "LDL" cholesterol and lower your "good" HDL cholesterol.

In addition, fructose (the sugar found in fruit) has also been implicated in obesity and heart disease - in the concentrated and processed forms of fructose such as sugary foods, soft drinks, and fruit juices. However fresh whole fruit is fine as it doesn't have the same effect.

A diet high in sugars and grains leads to obesity, which causes insulin resistance and diabetes, which in turn causes high blood pressure, and in turn this causes heart disease, kidney problems, eye diseases and lowered eyesight, poor circulation and further heart damage in a vicious cycle - and leading to death.

There are many other negative issues with sugars and grains too, such as causing cancer, gastrointestinal issues, depression and mood swings, liver issues and causing or exacerbating many other health conditions.

So if you are wanting to improve your health, please come and see me for a personalised nutrition plan and treatment plan to reverse any health conditions you may have, and to improve your health and make you feel a lot better!

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at last, the heart foundation tick of approval is dead!

10/12/2015

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At last, as of yesterday (8th December 2015), the Heart Foundation "Tick of approval" is now dead!

This program was not acting in the interests of your health, but for their own interests and profits.
The Heart Foundation tick of approval says that products with their tick have "earned" the right to show this label, based on the amounts of salt, sugar and saturated fat in the products. In reality, they simply give the tick logo to the manufacturer for each product - provided they pay the required license fee! That's all the tick is, a license fee to have this logo printed on their product! It's just pathetic.

When I checked into the tick program many years ago, the license fee was $50,000 per product, and no testing was done. More recently, the license fee had risen to $300,000! That's a lot of profit for doing nothing!

The Heart Foundation say in their press release today that they have finished with this program because the time is right to move to a new system. In truth, they are stopping this program because of a very public recent campaign by many thousands of Australians (myself included) against this outdated, unscientific, and self-serving program. People (especially Nutritionists, who look at the actual ingredients of foods) simply didn't trust the tick program any more, and the public were becoming more educated and vocal about it.

When the Heart Foundation approved the tick to be given to a huge range of McDonalds foods in 2008, this was the start of the public turning against this charity and the tick program. Around the same time, the tick was also approved for brands of pizza, sausage rolls, meat pies and other unhealthy fast foods. This was the turning point for me too.

As scientific research improves and changes in the fields of health and nutrition, so must we also change our beliefs based on scientific evidence. For decades research has shown that saturated fat isn't the health demon that we have been led to believe. It does NOT cause or contribute to heart disease, but in fact protects the heart and reduces inflammation in the body. Trans-fat (from processed foods, fried foods and margarine), sugar and refined grain products are the causes of heart disease, as shown in research for decades.

The Heart Foundation refused to acknowledge this research and stuck to its pre-1960s beliefs. Other countries have dismantled their tick programs because they were no longer scientific or relevant, such as Canada in 2014, yet the Australian program were wanting more profits, at the expense of your health.

The public movement against the Heart Foundation and the tick program shows that we CAN make a change for the better! We CAN force companies and (hopefully) governments to stop serving their own interests for profits and to actually serve us, the PEOPLE. One dodgy program at a time, we (and the truth) WILL prevail!

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healthy fats do not make you fat!

28/11/2015

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For decades we have been informed from health advocates, governments, doctors, dietitians and the like, that low fat diets are healthy. It may seem to make sense on some level that if we don't eat foods with fat, then we won't actually get fat! Unfortunately more recent scientific research does not agree with this idea.

Firstly, our bodies break down our food into the smallest particles in order to be absorbed through our digestive system, and into our body. Then those particles are rearranged, packaged and delivered to cells to be used for many purposes. Fats and oils from our foods will get used in many ways:

To absorb the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, & K
To make hormones and neurotransmitters
To make the cell walls for every new cell - we make 100's of millions each day!
For fuel for cellular activities and functions
To produce energy and enable us to do things during the day
For weight loss!
For proper functioning of nerves and the brain
To maintain healthy skin and membranes
And many other uses!

Fat storage from fats we eat is the last option, if it gets there at all! Coconut oil, for example, will get used for energy, and will not contribute to body fat at all!

Secondly, there are some fats we MUST eat regularly, as they are called "essential fatty acids", or just "essential fats". These are omega-3 and omega-6 fats - and they are essential because our bodies cannot make them! We need to eat these fats in our diet! Good sources of omega-3 fats include fish (salmon, tuna, mackerel, trout, sardines etc, with the skin on!), raw nuts and seeds, eggs, avocados and grass-fed meats (not grain-fed!). Good sources of omega-6 fats include some vegetable oils, raw nuts and seeds, butter, eggs, and dairy products.

Thirdly, the other issue with fats is which ones are safe and healthy to cook with. Without getting into too much chemistry, plant-based oils should never be used for cooking with! The only exception is coconut oil, which is a healthy saturated fat oil. The reason is that all other plant-based oils contain mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated oil, but when these are heated, they change their fragile structure and become oxidised, full of health-damaging free-radicals and other toxic breakdown products such as aldehydes.

A recent experiment was performed in the UK where various cooking oils were heated to normal cooking temperatures to see what effect this had on the oils. The allegedly "healthy" sunflower and other vegetable oils produced aldehydes at levels more than 20 times the World Health Organisation's safe levels! Olive oil fared better, but it still isn't recommended for heating and cooking with. Butter and other animal fats were stable and the safest for cooking! Coconut oil is also stable when heated and is also recommended. The plant-based oils are ok as a dressing on foods only, or for massage! I recommend olive oil as being the healthiest for dressings on foods - mix it with various herbs and spices, and Balsamic or other vinegars for a tasty and healthy dressing!

While most fats can be healthy, the exception is trans-fat, which is found in fried foods, processed and packaged foods, and margarine. It is trans-fat, and oxidised vegetable oil (from heating and cooking), which causes inflammation in the body and this is a leading cause of all chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, weight gain and obesity, diabetes, infertility, and even cancer.

For your overall health, you need to eat the right fats and oils, and avoid the wrong ones!

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The Facts on fats!

6/3/2015

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The message regarding which fats/oils in our diets are good or otherwise is still being incorrectly given by the media and often by those who really should be more informed of current scientific research - your doctors, dieticians and health standards organisations!

I can show this in just a couple of examples of recent research:

1) In a 2010 study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition – A 5-23 year follow-up of 347,747 people, concluded that: “An intake of saturated fat was not associated with an increased risk of Coronary Heart Disease, stroke, or Cardio Vascular Disease”. (ie, Saturated fat does NOT cause heart disease)

2) In a very recent study in 2014 in the Annals of Internal Medicine – covered a review of 32 studies on 530,525 participants, concluded that: “the evidence does not support cardiovascular guidelines that encourage high consumption of polyunsaturated fatty acids and low consumption of saturated fats”. (ie, low consumption of saturated fat is NOT healthy, and a higher consumption of polyunsaturated fat (ie in vegetable oils) is also NOT healthy)

3) In a 2013 study published in the prestigious British Medical Journal – which was a review of many studies on saturated fat, concluded that:
- A reduction of saturated fat INCREASES cardiovascular disease,
- Saturated fat is actually cardioprotective (protects the heart!),
- Saturated fat reduces inflammation,
- In a study of different groups of people eating 90% fat, 90% protein or 90% carbs, the largest weight loss was in the fat-consuming group!
- Low fat diets cause insulin resistance (ie pre-diabetes), and unhealthy blood cholesterol levels, leading to increased heart disease.

So why are these studies (and many more that confirm this) completely the opposite of what the general public are being told? Basically poor science combined with great marketing, greed for money, or scientists wanting fame and fortune? Or maybe other reasons...

So what does actually cause heart disease, if it's not saturated fat? Many research studies have confirmed that the following are the main causes of heart disease:
1) trans fat - in processed foods, margarine and bakery products,
2) sugar, grains and other processed carbohydrates (which break down into sugar in the body),
3) certain fats and oils (mainly vegetable oils) which are used for cooking when they shouldn't be, as they become oxidised and turn rancid or toxic when heated,
4) environmental or other factors such as stress, inflammation, and more...

There are many things you can do to reduce your risk of heart disease, and I'd like to help, if you would like more information or assistance on this topic.

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More LOW FAT GUIDELINES PROVEN WRONG

sugar is linked to heart disease, not saturated fat

which fats/oils are the best for your health or cooking?

How times have changed on fat and cholesterol research

at last, the heart foundation tick of approval is dead!

healthy fats do not make you fat!

The Facts on fats!

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