Allergies - Update

I've already wrote about my Japanese friend, M, who had severe allergic reactions to dairy products and eggs. She started a high-fat diet 3 months ago and this is what she wrote me last week:

"People are very surprise to see me being so healthy and mostly, they are shocked to find out that I can eat eggs and dairy products...
I am loosing weight, yes!
Feeling so calm and great, yes!
My focus and performance is so much better in my work, yes!
No bad reaction when I eat eggs, yes! (I eat eggs every day now...)
My skin is so smooth, yes!"
                             - M

I saw M again last Sunday. She eats eggs and dairy products, and has no allergic reactions at all. Is this a miracle? I don't think so.

This is my humble explanation, again, with the same logic of high-carbohydrate diet versus high-fat diet.

When we eat a high carbohydrate diet, insulin levels are constantly elevated, so our organs and immune system do not get the necessary energy (calories) to function or for repair. The immune system goes out of balance and starts to overreact to normal, every day substances like eggs, dairy products, dust, animal hair, etc. The doctor then tells us to avoid the substances we are allergic to. It makes sense and helps many times. But, it is more important to give the proper building blocks to our body to function well. For example, vitamin D (from dietary fat and sunlight) is very important in preventing auto-immune diseases, such as allergies.

I do not state here that everyone who changes their diet will recover from allergies, and some people will need medical help for the rest of their lives. I just want to give an example of recovery beside my story. I am convinced though, that body functions improve once insulin levels are lower, by cutting out sugar and refined carbohydrates from our diet.

Overeating

When I speak about high-fat diet to my friends for the first time, their first reaction is to worry about my clogged arteries. Then, when they imagine going on this diet themselves, it is no more the health reasons which worry them the most, but the craving for carbohydrates and sugar. They simply cannot imagine life without these food items. I try to explain that hunger and overeating happen on a high-carbohydrates diet, rather than on a high-fat diet. (I have already wrote about insulin and hunger.)

The Genes of Aging and Carbohydrates

U.S. geneticist, Professor Cynthia Kenyon discovered that a high-carbohydrate diet "directly affect two key genes that govern youthfulness and longevity". These two genes are insulin related, so related to the amount of carbohydrate in our diet.

Paleo Food

One of my friends hinted me that I already wrote about a lot of science... what about paleo food? I went through a lot of trial and error (for nearly 10 years) before figuring out the food which is best for me. Now, the diet I follow every day (not 100% strict paleo, maybe only 90%), is what keeps me away from allergy symptoms... and the doctor away from me.

Alzheimer - Also Related to Sugar Consumption

Here is an interesting article about Alzheimer's disease (dementia). This disease should be called Type 3 diabetes. This article also mentions that saturated fat, like coconut oil could be a cure for this degenerative disease. I think all saturated fats (from meat, fish, eggs, butter etc.) are beneficial, not just coconut oil.

Salt - Is it the Cause of Hypertension?

Today, it is a common assumption that excess salt consumption leads to high blood pressure, which is a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Hypertension is very common in obese and diabetic patients.

Hunger - The Role of Insulin

The classic approach to weight loss is to eat less, so researchers put obese patients on a calorie-restricted diet. If they loose weight, it means that obesity is caused by overeating. The problem is that results are not really compelling. The subjects usually loose weight, but the diet results in negative physiological effects as well, such as:

Sugar and Cancer

I already mentioned before (Africa, India, Native Americans, the Inuit) that in isolated populations the number of cancer cases increased after the adoption of a Western diet, which usually replaced the local fish, meat, vegetables, fruits with more refined carbohydrates and sugar.

Gary Taubes - Why we get fat

Great interview with Gary Taubes, skeptical of current conventional wisdom.

Nutritional Science - or the lack of it

Today's post is about bad science, and why we came to believe that dietary fat is the cause of heart disease. (A brief history here.)

"Ancel Keys deserves the lion's share of credit for convincing us that cholesterol levels predict heart disease and that dietary fat is a killer."
                                                                        - Gary Taubes