Diseases of Civilization - Native Americans

In 1902, Aleš Hrdlička, physician-turned-anthropologist, in his Physiological and Medical Observations among the Indians of Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico, reported that:

• "Malignant disease if they exist at all - that they do would be difficult to doubt - must be extremely rare." Hrdlička had not seen "unequivocal signs of malignant growth on an Indian bone."
• "No cases of appendicitis, peritonitis, ulcer of the stomach, or of any grave disease of the liver was observed."
• He also noted that Indians lived as long as or longer that the "whites", suggesting that the low incidence of chronic diseases among the natives cannot be explained by a low life expectancy.

Sugar - The Bitter Truth (Dr Lustig)

When we eat, there's a hormone called leptin which signals to the brain to stop eating once we had enough calories or energy intake. When we eat a high carbohydrate meal, leptin is not doing it's job. That's why we are still hungry after a big chocolate cake, but we are not hungry even after a small high fat diet meal (if it is not consumed together with carbohydrates).

Vegetable Oils - Health Hazards

In my post about Evolution, I mentioned that during more than 2 million years saturated fat was part of our diet. Evolution should be our best guide for what constitutes a healthy diet.  The longer we've been eating a certain food as a species, the less harm it is likely to do. We are supposed to consume food we are genetically adapted to. Most probably a few thousand years are enough to adapt to a new kind of food, but a few hundreds are not.

Grains - Health Hazards

Our best guide for a healthy diet is evolution. The longer we've been consuming a certain type of food as a species, the less harm it is likely to do. If we want to avoid chronic disease, the best way would be to restore "biological normality - that is ... the conditions to which presumably we are genetically adapted." (George Rose - Sick Individuals and Sick Populations, 1985)

Evolution - Our Love Affair with Fat

When we take animals from the wild, we first see what their natural environment is, then we attempt to recreate it in order to keep them happy and healthy. Same goes with food. We have to give these animals the food they evolved to eat and the food they would choose to eat in their natural environment.

Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies

I've already wrote about deficiencies that might occur in vegetarians and vegans. Today, I will talk about deficiencies occurring when eating a western diet, as I receive more and more emails from people taking supplements, even though they seem to be consuming a "healthy diet" (low fat, high in fruits, vegetables, healthy carbohydrates) recommended by different health authorities.

Diseases of Civilization - The Inuit

Vilhjalmur Stefansson (November 3, 1879 - August 26, 1962) - Harvard anthropologist, Arctic explorer, spent 10 years among the Inuit of northern Canada and Alaska eating nothing but meat. The Inuit diet consisted of caribou, seal, polar bear, rabbits, birds and eggs. In extreme necessity the root of a local plant was consumed as well. The Inuit considered vegetables and fruits "not proper human food".

Diseases of Civilization - India

About diabetes in general:

Diabetes: the body is unable to use the carbohydrates circulating in the blood for fuel.
Symptoms: hunger, frequent urination.

Type 1 diabetes (childhood diabetes): the pancreas is unable to produce insulin.
Type 2 diabetes (adult onset diabetes): this disease is linked to excess weight and characterized by an insensitivity to insulin. Type 2 diabetes is a result of chronically elevated sugar levels in the blood. It can be improved by the adoption of a diet low in sugar and carbohydrates.

Diseases of Civilization - Africa

The eyewitness testimony from missionary and colonial physicians lead to two observations:
1. Diseases of civilization were rare to non-existent among isolated populations.
2. These diseases appeared only after populations were exposed to Western foods, in particular sugar and white flour.

Cancer

Today, statistically half of us will get cancer. This proportion has increased over the last few decades from 1 in 3. The increase is most striking in civilized countries.