Conference with Sally Fallon – Day 1

Tonight kicked off a great two hour talk at the Real Food Real Medicine conference in Chapel Hill, N.C. Sally Fallon Morell spoke for about two hours. What a fabulous speaker. Her presentation is compelling and her wit is admirable. Wit is a must to counteract the victimization of the customers of the processed food industry.

Sally’s presentation is titled “The Oiling of America/How the phony cholesterol theory caused Americans to abandon nutritious whole foods.” You can go to www.newtrendspublishing.com to view the PowerPoint for free and also order her DVD of this presentation. Click on the “Oiling of America” book icon and it will take you to a new page where you can download the PowerPoint (be sure to click on the View tab and then click on View Notes to get full information). I highly recommend downloading the PowerPoint, as I will only be presenting the items of most interest to me. 

Here are some points:

• The supposed link between cholesterol and heart disease was disproven in 1936 and many times thereafter. As the consumption of saturated fat decreased and was replaced by polyunsaturated oils, heart disease and other illnesses increased.

• The amount of dishonesty and purposely faulty data manipulation by researchers to “prove a link between cholesterol and heart disease” completely undermines my confidence in any medical study that promotes consumption of drugs to offset disease caused by food. It greatly shakes my faith in any medical study involving drugs, period.

• The American Medical Association, the American Dietetic Association and the American Heart Association favored saturated fats such as animal fats and coconut oil until they were strong armed by the processed oil lobby: the Shortening and Edible Oil Institute.

• Dr. Mary Enig, Sally’s friend and co-author is incredible. In the early 1970s the Senate Select Committee Report on Nutrition and Human Needs’ report (also known as the McGovern report) supporting the consumption of unsaturated oils over saturated fats was released. Mary Enig was working on her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Maryland. She felt that the McGovern report was incorrect and requested the raw data using the federal Freedom of Information Act. She found many errors, such as attributing the positive health results for saturated fats to trans fats, and incorrectly performing the most basic mathematical operations, such as addition and subtraction. Her findings were published, much to the dismay of the trans fat industry leaders. Industry leaders traveled to her university, expressed their outrage, stated that they controlled the journals and they were furious that they overlooked her study and it was published. They threatened to pull her research funding, then got it pulled and shut down her entire department.

• Fast forward to 1984 when Mary was attending the Cholesterol Consensus Conference. While there she overheard the conference organizers debating where the official safe/unsafe cholesterol level should be set. One organizer wanted 240 because that was the average. The other two leaders wanted 200 because 240 left out too many people who could possibly be treated with drugs. The level is now set at 200 and the money to the drug companies is flowing. Cholesterol medication is the number one money maker for the drug companies.

• People with low levels of cholesterol have higher levels of depression, violence and suicide. They have decreased sex drive and infertility problems.

• Cholesterol increases naturally with age because it helps to protect you as you age.

• There is no significant difference in risk of heart disease in men under 60 if their cholesterol is 180 or 300. Women with higher levels of cholesterol have a longer lifespan.

• LDL cholesterol is not a problem and in fact protects against infection. If it oxidizes in the bloodstream, which is caused by processed oils promoted by the industry, then there is a higher risk of cardiac problems.

• Lower rates of heart disease are associated with higher levels of saturated fat in the diet: The French, Swiss, Dutch, Icelandic, Belgium, Finnish and Austrian paradoxes!!

• The Japanese developed statins, found them to be poison and rejected them. They sold the patent to Merck, and now the rest of the world is being poisoned.

• Every study done with rodents who ingest statins results in rodents getting cancer.

• Go to www.askapatient.com and search for Lipitor, a cholesterol lowering drug, to read the affects reported by patients. I just did it, and it really blows my mind! Cholesterol levels are down but patients are sick as they can be.

• The journal Lancet (2001) contains a research study where people were studied for 20 years for health effects caused by decreased cholesterol. People with reduced cholesterol have the worst outlook for all causes of mortality. The Journal of American Geriatrics (2005) reports similar results.

• Sally calls vegetables a vehicle for animal fat, something she strongly promotes.

• For all the low-fat food puritans, you binge on ice cream and other high-fat desserts in the evening because your body is starved for fat. Eat healthy fat regularly and you will lose the physiological need to binge.

• Regarding concerns about people’s budgets being able to accommodate a high animal food diet, Sally said that is not a strong concern. One serving of liver provides the same nutrients as eating meat three times a day. Organ meats are much less expensive than muscular meats, and they only need to be consumed in small quantities.

• Pasteurized, homogenized milk is basically poisonous and should not be consumed. The heating changes the protein into a substance detrimental to our health. To find out how to get raw milk go to www.rawmilk.com. Butter has more fat and less protein than milk, making it more stable and less affected by pasteurization and homogenization.

• Raw cheese is a super healthy food. It has everything you need to live and everyone can access raw cheese in every state.

• Another website to check out regarding cholesterol, saturated and polyunsaturated fats: www.ravnskov.nu/cholesterol.htm.
  

• One M.D. in the audience commented that he will not prescribe statins and he makes his patients sign a liability waiver so they do not sue him over his lack of willingness to prescribe.