Farm Fresh Foods throughout Florida

Archive for the ‘Fats’ Category

Infertility and the Role of farm fresh foods

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

baby-picture1

Having trouble conceiving? Before you spend time and money on expensive tests and treatments, you may want to evaluate your diet.

A study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that women eating low-fat diets had a lower chance of conceiving.
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Industry-markets/Low-fat-dairy-raises-infertility-risk-study

During the eight-year study, researchers documented the health and nutrition of 18,555 women: 438 were diagnosed with anovulatory infertility, a condition that accounts for a third of female fertility problems.

The women in the study who ate only low-fat or skim-milk dairy products, had an 85 percent chance of experiencing infertility. However, those who ate full-fat dairy foods were 27 percent less likely to have the condition.

The study concluded that women trying to conceive should eat up to two servings of full-fat dairy foods a day, including whole milk, cheese, ice cream and cream cheese. These suggestions are similiar to what the Weston A Price Foundation advises. Though of course WAPF speak about the benefits of grass-fed milk and pastured eggs an grass-fed beef.

Katie Singer, author of “The Garden of Fertility” and follower of the nutritional principles of Dr. Weston A. Price, advises women to eat more fat from whole grass-fed raw dairy foods, grass-fed beef, and free-range eggs and poultry, especially if they are trying to conceive.

Singer says many women in her fertility workshops have irregular or nonexistent ovulation. Because of this, she believes they are at increased risk of uterine cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome and infertility.

After Singer’s students eliminate sugar and tofu from their diets, many of them begin ovulating immediately. However, other students need to add whole dairy and animal fats to their diets to regulate their bodies.

“I’ve seen many women’s temperatures increase significantly when they cut soy out of their diets,” Singer said. “Yet others become ovulatory after they cut back on sugar and increase their consumption of cod liver oil, butter and eggs.”

So the take home message for women is to ditch the low-fat dogma and return to real foods…foods that have nourished human pregnancies before so-called experts convinced us otherwise. Fortunately access to local farm foods are increasing in the Orlando area.

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Heart Disease on the Rise: Could Grass-fed foods help?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Heart Disease on the Rise:
Is the Prudent Diet of any Help?

There are reasons heart disease in the U.S. has increased dramatically in the last 50 years, and you may be surprised to find that they are not related to the consumption of saturated fat or your blood cholesterol levels.

In the early 1900s, heart disease was practically unheard of. By 1950, coronary heart disease, especially fatal clots that caused myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attacks, was the leading cause of death in the U.S., causing more than 30 percent of all deaths. By 1960, there were at least 500,000 heart disease deaths a year in the U.S. As of 2005 roughly one in five deaths was due to heart disease.

Why the increase?
Americans are living longer giving them more time to develop the disease, have more sedentary lifestyles, and are feeling the effects of years of cigarette smoking, but diet is the main contributing factor.

Back in the 1950s, we gave up our “natural” diets and started eating the way that food conglomerates, the American Heart Association and the government told us we should. Instead of using butter, lard and coconut oil for cooking, we ate the recommended vegetable oils, which contain heart-harming trans fats.

Americans were advised to follow the “Prudent Diet,” in which corn oil, margarine, chicken and cold cereal replaced butter, lard, beef and eggs. (The diet was based on the lipid hypothesis, which states: “saturated fat and cholesterol from animal sources raise cholesterol levels in the blood, leading to deposition of cholesterol and fatty material as pathogenic plaques in the arteries.”)

When asked to support the diet, Dr. Dudley White refused, saying: “Back in the MI-free days before 1920, the fats were butter and lard and I think that we would all benefit from the kind of diet that we had at a time when no one had ever heard the word corn oil.”

To decrease your risk of heart disease, include grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, organic eggs and produce, and raw dairy in your diet.

Sources:
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/oiling.html

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Saturated Fats- Your Key to Health

Monday, August 3rd, 2009


The Truth about Saturated Fat and Cholesterol

We’ve all seen the countless warnings from the American Heart Association, American Medical Association, food conglomerates and our own doctors warning us to avoid eating saturated fat because of the “heart-disease-causing” cholesterol it contains. But have you ever stopped to ask why?

Since the dawn of time, humans have eaten a diet rich in animal fats such as butter, lard and tallow, which are loaded with saturated fatty acids.  So just what is a saturated fat?  These fats are straight chains of carbon and hydrogen that pack together easily. It is this feature that allows saturated fats to remain relatively solid at room temperature. Vegetable oils(polyunsaturated fats), however are missing various amounts of hydrogen connections and instead have a weaker double bond. Now here is the crucial part, these very same double bonds are weaker and prone to damage from heat, and excessive processing. This same weakness causes vegetable oils to form free radicals much more easily than very stable saturated fats. It is this process (free radical formation) that makes vegetable or seed oils like flaxseed go rancid. Free radicals damage results in inflammation, chronic inflammation is know recognized as the underlying cause of modern degenerative diseases.  Most saturated fat is of animal origins with the  exception of coconut oil which is a plant source of saturated fats. Grass-fed beef, free-range eggs, liver, raw dairy are excellent sources of these neglected nutrients.

So what are the facts?
•    In 1900, at least 35 percent of the calories in the American diet came from saturated dairy fats in the form of raw butter, cream and whole milk. Other sources were pastured eggs, natural pork and grass fed beef. During this time, heart disease was practically unheard of.

•    Research dating back to the 1950s indicates saturated fats are necessary for a strong immune system, healthy function of hormone levels and reproduction, for calcium to be used by the bones, and omega-3s to be used by the body properly.

•    Animal foods that contain saturated fat and cholesterol provide vital nutrients necessary for growth, energy and protection from degenerative disease. Dietary cholesterol helps strengthen the intestinal wall, which is why low-cholesterol diets can lead to intestinal disorders.

•    Cholesterol is essential for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is the body’s natural “feel-good” chemical. Low cholesterol levels have been linked to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and suicidal tendencies.

•    Mother’s milk is rich in cholesterol. Children need cholesterol-rich foods for proper brain and nervous system development.

So why is it that the United States spends more than $60 billion a year on cholesterol screening and cholesterol-lowering drugs even though a positive risk/benefit ratio for this treatment has never been established? Do your own research then…You decide!

Sources:
Cholesterol/Saturated Fats

“The Oiling of America” by Mary Enig, PhD, and Sally Fallon                                                            http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/oiling.html

Inflammation:                                                                                                            http://www.inflammationwellness.com/?cat=12 http://westonaprice.org/moderndiseases/hd.html

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Coconut Oil- Goods news from the Tropics

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Even though coconut oil has been used as a cooking oil for thousands of years, it has gotten a bum rap in the last 20 years or so. In fact, highly saturated coconut oil was listed as an ingredient in many cookbooks at the end of the 19th century.

But then came the campaign against saturated fat, and the promotion of polyunsaturated fats, such as flaxseed, canola, soybean, safflower, corn, and other seed and nut oils, commonly known as the Vegetable Oil Lobby. This new industry saw greater profits in vegetable oils but first had to demonize the competition.

Saturated fats have been supposedly linked to high cholesterol and heart disease, multiple sclerosis and other ailments. If this is true, then why is it that people who live in tropical climates and eat a diet high in coconut oil are healthier, have less heart disease, cancer, and colon problems than unsaturated fat eaters?

Many researchers have reported that coconut oil actually lowers cholesterol, is anti-aging and helps people lose weight because of its ability to stimulate the thyroid.

Since the 1960s, researchers have known about the antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-fungal properties of the medium chain fatty acids/triglycerides found in coconut oil. Research has shown that the tropical oil inactivates microorganisms such as bacteria, yeast, fungi and viruses.

In 1987, Lim-Sylianco published a 50-year literature review showing coconut oil’s anti-cancer properties. In colon and breast cancer, coconut oil was found to be far more protective than unsaturated oils. For example: 32% of corn oil eaters got colon cancer but only 3% of coconut oil eaters did.

Coconut oil is stable. While unsaturated oils become rancid very quickly, even after one year at room temperature, coconut oil shows no evidence of rancidity.

When buying coconut oil, choose brands that are organic extra-virgin expeller pressed.

Other healthful saturated fats come from grass-fed raw dairy products, grass-fed beef, pastured poultry and farm fresh eggs.

Resources: www.coconutoil.com

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