Michael T. Murray and Michael R. Lyon
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 As well, many of the foods typical of the modern western diet contain highly refined carbohydrates, which tend to result in a rapid and excessive elevation of after-meal blood sugars (high glycemic impact). Foods that cause blood sugar to surge rapidly after meals may contribute to initial satiety, but they backfire and end up actually promoting excessive food intake in the hours that follow.
Fast foods, junk foods, and sugary drinks are the worst kind of foods to eat if you want to achieve a sense of fullness or satiety while reducing your caloric intake. |
| Adopting a more western diet is associated with an increased rate of obesity as well as virtually every other chronic disease. ūThe presence of the "thrifty genotype" helps protect against starvation during famine, but increases the likelihood of developing obesity. ūThe Hunger Free Forever program effectively prevents the expression of the thrifty genotype and allows you to achieve and maintain your ideal body weight.
2
The Seven Keys to Hunger-Free Weight Loss
Diets don't work. It is an undeniable fact. |
| In addition to being low in volume for the amount of calories they contain, typical foods in the western diet are also very low in thickness or viscosity. They become thin watery liquids once they are chewed, swallowed, and mixed with fluids and acid in the stomach. Low-viscosity foods move through the digestive tract very quickly and are rapidly absorbed, which means that your digestive system will be looking for more food shortly after you've eaten your meal. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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 Initially, the finding was thought to reflect a high exposure to dietary fat, especially saturated fat, because meat and dairy products are the major contributors to fat intake in the western diet. However, because the findings on dietary fat per se and prostate cancer are equivocal (discussed later), other explanations for the association should be considered. There are several possibilities: (1) In the American diet, red meat is a major source of zinc, which is essential for testosterone synthesis and may have other effects in the prostate (discussed later). |
Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C.
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 The food processing industry created the modern western diet.
As this devitalized diet was adopted, the incidence of heart disease, colon and breast cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and arthritis all increased right in step.
Just because everyone else goes on eating this harmful western diet, you don't have to.
Lauri Aesoph, N.D. How to Eat Away Arthritis no arguments here
After reading this section, I'm sure you would agree that the Eating-for-Health Guidelines are basically common sense with which few could argue. |
Ann M. Coulston and Carol J. Boushey
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| Subsequent to the initial study, these same dietary patterns were identified and validated using data from a large cohort study even though the diet questionnaire was different [197]. The western diet is consistently associated with increased risk of colon cancer [198-201], although in one study it was associated only with colon cancer in women [200], and in others the risk was greater among people with a family history of colorectal cancer [198, 201]. The association of the Prudent diet, however, is less consistent. |
| The ratio of n-6 to n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in the western diet greatly favors n-6 fatty acids. Estimates of the ratio of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids consumed in various parts of the world range from approximately 9-1 to 30-1 [116, 117]. Consumption of oils such as corn, cottonseed, safflower, and sunflower was originally encouraged for their cholesterol-lowering effect and as a source of linoleic acid, an essential n-6 fatty acids Each of the oils is rich in n-6 fatty acid and lacking in n-3. |
Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
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 They don't taste very good, especially if you've come off of a standard western diet high in refined sugars, refined carbohydrates, white flour, and so on. People are not used to tasting anything bitter on their tongues, whether we're talking about alfalfa, wheat grass, spirulina, chlorella, or any of the other superfoods. They take one taste, and say, "Oh my God! How am I going to drink this!?" Or they say, "I'd rather die than drink this green drink!" Unfortunately, that may very well be the case. |
James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D.
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 Researchers have stated that the western diet contains anywhere from fourteen to twenty times more omega-6 fatty acids than omega-3s.
Dr. Ronald Rudin, an expert in essential fatty acids, estimates that over the last seventy-five years, our omega-3 fatty acid consumption has decreased by 80 percent. |
Mike Adams
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 Once the western diet arrived on their shores, they began to experience all the common diseases we now see as epidemic in modern society. But their native diet, which was high in coconut oil, produced no such disease.
I don't have the space to cover this topic in detail here, but I encourage you to learn more and to challenge any mistaken beliefs you might have about coconut oil being somehow harmful. In fact, it is a highly beneficial oil. I eat it every day, and I recommend it to everyone who asks what kind of diet I follow. |
Richard Beliveau, Ph.D. and Denis Gingras, Ph.D.
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 We have seen that the principal characteristic of the western diet is its extreme quality, in its excesses as well as in what it lacks: too much sugar, too many fats, and too many red meats on one hand, and too few fruits and vegetables and too little dietary fibre on the other. Reestablishing a balance in dietary intake of these two extremes while avoiding selected "bad" foods as much as possible (Figure 35) can only have beneficial consequences on the prevention of chronic diseases such as cancer. |
by Michael Murray, N.D. and Joseph Pizzorno, N.D.
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| The increased intestinal transit time associated with the western diet allows prolonged exposure to various cancer-causing compounds within the intestines.
Fiber should be thought of not only in the treatment of constipation, but also in the treatment of diarrhea due to irritable bowel syndrome. When fiber is added to the diet of subjects with abnormally rapid transit times of less than twenty-four hours, it causes slowing of the transit time. Dietary fiber acts to normalize bowel movements. |
Richard Beliveau, Ph.D. and Denis Gingras, Ph.D.
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| Since energy supply is the main objective pursued by western diet, we should not be surprised that the latter is based for the most part on the consumption of proteins and animal fats, such as red meat and milk products, while foods with fewer calories, such as fruits and vegetables, occupy a place of less importance. In the East, people consume fruits and vegetables in abundance; their main sources of protein are legumes, particularly soy, as well as fish; they eat relatively little red meat and other foods containing saturated animal fats. |
Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN
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 I did not eat soy, just a typical western diet. However, in order to lose weight, I went on a diet and stopped eating bread. My forgetfulness and brain fog cleared up mysteriously. When I went off the diet, the symptoms returned.
I have long had a thyroid problem for which I take medication. When our office got connected to the internet, I went online to learn about thyroid health and learned that soy depresses thyroid function. Then I started reading labels and found that soy is added in small amounts to all commercial bread. |
Alan R. Gaby, M.D., Jonathan V. Wright, M.D., Forrest Batz, Pharm.D. Rick Chester, RPh., N.D., DipLAc. George Constantine, R.Ph., Ph.D. Linnea D. Thompson, Pharm.D., N.D.
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 Women who consume a standard western diet (high in fat and sugar and low in complex carbohydrates) during pregnancy and breast-feeding (page 74) may not be obtaining adequate amounts of essential vitamins and minerals; this can result in health problems for the newborn.3 Pregnant women should choose a well-balanced and varied diet that includes fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and fish. Refined sugars, white flour, fried foods, processed foods, and chemical additives should be avoided. |
| One-per-day MVMs usually do not provide sufficient amounts of many nutrient supplements shown to benefit people eating a western diet, such as vitamin E (page 609), calcium (page 483), magnesium (page 551), and vitamin C (page 604). One-per-day MVMs should therefore not be viewed as a way to "cover all bases" in the way that high-potency MVMs, requiring three or more pills per day, are viewed.
How much is usually taken? |
| As a result, some researchers and doctors believe that most people who eat a typical western diet are likely to be consuming less-than-optimal amounts of EPA and DHA. To a very limited extent, omega-3 fatty acids from vegetable sources, such as flaxseed oil (page 517), can convert to EPA.
At least four studies have reported a reduced blood level of omega-3 fatty acids in people with depression (page 145).18'19'20'21
People with rheumatoid arthritis (page 387) have been found to have decreased levels of omega-3 fatty acids, such as are found in fish oil, in their joint fluid and blood. |
| Most people who consume a typical western diet are fiber-deficient. Eating white flour, white rice, and fruit juice (as opposed to whole fruit) all contribute to this problem. Many so-called whole wheat products contain mostly white flour. Read labels and avoid "flour" and "unbleached flour," both of which are simply white flour. Junk food is also fiber depleted. The diseases listed above are more likely to occur with low-fiber diets. |
James F. Balch, M.D. and Mark Stengler, N.D.
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| Age: The frequency increases with age.
A western diet is a contributing factor.
A positive family history predisposes one to this problem.
Digestive tract diseases, such as Crohn's disease, increase one's risk.
A persistent obstruction of the bile duct can also result in fever, nausea, and vomiting. At this point, the condition is termed acute cholecystitis. This is an acute inflammation of the gallbladder wall as a response to the gallstone obstruction. In rare cases, infection and pus may fill the gallbladder or cause perforation of the gallbladder wall. |
Mike Adams
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| The Healing Miracles of Coconut Oil
The primary source of consuming hydrogenated oils and trans fats in the western diet is: 1) Margarine, and 2) Shortening. Margarine is easy to avoid, since the only action required is to look for new trans-fats-free products made without hydrogenated oils (you can find them in any grocery store these days).
But shortening is harder to avoid, since it's an added ingredient in all sorts of food products like peanut butter, baked crackers and most snack foods. It's even in most tortillas. |
Jacky Law
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 Sir Richard Doll in The Causes of Cancer revealed how the western diet was just as important as tobacco in causing cancer. Professor Samuel Epstein had found that chemical pollutants in the air and water caused a further one in five of all cancers. Sir Douglas Black had rediscovered that poverty was still a major cause of illness in Britain, killing 75,000 people a year - or 200 a day. And it had been proved 'beyond reasonable doubt' that milk and dairy foods were killing thousands a year from heart attacks and an excess of salt was equally implicated in strokes. |
Richard Beliveau, Ph.D. and Denis Gingras, Ph.D.
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| CHAPTER 4
The Prevention of Cancer Through Diet
The high proportion of cancers that can be attributed to the nature of western diet is, as we have seen, a sign of the decline in the eating habits of a society that has lost contact with the very idea of diet and perceives the act of feeding itself only as a necessary replenishing of energy without any concern for its impact on health. |
| THE BLUEBERRY
A close relative of the European bilberry or whortleberry {Vaccinium myrtillus), the blueberry {Vaccinium angustifolium) is a species indigenous to northeastern North America; it did not find a place in western diet until the discovery of the New World by Europeans. The use of blueberries as food goes back to more ancient times. Native tribes revered the fruit, which they believed to be sent by the gods to save their families from famine. |
Kelly Harford, M.C., C.N.C.
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| Just because everyone else goes on eating this harmful western diet, you don't have to.
Lauri Aesoph, N.D. How to Eat Away Arthritis no arguments here
After reading this section, I'm sure you would agree that the Eating-for-Health Guidelines are basically common sense with which few could argue. No health advocate would argue with the wisdom of reserving stimulants for rare occasions or eliminating them from the diet altogether. None would argue that it is wise to eat whole, fresh, natural foods and little to no processed foods. |
Richard Beliveau, Ph.D. and Denis Gingras, Ph.D.
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| This is an important concept; despite the large place occupied by fats in western diet, our largest nutritional deficiency, paradoxically, revolves around the essential fatty acids: the omega-3 fatty acids.
THE ESSENTIAL FATTY ACIDS
Polyunsaturated fatty acids (omega-3s and omega-6s) are termed essential because our bodies are incapable of making them on their own; they must be supplied by diet. |
Mike Adams
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| Both obesity and diabetes are strongly linked to the western diet, presumably due to the negative effects that saturated fats and refined carbohydrates have on internal mechanisms that control blood sugar levels.
Carbohydrates and obesity
"Some scientific studies suggest that part of today's obesity epidemic is being fueled by over-consumption of high-glycemic carbohydrates that induce chronic insulin overload."
- Disease Prevention and Treatment by the Life Extension Foundation
Obesity is another disease that's caused by the excessive consumption of carbohydrates. |
KC Craichy
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 Omega-3 fatty acids began to disappear from the typical western diet in the twentieth century, and only recently have we begun to see the health concerns that their absence has caused. Omega-3 fatty acids control many of the most basic functions of the cell. Omega-3 oils are a major constituent of brain cell membranes and are converted to critical brain chemicals.
One can easily see, then, how essential they are for normal nervous system function, and how their deficiency might be linked to mood regulation, attention, memory, and mental health. |
Jonathan V. Wright, M.D. and Alan R. Gaby, M.D.
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 However, the typical western diet already appears to contain too many omega-6 fatty acids (found in corn oil, sunflower oil, and safflower oil) relative to the amount of omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish oil, flaxseed oil and, to a lesser extent, soybean oil). Creating a further imbalance by taking a corn-oil supplement might cause a relative deficiency of omega-3 fatty acids, which could adversely affect the heart.
Studies using cholesterol-lowering drugs have also produced conflicting results. |
Michael Friedman, ND
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 High Sugar, Low Fiber Diet
The modern western diet high in refined sugars and fats but low in fiber can contribute to the cause of reactive hypoglycemia. The intake of refined sugar can lead to a rapid rise in blood sugar levels, causing the pancreas to secrete insulin sometimes at a level that can result in hypoglycemia. The adrenals then secrete epinephrine and other stress-hormones to increase blood sugar back to normal. If patients continually assault their bodies with this diet, it may result in both pancreatic and adrenal exhaustion. |
Richard Beliveau, Ph.D. and Denis Gingras, Ph.D.
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| The immediate consequence of the industrialization of food is that the contemporary western diet has almost nothing in common with what made up the very essence of human diet scarcely ten generations ago. The modern diet contains at least twice as much fat, a percentage of saturated fat relative to unsaturated fat that is much higher, barely a third of the fibre, an avalanche of sugar to the detriment of complex carbohydrates, and, paradoxically, reduced amounts of essential nutrients compared to a traditional diet. |
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