Is "healthy eating" harmful to health?

Spouses violate all known diets compiled on the principle of "healthy eating", but they are cheerful and fit. How do they do it? And what are we doing wrong, absorbing tons of fruits and vegetables, turning up our noses from oil with the slightest cholesterol content? After all, no one has taught us much about the right diet, and we still often become victims of diseases - from diabetes to cardiovascular diseases.

"Most people consume foods that are unusual for human beings," says Barry, a doctoral candidate in dietetics who recently wrote the book "How Healthy Eating Makes Us Sick." - By nature, we are predators, the structure of our digestive system is identical to the intestines of a big cat. We are persuaded to eat foods containing artificial starch or vegetable oils, as well as carbohydrate products like bread, pasta and rice. They are called healthy, but not fatty meat, which is actually what our stomach recognizes."

He thinks that's why we don't know when to stop: "Try to eat a lot of fatty foods, for example cheese, and your body will tell you that it is already full. But if the food is processed, dietary, the body will not perceive it and the brain will not receive a signal that the stomach is full."

Many people are familiar with the fat-containing diet practiced by the Groves, it does not differ much from the well-known Atkins diet. In 1962, the couple specially organized their meals in such a way as to get rid of excess weight that they gained after the wedding.

Barry believes that his diet is healthy. Its cholesterol level is 8.2 mmol (millimol per liter of blood), while the level recommended by the British Heart Foundation (BCF) for people with heart disease or circulatory problems is no more than 4 mmol per liter. Nevertheless, the doctor claims that, on the contrary, it is much more dangerous to have a level below 7 mmol per liter. Studies have revealed a relationship between low cholesterol and the risk of cancer and depression. Barry's blood pressure is truly impressive - 115/62 mm Hg. According to the BKF, on average, the population has a common index of 140/85 mm of mercury.

But hasn't it been proven that saturated fat is bad for the heart? "The whole theory that fat leads to heart disease is based on outdated data," says Barry. - The first study showed that if rabbits are fed foods high in cholesterol, it accumulates in the arteries. But rabbits by nature should eat plants that do not contain cholesterol. Blockage of the arteries occurs due to an unnatural diet. It could have been an allergic reaction at all. A second study was conducted in 1953 by the American Anselm Keyes. He compared the demographic indicators of six countries and revealed a remarkable dependence of heart disease on the level of cholesterol consumption, while he arranged countries starting from Japan (low level) and ending with America (high level). True, Keyes had data on 22 countries, but he simply ignored the 16 that did not fit into his hypothesis." Barry emphasizes that now this study is often cited as an example of how not to engage in scientific work. According to him, even a long 60-year study - the Framingham project, organized by the American National Institute of Heart, Lung and Blood Diseases in 1948, did not reveal the relationship between diet and heart disease. "In 2003, the former president of the American Heart Institute, Professor Sylvan Lee Weinberg, said that there were no arguments left in defense of a low-fat carbohydrate diet. If we reflect on the time during which we were stuffed with headlines about such a "healthy" diet and that during this time the number of heart diseases has only increased, we can draw a disappointing conclusion: the medicine designed to prevent them is to blame for modern diseases."

But what about the rest of the dogmas of a healthy lifestyle: five servings of vegetables and fruits a day, cereals, soy milk, low-fat yoghurts? "Vegetables are not a problem," Barry explains, "but we have no biological or chemical reasons for consuming them. But the liver, for example, contains all the vitamins and minerals we need. And the fruit? Their natural sugar (fructose) is much more dangerous than regular glucose or table sugar. Here it is directly related to weight gain. Wheat is the worst. During the growth process, its grains constantly accumulate bacteria and dirt that cannot be cleaned. And warehouses with wheat are a real paradise for mice and rats, which is why it is constantly sprayed with insecticides. Put a grain under a microscope and you will see traces of rat feces." According to Barry, soy milk is made from very dangerous, unfermented beans. As for yoghurts, they lack conjugated linoleic acid, which prevents cancer.

So how do we eat right? "Prepare clean foods that are natural to our species. Less bread and more fish, eggs, butter - any animal proteins. Try to eat everything that used to run, and not stick out of the ground. Everything will do: liver, kidneys, snails, even insects," says Barry.