Vegan vs Low Carb

[Guest guest]

Hi DMM,

I concur. I have been studying and researching nutrition for many years.

When I became ill I was writing health articles for a magazine and all the

" experts " were kind enough to help.

The first thing was a cleanse. Then a strict vegetarian diet......I got

sicker. Then we decided I needed to be vegan, I got sicker. Then we

decided I needed to go raw foods vegan, so I took classes and spent a lot of

time researching this subject, as I got sicker. Then we decided maybe I

needed to be on macrobiotics....and got very sick. I did all this for 5

YEARS! Sometimes it takes a lot of pain to be able to say, " Maybe we are

wrong! "

Finally I stopped looking at what the experts had to say, and all their

biased research, and began to look at the whole picture. Vegetarian, Vegan,

Raw Foods, Macrobiotics, Fruit only, High Animal Protein, Hypoglycemic

Diets, Low Carb and high Fats, etc.

Every nutritional plan I looked at had thousands of documented " miraculous "

healing, and every one believed that their diet was the only way to heal.

There was only one constant variable.....no sugar, white flour, processed

foods, food chemicals, caffeine, avoid hormones and other junk in the meats,

and most advocated keeping natural sugars (even in fruits) to a minimum.

We all have different nutritional needs. I have many friends who do best on

vegetarian diets and others of us don't.

Based on all this research I decided to look at my genetics. I am

Scandinavian, and my ancestors have all been big meat, milk and fish eaters.

So I decided to try low carb high fat diet, and to ferment a lot of my

foods. So far it seems to be helping a great deal.

Kat

http://www.katking.com

----- Original Message -----

From: " drmichaelmarasco " <mmarasco@...>

< >

Sent: Tuesday, September 03, 2002 3:06 AM

Subject: Re: Stefansson - My Life With The Eskimos

> While Bieler's work is impressive. His understanding of lipids

> is " folksey " at best. Realize that the benefits many vegetarians

> point to and former vegetarians (myself) are the direct result NOT of

> meat elimination or sat fat elimination. It is usually the

> elimination of the garbage can diet. These people dealing with life

> threatening illness, what do they do? They eliminate all sugar

> consumption and they eat only real whole food, this alone can clearly

> account for all the improvement they observe. The point that Pufa is

> in nearly every available food merely stokes the point even more that

> excess pufa is clearly not necessary and the documentation of the

> undesirability of excess pufa is very clear.

>

> DMM

>

>

> > :

> >

> > I'm just learning about the issue between polyunsaturated fats and

> saturated

> > fats. Bieler states in his book that he doesn't think it matters

> whether we

> > consume saturated or unsaturated fats, but did believe that it's the

> > condition of the fat. It should be in its natural state and not

> cooked.

> > Bieler brings up the issue of valances which seem to show why both

> fats are

> > necessary. I think we're in agreement that the saturated fats are

> good for

> > us, but it seems that the unsaturated fats are also useful.

> Because of its

> > open bonds, it can bond with other unsaturated molecules and become

> > saturated. In this way, unsaturated fats can be used as

> neutralizing

> > agents, or buffers for otherwise toxic substances. It appears that

> both

> > fats are necessary, but for different purposes. One for building

> and the

> > other for detoxing or neutralizing toxins. Polyunsaturated fats

> are in all

> > whole foods including meats and dairy. Vegetables are also rich in

> > polyunsaturated fats and so maybe this is why a very sick person

> can go

> > vegan to recover from illness partly because the polyunsaturated

> fats in

> > vegetables help to neutralize toxins by bonding with them. There

> are so

> > many stories of people who have recovered from life-threatening

> illnesses

> > with vegetarianism (I'm one), that there really must be something

> to it. I

> > think the problem comes possibly when, after recovering, people

> just stay on

> > the vegan diet. They become unbalanced the other way. Who knows,

> maybe the

> > high unsaturated fat in their diets allowed the Eskimos to do just

> fine with

> > not very many vegetables?

> >

> > Also, Bieler stated that even though the Eskimos had high fat diets-

> -both

> > saturated and unsaturated, their blood cholesterol was normal and

> their

> > arteries were perfect. It really would be helpful to know what the

> Eskimos'

> > expected lifespan was and what they actually died of.

> >

> > Marla

> >

> >

> > >

> > > It could be because of the rigors of Arctic life, or it could be

> because

> > of

> > > the high level of polyunsaturated oil in the Eskimo diet.

> Animals adapt

> > to

> > > cold weather by depositing polyunsaturated fats that don't harden

> and

> > > freeze, and the Eskimos would have of necessity eaten a lot of

> that fat.

> > I

> > > don't think humans, even when living in the Arctic, are ideally

> suited to

> > > such an unsaturated diet. In other ways the Eskimos ate an

> exemplary

> > diet,

> > > but that might well have had something to do with it.

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > >

> > > -