Re: Cholesterol & Saturated Fats- A Myth? (Everyone)

[Guest guest]

xxxxxxx JENNIFER xxxxxxxxxx

You said:

>Beth's postings are a bit too scientific and lack any true

>statistical studies using control groups against pediatric groups,

>and especially pediatric groups that include either RSS or SGA

>children……I encourage parents not to make decisions without

>at least one study that uses more than 20 subjects and uses a

>control group, and ideally is a blind study (not always found).

I believe that you are accurate there have been no pediatric

controlled studies. However, there was a major double blind adult

study conducted by Duke University a little over a year ago

involving the Atkin's diet which supports this protocol.

Unfortunately, alternative medicine does not have the million dollar

budgets funded by the drug industry (with its strings attached) to

fall back on. This is exactly how the drug companies keep a

monopoly lock on the market.

The drug companies typically criticize alternative medicines

approaches because of the lack of a large double blind studies.

They know all too well that any study of reasonable size will cost

at least a half million dollars which is a great barrier to entry

into a market they want to keep to themselves. Just look at the

rise in medicine costs over the past 15 years, drug companies are

almost like a little club, they have a monopoly over the medical

industry. This is further evidenced by the past 25 years of

scandals now just coming to light involving corrupted clinical

trials, expert advisors with multiple conflicts of interest and drug

industry's control over the supposed FDA " watch dog " ,

whose major funding is supplied by the very industry they oversee.

Many of the medicines that RSS children are taking today are based

on studies that where originally conducted solely on adults and not

even with FDA approval, but the drugs were given to children

anyway. I am not trying to say that this approach was wrong, but to

first find large controlled studies of adults using alternative

medicine is difficult, but then for you to ask for ones on infants

is next to impossible. Why should my doctor's approach be

singled out as not appropriate?

What I have provided this group with are the success stories of my

family and many relatives and friends. Furthermore, I have asked

that you read Life Without Bread which contains 40 years of

controlled studies that support my doctor's position. Granted

these are smaller studies, but you need to start somewhere in an

industry controlled by the drug companies.

I am curious, have you had a chance to read Life Without Bread? You

had mentioned you were buying the book. Do you have an opinion

about it and its application to RSS?

>However, regardless of what information is correct or not, I do

>caution parents not to suddenly go out and let your RSS/SGA child

>eat tons of saturated fats

My doctor is not advocating eating just any old type of saturated

fat. He is very specific about the types of saturated fats that are

appropriate. For example, he recommends code liver oil, coconut oil

(actually it's not a saturated fat, maybe wrong here), raw

butter, other raw dairy products and specific meats. And there are

specific brands that he suggests. Ideally the dairy products and

meats need to come from animals raised solely on open pastures where

they can feed on only their natural food supply of " grass " .

This results in animals that are very healthy and not in need of

anti-biotics or growth hormones. More importantly, their meat is

very high in Omega-3 fatty acids, which is a key component in this

healthy diet equation.

Today over 99% of all meat and dairy animals are raised on unnatural

foods that are " grain " based. The sole reason for this is to

fatten them up rapidly and produce the highest profit margin as

possible with little concern for the animal's health or the

quality of the end product. To accomplish this, their food supply

is not natural, it is grain based, and most of them become sick

needing anti-biotics. These types of improperly feed meat animals

have abnormal levels of Omega-3 fatty acids (actually virtually

none), this is one reason of many reasons why they are not part of

my doctor's diet.

>The reason I caution parents is that because there are statistical

>and published studies using blind/control groups showing that RSS

>and short children born SGA have higher lipid levels than AGA

>children. Total cholesterol, LDL and HDL levels are significantly

>higher (I believe at the highest significance level). This may be

>just one part of the complicated metabolic consequences of an SGA-

>born child; we simply don't know yet.

I agree with your statement about the higher lipid levels, this is

what had. In our doctor's opinion and that of

Atkin's, the higher lipid levels are caused by excessive

carbohydrates and trans fatty acids, not fats. Much of the details

as to why this is are explained in great detail in Life Without

Bread. Both my husband and 's lipid levels declined on

this diet. This was also the case with many of my other relatives

and friends who have migrated to our doctor's diet.

In addition to the above, there is more supporting research material

on the THINCS web site (www.thincs.org/ ), along with documentation

by Enig, who is a world recognized expert on fats. Enig, a

biochemist and nutritionist, single handedly was able to get

Congress to pass legislation that requires food manufactures to

place those lipid causing trans fatty acids on food labels beginning

2006.

xxxxxxxx ADRIANNE xxxxxxxxxxx

All I can say is that I trust our doctor and his opinion that

cholesterol and saturated fats are not the culprits that

conventional medicine has made them out to be for the past 40+

years. This is also the conclusion I have come to after reading

numerous expert opinions of those having no ties to special interest

groups (food manufacturers, drug companies, etc.). Some of which

are contained on the THINCS web site (www.thincs.org/ ).

I look at my family over the past year, is growing, my

husband's blood pressure, weight and cholesterol are way down,

and I am feeling great. All of my relatives and friends who have

switched to higher fat and protein are doing very well. Also I

should add that this is not any regular higher fat and protein diet,

it should be overseen by a qualified expert knowledgeable in this

particular area. A couple of whom I mentioned in the past is

Cowan MD of San Francisco and Ron Schmid ND of Middleburry, CT.

After reading the Oct. 2004 Associated Press article

(http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/nation/9940619.htm?

template=contentModules/printstory.jsp ), I wonder about the

accuracy of these so called boards of experts, who have monumental

conflicts of interest with the drug industry, advising the

government on very import health issues. The " experts " who

designed the Food Pyramid 30+ years ago are the made from the same

cloth. The Food Pyramid is so faulty that the government found it

necessary to appoint a new panel of " experts " to make major

changes which should be announced within the next nine months. Then

you have the drug companies and all the scandals involving

adulterated clinical tests and influence peddling at the FDA coming

to light over the past six months that cover a 25 year span.

I can't imagine why I may be apprehensive about these so

called " experts " . I know what has worked for my family and

believe that it will work for many other RSS kids. The treatment

that has been so successful for us involves eating saturated fats

and I want parents to be aware that new credible research is

available, research not tainted by special interest groups looking

to sell more products at the highest possible price.

xxxxxxxxx JODY, CARA, and JODIE xxxxxxxxxxx

I'm sorry that you feel this way. I believe I am providing

relevant information that directly affects our children's diets

and also growth levels. Hence, to increase parent's knowledge

base

and reduce anxiety levels over cholesterol and saturated fats, I

have taken the time to find what our doctor considers to be

appropriate information and pass it on.

I feel that over the past year we have been blessed with

's achievements, so I feel an obligation to explain them

to those who are interested. A number of other parents have

expressed to me privately that they like this information but are

afraid to express it openly on the list for fear of criticism by

others who happen to be more in line with conventional medicine.

This is unfortunate.

As Jean just posted, if this is something that is not of interest

then delete it and move on to the next post.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Ken, thank you for allowing me to respond. For

those of you who have privately asked for my assistance, I plan on

continuing to do so in the future. For those skeptics, I can only

hope that you take the time to analysis this information carefully

with an open mind. I do feel it is unfortunate that this web site

focuses almost entirely on one doctor's approach, while many

times being intolerant or ignoring differing treatment modalities.

My best to all in which ever diet root you choose to take. Beth

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx