Universe On The Couch

For years now doctors and scientists have been puzzled by the so-called French Paradox. The issue is that the French are overall in better health, and especially heart disease, than most other Europeans and we Americans despite their supposed poor health habits. They eat fatty foods like duck liver pate. They practically live on cheese, cream and butter. They smoke like fiends and drink plenty of wine. They avoid the gym too.

To start with lets dispel any idea that they are ok because of smoking. They do have higher lung disease rates. A chest Xray here read as early emphysema is normal there. Anybody who disputes that smoking causes obstructive lung disease, heart disease and a large number of cancers is way off target. It is clearly an unnecessary toxin. So they do well in spite of smoking.

On to drinking. Here again we see much higher rates of cirrhosis, a leading killer. But the story gets more interesting than with smoking. Even in the USA we se lighter drinking has a higher life expectancy than none at all. After two drinks a day this benefit reverses and gets worse with each drink. So higher drinking by the French appears to be another in spite of in part. Yet we do have a positive effect from the first daily drink or two.

As a college student I figured this was due to the idea that those who do not drink at all are so uptight overall that they have no fun, over-stress and die earlier. Then working with patients you learn many of them who don't drink do so because of medical conditions and medications that preclude alcohol. So a biased non-drinking sample? One supervisor shared that the stress release was likely beneficial. There is also the anti-oxidant effect, accounted for mainly by red wine, and to a much lesser effect by white wine and some rich beers. Purple grapes and juice, peanut skins and some other produce can give this antioxidant as well.

Let us also dispel the exercise myth. While the gym phenomenon is not like here, the French do exercise. They have their own spas and gyms too. They play sports as well. And most important they walk. They take more steps than we do. And the truth is most in the old USA get almost no exercise at all. So here is a clue. Exercise. At least take a walk.

The New England Journal Of Medicine article that was part of what sent this idea into orbit found that the French didn't fit the European correlation between fat and saturated fat with heart disease other countries did. They pointed to higher fruits, vegetables and olive oil. The fat in cheese did not seem to be harmful either, perhaps by binding with calcium.

A friend and colleague in research points out that the effect is from Southern France where the Mediterranean diet is eaten. Olive oil and produce again. And fish. The French also had a head start on grains/wheat from Roman domination when it was called Gaul.

My guess is that the smoking harms and they drink too much. But the red wine and alcohol does confer some benefits. They do walk more. They eat less overall and clearly much less sugar, processed food, artificial ingredients, omega-six oils (corn and soy) and trans fats. They are not nearly as fat as we are. This is huge. Olive oil, fish, fruits and vegetables are very beneficial foods as well. Higher dairy calcium has been shown to help both weight control and blood pressure too.

One last speculation on fats and carbohydrates. The higher fat content and less carbs, especially simple ones, may have a benefit on insulin and glucose. When glucose levels are too high, proteins in the body get damaged by sugar-coating. Higher insulin causes obesity, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and heart disease. Fat slows sugar absorption and levels out blood glucose as well as insulin.

Ok I said one last speculation... But there is something in the whole approach to life in the French and many Europeans. When you travel, they seem more relaxed than we do. Americans are on a schedule. Impatient. We have an itinerary to follow and are on a schedule. Its like a job to us. They are mellow at home and work is more relaxed too. Close the shop. Take a break. A nap perhaps. They seem to enjoy life more and are less stressed. The work and spend greedy consumer mentality sucks the joy out of our lives and perhaps sucks our life itself out too.

And

Heart disease is and has been the big killer in the modern nations for nearly a century. Prior to that and still in the less developed world, starvation/nutritional lacks and infectious disease killed off most people. Our agricultural technology, along with immunization, clean food and water, antibiotics and waste management have changed all that.

So doctors, scientists and politicians started asking why the heart? Soon the cholesterol madness started. After all, there was money to be made. It was and is too good for drug companies and food manufacturing to pass up on.

Cholesterol is essential to life itself. The body makes its own, more than you eat even on a fatty diet. You would die without it and if you don't eat any, your body makes it.

So our story goes on. Finding that the blockages in the blood vessels contained cholesterol, the simplistic cholesterol bad hypothesis formed. This was also supported by a relationship between higher levels in the blood serum correlating with higher heart disease. So the solution is to eat less cholesterol. Goodbye eggs, cheese, cream, butter, meat, shrimp,... Hello to margarine, coffee creamer, partially hydrogenated oil, soy oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil,...

The food industry loved it. Real food is hard to make money on. You have to pay those damn farmers. Animal products are expensive. Grains are cheap. Send them to the chemical factory and mark them up in a neat package.

unfortunately the cholesterol hypothesis has some problems. First is that eating cholesterol doesn't raise blood levels. There is no relationship at all. Remember the liver makes it. So the highly nutritious and inexpensive egg is maligned.

Now saturated fats do raise cholesterol in blood, so we were encouraged to cut down on them. Fair enough, but the instructions were to substitute other fats, the wonderful polyunsaturates to be specific. So a host of oils were introduced and pushed made from cottonseed, soybeans, corn and whatever. None being a significant part of the human diet previously.

Problem is that these oils/fats are mainly the omega-six variety. So we now have much more of them in our diet than ever before while little to no omega-threes. Hence imbalance in the body. This manifests in the cell membranes of our bodies, especially the brain, changing the geometry of receptor sites. Oops. Then there is the "microhormone" system at the cellular level controlling all functions made of these fatty acids. One of the imbalances caused is increasing blood pressure while increasing blood coagulation. Sounds like a heart attack to me. In fact, the rise in heart attacks the last century parallels the rise in intake of these fats.

In fact a whole host of problems is implicated. Restricting myself to the brain, this appears to be a factor in depression, also increasing the last century each decade. Depression rates across time and countries are correlated quite well to national soybean oil consumption, as is homicide rate by nation.

Oh, and did I mention cancer? These polyunsaturates are unstable and oxidize quickly. Hence the feared free radicals. Of course any vitamin E protection has been processed out by the manufacturer. So cancer is correlated to their use as well.

And don't even get me started on hydrogenated fats, also known as trans fats. These really gum up the works, like viscous oil in your gas tank. They raise your cholesterol as much as anything. And this crap is in everything practically. Chips, cakes, breads, muffins, TV dinners, coffee creamer, margarine, cooking oils, French fries,... Check the label.

So then we got on the low and no-fat kick. So typical of Americans, instead of eating low fat normal/natural foods (produce, whole grains, lean protein,...) we again turned to the food industry. Some of the cookies were good. I could eat a box or two easy. The cheese was terrible. Much of it was OK with enough sugar in it. We also got more unnatural chemicals. Olestra is my favorite. It washes fat-soluble vitamins out while giving you fecal incontinence (the shits). I figured I'd wait fifty more years for Depends.

So many of us ate this bovine diet. And of course we got all fattened up like domestic livestock. Hello diabetes. Now isn't that heart-healthy? I can't blame the low-fat thing totally. Plenty of unhealthy fats have contributed to our obesity epidemic. But I have seen plenty of people bloat up on grain diets. They just can't eat enough. Plenty of chubby vegetarians too.

Now all these diets are not that effective for lowering serum cholesterol. Especially when you are gaining weight. So we turn to the favorite tools of my profession-right out of the old drug-box. Problem is our old friend could lower cholesterol and to a much lesser degree heart attacks, but overall death rate didn't really change, sometimes it was worse. So quite a flop. Pay for some drug, have to keep track of taking it, suffer the side effects and you die sooner.

So then a whole new kid on the block, actually a gang. The Statins. Big Pharm licked its chops and every company wanted to have one. The data is impressive. They do lower cholesterol, lower heart attacks and even in the short-term of the studies lengthen life. Publish and market. "Thought Leaders" (doctors in universities getting money from big pharm) give talks, often with quite yummy food I am too cheap to pay for (usually). These are the new wonder drugs. Each time I pay attention, the recommended levels of cholesterol ah lower. Over half the population apparently needs them. By next year, we will discover pregnant women need them to keep the fetus from having a heart attack.

But then we read the small print... Myalgia. This means muscle aches, often intense. Even weakness. Like the flu. Fun! The liver works overtime. Well mine only works overtime for alcohol. The digestive track is upset. And wouldn't you know-the rodents they tested it on got cancer. Will humans be next in ten years or so? The experiment is underway. Are you the experimental subject? I would rather die in a quick fit of intense pain than rot for a year or two as a living corpse.

Then you look closer at the data. How will this affect me? Is the improvement worth the risks? It appears that the beneficial effect is smaller than advertised. Men over forty negligible. And how come lowering cholesterol with older drugs was not helpful? Must be something besides cholesterol.

Plenty of confounds too. The French eat all those yummy fatty foods and smoke a lot, but have less heart disease. The Mediterranean Diet is much better than the American Heart Association Diet in death rates, full of fatty olive oil. The Masai tribe lives lean and healthy on full-fat milk, meat and blood.

This whole cholesterol thing reeks of bad science and profit motive. Doctors are brainwashed from the start and most of their information is tainted by the propaganda and biased information from Big Pharm. I remain quite skeptical.

I just say this on DVD last night, along with the supplemental material.

There are man "sub-plots," but the mail story is about this guy about 40 who is in good condition subjecting himself to thirty days of nothing but McDonalds, eaten three times a day. If asked to supersize he must. Nothing else may be ingested. He stops his vitamins. He limits his walking and exercise to typical American level (not much). He sees three doctors, a nutritionist and an exercise guy. They do initial assessments and continue to monitor through the thirty days.

There predictions are in line with what this MD would predict: Some deconditioning, some weight gain and elevation of serum lipids. Nothing severe. I figure it takes years of this way of life to really do damage.

So the fun begins... He gains about 25 pounds. His cholesterol goes up 60 points. He feels like crap with headaches, mood swings, depressed mood, cravings, lethargy and stomach aches. His libido and sexual performance markedly decrease per his own opinion and that of his girlfriend. He gets winded going up the stairs to his apartment. Most scary is that his liver enzymes climb like an alcoholic's. All the professionals above, his girlfriend and his mother beg him to stop.

Afterwards he goes off. It takes eight weeks for all his lipids and enzymes to return to normal. It takes about 18 months for his weight to return to the prior level.

The doctors were shocked. I feel the same. That much damage in so little time? The liver tests were the most unsettling. So what makes this diet so destructive?

First, several nutrients are seriously lacking. There is little fiber to move the GI tract or soak up fats. Hence high serum lipids and GI distress.

Second is lack of omega-three fatty acids. The oils they cook with and added fats have little to none. Ditto for the beef and how it is raised. And chicken too. Likely the fish is farmed again giving little. And how much fish sandwich would anyone eat on this diet?

Third is the lack of micronutrients like vitamins and minerals. The usual trick here is to strip them all out of the wheat and oils in processing. The breads then have the cheap and easy ones added back in-enriched they call it. The high-temperature cooking, long-term storage and picking before ripe reduces nutritional content as well. Then there are the phytochemicals in mainly fresh produce, again minimal on this diet. Iceberg lettuce is a weakling vegetable to boot.

Fourth is the lack of exercise. Not exactly fast food and scientifically a confound in this experiment. Still it is consistent with the health habits in this country and the lazy not cooking and drive-through lifestyle.

Now onto the bad stuff... Plain old too many calories. Caloric dense foods are predominant. The sugar content is overwhelming, added to most of the food and in the various sauces. Not to mention the big soft drinks. Then there is fat, dense with calories as well. Deep fried. Added. In the dressings on that salad. There also are all the empty starches in fries, buns and biscuits.

The types of carbohydrates here are the easily digested high glycemic index type. Blood sugar and insulin play a push-pull game giving swings in energy and mood. The elevated insulin increases the fat gut, lipids and blood pressure.

The fats here too are bad. Plenty of that good old saturated stuff. Also the omega-threes are abundant. These are esential for life, but need to be in balance with the omega-threes, lacking in this diet. Here the stage is set for inflammation, blood clotting, hypertension and a long list of body imbalances. There is strong evidence for depression and violence attributed to this imbalance.

My favorite is trans fatty acids. These wonders give the wonderful texture to foods and don't spoil. In the DVD, he lets all the products sit and mold including fries from a local deli. It all goes bad quickly, except the McDonalds fries, which look the same at ten weeks. You see, mold and bacteria cannot grow on this stuff. Wonder what it does to you? This chemical factory product is in half of the stuff or more at you local supermarket and a big ingredient in fast food. It is suspected of a wide variety of ills. I suspect it is primary in the decline of our hero's health.

Finally is just all the added chemical crap. Look at the ingredients. A long list of chemicals to alter flavor, texture, shelf life and color. Ick! This stuff is not food. A few months of tests in rats may not be sufficient to determine what it does to our bodies.

I am probably a light user of fast food, perhaps once a week. I also eat the above processed foods whenever I can get beyond the sights of my wife. But this film has further convinced me to improve my dietary habits. And not just fast foods, but those damn donuts at work and chips at parties. Super Bowl Sunday will test my resolve.