The Freedom to Not Choose

Today is Memorial Day. We dedicate today to remembering those who have served and given their lives for the freedom that we all enjoy. The fact that we live in a country with a constitutional republic, in which we are free to express our views and opinions without fear of censorship, oppression, or even death is due to the actions of countless brave men and women over the course of two centuries and counting.

Freedom is something that must be constantly defended, because it is not a natural state. Ever since man has existed, we have tried to exert power over our fellows, and force them to work toward our ends. Sadly, most of the ancient wonders of the world were built with forced labor, and up until very recently, slavery was not only acceptable, but common practice. We are very fortunate to live in a country in which we are free to choose the course of our lives.

By now, you might be wondering how this all ties in to a health and wellness blog. Good question. There is one crucial point that most of us never think of with regard to freedom. Just because we can do something, does not mean that we should, or that it is best for us. Besides having unprecedented legal and social freedoms, Americans (and residents of other industrialized countries) also have culinary freedom which has never been experienced on the planet before.

To realize this point, you need to look no further than the cookout you will likely attend this afternoon. Represented at your Memorial Day cookout will likely be hamburgers, hotdogs, fried chicken, potato salad, potato chips, corn, fruit salad, watermelon, cantaloupe, beer, soft drinks, green beans, deviled eggs, cupcakes, cookies, and countless other foods. Before eating today, let's think for just a minute on what foods will be represented in the average American backyard today:

Beef                                         Chicken                                  Pork
Potatoes                                  Eggs                                        Corn
Mayonnaise                            Bananas                                 Grapes
Watermelon                           Cantaloupe                             Sugar
Beans                                      Milk                                        Wheat
Rice                                         Soybeans                                Pineapple

This list is far from inclusive, but it gives you the basic idea. As important as how many foods we have access to is how easily we can obtain them. Unlike our caveman ancestors, we don't have to forage and hunt in order to obtain the foods we eat. All we have to do is go to the grocery store, and we see all of the foods above and more sitting on the shelves. Cavemen would never have been able to match either the quantity or variety of food that we have at our fingertips. The foods above come from all over the world, from Europe to America to tropical islands in the middle of the pacific ocean.

It is wonderful that we have access to all of these foods, in quantities that ensure most people don't have to worry about where their next meal is going to come from. It is also somewhat ironic that this freedom is slowly killing us. In the past fifty years, we have been getting larger and larger and larger. Two-thirds of all Americans are now either overweight or obese. Infectious diseases like pneumonia, which used to be the biggest killers of people, have been supplanted with diseases of lifestyle like heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes. Mounting evidence in the past 20 years has shown that some foods, particularly meat, milk, and eggs, are directly related to the diseases which now kill us in epidemic proportions.

I, like all of you, dear readers, am extremely grateful for the men and women who died to allow us to live free of oppression and slavery, and to pursue our dreams. I shudder to consider what those men and women would think if they were to see how we are slowly killing ourselves. I have never served in the military. The fight I participate in is not for our freedom, but for our health. This Memorial Day, I would like to humbly suggest that we try to honor the memory of those who served by trying to take care of our bodies, and using some of our freedom to not choose some of the foods which cause us so much harm.


Happy Memorial Day,

M. Jacob Ott, M.D.

Supplemental Danger

Yesterday, I read a fairly disturbing study about calcium intake. The study, which was a retrospective study which took into account various factors, including supplement intake, showed that taking calcium supplements significantly increased the risk of heart attack. The exact findings are as follows:

• Participants who took supplements that included calcium were 86 percent more likely to have a heart attack, compared to people who didn’t take any supplements.
• Participants who only took calcium pills were more than twice as likely to have a heart attack. 

This is fairly disturbing, but not the first time a supplement has been indicated in a problem. A 2004 study showed that taking mega-doses of Vitamin E as supplements increased risk of death. Just like calcium, Vitamin E was previously shown to be helpful. Several other studies have shown single supplements, and even the ubiquitous multivitamin to be harmful.

What is the common link between all of these studies? The fact that it is a supplement. When we isolate a chemical from food, and put it in a pill, something happens. At best, it loses its effectiveness. At worst, it becomes harmful. The supplement study is only part of the story. In fact, rarely has a supplement ever been shown to be helpful in pill form. I have previously spoken about fiber, which is not effective in the myriad of powders and pills that are sold, and is only beneficial when taken as part of the food.

Why is it that our pills do not help us? I believe it is because we have an incomplete understanding of how food works. While we do our chemistry and isolate these chemicals, and then take them, we are unaware of the thousands of other compounds in the food which contribute to the action of the "vitamin" that we have isolated.

But Jake, you ask, what about calcium? I know I have to take a supplement of at least 1500 mg of calcium a day for bone health? My doctor told me so. All parts of the above statement are wrong. I will spend the rest of this post debunking the calcium myth:

1. Calcium intake is required to prevent osteoporosis: Point one is a partial truth. Bones are comprised of a matrix of calcium phosphate. In order to build or maintain bone, you must have some calcium. Where this truth gets distorted is in the advertising. People in this country have spent billions of dollars associating two items in our brain: milk and calcium. I wrote a previous post about this, but the short version is that milk does nothing to prevent osteoporosis. If it did, then the countries with the most milk intake would have the lowest rates of osteoporosis. In fact, the opposite is true. The more milk a country consumes, the HIGHER rate of osteoporosis it has.

2. Calcium supplements (or mega-doses of milk) are needed, because dietary sources are inadequate: The milk people, and the people who sell the pills would have you believe that people cannot get enough calcium from their diets, and thus some form of supplementation is necessary. Though good for the old bottom line, this "fact" is simply not true. Here is a list of foods which are rich dietary sources of calcium:


Spinach
Turnip greens
Mustard greens
Collard greens
Blackstrap molasses
Swiss chard
Kale
Basil, thyme, dill seed, cinnamon, and peppermint leaves
Romaine lettuce
Rhubarb
Broccoli
Sesame seeds
Fennel
Cabbage
Summer squash
Green beans
Garlic
Tofu
Brussel sprouts
Oranges
Asparagus
Crimini mushrooms

Many of these foods have as much or more calcium as milk, and are rich in untold other nutrients as well.

So, in summary, there is no need to take a calcium supplement, especially given the results of the study that came out yesterday. The formula for bone health is simple:

1. Eat a wide variety of plant foods, which are rich in all the nutrients you need.
2. Avoid excess protein intake. The acid load that proteins provide actually dissolve bone.
3. Perform load bearing exercise (running, jumping, etc...) the impact stimulates bone formation.

Good Eating,

 




M. Jacob Ott, M.D.