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Your Diet as a Source of Pain

© Dr. David L. Phillips

The old expression, “You are what you eat” just keeps getting truer and more applicable to today’s foods. Recently there has been much written about the importance of fats and oils in our diets. Finally the pendulum of public opinion has swung around to realizing that high grain and high carbohydrate diets are literally killing us. Of course, it’s not acceptable that we achieve any kind of balance. No, the media would not stand for that. It has to be one way or the other, so now we have a battle raging between the high carb camp and the high protein/high fat camp. This is simply ludicrous.

Let’s start from the beginning. When it was first realized that arteriosclerosis was a major factor in heart disease, cholesterol was suggested as a culprit. Analysis of arterial wall plaque deposits revealed dense areas of cholesterol compounds. The margarine manufacturers jumped on this one hard. In the 60’s and 70’s we were inundated with TV and print commercials touting the health benefits of various butter substitutes. Butter became evil.

Soon this butter paranoia spread to other fats and oils and, by the late 80’s we had a virtual fat-free frenzy. All fats, we were told, were evil, and, given the obsession with slimmer-than-slim bodies, we quickly latched onto this hysteria. As usual the food manufacturers, instead of doing the responsible thing and attempting to educate us, simply fed us low and ultra-low fat foods.

The facts are that fats and oils are absolutely essential to good health. The brain, spinal cord and nerves are composed of about 70% fat, mostly cholesterol. Hormones are cholesterol based. Just as there are 7 essential amino acids from which your body can produce hundreds of protein, and just as there are essential vitamins and minerals, so too are there essential fats, 3 to be precise.

Now please don’t get me wrong. There are harmful and dangerous fats, mostly those that have been over-heated. Fats also spoil and go rancid, just as proteins do. It is important that we eat only fresh oils and fats. Your nose is your best guide here. If your olive oil smells ‘off’, then it probably is. One of the problems with shelf life is that if a substance can sit on a shelf for months and not spoil how alive was it to begin with? Some oils simply never spoil, they are that over-processed. Don’t buy those things. Same goes with this ultra pasteurized milk. If milk can sit unrefrigerated on a shelf for a month, how can it be beneficial?

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