Chareva and I were the guests on a recent episode of the AgriCast Digest podcast show. We talked about chickens, of course, but also about diet and health, why we decided to move to a small farm, the upcoming kids’ book, etc.
You can listen to the episode here.
If you enjoy my posts, please consider a small donation to the Fat Head Kids GoFundMe campaign.
Slightly off-topic, but I thought you might be interested in this little gem:
http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Soybean_oil_causes_more_obesity_than_coconut_oil_and_fructose_999.html
Wow, soybean oil causes more obesity, pre-diabetes, and diabetes than either fructose sugar or coconut oil! I know that the results on mice, are not necessarily a good analog for humans, but still, if this doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. I’d also love to track this paper down and see what the actual results are, especially coconut oil, which I noticed did not get very much mention, probably because it really did not have anywhere near the adverse affects of what the other two did.
I hope other researchers follow up on this so we can put to bed the myth that soybean oil is this wonderfully perfect health food, when it is anything but.
One thing, however did irk me was statements in the article like this:
“The researchers cautioned that they didn’t study the impacts of the diets on cardiovascular diseases and note in the paper that the consumption of vegetable oils could be beneficial for cardiac health, even if it also induces obesity and diabetes.”
Huh, so you think its great that people develop diabetes just so maybe they don’t get heart disease? Did it ever occur to these brilliant morons that heart and cardiovascular disease also happens to be one of the big killers for people with advanced diabetes? I can only guess that the scientists here are trying to cover their butts politically so that some big agro company doesn’t squish their funding and careers.
Good grief. How can they possibly believe that a good that (perhaps) induces diabetes prevents heart disease?
This is one of those rare articles that both makes me want to cheer and then bang my head on my desk. Another very interesting tid-bit is this about the caloric amounts used in the study:
“All four diets contained the same number of calories and there was no significant difference in the amount of food eaten by the mice on the diets. Thus, the researchers were able to study the effects of the different oils and fructose in the context of a constant caloric intake.”
Another item of great significance that got brushed over. So calories did not make that much of a difference in the obesity and other issues the soybean, fructose, and caused or in the case of the coconut oil, did not cause. That’s a big blow to the over simplistic “Calories in, calories out” model.
So what is causing this weight gain in the mice that apparently is overlooked in the article?
Well, it’s been pretty well known for many years that soy is chock full of phytoestrogen and goitrogens that can seriously mess with the body’s hormone balances and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone following up on this line found that the metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance all ties in with that.
Sadly, I don’t think these researchers will do that, and it may be some time before someone does.
Agreed. Frankly, I’m surprised they dissed soy, given how heavily it’s subsidized.
isn’t there a strong correlation between obesity/diabetes and heart disease? I know I’ve read that before (sorry, no cites, but it just makes sense anyway).
Yup, probably because high blood sugar contributes to heart disease.
Slightly off-topic, but I thought you might be interested in this little gem:
http://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Soybean_oil_causes_more_obesity_than_coconut_oil_and_fructose_999.html
Wow, soybean oil causes more obesity, pre-diabetes, and diabetes than either fructose sugar or coconut oil! I know that the results on mice, are not necessarily a good analog for humans, but still, if this doesn’t scare you, I don’t know what will. I’d also love to track this paper down and see what the actual results are, especially coconut oil, which I noticed did not get very much mention, probably because it really did not have anywhere near the adverse affects of what the other two did.
I hope other researchers follow up on this so we can put to bed the myth that soybean oil is this wonderfully perfect health food, when it is anything but.
One thing, however did irk me was statements in the article like this:
“The researchers cautioned that they didn’t study the impacts of the diets on cardiovascular diseases and note in the paper that the consumption of vegetable oils could be beneficial for cardiac health, even if it also induces obesity and diabetes.”
Huh, so you think its great that people develop diabetes just so maybe they don’t get heart disease? Did it ever occur to these brilliant morons that heart and cardiovascular disease also happens to be one of the big killers for people with advanced diabetes? I can only guess that the scientists here are trying to cover their butts politically so that some big agro company doesn’t squish their funding and careers.
Good grief. How can they possibly believe that a good that (perhaps) induces diabetes prevents heart disease?
This is one of those rare articles that both makes me want to cheer and then bang my head on my desk. Another very interesting tid-bit is this about the caloric amounts used in the study:
“All four diets contained the same number of calories and there was no significant difference in the amount of food eaten by the mice on the diets. Thus, the researchers were able to study the effects of the different oils and fructose in the context of a constant caloric intake.”
Another item of great significance that got brushed over. So calories did not make that much of a difference in the obesity and other issues the soybean, fructose, and caused or in the case of the coconut oil, did not cause. That’s a big blow to the over simplistic “Calories in, calories out” model.
So what is causing this weight gain in the mice that apparently is overlooked in the article?
Well, it’s been pretty well known for many years that soy is chock full of phytoestrogen and goitrogens that can seriously mess with the body’s hormone balances and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone following up on this line found that the metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance all ties in with that.
Sadly, I don’t think these researchers will do that, and it may be some time before someone does.
Agreed. Frankly, I’m surprised they dissed soy, given how heavily it’s subsidized.
isn’t there a strong correlation between obesity/diabetes and heart disease? I know I’ve read that before (sorry, no cites, but it just makes sense anyway).
Yup, probably because high blood sugar contributes to heart disease.
The rooster story was funny. That was nice that your wife was part of interview as well.
Have you visited CSPI web-site lately? They have a counter on how many people salt has killed. They reckon it kills 100,000 a year. The whole site is hard to take seriously, since they seem more in the religous fanatic side than science.
More evidence CSPI has no interest in actual science. Even the CDC has admitted the low-salt recommendations were a mistake.
No interest in science. They won’t cop to leading the charge for trans-fats? No honesty => no science.
It’s not necessary to have a degree to be a scientist and having one does not make a
person a scientist. To be a scientist one has to be at least in the moment as scientist, having
an agenda that dictates an experimental outcome makes one for that experiment a non scientist
regardless of how many an how prestigious one’s resume.
Agreed.
“Science in the name is a tipoff that the organization is not scientific and “Public Interest” means that
the org is anything but. “Center Against Science & the Public Interest”?
The rooster story was funny. That was nice that your wife was part of interview as well.
Have you visited CSPI web-site lately? They have a counter on how many people salt has killed. They reckon it kills 100,000 a year. The whole site is hard to take seriously, since they seem more in the religous fanatic side than science.
More evidence CSPI has no interest in actual science. Even the CDC has admitted the low-salt recommendations were a mistake.
No interest in science. They won’t cop to leading the charge for trans-fats? No honesty => no science.
It’s not necessary to have a degree to be a scientist and having one does not make a
person a scientist. To be a scientist one has to be at least in the moment as scientist, having
an agenda that dictates an experimental outcome makes one for that experiment a non scientist
regardless of how many an how prestigious one’s resume.
Agreed.
“Science in the name is a tipoff that the organization is not scientific and “Public Interest” means that
the org is anything but. “Center Against Science & the Public Interest”?
As Tom said “follow the money.” I’ve been criticized recently by a friend in the UK because I always want to know who funded some supposed “scientific” study results he sends to me. He keeps saying it doesn’t matter- a scientist needs funding to do his work. Yes, but….
As Tom said “follow the money.” I’ve been criticized recently by a friend in the UK because I always want to know who funded some supposed “scientific” study results he sends to me. He keeps saying it doesn’t matter- a scientist needs funding to do his work. Yes, but….
I love your simple advice on nutrition: cut out sugar, processed grains and seed oils. I’ve been following that advice for the last year and a half and my health has greatly improved. I tend to get a little too deep in the weeds sometimes when it comes to nutrition and it helps me to remember to keep it simple – this isn’t rocket science. Another good piece of advice I got from another online mentor of mine (Mark Sisson of Mark’s Daily Apple) – “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”
I agree with Mark 100% on that. That’s why I don’t tell people they’ve got to eat all organic, or grass-fed meats only, or worry about every little micronutrient. If you tell people only perfect is acceptable, all you do is scare them off.