Mediterranean Diet Study retracted - Shenanigans with Science pt 2

Diet studies with conflicts of interest, improper design to skew a result, and misinterpretations of data are numerous. Worse, they are the studies that usually surface through mass media outlets. There are a few reasons for that.

First, mass media is not qualified to analyse diet studies, journalists are not nutrition scientists. No one is analyzing studies for red flags before publication.

Second is cultural bias. We love to hear good things about our bad habits. Legions of people, for example, love to see studies that say moderate consumption of alcohol is a good thing. Including many doctors. I'm not taking a position here on whether alcohol consumption is good or not good, I'm simply pointing out that bias is cultural, and pervasive. And people who enjoy alcohol are going to be happy and relieved to see a study that says "what you're doing is good". If that study happens to be conflicted (paid for by an alcohol industry group) that "little problem" somehow never makes it into popular media reports.

Third, studies cost money. Who can typically afford to fund studies? Industry groups...who can then also afford media blitz campaigns to get the "studies" before the public.

Forth, studies are complex and difficult to design and run. "Getting it right" is a narrow set of conditions, getting it wrong is everything else. Deliberate corruption of studies is not difficult, and hugely tempting to industries generating outsized profit on questionable products.

Does any of this make you look toward the flurry of studies saying "butter is back", "cholesterol doesn't matter", "saturated fats are good" with a slightly different perspective?

The Mediterranean Diet Study of 2013 made a huge media splash, and it's recently been retracted. Here's is Dr Pam Popper, who is qualified to analyse diet studies, with an explanation as to why.

Is Medicare a Big Pharma scam?

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”
Upton Sinclair

I'm going to begin this post with the Upton Sinclair quote to allow for the fact there are many well intentioned folks who remain blissfully unaware of the facts, which are the topic of the remainder of this post.

Fact: The vast majority of people who begin using a low fat whole foods plant based (with no added oils, salt, or sugar) diet come off all medications, and rather quickly at that.

Fact: The above group, now "cured" of "chronic conditions" (that need never to have occurred to begin with), continues forward with the best measured "health markers" of any other single group of humans alive on the plant today.

Fact: Big Pharma makes the majority of it's profits selling medications "you'll have to take the rest of your life" because there's no known cure for ... (fill in the blank). If they were being honest they would add: "that we can sell you, as the cause of your condition is dietary, and the only way to cure it is also dietary".

Fact: The majority of Americans of middle age and older are on multiple medications for conditions that are reversible with diet.

Fact: No one with "authority", including MDs, are telling these folks that there is a "cure" that actually works, and it's easy and free (we have to buy food either way).

Fact: This results in a kind of "pocket picking" of citizens, through the agency of Medicare, with the "revenues" flowing to Uncle Sam and Big Pharma.

Nice to know good old Uncle Sam is looking out for our best interests, right?

Will Smith breaks it down and connects the dots...Emotional Health

This is a little different than the usual for this blog, I came across this a few days ago and it's been working me, hanging around...so I figured if I can't forget it maybe I should blog it.

This one is more about emotional health than physical health, but mind/body, they are so interrelated. I've blogged about how diet can improve emotional health, but it works the other way too...emotional health can improve physical health...gotta have both to get anywhere...gotta have both to stay there.

Is this some kind of super species?

Well, unfortunately, by today's standards, yes, I guess you could say that. But really they are not...they are people who are simply reaching the potential for health, energy, clarity, and happiness we are all born with.

I attended the Woodstock Fruit Festival because I wanted to hear Doug Graham deliver a 6 part lecture series, after reading his book "The 80/10/10 Diet". I've learned a lot from Dr. Graham, but being with people of this life style for a week was also a pivotal experience for me. So I've been back 3 times...it's a bit expensive, but very much worth it IMHO. The next Woodstock Fruit Festival will be Aug 19-26 2018 at Trout Lake/Camp Walden, Diamond Point, NY

It's the true high life, without a single drug, alcohol, tobacco (or even coffee) anywhere. It's delicious fruits and vegetables, community, education, sports, music and dance, and an experience that will possibly change your life.

And who is this Doug Graham character? In my humble opinion a person of uncommon sense and wisdom who has discovered the absolute and unalterable relationship between quality of "fuel" (oxygen, water, food) and quality of life. It would not be a stretch, again in my humble opinion, to call Dr. Graham a prophet of his time, doing what all true prophets do, delivering the messages we have collectively "forgotten".

Is it time to remember? Here's Dr. Graham delivering a particularly succinct version of his message.

Shenanigans with Science

I thought it might be interesting to post at last one article that shows how the scientific process can be manipulated quite easily to support marketing agendas.

The obvious questions are how much does this happen, and who buys off on this kind of thing?

Consider: the legitimate science is clear as a bell in showing that a whole foods plant based diet is overwhelmingly superior to a diet based around "animal protein", and this body of evidence is voluminous, with decades of history.

And yet most of us are not even aware it exists.

None of this is to say transitioning to a whole foods plant based diet is easy (because of cultural and habit reasons), not to mention the learning curve for "doing it correctly" in order for the health and vitality benefits to accrue. But those are topics for a different post.

Here's a 3 minute video titled "The Most Shocking Study I've Seen":

NORI Protocol - A Real Cure for Cancer?

You may be aware of the idea of "starving" cancer cells of sugar as a way to fight cancer. It makes sense on one level, when we attach a radioactive trace to sugar and then watch where it goes in the body of a cancer patient, most of it goes to the tumor. But unless one is on a very low carb diet (ketogenic diet) sugar (blood glucose) "fuels" every cell in the body, and since cancer cells are replicating many times faster than healthy cells, more fuel is taken up by cancer cells.

So if the idea behind ketogenic diets as a cancer treatment is simply that glucose is the primary fuel for cancer, the fact glucose is also the primary fuel for healthy cells is not factored into the equation.

Another idea that "starves" cancer cells of an essential component for growth has come to the fore, and it seems more promising. Instead of depriving cancer cells of fuel, it deprives them of "building blocks", which turns out to be a particular amino acid called methionine. Studies have shown this to be a very effective approach
http://medicinabiomolecular.com.br/biblioteca/pdfs/Cancer/ca-3035.pdf
but unfortunately this researcher was unable to get additional funding to continue. However research along similar lines continues in other parts of the world, which is encouraging.
http://www.oncotarget.com/index.php?journal=oncotarget&page=article&op=view&path[]=11626&path[]=36813

In this country an intelligent individual has pieced together the puzzle pieces and developed a cancer treatment named the NORI Protocol (Nutritional Oncology Research Institute). It turns out fruits and certain vegetables are very low in methionine, which may go some way to explaining why there have been so many anecdotal cases over the years of cancer reversals using "raw food" diets, and juicing, etc.

The NORI Protocol however takes advantage of the recent research and has developed a targeted approach that appears to be very effective. Here is a blog post by NORI's founder, Mark Simon.
https://noriprotocol.com/fruit-diet-natural-cancer-treatment/

If you find this interesting I encourage you to explore the rest of the material on the NORI web site.