Why Do We Think We Understand Food?

When I was in high school, it was all the rage to promote margarine as a heart-healthy food because it contained omega-6s and was made from polyunsaturated vegetable oils. That was fifteen years ago. Today, scientists have discovered that the body can't process margarine because it's loaded with very harmful trans fats.

In the same vein, recent evidence has demonstrated that those same omega-6s that are in vegetable oils are too prevalent in the modern diet and they cause inflammation in your body. They need to be balanced with omega-3s, at a ratio that's at least 4:1 (omega-6s to omega-3s). The typical American eats them in ratios ranging from 10:1 to 30:1.

Eggs are currently another food that's having a switch in healthfulness. Before the great cholesterol scare, eggs were great. Then they were demonized for having high quantities of cholesterol. They're ending up more on the healthy side of things now as science is pointing out that the cholesterol you eat may not directly translate into cholesterol in your blood. The Mayo Clinic recently said "Eggs are high in cholesterol, and a diet high in cholesterol can contribute to elevated blood cholesterol levels. However, the extent to which dietary cholesterol raises blood cholesterol levels isn't clear."

And current evidence suggests that the compounds in eggs may in fact lower blood pressure as much or better than prescription drugs.

There's also breast milk. Because the nutritional deficiencies of mothers are passed along to their children via breast milk (you can't make Vitamin C, so if you're not eating it, neither is your baby), when large populations of breast fed babies started showing up with nutritional deficiencies in the early 20th century, a push was made to encourage formula. By the 1970s, three quarters of the babies in the country were on formula. Now, breastfeeding is back in vogue, and it's generally acknowledged that we still haven't determined all the benefits of the composition of breast milk. Only recently have formulas popped up with additions like DHA and ARA (forms of omega-3s) as new research prevails.

And then there's soy. Among other things, research indicates that the estrogens in soy cause lower sperm counts in men and affect libido. The FDA's own scientists acknowledge that eating soy can encourage thyroid problems that lead to weight gain, depression, and fatigue. A study in Hawaii showed a relationship between tofu consumption and cognitive deterioration.

This is nutritional research dealing with the basic building blocks of food. If you want a hamburger, but eating out is too unhealthy, you can make one at home. But are you supposed to use beef? Soy? Put an egg in it to hold it all together? Skip the bun? What do you put on your toast in the morning? Margarine? Butter?

Michael_Danielson

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