Why "bad" foods are good for you and vice versa

[galapogos]

Why "bad" foods are good for you and vice versa

A vodka and tonic will help you live longer than orange juice

WHO do you think shuns fruit and loves a fry-up cooked in lard – slimline Barry or overweight Laura?

You can read both our case studies below.

She is constantly tired and prone to spots. He is full of beans and, despite being 72, has the blood pressure of a man in his 20s.

But amazingly it is nanny Laura Larsem who eats what most of us are convinced is a healthy diet and Barry Groves who loves lard.

For the past 30 years the healthy eating message has been clear — we’ve been advised to cut back on fat, sugar, dairy and red meat and eat more lean meat, complex carbs and fruit and veg.

In 1980, when we ate a diet much higher in saturated fat, six per cent of men and eight per cent of women were obese.

By 2006, 38 per cent of Brits were overweight and 24 per cent were obese — and those numbers are set to rise.

And as our intake of low-fat, low-calorie foods has soared, so has the incidence of diabetes.

Barry, a nutritionist, is convinced some supposedly healthy foods are actually making us ill.

He is not alone. Studies have shown that rats fed saccharine put on more weight than those given a sugar solution and the omega-6 oil found in supposedly healthy vegetable spreads increases the risk of dementia.

Barry believes fructose — the sugar in fruit — is linked to obesity and diabetes and that low-fat dairy foods cause prostate and ovarian cancer.

In his new book, Trick And Treat: How Healthy Eating Is Making Us Ill, he argues we’re being tricked into eating an unhealthy diet so we can be treated with new drugs such as cholesterol-lowering statins.

His advice is: “Cut down on bread and eat more fish, eggs, butter — any animal protein, anything that used to move around.”

So which of your favourite foods would Barry put back on the menu — and why?

FULL-FAT MILK OR SOYA MILK: “I wouldn’t touch soya milk,” says Barry. “It is made from unfermented soya and contains phytic acid which binds with minerals we need, such as calcium, and stops the body absorbing them.

“It does contain phyto-oestrogens which are good for a woman going through the menopause but they are not at all good for small boys — it’s like giving them a dose of the contraceptive pill.”

Studies found that a regular diet of soya can halve sperm levels and linked tofu, a form of soya, to a raised risk of brain damage in middle-age.

PORK CHOP OR CHICKEN BREAST: “Pork chop, please,” says Barry. “Fat is good for us — the whole idea that eating saturated fat would lead to heart disease is based on two old reports.

“The first, in 1950, showed that if rabbit were fed a cholesterol-rich diet it would fur up their arteries. Yet rabbits are only designed to eat plant life, which has no cholesterol.

“Their clogged arteries could have simply been an allergic response.

“The second study was in 1953 using fat consumption and heart disease data from 22 countries, but the researcher simply ignored figures from 16 countries which didn’t suit his hypothesis.”

BUTTER OR SPREAD: “Butter,” says Barry. Some spreads made from vegetable oil contain hydrogenated fat, a manmade form which could also indicate the presence of trans fats associated with an increased risk of cardiac problems.

A Lancet study looking at heart disease and diet also found more cancer deaths among men on a supposedly healthy polyunsaturated diet.

Some polyunsaturated oils are high in omega-6 fatty acids which block our body’s ability to absorb another crucial fatty acid, omega-3, which has been shown to prevent heart attacks, reduce the risk of dementia and benefit children with learning difficulties.

DOUBLE CREAM OR LOW-FAT YOGURT: Barry says: “Low-fat dairy raises the risk of ovarian and prostate cancer, while full-fat dairy protects against it.”

Two major studies found a link between drinking a lot of skimmed milk and an increased risk of prostate cancer, while another study found a similar association with skimmed milk and women’s cancers.

A 1996 study of 5,000 women in Italy found that women with the highest intake of fat had significantly less breast cancer, while a Swedish study found full-fat dairy foods were associated with lower rates of bowel cancer.

SLICED WHITE BREAD OR WHOLEMEAL: Barry says: “I never touch grains but even if I did, it would still be sliced white for me. Wheat and bran are scratchy and abrasive and irritate the gut, as a study in Georgia in 2006 proved.

“They tear cells in the gut wall. They’re linked to irritable bowel syndrome, diverticulitis and even colon cancer, according to a study by the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in 1996.”

FRIED EGGS OR MUESLI: “Cereals lack vitamins A, C and D, and vitamin B and minerals are often lost in processing,” says Barry, who believes maize is particularly bad.

“It is rich in lectins, chemicals which are known to lower intestinal absorption of many key nutrients.”

Reports in both the American Journal Of Clinical Nutrition and the European Journal Of Clinical Nutrition back his claims.

He adds: “Fried eggs, however, contain every nutrient we need, except vitamin C.” So Barry eats his eggs with liver to top up.

VODKA AND TONIC OR FRUIT JUICE: Make mine a vodka, says Barry— “A glass of orange juice has five times the amount of fructose in a single orange.

“Fructose, nature’s sugar, has been shown to increase the risk of obesity, diabetes and cancer.”

Vodka has just 55 calories per 25ml shot.

[galapogos]

Then I met a doctor in Singapore who told me to eat more fat. I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding’.

I wonder which doctor he met?