Page 11 - Fall2012

Caustic Commentary

Sally Fallon Morell takes on the Diet Dictocrats

EGG BEATERS top consumers were eating an average of two-thirds of an egg
News of a study linking egg yolk consumption with heart dis- per day, which provides less than a teaspoon of fat, most of it
ease hit the Internet and print media August 13, with sixty-five supposedly heart-healthy monounsaturated fat. We challenge
articles posted within a day of release, and over one hundred researchers like Dr. Spence to look at the heart health and
fifty articles by the time the egg bashing had played itself out. overall health of those who make a point of eating at least
“Newly published research led by Dr. David Spence shows two egg yolks per day—along with bacon and butter as part
that eating egg yolks accelerates atherosclerosis in a manner of a good breakfast. For more information, see blogs by Chris
similar to smoking cigarettes,” was the lead sentence in the ar- Masterjohn (www.westonaprice.org/blogs/cmasterjohn/ ) and
ticles. Turns out this study, published in Atherosclerosis (2012 Zoe Harcombe (www.zoeharcombe.com/2012/08/egg-yolk-
Aug 1 [Epub ahead of print]) is one of the worst examples of consumption-carotid-plaque-bad-science/).
junk science we’ve seen, carried out by doctors with ties to
Pfizer Canada, AstraZeneca BUTTER COMEBACK
Canada and Merck Frosst Speaking of butter, this
Canada. Patients coming natural fat is making a
into the authors’ Canadian comeback with consum-
clinic with a recent stroke ers. Butter sales at gro-
and transient ischemic at- cery stores increased by
tack were given a dietary more than 2 percent in the
recall questionnaire, from year ending May 13, while
which the staff estimated margarine sales decreased
their “egg-yolk years,” the more than 6 percent, while
number of egg yolks eaten olive oil sales remained
multiplied over the number steady. Overall butter led
of years. Not surprisingly, with $1.5 billion in sales
they found that older patients during the period com-
had more “egg-yolk years” pared to $1.4 billion for
than younger patients be- margarine and spreads
cause they were. . . well. . . older. To be fair, the analysis was and $706 million for olive oil (vafarmbureau.org, August 16,
adjusted for age, but as author Zoe Harcombe points out in 2012). Since this is not the healthy direction the food industry
her blog on the study “the authors could have picked broc- (not to mention the health care industry) wants us to go, look
coli and measured broccoli years and the top quintile group for a major study bashing butter some time soon. By the way,
of seventy-year-olds would have had fourteen years more a new website, www.naturaltransfats.ca, helps consumers
broccoli consumption than the fifty-six-year-olds.” Oddly, the know the difference between harmful industrial trans fats
team fingered egg yolks when they were really asking about and beneficial natural trans fats found in butter and meat fats.
whole egg consumption, reporting “eggs” as “egg yolks,”
presumably because we already “know” that there’s nothing A PERFECT FAKE OUT?
wrong with egg whites. Of interest is the fact that the team “It has a plumpness to it, what they call a ‘mouthfeel,’ like a
found no correlation between egg consumption and choles- kind of fattiness,” muses Bix Stone, one of the founders of
terol or triglyceride levels. Nor did they find an association Twitter, who is a vegan. “When you eat other leading meat
with frequency of egg intake. This means that the association analogues they’re delicious, but you kind of know they’re not
was driven primarily by the “number of years consumed” for real. They’re missing something that’s hard to identify. This
eggs, after adjusting for age. Another point: the actual egg has a very realistic, meaty, delicious quality.” Farhad Manjoo
consumption for all the men was less than one per day—the of the Washington Post coos: “. . . I’ve never tasted anything
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