Page 15 - Fall2012

Beyond Good and Evil:

Synergy and Context

with Dietary Nutrients

By Chris Masterjohn, PhD

uccessful traditional diets provided a rich array of

nutrients that cooperated with one another to produce
Svibrant health. As modern diets have shifted towards

nutrient-poor foods fortified with the favored nutrients
du jour, we have gazed askance at the degeneration that

has resulted and embarked on a series of searches for the
dietary villains that we imagine lurking in the shadows.

We have blamed heart disease on cholesterol, mortality on meat, osteo-
porosis on vitamin A, and diabetes on fat. Yet somehow it has eluded us that
we are asking all the wrong questions. Biology is not a war between good mol-
ecules and evil molecules, nor is it a war between "wholesome" natural foods
like vegetables and "poisonous" natural foods like meat. Biology is a system
wherein many parts work together in synergy to produce a context within which
each part benefits the whole. Several examples of this type of synergy follow.

Wise Traditions FALL 2012 FALL 2012 Wise Traditions 15

101665_text.indd 15 9/14/12 1:33 AM