Page 18 - Summer2008

Caustic Commentary

the dangers of trans fatty acids. Many schools now stipulate condently predicting, for example, a 14 percent decrease in
that all foods brought from home must be processed, packaged breast cancer incidence. When the results came, the benet

items in order to protect those with peanut allergies. Reports of years of restrictive eating was. . . . zilch! No difference
of widespread vitamin D deciencies (due in part to avoid- in the incidence of cancer, stroke and heart disease, and no

ance of animal fats) have triggered calls for consumption of difference in weight gain either (junkfoodscience.blogspot.
more vitamin D-enriched lowfat milk. Now we have the crisis com/2007/10/junkfood-science-exclusive-big-one.html). Now
of rising food costs which the pundits are using to promote what we need is a study that compares the outcome for those on
. . . more processed foods. Their advice includes checking a typical American diet low in saturated fat—even the control

out warehouse deals for white our and conventional eggs, group’s saturated fat intake was far too low to support optimal
purchasing skim milk rather than whole (or even reconstitut- health—with that of WAPF-ers who take cod liver oil, pile on
ing dry milk) and above all clipping coupons, which help you the butter and cook in tallow and lard.
save a few pennies on expensive processed items (articles.
moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/RaiseKids/How- MORE DISAPPOINTMENT
ToFight5FoodBudgetKillers.aspx). The notion that we are not The latest theory is that cholesterol-lowering statin drugs pre-
spending enough on food is a foreign concept in these discus- vent heart attacks not by lowering cholesterol but by prevent-

sions. Actually, you can double your spending on important ing inammation. The JUPITER (Justication for the Use of
items like milk and eggs, by purchasing raw milk and pastured Statins in Primary Prevention: an Intervention Trial Evaluating
eggs, and eliminate the really expensive foods like breakfast Rosuvastatin) trial was designed to study over 15,000 patients
cereals, snack foods and frozen dinners, and still come out without evidence of cardiovascular disease and with low
ahead, especially if you factor in your medical costs. The les- LDL-cholesterol, but an elevated C-reactive protein (CRP),

son still to be learned: cheap food is very expensive! which is a marker for inammation and is associated with an
increased risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular events. In other

DISAPPOINTING RESULT words, the trial was designed to provide justication for giving

The Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) Dietary Modication statin drugs to just about everybody, even those with low-LDL
Trial involved over 48,000 postmenopausal women, who were and no history of heart disease. Investigators were to look at
randomly assigned to either a regular unrestricted diet or to the safety of longterm treatment with Crestor (rosuvastatin)
a “healthy” diet that was low in fat (20 percent fat) and high compared with a placebo, with primary endpoints being total

in ber, with at least ve servings of fruits and vegetables, mortality, noncardiovascular mortality and adverse events. In
and six servings of grains per day—in other words, which March, AstroZeneca, makers of Crestor, issued a terse press
followed the dietary guidelines to a T. The “healthy” eaters release announcing that the trial has been stopped eighteen
attended group sessions led by dieticians who administered months early “because of unequivocal evidence of a reduction

“intense behavioral modication” to keep them on their diets. in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality amongst patients
And the “healthy” diet women did surprisingly well, main- who received Crestor when compared to a placebo”(www.
taining their fat intake at 24 percent of total calories and the marketwatch.com, March 31, 2008). No mention of total
dreaded saturated fat at 8 percent. By contrast, the control mortality, noncardiovascular mortality or adverse events. We
group consumed 38 percent of total calories as fat with about can only assume that the overall results of the trial were disap-
12 percent as saturated fat (still not enough fat, especially not pointing and that AstroZeneca stopped the trial to prevent the
enough saturated fat, in our opinion). The “healthy” diet group word from getting out.
also consumed more fruits and vegetables, grains and ber. Gifts and bequests to the

The women were followed closely for more than eight years Weston A. Price Foundation
while researchers recorded cases of clinically conrmed breast will help ensure the gift of good health

cancer, colon cancer, heart disease, heart attacks and strokes, to future generations.
16 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2008