Page 74 - Summer2009

All Thumbs Book Reviews

The Jungle Effect: with the lowest saturated fat consumption had
Healthiest Diets from Around the World— the least heart disease. Keys drew this all out on
Why They Work and a nice, neat graph. This might be quite convinc-
How to Make Them Work for You ing if he hadn’t ignored data from over a dozen
By Daphne Miller, MD other countries. When those data are added to his
HarperCollins Publishers, 2009 graph, the nice, neat line turns to limp spaghetti,
completely demolishing his theory. With studies
The Jungle Effect focuses on so-called like that, who needs science? Needless to say, the
“cold spots” in the world, where incidences of author completely lost me right there.
SDUWLFXODU GLVHDVHV DUH VLJQL¿FDQWO\ ORZHU WKDQ More politically correct inaccuracies: people
average. Already, the basic approach makes me in Cameroon don’t get colon cancer because they
suspicious. A tunnel vision focus on one or two don’t eat a lot of saturated fat, (but all that millet,
medical conditions while ignoring the bigger sorghum, maize, plantain and rice they eat gets
picture is a popular approach that can lead to turned into saturated fat—Miller says they eat
trouble. brown rice in Cameroon, but I guarantee you,
7KH ¿UVW FROG VSRW YLVLWHG LV &RSSHU &DQ\RQ it is white rice); Icelanders don’t get depressed
Mexico, where diabetes is fairly rare due to the because they get a lot of omega-3 fatty acids
prevalence of slow-release carbohydrate foods. IURP ¿VK DQG DOVR IURP ODPE DQG GDLU\ IRRGV
Copper Canyon residents consume some, but not since the animals eat moss (they also get a lot of
a lot of animal-based foods. Their overall health vitamin A from cod liver oil, but Miller says too
is not clearly described beyond their very low rate much vitamin A is bad for us); Okinawans avoid
of diabetes. About all we learn from the descrip- breast and prostate cancer by eating lots of fruits
tion is that eating foods that spike your insulin and vegetables, seaweed and getting plenty of
levels is bad for your health—something I think selenium (no mention of the fact that they cook,
most people already know. Skipping ahead, other or at least used to cook, in lard).
cold spots are Iceland (cold in more ways than Even though Daphne Miller has at least
one), Cameroon and Okinawa. heard of Weston Price and the Weston A. Price
The second locale covered in The Jungle Foundation and mentions both favorably, she
Effect is Crete, which is a cold spot for heart either is not extremely familiar or is not on
Miller does disease. Miller credits this protection to olive board with WAPF dietary principles. There is
allow oil, but not to the fatty lamb and rich goat cheese more saturated fat bashing scattered through the
for some that forms the basis of their diet. book. Miller does allow for some animal-based
We are only a few pages into the description food in healthy diets, but it is lowfat and kept to
animal-based of this cold spot when we start hearing about the a minimum. My big, fat thumb is down for this
food in Seven Countries Study by none other than Ancel one. Review by Tim Boyd
healthy diets, “cherry-picker” Keys. The author presents this
study as though it is a landmark breakthrough in
but it is nutrition understanding. I would use other words
lowfat and such as landmine and breakdown. Dr. Keys
kept to a (cherry) picked seven countries. The ones with
the highest saturated fat consumption had the
minimum. highest rate of heart disease, whereas countries
72 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2009