Disruptive Self Cure?

I have been trying to come up with an expression that is equally powerful to Disruptive Technology but is in relation to self-healthcare. I cannot find an expression that is so succinct and powerful yet the expression of Paradigm Shift doesn’t express the disruption that the awakening of the unhealthy are now experiencing, changing what grocery stores sell, what fast food chains can put into their foods, what doctors are visited, and what medicines are taken. The change is dramatic but only minuscule compared to what is yet to come.

The New Nutritional Paradigm

In case you are not familiar what I am talking about, read this article I wrote a week ago about how individuals without any medical degree take charge of their health, reverse type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, arthritis, allergies, asthma, PCOS, seizures, migraines, even cancer, and many more. There are several options to choose from but every single person who has made health improvement has done so by stopping all medicines and dropping all doctors and, instead, changed the type of nutrition they eat.

This is an impossible economic situation for markets that depend on the Standard American Diet (SAD) consumption. We face a global economic crash and face lots of ethical issues if the changes come from the “top”. This subject came up in a conversation with a Facebook friend, who is new to the concept and was interested in the economics of it all. So, what is happening, what is the concept, and why do we face an economic crash and ethical dilemma? To understand this, I first introduce you to some of the nutritional changes.

Disruptive Nutritional Changes

The SAD nutrition in brief: lots of grains, lots of fresh fruits and vegetables, little meat and fish with fat removed, avoid red meat, eat little vegetable oil, everything low-fat. In the latest update of the official USDA guideline an egg a day is now permissible and milk is also back next to “My Plate” but skim or low-fat. Over 50% of the calories are recommended t be consumed from carbohydrates (grains, fruits, vegetables, sugar, juices, sweets, nuts, and seeds).

Other nutritional paradigms turned the plate and reordered the percentages of what one eats. Here I list only one of these nutritional methods, with which I am most familiar, since I practice it myself: the ketogenic Diet (not really a “diet” but that is how they decided to call it). In the ketogenic diet the focus is on getting most of the calories from fat, eat minimal carbs, and even protein is consumed in moderate amount. Red meat is encouraged because of its high animal fat content, fatty fish, butter, whole fat products in general, zero grains, minimal fruits (if any), very low carbohydrate vegetables chosen only for their fiber, lots of eggs, heavy cream, and while milk is not on the menu for the ketogenic diet, I actually drink whole fat A2 milk and am perfectly remaining in ketosis.

However, the disruption is not just the nutrition choice difference though that is turning what we buy up-side-down quite a bit. The more serious disruption enters from the health benefits the changed nutrition provides. So let’s compare the two nutrition types head on.

Nutrition Comparison: Hazards vs Benefits

First, there are 3 nutrition groups (macronutrients or macros): carbohydrates, proteins, and fat. Of the three, the two essential macros are protein (essential amino acids) and fat (essential fatty acids). Carbohydrates are not essential. Essential means we must eat it because our body cannot make it but carbohydrates provide glucose that we can create by our body. If tomorrow all carbohydrates dropped off the planet earth, we would flourish like they never existed. If protein or fat dropped off the planet, we would perish. Thus carbohydrates, the non-essential nutrient, should be consumed least, if any at all.

The SAD nutrition, since it recommends eating most of our nutrition from carbohydrates, is a problem on many levels—taken from the Dietary guidelines 2015-2020.

Since there is not enough room in the chart, I explain each individually.

Carbohydrates: carbohydrates convert to glucose in the body, which is taken to cells via insulin. Insulin’s primary role is not glucose management. It primary role is as growth hormone, hormone signaling, and energy storage. With the onslaught of constant carbohydrates, insulin is overloaded.

Insulin must place glucose somewhere, so much of the extra carbohydrates end up in the liver as fat, which then causes insulin resistance, leading to high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, compromised cardiac health, obesity, arthritis, allergies, skin disorders, asthma, knee and back problems, migraines, Alzheimer’s disease, etc.

Saturated Fats: the black sheep of nutrition, which is the most valuable nutrition. Saturated fat has been twisted out of reality by a fake heart-health movement derived from fraudulent science after the 1960s by Ancel Keys’ charm; it spread around the world like wildfire, causing obesity, diabetes, and other metabolic diseases like a plague.

Protein: For some odd reasons the amount of recommended protein is not mentioned in the USDA nutrition guide.

Sodium: One of the most important essential minerals in the human body, without which there is no life. Several studies have shown that while there is no maximum for the best amount of dietary sodium, there definitely is a minimum below which it kills more than it helps. The USDA’s recommended ≤ 2300 mg for young adults is borderline unhealthy (too low) and the recommended 1500 mg for the elderly is at the cusp of what comes with an increased cardiovascular risk. The same study showed that consuming 5,000-6,000 mg sodium (that is 2-2.5 teaspoons a day and 2-2.5 times the USDA recommended maximum) is ideal for both healthy and sick and the healthy benefit from even more sodium; the study checked all the way to 12,000 mg sodium (that is 5 teaspoons of salt) a day and people’s longevity kept increasing.

Now the table for a standard medium level ketogenic diet:

Carbohydrates: Since carbs are not essential nutrients, they are not needed at all. What is useful is fiber; carbs are great source for that and some vitamins, such as C, that though can be eaten from organ meat, since most people dislike organ meats, they need to supplement. There is no other need for carbohydrates. Eating more carbohydrates than one needs leads to insulin resistance. And how much carbohydrates do we need? Zero.

Saturated fats: it is important to note that there is no fat that is only saturated fat. All fats are made up of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fats. Those fats that are higher in saturated fat (coconut oil, for example) are not going to clog any artery up. That was a terrible misunderstanding of the metabolic process. What clogs the arteries up is inflammation caused by sugar.

Fats in general: Eating fat doesn’t make you fat any more than eating grapes will make you into grapes. Again, we must consider the metabolic processes and also must consider that every single cell in our body has a fat-based cell membrane and that our brain is over 70% fat, forming the myelin, insulation, for proper voltage transfer by brain cells. 25% of the body’s cholesterol is also in the brain.

Proteins: Some percent of protein converts to glucose—it is unclear what percent since everywhere I read I find different information. However, protein also adds other undesired elements, such as too much glutamate (glutamic acid), which can be harmful as it is not essential.

Sodium: In ketosis we burn fat and the byproduct is water. As the water is urinated out, we also lose salt. In the ketogenic diet you need to drink more water and consume more salt than on the SAD diet. Now that we understand why people switch to LCHF or ketogenic (or paleo or many similar) diets, let’s look at the disruptive forces.

Disruptive Ethical Forces

Let me start with the ethical concern since that is easier: as we have started to demonize carbohydrates and people started to reverse all their ailments, we can see that the consumption of carbohydrates is harmful. Therefore, we can no longer ship grains and similar carbohydrates to starving nations. Knowing that grains are terrible for our health, how can we send it to starving, famine, or disaster stricken nations in good consciousness? If they are causing illness for us, what gives us the right to make them also sick? Do we drop cows, chickens, and eggs from airplanes? That is not possible. This is a political question that cannot be resolved so no government can officially announce that carbohydrates (particularly grains) are the devils even if everyone knows in our country that they are.

Disruptive Economic Forces

I can see a global economic crash. That is because if the officials demonize sugar, vegetable oils, and grains from top-down, every single major company in business that is in the business of manufacturing sugar, or grains, or vegetable oils will suffer huge losses. Every single major food company is manufacturing processed foods, 80% of which are made of these nutrients.

We also have entire new industries created to handle those who get sick on the SAD diet: pharmaceuticals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, hospitals, medical centers, drug stores, nurses, nursing homes are all created as a result of illnesses caused by eating grains, sugar, and vegetable oils. If 80% of the businesses are in the business of making what makes us sick, and they stop, the number of diseases drop exponentially–it is not a linear change.

To give you an example: quitting grains, sugar, and vegetable oils, usually stops allergies, arthritis, reverses non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, reduces or cures asthma, reverses pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, obesity, all metabolic diseases, prevents some forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, prevents some cancers, etc. So as you see, stopping 3 things can eliminate dozens of health conditions.

The loss in the need for medical care is exponential. This then has a domino effect for the lack of need for doctors, drugs (pharmaceuticals, drug stores, pharmacists, nurses, nursing homes, etc.,), placing half the nation into the unemployment line… Is this feasible? No, it is not. So here is where the wealth of the economy clashes with the health of the people.

However, there is a solution. It is slower but much more efficient: grassroots. Forget about top-down directions, having the government make any changes in its nutrition recommendation.

People educate themselves via blogs, like this, and books, and heal on their own. They pass on the word to their family and friends and they pass on to others. This has already cured thousands of migraineurs, took them off all medicines, they stopped sugar, grains, vegetable oils as well. Grassroots movement can provide an exponential change. A note from a doctor I received a copy of:

“It is with great reluctance that I am sending you this message that, as of July 1, 2017, I will be permanently closing my office… A significant portion of the care is provided by communication via telephone or email for which my office is not set up. Hence my current style of practice is becoming outdated for the present times.”

Indeed. The underground movements already changed many grocery stores, restaurants, fast food places, and doctors’ offices of operation. This way it is bottom up effort that is changing the markets; market forces are created by the masses. This gives time for the economy to change without a crash and to refocus its effort to the wealth of the nation by things other than healthcare.

Comments are welcome as usual,

Angela