Dear Doctor.

Discussion in 'Health and Fitness' started by Bilby, Aug 4, 2019.

  1. Bilby

    Bilby Lifetime Supporter and Freerangertarian Super Moderator

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    I was recently asked to write a letter to a doctor explaining some issues for a contest to help rain doctors. I thought I would share what I wrote here.
    This is an email for Stephen Barrett who runs the Quckwatch website.
    Dear Stephen Barrett, M.D.
    I like the idea of your Quackwatch Website, I really do. I am all for exposing charlatans for what they are. I am all for lifting the lid on frauds , hoaxes, scams and myths of any kind. However, what is quite apparent to me is your knowledge base is woefully outdated.
    To give an example, you shine the spotlight on an advert for ghee. You state that,
    "high-fat diets are known to increase the risk of coronary heart disease".
    I am not aware of high fat diets in general cause coronary heart disease. Ancel Keys' 6 Countries Study claimed that saturated fat caused coronary heart disease. He had the data from 16 other countries that he chose not to use. In other words he cherry picked the data.
    There is no controversy regarding trans fat. These days this is common knowledge. The first reference is for vegetable ghee and real ghee. These are two quite different products. Vegetable ghee is a euphemism for hydrogenated vegetable oil.To attribute the well known ill effects of vegetable ghee to real ghee, I would call bad science. The second reference is interesting but the number people studied is far too small to be meaningful. Did you know that France has the highest per capita consumption of butter and one of the lowest rates of heart disease?
    What is less well known is many vegetable oils are rather high in omega- 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids that cause inflammation. However, it is not that hard to avoid trans fat or omega -6. Just choose butter, lard (not hydrogenated) dripping , duck fat, coconut oil and yes ghee.
    By the way did you know that low fat diets have been linked to depression?
    alex/
     

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