What should you eat for health?

Nina Teicholz discusses how government science pushed a narrative that has made us less healthy over the past 40 years, and Nass gives sound diet advice in a nutshell

What are my own bona fides? I took 2 nutrition classes back at MIT, and was coauthor of a paper on nutrition about 50 years ago, planning to get a PhD in nutrition at one point. Luckily I moved to medicine, which I think was a better fit. I attended many workshops on Functional Medicine going back to 1995 with Jeff Bland, PhD and his crew. I did research for the Cuban Ministry of Health on the intersection of nutritional deficiencies and cyanide exposure during Cuba’s optic and peripheral neuropathy epidemic in 1993. I treated many patients with complex disorders using diets from 1999-2021.

So, I am no expert but I am fairly knowledgeable. Take or leave what I have to say. Here is the nutshell version of a good diet.

• Unprocessed foods, which have been consumed for hundreds or thousands of years, are fine to eat.

• However, environmental exposures and genetic predisposition cause many people to become allergic or sensitive to certain foods (or food additives), and these foods should always be avoided by those with allergies or intolerances.

• One example of a problematic genetic predisposition is that fava beans (consumed in a Mediterranean staple, pasta fazool aka pasta e fagioli) can cause red cells to lyse in genetically predisposed individuals, and the same genetic predisposition can cause malaria medicines to also induce red cell lysis. For such people, fava beans could be deadly.

• For most people, you have to eat junk food for many years before your health is obviously impaired. But for some, the effects are immediate or occur after just weeks or months. Pay attention to how foods make you feel. It’s important. Cultivate this knowledge. Choose the foods that fill you up, don’t make you feel logy, don’t cause GI distress, and provide prolonged periods of clear thought and energy.

• Meat and fish from clean sources are very good for you. Most sources are not clean, however. Know the source. Virtually all cattle are raised on grass, but many are grain/corn fed near the end of their lives. Most people think 100% grass and hay fed produces the healthiest human food.

• For most people, eating cholesterol or other fats will not elevate your cholesterol level—unless you eat carbs with it. Carbs raise most peoples’ cholesterol level, not eggs, shellfish or marbled meat. For some genetically predisposed people, however, eating fats will raise cholesterol. My cholesterol dropped 45 points when I ate a low carb, higher fat diet.

• Don’t eat fake foods like margarine, hydrogenated oils, fake cheeses, etc. They contain chemicals or methods of preparation that have not withstood the test of time. In many cases, the manufacturer was allowed to designate the chemicals as safe without testing, or used unreliable testing. Do you really want your hormones or your cell membranes to include these non-natural molecules, which impair cellular function?

• Learn to cook. It can be fast and lots of fun, especially when you have great fresh ingredients to work with. Your tastebuds may soon prefer the taste of simple vegetables, cooked well, to that of pastries or (yuck) Doritos. Mine do.

• Fruits and vegetables DO contain cancer and heart-disease fighting chemicals. But most fruits and vegetables consumed in the US are imported. We don’t know what pesticides or herbicides or fungicides were used on them. How long did they travel? Always consider the source. Can you grow your own?

• I am very fussy about the fats I use: butter, ghee, coconut oil (natural, not solvent-extracted), olive oil. Carcinogens, endocrine disrupters and other noxious chemicals are fat-soluble and the fats you purchase are often full of them. Buy organic fats and learn about the source. Most olive oil is adulterated with cheaper oils. Generally the oils from Europe (especially Italy) that are labeled with farm source and short expiration date are genuine. These fats are good for you and make food taste great.

• Fats and proteins give you satiety, while carbs generally do not, because they stimulate insulin release, which lowers blood sugar and makes you hungry again. That is a very shortened version of how food affects hunger, but good to remember as a rule of thumb. Don’t eat carbs alone. Consider increasing fats and proteins. Watch what makes you feel hungry and feel satisfied. The US has an epidemic of insulin resistance due to overconsumption of carbs. Make yourself one less person subject to this condition.

• Our food contains less vitamins and minerals than it used to because much of it is grown on depleted soils that have been “juiced” with nitrogen, potassium and phosphate but lack a good soil microbiome and trace minerals. You may benefit from taking additional vitamins, as I do. However, there can be bad substances in vitamins and supplements too, so carefully watch how they affect you. Try different brands.

Our bodies have the ability to make most needed nutrients, but not all. Here is a list of what is known about what we CANNOT make and must, therefore, consume:

• We cannot make about half the amino acids, termed the essential amino acids: we must consume protein for this reason.

• We cannot make two fats and must consume them: alpha linoleic acid (an omega 3 fatty acid) and linolenic acid (an omega 6). We can make all the others.

• We can’t make vitamins

• We can’t make minerals

• We can make carbohydrates, so it is not necessary to consume them, but boy they taste good.

• Some things we are able to make, but we might not make enough, like Coenzyme Q10.