Leigh

• Eating sure has gotten complicated.  We've been listening to the experts since we were  kids. "Don't eat cholesterol.  No eggs, fats, butter or cream."  Then it was "polyunsaturated fat" that was good.  Now it's bad and only olive and canola oil are good.  Eggs are OK now.  They even say butter is better than margarine.  Some people  give up and simply follow their appetites.

• Eating red meat has been almost a political issue.  It sounds conscientious to say you eat only fish and chicken. Fear of fat has become a national obsession.  Despite a decade of low fat diets,  Americans are fatter than ever.  In the 1990's, Americans added eight pounds to their average weight.  We are still getting heart disease in record numbers and the cancer rate is soaring.  How can this be?  

•     Since 1979, research in Wisconsin and Iowa has been going on without a lot of media hoopla.  Michael Pariza, Ph.D. and others are studying Conjugated Linoleic Acid. This remarkable nutrient is found in the meat, fat and milk of cattle who are allowed to graze in pastures and not fed a largely grain based diet.    

•  CLA's ability to decrease body fat and increase lean muscle has recently been recognized with a US patent.

• CLA Reduces Body Fat in Mice by up to 88%
  "A study at Louisiana State University confirmed that feeding male mice a CLA-enriched diet (at 1% of the diet by weight, or 10 g/kg) for 6 weeks resulted in 43 to 88% lower body fat, especially in regard to abdominal fat.  This occurred even if the mice were fed a high-fat diet.   (Life Extension org.)

• Here's an article we took from mercola.com a GREAT site for all NEW medical and health research.
•  

• Cave Men Diets Offer
  Insights to Today's Health
  Problems
  
  By Dr. Loren Cordain
  
  Eat meat. That's the dietary advice given by a team of
  scientists who examined the dietary role of fat in a study
  that combined nutritional analysis with anthropologic
  research about the diets of ancient hunter-gatherer
  societies.
  
  But there's a catch: To be as healthy as a cave man you
  have to eat certain kinds of fish, wild game such as
  venison, or grass-fed meat such as beef. The
  researchers conducted detailed chemical analysis of the
  meats people ate 10,000 years ago and compared
  those results to the most common meat people eat
  today.
  
  They found that wild game, such as venison or elk meat,
  as well as grass-fed beef, contain a mixture of fats that
  are actually healthy for you, and, the researchers say,
  lower cholesterol and reduce other chronic disease risk.
  
  Recent studies have indicated that a healthy diet should
  contain a balance of essential fats. The two types of most
  concern are omega-6 and omega-3, and both are
  essential for proper nutrition.
  
  Omega-3 fat, which is often found in high levels in certain
  fish, has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular
  disease, but too much omega-3 can increase the risk of
  stroke. Omega-6 fat also is an essential fat, but too much
  omega-6 in the diet can contribute to inflammatory
  responses associated with of chronic disease.
  
  According to the researchers, their analysis found that
  wild elk, deer and antelope from the Rocky Mountains
  region have greater amounts of omega-3 fatty acids and
  a lower - and therefore healthier - ratio of omega-6 to
  omega-3 fatty acids in muscle meats, compared to
  grain-fed beef.
  
  Both grass-fed steers and the wild ruminants have a ratio
  of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids slightly above two in
  meat. In other words, two parts omega-6 to one part
  omega-3. That ratio is much lower than the ratios of
  5-to-1 to 13-to-1 reported in previous studies for
  grain-fed steers.
  
  The low fat ratio of wild ruminants and grass-fed beef is
  good news for people who need to reduce their
  cholesterol. The fatty acid ratio in wild ruminants is
  consistent with the recent American Heart Association
  recommendation to increase the consumption of
  omega-3 fatty acids found in certain fish in order to
  reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
  
  Analyzing the foods that people ate 10,000 years ago is
  not a flight of scientific esoterica. The researchers say
  this finding has important implications for what we eat
  today.
  
  Although 10,000 years ago predates all modern
  civilizations, it is a small blip in the evolutionary timeline
  of humans. Some nutritionists believe that by studying
  what people ate in the Paleolithic Era, also known as the
  Old Stone Age, they can determine the proper mix of
  foods for modern man.
  
  Anthropological nutritionists have studied the few
  isolated hunter-gatherer societies - such as the Nanamiut
  of Alaska, the Aborigines of Australia and the !Kung of
  Africa - that remained into the 20th century and found that
  modern maladies, such as heart disease, high
  cholesterol, obesity and diabetes, are rare in these
  populations.
  
  Over the past several decades, numerous studies have
  found that indigenous populations have low serum
  cholesterol and triglyceride levels. This is despite the fact
  that their diets aren't going to reap praise from many
  modern nutritionists.
  
  Previous studies have found that nearly all - 97 percent -
  of the world's hunter-gatherer societies would have
  exceeded recommended guidelines for fat. Although this
  may be surprising to many people, it fits exactly with what
  research is showing about the importance of specific
  types of fat in the diet.
  
  Current research is showing that, with the decline of fat in
  the diet, the amount of fat isn't as important as the
  relative amounts, or ratio, of specific fats in your diet. It's
  a qualitative issue, not a quantitative issue. By eating
  more of the good fat you can lower your cholesterol and
  reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease.
  
  This balance of fats has changed dramatically in the past
  century.
  
  Generally, our modern diets, especially in the past 100
  years, have changed to where we're consuming excess
  amounts of omega-6 fat. Omega-6 is found in high levels
  in many of the oil seed crops that we consume. It's also
  found in the meat of the livestock that eat these grains.
  
  European Journal of Clinical Nutrition
  January 2002
  
  Purdue News February 4, 2002
  
  
  
  DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:
  
  Dr. Cordain is one of the leaders in the move
  towards a greater appreciation of decreased grains
  and increased animal protein, based on Paleolithic
  anthropology.
  
  He has written a new book, titled The Paleo Diet:
  Lose Weight and Get Healthy by Eating the Food
  You Were Designed to Eat, which I recently
  purchased and am looking forward to reading.
  
  
  
  
  
  

• Tip; Use fresh ginger in your marinade to naturally tenderize beef.