Meat & fried food: the secret to a long life
Diet advice usually comes with a whole lot of don'ts: Don't eat this, and don't drink that.
So let me add one more "don't" to the list: Don't listen to all that mainstream nonsense... because you don't have to give up your favorite foods to live long, and a new study proves it.
The only other "don't" you really need is this one: Don't eat sugar--because researchers have confirmed that it's the quickest path to an early grave.
The researchers also say the best way to ensure a long and healthy life is through a diet high in what the mainstream considers healthy food: low-fat dairy, fish, vegetables and whole grains.
But don't put down your steak knife just yet, because the researchers also found something else... something they weren't quite as eager to discuss in the pages of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association.
Something they later admitted was "unexpected," probably because it doesn't jibe with all those "don'ts" you usually hear: People who ate the most meat and fried foods and had a steady, moderate drinking habit lived just as long as the so- called "healthy" eaters.
And that means maybe you don't have to stick to poached chicken and salad greens after all.
In the study, researchers tracked more than 2,500 adults between the ages of 70 and 79 for 10 years, splitting them into six groups based on the types of food they ate most frequently: "healthy foods," "high-fat dairy," "meat, fried foods, and alcohol," "breakfast cereal," "refined grains" and "sweets and desserts."
After adjusting for risk factors, they found that high-fat dairy eaters--think ice cream--had a 40 percent higher risk of dying during the study period, while the sweets-and-desserts crowd had a 37 percent higher risk of death.
That's compared to the so-called healthy eaters... but that's where the researchers lose some credibility here--because even though the seniors in the "meat, fried foods and alcohol" group were just as likely to remain alive as those on the supposedly healthy diet, they were practically ignored.
It was as if they couldn't explain it... so they didn't even bother to try, despite the fact that those eaters represented the single biggest group in the study, with nearly twice as many of them than in the supposedly healthy group.
Sounds to me like it's time to fry yourself a steak, crack open a beer--and ignore all the "don'ts."
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Edward Martin writes House Calls, a daily letter chronicling the most cutting-edge alternative methods for beating diabetes and cancer, to the latest FDA foul-ups and Big Pharma conspiracies.
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Comments
anonymoose
So a high (saturated) fat diet from dairy is bad?
I thought carbs were bad, and fats (milk, meats, eggs, etc), where better for you.
Anonymous
This article would be more credible with a specific reference or link to the dietetic journal report.
Boomer12k
Finally some common sense observations. My Aunt, the health nut died at 82, my uncle not necessarily the health nut, died at 90. My father, the store bought pizza, sausage, processed food eater, is alive and well at 87. He did have prostate cancer, but that was taken care of with radiation treatments, and that was long ago. I have diseases I got from too much over the counter NSAID use, that gave me Candida, and Leaky Gut Syndrome, and Grave's Disease, and no Thyroid, and bowel problems, and I was 49 when that started. It had nothing to do with my diet so much, but at the time, it was high sodium, processed foods. But also mostly vegetarian.
Now I am gluten intolerant, and have to watch soy, eggs, and I eat turkey for meat of choice, salads, yogurt smoothies with strawberries and blueberries for breakfast, with an apple for a snake. I do have gluten free cookies, muffins, and Bumble bars for snacks, and pop corn once in a while.....
People get sick or diseased for many reasons. Deficiency, toxins, other hidden conditions, some of it not even diet related. So supplements can help, and detox can help. You just have to do what is right for you in your opinion. It is just as good as anybody else's, after all.
Be well and happy.
Steve
Mercedes Lackey
Carbs are bad, fat is bad, meat is bad, vegetables and fruits are covered in toxins and salmonella, fish is loaded with mercury....
Guess we all just starve to death. But we'll have healthy hearts.
Anonymous
This is good to know, BUT you still cannot say that eating fried food, ... and the other stuff you mentioned allows you to live as long as others who ate healthy.... if for no other reason than there has not been a study of how long these people live to really compare them to the fried food eaters.
I for one can tell you from personal experience CRAP in CRAP OUT. Good in GOOD out. This is simple and true in all parts of life. Fried food is CRAP.
Anonymous
Anonymous #2,
I think this is the same research that was used in an earlier article about two days ago that bashed 'high-fat dairy'. Here is the link to that research:
“Eating healthier means living longer,” physorg.com
I think that these researchers conducted a biased study, as they clustered foods based on subjective criteria and even named one of them "healthy diet" before any data were collected. Guess which group won?
Tom CHHC
Thanks for a good laugh, Ed-- this story has no credibility whatsoever without references.
Anonymous
I can remember my grandmother eating bread dipped in bacon grease all the time....most every morning for breakfast...she was 97 when she passed away...and she did have a very occasional drink too. I think it is more the chemicals and preservatives that gets added to our food than the food itself....most everything we ate then came from our own farm and hard work...not the store and "food factories" we have today...
Anonymous
Totally agree with posters #2 and #7, without proper references and any indication of how the study was performed, this article is nothing but mush. A bunch of innuendo and unsubstantiated supposition. Sorry Ed, but ACTUAL RESEARCH by a legitimate, respected group or association that can be quoted, stats excerpted from etc. is mandatory.
Davy777
So "high-fat dairy" equals ice cream? Could also call that high sugar. Define "Healthy foods". And just what is "steady, moderate drinking"? Sipping alcohol all day, every day? And "breakfast cereal" is not a part of "refined grains"? Hey, HealthierTalk.com, have you been taken over by the Factory Farm people? Big Dairy and Meat? The Carb Conglomerates? Looks like we'll have to revise downwards our opinions of the health and nutritional information you dispense. Grain of salt, anyone?
Rob Norman
This article sucks and makes me want to cancel my subscription to this news letter!
Anonymous
LOT OF COMMENTARY HERE.THINK I WILL CHECK WITH MY 97 YEAR OLD UNCLE[HE ALSO EATS BACON GREASE]AND GET HIS OPINION.I CAN IMAGINE HE MAY SAY ,"BACK IN THE 30'S [DEPRESSION YEARS]IT WASN'T A MATTER OF WHAT WE ATE,BUT IF WE ATE AT ALL".
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