A Quick Retrack of My Journey

Have you ever known an elderly person that defies all odds? You know they type, they are teetering on their 100th birthday and there's not one prescription drug in their medicine cabinet. They have no diagnosis of diabetes, heart disease, or high blood pressure yet they have never bought a low fat product in their life. Usually they live out in the country and drink milk from their cows, eat bacon and eggs for breakfast, and fry food in lard. Have you ever met someone like that?

When I worked in the hospital setting I would meet people like this from time to time. Usually they were brought in for something small like a urinary track infection. One specific patient comes to mind. She was a small lady in her late 90's who still went out and chopped her own wood everyday. She had no chronic disease in spite of eating a back woods and medically-deemed-suicidal-fat-filled diet. You might think of her as a red neck for never buying into the more "advanced" way of eating. Low fat and low cholesterol were not in her vocabulary. She ate what she grew be it greens, eggs, or beef. She didn't buy the "healthiest" thing on the Mc Donalds menu. She didn't go to Mc Donalds.

Funny thing is what was once looked down upon as being "back woods" is now trendy! This brings new meaning to the Hank Williams Jr song, "Country Boy Can Survive." ;)

My fascination with old folks started during my internship in graduate school. I use to listen to a man on the radio who was a veterinarian who also studied people who lived to be 100. He found that most people who lived to be 100 lived out in the country, usually in very primitive cultures, they did not go to a doctor, and they did not eat the Standard American Diet (SAD). As a dietitian I began to take notice of my patients.

Prominent people (much much younger than my little old healthy 99 year olds)who could afford costly "health" food were still developing heart disease. I can remember being consulted several times to educate patients on the cardiac diet who were at their ideal body weight and ate a low fat and low cholesterol diet yet they were having open heart surgery. And I would ask the doctor, "Just what exactly do you want me to tell them?" And even worse the patients were asking me, "Where did I go wrong? I thought I was doing everything right." I was beginning to figure out there was a big hole in this ideal.

Fortunately my Dad recommended the book, The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin. His story is one that should be read by everyone. His passion for nutrition came from being sick himself. I won't go deep into his story but I will say that he grew up in a family that only ate food from health food stores and he was very ill. He began to research they way Jews ate in the old testament. After all, as a christian we want to live by the bible. Why then are we not eating by the bible?

Once he got ALL processed foods out of his diet-even processed "health" foods- he was cured from a previously thought incurable intestinal disease.

What he did not cut out of his diet was fat - even saturated fat - and cholesterol.

Next into our lives steped Westin A Price (http://westonaprice.org/). Let me tell you, we have hit Fat City at this point in my jouney. It's time to get down to the hard facts on fat. But, my baby just woke up so we will continue this story in another post soon.