2010 week 52
Book review
These are some snippets from Part 4 of The Eskimo Diet: How to Avoid Heart Attack by Dr. Reg Saynor and Dr. Franklin Ryan reviewed below: “In the doses we recommend we are not aware of any side-effect of fish oil. Even reviewing the world literature, it is very difficult indeed to find any evidence against fish oil.” “Fish is a traditional part of Man’s diet, but in many countries in the West we seem to have lost the habit.” “In Diet of Man: Needs and Wants, Lord Trenchard gives a table of fish consumption in the United Kingdom this century. Between 1909 and 1913 an average member of the population, including the elderly and children, ate 41 lb (pounds weight) of fish a year. If this were fatty fish, it would be twice the dietary intake recommended in this book.” “Avoid cooking fish in butter or other animal fats. Frying removes the very oils we need so grill, bake, poach or lightly boil the fish or else eat it cold as with smoked salmon and mackerel.” “Saturated fat usually arrives in the shopping basket in the form of animal and dairy produce, but it also has many more subtle forms.” “Meat and liver are good sources of iron in our diet. To reduce saturated fat we have suggested that you only eat red meat in a main meal twice a week, so the possibility of not eating enough iron is a real one.” “Eggs are an excellent source of many nutrients. Unfortunately the yolk is high in cholesterol and because of this we advise you to limit your consumption to about three a week.”
THE ESKIMO DIET
HOW TO AVOID HEART ATTACK
Dr. REG SAYNOR & Dr. FRANK RYAN
EBURY PRESS, LONDON 1990
PART IV
Chapter 7: What exactly Is Fish Oil?
• Fish oil, in its pure form, is the oil which is squeezed from the flesh (or muscle) of oily fish.
• It is different from cod liver oil which is squeezed from the liver and not the flesh. Cold liver oil is rich in vitamins D and A but less rich than pure fish oil in the essential fatty acids EPA and DHA.
• It is important to understand that all the medical trials we have discussed have involved either fish in the diet or fish oil.
• None of these trials have involved pure chemical preparations of EPA or DHA.
Safety first
• In the doses we recommend we are not aware of any side-effect of fish oil.
• Even reviewing the world literature, it is very difficult indeed to find any evidence against fish oil.
• There have been perhaps a thousand scientific investigations into its properties, yet only a handful have sounded any cautionary note. Even amongst these few, the query usually concerns the full beneficial effect.
Chapter 8: The Eskimo Diet
• In the immediate post-war period when meat supplies were scarce the consumption of fish increased sharply, but since then there has been a continuous decline, exacerbated recently by ‘cod wars’, herring scarcities and vastly increased prices.
• Fish is a traditional part of Man’s diet, but in many countries in the West we seem to have lost the habit.
• During the evolutionary process our ancestors came from the sea, and the human foetus goes through a ‘fishy’ stage in which it has a tail and gills.
• Early human settlements tended to be about the coast or by lakes and rivers, and the living quarters of Stone Age Man tend to be recognized from rubbish heaps full of shells.
• In Elizabethan England half the total imports were fish, and much of the war at sea was fought over the cod-rich waters of Newfoundland.
• In Victorian times masters were warned against giving their apprentices salmon every day. Our rivers teemed with fish, and it was one of the cheapest sources of good nourishment.
• Is it mere accident that the 19th century doctors hardly knew the meaning of the disease we now call a heart attack?
• In Diet of Man: Needs and Wants, Lord Trenchard gives a table of fish consumption in the United Kingdom this century. Between 1909 and 1913 an average member of the population, including the elderly and children, ate 41 lb (pounds weight) of fish a year.
• If this were fatty fish, it would be twice the dietary intake recommended in this book.
• Our approach in this book has been explanation rather than persuasion. In the end, given the facts, only you can decide what to do for yourself and your family.
• Our strategy aims at moderation in both diet and lifestyle. Although fat is perceived as the enemy, we need a reasonable amount of it in our diets to avoid deficiency of the fat-soluble vitamins A and D.
• We would therefore suggest a common-sense approach, based on a re-establishment of what we call the strategic balance.
• In our opinion, the balance of the average Western diet has become seriously upset. It should not be very difficult – and we hope it might even prove pleasurable – to redress this.
Plan of the Eskimo Diet
1. Eat oily fish at least twice a week, and supplement this with fish oil on the days you do not eat fish.
2. Keep the amount of saturated fat in your diet low, replacing it with polyunsaturates and monounsaturates.
3. Eat more fibre, and less sugar and salt
4. Enjoy a drink, but not too often.
5. Above all make your diet varied and enjoyable – increase, rather than decrease, the happiness factor in your life.
Fish oil supplements as opposed to eating fish
Dosages for different people
Which are the oily fish?
• Different types of fish contain very different amounts of the protective oils. Cod, haddock and plaice are poor providers of fish oil.
• Fish can no more manufacture the essential EPA and DHA fatty acids than we can. They obtain their supplies from plankton, the microscopic organisms that float in the sea.
• Because of this, fish that have been bred in farms and fed soybean or other plant seeds or grains may be very poor suppliers of fish oil.
• As a general rule, fish netted from the sea or open rivers and lakes are the best providers.
• Our means of cooking the fish also has an effect on the oily content. Frying removes some of the oil from the fish. Grilled, baked, poached or lightly boiled fish offer the best guarantee of goodness.
Fish with a high fatty acid content (most beneficial)
• A table is provided with Mackerel 2.2 n-3 fatty acid content as grams contained in 100 grams of fish; Spiny dogfish 2.0; Herrings, sardines, & pilchards 1.7; down to Squid 0.3.
A word about cooking fish and accompanying sauces
• Avoid cooking fish in butter or other animal fats. Frying removes the very oils we need so grill, bake, poach or lightly boil the fish or else eat it cold as with smoked salmon and mackerel.
Cutting down on saturated fat
• Saturated fat usually arrives in the shopping basket in the form of animal and dairy produce, but it also has many more subtle forms.
• Cholesterol tends to come with saturated fat, but certain foods such as eggs, liver, kidneys and fish roe are very high in cholesterol while not so high in saturated fat.
Foods containing saturated fat
• Meat and meat products, such as beef, lamb, pork, suet, lard and dripping, are some of the chief sources. Very high saturated fats are found in brisket, corned beef, spare ribs, bacon, sausages and luncheon meats, and in fast foods such as hot dogs and hamburgers.
• High cholesterol foods otherwise include liver, fish roes and caviar.
• Dairy products, another major source of saturated fat, include full-cream, and half cream (but not skimmed), soft cheeses, butter, certain yoghurts (not the low fat varieties), certain ice creams (though you can get reduced-fat ice creams), custard made with full-cream milk, condensed milk, dried and evaporated milk. Also high in saturated fat are cheese spreads and dips.
• Although the meats of chicken and turkey are excellent for being low in saturated fat, certain poultry, mainly duck and goose, are high in saturated fat. There is saturated fat in the skin of all poultry, including chicken and turkey.
• Some vegetable oils, in particular coconut and palm oil, are surprisingly high in saturated fat (see page 117) and should therefore be reduced considerably or avoided altogether.
• Less obvious sources of saturated fat include cakes, doughnuts, pancakes, waffles, biscuits, chocolates (cocoa butter), cooking fats, hard margarines, sauces and puddings.
What about eggs?
• Eggs are an excellent source of many nutrients. Unfortunately the yolk is high in cholesterol and because of this we advise you to limit your consumption to about three a week.
Let’s talk about meat
• Meat, like dairy produce, is one of the highest sources of saturated fat in our diet. In the Third World, which may approximate to the difficult circumstances of our ancestors, very little meat is eaten.
Will I become deficient in iron if I cut down on meat?
• Meat and liver are good sources of iron in our diet. To reduce saturated fat we have suggested that you only eat red meat in a main meal twice a week, so the possibility of not eating enough iron is a real one.
• Fish contains about a third of the iron level of red meat. Many vegetables contain good levels, for instance lentils by dry weight contain twice as much weight for weight as red meat, but it is not taken in quite so well by the body.
• Examples of excellent vegetable sources include lentils, kidney beans and pulses generally, haricot beans and spinach.
• If you eat a generous portion of chips you will consume approximately 240 calories containing 14g of saturated fat (about half your daily allowance). With baked potato, you eat half the calories and virtually no saturated fat.
• Casseroling or stewing is an excellent alternative way to cook meat and it means you can buy cheaper cuts of meat – but remember to buy lean and remove as much fat as possible.
Convenience and fast foods
• Convenience foods are not necessarily junk foods. Many are first class – for instance frozen peas, tinned beans and frozen fish. The problem arises with products such as pies, burgers, hot dogs, sausages, biscuits, chocolates, crisps and so on.
The importance of fibre
• Fibre is the background skeletal structure of many plants, such as cereals (wheat, oats, corn, etc.), most vegetables and most fruits. None of the fibre in a food is lost through cooking.
• Modern interest in fibre came from the realization that people in the Third World, who do not suffer ‘Western diseases’, eat much more fibre in their diets than us.
• We eat about 20 g a day whereas in Africa they eat more than 100 g a day.
• This was believed an important contribution to the fact that on their native African diet Africans so not suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, constipation, diverticular disease and possibly even large bowel cancer.
• They also have a lower incidence of dental decay and gallstones. More fibre in the diet may improve the control of diabetes, and can greatly help to reduce weight because food high in fibre tends to be filling in relatively small amounts.
• Increasing the amounts of fibre in your diet may also have additional benefits in preventing coronary heart disease.
Soluble and insoluble fibre
• There are two types of fibre: water-soluble and water-insoluble. Most of what we recognize as high-fibre food contains water-insoluble fibre, for instance wheat bran. This is the type that helps prevent or control bowel complaints.
• Most of the fibre in oats and beans is water-soluble and this is the type that appears to be most promising in the control of heart disease. It is best taken in the form of oat bran or oatmeal, for instance in breakfast cereal or in bread or baking.
How to eat more fibre
• Eat plenty of bread, best in thick slices. Choose wholemeal rather than white. Chapatis, hard dough and pitta bread are very good, provided they are made from wholemeal flour.
• Increase the amount of peas, beans, lentils, and jacket potatoes you eat.
• Brown rice is better than white.
• Take unsalted nuts and dried fruits as mini-snacks instead of biscuits or chocolates.
• Try to eat fruit and a good range of vegetables at least once a day.
Chapter 9: Recipes for a Healthy Heart
Chapter 10: Lifestyles
Author’s Afterword
• Modern science has given us the means to fight back hard against this fearsome killer. And our first weapon against it is understanding.
• A heart attack results from a long accumulation of insults within the arteries to our hearts.
• By understanding the processes, from the earliest fatty streaks of the arteries of children through to the final clot in hardened and grossly diseased atheromatous coronary arteries of our middle age, we can take active and relatively simple measures which will cut the risk of dying of a heart attack to a minimum.
• The aim of this book is to reveal to the public the new knowledge in the field of heart attack prevention.
• If there is a single simple message we would like to close with, it is this: Don’t regard a heart attack as bad luck or an act of fate. It’s a disease like any other disease – and you can do a great deal to prevent it.
• Don’t wait for it to happen. Use knowledge and understanding to do something positive about preventing it. There is no other way to win – and we can and will win this medical battle. Good health!