Someone commented on my last blog post asking for research backing up the claim that whole milk is the healthiest choice. Adding the science is a great idea. (I didn't put it all in the first time because I didn't want to make the first entry too long.) Rather than explicate all the science here (which could get long and tedious), I'm going to link to relevant, well-vetted studies and resources, and you can click through to the ones that are most interesting to you.
1. For a general overview of the failure of the lipid hypothesis and science-based support for eating whole foods in their most natural state, consult the amazing (and amazingly well-written) book:
2. For a deeper and more detailed look at why its not how much we eat, but WHAT we eat that makes us fat and causes heart disease -- and for manifold scientific evidence that dietary fat isn't the villain we've been told it is (and that the true villain is refined carbohydrates like white flour and white sugar), read:
3. Read the abstract from this study, Factors Associated with Calcium Absorption Efficiency in Pre- and Peri-Menopausal Women, from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (August 2000).
4. The nutritionist and biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, was an early critic of trans fats and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. She has two books that help make sense of healthy and unhealthy fats:
5. Find information on fat-soluble vitamins here.
6. Read this seminal article from The Journal of the American College of Nutrition, led by Harvard nutritionist Frank Hu, MD, PhD, called Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review.
I'll post more links to more research as I come across them.
1. For a general overview of the failure of the lipid hypothesis and science-based support for eating whole foods in their most natural state, consult the amazing (and amazingly well-written) book:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (Penguin, 2008) -- Pollan tells the story of how nutritional scientists over the past four decades have sold us on the low- and no-fat diet and why following that diet has made us fat, unhealthy and miserable.
2. For a deeper and more detailed look at why its not how much we eat, but WHAT we eat that makes us fat and causes heart disease -- and for manifold scientific evidence that dietary fat isn't the villain we've been told it is (and that the true villain is refined carbohydrates like white flour and white sugar), read:
Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes (Anchor, 2008) -- The book is well researched and geared toward overturning (through sound science) the idea that the low-fat diet prevents obesity and reduces risk of heart disease. Taubes argues that its not the quantity of what you eat, it's the quality.
Watch Taubes' hour-long lecture on the science behind his theory here.
3. Read the abstract from this study, Factors Associated with Calcium Absorption Efficiency in Pre- and Peri-Menopausal Women, from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (August 2000).
4. The nutritionist and biochemist, Mary Enig, PhD, was an early critic of trans fats and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. She has two books that help make sense of healthy and unhealthy fats:
Know Your Fats by Mary Enig (Bethesda, 2000) -- This book is a smart primer on dietary fat
Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats by Mary Enig and Sally Fallon -- They assert that beneficial saturated fats should be more heavily incorporated into our diets. They advocate traditional, whole foods diets.
5. Find information on fat-soluble vitamins here.
6. Read this seminal article from The Journal of the American College of Nutrition, led by Harvard nutritionist Frank Hu, MD, PhD, called Types of Dietary Fat and Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Critical Review.
I'll post more links to more research as I come across them.
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