Landstuhl CrossFit

Every five years, the federal Department of Agriculture and Department of Health and Human Services revise their Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a publication that sets the direction for federal nutrition-education programs. In an age when aggressive government agencies in places like New York City seek a greater hand in shaping Americans’ diets, the next set of guidelines, published later this year, could prove more controversial than usual because increasing scientific evidence suggests that some current federal recommendations have simply been wrong. Will a public-health establishment that has been slow to admit its mistakes over the years acknowledge the new research and shift direction? Or will it stubbornly stick to its obsolete guidelines?
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The crux of the controversy is the quantity of fat and carbohydrates that we consume and how it influences our cardiac health…
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Researchers have started asking hard questions about fat consumption and heart disease, and the answers are startling… researchers…found no link between the amount of saturated fat that a person consumed and the risk of heart disease. One reason, the researchers speculate, is that saturated fat raises levels of so-called good, or HDL, cholesterol, which may offset an accompanying rise in general cholesterol.
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According to Scientific American, growing research into carbohydrate-based diets has demonstrated that the medical establishment may have harmed Americans by steering them toward carbs…

Here another great article by Dr. Stephan Guyenet reporting more evidence – a huge metaanalysis following 58,453 men and women for 14.1 years, that shows absolutely no correlation between consumption of saturated fat and heart attack risk, and indicates a decreased risk of stroke from consumption of more saturated fat (though the decreased risk wasn’t quite statistically significant). Please read Dr. Guyenet’s article, if only to follow his links referencing the heated argument sparked by the study findings – there are tragically still no guidelines to assist with exposing conflicts of interest held by those nutrition researchers who profit significantly from defending the interests of the food companies who fund their research.
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Great news that the Senate passed the Child Nutrition Act (especially where it concerns school vending machines and ala carte lines being prohibited from selling candy bars and high-sugar sodas), but if Federal Guidelines are based on “obsolete guidelines” as Steven Malanga attests, where is this exactly going to get us?
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There was another study which measured metabolic outcomes after 2 years on a low-carb versus low-fat diet, and low-carb is again found superior – NPR covered the story here.
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Your body composition is dependent on the way your body is able to process what you are feeding it – and FORGET exercise for a moment. If you are struggling to lose fat then you need to cut your processed food consumption – your shopping cart needs to look like you raided a garden (no corn) and a slaughter house (no preseasoned meat, processed meat, or anything even whole chickens packaged in any kind of broth). There are an enormous amount of recent studies heralding the dangers of fructose – avoid especially products containing high fructose corn syrup. Holy Cow:

Between 1970 and 1990, the consumption of HFCS in the U.S. has increased over 1,000 percent

Don’t go crazy during the day drinking fruit juice (even 100% fruit juice), or even eating a high volume of high glycemic load fruit.
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For great primal/paleo snacking options, don’t miss Mark’s Daily Apple post on the Primal Blueprint Snack List – many are echoed by Landstuhl CrossFit’s paleo snack post, but he’s got a great list and recipe links for “Snacks that require Preparation”. Also, dark chocolate counts as paleo??! Certainly now we’ve achieved heaven on earth, if only paleo would allow a full cup of my organic full-fat cream to accompany it.
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Here find an inspirational story of how diet and exercise turned around disease. As Robb Wolf says, “you can’t weigh and measure (Zone) your way out of autoimmunity”. Food quality matters for your health’s sake, at the very least – and not just the ratio of carbohydrates to fat to protein.