Well for a start there’s a bit of scaremongering. It starts with ‘vegetable oil makes you exceedingly vulnerable to cancer’ a statement that’s bound to frighten most of the population.

He does a good job of summarising the awful history of how fat became a dirty word in our diet -from Ancel Keys and his biased research to the present day- pointing out that saturated fat has finally been vindicated as a cause of heart disease.

The bottom line is that vegetable oils from canola, sunflower oil and soybean are highly processed and sold as cooking oils, margarine and salad dressings. They are also used to make baked goods and fast food like fries and chips. The use of these oils was partly based on their cheaper price but also government encouragement to switch from animal fats like lard, to vegetable or seed oils which are high in polyunsaturates.

Polyunsaturated fats are particularly vulnerable to oxidation and combined with sugar and a lack of anti-oxidants set the scene for chronic inflammation and eventually cancer. Research also shows that PUFAs also increase macular degeneration, a deterioration in eyesight as we age.

There is a great description of what happens to seed oils to extract cooking oil – it’s an eye-opener which will make you think twice about buying these industrial processed oils.

From a health perspective, cold pressed virgin flaxseed oil comes out as a good source of Omega 3 and coconut oil as a good oil to cook with.

The take-home message is to avoid processed vegetable cooking oils and foods made from them such as take-away fried foods, commercial chips, dips and dressings. Making your own mayonnaise, salad dressings and humus avoids these oils as well as giving the food a superior flavour.

Overall this book aligns with much of what we teach at the Food Coach Institute about oils. However he focuses on what types of processed foods people can choose as substitutes including bread and breakfast cereals. A  balanced healthy diet, apart from removing sugar and fructose, is not really expanded on – fresh vegetables hardly get a mention.

So it’s an interesting read about the processed oil industry but not really a reference about a healthy diet.

Prof Dr Shirley Mcilvenny, MD, MBBCh, FRCGP(UK), FRACGP

Director of the Food Coach Institute

Happy New Year!

Well, we’re into 2013 having survived the ’End of the World’ scenario of December 2012, and I for one am feeling optimistic about the future. Have you ever noticed how the news only ever contains bad news? Newspaper websites are full of depressing reports on world conflicts, starvation and horrifying accidents and deaths.

Well I recently came across a lot of good news and it made me feel very positive about what’s happening in our world. I’ve been reading a book called ‘Mad like Tesla’ written in 2011. Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a famous scientist, inventor and engineer who predicted many of the developments we take for granted today. But at the time he was seen as a ‘mad scientist’ and was shunned by his peers.

This book is full of stories about entrepreneurial companies looking for ways to produce clean energy more efficiently. Many of them are taking a close look at nature and how efficiently she manages energy using design honed over millions of years of evolution. Of course, most of these companies have suffered skepticism and disdain over the years, as well-established companies and experts cling to old technologies which try to flatten nature rather than run alongside it.

Nature has come up with more efficient energy production which doesn’t pollute our atmosphere with heavy metals or use extreme heat and pressure- and these companies and enthusiasts are learning ways to harness nature’s energy and make it viable. Now with climate change, ‘the establishment’ are waking up to the problems and welcoming some of these new technologies. What a great piece of news! But do we ever hear about it- no!

It’s the same old story with many industries, including unfortunately Medicine.  People who want to use natural therapies to heal their bodies are seen as ‘crazies’ by the establishment, while they use ideas and therapies honed by thousands of years of observation and success particularly in eastern philosophies. We need people with open minds to start looking at the world around us, ready to use what nature has provided for us – good food and health giving nutrients- as a great start towards health. I’ve noticed a subtle change in thinking too. People in the health industry are starting to recognise that drugs are not the panacea we once thought- sure they have their good uses – but health starts from within – long before illness develops – with using good fuel nature designed for us millions of years ago.

So… one of my new year’s resolutions for 2013 is going to be to report every bit of good news I hear. Be prepared to hear more about new technologies, fascinating people and ground breaking health developments. There is lots to be hopeful about – we just need to find out more about the good things that are happening and pass it on. So I hope you have a great start to your new year and look forward to passing on more positive vibes as the year progresses.

Shirley

(Not quite a mad scientist – but I’m working on it!)

Hello and welcome everyone to the first blog post of the Food Coach Institute. I think this is a great topic to start off. There is so much doom and gloom around at the moment, a lot of people are suffering financially and we do need to remind ourselves that there is still a lot to be cheerful about.

So back to laughing. A recent study at a US conference on Experimental Biology reported that watching comedy could be good for our health. Study volunteers had their stress hormones, cholesterol and other blood chemicals measured before and after watching 20 minutes of comedy. There was a dramatic improvement in stress levels proving indeed that laughter is the best medicine.

The researcher who led the study, Dr Lee Berk, claims the body’s response to repetitive laughter may be similar to repetitive exercise. He suggests that the high from laughing is equivalent to an endorphin rush from exercise.

Laughter and Weight loss

Research published in the International Journal of Obesity found that a good laugh can raise your metabolic rate by 10-20 per cent. Whoopee! So 10-15 minutes giggling per day could lose you as much as 1kg of weight per year.

In his best selling book, Adaptation to Life, Dr George Vaillant, shows clearly that humour is the best defence against tough times. This book first printed in the 1970s is still in print today and shows that those who laugh longest seem to live longer and cope better with life along the way. But it doesn’t apply to those who laugh loudest. Laughter, like most things, suffers from the Goldilocks effect, in that too much is just as bad as too little. It needs to be just right. The quantity of laughter seems to max out at the middle range (level 2) and the health benefits are less at levels 1 and 3.

Now I’m really glad that this research supports my de-stressing mechanism. You see, I love stand-up and it’s a bit of a family ritual to go to local stand-up nights or watch our favourite comedy shows on TV. No matter how bad things seem after a rotten day at work, a good laugh at a 30 minute show or even a politician being interviewed can do you the world of good. Nothing seems so serious then and you can go to bed relaxed and topped up with endorphins.

It’s also part of my Irish background to see the funny side of things and enjoy a bit of craic. When I was growing up, no misfortune was so bad that the general response from family members was great belly-fulls of laughter and snorts of derision. I’ve had good training then – something to thank the parents for.

So if you see me striding down the street in my trainers, laughing my head off, you know it’s just me taking a workout , and if you don’t join me then you know who’s going to have the last laugh don’t you!