In Answer to "somewhere joe"

I was asked a couple of questions about my last post by "somewhere joe." The following is my answer to those questions.

Olive oil is a monounsaturate oil, which is actually rather healthy. That's why it's been used for thousands of years. The biggest problems are the polyunsaturates such as corn, safflower, or canola oils. They don't take high heat very well. It will create a high percentage of free radicals, which are absolutely bad for us. Monounsaturates are better for cooking, but best eaten uncooked. The naturally saturated fats such as lard, tallow, and coconut oils are much more stable at high heats. Also, coconut oil, butter, and mother's milk contain lauric acid, a saturated fat that helps to fight bad bacteria. Mother's milk also contains a high percentage of cholesterol, a necessary element for proper growth and mental development. There are other beneficial agents in naturally saturated fats too. Then, there is the Framingham Massachusetts Heart Study in which the director of the study had to admit that the people who ate the most saturated fat, calories, and cholesterol were the healthiest, with the most energy, and who lived the longest with the least problems.

As to life spans, where would the average pill-popping "senior" today be without the pills, surgery, and other life-extending medical intervention that did not exist in our grandfather's and great-grandfather's day? I believe that our present life-span has been "propped up", so to speak, by modern medicine, and that we would live even longer if we ate natural foods rather than the processed foods of today, full of sugar, white flour, and polyunsaturated fats, but that without modern medical intervention our life spans would be no better, maybe worse than that of our grandfathers.

Further, I once did my own (unscientific) survey of famous people born 200 years ago or more; people like Ben Franklin. I found a high percentage that lived well into their 70's and 80's. Of course, these were the more wealthy people of society who had access to sufficient food and a wider variety variety of foods than the average person. Basically, in the "bad old days", if you didn't die from a childhood disease, a plague, had a serious injury or wound, especially if you had access to a variety of good nutritious foods, you could live to be as old as anyone today, maybe longer.

But don't take my word for it. Click on the Weston A. Price Foundation site in my previous post and have a look around.