0:00

You may have heard the expression knowledge

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is power. Well, today

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we're gonna give you more power to control

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your diet and lifestyle by giving you

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The Fax. Welcome to the Nutrition

0:12

Fax podcast. I'm your host,

0:14

doctor Michael Grecker. Today,

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We take a critical look at one of the foods

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people have trouble cutting down

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on. We start with the simple question.

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Is cheese really bad

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for you? In a series of

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videos, I did about saturated fat.

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I talked about a major campaign launched by the

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global dairy industry to new relies

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to negative image of milk fed among regulators

0:36

and health professionals as related to

0:38

heart disease. That campaign

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continues to this day, with the publication

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of a meta analysis demonstrating neutral,

0:45

meaning non harmful associations

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between dairy products and cardiovascular

0:50

disease and death?

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Okay. Well, first

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of all, how do we know the dairy industry

0:55

have anything to do with this study? Well,

0:58

it was published in a journal that forces

1:00

authors to disclose financial conflicts

1:02

of interest. Let's see

1:05

what

1:05

they divulged. Dairy

1:07

Dairy Dairy Dairy dairy dairy,

1:09

the fourth largest dairy company in the world. Dairy

1:11

dairy milk, beer soda, McDonald's,

1:14

dairy dairy dairy dairy dairy. Oh,

1:17

and the study itself was explicitly funded

1:19

by?

1:20

Dairy. Dairy.

1:22

Okay then. the

1:24

other big new one was this suggesting that

1:26

a little bit of cheese every day isn't just neutral

1:28

but actually good for you. And

1:30

they make it clear that they have no conflicts

1:32

of interest. They're just employees of the Yili

1:35

innovation center and the Yili R and D

1:37

center. You know,

1:38

China's largest dairy

1:41

producer making it one of

1:43

the world's largest dairy companies.

1:45

Okay. But how can cheese

1:48

consumption be a associated with better

1:50

health outcomes? Well, most of these

1:52

studies were from Europe, where cheese consumption

1:55

is associated with a higher socioeconomic status.

1:58

See in Europe, they're not eating cheese wiz

2:00

in Velvita. Cheese is generally inexpensive

2:02

product, and so who eats cheese, those

2:05

with higher paying jobs. higher

2:07

socioeconomic strat, higher

2:09

education levels, all of which

2:11

are associated with better health outcomes.

2:13

which may have nothing to do with their cheese

2:15

consumption. Higher socioeconomic

2:18

groups also consume more fruits and vegetables

2:20

and more candies. So

2:23

I bet you could do a population study

2:25

and show candy consumption is

2:27

associated with better health. Don't

2:30

tell the national Association. Too

2:32

late, did you know that candidate

2:34

consumers have lower levels of inflammation,

2:37

a fourteen percent decreased risk available

2:39

blood pressure brought to you by

2:41

the industry and the

2:43

USDA. Our government, which props

2:45

up the shook our industry to the tune of

2:47

a billion dollars a year.

2:50

It's like when our tax dollars are used to buy

2:52

up surplus cheese. Paul

2:54

Shapiro wrote a great edit coil.

2:56

Imagine the headline government buys

2:58

twenty million in surplus Pepsi

3:00

or harder in tax dollars buying a millions

3:02

of unwanted cola cans, all is

3:04

a favor to the flilling soda industry,

3:07

which just kept producing drinks. No one

3:09

wanted. As outrageous as

3:11

such a government hand out to soda industry

3:13

would be that's exactly what the USDA

3:16

is doing for the dairy industry.

3:19

Michelle Simon did a great report on how

3:21

her government colludes with the industry to

3:23

promote dairy junk foods. The

3:25

federal government administers check off programs

3:28

to promote milk and dairy. McDonald's

3:30

has six dead catered dairy check off program

3:33

employees at its corporate headquarters to

3:35

try to squeeze in more cheese.

3:37

That's how we got double steak quesadillas.

3:40

That's how we got three these crust

3:42

pizza complete with a summer

3:44

of cheese. These funds

3:47

are being used to promote foods that

3:49

contribute to the very diseases our federal

3:51

government is allegedly trying to prevent. Does

3:54

it make sense to tell Americans to avoid foods,

3:56

high in salt, sugar, and saturated fat while engaging

3:59

in the promotion of those

4:01

same foods. Look,

4:04

mean dairy can do what they like

4:06

with their own money. But the public power of

4:08

taxation should be used for the public good

4:10

not to support the dairy and candy

4:13

industries. And

4:14

our next story, we compare dairy to other

4:16

foods for heart attack and stroke risk.

4:19

When industry funded studies suggest

4:22

their products neutral health effects

4:25

or even beneficial. One

4:28

question you always have to ask is compared

4:30

to what? Is cheese healthy?

4:32

compared to what? And if you're sitting down

4:34

to make a sandwich, cheese is

4:37

probably healthy compared to

4:39

bologna. but compared to peanut

4:41

butter? No way. That's the

4:43

point, well, will it made a former

4:45

chair of nutrition and carbon? To conclude

4:47

that dairy foods are neutral, could be

4:49

misleading as it could be misinterpreted to

4:51

mean that increasing consumption of dairy foods would have

4:53

no effects on cardiovascular disease or mortality.

4:56

Long is that the health effects of increasing or

4:58

decreasing consumption of dairy foods would

5:00

depend, importantly, on the specific

5:02

foods that are substituted for

5:04

dairy foods. Like, what are you gonna put

5:06

on your salad? Cheese would

5:08

be healthy compared to

5:11

bacon, but not compared to nuts.

5:13

See, consumption of nuts or plant protein

5:15

has been found to be protectively associated

5:17

with the risk of coronary heart disease

5:20

and type two diabetes in contrast and

5:22

take a red meat, for example, has

5:24

been associated with increased risk.

5:26

Thus, it's reasonable to assume that the

5:28

lack of association with dairy foods could put

5:30

them somewhere in the middle of a speck of

5:32

helpfulness, but certainly not

5:34

an optimal source of energy or

5:36

protein. More broadly, the available

5:39

evidence supports policies that limit dairy

5:41

production and encourage his production of healthier

5:43

sources of proteins and fats.

5:45

He wasn't just speculating.

5:47

This is based on three famous

5:49

Harvard studies involving hundreds of thousands

5:51

of men and women exceeding five million

5:54

person years of follow-up. This

5:56

was really the first large scale,

5:58

prospective study to examine dairy

6:00

fat intake compared to other types of

6:02

fat in relation to heart attack and stroke

6:04

risk. So replace like a hundred

6:06

calories a fat worth of cheese with a hundred

6:08

calories a fat worth of peanut butter on a daily

6:10

basis might reduce risk up to

6:12

twenty four percent where a substitution

6:14

without animal fats make

6:16

make things worse. Here's

6:19

how it breaks down for heart disease.

6:21

So swapping dairy fat for like vegetable

6:23

oil would be associated with a decrease

6:25

in disease risk where swapping dairy

6:27

for meat increases

6:30

risk. Dairy fat calories

6:32

may be as bad or worse as

6:34

straight sugar, the lowest

6:37

risk would entail swapping to a

6:39

whole plant food like whole grains.

6:42

Yeah. Dairy products are a major contributor to

6:44

the saturated fat in the diet and have thus

6:46

been targeted is one of the main dietary

6:48

causes of, you know, the number one

6:50

killer men and women. But the

6:52

dairy industry likes to argue there

6:54

are other things in dairy products like fermentation

6:57

byproducts and cheese that could counteract

6:59

the saturated fat effects. All

7:02

part of an explicit campaign taken by the dairy

7:04

industry to neutralize the negative

7:06

image of milk that among regulators and health

7:08

professionals. If global

7:11

dairy platform looks familiar. They were

7:13

one of the fonders of the milk and dairy's

7:15

neutral study, trotting out there, dairy

7:17

fat is counteracted, notion. To

7:19

which the American Heart Association was ones

7:21

that no information from controlled

7:24

study supports the assertion that fermentation has

7:26

beneficial nutrients to cheese that somehow

7:28

counteract the harmful effects of the saturated

7:30

fat. We need to cut

7:32

down on dairy, meat, coconut

7:34

oil, no matter what their respective

7:36

industries say. In fact,

7:38

that's the reason the American Heart Association

7:40

felt they need released this special presidential

7:43

advisory in twenty seventeen, they wanted to

7:45

set their record straight on why

7:47

well conducted scientific research research

7:49

overwhelmingly supports limiting

7:51

saturated fat in the diet.

7:54

Finally, today, we look at how the meat dairy

7:56

industry's design study showing their

7:58

products have neutral or even beneficial

8:00

effects on cholesterol and

8:03

inflammation. Bored about this

8:05

interventional study,

8:07

a randomized crossover trial which compared

8:09

a high fat cheese diet to a high fat

8:11

meat diet to a low fat diet, a

8:13

high cheese diet, cheese,

8:15

which is loaded with Century fat, a high meat

8:17

diet, meat, which is loaded with

8:19

Century fat versus carb, a

8:21

low fat dive, and people ended

8:23

up with the

8:24

same cholesterol

8:25

levels.

8:27

Let's see. how they did it.

8:30

Half the study was paid for in part by the dairy

8:32

industry and the other half paid for by dairy,

8:35

dairy, dairy, and dairy. If

8:37

you're the dairy industry, you're trying to

8:39

design a study to show that a high cheese

8:41

diet doesn't raise cholesterol,

8:43

how would you go about doing

8:45

that? the beef industry was

8:47

in the same pickle as the

8:49

cheese industry beef has such a fat,

8:51

which raises cholesterol, which raises the risk

8:53

of dying from our number one killer.

8:56

what's an industry to do?

8:58

So they designed a study

9:00

where they added beef and

9:02

cholesterol went down How

9:05

was that possible? They did

9:07

this by cutting out

9:09

so much dairy, pork, poultry,

9:11

fish, and eggs that their overall saturated

9:14

fat intake was cut in half.

9:16

They cut saturated fat levels in

9:18

half, and the cholesterol levels went

9:20

down. Well, Duh. They

9:22

could have swapped in twinkies and

9:24

said snack cakes lower your cholesterol.

9:27

Or frosting or anything.

9:29

Okay. So now that you know the

9:31

trick, let's go back

9:33

to this study. How are you gonna get

9:35

a high fat cheese diet and a

9:37

high fat meat diet to have

9:39

anywhere near the same saturated fat

9:41

level as a diet with neither

9:44

unless Wait.

9:46

Don't tell me what? They added

9:48

coconut oil or something to the other

9:50

diet? They added so much. cocut

9:52

oil and cookies to the so called low fat

9:54

diet, that they were able to sufficiently raise

9:56

the level of saturated fat to cause a

9:58

similar rise in cholesterol.

10:00

That's how you can make a cheese or meat rich

10:03

diet look like it doesn't raise

10:05

cholesterol. That

10:06

reminds me of the desperation evidence

10:10

in this study that compared the effects of

10:12

dairy cheddar cheese to a non dairy

10:14

cheddar cheese called Della. Milk

10:17

consumption is plummeted in recent years

10:19

is people have discovered plant based

10:21

alternatives like soy milk and almond milk. And

10:23

now there's plant based

10:25

cheese alternatives. What the

10:27

National Dairy Council to do. How

10:29

are you gonna design a study? That

10:31

shows it's healthier to eat cheese.

10:34

Design a study where cheese causes

10:36

less inflammation than the vegan

10:38

alternative. I ain't got their

10:40

work cut out for them. They

10:43

no health food by any stretch, but

10:45

definitely three times less saturated

10:47

fat than cow cheese. So

10:49

I give up. How could you possibly

10:51

show more inflammation from

10:53

data? Well, there is one fat

10:55

that may cause more information than milk,

10:57

fat, palm oil and, in fact, may

10:59

raise cholesterol level as much as trans fat,

11:01

laden, partially hydrogenated oil?

11:04

Yeah. But what are you telling

11:06

me they, like, slip the day a group some

11:08

extra palm oil on the side?

11:10

Yes. Can you believe it? They

11:12

compared

11:12

cheese. Today a

11:14

plus

11:14

palm oil. So much extra

11:16

palm oil that the vegan alternative meal ended up

11:18

having the same amount of saturated fat as the

11:21

cheese meal. That's like the

11:23

improving tofu is worse than beef by

11:25

doing a study where they compared to beef burger

11:27

to a tofu patty, stuffed

11:29

with lard. Oh, wait.

11:31

The meat industry already did

11:33

that. but at least they had

11:35

the decency to concede that replacement

11:37

of meat by tofu in the

11:39

individual diet would probably may

11:41

not usually be accompanied by the

11:43

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