14

EXTRAS

Oils, Condiments, Seasonings, Beverages, and refined Products

The extent to which one might incorporate the recommendations of this chapter depends on how committed one is to eating mostly unrefined food, how simple one wishes to keep the diet, and how serious one’s health problems may be. These suggestions can be useful in adding variety and flavor to basic foods. Individuals with chronic health problems should employ many of them minimally or not at all, while those in good health might embrace some of the suggestions without a problem. For everyone concerned, however, caffeine, refined flour, sugar, and even natural sweeteners like honey and maple syrup are best consumed only occasionally at most and, at times, not at all.

Let’s now turn our attention to edible oils and the processes by which they are created.

MANUFACTURING METHODS OF THE OILS WE EAT

Two general methods of oil extraction are used in the production of commercially available edible oils: industrial processing—which uses both heat and chemicals—and pressed (expeller extracted). Conventionally produced industrial oils are heavily used in most prepared and restaurant foods and in condiments such as salad dressings. Biochemically, they are strikingly different from carefully made, unrefined oils, and they do the body harm.

Industrial Processing

The industrial process that is employed to create oils is an undesirable method in which the solvent is subsequently separated from the extracted oil. The solvent commonly used is hexane, a petrochemical. The oil is then bleached and saponified (treated with an alkaline agent to produce soap). The soap is then taken off, and the residue processed further. Resulting oil has been subjected to high temperatures many times during these processes. The last series of steps involves up to forty to fifty filtrations to deodorize the oil and remove impurities from it.

The resulting oil is devoid of the natural substances found in more naturally made oils. Such substances include chlorophyll, lecithin, carotenoids (occurring in most plants, which may be converted into vitamin A in the body), vitamins, and minerals. Vitamin E is found in plants from which oils are extracted; it protects the oils from oxidation. Removal during refinement results in oils highly subject to rancidity, which is why petrochemically derived preservatives such as BHT (butylhydroxytoluene) are added. While some claim BHT helps preserve us and delays the aging process, safer methods are available, for animal studies show that BHT has a wide range of toxic effects and is a suspected human carcinogen.

Pressing

The second method of oil extraction is known as pressing. Oils initially extracted by pressing may also subsequently be solvent-extracted and go through industrial bleaching, saponification, and filtration processes. Despite this, they may still be labeled cold-pressed, a term with no legal definition. Without clarification it is meaningless. What is helpful is the presence of a label stating an absence of preservatives. This shows that some vitamin E is present, indicating that a simpler refinement process than that used for most supermarket oils has transpired in the creation of the oil.

The pressing method may be used to produce an unrefined and truly cold-pressed oil. Any heat produced during this process tends to be minimal when the pressing is done slowly and carefully. An unrefined oil is clear and shows sediment in the bottom of the container. Such oils contain the full complement of substances natural to them, and again, the label may state the vitamin E content.

TYPES OF OILS AND GUIDELINES REGARDING THEIR USE

The following are general guidelines on oils to use and avoid:

Minimal Use: cold-pressed sesame and sunflower oils

Moderate Use: cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil, pumpkin seed oil, macadamia nut oil, avocado oil, and coconut oil (which is so beneficial that one may use as much as is desired)

Never Use: soy, corn, canola, and cottonseed oils

Coconut Oil

Coconut oil is a marvelous oil with many health benefits. Coconuts have nourished cultures around the world for thousands of years. On many tropical islands, coconut is an essential dietary staple and among these cultures, it is revered.

Coconut oil is of special interest because of its healing properties and its extensive use in traditional medicine among Asian and Pacific populations. Pacific Islanders have always considered coconut oil to be the cure for all illness, and the coconut palm is called “the tree of life.” It has also been called “the healthiest oil on Earth.” In traditional medicine around the world coconut is used to alleviate the symptoms of a wide variety of health problems.

In recent years, science has unlocked the secrets to the coconut’s amazing healing powers. Once mistakenly believed to be unhealthy because of its high saturated fat content, we now know that saturated fats are good for us and that coconut oil is a uniquely healthy food. What makes coconut oil so beneficial? Simply, it is the high concentration of medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs) found in it.

MCFAs are unique fat molecules, and by far the best source of MCFAs is unrefined, virgin coconut oil. The vast majority of fats and oils, whether saturated or unsaturated, from animals or plants, are composed of long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs). The size of fatty acids is extremely important, because the human body responds to and metabolizes fatty acids differently depending on their size. MCFAs have uniquely beneficial physiological effects.

I use coconut oil when cooking meat, seafood, fowl, eggs, vegetables—just about anything that I cook. Heat one or two tablespoons in an iron skillet and cook in it, using ghee as well if desired. Juices coming off the food create a tasty mix. Cook with coconut oil over a low flame; the oil should not be overheated.

Olive Oil

The vegetable oil most suited for salad dressing is olive oil. The oil of the olive, used for thousands of years, has returned to its place as a healthy, traditional salad oil.

The first pressing of olives is done with gentle pressure, and temperatures produced are not much above room temperature. Oil thus extracted is sold as “extra virgin”; that from the next pressing is sold as “virgin.” Oil from subsequent pressings of pulp and pits is processed with high heat and chemical solvents and is sold as “pure” olive oil. Like coconut oil, olive oil should not be overheated when used in frying and sautéing.

Olive oil and vinegar dressing is excellent on salads. Because vinegar is so acidic, it does not spoil and requires no preservatives. Organic varieties of both balsamic vinegar and raw apple cider vinegar are available. Balsamic vinegar and other nut and seed oils may be used to enhance flavor. In making soup with bones, vinegar lends acidity to help leach calcium into the broth.

HONEY AND OTHER SWEETENERS

Because honey is a naturally occurring sweetener, many people believe that eating substantial quantities of it is beneficial, or at least harmless. The same belief extends to maple syrup, though what one buys has been concentrated by boiling the sap that flowed from the maple tree. Sweeteners such as molasses, brown sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, turbinado sugar, fructose (also called levulose, or fruit sugar), and others are often represented as being less harmful than sugar itself, but they all have similar effects. In recent years, high-fructose corn syrup, a particularly destructive sweetener, has been widely introduced into processed foods. Sucanat (dehydrated cane sugar), maple sugar, and coconut sugar are also similar to sugar in their effects on metabolism, and should be used only occasionally by most people, and in small amounts.

Only honey is not concentrated. Honeycomb, bee pollen, and royal jelly all contain many vitamins, minerals, and other natural substances. Much has been written about the qualities of honey and these other products of bees, and one hears tales of Russian beekeepers living to advanced age. Folklore and the inherent appeal of honey’s sweet taste combine to make it a most attractive food.

Honey contains the simple sugars fructose and glucose, and a sizable amount of sucrose. (White sugar is nearly pure sucrose. Sucrose is rapidly broken down in the body to glucose and fructose.) Glucose is the form of sugar circulating in the blood and used by cells of the body to produce energy; glucose and sucrose in foods both cause a rapid rise in blood sugar. If consumed alone without fats, fructose is utilized in a slightly different manner and is thought to cause a somewhat less rapid rise in blood sugar (fructose, however, causes a more rapid increase in serum triglycerides and perhaps in uric acid, and it must be processed in the liver, putting a strain on the organ).

In many people, particularly those using sweeteners habitually, a pronounced rise in blood sugar leads to a subsequent drop to below the normal fasting level. This condition is known as hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar. Weakness, fatigue, and a variety of other physical and mental symptoms may result.

All sweeteners, honey included, are more or less equally capable of causing low blood sugar. Furthermore, all usually exacerbate symptoms of whatever conditions may be present. Put simply, whatever is wrong, sweets and sweeteners usually make it worse.

I have not seen exceptions—substantial amounts of these concentrated sweets invariably seem to create problems. In relatively healthy individuals, a teaspoonful of honey—or sugar—or a baked sweet good (“natural” or otherwise) is harmless on occasion. In individuals with chronic conditions, even seemingly small amounts often cause a flare-up of symptoms. This may well be related to overgrowth of Candida (the yeast microorganism discussed in chapter 9) in many individuals with chronic diseases. Because of the addictive nature of sweets, small amounts usually lead to larger amounts before long, further ensuring the provocation of symptoms.

The work of Dr. Melvin Page showed that even small amounts of sweeteners have dramatic effects on the blood. Page, a dentist very knowledgeable in the field of nutrition, kept careful records of thousands of patients for many years. He studied relationships between dental decay, the ratio of calcium to phosphorous in the blood, and the ingestion of sweets. He found that even a one-ounce dose of honey, fructose, or sucrose had a pronounced effect on the ratio of calcium to phosphorus in the blood. Sucrose had the most pronounced effect (fructose—fruit sugar—had the least). He found this ratio was invariably elevated in individuals developing dental decay.

This is interesting in light of Weston Price’s discovery that the saliva in the mouths of decay-free native people had certain consistent characteristics relating to the ability to keep calcium and phosphorous in the saliva in solution—characteristics not found in the mouths of individuals eating refined foods. (The calcium and phosphorous content of the saliva, of course, is directly influenced by the content of these two elements in the blood.) Page’s work thus directly complemented Price’s—both men showed that disturbances of calcium and phosphorous metabolism occur in tooth decay. We may infer that these same disturbances affect the condition of the entire body. Francis Pottenger, Jr.’s work demonstrated that gross skeletal changes occurred in cats fed sweetened foods—again we see disturbances of calcium and phosphorous metabolism.

Thus, the reasonable work of these three men has given indications as to why the human body reacts so poorly to sweets.

What of the argument that honey is a natural food enjoyed by humans since the dawn of mankind? This is probably true, but wild honey was generally a rare treat available in limited quantities, especially in more northern climates. The compulsion for sweets largely disappears in individuals not consuming them. Our primal ancestors likely had neither the desire nor the opportunity to use much honey.

HERBS AND SEASONINGS

Many organically grown fresh and dried herbs, seasonings, and spices are available, most ground and packaged as convenient powders. Conventionally grown and produced ground herbs, seasonings, and spices are irradiated and contain some or all of the following: fillers, anticaking agents, artificial coloring, preservatives, monosodium glutamate (MSG), and pesticide residues. Reactions to these various extraneous substances often occur.

Culinary herbs go well with natural foods. Many commonly used herbs also have medicinal properties useful in helping alleviate symptoms of acute or chronic disease.

Black pepper is a great seasoning and is best enjoyed fresh ground from peppercorns.

Salt

The most commonly used and widely misunderstood seasoning is salt. Salt restriction is often advised for those with high blood pressure; this benefits some people and not others. High blood pressure has many causes, and excessive salt is simply one contributory factor in some individuals. The foods eaten play an important role in the sodium content of the diet. Processed foods of all kinds almost invariably have large amounts of salt added in production. Different natural foods vary widely in sodium content. Salt added to natural food should be unrefined sea salt, which contains all of the trace minerals, essential for life, that are found in the sea. I prefer traditional Celtic salt, raked off the sea in salt flats on the coast of France.

Foods of animal origin have more sodium than vegetables, grains, and fruits. Humans have a requirement for sodium, thought to be at least two to five grams per day (a teaspoonful is five grams). If too little is supplied in food, some must be added to maintain normal sodium balance; this biological necessity did much to determine where early agriculturists settled. A diet with a substantial amount of animal foods includes adequate sodium, but added salt makes many foods tastier and for the vast majority of people is perfectly healthy.

Few inland areas have readily accessible salt; the earliest farming villages tended to grow up around places that did. People often went to great lengths to get salt. Some Chinese drilled deep into mountains and with bamboo pipes brought up brine from salt deposits. Inland farmers in many places relied on riverboats and caravans to bring them salt. Salt in ancient times was the most valuable single commodity in commerce. At least one writer has pointed out that where salt was plentiful, democratic and independent societies tended to develop, and where it was scarce, those who controlled the salt, controlled the people.

So salt has a history as old as mankind, and it is not an evil substance. The problem now is its refinement and high usage in processed foods. Canned vegetables, for example, have hundreds of times more sodium than fresh unsalted vegetables. Salt is added to nearly all processed foods; the taste buds grow used to it, and unsalted food comes to taste plain.

The standard American diet (SAD) contains more salt than typical hunter-gatherer, primal diets, which often had no added salt. But in many hunter-gatherer and fishing cultures, lots of salt was used in drying and smoking game animals and fish, with no associated problems. Individuals eating moderate to substantial amounts of animal foods do fine with added salt. The less animal-sourced foods that are eaten, the more salt is needed. Salt content in smoked fish and other salted foods varies greatly from product to product. In smoked fish, the subtler, more time-consuming smoking methods use considerably less salt.

Traditionally, soy sauce (also called tamari or shoyu) is made by allowing soybeans, and often wheat, to ferment in water and salt (in wooden barrels, often cedar). Organic brands are free of the additives, pesticide residues, and sugar found in conventionally produced soy sauce. Soy sauce may be used to add flavor. Because I prefer minimizing the use of grain-based foods and legumes, I prefer to use sea salt. I recommend in general using salt to taste, and not worrying about restricting its use.

BEVERAGES

Alcohol

A Few Words about Alcoholism

In considering the health effects of liquor, wine, and beer, one should remember that they may act as drugs. For many individuals, some combination of genetic and environmental influences makes alcohol in any form dangerous. The physical ravages of alcohol abuse are well known. More insidious are the mental processes involved, the ways in which addiction plays on the mind.

Alcoholism perhaps begins in the mind, though genetic and physiological idiosyncrasies appear to predispose some individuals. Over time alcohol may take over not only the mind but the body as well. The inclination for this particular form of self-abuse is stronger in some than others, but anyone drinking enough can become addicted to alcohol.

Recovery involves a commitment not only to stop drinking, but also to change certain aspects of personality that lead to drinking. If such commitments are not made, the individual sooner or later drinks again. Actively seeking help through Alcoholics Anonymous provides a good chance of rehabilitation for many. Members tend to drink a lot of coffee, eat a lot of sugar, and smoke a lot of cigarettes—but this beats drinking oneself to death.

The fermented drink kombucha, by the way, has helped many alcoholics with their cravings. Though there is debate, the majority of recovered alcoholics and counselors working with alcoholics believe that once an individual has been physically addicted to alcohol and they stop, he or she can never drink again without eventually drinking heavily once more. Acceptance of this is the first step for many people in recovering from an acutely addicted state.

Most alcoholics deny to themselves and others that they have any problem with alcohol. And if it’s not a problem, why seek help? An anecdote popular among drinkers sums up the attitude: “Who says I have a problem with alcohol? I get drunk, I fall down, I get up. No problem.”

Nothing in this section on alcoholic beverages should be taken to mean that those recovering from alcohol abuse should consider using small amounts of alcohol. I wish also to warn of the fine line that for many separates the regular use of small amounts of alcohol—as a tasty beverage, relaxant, and mild mood enhancer—from the beginnings of dependence and eventual abuse.

If alcohol in any way prevents the achievement of goals and one’s full potential to live happily, the line has been crossed. Addiction per se may not be present, but allowing a damaging drug to replace positive things in life reveals a weakness. It is a very human weakness—the simple desire to slip into a drug-induced state of relaxation, rather than using one’s time to pursue active goals and find more positive ways to relax.

If alcohol plays a significant role in one’s life, an honest examination of attitudes may be helpful. An experiment many people find enlightening involves abstinence from alcohol for a month. It is normal for even a light and occasional drinker to miss alcohol the first week or two. But the individual missing it more and more into the third and fourth weeks, and anxious for the month to pass, discovers that alcohol apparently is quite important. Those without dependence issues generally do not miss alcohol by the end of the month and subsequently experience no particular desire to drink on other than special occasions.

Health Considerations Pertaining to Alcohol

Some medical studies suggest people having a drink or two a day enjoy better health and live longer than those abstaining. Some enjoy citing this information while drinking two double scotches a night, with three or four ounces of whiskey in each. The studies, however, refer to standard one-ounce drinks, or the equivalent in beer or wine (a small glass of wine or a bottle of beer each contains less than one ounce of alcohol). Other studies, however, indicate that no measurable health benefits are derived from alcohol.

It may be that the ability to occasionally or even regularly imbibe small amounts of alcohol and let it go at that is associated with character traits that favor a long and healthy life. Centenarians studied in Georgian Russia in the 1970s enjoyed homemade vodka and wine. Both are made from unheated grapes and are rich in enzymes and minerals, while low in alcohol content. This was a healthy way to enjoy alcoholic beverages, and one might note that in America today, micro-breweries produce draft beers and some bottled beers that are unpasteurized. Moderate use of alcohol is not incompatible with a healthy and long life.

Though not recommended, even an immoderate use of alcohol may exist without extreme consequences. A case in point involves the lifelong story of a gentleman always fond of strong drink. In middle age, he suffered considerably with repeated attacks of angina pectoris, chest pains thought to relate to spasms of the coronary arteries and relieved by nitroglycerine. He then began following many of the suggestions found in this book, eating seafood several times a week, taking cod-liver oil daily, and walking several miles most days (he gradually built up the walking). By no means a model patient, he ate a fair amount of refined foods. Daily, during the first ten years after the angina began, and for at least twenty-five before, he had at least two or three and an average of five or six ounces of liquor—and sometimes more—every night. He cut back somewhat in his later years, though he drank rather more heavily at times. He lived to be ninety.

Medical textbooks state that on the average, a heart attack, often fatal, occurs within five years of the first symptoms of angina. This gentleman certainly beat those odds. Despite the limitations of his diet and the stress of excess alcohol, protective nutrients and regular exercise enabled him not only to escape a heart attack but also to lead a fairly vigorous and active life. He was no genetic miracle, for his father died of a heart attack in his early sixties, and he himself while in his thirties suffered a mild and nearly symptomless stroke, from which he fully recovered. The point is that however one chooses to live, learning and applying a few age-old nutritional principles may enhance health and lengthen life. Most people who choose to live the way he did do not live to ninety. My guess is that he is perhaps the one in a hundred that did. We don’t meet the other ninety-nine. They’re dead.

Regular use of hard liquor is not a wise practice; the weight of physiological evidence indicates that, in all but the smallest amounts, alcohol acts as a poison. An individual not regularly drinking liquor notices a marked effect upon ingesting even an ounce or two, and continues to feel sluggish the next morning. Because alcoholic beverages are not regulated by the FDA, a wide variety of toxic ingredients found in liquor and in most wines and beers are not listed on the labels. These substances include ammonia, asbestos residues, coloring and flavoring agents, glycerin, hydrogen peroxide, lead residues, mineral oil, methylene chloride, plastic, pesticide residues, and sulfur compounds.

Many people enjoy an occasional beer, especially in hot weather. German law allows only the use of hops, malt, and water in the brewing process; imported German beers are thus pure. Some other imported beers (and now many American microbrew beers) are made from only natural ingredients without the use of chemicals or preservatives, as are some American and imported wines.

Coffee and Other Caffeinated Beverages

Caffeine is found in coffee, cola drinks, and a number of nonprescription drugs. Closely related compounds include theobromine, found in chocolate and cocoa, and theophylline, found in tea. A twelve-ounce can of Coca-Cola contains about the same amount of caffeine as a cup of instant coffee (about sixty-five milligrams), and a chocolate bar contains nearly half that amount of theobromine.

Intake of caffeine and related compounds above one’s individual limit causes caffeinism. Extreme nervousness, poor sleep, abnormalities of the functioning of the heart, intestinal and stomach upset, and irritability are among possible symptoms, which are indistinguishable from those of anxiety neurosis. These symptoms may be evoked in adults by doses of caffeine and related compounds beginning at about two hundred milligrams a day—the amount found in three cups of instant coffee or two cups of percolated coffee.

A seventy-pound child drinking one Coke and eating one candy bar ingests nearly one hundred milligrams of caffeine and theobromine. By weight, his dose is equal to or greater than that of many adults consuming two hundred milligrams. Many children suffer from caffeinism, which may manifest as hyperactivity or other behavioral problems. Effects of caffeine and related compounds depend on the dose and on the weight and tolerance of the individual user.

Withdrawal symptoms occurring when frequent users stop ingesting caffeine include headaches and drowsiness. Nearly everyone stopping caffeine experiences these symptoms, often for as long as a month. Headaches usually begin within twenty-four hours of the last dose. Caffeine is a potent and highly addictive drug.

Caffeine aggravates ulcers (and other stomach and intestinal conditions) by increasing stomach acid secretions. Marked effects on the heart and circulatory system explain why studies have shown coffee drinkers are at increased risk for heart attacks. Other studies have shown increased risks of pancreatic cancer and cancer of the bladder. Pregnant women are urged to curb caffeine consumption because caffeine enters the placenta and affects the growth and development of the fetus; several studies have linked birth defects with caffeine consumption.

Methylene chloride, commonly used to remove caffeine to make decaffeinated coffee, was found by government researchers to cause liver cancer in mice when given in high doses. An alternative method (the water-drip Swiss process) decaffeinates without use of methylene chloride or other carcinogenic chemicals.

Coffee is stimulating and imparts an alert and pleasant feeling. Caffeine stimulates the adrenal glands to release adrenaline, providing energy via the “fight or flight” mechanism. Constant overstimulation by caffeine weakens the adrenals, resulting in adrenal exhaustion and associated symptoms—fatigue, reduced immunity, and eventually chronic disease.

Driving on a long trip may be an occasion to use coffee to keep alert and avoid drowsiness; if driving all day, one might have three or four cups. Coffee in this situation has survival value—it makes one a better driver when attention to the road is required for several hours. One using coffee only on such occasions may find that the next day the “high” feeling imparted by caffeine is missed, and one longs for a cup of coffee. The feeling passes within a day or so, but the experience helps one understand how people become addicted to caffeine.

By and large, coffee and caffeine are best avoided. Caffeine aggravates a wide variety of medical problems and is likely involved in the development of these problems as well.

REFINED FLOUR AND SUGAR

How white flour and sugar adversely affect the human body has been detailed in many excellent books. The issue of why we go on using them long after we’re fully aware of their effects is more difficult to understand.

The need to conform is real; we tend to be influenced by friends and social norms. We rationalize by calling foods that we know weaken us “a treat,” then saying that a little bit won’t hurt. We realize that regular use of all but the smallest amounts of liquor and food containing refined flour and sugar is harmful; still we want them. Perhaps too many lives lack the meaningful and exciting activities that human beings have traditionally enjoyed, and as a substitute food and drink become irrational entertainment. Though this is natural enough on occasion, there is little doubt we overdo it.

Life is change. Eating primal foods consistently causes changes, among them a marked decrease in the desire for strong drink and foods containing white flour and sugar. The reasons are physiological—the well-balanced body and mind seem to have less desire for poor foods.

Many people find it easiest to entirely avoid sweets. When constantly eating small amounts, one is always attempting to decide how much is too much. Memory of the sweet taste constantly lingers. A decision simply to be done with it ends daily decisions and mind games. Within a month or two one stops thinking about sweets, as memory of the taste fades a bit. At this early stage, even a little taste usually augments one’s desire. Success comes only with continued abstinence; with time the taste for sweets is lost. Some even eventually find it possible to eat sweets occasionally with no thought of them the next day—if one still wants them at all. But for most, sweets are like Pandora’s box—best not opened by mere mortals unless prepared for difficulty.

Meaningful and enjoyable activities—family life, time spent with friends, sports, hobbies, challenging work, gardening, fishing, a thousand other things—may replace the entertainment value often demanded of foods. Food is both a fuel and a pleasure, and the highest octane is necessary for maximum pleasure, not only in eating, but in all elements of life. One may love the foods one consumes and yet not hesitate to modify the diet as new things are learned. And a sweet treat now and then may give so much pleasure that we might best think of this as something we should occasionally indulge in.

Tastes grow accustomed to simple foods over time; the natural flavors of primal foods become more satisfactory. The eating is enjoyable, but a greater pleasure lies in the performance of the body. Securing the best foods for self and family is the most basic and primitive element of life, the one from which all other functions derive. If this were a priority in modern living, it would be a different world indeed.

One eating well need not be preoccupied with food; securing the finest foods becomes a reflex and a necessity. A number of things may be enjoyed as much as eating, and a few considerably more.

Everyone trying to eat a more natural diet goes through a process of learning not to want refined foods. Commitment and time are needed—along with the realization that the products of factories and a poisoned agriculture are halfway foods, macabre and twisted perversions of the living foods that nature designed the human body to thrive on.

Because we all have eaten so many of these halfway foods for much of our lives, the subject of the next chapter—special foods, vitamins, minerals, and food supplements—is of importance to many of us. Recognizing that modern foods are lacking, we take supplements. Many of the most helpful supplements are concentrates of superior foods. Supplemental vitamins and minerals may often be of additional benefit, particularly when prescribed in conjunction with dietary changes.