I am reading a fascinating book at the moment. It's called Modernist Cuisine. It is 6 LARGE volumes that takes a very detailed scientific approach to cooking. They have dedicated a large chapter to dietary systems & health. The interesting part is that they show that none of the studies purporting to support the dietary beliefs that we are accustomed to are actually valid. I.e. most studies make invalid conclusions.
For example no study has ever proven MSG to be bad for you.
Dennis Burkitt, an Irish MD, visited middle Africa in the 40's. He found that the indigenous people there had very low occurrances of colorectal cancer. He also observed that they had a high fibre diet and came to the conclusion that high fibre prevents (colorectal cancer). Based on this completely BS conclusion, all the big food corporates started to make these claims on their products as it was not illegal to do so. This is still the case today and obviously they are reluctant to change that. Many subsequent studies have failed to prove that high fibre diet has all the benefits it claims to have.
On the subject of cholesterol, the book goes into a lot of detail. In fact there has been studies that has shown that low cholesterol in over 50's is dangerous.
They also show a timeline of what science has proven vs US government policy. And clearly policy is totally out of whack with scientific fact. Because of food industry lobbying.
The same goes for food safety. Few of the things we take for granted in food safety is actually valid. For example overcooking pork is not necessary. You can cook pork like you do beef. Freezing pork actually kills the bacteria that are harmful to us....
Fascinating book but it's a loooong read...
For example no study has ever proven MSG to be bad for you.
Dennis Burkitt, an Irish MD, visited middle Africa in the 40's. He found that the indigenous people there had very low occurrances of colorectal cancer. He also observed that they had a high fibre diet and came to the conclusion that high fibre prevents (colorectal cancer). Based on this completely BS conclusion, all the big food corporates started to make these claims on their products as it was not illegal to do so. This is still the case today and obviously they are reluctant to change that. Many subsequent studies have failed to prove that high fibre diet has all the benefits it claims to have.
On the subject of cholesterol, the book goes into a lot of detail. In fact there has been studies that has shown that low cholesterol in over 50's is dangerous.
They also show a timeline of what science has proven vs US government policy. And clearly policy is totally out of whack with scientific fact. Because of food industry lobbying.
The same goes for food safety. Few of the things we take for granted in food safety is actually valid. For example overcooking pork is not necessary. You can cook pork like you do beef. Freezing pork actually kills the bacteria that are harmful to us....
Fascinating book but it's a loooong read...
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