The next long distance attempts, including one marathon and one Ironman distance event, were all completed consuming mostly water and a couple of figs and bananas. How old school is that? It wasn’t until the Oxford Triathlon in 1988, where I tried a “Powerbar” between the run and bike legs, that I felt like I was actually “racing” from start to finish rather than “surviving”. I remember thinking to myself – dang, I wonder if this is legal? I ended up winning that race and qualifying for Kona. Yes, 4.5 hours on 1 Powerbar and water – oh to be young…. In my first Kona attempt, my plan was to eat several Powerbars (about 1 every hour) and drink water. This had worked well in all of my long training efforts. Unfortunately, I failed to factor in the heat and humidity and the fact that I slowed down and took my time to open the wrappers and eat during training. Chewing and swallow isn’t as easy at 150-160 bpm. Ultimately, I finished the bike course with one Powerbar half eaten and four others in a melted, gooey mess on my top tube. Try as I might, to get something solid down during the run, the best I could do was drink the Gatorade and water at the aid stations. Fortunately, going into it, I had decided to “cruise” rather than “race”. I wanted to see what the event was all about and didn’t want to relive my previous Ironman experience. I stayed very much at a “fat burning” effort level so I didn’t suffer too badly for my lack of fuel, and finished in a little over 9 hours.

I came to realize, the best way to fuel during a race was liquid nutrition – solids and chewing did not work – at least not for me. Over the next two years, in my Ironman races, I attempted to consume and replace the same amount of calories I was burning – all liquid. Yeah, think Carnation Instant Breakfast and Ensure meal replacement drinks. Seriously? Well, at least I was able to get it down. Unfortunately, most of it didn’t stay down. I can laugh about it now but…. It’s kind of hard to believe it took that long to get wise to the fact that one could never replace what one burned while exercising, at least not in real-time and on an hourly basis. Even then, in 1991, I still didn’t get it quite right and was somewhat under fueled – I drank only Gatorade from the start of the bike to about mile 16 in the run. At that point, I ran out of gas. Between miles 16 and 18 my 6 minute mile pace was reduced to a walk while I ate lots of cookies, pretzels, bananas and drank several cups of de-fizzed coca-cola. Once it all “kicked in”, I was able to run well over the last 7-8 miles to finish 3rd overall. (Of course, my wife’s response to that was something along the lines of “What!?! You were in 2nd place and gaining on 1st and you finished in 3rd?!? How did you screw that up?”)

It was at that point that I truly began to study the science behind endurance sports nutrition. Water, Gatorade – not enough. Solid food, 800+ calories per hour – too much, insane really. Carbohydrates, mostly complex, in the form of glucose or “maltodextrin”, electrolytes, protein, branch-chain amino acids, etc. all became an integral part of training for and competing in longer distance events. It took the better part of 6 years to figure out exactly what worked for me, and what didn’t, right down to the grams of carbohydrate and protein, ounces of fluid and amounts of electrolytes per hour. Mixing up my workout “potion” required no less than 3 different products in various portions depending on the intended training session and weather forecast.

I used many different products, successfully, during my last several years as a professional triathlete, as well as during the past 14 years, as an endurance sports coach. Advanced Sports Nutrition, Twinlab, Champion Nutrition and Hammer Nutrition have all been great to work with. All, I believe, make very good products that work well and I thank them. That said, I have experienced problems with them all – both in my personal use and in use by the athlete’s I coach. Most of the products can be used “as suggested” for most athletes, but they often require some “tweaking” to make them more palatable or to get just the right amount of carbohydrate, protein and electrolytes for individual needs. In other cases, athletes are just more finicky than others when it comes to taste, flavor and consistency and won’t drink the product whether it works or not. I’ve lost count of the number of times I have received a call the night before an athlete’s race asking about what should be mixed in each of their bottles and how many scoops of this and how many scoops of that, etc. Worse is the call after the race with the tale of how “I stopped drinking because the drinks just didn’t appeal to me or taste good….” If you don’t drink it, it’s not going to work.

Enter Infinit Nutrition. Infinit Nutrition came onto the scene 7 years ago and, at the time, I thought it was a great concept. Several athletes I coach began using it, loved it and use it to this day. I knew then, it was not just a great concept, but a great product. However, having used Hammer Nutrition products for so many years, I was reluctant to make any changes. As they say, if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. I would only go so far as recommending Infinit to athletes when they found, after many trials, that Hammer products simply did not work for them. Over these past few years, the number of those athletes has gradually increased, particularly when training for and competing at the Ironman distance events. In some cases, it is a taste or flavor issue, in others it stems from problems with soy protein and what happens to the mix after it gets warm. Other athletes find it too cumbersome and confusing to know which product to use when, which to mix with another or how many pills of this or that to take and how often, etc. The bottom line, IMHO, comes down to OSMOLALITY. It’s a big, hoy-floy word and I know just about everyone starts to glaze over when it’s mentioned, let alone explained. The best way to think of it is this – everything that gets mixed into an energy drink affects how well it can be absorbed and emptied from your stomach. Mix in too much stuff and it becomes more difficult and, potentially, impossible to absorb. Some nutrition experts would have you believe that simple sugars are the “devil incarnate” and should be avoided like the plague. Make no mistake, excessive sugar in your diet or your energy drink will cause problems. However, used judiciously and in appropriate amounts that maintain optimal OSMOLALITY (yes, it can be done) they can make for a better tasting drink AND can actually enable higher absorption and oxidation rates of carbohydrates than a single complex carbohydrate mix.

Infinit Nutrition addresses all of this with truly custom blended mixes, enabling athletes to custom design a drink mix to fit their exact individual needs. The flavor, amount and type of carbohydrate, amount of protein, electrolytes, caffeine, anti-oxidants and amino acids can all be adjusted. And they guarantee optimal osmolality of your blend. Once your ideal blend is determined, it becomes as simple as 2 scoops in a water bottle and be on your way. I like simple.

So, this past summer, I decided to try Infinit products for myself. I think I was “sold” when drinking their “preset” Ride Formula. The taste and consistency made me think it was their version of other basic carbohydrate/electrolyte drinks. It was not “heavy” like other mixes that include protein and it actually tasted good – warm or cold. I was very surprised when I saw that it did, in fact, contain protein in the blend. I have always found that I, personally, perform better with some protein during exercise – really, regardless of the length of the workout or race – a little less for shorter and more for longer. Unfortunately, most of the carbohydrate/protein products available – both premixed and more often for me, custom mixed – are too “thick” to easily get down, especially if they are not ice cold.

I am proud to come on board with the Infinit Nutrition team and call Infinit the Official Drink of Devlin Coaching.   I am currently working with Infinit to develop my own custom blended mixes that will be available soon. Use them as designed or use them as a starting point when developing your own ideal drink.

Okay, so you’ve done the training, tapered, and you are ready to race. Or are you? Race day nutrition is so important yet only given a fleeting thought by so many athletes. What you ingest pre, during and post race not only has a profound impact on your race performance, but also your ability to recover from the effort. But it’s so common to see athletes arise on the morning of a race and either eat nothing, eat too few calories, eat too close to race start, eat too much fiber, or other similar mistakes that can effect your race outcome. Then during the race, many people lack a fluid/calorie intake plan and either fall short of or overdo their hydration/energy requirements. Similarly, once the race is over most of us just hang around or hop into the car and drive home without reloading. This article will offer advice on fueling your body for a peak performance, and accelerating your recovery from the effort.

The PRE RACE meal is a necessity for racing at any distances. Your liver glycogen levels are slightly depleted during sleep and you’ll need to top up this tank, as you will your blood sugar levels. Consume this meal at 2-4 hours before race start. Spread this out over 2 hours if possible, and consume the bulk of the calories and/or more solid food closer to 4 hours and more liquid calories closer to 2 hours. It’s a wide range and you should see just how hungry you are – you don’t want to stuff yourself. Any solid food should be easily digestible. The number of calories you need to consume will depend largely on your body weight and your ability to “stomach” them. As a guide, for a range in body weight of 50-80 kgs, an athlete should be looking at taking in 400-1200 calories. The calories should be broken down as 65-70% carbohydrate, 15-20% protein and 10-15% fat. For an intake of 600 calories, this would mean approximately 97-105 grams of Carbs, 22-30 grams of Protein and 15-22 grams of Fat. The carbohydrates should be complex. You don’t want too much fibre, either, unless you are planning a pit stop or 5 on the run course. Some people do best on solid food, whilst others can only stomach liquid calories such as a liquid meal replacement . Personally, we mix up a combination of glucose polymers, protein powder and flaxseed oil and advise our athletes to test this out for themselves. However, one thing IS certain – you have to find out BEFORE race day what works for YOU – liquids, solids, or a combination of the two. Practice different combinations of calories before some of your longer workouts and see how they sit with you.

Nutrition DURING a race should not vary drastically from nutrition during training. In general, you will be racing at higher intensities than during training and burning up more carbohydrate and will therefore need to take in more calories and fluids. There will have more fuel and fluid available (aid stations) than during training sessions, so take advantage of it. You’ll need around 750-1750ml of fluid per hour depending on weight, sweat rates and temperature/humidity. In most triathlon events (even the longest ones) the primary energy source is carbohydrate. In longer events take in about 250-500 calories per hour. We prefer using all liquid calories and possibly some squeezies during the run as opposed to energy bars or solid foods. But everyone is different, and you should experiment during training to find out what works the best for you.

In general, smaller athletes 55 kg or less need about 250-350 calories per hour while larger athletes 80 kg or more may need up to 500 calories per hour. The longer the event the more you will use both fat and protein for fuel along with the carbs so you will benefit from including them in your race nutrition. Faster athletes can often get by on carbs only, but if you are on the course for 5 hours or more then you should consider taking in more than just carbohydrate on the bike. Liquid meals or sports bars with protein and a little fat (probably in the form of medium chain triglycerides) could work well in this case. I would aim for around 10-15% of your calories from protein, or 6-18 grams per hour.

DURING THE RACE:

Swim – no calories (no kidding!). Not even the lake or ocean water! During the first hour of exercise, irrespective of the quantity of carbohydrate consumed, only about 20 grams of carbohydrates are oxidised by the working muscles.

Bike – drink only water or diluted energy drink for the first 15-20 minutes. After that try to take in consistently up to 250-500 calories per hour (again, depending on body size and personal requirements) from a combination of energy drink, gels or energy bars.

Run – if you can carry a bottle from the transition area with sports drink that would be good. You are shooting for up to but probably slightly less calories per hour than on the bike. If you are not sure about the drink and it’s strength/mix on the course then you will probably want to carry your calories in squeezies or a gel flask, and dilute it with water. The other option is 2-3 cups of energy drink every 10-15 minutes (a cup could be anywhere from 30-60 calories).

One of the areas that appears to cause the most problems during a race is HOW MANY CALORIES SHOULD YOU PUT IN YOUR BOTTLES? The optimal range for calorie concentration is between 5-10% with 7% being ideal for most athletes and under most conditions. A 7% concentration is about 200 calories per 700ml. In very warm or hot weather it is best to lean towards the lower side of the range and during cooler temperatures lean toward the higher side of the range. You need to consider everything you will be consuming during the race – energy drinks, bars, gels, Big Mac’s, whatever……. The overall calorie to fluid ratio should bring you to within this concentration range. In other words, the more calories you consume, the more fluid you will need to go with it – otherwise water will need to be taken from your working muscles to attempt to digest and absorb it all – a sure fire recipe for cramps. If you plan on consuming gels and bars then you may want to consider going light on the amount of calories in your bottles. Also keep in mind the recommended total amount of fluid that can be reasonably consumed per hour(750-1750m)l.

Now the race is done, and you kicked some serious freckle. First thing to do is kick back and hook into a brewskie or three, right? WRONG! Put the beer on hold (for now). The first hour after a long race (and training session for that matter) is THE most important time to replace fluid, carbohydrate and protein. The body is in serious need of rehydration and repair at this time so give it what it needs to speed recovery. First, drink around 500-750ml of water. Then you want to consume a RECOVERY BOTTLE that you will have prepared pre race. You want a mix of carbohydrate (60-75g), protein powder (25-35g) and essential fatty acids/flax oil (14g – 1 tablespoon). Depending on the event it could be appropriate to follow up an hour later with another 70-100 grams of carbohydrate. Then, go eat some REAL food. Continue to drink plenty of water over the next 12 hours. We can’t emphasise this enough when it comes to day to day recovery from hard training.

Are we sick of eating/drinking yet? Yes, it can be a chore but if you really want optimum performance then it’s worth the effort.

Interview by Ori Hofmekler, April 2000.

What began as a personal disaster – being poisoned on the job by industrial pesticides – was turned into the triumph of a best-selling book. (“Knowing that the poisons I had been exposed to were carcinogenic and that cancer often involves fats, I needed clear, accurate, factual information.”) Following is an exclusive interview with Udo Erasmus, Ph.D., author of Fats That Heal Fats That Kill. Erasmus is considered by many to be one of the most serious health gurus today, especially concerning fat metabolism, but also libido, aging, and beauty.

Says Erasmus in the preface of his book, “My health is my responsibility… Our drug-oriented medical approaches cannot lead us to health… Foods and nutrition are primary options for self-help in health.”

With this credo as a guiding thread, Erasmus has fashioned a thought-provoking, sometimes controversial – but always nutritionally sound – understanding of the role of fats (both good and bad) in our diet.

POWER: Can you explain what prostaglandins are and how they are connected to essential fatty acids?
ERASMUS: The prostaglandins are hormones that are made from essential fatty acids. There are also hormones that are made from cholesterol, hormones made from amino acids, and hormones made from proteins. Prostaglandins come in three families, two of them good and one that causes some problems. They each have their place. In the jungle, the prostaglandin 2′s are very good for survival. And the prostaglandin 1′s and 3′s make sure that the prostaglandin 2′s don’t get out of hand. There are prostaglandins that relax arterial muscle tone. There are prostaglandins that constrict arterial muscle tone. You would expect that some prostaglandins will help to maintain an erection. So they could be very helpful. Of course it also helps to be near a desirable object – and maybe it helps to be in love.

POWER: You said that there is a relationship between beauty and essential fatty acids. Does this refer to skin that is beautiful? Beauty in general? The aging process? Or all of these?
ERASMUS: Well, if you look at it from its foundation, you cannot separate health, performance, and beauty. Because performance requires health, and beauty is really the external manifestation of healthy biochemical function. It sounds very unromantic, but that’s how it is. And it’s also manifested on the skin. Because the essential fats, besides improving cardiovascular health, energy levels, and brain function, are required for brain development, healthy glands and organs, and [they] help with weight loss. They are also anti-inflammatory and anti-autoimmune – which all together makes beautiful skin, if you get the right ratio and enough of them. We measure optimum intake by how the skin feels. When you get the optimum amount of essential fatty acids they form a barrier in the skin against the loss of moisture, and so they are nature’s perfect moisturizer.

POWER: Can you use them topically on the skin?
ERASMUS: They’re not used in external cosmetics because if you put them on the skin they’ll go rancid. That’s why you need to take them internally, and they will make the skin soft and velvety. The reason we use skin as our measure for optimum intake is because skin gets the essential fats last.

POWER: Do you know how much Omega 3′s and 6′s one should take, and how long one would need to take them before seeing a change in one’s skin?
ERASMUS: To do our work we use a blend that is twice as rich in Omega-3′s as Omega-6′s. Usually adults need between two and three tablespoons a day. I use about 3 tablespoonfuls a day in the summer, and four in the winter, because during the fall when the weather turns people begin to notice their skin gets dry, and that’s nature telling them they need more oil. Bodybuilders may need to take seven or eight to get the same results on their skin that I feel I get with three or four.

POWER: Is there anything like too much of a good oil?
ERASMUS: Too much? We have people take 50 percent of their calories from fats. That’s a lot of fat. They lose weight on them, they lose their arthritic symptoms on them.
The Eskimos got up to 60 percent of their calories from fat, and they didn’t have clogged arteries, get diabetes, cancer, or multiple sclerosis. Although their diet was much higher in fat [than the diets that were killing us], theirs was unprocessed and our was processed; theirs was very rich in essential-fat derivatives, whereas ours was a poor source of essential fats.

POWER: In other words, there is no limit to how much good fat you can take?
ERASMUS: Well, there is one limit: If you take more fat at any one time than your liver can process – because your liver has to process fats – then you will feel heavy or nauseated, and what that means is you need to spread it out over the day so you never give your liver more than it can handle. Some people can take a huge amount of fat and not have a problem with it, and some people can only take a little at a time. That’s really the main symptom you might get.

POWER: You produce your own oil, Udo’s Choice Perfected Oil Blend. Is this the best combination of oil on the market today?
ERASMUS: I’m the guy who pioneered the whole deal. I’m the guy who dug out the information. I had cancer to look forward to. I knew that cancer often involves fats, and I didn’t know how, so I dug out the information. It took me six years of digging through the journals. That’s a long time to spend researching something. And then I developed machinery for making oils with health in mind. Of all the people who are going in this direction, I’m the only one who has the education. I get a lot of feedback because I work with a lot of people. I try it on myself, my friends – and if that works, then I expand the circle.
The reason why we use skin to determine what’s optimum is because your brain, your liver, your heart require the oils – and if they were deprived because the oil went to the skin first, then you would have serious health problems. But you can live with dry skin. It’s not beautiful, but you can live with it. So nature’s wisdom says skin gets it last. By the time your skin is soft and velvety, you also know that you have dealt your health issues, because the rest of your body has what it needs.

POWER: So you know that all your inside organs have enough fat?
ERASMUS: Right.

POWER: Some men and women suffer from water retention under the skin, usually puffiness under the eyes. Is there any way that this oil can remove it?
ERASMUS: Well, there are a couple of issues we are talking about here. One is kidney function. The essential fats are extremely important for kidney function, and if your kidney doesn’t work you retain water. But that’s more a bodywide thing, and again the Omega-3′s do a better job here, but you’ve got to have enough Omega-6′s not to become deficient. So don’t just use flax oil for it. You really need more Omega-6. We use flax with some sunflower and sesame to improve the ratio. The other issue is involved with allergies or liver function. And if it involves allergies you need to make sure that foods are properly digested or you need to remove certain foods. I would rather improve digestion than remove foods. And that is a result of histamine and prostaglandin action in the body as a result of allergies.

POWER: How are you going to digest the food if you’re allergic?
ERASMUS: What we do is give people the oil to improve gut integrity and prevent leaky gut that leads to food allergies. And then we give them enzymes to replace the enzymes destroyed when foods are cooked. And we give them particular enzyme mixtures that are very rich in proteases, because poorly digested protein causes most of the problems. When food is completely digested, there is virtually nothing left to be allergic to anymore. So that’s why we would rather replace the enzymes, taking them a little closer to how it was in nature again, than to remove foods. Because we’ve seen people remove so many foods from their diet that the only thing they could eat was oatmeal, and oatmeal is not a balanced diet. So I would rather go in the direction of helping digestion than removing foods.

POWER: Can stretch marks be helped? Women often get stretch marks after birth. Men can get them when they lose weight, or pump up too much when bodybuilding. What about wrinkles? Is there any way to remove or reduce these two hazards of aging skin?
ERASMUS: For stretch marks I only preventative [measures]. Most of those people end up with a zinc deficiency, and then the collagen comes apart. That’s what the stretch marks are from. So that’s preventable. But I don’t know of any reversal for it. Once you got ‘em you got ‘em. So if you don’t think stretch marks are very beautiful, this is a very good reason to take the wise road of getting the nutrients you need before you have problems.
In terms of water under the skin, with bodybuilders who want to look shredded before their competitions – which means no fat under the skin so you can see all the muscle striations – we have consistently used oils rich in Omega-3′s, and when properly balanced, they can attain [the] fat burn-off under the skin they want. This can be done with oils now. They used to do it with diuretics. Diuretics are very hard on kidney function, and they deprive you of potassium, which is also hard on cardiovascular function. The athletes are getting just as good results – probably better – with the proper use of oils.

POWER: Do the oils burn the fat or remove water under the skin?
ERASMUS: Burn the fat. Now while it could also be water – it would remove the water as well, provided the kidneys aren’t doing their job of getting rid of excess water. So it could actually be both – but the oils do a good job on both.

POWER: Well, it could also be that Omega-3 is an estrogen blocker, and it is estrogen that gives you a lot of body fat under the skin.
ERASMUS: And wrinkles come from skin being dry. Those essential fats – if you get them in the right ratio, in the right amount, and the right kind – will remove some. I’ve seen people in their eighties with soft, velvety skin. They’ll have some brown spots, but their skin is soft and velvety. The character lines, which are the deep wrinkles, I have not seen reversed. I mean, I don’t know, I’m 56 – I don’t have a whole lot of wrinkles. I will get those character lines. But the oil does a wonderful job if you get enough oil to keep the face from getting all the other wrinkles that come from dryness. And then the other [areas] where it works well [are] eczema, psoriasis, and acne. It’s also very helpful on those conditions.

POWER: There are some degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis or other physical problems that, according to traditional medicine, don’t show any serious solution right now. Is there anything you want to say about myasthenia gravis, for example, and other degenerative diseases?
ERASMUS: Well, there is research that shows that in places where essential fat intake is high, multiple sclerosis is very rare. So that’s from one end. From the other end, people who get multiple sclerosis, if you look at their diets, they’re usually very poor diets, lots of crackers and cheese, very few greens and very few fats…And then the third place to come from is that we have seen people with multiple sclerosis arrest the progression of the disease and improve their energy levels. In some cases, with lots of greens – because greens are really important there – even reverse it.
You know, wisdom is better than hind sight. It’s better to head it off doing things right in the first place than to wait until you have the problem and try to reverse it. Prevention is always easier than reversal. The only people at this point in the general sense in this society who are taking the wise approach are actually the people who want to look good and be fit. The people who are interested in beauty and performance. Those are the people who are embracing the idea of good nutrition on a preventative basis. Whereas the rest of the population generally neglect themselves until something goes wrong, and then they try to look for some technology to fix it. So the kids are the wisest of the bunch in this area.

POWER: Do you have any opinion about people suffering from mental problems like obsessive behavior?
ERASMUS: There is some research on obsessive-compulsive disorder that [says] fats are important. Certainly in depression, [there is] good research and consistent feedback [that says] when people make the oil change we recommend, their mood is elevated and their depression is lifted. Hyperactivity responds, dyslexia responds, clumsiness responds, attention deficit responds… Also, in schizophrenia, there’s less hallucination. People deal with stress better and feel calmer. Also intelligence improves, and there’s research on that – I.Q. goes up by six to nine points.

POWER: Talk more about eating disorder and obsessive-compulsive behavior. Eating disorder is a big disease today, for women especially.
ERASMUS: Yes. There are a couple of things I know. The essential fats should be helpful. They’re also helpful in Alzheimer’s. But zinc is also important in eating disorders. I guess what I would say to those people [with eating disorders] is that you will never be perfect externally, even if you’re very beautiful. Perfection is meant to be an inner experience. Go a little easier on yourself, maybe break a few rules, be a little bit rebellious – and try not to be perfect in other people’s eyes.
I talked to a fourteen year old girl in Australia. I was at one of the conferences. And her mother said, “Would you tell my daughter what she needs to do?” – because she had an eating disorder. So I talked to her just about a few things, and finally I whispered in her ear, “You’re far too beautiful to treat yourself this badly.” And she started to cry. And that was the beginning of changing for her. And I had no idea that would happen.

POWER: What is your opinion about hormonal injection therapy? Is there any better way to go about it?
ERASMUS: Well, first of all, I would not get involved with hormone manipulation if I hadn’t first put the natural program in place – making sure you get all your minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and essential fatty acids in optimum quantities for your needs. Food is number one. Food is primary health care, because the body is made out of food, and if you deal with that, just about everything will work. Your genetic material knows what to do if it’s given the tools that it needs. I would not do hormone manipulation. The other thing is that foods are very safe.

POWER: Do not inject anything foreign before you try all your options?
ERASMUS: Right. Hormones are very powerful – much more powerful than nutrients, so they have to be used with a much greater degree of caution. There are many stories about bodybuilders that were so intent on getting huge that have had serious health problems. I’ve talked to some of them; I do consultations with them sometimes. So I would caution people about hormones simply because they are so powerful and they act in such tiny doses that you really need to know what you are doing. I would not use them unless the nutritional program had been put in place; you were at an age where you had a particular glandular problem that had been measured; and you were really clear [on what you were doing].
Thyroid hormone will help in some cases like that; testosterone or estrogen or progesterone might help. Growth hormone, I would have some serious problems with because it’s a protein, and people become allergic to it. I would maybe use D.H.E.A., but only if there was a measured deficiency, and the person was over 50. But certainly not for people who are young.

END OF PART II

By Nelson Montana, March 31, 2000. Issue No. 98.

If dietary fat had a different name than bodyfat, maybe fewer people would be fat “phobic.” To the general public, the very word “fat” carries a negative connotation. It’s associated with heart disease, cancer, hardening of the arteries, and ugly body flab. Yet, despite the similarity in sound, the two are as different as violins and violence.

Most bodybuilders are aware of thisÑthey know that fats are essential. Fats provide energy. They help the body to burn stored fat. They’re also necessary for hormone production (including our favorite, testosterone). But there’s more to the slippery stuff than you may realize. That’s what Udo Erasmus is out to prove.

Udo is one of the original pioneers in the study of fats. Long before the Atkins diet, the Anabolic diet, and their subsequent descendants, the Zone and the ketogenic diets, Udo was advocating the proper use of fats for optimum health, immunity, and athletic performance.

Udo’s academic credentials include a BS in zoology, an MA in psychology, a PhD in nutrition, and graduate studies in genetics and biochemistry. A major turning point in his career occurred back in 1980 when he was accidentally poisoned by pesticides. When traditional medicine was unable to provide help, Udo concluded that his health was his responsibility and sought the answers that he needed by fervently delving into the research literature. He also paid special attention to a misunderstood area:

The effects of fats and oils on human health.

This meant tracking down thousands of original research studies, many of which were inaccessible to the public. Udo’s investigation culminated in the writing of his groundbreaking book, “Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill.”

Since the release of this landmark bestseller, Udo has set about preaching the gospel of good fat. If you’d like to have a better understanding of how fats can help you with your bodybuilding goals, you’ll be interested to hear from the man reverently known as “His Royal Oiliness.”

T: Hi, Udo. I understand that you’re currently touring the country doing seminars. Can you tell us a little about that?

UE: That’s what I do. I travel around the country speaking on this issue because I believe that Americans need an “oil change.” The fats that Americans are using play a major role in the cause of most of the degenerative conditions in a way that traditional medicine doesn’t address. Cardiovascular disease, type-II diabetes, arthritis, and cancer are all preventable with what I call “fats that heal.”

T: Are all bad fats saturated fats?

UE: Not necessarily. It’s also the fats that’ve been processed by destructive methods. This includes margarines and shortenings, which contain trans-fatty acids.

T: So hydrogenated fats [those that solidify at room temperature] are bigger culprits than saturated fat. This includes peanut butter, which is essentially peanuts and Crisco, isn’t it?

UE: Exactly. And trans-fatty acids are what raise LDL, the “bad” cholesterol. But some of the oils which are considered to be “good,” like olive and canola oils, have also been processed by destructive methods. Actually, all supermarket oils, except for extra-virgin olive oil, fit into this category.

Virgin olive oil isn’t a great source of omega-3s, but it has many of the cofactors that are required for optimum health. Supermarket oils are treated with Drano window-washing acid bleach in order to give them a long shelf life. They’re treated with a corrosive base, corrosive acid, then bleached to clean up the rancidity. Also, any time you fry with fats, you’re changing the chemistry and turning them toxic.

T: Which of the essential oils are most beneficial to bodybuilders?

UE: Flax oil, which contains the omega-3s, should be considered a “must have” supplement for bodybuilders. If bodybuilders want to lose subcutaneous fat, then I’d highly recommend additional flax oil. The muscles will look shredded! Some of the bodybuilders that I’ve worked with have taken up to 14 tablespoons of the blend with amazing results. Flax oil alone may not be enough, though.

In my Udo’s Choice formula, I mix unrefined organic sunflower, sesame, primrose, oat, rice, and wheat germ oils in order to get the proper ratio of omega-3 and omega-6. If you just take flax, you may become omega-6 deficient, but most people get enough omega-6 in a standard diet. Unfortunately, it’s from poor sources. Symptoms of omega-6 deficiency are dry eyes and skin, joint pain, and skipped heartbeats.

The ratio should be 2:1 in favor of omega-3. The blend will help regardless of your present diet. As long as you get enough of the good fats, you can get away with a little of the bad fats. But keep in mind that essential fats and saturated fats compete. You have to make sure that the essential fats always win the competition.

T: Do you recommend never cooking with oil? No fried eggs, no tomato sauce, not even broiled chicken?

UE: No frying! Frying foods increases cancer and the chance for heart disease. Once you heat oil, you’re changing the chemistry, big-time. Smoke, as we know, causes cancer and other problems.

T: So browning of meats is also out?

UE: Yes. We tell everyone to steam his or her food. That’s what everyone around the world used to do. Steam, boil or pressure cook your foods, then add the oil blend. You can add oil to your shakes, pour it in fruit juice…

T: Oil in fruit juice?

UE: Yeah! It sounds strange, but it’s very good.

T: Bodybuilders understand that fats are necessary for the production of testosterone. But do all fats increase hormone production, or is it specific fats?

UE: The EFAs give the glands more energy to do their work which, in part, is hormone production. Omega-3 deficiency causes weakness due to lowered testosterone levels. We worked with one bodybuilder on a high-protein, low-fat diet who took just three tablespoons of the blend. Within two days, he increased his poundages and amount of repetitions. He was also recuperating quicker, and his buddies were asking him what he was on!

T: How do prostaglandins fit into the picture? How do fats affect them?

UE: Prostaglandins are the hormones that are made from essential fatty acids. There are different kinds of prostaglandins, each with a specific function. They’re necessary for everything from protecting the arterial wall to maintaining an erection!

T: Waiter, more oil here! I don’t have to worry about getting too much, do I?

UE: It isn’t likely, unless you take in so much that your liver can’t handle it. The liver has to process fats, so you wouldn’t want to bog it down with too much at one time.

T: I imagine that’s where one’s instincts come into play. You “feel” weighed down by all of the fat.

UE: Some people can handle more than others. And, of course, adequate EFAs are essential to liver health. They help the liver do its job.

T: Which is something that bodybuilders, especially those using anabolic enhancement, should be conscious about.

UE: It’s often overlooked, but health is important to bodybuilders. Sometimes, they think just in terms of more muscle mass and forget that healthy liver function, in particular, will optimize the output of the other glands and organsÑwhich equates to more energy, more strength and, consequently, more muscle.

T: I understand that you believe gland meat to be superior to muscle meat.

UE: Yes. Liver stores all of the body’s nutrients. But you have to be careful not to eat old liver.

T: Because liver is also the filter of the body’s toxins?

UE: Right! If the liver isn’t functioning properly, it will collect those toxins.

T: Would you then recommend desiccated liver?

UE: Desiccated liver is simply liver with the water taken out. If you want the benefits of liver, they can help, as long as it’s from an organic source. This is an issue to which athletes need to pay more attention. You need to go organic.

I have a crude saying concerning the environmental issue: you can only *** in your nest for so long before you’re nesting in your ***. If we continue to pollute the environment, we pollute ourselves because the environment is our food. If a bodybuilder refuses to pay attention to his health by eating non-organic toxic food, that will ultimately interfere with his ability to get bigger. Health is required for optimum muscle growth.

T: How is your concept different from the various high-fat diets that have recently gained popularity?

UE: Most of them will aid in fat loss, but I have concerns because the quality of the fats isn’t taken into consideration. Also, staying in ketosis can be hard on the liver and kidneys.

T: So it just can’t be all bacon and rack of lamb…

UE: The most important action to take regarding fats and strength, as well as fats and health, is to bring in and optimize the good fats. Having done that, rack of lamb is okay, but fried bacon is better avoided. The fact that bacon has nitrates and fries in its own fat makes it a very bad choice. I’ll give credit to Atkins for proving that a high-fat diet will help weight loss, but it’s his only claim. He never mentions cardiovascular disease or gland function. My method is healthier and more beneficial to bodybuilders.

I also believe that bodybuilders should be using digestive enzymes that are rich in protease. That can take a load off of your digestion which, in turn, will free the immune system from having to get involved in digesting foods. It also insures the proper assimilation of proteins. When proteins aren’t digested, it causes a host of problems like bloating, leaky gut, and gout.

T: Are you an advocate of low-carb diets?

UE: Not for bodybuilders! I don’t buy into the 40-30-30 thing because it varies from person to person. A bodybuilder needs carbs for energy and is more likely to burn carbs than a sedentary person. Carbs should be ingested slowly so that you don’t get a big insulin spike. The key is to get it in at the rate that it burns.

T: Chitosan has become a popular supplement. What’s your take on using it for those occasional “bad fat” meals?

UE: Chitosan doesn’t work much differently than psyllium. Too much of either will remove the good fat along with the bad. Psyllium absorbs 40% of its weight in water, which helps in elimination. But if you take it without enough food, you can cause yourself a lot of gut problems.

The notion of eating bad fats and making sure that they don’t get absorbed isn’t the smartest way to go. What we really need to do is to get enough of the good fats. If you take chitosan, you have to make sure that you supplement with extra EFA and additional vitamin E. If you eat enough vegetables, which have all of the nutrients that you need, you’ll get plenty of fiber without having to take “crab shells” [of which chitosan is made].

Fiber is important. It removes cholesterol, toxins, and heavy metals from the body. It also stabilizes blood glucose, both high and low. We make a gentle fiber product called Beyond Greens which has fiber from flax, slippery elm, acidophilus, dulse, kelp, and just a little from psyllium. It attaches to the sugar in your digestive tract and slows down its absorption. This is very beneficial to bodybuilders because it hinders the glycemic action of certain sugars and prevents the glucose from being stored as bodyfat. Fat also slows down the glycemic index, but fiber actually does a better job of it.

If anyone wants more information on any of these products, call 800-446-2110 or visit the Fats That Heal website. They’re also available in most health food stores. You have to search, thoughÑthe different products are sometimes scattered instead of being together in one place.

These are life-altering products. I’d suggest trying them and, if you like, buy them by the case and freeze the remainder. It’s cheaper that way, and you won’t have to worry about the freshness expiring if it’s frozen.

T: Is the blend available in a capsule? Some people may have a problem drinking the oil straight.

UE: The blend is available in capsules, but you’ll need 14 pills to reach the recommended dosage. It isn’t cost-effective, but it’s good for traveling on planes and such where you wouldn’t want to spill it on your suit. But drinking a spoonful or two is fine for most people. The oil doesn’t taste terribleÑit’s not as nasty as cod-liver oil.

T: Nothing is as nasty as cod-liver oil.

UE: People actually like the taste of Udo’s Choice. It’s not ice cream, but it isn’t horrible. I suck the oil right out of the bottle! I’d suggest getting used to it. It’s your life.

T: Last question, what’s the lesser of two evils: butter or oil?

UE: Butter. However, you’re still going to get toxicity, so my advice – don’t do it!

T: Thanks, Udo. I’ll keep it in mind.

UE: Thank you. And stay healthy.

Going into this story, I thought that I had a pretty good grasp on the benefits of fats and oils. Coming out of it, I realize that my supplementation of essential fatty acids from the “right” oils has been drastically deficient. Time to up those omega-3s!

Admittedly, some of Udo’s recommendations may be difficult to “swallow.” Boiled meat? Steamed fish? I don’t know about you, but a life without charred meat isn’t worth living, as far as I’m concerned.

Nevertheless, Udo gave me a lot to think about. From here on, flaxseed oil won’t just be a “now and then” supplement. It should be a part of the bodybuilder’s daily intake, every bit as important as protein and vitamins.

And maybe I’ll pass on the Wendy’s Double Classic cheeseburger today. Grilled chicken with extra-virgin olive oil? That doesn’t sound so bad.

Interview by Ori Hofmekler, January 2000 Premier Issue.

What began as a personal disaster – being poisoned on the job by industrial pesticides – was turned into the triumph of a best-selling book. (“Knowing that the poisons I had been exposed to were carcinogenic and that cancer often involves fats, I needed clear, accurate, factual information.”) Following is an exclusive interview with Udo Erasmus, Ph.D., author of Fats That Heal Fats That Kill. Erasmus is considered by many to be one of the most serious health gurus today, especially concerning fat metabolism, but also libido, aging, and beauty.

Says Erasmus in the preface of his book, “My health is my responsibility… Our drug-oriented medical approaches cannot lead us to health… Foods and nutrition are primary options for self-help in health.”

With this credo as a guiding thread, Erasmus has fashioned a thought-provoking, sometimes controversial – but always nutritionally sound – understanding of the role of fats (both good and bad) in our diet.

POWER: There seems to be a fat phobia in this country. Americans were never on diets the way they have been in the last couple of decades. And still people keep getting fatter and fatter. What do you think is the reason?
ERASMUS: There are several themes in your question. First of all, I think the reason for the fat phobia is that people have heard only half the story on fats. The complete story is that there are fats that heal as well as fats that kill. Everybody has been told to avoid the fats that kill, but the importance of the fats that heal has been neglected. Yet the healing fats are even more important than the avoidance of bad fats, because we cannot stay alive if we don’t get enough of the healing fats. If you know only half the story – if you think that all fats are bad – then it makes sense that you would avoid all of them.
The second reason people aren’t getting fats is industrial. The food industry likes its products to have a long shelf life. Like perishable groceries, the healing fats spoil easily and cause shorter shelf life.

POWER: What are the fats that heal – the good fats? And what do they heal?
ERASMUS: The fats that heal really involve three substances. One is called Omega-3 essential fatty acid, or alpha-linolenic acid. The second is Omega-6, or linoleic acid. If you take these in the right ratio – which is important – and you get enough of the both, the body makes several derivatives that are important for health. And some of these derivatives are turned into hormones called prostaglandins that are vital to optimal body functioning.
The third area that’s important is what we call “minor” ingredients. These are substances found in oils that are simply squeezed out of seeds or nuts and not further processed. They make up only 2 percent of an oil, which is why they are called “minor”, but they have major benefits for health. Among them are phytosterols, lecithin, carotene, chlorophyll, vitamin E, and many others. They are removed or destroyed in the usual processing of oils, in order to achieve a longer shelf life.
The healing fats heal everything that one suffers from getting less than optimal amounts of them. They optimize energy level and performance; improve brain function, mood, behavior, and intelligence; make skin soft, smooth, and velvety; improve digestive, gland, and organ functions; lower most cardiovascular risk factors; are anti-inflammatory, and dampen the over-response of the immune system in autoimmune conditions; help transport minerals and keep bones strong; protect our genes from being damaged; are required for hemoglobin production, cell growth, and cell division; have anti-cancer properties; and help in fat loss and weight normalization.

POWER: Can the body produce essential fatty acids on its own?
ERASMUS: The word “essential” means that they are substances the body cannot produce itself. By definition, essential fatty aids come from dietary fat; our body cannot make them but must have them to be able to live. Essential fatty acids must therefore come from foods. A no-fat diet cannot provide them, and a low-fat diet will not provide enough.
If you don’t get enough essential fatty acids, your health deteriorates. You pass through a progressively worsening set of degenerative deficiency symptoms, and if the deficiency is sustained long enough, you die,
Also part of the definition of “essential” is that if you are deteriorating from a deficiency of essential fatty acids, and you put enough of them back into the deficient diet, the deficiency symptoms are reversed and you recover your health. So they have great healing potential in all conditions that result from essential-fatty-acid deficiency.
The final part of the definition is that a nutrient cannot be called “essential” until researchers have identified at least one biochemical reaction in the body in which that substance is required, and without which that reaction cannot take place.
Many of the degenerative conditions on which traditional medicine has had a hard time getting a handle are the result of insufficient or suboptimal intake of one or more of the essential nutrients – some 20 minerals, 13 vitamins, 8 essential amino acids from proteins, and 2 essential fatty acids from fats. If you optimize their presence in the diet, you get reversals of all those conditions that result from deficiency. Which explains why the nutritional approach works so well today. Many modern illnesses (sometimes called the “diseases of civilization”, which really means diseases caused by food processing) result from not getting enough of one or more of the essential nutrients, or from toxic influences that interfere with our biochemistry – in other words poison us.

POWER: In your book you say that there are fats that make you actually lose body fat. Is this true?
ERASMUS: Yes. In fact, the notion that fats make you fat has never been true. Even the wrong fats help you lose weight, because they suppress appetite. High-fat, high-protein diets have been used for weight loss for the past 40 years. They work. If it’s the wrong kind of fat, it will be hard on kidneys and liver eventually, but it still works for weight loss. If you eat the right fats – the ones I call the healing fats or essential fats – they increase your metabolic rate. Your burn more calories and you feel more like being active because they increase energy levels.
Essential fats also work to curb food cravings. And they are anti-inflammatory, helping get rid of water in inflamed tissues, which can be part of the over-weight problem. As I said, they make your skin soft and velvety, elevate your mood, improve thinking ability, make you feel energetic and more like taking care of yourself. If your skin is lousy, your mood is low, you can’t think straight, and have no energy, your self-esteem will likely be affected in a negative way.
In the past ten years in America we have reduced fat intake from 42 percent of calories to 35 percent. In those same ten years the incidence of obesity increased from 20 to 33 percent of the population. Which means that eating less fat will likely make you fatter.

POWER: What kinds of fats make you lose fat? Is it the combination of Omega-3 and Omega-6, or is it just Omega-3? You state in your book that there is already too much Omega-6 in our diet.
ERASMUS: All fats have some weight loss benefits, because they suppress appetite, but Omega-3′s reduce weight far better than Omega-6′s or other fats. We use a ratio of Omega-3 to Omega-6 of two to one. We find that a ratio any higher than 2.5 times richer in Omega-3 runs the risk of making people Omega-6 deficient, which can lead to degenerative deficiency problems.

POWER: Is there any connection between fat and libido?
ERASMUS: Fat and libido are connected in several ways. First, essential fats increase energy levels, because they increase the body’s ability to use oxygen. That means they increase stamina, improve performance, and speed recovery from fatigue – all of which are certainly helpful to libido.
Second, Essential fats are required for hormone production. Animal studies show that hydrogenated fats – found in some margarines, shortening, and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils – lower testosterone levels, and essential fat deficiency impairs testosterone production.
Third essential fats improve the functions of liver, thyroid, and other glands and organs. They improve general health, which can result in increased libido.
Fourth, essential fats make skin really nice. Because of this effect, we sometimes call them the “essensual” or “essexual” fats.

POWER: Do monounsaturated fats like olive oil or almond oil increase testosterone? And is it true that cholesterol increases testosterone increases testosterone levels?
ERASMUS: Our body makes testosterone from cholesterol. That doesn’t mean, however, that you have to consume cholesterol, because your body can also make cholesterol, and it makes however much you need.
If testosterone levels are low, then stimulating cholesterol production is good. Essential fats help to accomplish this by giving our glands the energy they need to their job better, and longer.
Regarding olive oil which is low in Omega-6 and contains almost no Omega-3s at all, I haven’t seen an increase in libido, unless the person had previously had low energy levels from being on a low-fat or no-fat diet. Extra-virgin olive oil does have some minor ingredients that are very good for health. Good health is a very powerful aphrodisiac, especially if you are also in love.

POWER: I just encountered some research which said that when people eat high amounts of monounsaturated fats, such as occur in nuts and olives, they increase testosterone more than other oils. Is this true?
ERASMUS: I don’t think so. Your body can make monounsaturated fats out of sugar and starch, so if monounsaturates were the key testosterone production should not be a problem. Many researchers also state that monounsaturates are good for cardiovascular disease. But in extra-virgin olive oil it is the minor ingredients, which make up only 2 percent of the oil, that carry most of the cardiovascular benefits.

POWER: People are being exposed to increasing amounts of estrogen from the environment. Both males and females suffer from too much estrogen in the body as a result of aging, as well as the hormones in beef, chicken and dairy products, from plastics, petroleum fertilizers, and pesticides that pollute our water and food. Too much estrogen in the body creates stubborn fat, and can cause breast cancer and other hazards.
ERASMUS: Not to mention fat deposits on men’s pectoral muscles, what some people in body building call “*** ***.” A study in Canada found that men who eat a lot of (inorganic) chicken actually grow female-shaped breasts from estrogen hormones fed to chickens to make the birds grow faster for commercial reasons.

POWER: Can proper fat metabolism protect you from this estrogen syndrome?
ERASMUS: Optimal testosterone production, encouraged by optimal essential-fat intake, can help because men produce some estrogen, just as women produce some testosterone, but the normal ratio of testosterone to estrogen is much higher in men than in women. So higher testosterone levels in men can help prevent the feminization of their chest. Optimal testosterone production helps muscular development. Essential fats also improve insulin function, which also plays a role in muscular growth.

POWER: Is it true that lignans in flax act like an estrogen blocker? Can they mimic estrogen?
ERASMUS: Yes. The lignans in flax are phytoestrogens, which have weak estrogen activity. They can raise low estrogen levels and lower high estrogen, because they occupy the estrogen-activity sites.

POWER: So you could say flaxseed oil has an estrogen-balancing effect?
ERASMUS: It’s possible. That’s interesting, but not likely, because almost all of the phytoestrogens in flax remain in the seed cake and don’t end up in the oil. I ascribe the benefits of flax oil to the fact that the Omega-3s in flax oil help to build muscle. Omega-3 deficiency causes weakness. When people use flax oil (properly balanced with Omega-6), they can work out longer; their muscles grow quicker; they recover quicker. And there’s the testosterone production effect.
I ascribe these effects to the Omega-3s. But remember that flax can make you Omega-6 deficient, and then every tissue in the body falls apart. So flax should be enriched with Omega-6-rich sunflower and sesame oils to get the Omega-6s up.

POWER: Is it true that flaxseed oil, if eaten with starches, can offset or reduce the weight gain that’s associated with eating starches? If so, what is the reason? Is it the effect on the glycemic index?
ERASMUS: There are a couple of reasons. One is that Omega-3s, not the flax, can increase the metabolic rate and help increase oxygen metabolism, so you burn more of the starch calories.
Fats generally can lower the glycemic index by slowing stomach-emptying time, so you absorb the carbohydrates more gradually.
I would be really cautious, though. Slower stomach emptying also means more time for digestion, which may result in absorbing more calories from starch, so some people who put flax oil on their potatoes actually gain a little weight. It’s the potato that makes them fat. Any starch that, when digested into glucose and absorbed, is in excess of what is needed for fuel is automatically turned into fat by the body. In other words, overweight people are wearing extra fuel as fat, waiting for a famine.
People who have major weight problems – the seriously obese – are fat-phobic carbohydrate junkies.

POWER: So there is no difference between complex carbohydrates and simple carbohydrates in terms of how much we should eat?
ERASMUS: You get worse effects from simple carbohydrates (sugars), because they are absorbed so rapidly, flood the bloodstream, and must then be turned into fat. You’ll also get more hypoglycemia and diabetic problems with sugars than with starches. But too much complex carbohydrates (starches) can also turn to fats.
The key issue is not to eat more fuel than you burn. Carbohydrates are good fuel. They burn clean. The problem is the too much. Only the excess turns into fat.
We tell people who want to reduce excess weight to lower their intake of carbohydrates and raise their intake of greens/vegetables.

POWER: That’s approximately the philosophy of Barry Sears, author of The Zone, who advocates a diet of 40 percent carbohydrates, 30 percent fat, 30 percent protein. What do you think? Is this the ideal diet?
ERASMUS: No, it’s not. If you’re an athlete, you may be able to eat 60 to 70 percent of your calories as carbohydrates and burn them off and not get fat. If you’re sedentary, 40 percent might be too much. It’s different for different people. You cannot make one diet that works for everybody, because everybody’s metabolism and lifestyle are different.
Carbohydrates are good fuel. We should not malign them unfairly. It is the excess carbohydrates that we don’t need, the excess fuel we don’t burn and which the body must turn into fat, that causes weight problems.
Look, it’s not complicated to figure out how much carbohydrate a person should take in. Your body tells you. How? If you’re getting fat, you’re eating too many carbs.

POWER: So there is no one formula that is good for everyone?
ERASMUS: That’s correct. All people need the same essential nutrients – fewer than 50 of them – but everyone’s optimum is different. Optimums can vary by a factor of ten among individuals, sometimes even more. Genetic, climatic, activity, lifestyle, and toxicity factors all play a role in determining optimums.

POWER: What is your opinion of Dr. Atkins’s diet, which is extremely high-protein, high-fat, almost no carbs?
ERASMUS: Atkins’s diet works for weight loss. I pay more attention to getting the right kinds of fat in the diet, rather than just any fat, because the wrong kinds of fat eventually have detrimental effects on liver, kidneys, and other organs. The right fats will not cause such problems, and in fact they improve the functions of the inner organs. But Atkins’s diet has helped many people normalize weight, simply because it addresses the excessive carbohydrate intake that leads to fat production in the body.

POWER: People who attack Dr. Atkins’s diet mostly do so regarding the side effects of ketones in the body. Do you agree with this criticism – or with Dr. Atkins, who feels ketones are good for you?
ERASMUS: Atkins is right, in that ketones suppress appetite. His critics are right as to damage caused by ketones in the long term. The Atkins diet would work better if it emphasized oils rich in the right ratio of essential fats.
The difficulty is that such oils have to be made with care, need to be used with care – not for frying – and need to be richer in Omega-3′s, which help in weight reduction for several reasons. They increase energy and calorie burning; they decrease inflammation, thereby releasing water held in inflamed, swollen tissues; they lift depression, a common reason for overeating; and they suppress appetite while reducing cravings for carbohydrate junk foods and sugar.
Oils made with health in mind should be stored in brown glass bottles, in a box that will protect them from light, in the fridge. They can be found in health-food stores, gyms, and the dispensaries of natural healers. Part of the problem has been the need for re-education on the right oils.

POWER: Do you think that people can live in high-protein, high-fat diets with no carbs?
ERASMUS: For a time, yes. But long term, we need carbs. I prefer that people get their carbs from greens, rather than starchy vegetables like potatoes, grains, or fruit.
Greens are the most important food on this planet. They provide minerals, vitamins, amino acids, fatty acids, fiber, as well as enzymes and friendly bowel bacteria if they are eaten raw. They are also rich in antioxidants, and provide healing phytonutrients. They provide water, hold water in the soil, and make oxygen. They even make our beef (cows are made from grass). For weight management, greens are also exceptional, because it is almost impossible to get fat on greens.

POWER: So carbohydrates are connected to metabolism – gaining fat or losing fat?
ERASMUS: Yes, they are the key factor.

POWER: And they’re also connected to the glycemic index, which is tied to insulin response?
ERASMUS: Yes. They are the foods with the highest glycemic index, which is an indicator of the insulin activity required to deal with them. When the body turns fats into carbs they block insulin activity, which makes you insulin resistant. Sugars also remove minerals like chromium and magnesium from your body. These, along with zinc and essential fats, are required for insulin to be able to function.

POWER:People who have high insulin sensitivity might not gain weight at all, even if they ate excessive amounts of carbohydrates. Is this true?
ERASMUS: No. People with genetically based high metabolic rates do burn carbs readily, and don’t get fat on them because they burn them. People with more muscle mass can also can also eat more carbs without getting fat, because muscles burn a lot of carbohydrates during activity, and activity is what makes muscles grow.
Whatever stimulates insulin to put glucose into cells will not be helpful to weight loss. The relationship of insulin to carbs goes like this: Carbs are digested into glucose, which is absorbed into the body. Glucose stimulates insulin production. Insulin gets glucose into the cells, where they enter the cell furnace (Krebs cycle), which “burns” them to make energy. If you don’t need all the energy that comes from burning glucose, the body turns glucose-breakdown products (acetates) from the cell furnace into hard (saturated) fats. Hard fats interfere with insulin function, as do sugars and other carbs that the body turns into hard fats.
If insulin does a good job, you end up with stored fat as well as low blood sugar. Low blood sugar has two results. One, you get hungry again and eat more, which can trigger the above fat-producing cycle. Two, your adrenals kick in to make glucose (gluconeogenesis) from proteins, so you lose muscle mass, lowering your metabolic rate and making you even more sugar-sensitive.
The short answer: Limit carbohydrate intake if you want to avoid losing muscle and gaining fat.

POWER: What other things can you suggest to increase the insulin sensitivity?
ERASMUS: You can reverse most cases of insulin-resistent, type-II diabetes if you ensure optimal intake of zinc, chromium, magnesium, and essential fats; reduce intake of sugars, sweets, carbohydrates, and hard (saturated) fats; and increase your intake of green foods. That is, provided that no permanent damage has been done to vital tissues. Make sure you get enough good proteins and good fats, because these supply essential nutrients that the body must have but cannot make. Be active to build muscle.

END OF PART 1

Harvard School of Public Health PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: Wednesday, June 23, 1999.

Boston, MA — Over the course of the last decade, numerous studies have examined the relationship between the consumption of trans fatty acids found in partially hydrogenated oils and coronary heart disease (CHD). A comprehensive review of the scientific evidence confirms that eating trans fatty acids increases the risk of CHD.

The review, published in the June 24, 1999, New England Journal of Medicine, is authored by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and the Wageningen Centre for Food Sciences in the Netherlands.

Lead author, Alberto Ascherio, said “Coronary heart disease kills 500,000 Americans each year. According to our estimations, if trans fats were replaced by unsaturated vegetable oils, we would expect to see at least 30,000 fewer persons die prematurely from CHD each year.”

Trans fatty acids are found in most margarines, in many commercially baked goods, and in the fats used for deep-frying in many restaurants. The commercial advantages trans fats hold over unsaturated vegetable oils is that they are solid at room temperature, they can remain on the shelf for a longer time before becoming rancid, and they allow for deep-frying at higher temperatures.

“Because of concerns that trans fatty acids increase risk of CHD,” said Ascherio. “The Food and Drug Administration is considering new regulations for nutrition labels that will require manufacturers to report the amount of trans fatty acids.”

Under current guidelines, a consumer who is trying to be heart-healthy might choose a product that is labeled as being low in cholesterol and saturated fat, but which is high in harmful trans fats.

The researchers reviewed more than 25 metabolic and epidemiological studies. The metabolic studies showed that trans fats have a two-pronged harmful effect on blood cholesterol levels: trans fats increase low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL–”bad cholesterol”) and decrease high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL–”good cholesterol”).

The epidemiological studies tracked people’s eating habits and examined occurrence of CHD later in their lives. These studies found a link between consumption of trans fats and CHD that was higher than expected from the results of the metabolic studies. “We don’t fully understand all of the ways that trans fats increase risk of CHD,” said Ascherio, “but it seems clear that they do increase risk.”

Ascherio and colleagues urge the food industry to replace the partially hydrogenated fats used in foods and in food preparation with unhydrogenated oils: “Such a change would substantially reduce the risk of coronary heart disease at a modest cost.”

Alberto Ascherio is an associate professor of nutrition and epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health.

See also: Trans Fatty Acids and Coronary Heart Disease, The New England Journal of Medicine — June 24, 1999 — Vol. 340, No. 25.

For further information, please contact:
Bob Brustman
Harvard School of Public Health
Department of Nutrition
665 Huntington Avenue
Boston, MA 02115
Phone: 617-432-3952
Email: brustman@hsph.harvard.edu

Study shows how different types of dietary fat affect coronary heart disease risk

Harvard School of Public Health PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: November 18, 1997.

Boston, MA — Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham and Women’s Hospital researchers report from the Nurses’ Health Study that it is the type of dietary fat, not total fat, that affects coronary heart disease risk. Saturated fat (found in meats and dairy foods) and trans unsaturated fat (margarine, packaged cookies, crackers, and fast foods) increase the risk of coronary heart disease. A relatively higher intake of polyunsaturated fat (corn or soybean oils) and monounsaturated fat (high in olive and canola oil) actually reduces risk. The study is reported in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

“Results from previous studies have been mixed concerning a possible association between fat and risk of coronary heart disease. This has probably occurred because some studies have been small and did not take into account different types of fat. Because numerous metabolic studies have strongly suggested different fats act in different ways to affect blood lipid levels, we were very interested in examining the impact of different types of fat on coronary heart disease risk,” comments Frank Hu, MD, PhD, lead author on the study and a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.

“In this large prospective study of nurses, which included over 900 cases of heart disease, we enhanced our ability to examine the strength of the associations between fat and heart disease risk by obtaining repeated measurements of fat intake,” continues Dr. Hu. “We found no association between total fat intake and coronary heart disease risk. This probably reflects the counterbalancing of different types of fat. The picture changes dramatically when we examine different types of fat. Our results suggest that replacing saturated and trans fats in the diet with poly- and monunsaturated sources of fat is an effective way to reduce coronary heart risk. Reducing overall fat intake is unlikely to affect heart disease risk.”

The study also finds that trans fat is associated with the highest relative risk of coronary heart disease, twice that associated with the same intake of energy from carbohydrates. This large effect is probably explained, say the researchers, not only by the impact of trans fat on blood lipid levels but its interference with essential fatty-acid metabolism and ability to elevate triglyceride levels. While both monounsaturated and saturated fats are present in meats and dairy foods, the potential beneficial effect of monounsaturated fat is counterbalanced by the saturated fat in those same food sources. Some vegetable oils, including canola and olive oils, excellent sources of monounsaturated fat, are not yet widely consumed by Americans.

The authors point out that the high carbohydrate diet recommended by some heart disease prevention programs, which are intended to lower LDL levels, also lower the “good” HDL levels. Consequently, an alternative strategy — changing the composition of fats in the diet with the dual aims of lowering LDL and raising HDL levels — may be a better way to lower coronary heart disease risk.

The Nurses’ Health Study is an on-going prospective study of women, age 30-55 at enrollment in 1976. The study is directed by Frank Speizer, MD, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Subjects were subsequently followed every two years answering questionnaires concerning their diet, lifestyle and health.

For further information, please contact:
Beverly Freeman, Director of Public Affairs, 617-432-3863, e-mail: bfreeman@sph.harvard.edu

Frank Hu, MD, PhD, 617-432-0113

Nutrition Researcher Frank Hu: Fat Quality More Important Than Quantity

Around the School: News and Notices of the Harvard School of Public Health, April 30, 1999.

Frank Hu, research associate in the Department of Nutrition, has been receiving a lot of attention lately from the popular media. The reason for this attention is that he has been lead author of a number of studies that have produced good news about a popular and necessary activity: eating.

Specifically, his work has examined the relationship between diet and heart disease. In November, 1998, Hu reported in the British Medical Journal that eating nuts reduced the risk of coronary heart disease in women. In April, his paper in the Journal of the American Medical Society showed that there was no link between moderate egg consumption and heart disease. Most recently, in the May issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, his analysis demonstrates that linolenic acid, an omega-3 fatty acid found in some vegetable oils and salad dressing products, may protect against fatal heart attacks.

Hu’s work has comprised a series of collaborations with Walter Willett, Fredrick John Stare professor of epidemiology and nutrition, and other colleagues in the Nurses Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. This same group, in 1997, published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine indicating that total fat consumption was less important to heart disease than the type of fat consumption.

“The problem is that ‘total fat’ is not a useful term,” said Hu. “There are good fats and bad fats. In the public’s mind, fat has become public enemy number one. Reducing dietary fat has become a priority. But the truth is that if you reduce your total fat consumption, you’re also reducing the amount of good fats that you eat–fats that have a protective effect against heart disease.”

Bad fats are those that are frequently found in dairy, meat, and other animal products. These are saturated fats that have been shown to increase levels of low-density-lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the bloodstream. If the body has more LDL cholesterol than it requires, the excess is deposited on the walls of arteries in the form of plaque. Too much plaque and the arteries become plugged–a condition known as arteriosclerosis. When arteries in the heart become clogged, it causes a heart attack. If arteries that lead to the brain are plugged, then the result is a stroke.

Good fats, on the other hand, are found in liquid vegetable oils. These include monounsaturated fats and polyunsaturated fats. These fats lower LDL cholesterol levels, resulting in lower risk of cardiovascular disease.

Trans fats muddy the waters. “Trans fats are vegetable oils that are partially hydrogenated,” explained Hu. “Adding hydrogen to the oils makes them solid at room temperature, a characteristic that makes them useful in the production of baked goods. Products made with hydrogenated oils have long shelf lives. “Unfortunately, trans fats are more dangerous than saturated fats. Not only do trans fats increase LDL cholesterol levels like saturated fats, they also reduce levels of HDL cholesterol–the helpful cholesterol. Trans fats do double harm.”

Explicating the relationships between types of fat and risk of heart disease has been the basis of Hu’s recent work. “We did the nut study to prove our point. Many people avoid nuts because they’re notoriously high in fats–up to 80% of the energy in a nut comes from its fat content. Therefore, many people assumed that eating nuts would increase risk of heart disease. But, because nuts contain primarily unsaturated fats, eating nuts substantially reduces risk of heart disease.”

Next, Hu and his colleagues turned to eggs: “Eggs have been perceived as unhealthy food for many years because of their high cholesterol content. People have assumed that egg consumption would lead to increased risk of heart disease.”

Hu was not surprised by the results of the study. “Moderate egg consumption, which we defined as one egg per day, is not associated with increased risk of heart disease. These results are consistent with data from previous metabolic studies that suggested relatively small effects of dietary cholesterol on cholesterol levels in the bloodstream,” he said. “The slight adverse effect of an egg’s cholesterol content is balanced by the beneficial contents of its other nutrients.”

The researchers did find, however, that egg consumption is dangerous for people with diabetes, possibly because of their altered ability to metabolize cholesterol. Moderate egg consumption led to a 40-to-50% increased risk of heart disease for diabetics.

Hu’s next project is an examination of the relationships between types of fat consumption and heart disease in people with diabetes. “Previous studies have demonstrated that monounsaturated fat has particular benefits on blood lipids and glucose response among diabetics,” said Hu. “But the effects of monounsaturated fat on risk of heart disease among diabetics have not been studied.”

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By Jane E. Brody, May 25, 1999.

New York City, NY — Now hear this: avocados, walnuts, salad dressings with oil, sautéed vegetables, fatty fish and some kinds of margarine may be back on the menu for health-conscious Americans, even for those trying to lose weight, if the findings of recent studies are to be believed.

For three decades now, Americans have been bombarded with advice to eat less fat for the sake of their hearts and their waistlines. One well-known expert, Dr. Dean Ornish, advocates stripping away all added fats and naturally fatty foods to achieve a diet containing no more than 10 percent of calories from fat, down from the 44 percent typically consumed by Americans in the 1960′s and the 34 percent now consumed.

But now a growing number of nutrition, health and obesity specialists maintain that in trying to squeeze some of the heart-damaging grease from our high-fat diets, they have sent Americans the wrong message.

It’s not fat per se that’s the problem, the experts now say, but the kinds of fats Americans eat and the other kinds of foods they fill up on when they cut back on appetite-satisfying fat. For while heart disease has indeed declined as many Americans shun artery-clogging saturated fats and cholesterol, waistlines have expanded significantly and obesity has risen by 50 percent since the big push to limit fat took off in the 1970′s.

The very tactic viewed as the key to weight control — stripping the diet of fat — seems to have backfired. Food companies responded to fat phobia with a plethora of fat-free, low-fat and reduced-fat products, especially the dessert and snack foods that Americans covet. The result was an overdose of carbohydrates, ranging from fat-free pretzels, crackers, cookies, cakes and frozen desserts to dinner plates piled high with pasta.

Many obesity specialists, as well as popular diet advocates like Dr. Robert Atkins and Barry Sears, say these carbohydrates are the cause of the growing American girth. Even the potato, which once proclaimed “I am not fattening” in award-winning ads, now heads the hit list being circulated by carbohydrate bashers, some of whom, like Dr. Atkins, go to the opposite extreme by recommending that people can lose weight by eating all the fat they want as long as they eat few or no carbohydrates.

“The swing back to Atkins is a response to the fact that a low-fat diet hasn’t worked for a lot of people because they stuff in carbohydrates,” said Dr. Margo Denke, an associate professor of medicine and endocrinology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Dr. Alice H. Lichtenstein, a professor of nutrition at Tufts University in Boston, agrees that “the low-fat pendulum swung too far.”

“People assumed that if a food had no fat, they could eat as much of it as they wanted,” she said. “But many low-fat and fat-free products have nearly as many calories as their full-fat versions. Reducing fat alone is no guarantee of weight loss. You must cut calories or increase physical activity.”

Dr. Denke said, “No matter what anyone tells you, it’s calories that count. Carefully controlled metabolic studies show that it doesn’t matter where extra calories come from. Eat more calories than you expend and you’ll gain weight.”

And that is just what Americans have been doing: gaining weight on fat-free and low-fat foods consumed without regard to their caloric content. Instead of replacing some of the less desirable high-fat foods with nutrient-rich but low-calorie fruits and vegetables, they are filling up on foods loaded with added sugars and refined starches that have little to offer nutritionally besides calories, the experts lament.

“In making food choices, we must learn to eat foods that are nutritionally robust — fruits, vegetables, legumes,” said Dr. Robert H. Eckel, chairman of the American Heart Association’s nutrition committee and professor of medicine and physiology at the University of Colorado. “There is strong evidence that these kinds of foods help to reduce disease, not just heart disease but also cancer, diabetes, hypertension and obesity.”

A survey of American consumers, however, conducted in 1997 by the Food Marketing Institute, revealed that 56 percent of shoppers who had changed their diets did so by trying to cut down on the amount of fat they consumed, but only 15 percent said they were trying to eat more fruits and vegetables.

Even people with high cholesterol levels may not need to go to fat-reduction extremes to protect their hearts. A study of 444 men with high LDL cholesterol conducted by Dr. Robert H. Knopp and colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle showed that reducing total fat to 30 percent of calories from 35 percent and keeping saturated fats at 7 percent to 8 percent was as effective in lowering cholesterol as diets with less total fat. In fact, when fat intake dropped to about 20 percent of calories, heart-protective HDL cholesterol levels fell and heart-damaging triglyceride levels rose. Study participants had no difficulty sticking to a 30 percent fat diet, whereas more stringent diets require a dedication that most Americans lack.

There is also growing evidence that regardless of what else it may contain, a weight-loss diet devoid of fat may be counterproductive, leaving dieters perpetually hungry or unsatisfied and susceptible to overeating when their resolve fails. Dr. Mary Flynn, a nutritionist affiliated with Brown University, addresses this issue in a new book written with Dr. Kevin Vigilante…

…”A little fat helps you lose weight,” the book notes. “Fat makes food taste good, and it makes you feel full. Taste is vital to the success of any diet.

Without a little fat you’re always going to be hungry. The key is to eat the right kind of fat, in the right amounts. You need a diet you can live with.”

A study of 12 obese boys published in March in the journal Pediatrics showed that meals with refined carbohydrates and little fat were less effective in staving off hunger than fattier meals with the same caloric content. Dr. David Ludwig of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital in Boston concluded from these findings that substituting processed grains like cereals, bread and pasta for dietary fat may be making Americans fatter.

Fat in the diet also seems to play a psychological role that helps some people keep their caloric intake in check. In a study at Pennsylvania State University, normal-weight women given yogurts with various fat contents ate more at the next meal if they were told the yogurt was fat-free than if they thought they had eaten a high-fat yogurt.

Likewise, people given fat-free potato chips ate less fat than those given regular chips, but over the course of a day, both groups consumed the same number of calories…

…”Within the current American eating pattern, it’s probably wise to stay at a maximum of 30 percent of calories from fat,” Dr. Lichtenstein said. “If we go above that, Americans tend to increase their consumption of saturated fats in meats. Maybe if we adopted a Mediterranean diet — rich in vegetables and fish and olive oil — we could go higher than 30 percent fat without compromising our health, but it’s important to remember that the Mediterranean’s low rate of heart disease is not just the result of a diet rich in olive oil. It’s a life style that is far more active than ours and that doesn’t contain all the bizarre foods we have.”

Extreme reductions in dietary fat can deprive the body of vital nutrients that play a crucial role in health. Dietary fat transports the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Unsaturated fat from vegetable and seafood sources supplies the body with essential fatty acids needed to produce nerve cells and hormones.

There is also growing evidence that unsaturated fatty acids help protect people from serious diseases. For example, studies in Spain, Italy, Greece, Sweden and the United States linked diets rich in olive oil to a reduced risk of breast cancer. The brain, too, may benefit from monounsaturates like olive oil. A study published this month in the journal Neurology by Italian researchers found that a high intake of extra-virgin olive oil was associated with preservation of cognitive functions in healthy elderly people.

The ongoing Nurses Health Study revealed that among 80,000 women initially aged 34 to 59, total fat consumption did not affect coronary risk, but the kinds of fats the women ate did. Each 5 percent increase in calories from saturated fats (primarily from meats and dairy products) raised their risk of coronary disease by 17 percent.

An even greater risk was posed by trans fatty acids, which are formed when unsaturated vegetable oils are hydrogenated to make them solid at room temperature, for example, to form margarine. Each 2 percent increase in trans fat calories raised the women’s coronary risk by 93 percent. A number of margarines free of harmful trans fat are now available.

Polyunsaturates and particularly omega-3 fatty acids like fish oils, on the other hand, appear to protect against heart disease, especially sudden cardiac death. Fish oils have been shown to reduce the risk of blood clots and abnormal heart rhythms and improve blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Studies in the Netherlands and in the United States have indicated that eating just two fish meals, or seven ounces of fish, a week can reduce a man’s risk of heart attack by 50 percent.

Another type of omega-3 fatty acid called alpha-linolenic acid, found prominently in canola oil, flaxseeds, soybean oil, walnuts and many dark green leafy vegetables, also appears to offer strong protection against sudden cardiac death, according to a new study by Dr. Frank Hu and associates at Harvard School of Public Health. Among 76,000 participants in the Nurses Health Study, those with the highest intake of alpha-linolenic acid had up to a 50 percent lower risk of fatal heart attacks when compared with women who consumed the least amount of this fat.

“People who choose fat-free salad dressings are missing out on this important fatty acid,” Dr. Hu said. “Fat has been perceived as the enemy, but that’s not true. Some fats are good, some fats are bad. We should be substituting good fats for bad ones rather than worrying about reducing the total amount of fat.”