Tag: Japan

• The PURE Study Myths

  Dr James Muecke is the Australian of the Year in 2020 which was awarded for his work as an eye-surgeon and his work in preventing blindness.

  Muecke believes that we should be eating more eggs, cheese, meat and dark chocolate to minimise diabetes, its associated blindness (diabetic retinopathy) and diabetic neuropathy. Peripheral diabetic neuropathy is nerve damage of the limbs that is caused by diabetes. 50% of adults with type 2 diabetes have peripheral neuropathy. It can result in pain, numbness and an increase in sensitivity. Diabetes account for more than 80% of amputations.

  Muecke cites the PURE Study to justify his low-carbohydrate, high-fat, animal-based diet.

  The PURE Study is an observational study in 27 countries that examined 225,000 people. The study period is 20 years.

  Read more ⇨

  3 September 2021

• Japanese Diet, Cuisine and Health

  Japan is at the top of the list for life expectancy and health. There are strong regional variations although the diet in recent decades has become more westernised and the variations in diet are becoming less distinct throughout Japan.

  A wide variety of dipping sauces accompany most meals. Udon is a thick wheat flour noodle and yakisoba is a buckwheat noodle. Soba is the Japanese name for buckwheat.

  Despite the increase in dairy, egg and meat consumption in recent decades, Japan (according to the National Health and Nutrition Surveys) still consumes a predominately plant-based diet.

  Hookaido had the lowest percentage of plant-based foods at 74.5% in 1980 and 82.2% in 2012. In 1980, Kanto II had the highest percentage at 78.2% with Hokuriku topping the list in 2012 with 84.5%.

  Australia and the US consume approximately 30% of their diet from plant-based sources.

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  18 August 2020

• 2040 Documentary

  2040 is a documentary by Damon Gameau that targets a young audience to convince them that they can make a difference to planet Earth’s well-being using technology that we all ready have at our disposal.

  The key areas addressed in the documentary are transport, electricity production, agriculture, marine permaculture (kelp farming) and education.

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  14 September 2019

• The Secret Life of Water and Masaru Emoto

  Masaru Emoto is a Japanese writer and photographer. He published six books, including The Secret Life of Water, that shows consciousness affects the structure of water and ice.

  In The Secret Life of Water, Emoto describes his methodology. Emoto takes a sample of water and distributes amongst 50 petri dishes. The water is then frozen following a prescribed procedure. Emoto then assigns a number ranging from 1 to 8 that describes the beauty of the resulting crystal formation. From the 50 petri dishes, Emoto chooses one that he feels best describes the attribute being investigated.

  I admit that the selection process is not strictly in accordance with the scientific method, and the whim of the person doing the selecting certainly comes into play. When making the selection for a collection of crystal photographs, it is best if one person chooses all the photographs for consistency, which is why all the photographs in this book were selected by me.

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  2 April 2019

• How do Your Genes Affect Obesity and Diabetes

  The purpose of the DIETFITS Trial was "to determine the effect of a healthy low-fat (HLF) diet vs a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) diet on weight change and if genotype pattern or insulin secretion are related to the dietary effects on weight loss".

  It a popular area of research to determine if there are genetic causes of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune disease, depression and any other illness or condition that is plaguing our society.

  This area of research ignores the fact that often our genetics does not determine health outcomes.  Ignoring this will not solve the problems of our society's rapidly failing health.

  The conclusions of this paper are:

  In the 12-month study, there was NO significant difference in weight change between a healthy low-fat diet compared with a healthy low-carbohydrate diet.

  Neither of the 2 hypothesized predisposing factors [genotypes] was helpful in identifying which diet was better for whom.

  Frequently the problem is not that complicated.

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  7 November 2018

• Letter to Diggers – October 2018

  In the Spring 2018 edition of Diggers, Bel P claims that What The Health has been “expertly torn to pieces”. No effort has been made to justify this claim. What The Health web site has listed approximately 300 references for the movie with the elapsed time that the information was presented.

  In the absence of a valid critique of What The Health, I will present some evidence presented by the movie for the health benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet. All references provided are from primary sources for which I have the paper or electronic copy.

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  29 October 2018

• Foundations of Naturopathic Nutrition by Fay Paxton – a text book

  Fay Paxton (PhD) is an Australian-based naturopath and nutritionist. She has taught nutrition at the Southern School of Natural Therapies and has worked as a consultant for dietary and herbal supplement manufacturers.

  She is an author of a popular text book, Foundations of Naturopathic Nutrition.

  Unfortunately, she is an advocate for low-carbohydrate diets and paleo diets.

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  14 June 2018

• Robert Lustig and The Men Who Made Us Fat

  Robert Lustig is a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, San Francisco. He is the author of Fat Chance: Beating the Odds against Sugar, Processed Food, Obesity, and Disease. He specializes in childhood obesity and studying the effects of sugar in the diet. He is the director of the UCSF Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health Program and a member of the Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society.

  Unfortunately, much of what he says is simply wrong, which given the amount of media exposure that he receives, is deeply worrying.

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  26 February 2018

• The A2 Milk Story

  The hypothesis that A2 milk was protective of type 1 diabetes originated with a paper published in 1992. Robert Elliott observed much lower rates of type 1 diabetes amongst Polynesian children that were raised on the Polynesian islands compared with those raised in Auckland. This was attributed to the differences in the β-casein profile.

  Elliott was the lead author of a conference paper that examined the effects of feeding casein to non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice. The conclusion was that “the induction of diabetes by casein in the NOD mouse appears to be restricted to casein containing the A1 variant of beta-casein”.

  The marketing potential of such a discovery could be enormous.

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  27 December 2017

• Misconceptions of Denis Stewart

  Denis Stewart is a herbalist from the Hunter Valley (NSW, Australia). He is an associate professor at University of Newcastle since 2002. He founded the Southern Cross Herbal School in the late 1970s.

  He presents a weekly radio show on 2NUR FM, a Newcastle-based radio station, on health topics.

  I am concerned about some of his material. I posted Denis a (real) letter and sent an email without receiving a response. I also sent an email to 2NUR FM listing some concerns.

  Below is a list of some of the concerns that have not been addressed.

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  14 November 2017