I like Dr. Weil. I think he’s a nice guy and a thoughtful individual. He is obviously a very intelligent person with many respectable accomplishments throughout his storied career.
But, have I ever listened to him for nutritional advice?
No way, no how, not ever.
Here’s why.
Just like other conventional sources of health information, the deal is always changing. How can a person ever truly follow a healthy lifestyle if the dietary recommendations are in constant flux?
Case in point: Dr. Weil recently announced on his website that he is no longer recommending low-fat dairy products.
For those of you who are still buying skim milk and lowfat yogurt based on his adamant advice for many years thinking this was going to help shrink that backside and save you from heart disease, this may come as quite a shock.
21 Studies: Saturated Fat Does Not Cause Heart Disease
Dr. Weil’s reasoning as to why his “thinking on saturated fat has evolved” is based on a thorough analysis of 21 studies which showed that saturated fat is not associated with an increased risk of heart disease.
These 21 studies in total included nearly 350,000 people the majority of whom were healthy at the start of each study. These folks were followed for between 5 and 23 years and over this span of time, 11,000 developed heart disease or had a stroke.
Researchers examining the dietary intake for these thousands of participants found no difference in the risk of “coronary heart disease, stroke, or coronary vascular disease between those individuals with the lowest and highest intake of saturated fat.”
Here’s the kicker.
An apparently dumbfounded Dr. Weil writes that these findings go “completely against the conventional medical wisdom of the past 40 years. It now appears that many studies used to support the low-fat recommendation had serious flaws.”
Why Are You Still Listening To Conventional Health Advice?
My hat is off to Dr. Weil for coming to his senses, but the fact is that he should have recognized this crucial error long ago!
The clear cut data that saturated fat intake has absolutely zero to do with heart disease and other vascular ailments has been around for decades ever since Dr. Mary Enig, former Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and currently Board Member Emeritus, blew the whistle on the scam ages ago and paid for her forthrightness and courage by having her research career blackballed.
What took you so long Andrew?? This is no minor “oops” on your part after all.
Dr. Weil’s 180 on saturated fat begs the obvious question.
What other nutritional errors are still being promoted by Dr. Weil and others like him from “respected and credible” outlets for health advice?
The answer is that there is a lot these TV talking heads promote that is way off the mark.
Having a medical or nutrition degree is no guarantee that the advice given is correct, not by a long shot.
How to Eat Healthy For the Long Term
Does Dr. Weil finally have it right about saturated fat?
Nope.
While his thinking on saturated fat has clearly “evolved” and he is now promoting full fat dairy, he is still off the reservation unfortunately.
For example, Dr. Weil still recommends skinless chicken and turkey and limiting saturated fat intake to 10% of daily calories in the diet. On what basis is he recommending no more than 10% of calories from saturated fat?
There is no basis for this recommendation! It is being pulled completely out of thin air! There is not a single shred of evidence that this recommendation is wise.
How do you know how much saturated fat you should be eating then?
How about looking to the past for your wisdom instead of an ever changing tide of conventional health opinion?
Dead people don’t seek profits or try to influence your buying habits, do they?
Dead people also don’t lie. You can simply examine what they did, see what the results were and objectively assess whether or not their methods were successful.
For these reasons, seeking the wisdom of Traditional Cultures who ate saturated fat with abandon and emphasized them in the diet is the simplest and best approach to health.
If you are tired of changing health advice and your head is spinning from the myriad approaches to eating that are promoted nowadays, I encourage you to take a look at the research of Dr. Weston A. Price, author of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a book that is virtually guaranteed to forever change the way you view health and wellness.
Dr. Price traveled the world in the early 1900’s and documented the vibrant health of 14 preindustrialized cultures. What these cultures emphasized for health is very different from what Dr. Weil promotes, sincere though he is in his quest to determine what diet bestows optimal health.
If the concept of Traditional Diets is new to you, click here for a short video introduction.
Isn’t it high time to stop changing the way you eat every few months or years and follow the anthropological path to diet and health that has already been trodden by cultures who fully experienced the vitality you seek?
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Hey Mnt. Joe, this ones for you 🙂
No DI-ETS! (You’ll eventually die from di-ets!) Just LIVE-ITS!!! Forget the stupid modern food fads. Eat your food the way God made it in the first place – cooked, raw, lacto-fermented, etc…, & you’ll be just fine 😀 😀 😀 When people ate food naturally, they died of germ diseases. Those have practically been wiped out. But now the world eats like crap (fake food) – and we’re all dying of degenerative diseases. EAT REAL FOOD.
I am a conventionally trained physician. What most people (including physicians!) don’t understand is that 99% of medical education is about treating disease using drugs or surgery. I didn’t have in depth classes about nutrition, traditional use of herbs for health maintenance, or any of the vast literature about health and healing. Conventionally trained doctors truly know very little to nothing about these things, unless they (like me) are interested and go further in researching such things.
It really takes a leap out of one’s trained mindset to grasp the importance of epigentetics: how the environment we present to our genes affects the expression of those genes. The other problem is that 90% of my patients expect to walk out of my office with a prescription. I’m a psychiatrist. If I talk to my patients about eating small fish and wild salmon instead of adding yet another medication to their antidepressant, they look at me funny. (“Ask your doctor if Ability is right for you.”)
I have come so far in my thinking that I would love to change my practice to a “mental health without drugs” one in which I coach people to wellness using nutrient dense food, meditation, and gentle exercise.
In my dreams.
Susie
We need more MDs like you Susie. Thank you for your thoughtful response.
Great article again! Dr. Weil definitely helped me as kind of a gateway to nutrition and alternative health, and I dare say that his recommendations (particularly on magnesium) saved me life. But his advocacy of soy really threw me for a loop — I started drinking that as a solution to asthma and it really made it worse, making me feel really run-down. Seems like Dr. Weil has to “make nice” with the conventional med guys as he’s an integrative medical exponent. The guy I really respect now is Tony Pantalleresco (“just a guy who knows some stuff”) with “The Remedy” program on The Micro Effect. He’s been a bodybuilder and in the health food field for a number of decades and never pulls any punches. But I’m still trying to find a good Omega oil source as he says the fish oils are all contaminated with mercury. Guess I’ll keep trying different alternatives until I find the one that’s right for me. Thanks again for posting this and keep up the helpful information!
I have to take a bit of exception with the idea of you telling people not to follow the conventional “expert” and then turning around and encouraging them to follow another “expert”. As Tony mentioned, none of us know exactly the perfect way to eat. We do the best we can with the information we have. Personally I tend follow the eat-local, non-processed, everything in moderation plan. I think we get ourselves in trouble when we say “none of this, but as much of that as you want.”. Balance is always key.
The expert I’m recommending folks take a look at is dead. He can’t change his recommendations based on which way the wind is blowing. Big difference. Dr. Price also based his info on scientific analysis of people who had been vibrantly healthy for centuries. Examine what he has to say and make a simple, objective choice. Easy
Dr. Weil and other TV health goons base their recommendations on what their TV sponsors want them to emphasize. You follow what they say and you are going to be doing a lot of things wrong which you will find out too late to save your health. There is no balance when it comes to misguided health advice. You must avoid it ALL and go with what has been shown to work for centuries even before the scientific method was devised.
This whole Conventional Paradigm versus My Paradigm is a false choice. No one understands this stuff completely, not even The Enlightened Paleo Practitioner. And if nutritionists, scientists, and above all the media are to change their views and stop praising egg white omelettes anytime soon, the last thing they need are a bunch of self-righteous “what took you so longs.”
Well said Sarah. I have been following Dr. Weil for many years and sadly his recommendations have always changed with the wind. This is not the first time, nor will it be the last. He is not the only one. Whenever we see these 180’s, always remember to follow the dollar. This is where the rubber meets the road.
Funny how the names Oz and Weil are repeated a lot here, yet the name Mercola hasn’t popped into the conversation yet.
About face….hmmm….follow the money.
It is a start for the mainstream people to improve their health and start to learn to look for the answers. Many will eventually get interested in WAPF somehow, because it is not yet a household name when everyone is still looking for the latest diet.
20 years ago, I didn’t know anything at all about healthy eating and still I am learning about the RIGHT way to eat. It is a process for many people! Stopped smoking, eating twinkies, processed frozen/canned food, margarine, over the course of many years. I sincerely hope Dr.s Weil & Oz learn more and give better advice out there, because they already have a following. I appreciate what we can learn here. We need a show for this but it would be difficult to get sponsors!