For the past 20 years, the American public has been bombarded with the message: "Fat is bad!" As a result, our food supply is now inundated with "low fat" foods, engineered foods and foods processed to remove natural fats. In every instance, low fat foods are loaded with carbohydrates.

The result: Americans are suffering from a variety of endocrine problems and degenerative diseases directly attributable to insulin resistance, excessive intake of refined carbohydrates and a lack of proper fat in the diet.

Actually, this information is not new. It has simply been ignored by the American food industry. In 1956 Thomas L. Cleave, Surgeon-Captain of the Royal Navy and research director of the British Institute of Naval Medicine, published a paper proposing that many chronic conditions were the result of a "master disease" resulting from the rise in popularity of sugary foods. He pointed out that it requires approximately 20 years "incubation" time for the chronic diseases to manifest themselves. Interestingly, the sudden rise in popularity of sugary foods just before the turn of the century coincided with the emergence of heart disease and disorders of the digestive tract as major killers after World War I. He cited other examples as well:

1. When Iceland's diet became Westernized in the 1930s and sugar and refined carbohydrate consumption rose significantly, diabetes became commonplace in the 1950s.

2. In studies of Africans, he found that wherever rapid dietary change introduced refined carbohydrates, heart disease and diabetes began to spread approximately two decades later.

3. Finally, he pointed out that studies ranging from Kurds to Yemenites to Zulus found that the refining and processing of foods appeared to bring a rise in chronic disease in less than a quarter century. (The Kellogg Report, The Impact of Nutrition, Environment and Lifestyle on the Health of Americans, Joseph D. Beasley, MD., and Jerry J. Swift, M.A., 1989, p 331)

Closer to home, we have the example of the Eskimos. Subsisting on a diet of almost pure protein and fat, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and dental caries were unknown. With the Westernization of their diet, all of these health problems became scourges in the Eskimo culture.

Another interesting and well-documented phenomenon is the increase in heart disease with the introduction of:"refined" white flour and the dramatic drop in deaths from heart disease as the American public began to buy and consume vitamins.

Vitamin Sales and Deaths

Year Deaths per 100,000 Vitamin Sales per $Billions

1920