by Lawrence A. Plumlee, MD, editor of The Environmental Physician, the newsletter of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine
Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Mary
Enig, PhD,1, and Sally Fallon1 is the most exciting and
informative book I've read since I read Theron Randolph's Human Ecology and
Susceptibility to the Chemical Environment2 29 years ago. This
is not primarily a book about losing weight. Their basic premise is that many
chronic diseases can be healed by consuming coconut oil, cod liver oil, lard,
and raw organic milk and butter, and they summarize the evidence that the vegetable
oil industry has promoted oils that cause or promote heart disease, hypothyroidism,
chronic fatigue syndrome, adrenal insufficiency, reduced libido, allergies,
hay fever, asthma, attention deficits, diabetes, hypoglycemia, food cravings,
candidiasis, menorrhagia, immunodeficiciency, autoimmunity, irritable bowel,
colitis, Crohn's Disease, eczema, Epstein-Barr virus, herpes, and AIDS. Their
weight hypothesis is that when fat deficiencies are satisfied, it becomes easy
to cut back on carbohydrates. However, it may be the candida-killing capacity
of coconut, which is the principal factor in reducing food cravings. They also
propose that the drug industry has promoted the falsehood that dietary cholesterol
causes arteriosclerosis in order to sell cholesterol lowering drugs. Why read
a spy novel when the shocking truth about how the food and drug industries are
using medical research to trick physicians and the public is laid out in Eat
Fat, Lose Fat? There are also recipes, and 20 pages on how to find and purchase
healthful, less chemically-contaminated fats and other traditional healthful
foods. With nutritional supplements in jeopardy, it's time to learn how traditional
fats and other whole foods can restore and maintain health.
While Eat Fat, Lose Fat is an interesting book, it is not written for
scholars and the references are omitted, as they are listed in earlier publications
of Dr. Enig. An interesting and related book with twelve pages of references
is The Coconut Oil Miracle by Bruce Fife, CN, ND, published by Avery.
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1Both Enig and Fallon have given lectures for NOHA and articles on
their work have appeared in NOHA NEWS.
2Dr. Theron G. Randolph was a founding member of NOHA's Professional
Advisory Board. He educated thousands of his patients on the environmental impingements
on their health and pioneered an ecological orientation in medicine. In the
early 1950's he discovered that a number of his patients were being make ill
by environmental exposures to everyday chemicals such as pesticides in foods,
auto exhaust, and gas cooking stoves. They would recover from what had often
been chronic symptoms when the exposures were removed. If they were re-exposed
acute symptoms often flared up. In 1962 based on his previous articles and clinical
observations he summarized his findings in his medical monograph, Human Ecology
and Susceptibility to the Chemical Environment. His physician colleagues
and followers honored him for originating and developing the comprehensive environmental
control unit, which is used as a technique for demonstrating cause and effect
relationships from exposure to common foods and environmental chemicals. Also,
he played a crucial role in founding and encouraging the development of the
American Academy of Environmental Medicine.
Article from NOHA NEWS, Vol. XXX, No. 4, Fall 2005, pages 4-5