Vivien and I have been in France, as you know. We travelled around quite a bit, mostly the west. But one of the famous regions of France we did visit briefly was the Dordogne, east of Bordeaux (pronounced door-donn-yu, near enough!) It’s famous for a number of things:
The caves paintings at Lascaux (better than many paintings exhibited at the Paris Louvre Gallery, trust me!) The Chamber Of The Bulls is breathtaking, to say these paintings were done nearly 20,000 years ago:
This was all done, apparently, as air-brushing. The artist would fill his mouth with pigment and blow it out in a spray. We know this because there were innumerable pigment-stained blow-pipes left at the site.
The other claim to fame is foie gras, the fatty goose liver pâté that everyone adores. The Dordogne region has it down to an art form! The medieval city of Sarlat is ground zero!
French law requires at least eighty percent of pâté de foie gras must be the liver, but sadly the law is often circumvented. Mousse or purée de foie gras contains even less, 55 percent. Although other pâtés can be served warm or hot, the delicate texture of foie gras melts too easily, so pâté de foie gras is usually served chilled.
Some people are shocked by the forced-feeding of geese, which is pushed to the point where the goose’s liver turns to fat. They assume this is cruel, because the birds (geese or ducks) would not over indulge in the wild. There’s even a movement afoot, to try and get it banned.
Well, I have an observation on that: Americans seem to lustily enjoy force-feeding themselves on carbohydrate foods, to the point where their livers are just like foie gras, AND THEY SEEM TO ENJOY THE PROCESS! Why should it be different for a goose?
Force feeding geese, who seem not to mind over-eating!
Now compare that with the lines at Macdonald’s or Burger King, where Americans guzzle stodge and slurp to excess, just like the geese…*
Result? Fatty livers. There is really no difference between a goose’s fatty liver and a human one. For both creatures it’s a short, happy life! Eat all you can manage for a time, feel full and never want for food. Then die early.
See, fatty liver or, to give it it’s correct title, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), is usually fatal. It leads to destruction and fibrosis of liver tissue, a process we call cirrhosis. Most people think that alcoholism is the main cause of liver cirrhosis. But that’s not true. Deaths from alcohol cirrhosis accounts for only about 6% of terminal liver failure. Whereas NAFLD accounts for well over 50% of deaths.
Now do you see where I’m going with this little pâté de foie gras thing?
Funnily enough, eating super-fatty goose livers does not cause obesity, or NAFLD. It’s CARBOHYDRATES that do the damage. Sugar (especially), manufactured foods and too much refined flours (pasta, pizzas, pastry, muffins, crepes, bread, etc.) are all bad.
As a result, 25% – 35% of the US population has a degree of NAFLD. That rises to 80% in patients who are obese. Worldwide, we are looking at between 80 and 100 million individuals with the problem.
The process is well understood, though most doctors and dieticians don’t get it. We eat far too much carbohydrate. This leads to unhealthy raised blood glucose levels, which in turn overloads the insulin control mechanism, which then struggles to bring down the blood sugar.
The problem escalates to the point where the body produces more and more insulin but the hormone has less and less effect. Blood sugar levels continue to soar and we call this outcome DIABETES!
The problem is not lack of insulin. We now have too much insulin but it doesn’t work any more, a state we call “insulin resistance” (IR). Insulin is supposed to lower blood sugar, by having it taken up by the cells. But when there is just way too much sugar (are you paying attention at the back there?) it turns to fat. It gets deposited anywhere and everywhere but particularly in the abdomen (hence pot belly) and one organ in particular… which is?
The liver. Yes, I’m glad you were paying attention. Fatty liver destruction starts and ends with insulin resistance. It is vital to prevent this problem in your body. We need less insulin, not more. It’s beyond stupid to give insulin to diabetics, when it already doesn’t work! Bigger and bigger doses of insulin is a double folly:
- It’s attacking the wrong problem and so not solving anything
- Insulin itself is terribly destructive, highly inflammatory and wrecks blood vessels…
Cue, heart attack music! Haha. But it’s no laughing matter
What To Do?
Strangely, insulin resistance is one of the easiest things to cure in the world. STOP EATING!
It’s the exact opposite of the process that causes IR, overweight, diabetes and fatty liver. Of course most people—who let’s face it are highly addicted to the wrong foods—go pale at the thought of skipping a meal, never mind a whole day without eating.
But it’s not as difficult as you think. Fasting, or intermittent fasting (doing it on and off), has tremendous health benefits. It’s worth making the effort. And surprisingly, you won’t really feel hungry.
On the plus side, you will feel alert and years younger. You’ll have more energy (sugar for energy is a myth put about by the sugar and fast food manufacturers; sugar SAPS energy). You’ll lose some weight, obviously.
But the best things are the invisible results:
- Your body will clear out old, or dying (senescent) cells; a process called autophagy
- Your body will wake up a flood of stem cells that can get to work repairing the effects of aging. No need to get expensive treatments. Use your OWN stem cells!
- Your body will produce ketones, which is what keto dieting is all about. Our brains love ketones and seem to work more efficiently.
Idiots still keep denigrating keto dieting as a fad. Excuse me: a fad that is 2 MILLION YEARS OLD? I don’t think so. Keto eating is what the human race did for most of its duration. You heard of the hunter-gatherers diet and lifestyle?
Well, nobody was THAT GOOD a hunter. So, sometimes the tribe went short and starved a bit! It’s all part of the natural process.
You can see it at work in other animals too. Many of you, I know, have heard me talk about hibernating bears, who eat and eat and over-eat, to build up fat stores for the winter. They get fatty livers, yes sir! But then they go to sleep and don’t eat for months, lose all the excess, weight and go back to healthy when they wake in the spring.
Even pretty little humming birds sip sugary nectar all day, get fatty livers by evening, and then perch and go to sleep. Their milky white livers lose all the fat overnight and the color returns to normal by next morning. It’s like being diabetic during the day and healthy at night!
Nature knows what she is doing. Idiot doctors don’t: fatty liver, insulin resistance and diabetes are entirely reversible…
Just don’t eat!
Now: To read more about this (no, not French holidays… the insulin problem!) get a copy of the 4-Week Diabesity Cure by one of the world’s leading experts on this issue:
Here’s to better eating but please, not overeating!
To your good health,
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby
*Of course there are plenty of obese people today in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, etc.