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science behind "detox"
RE: Did you increase this amount now?
No. I'm still about the same ~ 1 tbsp/day
RE: Ghee
When I wrote about ghee in my Breast Cancer eBook I was just speculating that its benefits might outweight its risks. However, you are now the third person to report having a bad reaction to ghee. That's enough evidence for me. I'm now crossing it off my list of options for fats. What's really needed is a butter with all of the vitamin A content safely removed. Until then, we'll have to go with other options. I have no recommendations.
Hi Grant, maybe you have time to answer?
I am wondering about what "ample amounts of fat" equals to. Are we talking about tablespoons of olive oil, fatty cuts of meat and handfulls of macadamias?
Or just not all fat free but a teaspoon or two per day?
I am almost 2 weeks into vA free diet, with the first week being more liberal (i did finish off my avocados and ate home made organic rye sourdough bread) and my casein triggered eczema is much improved, chronic back pain virtually gone, much calmer at mind. But I feel more tired, much less in the mood for exercise or walks (which I cant get enough of usually) and filled with phlegm in nose/throat.
I eat to apetite nd has been craving meat like nothing else, but might need more fat?
I eat mainly jasmin rice, oat milk, egg whites, lean meat (beef/lamb/turkey/wild game) a bit of dates/bananas/dried figs/pineapple, white potato and beans (garbanzo/black/white). All organic non-fortified, european.
I really miss bread (and butter!!) but am doing this for my severe endometriosis so dont want to include it right now. Unless organic european home made bread should be ok?
Liz
RE: what "ample amounts of fat" equals to.
I don't know for sure. What I used was about 1 tbsp of olive oil per day, and then additionally what ever fat was in my beef / bison. Although that amount of fat worked for me. It worked very slowly. So, I feel I should have went a lot higher with the olive oil. I'm now thinking that if a person were to go much higher with it then it might help the liver flush out more stored retinol with bile. Of course, you'd also need to have some salt in your diet too. But, if the rate of bile flow was high enough, it should help prevent more of its vit A content from being reabsorbed by the small intestine. Please understand that I am just theorizing about it here. I did not experiment with a high olive oil diet.
I've tried bread in my diet too. I used an organic sour dough bread with no dairy. I seemed to be fine with it, meaning there was no big skin reaction. However, after a week or so I felt that it really started to plug me up. So, I've not re-introduced breads. Each person is going to need to find their own combinations of foods that work best for them.
Thank you so much for your reply Grant 🙂
I think I will experiment with more fat in my diet and see what happens.
When I have a bit more data I will post mu results in a separate thread 😁
More fat actually made me feel better the next day 🙂 more energy and the feeling of a tennis ball being stuck in my esophagus has greatly improved. I even exercised yesterday. Because my body wanted to move.
I added olive oil and macadamia nuts and a bit of pistaschios. Will continue to use olive oil daily.
RE: Ghee
Take some of Dr. Greger's videos with a grain of salt but this one is particularly interesting:
https://nutritionfacts.org/video/oxidized-cholesterol-as-a-cause-of-alzheimers-disease/
One of the papers he cites:
"Two populations of immigrants to London and to the West Indies from the Indian subcontinent have higher than expected morbidity and mortality from atherosclerosis but do not show the commonly accepted major risk factors ... Substantial amounts of cholesterol oxides were found in ghee (12.3% of sterols), but not in fresh butter..."
Some other studies:
"...oxidation of ghee increased the peroxide value, free fatty acid, and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances values and showed a decline in the radical scavenging activity values. Oxidized ghee (OG) significantly decreased the body weight, which was normalized by the coadministration of normal ghee (NG). Serum lipid profile showed a dose dependent increase in total cholesterol, triglycerides, and low density lipoproteins (LDL) and decrease in RBCs count, hematocrit, glucose, and hemoglobin concentration with OG feeding. These parameters were normalized by coadministration of NG. Liver histopathology of OG fed groups showed bile duct dilation and necrotic changes, while normal architecture showed in NG groups, compared to control."
Effect of dietary ghee--the anhydrous milk fat on lymphocytes in rats.
"...In vitro lipid peroxidation of lymphocyte membranes increased by 26% [and] Na+K+ ATPase activity was decreased in oxidized ghee fed rats (18%). Lymphocyte proliferation was reduced in ghee fed rats (32%)......Rosetting of lymphocytes decreased in the fresh ghee fed rats by 16% and in oxidized ghee fed rats by 25%. Membrane fluidity declined in the oxidized ghee fed rats..."
Membrane changes in rat erythrocyte ghosts on ghee feeding.
"...A decrease of 28% in the membrane fluidity of erythrocyte ghost membranes... Na+ K+ ATPase and Acetylcholinesterase showed an increase of 65 and 200% respectively... Increased membrane lipid peroxidation (80%) and C/PL ratio (11%)...[and] an increase in the osmotic fragility of erythrocytes was observed in the oxidized ghee fed rats...fresh ghee has no effect on the erythrocyte membrane."
On the other hand:
The effect of ghee (clarified butter) on serum lipid levels and microsomal lipid peroxidation. (Full text)
I suspect the negative (or positive?) affect is largely dependent on the composition of the butter and processing method and as pointed out in that last paper, it is common in Ayurveda to infuse ghee with medicinal herbs & spices which could potentially counteract the negative affects...
If the cholesterol is oxidized, then so would the retinol (into retinoic acid) & carotenoids...? I wonder if there is a synergistic toxicity of retinoic acid & oxysterols?
I did some more digging through the references cited in the video:
Oxysterols in the pathogenesis of major chronic diseases
This section in particular caught my attention: "Oxysterols in degenerative changes of the retina"
"Samples from atherosclerotic plaques contained 20 times more cholesterol, about 45 times higher oxysterols levels, and 600 times more alpha-tocopherol compared to normal arteries...cirrhotic liver contained significantly smaller concentration of alpha-tocopherol..."
Not sure of the significance but interesting that Vitamin E is involved somehow....
Also, here's the review with the chart of oxysterol content in foods referenced in the video:
This is interesting! Have not read through the studies yet (answers might be in there), so I am just theorizing and thinking out loud:
Ghee is cooked butter basically. Theoretically this could mean that exposing butter for heat, as in cooking with it in different ways could cause the colesterol to oxidize? And is this plausible for pasteurized fatty milk products as well, or is pasteurization temperature too low and too brief to cause oxidation? Isn't regular butter made from pasteurized cream?
And what about cooked animal fat? Whether being a fatty cut of meat or other foods deep fried in i.e. lard? Regarding oxidation I mean.