Manchester professors claim that priests in Ancient Egypt developed atherosclerosis from eating rich food high in saturated fat

I heard Egyptologist, Professor Rosalie David, of Manchester University speaking on Radio 4's Sunday programme this morning. She was recounting "how the food that the Ancient Egyptians offered to their gods was ultimately eaten by the priests - who paid with their health." She explained that rich, fatty food, like beef and goose, was a feature of the food offered to the gods, and she claimed that because of eating this rich, fatty food, the priests developed atherosclerosis - furring of the arteries - leading to their early death. She also mentioned 'natron' as being a sort of early toothpaste they chewed to cleanse the palate. - My ears stood to attention at this because that sounded like a substance high in sodium. (Natrium is the Latin word for Sodium and Na is the chemical symbol for Sodium.)

And indeed Natron is a substance high in sodium. Wikipedia tells us that "Natron is a naturally occurring mixture of sodium carbonate decahydrate (Na₂CO₃·10H₂O, a kind of soda ash) and about 17% sodium bicarbonate (also called nahcolite^[1] or baking soda, NaHCO₃) along with small quantities of household salt (halite, sodium chloride) and sodium sulfate. "

This evening I found further information about the research. See Manchester University webpage. See also BBC News article.

Professor David, of the KNH Centre for Biomedical Egyptology in the Faculty of Life Sciences, worked with co-author Professor Tony Heagerty, of the Cardiovascular Research Group at the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences. They conclude that their research provides clear evidence that atherosclerosis was a disease caused by fatty diet in ancient times, just as it still is today.

I'm sorry, Professor David and Professor Heagerty, I don't buy it! I don't believe that saturated fat is the guilty party today and I don't believe it was the guilty party then!

Now the professors may think I'm impertinent to say that, when I am neither an Egyptologist nor a cardiovascular researcher. - But I have become increasingly aware that the belief that saturated fat is unhealthy food, a belief zealously held by many health professionals and by the Food Standards Agency and other Government agencies and quangoes, is a belief less and less held by medics and other scientists who have opened their minds to a wealth of research that does not support the 'conventional wisdom'. And I am persuaded by this more recent research that finds saturated fat is healthy to eat, not unhealthy. See, for example, http://www.drbriffa.com/blog/2010/01/21/heart-surgeon-waging-war-on-saturated-fat-seems-seriously-short-on-science-to-support-his-claims/

My own belief, based on my experience as a steroid victim, is that high sodium intake is the primary cause of the atherosclerosis. The Manchester University webpage referred to above tells us that those priests ate a lot of salt and when I couple that with the additional sodium that would ingested from chewing the Natron 'toothpaste', that clinches it for me. See my own webpage on Fat Retention.

Further correspondence with Nick Clegg, MP, Leader of the LibDems

First read my recent blog post about Nick Clegg.

Yesterday I received a letter from Nick Clegg, dated 25 February. It says:

Dear Mrs Wilde

I understand from my caseworker that you became very upset during the conversation she had with you today.

I am sorry for this. I believe she was trying to explain that my diary commitments make it impossible for me to come to visit you again and that there are limits to how much pressure I can put on the food industry and on Government to improve the information given to people on the damage that salt in the diet can cause.

She apologises for any misunderstanding caused.

Yours sincerely

Nick Clegg

Today I responded with an email to this email address: libdemleader@parliament.uk
I wrote:

Dear Mr Clegg

Thank you for your letter of apology, dated 25 February 2010. It really is incredible that, after all the letters and emails I have been sending to you since 2005 even before you were elected to Parliament, you still, apparently, have not actually read enough to know what I am wanting your help with! - I have not wasted my scant energy as a steroid victim writing to you countless times in order to ask you to "put pressure on the food industry"! Good grief! I've not asked you to put pressure on the food industry! - Have you never read any of my letters?

It is abundantly clear that the leader of the LibDem party is not interested in helping me or the many thousands of other suffering victims of drug-induced morbid obesity in this country, nor in preventing thousands of other people from becoming new victims of reckless prescribing by some NHS doctors so ignorant of the side-effects of the powerful drugs that they do not give the VITAL warning that while on the medication the patient should avoid eating any salt or food containing any added salt.

What use is a constituency MP who doesn't bother to read any of the letters from a disabled constituent who needs his help? No use at all.

I've got the message. The LibDem leader doesn't care about steroid victims.

Yours sincerely

Margaret Wilde (Ms)

Food Alert about certain Loyd Grossman sauces

BBC News reports that "Batches of Loyd Grossman sauces are being recalled over fears that they may contain pieces of glass.

The food alert affects batch codes 9316 and 9317 of the chef's tomato and chilli pasta sauce jars."

Appetite too big? Here's what to do:

Cut down on salt! - Salt stokes up your appetite.
Give up dieting, eat good healthy meals with plenty of protein and fat and fruit and fresh vegetables, and avoid salt and salty food. You will feel so much better!

Here is a page of information about foods high in salt/sodium (the foods to avoid) and those low in sodium and/or high in potassium (the foods that are better for people who are wanting to lose excess weight)
Sodium foods

You will lose excess weight easily, rapidly and safely, and you will have more energy. - Go on! - Try it! - You KNOW that counting calories and going hungry doesn't work...

Forget about calories! Lose weight by eating less salt! - Go on! - Just do it!

Recommended Vitamin D Intake is Too Low

2,000 IU/Day or More Needed for Optimal Health
Vitamin D has been a natural part of man's experience forever, and 90% of vitamin D is derived from solar ultraviolet-B (UVB) irradiance. The health effects of vitamin D can be and have been determined from a variety of studies including ecological, observational (case-control and cohort), and cross-sectional studies. Vitamin D helps both to prevent and to treat chronic diseases including many types of cancer, cardiovascular disease (coronary heart disease, stroke, etc.), congestive heart failure, diabetes mellitus (types 1 and 2), osteoporosis, falls, and fractures. It is also effective against infectious diseases including both bacteria and viral infections: bacterial vaginosis, pneumonia, dental caries, periodontal disease, tuberculosis, sepsis/septicemia, Epstein-Barr virus, and influenza type A such as A/H1N1 influenza. The autoimmune diseases include asthma, type 1 diabetes mellitus, multiple sclerosis, and perhaps rheumatoid arthritis.

Read news release at orthomolecular.org (This article may be reprinted free of charge provided 1) that there is clear attribution to the Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, and 2) that both the OMNS free subscription link http://orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html and also the OMNS archive link http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/index.shtml are included.)

Turmeric was mentioned on "Corrie" last night.

Coronation Street is my favourite bit of TV escapism. It's funny and it's very well acted. Last night's episode featured a mention of the spice, turmeric, for the first time ever, I believe, and, I guess, very likely the last time too...(o: - Did you catch it? Sunita's aunts were checking up on what turmeric Sunita had.

I add a bit of turmeric to my soups and stews. If you look turmeric up on the internet you'll find lots of health benefits attributed to it. Not like the foodstuffs more usually featuring on Corrie: beer, sarnies, crisps... - And do you remember how Sally's girls seemed almost exclusively to live on fish fingers years ago? - Yuk!

Poor Gail! - She's got a rotten taste in men. - And in art too. I reckon that ghastly picture in her house - on the wall in between the foot of the staircase and the door to the entrance lobby - must have been one of the (unconscious) considerations that put off prospective purchasers of the property...(o:

Salty Soups Could Be Damaging Your Health

See BBC News report here. Many soups sold in cafés and supermarkets are higher in salt than is recommended. If you have high blood pressure, or if you are overweight, high salt intake is particularly bad for you.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

Sodium in foods

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

I can be contacted from my website if you need my further help. My help is free.

Nick Clegg? - I don't think he'll be getting MY vote!

The other evening I had a phone call from a pleasant person called Angela, who was hoping to secure my vote for Nick Clegg, the incumbant LibDem MP in my constituency. I explained that although I had voted for him previously, I was not inclined to do so again because he had done nothing effective to help me as a steroid victim, and by extension had done nothing effective to help the scores of thousands of other victims of NHS medical negligence who suffer drug-induced obesity but have not been given the vital information they need to reduce or to prevent it. Patients are not being warned to avoid salt and salty food when taking steroids and HRT and the many other drugs that cause sodium and water retention, and so these drugs initiate morbid obesity and a host of other grave and painful health problems in the innocent patients.

My understanding of how Angela and I left it at the end of the phone call was that someone would ring me to arrange for one of the LibDem local councillors to come to see me to discuss the matter, because as a steroid victim I am too ill and disabled to go to see him at his 'surgery'. Instead, unfortunately, I received this afternoon a most unpleasant phone call from one of Clegg's staff, who clearly has a personal agenda and holds an entrenched position, and does not want people to know the truth about steroids and salt sensitivity and how obesity is caused. I asked her never to call me again as I had found the phone call very distressing. I suggest that such an abrasive, combative person is wholly unsuitable to ring ill, disabled people, and furthermore I find it disgraceful that a party worker should seek to deny a disabled constituent a visit from her MP or from one of her local councillors. Goodness knows we all pay a great deal of money for these privileged political beings who, we are told, "work for us", and we should at the very least be assured of courtesy and proper help.

If you would like to help me in my mission to prevent/reduce great and needless suffering you might like to write to my MP, Nick Clegg, at nickclegg@sheffieldhallam.org.uk asking him to visit me, Margaret Wilde, as soon as possible and not be in a rush as he was when he came in 2006.

If you want to read more about the politics of this matter and about Nick Clegg's previous involvement, see my 'political' page.

What really causes obesity?

Fluid retention is the pre-eminent cause of obesity, and the main cause of fluid retention is salt sensitivity. In children a high salt intake causes salt sensitivity/fluid retention/obesity. In adults it is sometimes the result of eating salt and salty food during pregnancy, when altered hormone levels make the body vulnerable to salt. It is most dramatically and tragically caused by the taking of injudiciously prescription drugs such as steroids, HRT and certain tricyclic antidepressants.

The way to reduce obesity is to abandon the dieting fallacy and address the fluid retention by severely cutting down on salt/sodium intake and eating plenty of fruit and fresh vegetables as these help to remove from the body some of the excess sodium and its accompanying water.

You can lose weight by eating less salt! – Go on! – Try it!

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Child Obesity

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

MSG (monoSODIUM glutamate)is another high-sodium compound to avoid if you are overweight.

Common salt, sodium chloride, is the most common high sodium additive to avoid if you are overweight, because it increases fluid retention, but MSG (monoSODIUM glutamate) is another high-sodium additive you would do well to avoid if you are overweight.

Read here about how to lose weight by eating less salt/sodium.

See Sodium in foods

And here is some further MSG information: Dr Mercola's article about MSG.

Doomed to failure: Scotland's new initiative, entitled ‘Preventing Overweight and Obesity in Scotland – A Route Map Towards Healthy Weight’.

Why do I predict that THIS is doomed to failure? - Because yet again, influential, but ill-informed, people are claiming that obesity is on the increase because of energy imbalance, i.e. that obesity is being caused by taking in too many calories and expending too few calories. They see part of the answer to this supposed cause as pressing restaurants to limit portion sizes! - See this Telegraph article. What an intrusion into the personal liberty of both the customer and the restaurateur! - Why do I say this? - Isn't it worth it to improve people's health? - Well no, actually. - Limiting portion size will not improve anyone's health, and it certainly won't improve their temper or their blood pressure!

It dismays and astounds me that they are still, even now, peddling this lie, despite the destruction it is wreaking on the health of the people they are paid to serve.

Why don't they read the research? - Diets don't work! - Renaming diets 'healthy living' doesn't make them work. Restricting calories in and increasing exercise (calories out) is counter-productive. - It actually causes WEIGHT GAIN, because it weakens the blood vessel walls and so increases fluid retention. See the article in the British Medical Journal of November 2003 http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/327/7423/1085 for actual research on what happens when this advice is followed! - Over 800 obese adults were put on energy deficit diets, given diet sheets and plenty of instruction and help from trained staff, and apparently, visited fortnightly for a year, at the end of which they had GAINED weight! This mirrors the real experience of obese people, viz. - dieting makes you fatter.

To reduce obesity in Scotland they should be explaining that it is initiated by fluid retention, which tends to be followed by fat retention as well. The vector for both of these forms of excess weight is salt - more exactly, SODIUM. Reducing salt/sodium intake is the fastest, safest way to lose excess weight because it reduces both fluid retention and fat retention. - Fat retention is not caused by eating too much fat and is not cured by eating meals low in fat.

See Lose weight and
Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

Don't bother about portion control. It is neither necessary nor desirable.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

And see Sodium in foods and

Children and Obesity

And they should be curbing the reckless prescribing of pharmaceutical drugs, since their side-effects are the major cause of adult onset morbid obesity. See

amitriptyline

prescribed steroids and HRT

Obesity-related deaths on the increase

BBC News reports "a "dramatic rise" in deaths in England in which obesity was a contributory factor".

About a quarter of adults in the UK are now obese and the incidence is growing. Since advice about obesity is so prevalent and so spectacularly unsuccessful in achieving improvement in the situation, it should be blindingly obvious that the advice being given is WRONG. - Millions of people are not deliberately going against expert advice and are not deliberately making themselves fatter and more uncomfortable and ill in consequence. The experts must stop giving the wrong advice. Their misinformation is damaging the lives, health and happiness of millions of innocent people, most poignantly, children.

Obesity is NOT caused by eating too many calories/too much fat and/or taking too little exercise. – No matter how many doctors and other ‘experts’ claim that it is, and that it can be reduced by eating fewer calories and taking more exercise, they are wrong and it is still NOT true.

Obesity is caused by fluid retention in people who are sensitive to salt. – It is as simple, and as profoundly complex, as that.

Now – what really causes the fluid retention/salt sensitivity/obesity? – Here are the main causes:

1. Prescription drugs such as tricyclic antidepressants like amitriptyline.

Weight gain is also widely reported by people taking SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Re-uptake Inhibitors). As with the tricyclic antidepressants, the weight gain is because of sodium retention and fluid/water retention, and can be avoided/reduced by avoiding eating salt and salty food.

2. Other prescription drugs such as steroids including prednisolone, prednisone, cortisone, hydrocortisone, HRT and other medications containing oestrogen – like some birth control medication (contraceptives) – some anti-psychotic drugs, including Zyprexa (aka olanzapine) and other psychotropic drugs, and some anti-epileptic/anticonvulsant drugs, notably valproate (trade name Epilim).

If you have been inappropriately prescribed or over-dosed with corticosteroids or HRT or the any of the many other drugs that cause weight gain, then you may well have developed drug-induced Cushing’s Syndrome, a very serious illness, frequently far more serious than the health problem for which the drugs were prescribed. It is, to the best of my knowledge, an entirely preventable illness if doctors conform to the protocols for prescribing these drugs and if they monitor patients’ progress on the drugs, and if they warn patients about salt. It is VITALLY important that it be realised that weight gain resulting from these drugs is from sodium and water retention, so patients taking these drugs should be warned not to eat salt, or foods containing salt, while taking the medication. They should also be informed that any weight gained in this way can easily and swiftly be reduced by eating less salt/sodium, and they should be warned not to try to lose weight by eating less food or restricting calories because this will not help them to lose weight and is harmful.

If you gain weight suddenly and unexpectedly when you start to take prescribed medication, it is highly likely that the weight gain is caused by the drug. You may like to consider whether you really need to take that drug, or whether the dose could be lowered. At any rate if you continue with the drug, try to reduce your salt intake in order to reduce the weight gain. Doctors seldom, if ever, warn about the drugs that cause salt sensitivity and the need very strictly to avoid salt and salty food while on the drugs, and many do not observe the drug protocols and very few properly monitor the patient’s progress on the drugs. Obviously if doctors did do all these things, there would be no steroid victims, no patients with drug-induced obesity, etc. whereas there are many millions of them worldwide, victims of medical negligence and ignorance.

3. If, as a baby or small child, you ate salt and salty food, you were highly likely to have developed sensitivity to salt and you therefore became fat or overweight.

4. Pregnancy can cause fluid retention/salt sensitivity because of hormonal changes during pregnancy. It is important to avoid salt and salty food during pregnancy.

These are the main causes of obesity. Dieting/calorie counting makes obesity worse and should be avoided.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, heart attack, vascular dementia, stroke, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, boost your lung function and improve your health in many other ways without drugs, hunger or expense by eating less salt! - Try it!

See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.

Read my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

Sodium in foods

Fat retention and fat excretion: the importance of getting enough calcium.

I can be contacted from my website if you need my further help. My help is free.