my title — alregina-author post

Jun 8, 2023

Trans fat deception

In a previous blog, “The 80/20 rule, or Pareto principle” I discussed the biggest dietary change which could have the biggest impact on your health — the removal of seed oils. Because seed oils and sugar are normally combined in ultra processed food, eating whole foods is a great way to remove these nutrient deficient, pro-oxidative, and pro-inflammatory toxins.

If we shift our discussion to trans fats most “experts” in the nutrition field would fully agree that such fats, especially those artificially manufactured, are extremely harmful to our health. Heart disease, cancers, and other morbidities clearly show strong associations which suggest causality. Therefore, strict religious advocates of vegan, carnivore, DASH, Mediterranean, low-carb, or high-carb diets wouldn’t argue against the harms of trans fats (1,2).

So, you think trans fats are out of our food supply — think again. Thanks to five plus decades of research warning about the strong correlation with heart disease, it took Dr. Kummerow until 2013 to convince the FDA to remove “trans fats” from the list of ingredients on the GRAS (generally regarded as safe) database. An outright ban in 2015 allowed BigFood 3 years to remove trans fats. Because numerous extensions and outright ignoring of FDA rules were still common late 2021, with no consequences, these toxic fats remain in our food. Seed oils, and processed food are the main contributors in our diet (3).

Unknown to the majority of the population the FDA allows the following statement you’ve seen on numerous nutrition information inserts — “Contains 0 grams trans fat per serving”. Check your pantry or cupboard but educate yourself about the presence of trans fats. Providing the trans fat content is < 0.5 grams/serving (0.49 grams is acceptable) and the trans fat content is < 3.6% of the total fat content the 0 grams/serving deception is allowed. Thirteen years ago, in 2010, seed oil consumption was already 80 grams/person/day in the USA. Therefore BigFood reverse engineers their ultra processed food and potentially gives you hidden 2.8 grams of trans fat/day yet the FDA considers NO AMOUNT OF TRANS FAT SAFE FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION. Seed oils have also been found to contain 1-4% trans fats in several studies (3).

With profits galore and the extended shelf life trans fats extoll on processed food it’s no surprise that BigFood keeps trans fats in our food supply. Could making more money for shareholders take precedence over the health of the consumer?

Mozaffarian, D., Aro, A. & Willett, W. Health effects of trans-fatty acids: experimental and observational evidence. Eur J Clin Nutr 63 (Suppl 2), S5–S21 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejcn.1602973 https://www.nature.com/articles/1602973
Nicolò Merendino et al. The Effect of Trans Fatty Acids on Human Health: Regulation and Consumption Patterns. Foods 2021, 10(10), 2452; https://doi.org/10.3390/foods10102452
Knobbe, C. & Alexander, S. (2023). The Ancestral Diet Revolution. How Vegetable Oils and Processed Foods Destroy Our Health – and How to Recover. (1st ed.)Ancestral Health Foundation

May 8, 2023

Never say Never

John Cripps Healthy Lifestyle, Uncategorized

As the summer games draw near consider giving yourself a challenge. Stop giving negative self-talk by saying “I could never do that”. Regardless of whether you decide to start table tennis, learn a new card game, ride a bicycle, or walk in your age group you can benefit from trying new things, meeting new people, and confronting your fear of failure. Do not be surprised if people around you inspire you simply because you decided to try and were brave enough to do so.

Sometimes a thought occurs to you, and you ask yourself if you can accomplish a new task. On February 27, 2023, a young 74 years-old youngster from Condo 2 contacted me through his MSC-OST walking group with members all around the world. Hiram wondered if he could walk/run the 5K Toronto Marathon May 7, 2023, and “finish in a descent time”. As weeks passed by Hiram challenged himself to walk longer distances, and even do some jogging. Because this young man inspired me, I signed up for the 5K run/walk and sent my registration confirmation to him. Shortly after that time Hiram stuck his toe in the pond and signed up for the event as well.

On a cold Sunday morning, May 7^th, I picked up Hiram and his lovely supportive wife Sachiko, because the roads around the Toronto Marathon course were closing at 6:30 am. We arrived near the BMO field, scoped out the starting line, and watched some of the thousands of participants arrive on site. After lining up at the porta potties, crazy long lines indeed, we lined up in the starting gate after the 10K runners and walkers had departed. We were packed in a large group of people and Hiram discussed his plan of running one minute and walking four minutes for the duration of the race. Amid the excitement, runners, spectators, first responders, course marshals, and support staff we began to move, and the race was on.

With 1,694 participants in the 5K event alone at our combined goal was not to be accidentally tripped and taken down in the first kilometer because it was like an intense moving obstacle course as we maneuvered our way around the Queen Elizabeth building at the Exhibition grounds. People of all ages, sizes, and wearing a vast array of outfits were our constant companions along the route. I am so proud to say that we both completed the 5K event and Hiram came in first overall in his age group-70+. What an accomplishment when an idea leads to an action resulting in completing your first ever walk/run race at the age of seventy-four. I also give credit to Sachiko who was incredibly supportive of our effort both before and after the event. Never say never unless you don’t try.

Apr 27, 2023

The 80/20 rule, or Pareto principle

John Cripps Healthy Lifestyle

Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto conceived the 80/20 principle in 1895, a statistical tool hypothesizing 80% of outcomes result from 20% of causes (1). Pareto concepts can readily apply to business, health, and a variety of other topics. Because much of the population looks for the easiest solution to problems perhaps utilizing the above concepts will achieve the most effect for the least effort to improve our health.

The poor metabolic health of our population, between 1999-2018, was highlighted recently in a 2022 publication (2). Only 6.8% of the adult American population could meet five metrics of cardiometabolic health, characterized by healthy levels of weight, blood pressure, glucose, lipids, and clinical cardiovascular disease (2).

We all would fare better with less stress, more sleep, and more exercise. Sure, these things are important but general advice like this, while important, doesn’t really address the root cause of our burgeoning health issues such as diabetes, obesity, hypertension, metabolic syndrome, and a multitude of chronic diseases. Future blogs will get into more details for those that are interested but to summarize — the root cause of our exploding non-communicable diseases results from ingestion of ultra-processed food (UPF). UPF is defined here as added sugar, refined wheat (refined white flour), seed oils, and trans fat. Of these four components of UPF, seed oils, sometimes called vegetable or plant oils, are the most toxic by far. Suffice it to say that seed oil consumption has increased approximately 5,000 percent since the year 1900 (3).

UPF contains a combination of seed oils and added sugars in most cases. Because our total blood volume is approximately 5 litres, and we can only tolerate 4-5 grams of glucose in our bloodstream, your body rapidly defends elevated blood sugars by secreting insulin from your pancreas. If we repeatedly ask our pancreas to produce more and more insulin, from chronic carbohydrate overconsumption, our cells become resistant to this hormone, something we call insulin resistance (IR). Eventually we need to produce greater amounts on insulin to overcome the inability of glucose to enter your cells and this leads to type 2 diabetes in predisposed individuals. Seed oil consumption also results in IR in addition to creating oxidative stress, inflammation, and toxicity in every cell membrane of your body.

So how can we apply the Pareto principle to change our lifestyle and what we eat. The real answer is eating whole processed foods, organic if affordable. Because most, if not all UPF, contains the deadly duo of seed oils and added sugar, eliminating anything with a bar code on it is a good start. By changing only 20% of what you do you may well achieve 80% or greater benefit towards your health. Critically eliminate the most toxic, inflammatory, oxidative, and nutrient deficient food — SEED OILS.

#1. Avoid seed oils including cottonseed, canola, corn, soy, safflower, sunflower, sesame, rice bran, grapeseed, rapeseed, and peanut oil. If you must use something for cooking butter, beef tallow, or lard are the healthiest because of fat soluble vitamins critical to our health. If you object to animal products use macadamia nut oil, palm kernel, coconut, olive or avocado. Use as little oil as possible and be aware that up to 70-80% of fruit oils, such as olive and avocado, are reported to be adulterated with soy, corn, or other highly toxic seed oils.

#2. Avoid added sugars including brown sugar, cane juice, fruit juice, corn syrup, dextrose, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, lactose, fructose, glucose, fruit nectars, high-fructose corn syrup, maltose, honey, and fruit nectars. There are more as the food industry quietly hides sugars within UPF.

#3. Don’t drink your calories. Avoid fruit juices or beverages with added sweeteners.

#4. Consider the fact that 20% or more of the North American population eating a standard western diet may be addicted to sugar, or UPD —a deadly combination of sugar and seed oils (4).

#5. Type 2 diabetes can be put into remission in several patients. Even if you continue to require some medications, the dose is often reduced, and improvements in metabolic health are commonly seen (5).

1. Indeed editorial team. The 80/20 Rule Explained (Guide to the Pareto Principle). Feb 3, 2023. Accessed 26 April 2023. Available at: Indeed.com

2. O’Hearn M, Lauren BN, Wong JB, Kim DD, Mozaffarian D. Trends, and disparities in cardiometabolic health among U.S. adults, 1999–2018. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2022;80(2):138-151.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacc.2022.04.046

3. Knobbe CA, Stojanoska M. The ‘Displacing Foods of Modern Commerce’ Are the Primary and Proximate Cause of Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Unifying Singular Hypothesis. Med Hypotheses. 2017 Nov;109:184-198. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2017.10.010. Epub 2017 Oct 14. PMID: 29150284. PubMed (nih.gov)

4. Vera Tarman, MD. MSc., FCFP, ABAM. Food addiction specialist, Toronto. Addictions Unplugged | Dr. Vera Tarman – Author, Speaker & Food Addiction Expert

5. Cripps, J. and Cucuzzella, M. (2023) ‘Look in or book in: The case for type 2 diabetes remission to prevent diabetic retinopathy’, Journal of Insulin Resistance, 6(1), p.7. https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/79/248

Jan 18, 2023

New year’s resolution 2023

John Cripps Healthy Lifestyle, Uncategorized

It’s that time of year again. We all possibly ate things we shouldn’t have and enjoyed some additional drinks over the holiday season. With the summer games approaching how can we get motivated and embark on our annual new year’s resolutions?

My wife and I have had the privilege of visiting the beautiful island of Kauai over the past 31 years. During those vacations we have noticed a colorful brightly dressed woman walking daily every year we come. For the first time in 3 decades, we stopped to talk to her and what an amazing individual she truly is.

This young lady told us she just completed the Honolulu marathon a month ago. Pretty amazing as she was 92 years-6 months-11 days old at the time and set a world record. What was most remarkable was her kindness, humility, and spirituality. She is currently training for a 10K local run in Kauai in February.

After we returned to our rental condo, I did an internet search and found to my surprise her name is well known on the island of Kauai where she moved to 31 years ago. Her name is Mathea Allansmith and she is a retired ophthalmologist. Incredibly she trained at UCLA medical school in 1967, one of two women, during the time men dominated the sciences. Even more remarkable she completed a residency in ophthalmology, had a family, and went on to have an illustrious career at Harvard Medical School and Mass Eye and Ear. She even delivered a prestigious invited ophthalmology lecture at the university of Toronto in the 1980s on her area of expertise “itchy eyes”. At no point in our conversation did she ever mention a single one of those accomplishments only talking about how fortunate she was living in Kauai, and all the positive people surrounding her.

A couple of days later Arienne and I ran into Mathea on an 8K walk. I told her I was a retired ophthalmologist, and we had a great talk. She asked me if I was as happy as her being retired and indeed, I was. Everything about Mathea is uplifting, inclusive, and ultra-positive. So, in closing if you are looking for motivation then look no further than this remarkable human being. What a privilege it is to have met this incredible woman.