Baby and Grandma Know Best
by ryan heeney / March 18th, 2022
Baby
Think about the very first meal you have when you arrive on earth. Nature packages the perfect mixture of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals in an easy to digest superfood that is designed precisely for the human body.
Breast milk is all a baby needs for many months after being born. The first type of breast milk a mother produces is called colostrum, it's a milk higher in protein, fat and antibodies. After about 3-4 days, the production of colostrum will cease and regular breast milk will begin being produced and will so for the duration of breastfeeding. But what is it about human breast milk that mother nature considers worthy of a perfect meal?
Well let's take a look at exactly it's made up of...
While this short summary leaves out many of the important antibodies, growth factors, leukocytes and other substances found in breast milk that are important for a newborn, it will still give us a good idea of what breast milk is actually composed of. Obviously rich in micronutrients, breast milk is a great source of vitamin's A, C, calcium, and not shown on this label but present in breast milk are vitamins D, K, Riboflavin, niacin and pantothenic acid.
What about the macronutrients?
By calorie, breast milk is roughly
-55% fat
-39% carbohydrate
-6% protein.
Saturated fat is the type of fat that makes up the most of breast milk at about 40% of the total fat content, followed by monounsaturated making up 38% and polyunsaturated fat with only 9%. As far as fat goes, saturated fat makes up the bulk of the fat contained within breast milk, with monounsaturated following close behind, and polyunsaturated fatty acids being found in quite low amounts.
As for the carbohydrate content of breast milk—it is actually entirely sugar. The sugar is in the form of lactose and is found in all types of milk.
Throughout this article sugar will be a term I will use for sucrose, fructose, glucose and lactose. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and the four previously mentioned sugars have very little in common. I could dedicate an entire article to HFCS but I want to make sure that it is known that that is not what I am referring to when I refer to “sugar’. It is very different (and unhealthy) to the first four mentioned.
If you remember from my previous articles, sugar and fat compete for use of fuel in the cell. This is something known as the Randle cycle. Basically a cell will burn one substrate at a time, but never both. So if you’re asking yourself, well how could a combination of sugar and fat in one food substance be beneficial when something like the Randle cycle exists at the same time, that’s because fatty acids don’t appear to participate in that cycle at the same level depending on their saturation.
One way this was determined was by measuring the amount of acyl-carnitine produced in the liver. Acyl-carnitine is produced by an enzyme that shuttles fatty acids into the mitochondria (carnitine palmitoyltransferase) and the more saturated the fat, the less it will interfere with the oxidation of glucose and instead be “taken care of” in more healthful ways (burned in muscles at rest, excreted by liver, ect.). In other words, the more saturated the fat, the less of a traffic jam it will have with glucose. The image below isn’t the greatest quality but it’s the best I could find and illustrates what what’s being explained above. (Basically the lower the acyl-carnitine production the better.)
You can find a link to that full study here:
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/127/11/2142/4728654
The protein found in breast milk is composed of about 60% whey and 40% casein. Whey protein digests quickly, while casein does much more slowly. This combination is great for a baby because it gives them the quick nutrition they sometimes will need from the whey, but also a sustained release of amino acids from the casein. Regular cows milk is similar, but the ratio of whey to casein in cows milk is more like 80/20, respectively.
Pretty interesting right?
Well here's what I find most interesting...
Mother nature's perfect meal, the first meal we eat and do so for the first months and years of life, is made mostly of... wait for it… saturated fat and sugar.
The two most so-called "toxic" substances in the mainstream health world today are what nature considers are perfect first meal. The two things that would make your personal trainer practically choke on their green smoothie if they even heard the words mentioned. And yes, your typical personal trainer/dietitian will consider lactose a sugar you would want to avoid, along with fructose and sucrose.
Now I know what you might be thinking—this is an unfair comparison because the baby is growing and it needs the calories. Human adults and babies are indeed in two totally different situations and comparing the two wouldn’t be justified if caloric amounts and macronutrient ratios is what we were discussing. But the amounts of these nutrients are NOT the argument.
In mainstream health today, saturated fat and sugar are two things that are thought to be dangerous in ANY amounts. Robert Lustig, probably one of the loudest and most well-known voices in the war against sugar, constantly refers to it as a "poison".
What we're talking about—saturated fat and sugar—are two things that the mainstream health world has labeled TOXIC.
Inherently toxic... in and of themselves.
Why would the first meal you get as a baby be mainly composed of two "toxic" substances? Two substances that supposedly put you on the fast track to heart disease and cancer.
Breast milk isn't made of just some of this stuff either. Together by calorie, saturated fat and sugar make up 65% of what breast milk is. And I didn't even get into the fact that breast milk is full of cholesterol.
By the way, dietary cholesterol had been labeled "dangerous" by the FDA for decades until it fully reversed that stance in 2018. You can read about that reversal here:
https://nutritionfacts.org/questions/why-did-the-fda-remove-restrictions-on-cholesterol/
Besides even the reversal of opinion on dietary cholesterol, there is evidence showing low levels of serum cholesterol can be linked to increased incidents of cancer. These studies can be found below:
https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/711853
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120326113713.htm
So did mother nature get things completely backwards?
Or maybe, just maybe… mother nature, who has had a system in place for millions of years has it right.
If someone has a rebuttal of, “well babies can drink milk, that’s normal, but drinking milk from a cow as an adult isn’t normal at all”, they may want to take that up with the British farmers from 6,000 years ago, and other ancient people that drank dairy milk as part of their daily diet. The study that shows British farmers regularly drank milk 6,000 years ago can be found here:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/09/190910105353.htm
If you would like a more recent example… today the Maasai, an East African tribe who mainly occupy areas of southern Kenya, get over half their daily calories from milk alone! They drink over one and a half gallons of milk a day on average; this provides them with around 6,000 mg of calcium. Remember, this is whole milk too, full of saturated fat. They aren’t drinking the low-fat or skim varieties.
(Below is a photo of the Maasai people).
Grandma
If you had grandparents that grew up around the turn of the 20th century or into the early parts of it, you were probably lucky enough to be around in the kitchen and learn the old recipes that were passed down, or maybe hear stories of how they used to eat in the old, old days. Common foods that will always pop up when elders are reminiscing of old meals are foods like steak, eggs, potatoes, butter, cream, full fat milk, pies, sundaes, marmalade’s, jams, cheeses, chocolates, slow cooked stews with gelatinous meats, jello salads, etc.
Here is a page from a "puddings" section of a recipe book from 1908:
Sugar, eggs, butter, milk, orange juice, etc. Granted that's a dessert page, but you get the idea. I sifted through quite a few old recipe books and there isn't one mention of vegetable oils that I could find from the 1900’s or before.
And it wasn't just your grandma who made these things staples in her diet... even Marilyn Monroe enjoyed her sugar and saturated fat. I found a very candid interview where she goes fairly in depth into her daily diet. I found it very interesting:
Milk... eggs... steak... lamb chops... liver... raw carrots... ice cream... chocolate.
Does that sound familiar? If it doesn’t yet, that is almost The Metabolic Lifestyle in a nutshell, and that will become more apparent as I continue to put out new posts. My guess is Marilyn wasn't researching nutrition and the metabolism in her spare time, but was simply eating intuitively. Quite interesting.
Anecdotally, when you look at old pictures or footage from those times, everyone just seemed to be at a healthy weight. Even watching home videos from as recent as the 80’s and 90’s will amaze you at how slim everyone was.
Even fast food has changed quite drastically since then.
People will often say McDonald's french fries were delicious back in the day and they're just not quite what they once were. A supplier once even told Ray Kroc (the man responsible for the success of McDonald's), “Ray, you know you aren’t in the hamburger business at all. You’re in the french-fry business. I don’t know how the livin’ hell you do it, but you’ve got the best french fries in town, and that’s what’s selling folks on your place".
The thing is, McDonald's used to use very saturated beef tallow (fat from beef) to fry their french fries before switching in 1992 to the very unsaturated mix of vegetable oils they use today—all for reasons of cost. French fry aficionados that focus on taste say this was a step down for the restaurant chain who used to be the king of fries. Quite honestly, the old school method of potatoes fried in tallow is a decently healthy meal in my opinion—a far cry from the modern order of french fries you would get today. I make my own version of french fries these days by frying potato wedges in refined coconut oil. The result is better than anything you can get a restaurant.
There's a whole article and podcast where famed author Malcolm Gladwell dives deep into this subject and it's actually very interesting. You can find that here:
https://www.theringer.com/2017/8/22/16184984/mcdonalds-fries-malcolm-gladwell-house-of-carbs
On a side note: there’s a really funny thing I notice in certain heath circles who are very opposed to saturated fat for health reasons. They will put coconut oil on this pedestal of holiness, while at the same time coconut oil is the most saturated oil there is! Do they know it’s the most saturated fat of all? Maybe because it comes from a plant they give it a pass? I don’t know. It’s still very funny, though.
But back to fast food, this change in oils wasn’t just isolated to McDonald’s. This change happened everywhere and around the same time—the only reason it did was simply because these oils became cheaper.
Here is a visualization of the increase in consumption of common vegetable oils in the US in the last 100 years:
And here is a visualization of the increase in consumption of common vegetable oils globally in the past 100 years:
Both of these graphs are taken from figures from the USDA.
Moreover, sugar consumption has actually gone down the past two decades yet obesity continues to rise:
But what has tracked with the obesity line is added fat consumption:
And besides that, saturated fat has gone down! While unsaturated vegetable oils are still climbing:
So yes, fat has gone up, but only from vegetable oil.
Finally, this graph represents the carbohydrates, fats and proteins as percentages of the average person's diet in the US from 1909 until near present:
Total carbohydrate (the blue line) has been steadily decreasing, total fat intake (the red line) has been steadily increasing with protein (the red line) staying very consistent throughout.
So what does this all mean? Should we just gorge on ice cream and table sugar?
No, but I think pointing the finger at these foods and labeling them as "toxic" in and of themselves is ill-informed and are quite possibly trends that were spawned by certain institutions and lobbying groups with money behind them. In my opinion, the thing that probably trends directly with the obesity line is vegetable oil.
Polyunsaturated fat slows the metabolism like nothing else. In fact, this is one of it's main roles in nature—to ready animals for hibernation. Here is a great explanation from the Journal of Evolution and Health of how polyunsaturated fat slows the metabolism.
https://www.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/ajpregu.00688.2007
You find polyunsaturated fat in all chips, cookies, pastries, french fries, cakes, doughnuts, sweet roles, muffins, anything fried, salad dressings, nuts, seeds. In fact, vegetable oil is the only thing I can think of that is the common thread in what we consider junk food as a society. To illustrate what I mean, Dorito’s don’t contain sugar, neither do Funyons. In fact TONS of food we label as “junk food” don’t contain sugar. But vegetable oil is the one ingredient that can be found in both sweet and savory foods we intuitively know is bad for our health.
Every single restaurant or fast food place you go to will be cooking with it too by the way. They use certain vegetable and seed oils because they’re cheap, they’re flavorless (making them versatile) and often have desirable smoke points.
But to be honest it's not the wide variety of foods that polyunsaturated fat is found in that's worrisome, it is the sheer amount of it. It's not uncommon for polyunsaturated fat to make up over 30% of someone's total calories in a day! With all the attention gluten gets, it typically only makes up about 1% of the average person's caloric intake, this is tiny in comparison to the caloric load of polyunsaturated fat the average person takes in a day.
If you would like a great video summary of dietary fat, and the damage vegetable oils have caused us, Nina Teicholz breaks it down really well here:
A separate, interesting and weird note I have to mention is that in terms of nutrient composition, ice cream and human breast milk are practically identical! The amounts of saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, protein, sugar, calcium and cholesterol are basically the same to a T. Matt Stone of 180 degree health dives into this subject pretty deeply (and with a sense of humor) here.
I would also like to point out that overeating something like ice cream will in fact cause you to gain weight. Just because a nutrient isn't toxic doesn't mean that gorging on it will not cause weight gain. Food contains calories, and if you take in more than you burn, you will gain weight.
In my opinion, ice creams with natural ingredients without gums and thickeners (and when eaten in moderate amounts when your calorie count for the day is in check) have a perfectly fine place in a healthy diet. Haagen-Dazs is typically a great brand to go for that is free of additives. For those who are overweight and are trying to get back to a more normal weight, I recommend something like a “clean” ice cream only in moderation or not at all.
While the scientists, nutritionists and doctors argue back and forth with facts, studies, research and statistics—baby and grandma will be doing what we should all be doing a bit more of—putting on our common sense caps, listening to our intuition and enjoying what we were meant to eat.
The links for studies and material related to the information found in this article can be found below:
Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/bjsports/51/15/1111.full.pdf
Is Vegetable Oil Really Better for Your Heart? A new look at an old study raises some questions and reignites a debate about saturated fat.
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/04/is-vegetable-oil-really-better-healthier-for-your-heart-lower-cholesterol/478113/
Saturated fat does not clog the arteries: coronary heart disease is a chronic inflammatory condition, the risk of which can be effectively reduced from healthy lifestyle interventions
https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/15/1111
Does saturated fat clog your arteries? Controversial paper says ‘no’
https://www.cnn.com/2017/04/25/health/saturated-fat-arteries-study
Re-evaluation of the traditional diet-heart hypothesis: analysis of recovered data from Minnesota Coronary Experiment (1968-73)
https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1246
Medical myths: All about sugar
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/medical-myths-all-about-sugar
Dietary fats: a new look at old data challenges established wisdom
https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i1512
Researchers unearthed more evidence that replacing butter with vegetable oils is not beneficial for cardiac health
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-04-unearthed-evidence-butter-vegetable-oils.html
Mortality From Coronavirus Disease 2019 Increases With Unsaturated Fat and May Be Reduced by Early Calcium and Albumin Supplementation
https://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(20)34727-2/fulltext
Dietary saturated fatty acids reverse inflammatory and fibrotic changes in rat liver despite continued ethanol administration
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11602676/
Differential effects of fat and sucrose on the development of obesity and diabetes in C57BL/6J and A/J mice
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7752914/
Dietary Fatty Acids Influence the Activity and Metabolic Control of Mitochondrial Carnitine Palmitoyltransferase I in Rat Heart and Skeletal Muscle
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/127/11/2142/4728654
Vijay P. Singh, MBBS, on the Role of Unsaturated Fats in Severe COVID-19
https://www.medpagetoday.com/reading-room/aga/lower-gi/86940
Dietary saturated fatty acids: a novel treatment for alcoholic liver disease
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7615205/
Nut consumption might increase blood sugar levels in diabetics, finds study
https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/increased-intake-of-nuts-increases-blood-sugar-study-5735685/
Study Questions Fat and Heart Disease Link
https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/17/study-questions-fat-and-heart-disease-link/?_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0
Analysis using national databases reveals a positive association between dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids with TV watching and diabetes in European females
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0173084
Low testosterone, or ‘male menopause,’ no longer just for older men… “research shows that saturated fats from such sources as grass-fed meats, coconut oil and macadamia nuts appear to support testosterone better than polyunsaturated fats from refined vegetable oils.”
https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/19/health/male-menopause-sex-kerner/index.html
Rethinking an inflammatory receptor's obesity connection
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-rethinking-inflammatory-receptor-obesity.html
America's most widely consumed oil causes genetic changes in the brain: Soybean oil linked to metabolic and neurological changes in mice
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200117080827.htm
The acute effects of differential dietary fatty acids on human skeletal muscle pyruvate dehydrogenase activity
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17947500/
Long-term association of nut consumption and cardiometabolic risk factors
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31248717/
Increased Serum Dihomo-γ-linolenic Acid Levels Are Associated with Obesity, Body Fat Accumulation, and Insulin Resistance in Japanese Patients with Type 2 Diabetes
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29877283/
Consuming the Wrong Oil Makes You Fat and Lazy, Research Shows: A diet high in the polyunsaturated fatty acids found in some common oils, without enough of the monounsaturated fatty acids found in olive oil, is correlated with sedentary behaviors
https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/health-news/consuming-wrong-oil-makes-fat-lazy-research-shows/56542
Soybean Oil Is More Obesogenic and Diabetogenic than Coconut Oil and Fructose in Mouse: Potential Role for the Liver
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0132672
Resistance of essential fatty acid-deficient rats to endotoxin-induced increases in vascular permeability
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2188748/
Resistance of essential fatty acid-deficient rats to endotoxic shock
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/394879/
Association of Dietary, Circulating, and Supplement Fatty Acids With Coronary Risk
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M13-1788?articleid=1846638&
Carbohydrate-rich, fat-poor diet in diabetes
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/5319129/
The prolonged effects of a low cholesterol, high carbohydrate diet upon the serum lipids in diabetic patients
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13984377/
Improved Glucose Tolerance with High Carbohydrate Feeding in Mild Diabetes
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM197103112841004
Omega-6 and omega-3 oxylipins are implicated in soybean oil-induced obesity in mice
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-12624-9
Soybean Oil Is More Obesogenic and Diabetogenic than Coconut Oil and Fructose in Mouse: Potential Role for the Liver
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0132672
New study finds that fat consumption is the only cause of weight gain
https://www.abdn.ac.uk/news/12079/
Dietary Protein to Carbohydrate Ratio and Caloric Restriction: Comparing Metabolic Outcomes in Mice
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(15)00505-7
High-sucrose diets and insulin sensitivity
https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/69/3/575/4694210
Fructose as a Dieting Tool: 100g Fructose Per Day Exert Sign. Protein Sparing Effects & Ameliorate the Decline in Thyroid Hormones During Starvation Diet in the Obese
https://suppversity.blogspot.com/2014/10/fructose-as-dieting-tool-100g-fructose.html
Why You Should Try The PUFA-Free Diet. Steven Macari of SLVRBK argues why the oils you may be eating are ruining your health and making you look older.
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/diet-fitness/a10965/pufa-free-diet/
Why Orange Juice is Better Than Green Juice. Steven Macari of SLVRBK explains why good quality old school OJ might be just what you're missing.
https://www.harpersbazaar.com/beauty/diet-fitness/a10439/orange-juice-over-green-juice/
Everything You Need to Know About Your Metabolism. Steven Macari, holistic health practitioner, nutritionist at Drive 495 and founder of the SLVRBK mat, explains how it's all about the thyroid in 2015.
Dysregulation of Hypothalamic Gene Expression and the Oxytocinergic System by Soybean Oil Diets in Male Mice
https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/161/2/bqz044/5698148
Alterations of the volatile metabolome in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease
https://www.nature.com/articles/srep19495
Effect of dietary linoleate content on the metabolic response of rats to Escherichia coli endotoxin
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3545648/
Chronic high-sucrose diet increases fibroblast growth factor 21 production and energy expenditure in mice
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28886439/
Sucrose intake and corticosterone interact with cold to modulate ingestive behaviour, energy balance, autonomic outflow and neuroendocrine responses during chronic stress
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11963830/
Replacement of dietary fat by sucrose or starch: effects on 14 d ad libitum energy intake, energy expenditure and body weight in formerly obese and never-obese subjects
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9347402/
Big data studies scrutinize links between fatty liver disease and how cells make energy “…the authors proposed that because the overloaded liver cells used fatty acids instead of glucose to make energy, they may have created more reactive oxygen byproducts, which damaged proteins."
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-09-big-scrutinize-links-fatty-liver.html
Dietary fluted pumpkin seeds induce reversible oligospermia and androgen insufficiency in adult rats
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31081692/
Diet during early life defines testicular lipid content and sperm quality in adulthood
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpendo.00235.2020
Augmented resistance to oxidative stress in fatty rat livers induced by a short-term sucrose-rich diet
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11018471/
Effects of saturated and unsaturated fats with vitamin E supplementation on the antioxidant status of broiler chicken tissues
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11402677/
Researchers find leukemia cells metabolize fat to avoid cell death
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2010-01-leukemia-cells-metabolize-fat-cell.html
Odor biomarker for Alzheimer's disease. Non-invasive urine test could provide early diagnosis …only one compound (1-octen-3-ol) was significantly altered in concentration across all three strains… In conclusion, our findings in mouse models of AD suggest that volatile odor signatures are also likely to be observed in human AD populations and may be informative early indicators of AD during prodromal disease states … Octenol is formed during oxidative breakdown of linoleic acid.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160114100738.htm
Researchers discover that breast cancer tumor growth is dependent on lipid availability
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-04/ifri-rdt040516.php
Researchers Slow Breast Cancer Growth by Blocking Fat Import to Cells
https://breastcancer-news.com/2016/04/06/breast-cancer-growth-dependent-on-fat-import-blocking-it-might-offer-a-new-treatment/
FoxA and LIPG endothelial lipase control the uptake of extracellular lipids for breast cancer growth
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms11199
Mitochondrial complex I activity and NAD+/NADH balance regulate breast cancer progression
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23426180/
Very long-chain fatty acids change the ethanol tolerance of Drosophila melanogaster larvae
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7876931/
Long-chain fatty acids and ethanol affect the properties of membranes in Drosophila melanogaster larvae
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8395814
Sucrose intake and corticosterone interact with cold to modulate ingestive behaviour, energy balance, autonomic outflow and neuroendocrine responses during chronic stress
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11963830/
Human sperm displays rapid responses to diet
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.3000559&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+plosbiology%2FNewArticles+%28PLOS+Biology+-+New+Articles%29
Effect of rice diet on diabetes mellitus associated with vascular disease
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/13591100/
High-calorie diet could slow progression of motor neuron disease (ALS), study finds
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140227191107.htm
Cornell study says soda, junk food not why we're fat “…the carbs were actually sugar, not starch … sugar is protective and some of the benefit these people saw was likely due to the increased conversion of T4 into T3…”
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2015/11/cornell-study-says-soda-junk-food-not-why-were-fat