The other day I was checking out at Trader Joe’s and the cashier said something to me about how eating processed foods isn’t really a big deal . “Our grandparents ate processed foods and they turned out okay!” she said.
Most people assume that because their grandparents ate a crappy diet and turned out “okay” that the same holds true for our generation and our future children. What I wish everyone knew is that actually, the 2nd and 3rd generation will be the most screwed up from the first generation’s diet choices. AKA me, my future children and my future grandchildren are going to face the most consequences from my parents’ and grandparents’ diet. I know this thanks to Pottenger’s cat study.
In the 1930’s, there was a medical doctor named Dr. Francis Pottenger who conducted a really important study on cats. His father was also a doctor who worked at a sanitarium, where people who had tuberculosis or respiratory illnesses would go to recover their health.
When Dr. Pottenger gave meat products to patients, he noticed they recovered much faster. Meat contains adrenal extract, which greatly helps the immune system and reduces stress and fatigue.
Dr. Pottenger was intrigued by this finding and wanted to dig deeper. He took on the task of quantifying the optimal amount of adrenal substances for humans. He used cats to conduct his research (this was a long time ago when that was acceptable.) The cats were healthy and fed cooked meat scraps, yet the study suffered from an inexplicably high mortality rate…
There were so many cats provided for the study and not enough cooked meat from the sanitarium to feed them all, so, raw meat replaced the cooked meat. The raw meat fed animals began to thrive much more than the ones that were fed cooked meat. This surprised Dr. Pottenger, who felt called to continue to do a series of studies for many years to come based on these unexpected findings.
There were three test groups in his studies. The “basic diet” that was fed to the cats consisted of raw meat, bones, viscera, cod liver oil, and raw milk. The basic diet made up ⅓ of each of the test cats’ diets. The other ⅔ of their diet depended on which test group they were in. Some were fed raw meat, others cooked meat, some were fed pasteurized milk, others evaporated milk and even sweetened condensed milk. There were two different studies: one focused on milk and the other on meat. Both came to the same conclusion.
The cats who were fed raw meat and unpasteurized milk thrived in comparison to the cats who were fed cooked meat, pasteurized milk and especially sweetened condensed milk. The extreme degeneration of the cats was not found in the 1st generation, but rather the 2nd and 3rd generations. The degeneration of the cats is a mirror image of our current health situation. The cats faced:
-structural deformity (in humans this would be crooked teeth, flat feet, heart defects, deformities of the spine/limbs, to name a few.)
-social stress (today we see this as anxiety, depression, mood disorders)
-allergies (Zyrtec anyone?!)
-reproductive problems (the # of women who can’t have kids continues to increase)
What we can takeaway from this 30 year study:
- Our food and lifestyle choices actually affect our children and grandchildren more than they do us. We need to change the way we eat now otherwise it’s just going to get worse for future generations.
- Cooking foods in high heat can absolutely have an affect on the nutrient content of the food. It’s important to avoid over-cooking your food. For example, opting for rare steak instead of well done, as the high heat cooking process will lessen the nutrients available for your body to absorb. Make sure you are buying grass fed meat or pasture raised eggs/chicken if you are going to eat them raw or rare.
- Eat raw! Raw veggies, raw dairy such as cultured yogurt from grass-fed cows, raw (and soaked) nuts and seeds, raw oils made from nuts and seeds like extra virgin olive oil and sesame oil.
- The pasteurization process takes away the bad bacteria from dairy products, but unfortunately it also takes away the good bacteria that keeps our bodies healthy.
- The cats that were fed cooked meat in addition to pasteurized, sweetened condensed milk pretty much got fucked even though 1/3 of their diet was still the healthy “basic diet.” Cooked meats, pasteurized milk products and sugar are all things that Americans eat today (in addition to more processed food and alcohol.) The cats that were fed the shit diet still ate better than today’s average American, but their health was completely compromised and the 2nd and 3rd generation suffered worse consequences.
Let’s change the course so that our future children and grandchildren don’t have to suffer so much! Check out my guide on what to eat for more information.
xx
Carla