Diet is the Cause of Over Half of All Disease
I started to take Cayenne pepper as a supplement recently. I was in the vitamin aisle at Whole Foods and thought I’d give it a try and see what happens. I had never heard of people taking pepper as a supplement before.
What I soon discovered is that Cayenne pepper, when taken with a meal, makes me feel more focused and energetic, yet calm. It reminds me a little bit of one of the few positive things about tobacco, but without any of the harm.
I looked up some stuff about Cayenne pepper and what it does for your health and landed on a few good sites with great info, but came across this gem. It is the summary of the report: Origins and evolution of the Western diet: health implications for the 21st Century from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition from February of 2005.
In the United States and most Western countries, diet-related chronic diseases represent the single largest cause of morbidity and mortality. These diseases are epidemic in contemporary Westernized populations and typically afflict 50–65% of the adult population, yet they are rare or nonexistent in hunter-gatherers and other less Westernized people.
Although both scientists and lay people alike may frequently identify a single dietary element as the cause of chronic disease (eg, saturated fat causes heart disease and salt causes high blood pressure), evidence gleaned over the past 3 decades now indicates that virtually all so-called diseases of civilization have multifactorial dietary elements that underlie their etiology, along with other environmental agents and genetic susceptibility.
Coronary heart disease, for instance, does not arise simply from excessive saturated fat in the diet but rather from a complex interaction of multiple nutritional factors directly linked to the excessive consumption of novel Neolithic and Industrial era foods (dairy products, cereals, refined cereals, refined sugars, refined vegetable oils, fatty meats, salt, and combinations of these foods).
These foods, in turn, adversely influence proximate nutritional factors, which universally underlie or exacerbate virtually all chronic diseases of civilization: 1) glycemic load, 2) fatty acid composition, 3) macronutrient composition, 4) micronutrient density, 5) acid-base balance, 6) sodium-potassium ratio, and 7) fiber content.
However, the ultimate factor underlying diseases of civilization is the collision of our ancient genome with the new conditions of life in affluent nations, including the nutritional qualities of recently introduced foods.
Reading this makes me want to eat a salad.
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