Our most powerful post ever...Please Share with your tribe. Nic and I love sharing inspiring stories with you all here and feel we have created a safe place for people to come and comment and share their own stories to inspire others. Today we are thrilled to have a very brave and inspiring man share his lifes work and he is no slouch either... Grant Schofield PHD is the professor of Public Health at Auckland University of Technology! I had the good fortune to listen to Grant at Low Carb Downunder lowcarbdownunder and on tonights ABC tv series Catalyst some of the speakers of that event feature to give you the low down on Fat and Carbs. Now is it over to you Grant, you bloody legend!.... HI everyone, Pete has asked me to share my story, and I am thrilled of course, as Pete is the leader in Australia in the whole food evolution – the change in how we think about food, and just how important the simple whole food cooking message is. This is the cornerstone to the well being of our children, us, and future generations. Its been overlooked for decades, we need to change. Thanks Pete. I have become known as the “Fat” Professor. I’m not fat, although I can easily put on weight especially whenever I stop serious exercise. I’m the fat professor because I have been advocating strongly for a major rethink about the way we think about food, and especially fat, in our society. The modern dietary guidelines, the modern food supply, the way in which a great deal of nutrition science has been done needs a serious rethink. We need to think about nourishing, sustainable, and satisfying food. We need a relationship with food that helps us be the best version of ourselves. Part of that will be letting go of the low fat mantra and embracing fat in the context of whole plants and animals from food. That’s right, eating MORE fat! My entire research and practice career has been around understanding what can help us be the best we can be. That’s what has inspired the broad description of my research, practice and blog “The Science of Human Potential”. I haven’t always been that interested in food though. In fact, many who knew me in earlier days will tell you that I often described nutrition as being way less important than exercise for health. That was my research career. Millions of dollars in competitive research grants, loads of peer-reviewed publications, and one of the youngest professors in New Zealand academia. My career was flying along; all I had to do was play the game and stick to exercise. BUT let’s examine four good reasons that inspired my change of heart. Reason 1: Professional Triathlete I spent my younger years competing as a serious (professional) triathlete. Despite training up to 30 hours a week, maintaining a lean body weight was always a struggle for me. I followed the “healthy” low fat eating advice with all the carbs I needed to sustain my enormous energy output diligently. I worked and trained wisely. I was very very dedicated. Yet after all of that I was racing at a weight of 85-87 kg that is just too heavy to compete at the highest level. Whenever I stopped training at this level my weight tracked up fast. Very fast. In fact, after the birth of our second child Jackson in 2003 I ended up at 103 kg. I wasn’t training nearly as much. Exercising just once a day and eating healthily just wasn’t enough to stop the insidious weight gain. It was obvious to me that exercise was way more important than nutrition because exercise, excessive exercise, was the only thing that worked for me. Reason 2: Futile Research I had run dozens of studies including large randomised controlled trials in high-risk populations, to reduce weight, improve cardio-metabolic health and nothing really worked. We spend millions telling people to eat less, reduce fat, and move more. Something was wrong with what we were saying. Most people assume it’s how we tell them, not the science itself that’s wrong, oversimplified, or otherwise. Reason 3: Working in the Remote Pacific Islands I ended up doing work in diabetes and non-communicable disease prevention contracting to the World Health Organization (WHO) across the South Pacific Islands. It became obvious to me that the places where they ate the most fat were often the healthiest. The places which relied on processed carbs were in the worst shape. I’d be walking around with the WHO recommendations telling people to “eat less and move more”. It’s just a ridiculous recommendation. A way of life that suddenly puts all the responsibility and blame on the individual’s will power (or lack of) just misses the underlying biology of the problem. The problem in the Pacific is refined and processed carbohydrates, which Pacific people are just not designed to eat in any quantity. Once you start reading nutritional anthropology of traditional societies including Weston A. Price’s accounts of dental health, and Steffanson’s “Living with the Eskimos” you soon realise what humans have done (and eaten for health) the entire time humans have been on the planet has absolutely nothing to do with the so called healthy food pyramid. We have a lot to learn from our ancestors. Our wish to discard traditional knowledge and practices in the name of science is fundamentally flawed. Sure science can answer questions. But science is always just a set of hypotheses. Hypotheses that can be proven wrong at any point. It’s been said that half of what we know in science is wrong, we just need to figure out which half. I think that’s especially true of nutrition science. Let’s just remember this is science in its infancy. I’m now convinced more than ever that mainstream nutritional science and practice is based more on dogma, industry vested interest, academics “playing the game” to get their research grants and publications, and people playing it safe for a safe career. I know how to play those games. I’ve played those games. Well. I’m taking my ball and I’m going home. I’m not playing with you anymore. We are changing the rules. In a brave new world where ivory tower academics are dinosaurs, and everyone has the information through the Internet. The rise of the intelligent blogger with no vested interest has led us to a new world. The rules and the field have changed forever. You have to be willing to change your mind. You have to be willing to go for the truth regardless of what the majority thinks. That’s been the biggest challenge and still is. I hear it everywhere “Virtually every eminent scientist in the world thinks fat, especially saturated fat is bad for you Professor Schofield”. Who are you to say otherwise?” My response “Science isn’t a democracy”. And to quote a Nobel laureate Richard Feyman again “Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts” “The good thing about science is that it’s real whether you believe in it or not” and “Science alone of all the subjects contains within itself the lesson of the danger of belief in the infallibility of the greatest teachers of the preceding generation.” I want to help you. I want to change the world. My research is now firmly focused on helping translate the science into a useable form for you. Grant Schofield PhD Professor of Public Health Director, Human Potential Centre AUT University Auckland New Zealand profgrant @grantsnz facebook/Prof.Grant If you are a NZ follower then please register at thepaleoway to be first to know where we are going to be bridging the tour as we are going to do two venues/cities! The information on this page is general information and should not be used to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease. Do not use the information found on this page as a substitute for professional health care advice. Any information you find on this page or on external sites which are linked to on this page should be verified with your professional health care provider. Pete Evans does not make any representation or warranty (express or implied) as to the accuracy or completeness of the information set out on this page, and shall not have any liability for any misrepresentation (express or implied) contained in, or for any omissions from, the information on this page. This disclaimer of liability applies to any damages or injury whether based upon consumer law, negligence or any other cause of action.
Posted on: Wed, 12 Nov 2014 20:49:40 +0000
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