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The Polish Lard Diet


Pirate1974
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No, this is not a Polish joke.

The official name for it is the Polish Optimal Diet and apparently, several million people, mostly in Poland, are on it, which goes way beyond anything Robert Atkins ever imagined. It's basically cutting way back on the carbs and sugars, and consuming mass quantities of fat. Specifically animal fat, such as butter and lard. 250 grams per day, about 10 times the amount of satured fat the FDA recommends.

This was developed by a Dr. Jan Kwasniewski and people who are on it think its wonderful. They've lost weight, have more energy and there are claims of being cured of diabetes, arthritis, and multiple sclerosis, and its even supposed to result in painless childbirth. Of course, their cholesterol levels must be 1000, but Dr. Kwasniewski seems to think that's irrelevant.

This diet recommends lots of egg yolks, cheese, vegetables cooked in butter and such delicacies as tripe, blood sausage and head cheese. If you've never seen head cheese, it's indescribable and clearly not intended for human consumption.

Not surprisingly, not many other doctors endorse this thing and it hasn't gained much popularity outside of Poland or Polish communities in the U.S. Yet.

I could practically feel my arteries clogging up just reading about this.

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"All things in moderation"?

I couldn't do it if I wanted to. I can't eat even moderate quantities of fat without a quick trip to the bathroom. Other family members have the same problem so I'm guessing it's hereditary.

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There are a lot of myths concerning the consumption of fats - particularty saturated fats. Not all fats are equal. Medium and short chain saturated fats are actually quite healthy and do not clog arteries as presumed by many.

Butter is a great source of lecithin, short and medium chain faty acids, viatmins, selenium and lauric acid. The body can absorb vitamin A from vegetables much better if they have been sauteed in butter. Margerine will do more to clog your arteries than will butter.

Lard is an excellent source of stearic acid and oelic acid which are actually good for the heart.

Egg yolks are very high in lecithin (choline) and naturally digestable fats. They are also an excellent source of leutine, protein and trace minerals.

The fat in clogged arteries is about 25 percent saturated fat. The majority is made up of 75 percent unsaturated fat - about half of which are polyunsaturated fats.

Much of the data still relied upon concerning saturated fats and clogged arteries originated from a very flawed study done in the 50's by a researcher named Ancel Keys. The study did not take into account the consumption of refined sugars or hydrogenated fats which are probaby the real culprits in clogged arteries.

Time will tell if diets such as this Polish Optimal Diet are a joke or not.

It does not surprise me that "doctors" don't endorse this kind of diet either, seeing that most are generally not trained in nutrition and have bought into most of the myths concerning saturated fats and cholesterol.

Edited by Goey
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quote:
Much of the data still relied upon concerning saturated fats and clogged arteries originated from a very flawed study done in the 50's by a researcher named Ancel Keys. The study did not take into account the consumption of refined sugars or hydrogenated fats which are probaby the real culprits in clogged arteries.

There is more truth to this than meets the eyes.

The body builds fats from harbohydrates at least as much as from fats. Actually most fats are digested down pretty far in the gut before they reach the blood.

Overall metabolism is responsible for cholesterol production more than diet. I believe metabolism is basically determined by heredity and influenced by activity level more than it is by diet. (I think the sex hormones or lack of them are also relevant)

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There was a programme on Brit TV only a couple of days ago about this diet being tried on epileptic children, monitored by the Children's Hospital in Great Ormond St London.

The results were spectacular - one girl who had been having up to 200 fits a day went to zero and other had them reduced by up to 90% and this was with no medication being used!

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  • 1 year later...
..........From A Blond..........

Last year I replaced all the windows in my house with those

expensive double-pane energy efficient kind.

But this week, I got a call from the contractor complaining that his

work had been completed a whole year and I had yet to pay for them.

Boy, oh boy, did we go around!

Just because I'm blonde doesn't mean that I am

automatically stupid.

So, I proceeded to tell him just what his

fast-talking sales guy had told me last year... that in one year the

windows would pay for themselves.

There was silence on the other end of the line, so I just hung up, and he hasn't called back.

Guess he felt really stupid, huh?

sudo
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