eating much higher levels of this vitamin enjoyed optimal health and were free of the degenerative diseases that beset so many Americans. That’s why, to bring you close to that optimal nutrition, in addition to vitamin A found in the other animal foods in our diet, you’ll consume about 10,000 to 12,000 IU of vitamin A from cod-liver oil (which also provides 1000 to 1200 IU of vitamin D).
Vitamin D
Also found uniquely in animal fats, vitamin D is crucial to maintaining proper levels of calcium and phosphorous, and hence the health and strength of your bones. Although in this country the RDA of an adult woman under 50 is defined as 200 IU, your daily dose of cod-liver oil will give you 1000 IU, the amount that current vitamin D researchers feel should be the RDA. If that sounds high to you, consider this: in a 1999 review of the data published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Canadian researchers concluded that the dose should actually be 4000 IU per day . Even government researchers now recognize the fact that Americans suffer from widespread vitamin D deficiency—without admitting the cause, namely, the low-fat diet that the USDA and FDA recommend.
----
Vitamin D and Sunlight
We don’t need to worry about getting vitamin D from food, because we get all we need from sunlight. That’s been the mantra of orthodox nutritionists for the last two decades: just spend ten minutes in the sun every day, face and lower arms uncovered, and your body will make all the vitamin D it needs.
But recent research has demolished this unfortunate myth. Scientists have discovered that the body only makes vitamin D in the presence of UV-B light—and in temperate regions UV-B is only present when the sun is directly overhead, which occurs at midday during the summer months. If you sunbathe in bathing trunks or a bikini for half an hour every day when there is UV-B light, you will indeed make a lot of vitamin D—up to 10,000 IU, according to one estimate. But this is hardly practical for most of us, even during the summer, and of course impossible when the weather is cold. In fact, even in the tropics, where daily exposure to UV-B light is commonplace, people get lots of vitamin D from their food, including lard and other animal fats, organ meats, seafood, and even insects.
----
----
Are You Nutrient Starved?
To find out whether you’ve been getting all the nutrients you need, ask yourself:
Are you hungry between meals?
Do you feel unsatisfied, even after eating?
Do you crave sweets?
Do you snack constantly?
Is your skin dry, blemished, rough, or scaly?
Are your hair and nails in poor condition?
Is your energy low?
Do you feel achiness or joint pain?
If the answer to any of these question is yes, incorporating the nutrient-dense “superfoods” that we’ll describe in Chapter 5 into your diet is a safe and efficient way to redress these problems.
----
----
Douglas’s Story: Good-bye to Junk Food
Douglas had been an active, athletic child, but in high school he began to eat a lot of junk food—pizza, commercial ice cream, french fries—and drink a lot of beer. He started to gain…and gain. Joining a fraternity in college didn’t help. He ended up with 300 pounds on his six-footone-inch frame, and a huge beer belly. The extra weight made his feet hurt, so he stopped playing sports. He felt discouraged and depressed.
But Douglas reached a turning point when he moved out of his fraternity house and into an apartment. He embarked on a low-carb diet, eating only whole foods that he had prepared himself and avoiding all junk food, including beer, a distinctly high-carbohydrate food. He took coconut oil, which he learned about from a friend, before each meal, and added cod-liver oil to his regimen. Slowly but surely, the pounds came off, 50 in all, until his beer belly disappeared. Eventually, his muscles reappeared, and he could finally take pride in his strong physique.
Now Douglas could wear clothes many sizes
Vitamin D
Also found uniquely in animal fats, vitamin D is crucial to maintaining proper levels of calcium and phosphorous, and hence the health and strength of your bones. Although in this country the RDA of an adult woman under 50 is defined as 200 IU, your daily dose of cod-liver oil will give you 1000 IU, the amount that current vitamin D researchers feel should be the RDA. If that sounds high to you, consider this: in a 1999 review of the data published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Canadian researchers concluded that the dose should actually be 4000 IU per day . Even government researchers now recognize the fact that Americans suffer from widespread vitamin D deficiency—without admitting the cause, namely, the low-fat diet that the USDA and FDA recommend.
----
Vitamin D and Sunlight
We don’t need to worry about getting vitamin D from food, because we get all we need from sunlight. That’s been the mantra of orthodox nutritionists for the last two decades: just spend ten minutes in the sun every day, face and lower arms uncovered, and your body will make all the vitamin D it needs.
But recent research has demolished this unfortunate myth. Scientists have discovered that the body only makes vitamin D in the presence of UV-B light—and in temperate regions UV-B is only present when the sun is directly overhead, which occurs at midday during the summer months. If you sunbathe in bathing trunks or a bikini for half an hour every day when there is UV-B light, you will indeed make a lot of vitamin D—up to 10,000 IU, according to one estimate. But this is hardly practical for most of us, even during the summer, and of course impossible when the weather is cold. In fact, even in the tropics, where daily exposure to UV-B light is commonplace, people get lots of vitamin D from their food, including lard and other animal fats, organ meats, seafood, and even insects.
----
----
Are You Nutrient Starved?
To find out whether you’ve been getting all the nutrients you need, ask yourself:
Are you hungry between meals?
Do you feel unsatisfied, even after eating?
Do you crave sweets?
Do you snack constantly?
Is your skin dry, blemished, rough, or scaly?
Are your hair and nails in poor condition?
Is your energy low?
Do you feel achiness or joint pain?
If the answer to any of these question is yes, incorporating the nutrient-dense “superfoods” that we’ll describe in Chapter 5 into your diet is a safe and efficient way to redress these problems.
----
----
Douglas’s Story: Good-bye to Junk Food
Douglas had been an active, athletic child, but in high school he began to eat a lot of junk food—pizza, commercial ice cream, french fries—and drink a lot of beer. He started to gain…and gain. Joining a fraternity in college didn’t help. He ended up with 300 pounds on his six-footone-inch frame, and a huge beer belly. The extra weight made his feet hurt, so he stopped playing sports. He felt discouraged and depressed.
But Douglas reached a turning point when he moved out of his fraternity house and into an apartment. He embarked on a low-carb diet, eating only whole foods that he had prepared himself and avoiding all junk food, including beer, a distinctly high-carbohydrate food. He took coconut oil, which he learned about from a friend, before each meal, and added cod-liver oil to his regimen. Slowly but surely, the pounds came off, 50 in all, until his beer belly disappeared. Eventually, his muscles reappeared, and he could finally take pride in his strong physique.
Now Douglas could wear clothes many sizes
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