Dr. Eric Rimm, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, explained that there is no doubt that alcohol in general, not just red wine, is part of a healthy lifestyle.  The benefit of drinking alcohol comes not from the resveratrol found only in red wine, but from the ethanol found in all types of alcohol, including beer, spirits, white wine and red wine.

Dr. Rimm stated that 35 years of data show that if alcohol is consumed in moderation, risks of heart disease are substantially lower.  The greatest benefits from alcohol occur if a person drinks only one drink a day.  Some of the other benefits include increasing good cholesterol, slowing the speed at which blood clots, lowering the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, reducing the risk of hypertension and reducing the risk of diabetes.  There is also some evidence that one serving of alcohol a day may lower the risk of cancer.

So, there you go.  Drink away, as long as it’s just one a day.

Photo courtesy of the Culinary Institute of America.

When we were shown a chart comparing the two diets, the results were striking.  Low-carb dieters had more weight loss within about the first six months, with low-fat dieters also generally losing weight.  However, at the 18-month mark, both diets ended up with dieters gaining most of the weight back.  The scientists concluded that people simply can’t eat low-fat or low-carb for a sustained period of time and any study of a diet that lasted less than a year is simply not useful.

In a more practical sense, low-fat diets are unsustainable because when someone eats only low-fat foods, they end up eating more refined starch and sugar.  When a dieter eats only low-carb foods, they end up eating more fatty foods.  So what’s the answer?

The answer is simple: always make choices based on quality and don’t focus on quantity.  The doctors emphasized that we shouldn’t be “demonizing” all fats, but should instead choose healthy fats over unhealthy fats.  I’ll refer you to Rachel Rappaport’s detailed piece on which fats are good and which fats are bad, but the general rule is that vegetable oils are better than animal fats. 

As for carbs, whole grains are better than processed foods because whole grain food have a lower glycemic index.  Foods with a lower glycemic index don’t cause a huge spike in blood sugar like a high glycemic index food would.  That means we should be eating brown rice instead of white rice, whole wheat pasta instead of white flour pasta and no more Twinkies at all (not even the low-fat ones). 

I have to say that it sounded like the South Beach Diet to me, but the doctors don’t seem to like those first two weeks.  The only compliment bestowed on South Beach was given by Dr. Janet King, who said that it was the first diet to address the type of carbs and fats consumed and was therefore a “step forward.”  Check out this post from Kalyn Denny about the details of South Beach.

It may sound counterintuitive, but the general rule is that reducing fat does not reduce calories.  Studies show that a good carb, high protein (in the form of poultry and seafood) and good fat diet is the best combination for weight loss.  This diet, often called the Mediterranean diet, is balanced, not extreme in fat or carbs and has variety, so people enjoy it.

But let’s start at the beginning. The goal of Worlds of Healthy Flavors was to combine the best of world cooking and the latest in nutrition research.  To accomplish this goal, the CIA and Harvard brought together scientists, media and representatives from chain restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and volume food service.  I’ll be sharing lots of the information I learned at this event here at Fit Fare and at Wine Sediments and Growers and Grocers. 

Now back to the possible controversy.  When Dr. Eric Rimm, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health, began his presentation by stating that fish are getting a bad rap in part because of media misrepresentation, I was intrigued.  How many times have you heard that fish are so full of dangerous amounts of mercury that they should be avoided? 

Dr. Rimm thinks the misrepresentation started with an EPA advisory regarding mercury in fish.  He is convinced that when people saw the advisory, all they thought was: “Blah, blah, blah, fish is bad.”  Since fish consumption went down after the issuance of the advisory, he’s probably right.  Dr. Rimm hopes that getting the word out can help reverse this trend because of the innumerable benefits of fish consumption, including reduced symptoms of asthma, arthritis, depression, diabetes, prostate cancer and gestational diabetes.  Fish consumption also benefits cognitive function and fetal growth.  Notably, farmed salmon has more of the highly beneficial omega-3 acids than wild salmon.

The case for fish began with the premise that, to some extent, everything we eat has contaminants in it and our technology has advanced so far that we can now count contaminants down to the smallest of amounts (and freak out about those small amounts, no matter how insignificant).  While the amount of mercury in farmed fish is a bit higher than that in wild, both amounts are small.  Plus when they measure the amount of mercury, they grind up the whole fish, including parts higher in mercury that we don’t usually eat, like the skin.  The amount of mercury in farmed fish is also decreasing, since the farmers are learning more and more how to limit the mercury.

With these facts in mind, Dr. Rimm argued that the health benefits of eating fish far outweigh any potential risks at the current level of contamination.  In fact, Dr. Rimm says that the benefits of consuming 1-3 servings of fish a week outweigh the risk from consuming that amount by 100 to 300 fold.  He seems to think that there’s no question that all of us should be eating more fish.

As with any nutrition issue, there are exceptions.  Tilefish and swordfish have amounts of mercury that are not recommended for pregnant women or women who plan on becoming pregnant.  However, Dr. Rimm states that the risk of eating tilefish and swordfish is still outweighed by the benefits for the rest of us.

So, will you be adding more fish back to your diet?

Photo from www.roswitha-schacht.de and www.morguefile.com.