Dr. Martin is a history guy. He loves history and especially the history of food. It makes up a big part of his education and it’s why he wants to teach nutrition to the world.
It was 1955 when President Eisenhower had a heart attack while playing golf. This is when a pathologist at the University of Minnesota, Ancel Keys, first became known. He claimed that cholesterol and saturated fat had caused Eisenhower’s heart attack. Keys went on to become the leading doctor when it came to cholesterol and food.
President Eisenhower’s heart attack changed the world because it set us on a track of hammering down cholesterol and changing the foods we eat. It turns out that the heart attack wasn't caused by diet, but rather cigarette smoking.
TRANSCRIPT OF TODAY'S EPISODE
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Dr. Martin: Oh, good morning, everyone. And once again, welcome to another live this morning. Hope you're having a great start to your day. As I've been telling you, I'm a history buff. Okay. I love history. And the history of food was a big part of my education and self education too, because I really dig into what the changes are, why the world is so different today. I want to bring you a personality today and I think you'll see the connection. Like for example, if I sent Anthony Fauci to you, let's say three years ago, I bet you most of us didn't even know who that was. Right? Didn't even know who that was. But today, unless you're living on another planet, you know exactly who it is. And he's been in the media so much the last couple of years. And so you would say, "Oh, yeah. I know who that is." Okay.
Now I'm going to tell you about a guy that came on the scene in 1955, was so stinking influential. He brought to the world, but first North America, a huge change in our diet. Okay? So let me give you a little bit of history about this fellow. His name is Ancel Keys. He was a pathologist at the University of Minnesota. Nobody knew him, other than his family and people that worked with him. He wasn't on the national scene at all until in 1955, President Eisenhower, when he was playing golf, had a heart attack.
And somehow, someway Ancel Keys was interviewed in the media, much different back then than it was today. But nonetheless, he was interviewed in the media. This is exactly how it happened. And he said to the media, "I know exactly why President Eisenhower had a heart attack." "Okay. Why?" Well, he said, "It's cholesterol. Its saturated fat caused the heart attack of President Eisenhower." Well, it started a real trend. This guy, out of obscurity, became a national figure. Over the years, he was the leading in medicine. He was the leading doctor when it came to cholesterol and food. He started, 1955. Not everybody... In 1955, by the way, if you look at an old movie, guys, people were very, very slim.
As a matter of fact, this guy became so influential that he joined the American Heart Association and was put on their board. And boy, oh boy, did that made a huge, huge shift in the thinking from cardiologists and family doctors and whatever. His name is Ancel Keys. Now, I don't know if you've ever heard me say this before, but I have. He is the world's Ancel Keys. Okay. He's the world's number one serial killer of all time. Okay. Not cereal with a C, although he was a big proponent, no more bacon and eggs, because I give you cholesterol. Eat cereal instead in the morning. He hooked up with Kelloggs and other food companies, and he was a national star. He was on the front page of Time Magazine. You could almost say, "The rest is history."
Now let me go back to President Eisenhower, just for sec. In the 1950s, it was almost like everybody smoked. Do you know that President Eisenhower was smoking four packs of cigarettes a day. It was just like my father. My father smoked four packs of Buckingham tipless cigarettes a day. I can see my dad smoking. My mother smoked Peter Jackson. I liked those better, because they had a filter on them. And I remember when my dad came home, I'm not kidding you. I'm going to say I was 10 years old, 1962. I might have been 11. And he announced to the family, our huge family, he wasn't smoking anymore. And I looked at him like, "What?" No, he just, he took his last pack of cigarettes of Buckinghams, and in front of all of us, opened up the waste basket and, "What?" In there. Now why am I telling you this story?
Because the reason that Eisenhower had a heart attack wasn't his diet, but rather cigarette smoking. And we all know, years later, my dad was ahead of the curve because he had read something about smoking and cancer, not smoking and cardiovascular. My dad never had another cigarette in his life. Now my mother, unfortunately, didn't get the memo and kept smoking. But in the 1950s, even in the 1960s, we didn't even think about it. There was so much smoke in the houses. I don't know about you guys, but if you're my age, I grew up around that. And it wasn't until the late 80s or whatever 90s, that they said, "You know even secondhand smoke is not good." And they did something about that. Then they stopped it. You can't smoke anywhere today just about, right? It's interesting how the world changed and got the memo about smoking. And that was a good thing, right?
But what happened is that on a false premise, Ancel Keys became the leading authority on heart disease and nutrition. He linked them together and he started the cholesterol... I'm going to say it. Okay. Maybe you don't agree with this. And the reason that I provide education is I want you to think, okay? I want you to think. You're going to hear something that won't surprise you, because as you know me. But I'm telling you, in my opinion, cholesterol was a hoax. Now I'm not saying that Ancel Keys wasn't sincere. You can be very sincere and be wrong, sincerely wrong.
The problem with his hypothesis, the diet-heart hypothesis brought to you by Kelloggs. When you looked at bacon and eggs, all you could see is dripping fat, and therefore, that's what clogs up your arteries. Well, guys, I saw science. And it's funny because what is couched behind today is the word science like science means, "Well, follow the science." Now it's more political science, isn't it? It's not real of science, because science is, you better question it, right? Science is always open to questioning. What I know about nutrition today in 2022, compared to what I knew when I was in school and even postgraduate PhD in nutrition, it's like night and day.
I never stop reading and learning and observing, but I'm going to tell you something, guys, when you look for love in all the wrong places, this hypothesis, guys, has led us down a trail of disaster. Because what happened? It started on that day that President Eisenhower had a heart attack, and it took a while to snowball. But what happened is the whole world pretty well decided that cholesterol was the boogieman. Cholesterol was the boogieman, and anybody that went against that narrative, and there were... I remember reading books, even in the 1970s when I was in school, were dismissed, because they went against the narrative. People questioning Ancel Keys. "You can't question him. He's the leading authority on cholesterol and heart disease." The American Heart Association started taking money.
Well, let me tell you about something else that happened. In 1965, Harvard was paid over a million dollars. Now think about a million in the 60s, to do research, to tell people that sugar was good for you and fat was bad for you. It's a historical fact, Harvard given over a million bucks by the sugar industry to tell us that sugar was good and fat was bad. That's a fact. What have we got? What do we have? And then the American Heart Association figured, "Let's get in on the cash." Food companies, cereal companies and whatever, anything that was fat-free would get a heart on the box or their container stamped by the American Heart Association saying, "This is heart healthy."
You know what? Even today, here we are in 2022, "This is heart healthy." Why? Because it's fat, right? The whole premise is based on faulty signs. That's not true. If it was true, why would heart disease be still the number one killer. People stopped smoking. So it can't be that. What is it? It's sugar. It's sugar. It's carbs. Now you guys know this. You guys know this. And by the way, can I tell you something? Ancel Keys got so famous so fast in the media, even of the day that President Eisenhower changed his diet, "No more bacon and eggs in the morning, cereal." You know who else did that? President Clinton. Now you guys, I don't know if you remember, he had a heart attack. Ancel Keys didn't get a hold of him, but some of his cohorts. Bill Clinton went on a vegetarian, I think, even a vegan diet. The President of the United States, I think he was just out of office. They take it hook, line and sinker.
And by the 1980s, the pharmaceutical companies got big time involved, because they found a medication. They created a medication called statin drugs, which have been the number one seller of all time, Crestor, Lipitor, Zocor. And they got in on it, "Hammering down cholesterol. We're going to hammer it down." Okay. What's that given us? We got more heart disease today than ever. We got more people with heart disease, high blood pressure and strokes than ever. I think I told you the story that there actually was a bill coming up to the British parliament to add statin drugs to the drinking water in the UK, honestly guys. That's how crazy people became. "Let's just add some statin drugs to the drinking water to lower cholesterol."
Do you see why I get headaches? We talked about stress the last few days. You know what, guys? I tell you something. I don't know if you're like me at all, but boy, I don't like being lied to. I can't stand them. Someone tells me something and, "Oh, you said it, must be true." Nah, let me just think about that for a minute and see. Let me examine this to see if it was true. Now guys, you know me, I've been consistent. I was consistent even in the 1970s, folks. Because even today, I want you thinking on the private Facebook group, somebody comes on there. And "Dr. Martin, how can anyone believe in the Reset?" I'm misquoting a little bit. "Because it lacks fiber. There's no fiber in it. If you don't have fiber, how can you do this diet?" Sir, you've been duped.
I'm not telling you never to have fiber. Okay, please. I'm not saying never have any fiber. I'm not saying that. But what does it do? What does fiber do that water doesn't do? Here I am. I'm folding my arms and I'm waiting. What does fiber do that water doesn't do? It feeds your bacteria. Yeah, but so does steak. So do eggs. So does cheese, feed your bacteria too. Feeds it better. People go on a tangent. But guys, you have to understand if you look at the history of what the heck happened, the whole stinking world have been on a failed experiment for how many years now? And you know what? It's interesting because they keep doubling down on it.
You don't want to eat meat. How about our meatless meat, dog food? No, don't give that to your dog. When I go into the grocery store and I see this meatless meat, I go, "I wouldn't give that to my worst enemy." That's not food, but it's based on false premise, guys. It's based on the false premise. They found a drug that lowers LDL and every day... Guys, I don't blame you. Okay, please. I'm not blaming you. Every day, I get asked to look at blood work. Okay. "And my doctor's concerned about my LDL." I'm not. I'm not concerned about it. You can send it to me. I'm not looking at it. I'm sorry, because what causes heart attacks is triglycerides, and triglycerides come from sugar and crappy carbohydrates, not from fat. Fat doesn't make you fat, guys.
Now there's bad fats. You know those vegetable oils? They're not vegetables. And you literally would run machinery with this stuff. Now I was reading how much we're consuming of that. Every time you go and you get french fries or chicken nuggets, whatever, they cook those things in bad oil, canola and soy oil. Guys, they're not oils. Well, they're oils, but for your car, not for you. They're so highly refined. They're not in nature. It all started with Proctor and Gamble. Crisco, instead of butter, imagine butter got vilified. Imagine, see you guys know this, but take it back even farther. Imagine Ancel Keys, one guy started the whole thing. Margarine is better than butter. Why? "Well, it doesn't have any saturated fat in it, Dr. Martin." True or false, true.
Guys, margarine isn't as popular as it used to be. You go back to the 1970s and 80s. People were throwing their butter out like it was a time bomb. "Out of my house. I'm going to take margarine." But sell, because it had a heart on the container. I used to get a migraine. Why would you use margarine instead of butter? "Butter's got saturated fat. It's good for you. It actually unclogs your arteries." You know what? Because it's got vitamin K2 in it. Butter's got vitamin K2. You know what K2 does? It takes hardening of the arteries and softens them up. Makes them more supple. Oh, oh, oh.
I'm a history buff. Remember reading about Ancel Keys in the 1970s, and I didn't like the guy. I said, "Liar, liar, pants on fire." Even today, here we are in 2022. And there's not a day goes by that you guys will probably have to defend yourself when you're eating meat, imagine and eggs, imagine and butter, imagine and cheese, imagine. But that's the way it is. People go, "Now you can't have too much of that. That's going to give you a cholesterol." And you look at my generation, [inaudible 00:24:33] and my parents generation, oh, my word. They took it hook, line and sinker. They did. They took it hook, line and sinker.
And today that doesn't make me popular, guys. When I go against the world's narrative, I really don't care. I really don't care. My job I believe is to tell you the truth. Now you might disagree with me. But like I said, "I've been consistent, consistent, consistent. Hey, they don't have to believe me." They certainly don't. But the diet-heart hypothesis was the start of a scourge in our society today. Not only did we not win the battle on heart disease, but I'm telling you this diet-heart hypothesis, it changed the way people were slim today. What percentage of the population in the United States of America... It's no different than Canada, by the way. What percent of the population is considered obese today, 2022? 80%.
And if our kids, our grandchildren, don't get the memo that saturated fact is actually good for you... Animal saturated fat, coming from the animal kingdom, is the best fat in the world. It's saturated. It's satisfied. Go back and listen to my podcast. Saturated fat is satisfied fat. It's the best for you for your brain. Don't avoid cholesterol. You need cholesterol. "Oh, I got my cholesterol down." Okay. Now you're going to die young. You don't want low cholesterol. You want low triglycerides and high HDL. Your FedEx trucks on the highways and byways of your blood vessels, bringing you hormones, they're transporters. And at the back of their transport, they have a little hitch. Remember when I said, I like illustrations. They have a little hitch at the back.
Now when they see a bad triglyceride, they hitch their wagon to it. Because as they're going through their blood vessels, they're going to go back to the liver and deliver that bad triglycerides back to the liver where it started. And then your body will metabolize those triglycerides and the higher your fat is, the better it is for your wagons, your trucks, on the highways with a hitch. So folks don't hit your wagon to low cholesterol. Don't go for the hoax. It was a hoax. One man influenced the world. He was bombastic and he was a media-savvy guy for his day. And he brow beat anybody that went against his narrative. That's exactly... You can read the story of this guy, and the media loved him. Like I said, he was on the front page of Time Magazine. Ooh.
Okay. Anyway, I had to tell you that story because somebody made... Well, you know what? I was thinking about this. Guys, challenge me. Challenge me. All I'm asking of you... Okay? All I'm asking of you, keep an open mind, because if you already got your mind set on, "Dr. Martin's crazy," well, what can I do for you? I've told you about patients that used to come into the office and again, Jeannette and Nick will talk to you about this. And they said, "Well, you didn't spend a lot of time. You went over all the results and this and that, but you didn't spend a lot of time teaching on the Reset and how to really fix that." I said, "He wasn't interested." He thought I was going to give him a pill. I say he. Didn't always say he, but it was mostly he's.
Oh no, but I said, "Well, look. You can bring a horse to water, but you can't make them drink it." And people would come in, generally 99% of all the patients waited two or three months to come and see me or whatever. They were all in. They tried everything else and they come to me and I go, "Okay, here's your results. Here's what you got to do. You got to implement changes in your life." I remember like people coming up to me, I didn't remember them. They remembered me. "Dr. Martin, you saved my life." "I did?" "Yeah. Well, you got me to change my diet years ago and I did it, and I've been really good. Thank you very much." And I go, "Yeah, what's your name again?" Like, "Well, you did it." I said, "No, you did it. I can give you information. But you're the one that has to implement it."
You did it. And I'd always do this. Give me a high five. I was a high five guy before COVID, during COVID, and after COVID. I'm a high five guy. I'm a hugger too. "You did it. Good for you."
Okay. Tomorrow is what? Question and Answer Friday. Somebody asked, "How do I send my questions in?" Don't ask me. I don't know. I don't know how your questions get to me. Our staff knows. Okay. I don't know. And it's not that I don't care, because I need questions on Friday, but don't ask me, okay? Because now you're getting me into an area I'm not good at. I can barely turn this phone on to do the podcast. Believe you me when I tell you that. I just don't like touching anything. I always ruin it. Okay. Guys, we love you. And we'll talk to you soon.
Announcer: You've reached the end of another Doctor Is In Podcast, with your hosts, Doctor Martin Junior and Senior. Be sure to catch our next episode and thanks for listening!