Is North American Diet a Recipe for Blindness?
06 Aug 2019
How often have we been warned, we are what we eat? A book by Dr. Chris Knobbe, Ancestral Dietary Strategy to Prevent and Treat Macular Degeneration, is an eye-opener. Knobbe claims doctors have been taught for years that macular degeneration “MD” which destroys the macular, a tiny spot on the retina responsible for central vision) is due to aging and genetics but it’s an absolute untruth. Rather, he claims the leading cause of blindness in North America is actually due to the garbage we’re eating.
Knobbe, an ophthalmologist, reports that before 1925 there were about 50 cases of MD in the world’s medical literature. But by 1975, 8.8% of Americans over the age of 50 had this disease.
Dr. William Osler, professor of medicine at McGill University, once commented that only a doctor who has a particular disease really understands it. In this case Knobbe, who suffered from arthritis for 15 years before changing his diet to Paleo and saw an 80% reduction in his pain, set out to understand the correlation between diet and disease.
First, he discovered the research of Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist. Price reported that people who consumed refined white flour, sugar, canned goods, sweets, and vegetable oils developed diseases of civilization such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, cancer and all the autoimmune disorders.
Price found that native, traditional foods contain 10 times as many fat soluble vitamins A, D, and K2, four times as many water soluble vitamins, such as all the B vitamins and C, and one and a half to 60 times more minerals than today’s diet.
Knobbe asked himself, “could macular degeneration also be the result of poor nutrition?” This changed the course of his life. He discovered that MD was strongly associated with heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. And that MD, and these diseases, once rare, are now of epidemic proportions.
Knobbe claims the change is due to the introduction of processed oils and refined flour. Today, 20% of the North American diet is wheat, and 85% of it is refined and nutrient deficient. Add to this sugar, trans fats and the most dangerous of all, polyunsaturated vegetable oils. All this garbage supplies 63% of our diet!
Knobbe now urges doctors to stop attributing MD to aging and genetics. Rather, look at the facts. In 1961, North Americans were consuming 9 grams daily of polyunsaturated vegetable oils. By 2000, it increased to 40 grams daily.
This is not just a North American problem. Knobbe’s research shows that the same situation exists in New Zealand and Japan. It is obvious that something has gone terribly wrong. So what can consumers do?
Knobbe says a good start is to start saying no to processed foods, vegetable oils and sugar. This means switching to eating unprocessed whole foods, including wild-caught seafood, organic grass-fed beef, pastured pork and fowl. And fast food restaurants are off limits. He adds that bone broth is helpful and since MD patients are deficient in vitamin A, D, and K2, they need a tablespoon of extra virgin cod liver oil twice a week.
Will North Americans heed this advice about the garbage we’re eating? I hope some readers listen, as preventable blindness is a tragedy. So add more fish, meat, eggs, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds to the diet. This can help to prevent macular degeneration, and a host of other chronic disabling conditions.
