Q: Don’t we need to have antioxidants to improve the immune system? I feel like all I am hearing in the candida diet section is saturated fat, saturated fat, saturated fat. What about antioxidants? If we are not eating fruit or berries and we are not supposed to eat a lot of vegetables, how are we supposed to get enough? I thought these were supposed to be great for the immune system? I understand that the fats in omega 3 fish and olive oil are healthy, but I am just finding it hard to believe that the fat in butter and red meat can actually be healthy. I am sure it is, but it is just so hard to believe. Also, there was this naturopathic doctor who was really big on coconut oil and he died suddenly of a stroke at a young age. I just have to wonder whether or not it was from all the coconut oil. How can I be absolutely sure that all of this saturated fat is really good for me. I would really hate to go on believing this and then drop dead in a few months of a heart attack.

A:
Antioxidants are CRUCIAL to the immune system. Vitamins C and E really help to keep us (or get us) healthy. Saturated fats play a huge role too though. You can’t have one without the other.

And lets define “a lot” here when we’re talking about veggies. There were times when I’d eat several pounds of veggies a day because I thought I needed all that to be “healthy”. My antioxidant nutrient values were quite high when I did this, but like I said, I could easily eat 3lbs of veggies in one day, and that only added up to about 70-80 carbs.

If you choose nutrient-dense veggies and you supplement well, you’re getting superior nutrition and not just adequate nutrition. How many of us ate that many veggies and fruits in a day before we tried to be healthy? Most of us didn’t. Most of us had a diet based on grain/legumes/unhealthy fats with the occasional pieces of fruit and servings of veggies thrown in for color. So even eating “not a lot of veggies” on MOVES still has a lot of us better off than we were when we were much sicker.

And with respect to fruit, we do allow some “fruits” like tomatoes, peppers, zucchini, and cucumbers. And of course there’s lemon and lime for those who can tolerate it. While some foods are higher in certain enzymes than others, you can have a perfectly varied and nutrient-dense diet if you limit your foods to the ones we recommend.

It IS hard to believe that fat consumption is necessary, because we’ve been conditioned by this whole “low-fat” thing that started in the late 70s. Did you know that the incidence of heart disease has gone up significantly as we’ve reduced our fat intake?

Bruce Fife, N.D. is considered one of the most prominant experts on saturated fats and coconut oil, and I haven’t found anything saying that he died. And remember that a lot of things can cause a stroke that have NOTHING to do with how you eat (even if someone DID eat coconut oil and then died from a stroke.) This sounds like some kind of urband legend to me — the same kind that was stirred up when Dr. Atkins died. (He fell on ice, hit his head, and ended up dying 10 or 11 days later, but the people who wanted to discredit him said he died of a heart attack and he was
“obese”. He wasn’t even overweight when he went into the hospital after his fall, but he gained something like 50lbs from fluid in those 11 days of his coma before he died.)

My results speak for themselves. My cholesterol looks great, my blood pressure is perfect, and I’m losing weight. Best of all, my Candida symptoms are improving every day. No doctor in their right might would argue with the results (even if they can’t wrap their minds around HOW I got them.)

I’ve done enough research over the past 10 years and I’m quite confident in the way I eat. It’s hard to sort out the brilliance from the BS sometimes though, and I understand. The initial leap of faith was tough, but when I started digging and finding information that appealed to my scientific nature, the information was impossible to ignore. It’s a
learning process though. I learn EVERY day.

There are a lot of things that are great for the immune system. Things like lauric acid, found in coconut oil, and garlic, are also great for the immune system. Antioxidants are also found in meats.

I have read in the ‘Harvard Health Letter,’ Vol 32, #11, Sept 2007 the following (brief):

There are four varieties of saturated fat in our diet:
lauric acid
myristic acid
palmitic acid
stearic acid

Their effect on LDL cholesterol levels varies, so among the saturated fats, there are degrees of bad. Stearic acid seems to be the least bad because it’s rather quickly converted into a healthful monosaturated fat & doesn’t increase LDL levels very much, if at all. THAT’S GOOD NEWS FOR STEAK LOVERS: Half of the saturated fat in beef is stearic acid.

There’s a great chart in the newsletter showing the specific types & percentages of fat in common oils & fats: saturated, trans, monosaturated, & polyunsaturated fats.

From the looks of the chart, coconut oil doesn’t appear to be a good option over other oils like canola, olive, safflower, & sunflower oil.

Here’s an interesting twist:
The tropical oils in small amounts are okay, & they’re certainly an improvement over trans fat. Americans were scared away from them because of their saturated fat content. But REMARKABLY, COCONUT Oil & OLIVE OIL HAVE SIMILAR EFFECTS ON THE RATIO OF LDL TO HDL.

(This isn’t so bad either–When it comes to chicken, go ahead & leave the skin on. Because of the polyunsaturated fat content, says Dr. Willett, ‘a little bit of chicken fat isn’t such a bad thing.’ Besides, he says, ‘cooking chicken with the skin on makes it taste a lot better.’