Ok, this has nothing to do with jeeps, but until I setup my nutrition blog, I will record this here as I need to get this off my chest.  It has to do with nutrition, critical thinking skills and causal relationships.

I saw a headline that declared “Lack of vitamin D linked to teen health problems“.  As a follower of nutritional information over past few years, when I see a headline like that, I can’t help but wonder what type of study was done to determine how the lack of a single vitamin could be responsible for all the health woes of a generation of people.  It seems to good to be true (the natural corollary is that adding vitamin D to the diet will solve the problem .. yeah, right).

So, I go to the link.  I read the article.  I wonder if anyone else is as confused as I am.

Let’s look at the logic.

1. The study evaluates 3600 boys and girls 12 to 19.
2. The researchers draw blood for blood tests.
3. For some reason, not indicated, levels of vitamin D were measured (no other vitamin or mineral measurements or results were noted).
4. Indicators for heart disease were measured (waist size, blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol)
5. The sponsor of the research, not indicated (though one might suspect milk industry people given the focus on vitamin D — btw, I’m total fan of good quality, high fat milk, so no intentional swipe at milk producers is intended).  I searched for information on the study sponsor or original study information, but was unsuccessful.

Now, out of this data, the researchers discovered a pattern.  Teens with low levels of vitamin D had a statistically significant association with indicators of heart disease.  I have no qualms with that association (I’ve read studies a variety of studies indicating that large percentages of americans are vitamin poor.) and it makes logical sense based on what I know.

Importantly, a doctor in the article is quoted, “it’s likely that vitamin D deficiencies in teens stem from unhealthy diets and lack of exercise outdoors … If their diet includes chips and soft drinks, they’re probably not getting enough vitamin D.”  This makes total sense to me too.  I suspect this has less to do with exposure to the sun than ingestion of good quality products that contain fat soluable vitamin D.

So, I ask simply, is it the LACK of vitamin D that CAUSES the factors for heart disease to increase?  Or, is it the consumption of foods poor in vitamins and minerals across the board, that result in the low intake of vitamins and minerals in general WHILE SIMULTANEOUSLY introducing high levels of sugars and carbohydrates (that are broken down into sugars) that result in increases in blood sugars in general (note that high blood sugars were also measured in the study).

Your body, in response to high blood sugars, produces insulin from the pancreas to lower blood sugars.  Of course, insulin also produces at least two byproducts: (1) weight gain due to the insulin secretion that causes the storage of fatty acids as tryglicerides within the adipose tissue of the body and (2) insulin which is excreted to deal with high levels of blood sugars causes increases in heart rates and constricts blood vessels which, over time, appears to raise the homeostasis of blood pressure.

GIVEN THE COMMENTS BY THE DOCTORS IN THE ARTICLE, IS LOW VITAMIN D REALLY A WARNING SIGN OF HEART DISEASE AS THE TITLES OF THESE REPORTS ON THE STUDY INDICATE OR SIMPLY A BYPRODUCT OF POOR NUTRITIONAL INTAKE?  IF IT IS NOT THEN WHAT IS CAUSING THE HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE AND WEIGHT GAIN AMONG TEEN AND ADULTS?

Given the enormous amount of quality studies by quality people in this field, the stunning lack of reasonable conclusions here simply floor me. Let me simplify this further.  While different people have different tolerances for this formula, the basic formula applies:

Sugar (& flour and starches) >raise blood sugar levels > which causes a hormone called insulin secretion from the pancreas > which forces your body to burn sugar and save other products, including fats, for burning later.  This causes your body to operate in a manner you will not like!  One byproduct is weight gain: WEIGHT GAIN HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH OVEREATING AND CALORIES AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH EATING POORLY NUTRITIOUS FOODS.

Now, back to your regularly scheduled jeep posts ….