With the holidays behind us and the start of a new year, many of us are eager to learn and implement new behaviors we believe will improve our health. As an information junkie, I watch a lot of videos with new health information.

I’m excited to share some of them with you on the Movie Night we will be offering on the second Monday of each month, starting on January 14th. Healing Journeys is partnering with the Sacramento Naturopathic Medical Center to offer this free resource. If you don’t live near Sacramento and want to watch what we are watching, there is a link in News.

We are starting our Movie Nights with Episode 1 from a docuseries called The Real Skinny on Fat. The first episode explains how we got to the health crisis we are in, with 35% of men and 40% of women in America being obese, leading to higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, and Alzheimer’s disease. How did it happen that the American Heart Association in 1961 told us to avoid saturated fat and cholesterol to avoid heart trouble? Is there any evidence for that? The new science demonstrates that most of what we have been told about good nutrition for the past 50 years has been wrong.

The field of Nutrition and health has exploded with new information in the last few years. When I was first diagnosed with cancer in 1989, I was told that I needed to eat a low-fat vegetarian diet. Fewer than 30% of my calories should come from fat, and I should avoid saturated fat all together. I became really good at reading labels. I didn’t care how high the carb count or the sugar count was; I just wanted the fat content to be less than 30%. I did that for 12 years. Based on what research is finding now, it’s a miracle that I’m still alive. We know now that I wasn’t giving my body the nutrients it needed for healing.

The first episode of The Real Skinny on Fat also addresses the beginning of research on the ketogenic diet and cancer. A ketogenic diet is 70–80% fat, and that includes saturated fat. The opposite of what I tried to do all those 12 years. It’s carbs that we need to keep low. Is there evidence that a ketogenic diet, or at least a low-carb diet, can make a difference in cancer progression?

In our Movie Night, we will watch about an hour of video, and then have an opportunity for discussion. Niki Young, ND, will be with us to answer questions. We will meet at the Sacramento Naturopathic Medical Center starting on Monday, January 14th (see News section, below, for location and time).

If you live in or near Sacramento, please join us. Learning with others is more fun, and offers the option of support for making personal changes.

As always, I welcome your comments; to reply please click here.