Please Eat Cheese

"Please eat cheese everyday." This is what I tell my Mother regularly. One of them is known as vitamin K2, aka menaquinone. Please don't confuse it with vitamin K1, aka phylloquinone.

There is a growing number of papers on Vitamin K2 that I find fascinating. It seems to me that it is a key to understanding the health problems of many modern Americans. It plays a huge role in the development of the skeleton and nervous system, in the prevention of some cancers (including prostate), in the prevention of dental problems, fractures and probably alzheimers and in keeping calcium out of the vascular system and in bones.

Its value in the prevention of heart disease is strongly suggested by The Rotterdam Study:
"In The Rotterdam Study, which prospectively followed just over 4,600 men aged 55 or older in the Netherlands, the highest intake of vitamin K2 was associated with a 52 percent lower risk of severe aortic calcification, a 41 percent lower risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), a 51 percent lower risk of CHD mortality, and a 26 percent lower risk of total mortality. Even though the study population consumed ten times more K1 than K2, vitamin K1 had no association with either the degree of aortic calcification or the risk of heart disease. The profound effects of variations in such small amounts of dietary K2 emphasize just how powerful this substance is in the prevention of degenerative disease." This is a quote from the paper I provided a link to below.

My first introduction to K2 came from a book called "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by Weston A. Price, DDS. He was a dentist concerned about the dental health in general of his patients, but especially the children of the poor in the 1920s. This was a time before many of the social programs that we have today existed and I'm guessing before white flour was enriched.

Because of the bad dentition and need for orthodontics seen in these children and his patients in general, he hypothesized that there was some necessary nutrient missing from their diets and set out to discover it. Fortunately he was wealthy and he and his wife set out on extensive journeys around the world to research for several summers. He wrote his book based on his research.

It is a fascinating book from several perspectives. It is an interesting travel account from a time modern enough for photographs but primitive enough that traditions that developed in local regions were basically unaffected by the needs of modern commerce. Another purpose was to dispel myths that were pervasive in the early 1900s about interracial marriages resulting in children with defects such as club feet and poor facial development. But the primary purpose was to explore commonalities in diets that produce exceptionally healthy bodies (with an emphasis on dental health) generation after generation.

He found that the healthiest people ate foods that were exceptionally high in certain minerals and the fat soluble vitamins that he called "activators", especially vitamins A, D and something he called "Activator X". He found that there were various combinations of foods that provided everything necessary for excellent health and freedom from most dental problems generation after generation. The Inuit, the Maasai of central Africa, isolated Scots and Swiss, and certain Pacific Islanders had vastly different diets but could boast exceptional health, and well-spaced, nearly cavity-free teeth prior to the arrival of white flour, sugar, refined vegetable oils and toothbrushes. (I am not suggesting that toothbrushes contribute to poor dental health.)

He found that foods high in Activator X included butter made from cows eating grass that was rapidly growing (especially in the spring and fall); the amount of this substance could vary by a factor of 50 depending on location and season.

After making these observations, Weston Price began working with a mission that fed poor children lunch and personally directed their diets. He made sure they included foods that were especially high in fat soluble vitamins - bone marrow broths and stews loaded with carrots and meat or fish, whole wheat bread from freshly ground wheat served with butter selected for its high activator X content, along with whole fresh milk, fresh orange or tomato juice, and cod liver oil. The change in health of these children as he reported it was striking. In all cases, he was able to control rampant dental cavities. There were dramatic changes in academic ability for a few, and in other children whose bones fractured easily, he observed their bones were made stronger.

He also charted peak seasons for Activator X availability and found an inverse relationship between Activator X and the incidence of fatal pneumonia and fatal heart attacks in various regions of the English speaking world.

Much of what Price claimed can be verified through accounts of missionaries and doctors who worked with these people. Price however is the only one I know of who focused on teeth and on a wide variety of populations. His work was not given the attention it deserved however in part because Activator X was not well identified. His ideas also ran counter to the ideas of those who had the power to set the course of nutrition research. (I have learned that political correctness is essential in getting funding for research.) And it was easy to discount the ideas of a dentist.

The Weston Price Foundation seeks to teach the principles of traditional nutrition. In their quarterly, non-peer reviewed journal, a recently published article establishes the "Activator X" discovered by Price to be what is now known as Vitamin K2. I have looked at many reviews of the functions of Vitamin K2 and this is by far the best for its detail and scope:

http://westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitamin-k2.html#three

The references at the bottom of this article were pretty comprehensive at the time of publication, but many interesting articles have been published since.

I will find it interesting to watch how the American medical community handles the research that is coming out on K2, given that many of the best sources are quite full of saturated fat. I don't know what the primary source of K2 for the Dutch men in the Rotterdam study was, but I would bet it was cheese (and not the lowfat kind). It can be argued that any recommendations about K2 are still premature. There still are lots of questions to be answered.

It's my guess that K2 helps avert insulin resistance. I have read many accounts crediting cheese as helpful in weight control and experience it myself. One is in "The Probiotic Revolution". Here is a reference for a Swedish study which credits cheese consumption with weight control:

Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 Dec;84(6):1481-8
Association between dairy food consumption and weight change over 9 y in 19,352 perimenopausal women.
Rosell M, Håkansson NN, Wolk A.


I believe, based on what I have read to date, that it is clearly in the best interest of the nation's health to encourage everyone to increase their K2 (and fat soluble vitamin) intake, especially pregnant women. The studies I have seen report only favorable side effects. Its best sources are natto, which from all accounts I have heard is palatable only to the Japanese, and several foods that have an air of elitism, such as fois gras and caviar. Purified K2 supplements are very expensive and K2 does not work as well alone. Aged cheese and pasture butter (look for an orange color) are of course the most practical sources but I have been looking for bone marrow recipes. Sauerkraut was tested and is only a moderate source, but I do wonder if only commercial sauerkraut was tested and if a longer fermentation would produce a higher K2 content. I would love to see the where goat's milk and lard fall on the chart.

Taking into account the carnivorous diets of the Maasai and the Inuit (both known for low heart disease rates), the cream and cheese of the French, the works of Weston Price, Gary Taubes and many of the scientists he references, personal experiences and observations and study, and belief in a God that has blessed people with fat (mostly pastured animal). I find it impossible to accept the idea that saturated fat should be avoided. There is certainly more to the story. I have seen and read more than I can discount by wine drinking and chasing cows.

Sugar is another matter...