“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society”

— Jiddu Krishnamurti

My mother had her biomarkers for health checked recently for her Discovery Life Policy.

I have two major problems with Discovery Health:

Problem #1: “Cholesterol Is A Major Cause For Concern”

After my mom’s test, everything came back perfect. Glucose, blood pressure, etc.

Except for her cholesterol.

Due to severe arthritis, mom follows a ketogenic diet — which is mainly meat-based.

Prior to having her biomarkers done, I told her that she should expect to see her cholesterol numbers in the high range. As expected, she phoned me and told me that Discovery Health had failed her test because of her cholesterol.

Exhibit A is Discovery Health failing her based on her cholesterol:

Cholesterol can certainly be seen as a biomarker for heart disease in many cases.

But two studies intrigue me:

1) The American Heart Association has published yet another study, stating that saturated fat does not cause heart disease (cholesterol is highly influenced by saturated fat intake) — instead, chronic inflammation does.

2) It has been shown that the older you get, and the higher your cholesterol, the lower your all-cause mortality rate.

Yes, you read that correctly: higher cholesterol in older people is a sign of longevity.

To put it in plain text, cholesterol (aka fat from saturated sources) is a vital building block to human health and longevity. Your brain is a big clump of fat. Mothers breast milk is predominantly saturated fat.

Are you going to tell me not to breastfeed my kid? Well, that’s ok. But don’t tell my future wife, thank you.

I’m going to stop beating the steak on cholesterol since it’s about as soft as a $2,000 Japanese Wagyu.

The fact is: my mom’s keto/carnivore diet has tremendously lowered her inflammation. A few months ago she couldn’t even open the lid off a Bonaqua water bottle her arthritis was so debilitating.

So we had to devise a plan.

I’m no dietitian, but my mom asked for some help. The only logical thing to do, I said, was to eat more carbs and less fat.

Operation chicken and rice were put into full swing.

So for the next week, my mom ate mainly chicken and rice (you should have seen her face in the morning when she knew there was no Bulletproof Coffee coming her way).

A week later and she passed her lipid test:

In the words of the great Borat Sagdiyev, great success!?

Wrong.

All my mother’s symptoms reappeared: major joint pain, headaches, and fatigue — all these are conducive to a carb-overloaded diet (carbs = insulin spike = inflammation = disease).

How fucked up is the world of health if one biomarker of health — cholesterol — is used to determine whether you are healthy or not. Whether you pay 2X on a life policy premium or not?

Discovery Health, you should be more worried about the fasting insulin scores and the waist-to-height ratio of your patients than one biomarker that has been so overblown it should be considered a crime.

It bugs me when I see Frikkie von Tonder with a boerewors-beer-belly-bop hanging beneath his John Deer shirt passing his lipids test and here my mom is failing hers. I sound like a Constantia house mom sticking up for her kid Kyle when he can’t get his way, but It’s only because I care.

What about the autoimmune stress-ridden mom’s of the world that eat low-carb? What about the ultra-marathon athletes who eat a meat-based diet? What about the woman who has had a number of knee surgeries in her teens and arthritis their entire lives and eating a carnivore diet is the only option?

Context is everything.

Problem #2: Buying a Smoothie At Kauai Should Give You Less Discovery Vitality Points — Not More

The second problem is more observational.

When I used to train at Virgin Active, besides training, I enjoyed watching a process I like to call the In-and-Out.

Jennie walks into Virgin Active with her pink Nike takkies, camo gym tights, and a handbag. She scans her card at the front desk. She then proceeds to order a Kauai smoothie with well over a 100g of carbs, then walks out.

This seems harmless.

But the fact is, Discovery Health will record this as a ‘gym session’ and will reward her for choosing a ‘healthy meal’ at Kauai.

We have become an obese society that is obsessed with single-ply metrics to determine if we’re healthy or not. Walking 10 000 steps does not mean shit if you eat badly.

There has to be a policy change in the healthcare system in South Africa (and the world). I’m not a doctor, but surely there must be a system where they look at your athletic status, dietary choices, and more — metrics beyond cholesterol and whether you say on a stupid form how many vegetables and fruit you eat.

I want to make something clear: I’m not the anti-establishment socialist type that believes all corporates are bad and there are people who sit behind ten-foot wooden oak desks that run the world. I know, for the most part, we are doing the best we can.

But we have to do better.

Have you had similar experiences with Discovery Health (or any other health care system)?

I would love to hear your thoughts.

#DiscoveryHealth #DiscoveryVitality #SouthAfrica