DAILY DIARY – DEBUNK THE JUNK, APRIL 13, 2004

Receipts available as a pdf.

 

Luigi Cornaro was born in 1467 in Padua, Italy and found himself at age 35 weak, sick, and dying,  He consulted the medical heads of Genoa, Italy, asking, “What can I do?” Finally, one smart doctor said, “Look, Luigi,” (Luigi was a nobleman) “cut down on your riotous living, stop the drinking, cut out the rich food, eat as little as you can, and don't abuse your body. You can get well.”– www.drbass.com web site

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Day 13, 2004:  Miss <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />USA loves McDonalds!  How delightful when people declare their food choices without fear of judgment by others who only want to hear the politically correct words “organic” and “natural” when speaking about the food we consume.  What’s so bad about enjoying a meal that has all the taste sensations we all enjoy, sweet, salty, fatty.  As a mammal, humans developed a similar form of survival tactic as other mammals that live in harsh climates storing fat in order to survive during the lean times.  For tens of thousands of years the human mammal was dependent on the whims of weather and other natural forces for their survival.

 

The very thing that doctors refer to as “yo-yo dieting” is really nothing more than the incredible ability a mammal has to store food as fat for use at a later time when food supplies might dwindle.  Now that we have been able to overcome the problem of food supply and have plenty of food options no matter what time of year it is, we no longer have the natural control in the way of food shortages that helps to keep mammals from becoming too “fat.”

 

As for the film Super Size Me, it appears as if Morgan Spurlock is attempting to “prove” that McDonalds food is somehow toxic and dangerous.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  The only thing dangerous in Spurlock’s film is the notion that somehow a corporation, or food, or anything other than the individual is at fault for a weight problem.  Spurlock’s film is nothing more than a rehashing of the scientific methodology which gave us the Alar scare mentioned in Day 1 of this diary.  He gave himself a large overdose of a certain type of food and suffered the consequences.  A classic case of Junk Science in action and I refer the reader to www.junkscience.com for further study of the subject.

 

In 1833, Sylvester Graham wrote an introduction and notes to accompany an 1833 edition of Luigi Cornaro’s Discourses on a Sober and Temperate Life.  In it Graham quotes a belief of some people of the time, “Some with great regularity of habits, and temperance in diet, enjoy good health and live to great age, while others pursuing the same course, are always sickly, and die young; and, on the other hand, some, with great irregularity and intemperance, enjoy health and live to become very old.  Therefore, what is best for one man, may not be for another; consequently it would be impossible to prescribe any mode of living, which would be suitable to all constitutions and circumstances.”  I think it is terribly important that we revisit this notion and apply it to our own lives.

 

As for Luigi Cornaro, he reduced his food intake to 12 oz. of food a day and experienced a drastic health change for the better.  But his relatives insisted that he increase his food intake as he became older,  “You have to start eating more.  Luigi, you gotta eat more!”  Luigi was so annoyed with all this “advice” that he increased his food intake from 12 to 14 ounces.  He immediately became violently ill and within seven days was near death.  In defiance of his relative’s wishes, he went back to his old diet and within a few days he felt well again.  ‘Nuff said.