DIETS AND DISEASES
DIETS AND DISEASES
by
Sanford Pinna, M.D.
Copyright 2009
From time immemorial, people have always linked
what they put into their mouth with sickness.
This makes sense. Eating food contaminated with
toxins or micro-organisms will give you indigestion, or
it might kill you. One has to have rules about what goes
between the teeth.
So it is not strange that early societies developed
Dietary Laws.
The Jews, several thousands of years ago, found that
God had told them what not to eat
No piggy’s!
Piggy’s are bad little animals who are indifferent to
what is placed before them. Thus, their meat must be bad—or
polluted—or indigestible. Piggy’s were put off the list of
acceptable foods for the Israelis. Several hundreds of years
later, the Muslims followed suit and tossed away pig meat.
Then the Israelis looked at the seafood around them.
Some were good and some were bad. A long list was drawn
up. Few people can remember this list, so little fish was
eaten.
After these forbidden areas, the Israelis thought
about the cooking of the food. It was determined that
if you cooked meat, you definitely should not cook milk.
Also, that the culinary equipment, the dishes and the
utensils must be changed for these two types of food.
The Christians were not so demanding. They
like pig meat and said it was O.K. They did not like
eating meat on Friday, probably because a large part
of their population were fishermen, and so they prohibited
the ingestion of animal meat, but permitted the ingestion
of fish meat. They developed a convoluted reason for
this law and everyone, in general, followed the rule.
In India, things were pretty simple. Do not eat
animals, because the animals have souls. Killing humans
was O.K. if they bothered you, but you could not cook them.
In the rest of Asia anything that was alive was considered
fine for eating. Vegetarians, who followed Buddha’s principles,
were catered to, because they were docile and their needs were
easily met.
Today, in the Modern World, we have zillions of other
diets, from the raw Paleolithic to the High Protein or Low
Protein or High Carb to the Low Carb and every insane
diet in between.
These diets, not only claim to bring on good health,
they also claim to cure every major disease known to mankind.
From Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes, Cancer and every other
serious disease—change your eating habits and these diseases
will disappear!
Strangely enough, Modern Medical Science is totally
unaware of these miracles
Yes, they will cure all disease and, best of all
All these diets have one simple rule in common:
DO NOT EAT THIS!—EAT THIS!
This simplistic message is the entire package of advice.
Fortunately, we have an up-to-date scientific community
which is not swayed by arguments—”Just the facts, Please!”
THE FACTS ARE
IT IS NOT WHAT YOU EAT—IT IS HOW MUCH YOU EAT!
It makes no difference whether you eat piggy’s or turtles,
it is the number you consume that counts.
The only evidence that science has before it which indicates
a good effect from dieting is:
CALORIC RESTRICTION.
Study after study has proven that caloric restriction promotes
health and longevity in all animals, including primates—our cousins.
People do not like to hear this. Eating is the first or
second most pleasurable activity in life.
It is easy to restrict what—but not easy to restrict how much.
If we look around the world today, and see which population
has the best health and the longest life, it is the Japanese.
The Japanese have no dietary rules. They eat any animal,
fish or plant.
But, the Japanese are very concerned about their weight.
Being fat is considered socially unacceptable. Recently, the
Japanese government issued an advisory that waist size must be
watched closely and controlled. The Japanese medical society
knows that over consumption leads to disease. They are
the only Medical Society in the world, so concerned with weight.
SUMMARY
Diets are a form of game that societies play. Religions
maintain control over their constituents by placing strict rules
about what can and cannot be eaten, when and how.
Writers and would-be scientists invent strange diets
with strange rationalizations and profess that their inventions
will lead you to good health. Also, they sell you their books.
But, these writers ignore the most basic fact: Eat
half of what you would normally eat!
People do not like to hear that admonition, and
no writer of diets that I have found has mentioned it.
