Apparently Food Matters

There's this local chiropractor named Robert DeMaria, aka Dr. Bob the Drugless Doctor, who writes books about how to naturally cure various maladies through nutrition.  Jeremiah is a big fan.  Anyway Dr. Bob says that milk is bad for us and his evidence to support this theory is that humans are the only creature on the planet who continue to consume milk beyond infancy.

I like milk, so my response is this:  We are also the only creature who cooks our food....does that mean we should start eating everything raw?

Well...according to a documentary I watched the other day, apparently we should.

The documentary is called Foodmatters, and I have to tell you it's pretty darn convincing.  It's actually more about nutrients and vitamins than raw food, but they did say that at least 51% of everything we eat should be raw.

So 51% of what we eat should be what my dear bacon-loving grandfather called rabbit food.

Now I love love LOVE me a good salad (covered in cheese and ranch dressing), but I just don't know if I could even come close to filling 51% of my diet with raw fruits & vegetables.  I guess I should just take the advice as motivation to do a little better....like maybe buying more organic vegetables, then actually eating them rather than feeding them, wilted and smelly, to the garbage disposal.

One particular story they told really made me think.

They said that over the last 25 or so years (any and all of the statistics I'm about to quote could be WAY off from what they said) a grand total of 10 (T E N) deaths have occurred due to taking vitamins.  This is not ten per million vitamin users....this is TEN PEOPLE.  TOTAL.

Over that same period of time, a buttload (I want to say over 30,000) people have died due to reactions or interractions with prescription drugs.

YET....if you tell a doctor you're taking vitamins, most of them will tell you either that it's not necessary or that it's downright harmful.

So...there was this woman.  Wife and mother  Who was seriosuly, chronically, suicidally, non-functionally depressed.  They had tried every medication and treatment her doctor could think of and nothing helped.  She was reduced to sitting in a corner, back to the room, staring at the walls.

So her family came to this nutritionist (one of the guys interviewed on Foodmatters) and asked if he had any ideas.  And basically said that he had HEARD that niacin was good for depression.  The family asked how much they should give her and he told them that the recommended dosage was something like 600 mg but they should give her whatever it took to make her better.

So they started giving her niacin supplements.  And they just increased and increased until she was better.  Eventually, at 11,000 mg per day she was able to live a normal life.

So she went to the doctor and told him about this wonderful cure.  The doctor said "You can't take that much niacin.  It's not safe".  So she stopped...and ended up right back in the corner.

Yet...according to the documentary....there are ZERO recorded cases of death due to niacin overdose.

How many suicides do you figure there are from depression? 

Of course they want you to buy....I don't know what....a book, a plan...something to get the details of what to eat to prevent or cure this or that.  And I know juicing is involved.  And honestly I'm considering forking over the $25 or so bucks to check it out.  But I could start taking niacin NOW.  The problem is I wouldn't know when to stop.  If I have a bad day and disolve into tears does that mean I need to up the dosage or does that just mean that sometimes life sucks?  I don't trust myself to self-medicate, even with vitamins.

Anyway, according to this documentary, our brains and our bodies are starving for nutrients, even as we get fatter and fatter.  I guess I can see that...but I don't know exactly what to do about it yet.  I certainly don't want to make any major changes solely based on one documentary, no matter how much sense it makes.

But are doctors really to be believed either?  Getting us healthy would put them out of business.

Oh way too much to think about on a friday lunch break.

Today I got on the scale and I'm down 17 pounds (from last August, with a break and a gain in the middle).  When I lost 10 pounds (October? November?) I rewarded myself with a massage.  I need to try to think of a reward for myself when I hit 20 but I don't know what.  I can't really afford a massage.

I know!  A big ol' hot fudge sundae.  Kidding.  Sigh.

Today's lunch:  Progresso Chicken Barley Soup.  Not bad for 80 calories a serving (I had 2 servings).  But what  the heck is barley?  Is it good for me?  Cuz I kinda like it.