Comments on: We The People vs The Western Diet

By: pasi arasola

pasi arasola — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 08:08:45 +0000

I imagine that socialist governments (like ours in Finland) should have an interest, since the gov. pays hospital fees.

If you google Canada Cancer DCA, you will see that a Canadian university discovered a likely cure for cancer. Being unpatentable the medical companies wont touch it with a long stick - naturally, but govenments like ours have not shown interest either.

Quite confusing… perhaps to achieve things these days we need to learn the art of lobbying. Buy our countries back.

By: Gabor Barat

Gabor Barat — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:25:34 +0000

Well, in a sense, this question is being addressed at the moment, I would say. As far as I can see, there are some radical changes on the way, in the medical and scientific world, regarding our thinking on diet and disease. There are more and more medical doctors and dieticians who are starting to understand the underlying relations, and who are then put this understanding into practice.

This is largely due to underrated pioneers like T. Colin Campbell, Dean Ornish, Caldwell B. Esselstyn and John McDougall, who forcefully pointed out the contradictions and illusions of our symptom-treating Big Medicine, while also provided striking results with diet alone - like reversing and curing cardiovascular diseases and type-2 diabetes. I am not sure whether you had read The China Study*, but I would definitely recommend that book; it have changed many people's life. I guess it takes a more open position towards plant-based diet than Pollan, but well, this is what our scientific understanding indicates, if we look beyond the popular superficiality.

* http://books.google.com/books?id=FIRLLcLjyC8C&printsec=frontcover

And indeed, this problem shows some similarities with the tobacco case. Quite fascinating, but actually, smoking became popular with the idea that it is a healthy thing to do - like our western way of eating. And there were (smoking) doctors who publicly defended the tobacco companies, even when the scientific research was already rather clear. Tobacco companies of course tried to dilute and obscure the facts, like today's agriculture and medical businesses. If you are interested, at the following page there are some detailed documents about the tobacco case's chronology:
http://www.ash.org.uk/ash_669pax88.htm

By: kikodenzer

kikodenzer — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:49:45 +0000

I agree, wholeheartedly. But I also know that I'm extraordinarily lucky to be able to do so — and know that others who have tried to do the same have been either blocked or prosecuted for "breaking laws" that effectively make "opting out" illegal or worse (Mad Sheep, by Linda Faillace, is just one of the stories out there — most of the ones I've heard haven't been published). In any case, I'm asking the question because the currently deadly connection between diet, health, and industrial agriculture is a rogue elephant in the living room. At some point, someone (probably someone who's relatively safe from getting trampled) has to state, clearly and unequivocally, in terms that will be understood and respected, that industrial ag. is bad for our collective health. Granted, there are many authors making that statement, but a book is not a boundary. A successful lawsuit can be (and an unsuccessful lawsuit can sometimes work just as well to publicly draw a line in the sand). Pollan is well-placed and relatively safe — and understands the issues. No, a lawsuit is not a solution. But despite our collective skepticism about the law and lawyers, they are both central to our cultural ability to think and talk about how we live.

By: Stiles J Watson

Stiles J Watson — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:14:26 +0000

Part of sustainable living is getting out of the class action lawsuit mindset. Generally, the only ones who benefit are the lawyers. And all that's accomplished is more government regulation and control. To be a truly sustainable grass-roots people's movement, we just have to opt-out of the industrial food system and encourage others to do the same. It's a long-term process (as all sustainability systems are). Joel Salatin's book "Holy Cows and Hog Heaven" is a good discussion of how and why to do this.