![]() Your article reminds me of our family vacation in New England in 1988. Maybe it's cars, not carbs, that have fattened Americans so alarmingly. I've resolved to do all my food shopping on foot when I get back home, in the hope of keeping off the 20 pounds I dropped here. Most Romanians don't have cars, so they shop in a similar fashion, and a fat Romanian is rare. Here we walk daily to several small markets, then buy only as much as we can carry back to our small apartment kitchens, up numerous flights of stairs. In the States, we drove to mammoth supermarkets, selected a carload of supersize packages of food, then drove home and stuffed our huge refrigerators, freezers and cupboards with more food than we needed. Most American volunteers lose weight easily here, and not because the food isn't tasty or plentiful. What ever happened to simply counting calories? Didn't most overweight Americans get that way because intake keeps exceeding output? I'm a Peace Corps volunteer in Romania. ![]() Most of us will never learn the difference between good fats and bad fats, good carbs and bad carbs. As patients learn healthier habits, most are grateful for the change. Every patient I hospitalize has two routine admitting orders: no smoking and no animal products on the menu. In my experience, no other diet comes close to the power of a vegan diet for getting diabetes under control, cutting cholesterol levels and trimming weight. Neal Barnard's research study using vegan diets. So I was delighted to see your report reflecting Dr. When will people see that common sense and moderation are far more valuable than sensationalist medical advice?Īlthough I am a trauma surgeon, my patients' greatest long-term risks are not auto accidents or falls, but bad food choices that can lead to heart attacks, strokes and diabetes. That again sounds like the USDA, appeasing the powerful pharmaceutical industry. If the pyramid does indeed advise a complete, nutritious diet, we would not need supplemental vitamins either. As omnivores, we're also programmed to include meat in our diets, not to follow the latest veggies-only fad. ![]() One of the scientists quoted in the article on exercise gets it right-we are animals, and are therefore genetically programmed to exercise. A worldwide campaign is needed to educate people on the risks of the three F's and the need for a healthy eating lifestyle. We know now that the seeds of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes are sown in infancy and childhood. This is in sharp contrast to our 19 surveys, which showed the incidence of overweight kids at 7 percent and 11 percent, respectively. ![]() In a recent survey, we found that 20 percent of private-school children were overweight. In India, for instance, despite an overwhelming problem of undernutrition, the onslaught of the fast-food giants is contributing to increasing incidence of obesity in children from well-to-do families. This unhealthy trend among adults of the United States and prosperous European countries is now beginning to affect the child population of developing countries. What remains to be appreciated is that the consumption of the three F's is the game plan of the food industry, which spends billions in promoting fast-food culture. Undoubtedly, the enhanced consumption of fast fatty foods ("three F's") is a major health hazard with increasing incidence of obesity, diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. You have done a service to your readers by focusing attention on "The Perfect Diet" (Jan. A surgeon claimed, "A vegan diet controls diabetes." And a reader who lost weight walking insisted, "cars, not carbs, fatten Americans." "You've done a service-the seeds of disease are sown in infancy," wrote a pediatrician. 20 cover story on the perfect diet impressed many readers. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |