Who Are the Food Faddists?

WHO ARE THE REAL FOOD FADDISTS?

They may not be whom you think!

by Lawrence Wilson, MD

THE WHOLE GRAIN AND KELP CROWD

Do you eat brown rice and other whole grains? Some call this faddish, but I say it is not. These staple foods have been around for thousands of years, long before the word 'faddism' was ever coined.

White Bread. The faddists are those that favor white bread - a relatively new food, bleached white with lethal chlorine and bromine for good looks. It is promoted on appearance and 'fluffiness'. It is even 'enriched' for our health. However, the label fails to mention that 40 or so nutrients have been removed, and only four nutrients replaced. The label also doesn't tell you that white bread is enriched by law, because the FDA found it to be dangerously deficient in vital nutrients. It literally killed animals fed this fake food.

I have found that the best use for white flour is for paper mache. The mushy concoction known as white bread is also great for mopping up messes on the floor, or for blowing your nose if you don't have a Kleenex.

Kelp. Kelp, by contrast, is a seaweed that is widely used as food in the orient. It is extremely rich in minerals, a natural food and it is inexpensive. It contains some toxic metals, as do all products from the sea. However, it contains large amounts of substances called alginates that prevent the absorption of most of the toxic metals in the product. Some people do not like its fishy taste, but it can be obtained in tablets or capsules. It is an excellent mineral supplement. Most people today are low in iodine and many other vital minerals and taking kelp daily, far from being faddish, is a wise decision for most people. Do not take it if it makes you jittery, however.

ALL-NATURAL, NO-ARTIFICIAL-ANYTHING

Some argue that the 'all-natural' trend is a fad. And surely there are abuses of the phrase. It is true that lead and arsenic are totally natural. Some argue that everything that is manufactured must be natural or we couldn't make it. But this is playing with words. In fact, the idea of eating natural foods is not a bad one.

                  The Synthetic Chemical Crowd. The faddists, in my opinion, are the folks who gobble up the synthetic foods - margarine, cola drinks, artificial sweeteners, and thousands of other chemical foods. They often look and taste good, but contain little or no nutrition. I suggest that cola drinks are good for cleaning the terminals on your car battery, and that is about all. Cola drinks are so acidic that a nail left in a can of cola will often dissolve in a few days.
                  As for margarine, the best use I have found for it is as a substitute for bicycle grease. Just don’t eat it unless you are hoping to shorten your life and make yourself ill.
                  Those cute, sugar-covered, multi-colored cold cereals would make good packing material or possibly decent wall insulation. Just don't feed them to your children unless you enjoy hyperactive behavior and learning problems.
                  As for chemical additives, the faddists are those who don't mind eating the several thousand chemical additives that have not been thoroughly tested. This is why they are on the Food and Drug Administration's 'GRAS' list - "generally regarded as safe". That is about all that can be said about them. Combine 20 or thirty in one meal, as often happens today, and you are definitely playing guinea-pig for the food chemistry industry.

THE 'ORGANICALLY GROWN' FOLKS

'Organically grown' is a trade term for food grown without chemical pesticides and herbicides. In California it carries a legal definition. This is no longer faddish, so it is harder to write about it. It is, in fact, the fastest growing segment of the food market in America today.

But many doubt it still. Organic agriculture, of course, was the only method of growing food for thousands of years. So is this faddism? The movement to obtain organically grown food is only common sense.

After all, who really wants food laced with chemicals so deadly that they have decimated entire animal species? Rachel Carson and others have pointed out that pesticides have the same gene-altering effects as atomic radiation. We can also thank pesticides for the contamination of most ground water supplies, topsoil erosion, and even contamination of the oceans.

No, the faddists are the chemical advocates - duped into believing that we will starve without the toxic chemicals. The truth is quite the opposite. In a recent California drought, the organic farmers fared better, and their crops are more pest-resistant as well. Organic produce lasts longer on the shelf, and tastes better. If you don't agree, your taste buds are probably numb from years of eating over-sweetened, over-salted food.

HOW ABOUT OAT BRAN, NUTRITIONAL YEAST AND FISH OIL?

Surely, you say, this is faddism. But wait. These are foods that have been analyzed and found to be rich in nutrients that are often missing from modern diets.

Fish Oils. Fish oil is rich in what are called omega-3 fatty acids that are required to stop inflammation in our bodies and protect our cell membranes. Without enough of them, our nutrition suffers, we age much faster and we often end up with many aches and pains, and even dementia, prostate problems in men, and many other ailments.

Fiber. Bran is the fiber-rich part of the grain, without which many people develop constipation and other digestive problems. Other fibers that are extremely valuable include cellulose, or vegetable fibers, psyllium husks, modified citrus pectin and many others.
Most Americans, in particular, do not get nearly enough fiber from their diets of white flour products, white sugar products and denatured, overcooked vegetables. This is one reason colon cancer and constipation are so common today.

Nutritional Yeasts. Nutritional yeast, and to some degree brewers yeast, are specially grown to be rich in protein, B vitamins, selenium, chromium and a few other vital nutrients.

No, the food faddists are the ones who are content with food stuffs that look, taste and feel good, but contain little or no nutrition. The Ding-Dong, Twinkie and microwave brownie crowd - you are the faddists, I say.

VITAMINS, MINERALS, HERBS, AND OTHER SUPPLEMENT PILLS

Herbs can hardly be called faddish. They have been around for a long time. Herbs have been part of every culture in recorded history. While some caution should be exercised, (see the article on Why Take Supplements?) some herbs are wonderful when used carefully.

Vitamins and minerals are essential food components that have been researched, many for over 80 years. Today, soils are depleted of nutrients, food is often refined, and stress and toxic chemicals in the environment and in prescription medication deplete nutrients.

In view of this, taking supplementary nutrients is a wise idea. Perhaps that is why at least 40% of Americans take nutritional supplements, even if the surgeon general doesn't approve.

The obvious fashion-conscious faddists are the ones who take the patent remedies we call pharmaceutical drugs. These go in and out of fashion every ten to twenty years as the patents expire and they are replaced by the latest models (which are at times worse than the old ones). These people deserve our pity, as they are caught up in an advertising scheme and nothing more, in too many instances. This is faddism in its purest sense.

WHAT ABOUT DISTILLED OR SPRING WATER TO DRINK?

Most city water supplies are not high quality water, no matter what the health department says. Most often the water contains traces of pesticides, heavy metals, added chemicals such as aluminum, which is almost all of them, and even patent drugs like birth control pills and hundreds of others. In addition, most cities add chlorine and aluminum to the water to treat it.

Fluorides. The worst additive is the fluorides. Most chemical fluorides added to water supplies are actually the waste products gathered from smokestacks of fertilizer factories. This product, called hydrofluosilicic acid, also contains toxic metals, kerosene, radiation and other things that have no business in the water.

Pure water is no fad. It is common sense. It was the 'normal' state until short-sighted policies, corrupt legislators and callous individuals allowed various industrial and agricultural chemicals and heavy metals to seep into the water. This has destroyed the purity of the water supply for generations to come.

While it may have been the case years ago, I would say that today the folks who drink Evian or Crystal Geyser water are not faddish at all. In contrast, chemically treated water for drinking is probably more like a silly fad that will be shown to be nothing less than insane in some cases. This is especially so for the addition of fluorides, quite a toxic chemical that is still added to most American water supplies and some in Great Britain as well.

Far safer methods of water processing such as ozone can make for delicious and safe tap water. Until then, I can only recommend the clean flavor and purity of filtered, steam distilled and spring water only.

CONCLUSION

In summary, there are plenty of foods and diets that are faddish, but often they are not the ones we think. So let's not go nuts over the food nuts. They may have something to offer.

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