I am on a vegan diet to deal with my cancer. I eat no animal protein. I probably never will again. That’s because I have cancer, and I have read Dr. John Kelly’s book, Stop Feeding Your Cancer.
I have been researching diets for five decades. I was restored to health by Francis Pottenger in 1949-50. His diet had a lot of red meat. It had no refined sugar, no processed white flour, and lots of steamed vegetables.
I have asked myself this: Do vegans live longer? They don’t. Statistical evidence is now available.
This video reports on detailed studies involving thousands of people. The studies studied longevity. It turns out that there is no difference: meat-eaters, vegetarians, and vegans. The lecture was delivered by a physician who is a vegan. He reports on facts that he found astounding.
Let us not forget that the great researcher in the efficacy of diets was a dentist, Weston Price. His 1939 book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, revealed that half a dozen cultures that did not adopt the Western diet had people with good teeth, jawbones fully developed, and few people suffering from degenerative diseases. Those separate cultures no longer exist. The Western diet is universal. In those cultures today, people suffer from bad teeth and degenerative diseases. Price’s studies could not be repeated today. One phrase doomed them all: “Will you have fries with that?” Stop Feeding Your Canc... Best Price: $7.89 Buy New $15.00 (as of 11:39 UTC - Details)
Here’s what we should not forget: the diets that preserved these cultures from Western diseases were radically different from each other. Some had a lot of animal fat. Others were high in animal protein. Others had almost no animal protein.
In other words, the quest for the universal diet is a fool’s quest. It’s different strokes for different genetic folks. No one diet is going to make everybody healthy. The quest for such a diet is what I would call the quest for the unholy Grail. The quest is futile.
Roger Williams was a professor of biochemistry at the University of Texas. He wrote an article for The Freeman in January 1969. The title: “The Only Kind of People There Are.” Here is what he wrote.
One of the most important facts about ourselves we have not grasped: All of us are basically and inevitably individuals in many important and striking ways. Our individuality is as inescapable as our humanity. If we are to plan for people, we must plan for individuals, because that’s the only kind of people there are.In what ways are we individuals? First as to our bodies. These ways are tangible and not subject to argument. Each of us has a distinctive stomach, a distinctive heart and circulatory system. Each of us has a distinctive muscular system, distinctive breathing apparatus, and an endocrine system all our own. Most surprising and significant perhaps, each of us has a distinctive set of nerve receptors, trunk nerves, and a brain that is distinctive in structure and not like other brains.
He drew this conclusion:
Take for instance the area of nutrition and health. It would be relatively easy to produce economically in factories a “man-chow” which would supposedly be the perfect food for the average man. Laboratory experiences as well as wide observations show, however, that this “man-chow” idea is completely unrealistic. It will not work. Because of biochemical individuality we do not all like the same foods nor can we thrive on the same mixture. Many human beings are so built that they derive a substantial part of the satisfaction of life out of eating. Taking variety and choices from them would be depriving them of their pursuit of happiness. The best food planning devised involves supermarkets where thousands of kinds of foods in great variety are available.The Food and Drug Administration in Washington has, at least until very recently, done its planning on the basis of the hypothetical average man and has sought to regulate the marketing of medicinal substances, vitamins, and the like on this basis. This cannot work because of the hard facts of biochemical individuality. Real people—individuals—do not react in a uniform manner either to drugs or to nutritional factors such as amino acids, minerals, and vitamins.
No planning in the area of nutrition and health can work on a long range basis unless the facts of individuality are taken into account. If we plan for people, we must plan for individuals, because that is the only kind of people there are.
There are some things that seem sensible. I don’t think french fried potatoes will ever be proven to be nutritious. Neither will white sugar. I don’t think white flour is going to do me any good. I haven’t eaten these things since 1949. Nevertheless, I got cancer.
Here is my conclusion: if you can find the diet that seems keep you healthy, stick to it, but don’t assume that if it works for you, it is going to work equally well for everybody else.
If your alternative health guru says that a particular diet is the only way for everyone to go, find a new guru.
Reprinted with the author’s permission.