THE LAND OF THE SICK VS. THE LAND OF VITALITY

[Guest guest]

The land of the sick vs. the land of vitality

 

http://www.gifam.org/article-034.htm

By Lynn Hardy, ND, CNC

 

Americans are sicker than ever! This is not my personal opinion but

an indisputable fact. After examining the latest statistics and

health forecasts, I am horrified about the future that lies before

us. Even though most are preoccupied, and rightfully so, with the

threat of terrorist attacks and other potential dangers, the

phenomenon I'll be discussing also demands our immediate attention.

Ending the atrocities of the world will not be enough to ensure a

positive future for mankind. We must work just as hard to put a stop

to the total deterioration of our food, water, and environment.

 

Based on scientific literature and the latest research, I will try to

shine a light on the rapidly deteriorating state of health in America

in contrast to a nation that has unwittingly discovered the secrets

of supreme health and longevity.

 

The land of the sick

 

The United States, and on a smaller scale Europe, is being propelled

towards total disaster through the deliberate poisoning of our most

essential basic need – our food. Within the last hundred years food

manufacturers, through their clever and aggressive marketing, have

completely changed the way we look at food. In fact, they've been so

successful in their campaign that people actually believe they're

getting a healthy nutritious meal when they devour a McDonald's or

Burger King hamburger. They don't realize that what they're actually

eating is almost completely deficient of any nutrients and full of

harmful ingredients. These junk foods don't nourish the body in any

way - as food should - they just barely keep the person from

starving. (I mean this in a nutritional sense because the obese

humans these foods produce look far from starved!) The situation has

become so critical that the majority of people simply dismiss those

of us fighting for clean food, water, and air as blind fanatics.

Paradoxically, supermarkets are actually starting to devote a tiny

little section to so called " Health Food " . But then what exactly are

they selling in the remaining 99% of the store, " Sick Food " ? My

answer is " yes " and I will go on to prove my point and risk being

called a fanatic or an idealist.

 

But am I, in fact, being fanatic when the latest statistics show that

every second American is chronically ill? How could we have let

things get so out of hand?

 

Partnership for Solutions, a new initiative of Johns Hopkins

University and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, collects health

statistics and calculates future projections. (See

www.chronicnet.org.) They define " chronic illness " the following way:

 

" A chronic condition lasts a year or longer, limits what one can do

and may require ongoing care. More than 125 million Americans have at

least one chronic condition and 60 million have more than one

condition. Examples of chronic conditions are diabetes, cancer,

glaucoma and heart disease.

 

" The number of people with chronic conditions is growing at an

alarming rate. In 2000, 20 million more people had one or more

chronic conditions than the number originally estimated in 1996. By

the year 2020, 25% of the American population will be living with

multiple chronic conditions, and costs for managing these conditions

will reach $1.07 trillion… The number of people with chronic

conditions is projected to increase from 125 million in 2000 to 171

million in the year 2030. " 1

 

These statistics are not only frightening but rather shocking as

well! And even though data about the prevalence of chronic illness is

available in many health publications, most people are simply not

aware of it.

 

What's even more disturbing is that the average age of

the " chronically ill " is on a constant decline. Nearly half are under

the age of 45 and a staggering 15 percent of those are children.

Millions of little ones are suffering from diabetes, asthma,

developmental disabilities, cancer and other disorders.

Unfortunately, this is just the beginning.

 

Asthma is the most common chronic disease of childhood, affecting an

estimated 5 million children. Among the population, children now have

the highest rate of asthma, and the numbers have increased 92% over

the past decade. A growing number of children are also developing

Type II (adult-onset) diabetes, which was primarily found only in

adults. Millions of young ones are being medicated for Attention

Deficit Disorder (ADD) for their inability to concentrate. Cancer is

still the leading cause of disease-related deaths in children under

15.

 

Along with countless others, all of the above-mentioned chronic

conditions can be blamed on our polluted air and water, and the

nutritionally deprived, chemically poisoned food we eat. Simply

stated, if we were to eliminate these toxins from our lives we would

not develop asthma, diabetes, ADD, cancer, etc. Thus, does this

mother who works so hard to fight for clean air, water and food for

her child still seem like a fanatic? Or to phrase it in a different

way: What can we say about the ignorance of the person who disregards

the above statistics and continues to poison herself and her children

on a daily basis?

 

Unfortunately, our modern health care system (or " sick care system "

as my husband calls it) does not really believe in the health-

preserving power nutrition plays in our lives. Instead, conventional

medicine often blames heredity for diseases, which actually serves

two purposes: It frees the industry from any liability and deems the

patient helpless and not responsible for his own health (or lack

thereof). After all, anyone can change the way they eat, but we can't

do anything about our genes! This is a very convenient and profitable

standpoint. But as luck would have it, I have concrete evidence of

what happens to a nation if it doesn't eat, drink and breathe

garbage. I will now present this " other side of the coin " to the

reader, so that the truth can be seen once and for all!

 

The land of vitality

In India during the 1920s, British researcher, Sir Robert McCarrison,

conducted one of the most eye-opening experiments relative to the

correlation between diet and health. Dr. McCarrison spent many years

in the Himalayan Mountains including the picturesque Hunza Valley.

This magical fairytale-like place is found between the borders of

China, India, Pakistan and Russia at nearly 8000 ft. The natives of

this valley, the Hunzakuts, captured Dr. McCarrison's attention

because of the their excellent health and extremely long lifespan.

 

" In these Himalayan Mountains is Hunza; a country slightly more than

a hundred miles long and perhaps just as wide, containing

approximately thirty thousand inhabitants. " Writes Dr. Jay F.

Hoffman, the author of the book Hunza – Secrets of the world's

healthiest and oldest living people, published in 1960. Dr. Hoffman

was sent to Hunza under the auspices of the National Geriatrics

Society.

 

" Here the people lived to be 100, 110, 120, and occasionally as much

as 140 years of age. Here lies the real Fountain of Youth – probably

the only one in the world… Hunza land is truly a Utopia if ever there

was one. Just think of this! Here is a land where people do not have

our common diseases, such as heart ailments, cancer, arthritis, high

blood pressure, diabetes, tuberculosis, hay fever, asthma, liver

trouble, gall bladder trouble, constipation or many other ailments

the plague the rest of the world. Moreover, there are no hospitals,

no inane asylums, no drug stores, no saloons, no tobacco stores, no

police, no jails, no crimes, no murders, and no beggars. " 2

 

Any westerner who stepped foot on the tiny land of this friendly

nation couldn't stop raving about their good nature, outstanding

hospitality, not to mention the physical strength and stamina of

their men. " My own experience provides an example of a race

unsurpassed in perfection of physique and in freedom from disease in

general. " Wrote Dr. McCarrison about the Hunzkuts. " Amongst these

people the span of life is extraordinarily long… During the period of

my association with these people I never saw a case of asthenic

dyspepsia, of gastric or duodenal ulcer, of appendicitis, of mucous

colitis, of cancer. " 3

 

Not only are the Hunza people immune to serious diseases they are

also spared the discomfort of commonplace conditions such as the cold

or the flu. Dr. McCarrison, who specialized in nutritional diseases,

was determined to learn their secret. The opportunity arose in 1927

when he was appointed the Director of Nutrition Research in India.

Along with his designation he also received a well-equipped

laboratory and qualified assistants.

 

The Doctor designed a whole series of experiments to determine how

big of a role the Hunzakuts' diet plays in their supreme health and

longevity. In the first experiment 1189 albino rats were fed the

Hunza diet right from birth. This consisted of whole meal flatbread

with a pat of fresh butter, sprouted legumes, fresh raw carrots and

cabbage, unboiled whole milk, and once a week a tiny portion of meat

and bones. Plenty of water was provided for drinking and bathing. The

only thing the rats did not receive was fruit, which the Hunza people

ate a great deal of.

 

 

 

No diseases, no death

The rats were fed this diet for 27 months, which would be the

equivalent of approximately 45 human years. The rats were killed, and

thoroughly examined at all stages leading up to 27 months.

Remarkably, no trace of any disease could be found in their bodies!

This astonishing consequence could best be explained through Dr.

McCarrison's words as he described his findings during a lecture at

the College of Surgeons in 1931:

 

" During the past two and a quarter years there has been no case of

illness in this `universe' of albino rats, no death from natural

causes in the adult stock, and, but for a few accidental deaths, no

infantile mortality. Both clinically and at post-mortem examination

this stock has been shown to be remarkably free from disease. It may

be that some of them have cryptic disease of one kind or another,

but, if so, I have failed to find either clinical or macroscopical

evidence of it. "

 

These results were truly staggering. But sadly, they did not have any

real impact on the physicians present, whom, much like the doctors of

today, have a greater understanding of disease than the lack there

of. There wasn't a sudden surge of articles and books propagating the

Hunza diet and the avoidance of white rice, white flour, sugar and

for the most part, meat. Their meals don't consist of pre-cooked,

over-processed, and nutritionally devoid industrial chemicals – like

the average American's. Instead, they enjoy locally grown organic

fruit, vegetables, unprocessed fresh milk products, and green or

whole grains.

 

As a follow up to his earlier experiment, Dr. McCarrison duplicated

in his laboratory the low quality diet of a poor rural region of

India. During this larger-scale experiment, 2243 rats were fed a diet

deficient of vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients. The

animal results matched the physical condition of the millions of

people living in this region: Both groups developed diseases in every

organ they possessed.

 

Diet and behavior

The most disturbing discovery of Dr. McCarrison was to come. In a

later experiment, he set out to learn how the rats would react to the

diet of the poorer class of England. This consisted of white bread,

margarine, sweetened tea, boiled vegetables, and cheap canned meats

and jams. On this diet, not only did the rats not thrive physically,

but they actually developed nervous disorders before things went from

bad to worse: " They were nervous, " writes the doctor, " and opt to

bite their attendants; they lived unhappily together, and by the 16th

day of the experiment they began to kill and eat the weaker ones

amongst them. "

 

Shockingly, this diet of the lower-class English in the 1930s

actually had a much greater nutrient value than the " food " the

majority of well-to-do Americans stuff themselves with today.

 

The Hunza people did not become a household name, even though they

unintentionally came to possess the mental and practical skills

needed to live long, joyous and disease-free lives. Of course, most

of us are not able to move to the mountains and grow our own food but

we can still learn a lot from this noble, peaceful and healthy

nation. We can definitely start restoring our health by modifying our

food selections and by drinking pure filtered water. Staying away

from dead processed foods and turning towards natural, fresh,

organically grown fruit and vegetables as much as possible is a good

rule of thumb for everyone, regardless of his state of health. If

enough people started demanding quality foods the food industry would

have no choice but to alter its manufacturing processes and start

supplying us with truly nutritious options instead of the falsely

labeled junk we're subjected to. But since I can't foresee that day

anytime in the near future, we all need to take responsibility for

our own health and educate ourselves the best we can about the

importance of nutrition.

 

References:

1 Partnership for Solutions: Projection of Chronic Illness Prevalence

and Cost Inflation. A project of John Hopkins University and The

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

2 Dr. Jay M. Hoffman: Hunza, Secrets of the world's healthiest and

oldest living people. New Win Publishing.

3 J.I. Rodale: The Healthy Hunza. Rodale Press