If your nutritional program is so good, why do you still take drugs?
There’s no question that good nutrition improves our health. Heck, many type 2 diabetics do away with all need for medication by eating low-carb. But can proper nutrition prevent all illness and do away with all need for drugs? Let’s talk about it.
I got this question years ago, back when I was blogging. The fellow who posed it clearly thought that if one’s nutrition was all it should be, there should never be a need for medication. In particular, the Wellbutrin I take for ADHD and seasonal affective disorder, and the sleep medication I take for a diagnosed sleep disorder.
Does ideal nutrition do away with the need for medicine?
I can only suppose that those who feel this way are ignorant of history. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 1900, fully 30 percent of deaths in the US were of children five and under. Some of them would have been trauma victims, and of course, trauma medicine has improved dramatically.
But many of them were killed by infectious diseases, diphtheria, pertussis, tuberculosis, pneumonia and flu. Between vaccination and antibiotics, the rate of death from these diseases has plummeted. This is the main reason that average lifespan has increased so dramatically. But was the American diet ideal in 1900?
Not by our standards. The American rate of sugar consumption was 90 pounds per capita per year, about half of what it is today, but still higher than it had historically been. Certainly, people ate bread, potatoes, and other concentrated carbs. However, soda intake was 12 bottles per year, and the bottles were far smaller than the 20 ouncers common today.
How old am I? I’m so old I can remember 6 ounce bottles of Coca Cola in Coke machines. Processed food was far less common. Home cooking was the standard. Frozen food and fast food didn’t exist. Highly processed seed oils were not a thing. Home gardening was more common, especially during the Great War, when victory gardens were urged.
Yet, people were dying young. So, let’s go back further. Let’s go back to the Middle Ages. In 14th century Europe, sugar consumption was limited to the wealthy. Interestingly, grain consumption among the peasants, so the vast majority of people, was rarely wheat, but rather barley, oats, and rye. All of which are easier on blood sugar than wheat flour.
Links and Show Notes
https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-26-why-do-you-still-take-drugs.html
Website CarbSmart.com
Episode 26 Featured Recipe
Low-Carb Brussels Sprouts with Parmesan-Bacon Cream Sauce
https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast26recipe
Find Hundreds of Articles and Delicious and Easy-to-Make Low-Carb Recipes by Dana Carpender
https://www.carbsmart.com/author/dana
Show Notes
https://www.carbsmart.com/podcast-26-why-do-you-still-take-drugs.html
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.