Suicide on the installment plan

For the better part of a decade I interviewed physicians for Alternative & Complementary Therapies, a medical journal published in New York. Most of these doctors were at the top of their fields and had much to say about therapies: those that worked and those that didn’t. Every one of the physicians expressed concerns about the “American diet,” and that there were certain foods that must be avoided.

Of course, the medical community is well aware of what is good for us, but the public, generally is not. That is because of the intense advertising on TV and other media. The gullible public tends to believe what they are told, even if it is wrong, unhealthy, or will even bring about their eventual demise.

So here is a partial low-down about what to avoid. Some of this information may be new to you, but it is well worth knowing, particularly if you have kids.

If there is one substance that contributes to a wide variety of diseases and conditions, it is sugar. Here are some reasons to avoid it: It depresses the immune system, so you will get sick more easily. It contributes to a variety of cancers. Sugar can cause premature aging. It contributes to alcoholism, arthritis, heart disease, MS, varicose veins, osteoporosis, emphysema, and will increase your risk of contracting gout (which is near-epidemic on Saipan). If you want to look young, radiant, beautiful and healthy, then don’t eat sugar.

It is easy to say, cut out all sugar from your diet, but that is a difficult task. Refined sugar, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup, is in many of the foods we like: ketchup, breakfast cereal, sports drinks, cookies, cakes, pies, all sodas, fruit juices, spaghetti sauce, salad dressing, most commercial breads, and granola bars—even if it says “all natural” on the wrapper.

Drink a can of cola, or other soda, you are getting 9 teaspoons of sugar. Nine. That’s a huge amount of sugar to take in at one time. And yet cola is one of the most popular beverages in the world. Now is the time to stop drinking it. Diet colas and other diet drinks have their own set of health risks, such as stroke and they are to be avoided also.

You won’t hear this stuff on TV. You’ll see the ads and you might believe them. The advertisers don’t care about you or your kids; they just want your money. Buy this! Drink it!

Advice: Read the labels on food products when you shop, and keep your eyes peeled for fructose, glucose, dextrose, corn syrup, barley malt, caramel, dextran, grape sugar, maltodextrin, molasses, mannitol, and ethyl maltol.

Instead, use honey or Stevia to sweeten your coffee or tea, and substitute different flavored teas (delicious cold) for soft drinks. Ever had cold mint tea? Really good.

In the CNMI, Guam and Hawaii, processed meat is king. People eat lots of it. They eat baloney, hot dogs, salami, deli meats, canned ham, bacon, sausage (including the tasty Chamorro sausage) pepperoni, and other meat products that come out of the rear end of a factory.

The people who make these meat products will not tell you that eating these meats will contribute to diabetes, heart disease, and that the nitrites (added for color) may contribute to cancers. No sir, they are in the business of selling tasty products that are cheap and convenient. And if you do get diabetes or cancer, try to prove that eating processed meat for 20 years contributed to it.

Consider this: A can of processed meat, a dozen eggs, and two chicken quarters each cost about $2.50. Eating fresh chicken or a couple of eggs is far more nutritious than eating anything that has been processed. And yet, we love hot dogs, Chamorro sausage, and bacon—what are we supposed to do? The answer is, be moderate, cut down your intake. Use your head.

A friend of mine is a dentist. He told me horror stories about his patients; some have developed lesions in the mouth because of chewing betel. And if there are lesions, then oral or esophageal cancer is not far behind. He shook his head sadly. Nobody bothered to tell the people that chewing betel could make them sick. Really sick.

The health concerns for chewing betel are numerous. It just makes no sense, even if it is widely practiced as part of the island culture. Some of the diseases associated with chewing betel are: cancer, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cirrhosis of the liver, cardiovascular disease, hypertension (high blood pressure), as well as physiologic and metabolic effects on the brain, lung, gut, pancreas and the circulatory system.

Diabetes is an epidemic in the CNMI and other Pacific islands. Types 1 and 2 can certainly be treated, but in advanced stages, diabetes is nasty. If left untreated, this disease can do bad things to your body: retinopathy, neuropathy, poor circulation, amputations, stroke, and heart disease. Kidney failure is also possible. People who are obese or overweight are at greater risk as well.

In this article I mention four things that contribute to diabetes: sugar, processed meat, chewing betel and obesity. How many of these apply to you, or your kids?

Eliminating the things we love to eat and drink from our diets is not easy, but it is simple. If you are buying chicken at KFC and you are offered a free soda, ask for a bottle of water. It’s little things like that that can make the difference. Talk with your kids, with your family members; share this information with them. It could mean the difference between life and…well, you know.

For the better part of a decade, Russ Mason wrote for a medical journal, Alternative & Complementary Therapies. His principal assignment was to interview a physician, or other health care practitioner, about new and important treatments, as well as diet and nutrition. Prior to that, he worked at NBC in New York for 16 years, often as a writer for their television programs.