From the desk of Dr Sam Shohet
BDS MGDS RCS(Eng) LiAc MBAcC ICAK
THE MAGIC FORMULA The Offer
What would you say if I were to tell you that I had a foolproof formula that would guarantee to reduce fatal and non-fatal heart attack by a whopping 70%?
What if I also told you that this same formula would guarantee to reduce death from all causes by a phenomenal 30-40%?
Impressed?
The Cost
What if, coupled with this, the formula would cost very little to produce on a mass scale and would be virtually free at the point of sale?
Furthermore, what if you knew that the source of this wonder formula was from THE biggest pharmaceutical company on the planet?
What Price?
How much would you be prepared to pay for something that would cut the annual health bill by a staggering 40-60%, free up hospital beds for emergencies, slice through the cost of lost revenue through sick leave and days off work; at a stroke?
And these are just the commercial considerations!
Add to that the human element, the pain and suffering averted right across the social spectrum regardless of whether you are rich or poor, young or old and the immense impact that would have on our society.
The Prize
So what are we talking about here?
The formula is the Mediterranean Diet and the biggest pharmaceutical company on the planet is none other than Mother Earth of course with her wonderful array of health benefitting foods.
I am sure that after that revelation you are all thinking: 'Is that all? How boring'.
Yet stop to think how you would feel if I told you that the formula was a drug called Cureall and the pharma company was the famous Drugsforall. Would that perk you up?
Natural Before Man Made
The way to peak health has to be the easy way and simply doing it the way nature intended: by eating. The only problem is that our eating habits have changed and there have been so many recommendations as to what we should eat and how we should eat it.
In response to the soaring death rate from heart disease, The American Heart Association brought out dietary recommendations some eight years ago. Unfortunately, and despite the implementation of these recommendations there has not been any discernible difference in mortality or morbidity - sickness - from heart disease.
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Heart Association Diet ↑ grains |
Mediterranean Diet ↑ vegetables |
The AHA diet is in the typical format of a medical prescription: increase intake of this and reduce intake of that, instead of setting out the basis of healthy eating as the Med diet does. Also, the Med diet is not based on recommendations but compiled from foods actually eaten by Mediterranean cultures who have substantially lower cardiac problems than other cultures, the emphasis being on fresh, natural, wholefood produce.
Why Not 100% Protection?
Now for those of you who follow my blogs and recognise that disease is an outcome of gene expression which, in turn, is dependent on diet, will already be wondering why it is that we don't get 100% protection if this diet is so good. And those same people will be able to answer their own question: diet is only one part of what influences gene expression: lifestyle, environment and even emotions being the other influential factors. But, let's face it, 70% is pretty good for one factor on its own, especially that it is under our direct control, so far!
How We Can Do Even Better
Food not only supplies us with nutrients to thrive, but it is also responsible for turning genes on and off. So, recognising this and with our present advances in gene mapping, we can tweak the foods that each of us needs to ensure that we not only turn on those genes that will give us a beneficial outcome, we can actually turn off those genes that we know will give us an unfavourable outcome.
A BRAVE NEW WORLD
Is this Sam's idea of a brave new world you are thinking? Not really. Not if we use Nature to nurture us instead of using it to destroy us.
Sure, we make a great deal of money in the present process of devising formulae to treat everything, but then only to have to plough it straight back to restore the mess we made of our health as a consequence. And, the other, personal, problem with doing it this way is that the outcome is far from perfect, not to mention the pain and suffering we have to go through on route.
You have all heard it before: NATURE really is BEST.
With warm regards,
Sam Shohet