The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-05-15

are any foods bad for you! VI
DR.. Clendening will answer
questions of general interest
only, and then only through
his column.
course / don't mean frankly poi
sonous substances that may be
eaten as foods by mistake, such as
toadstools for mushrooms; or con-
taminated foods, such as cans that
have botulism, or incurred meats
that have trichina, or plain food
poisoning from foods infected with
germs. | mean good food that we
eat regularly. Do any such COM
mon foods cause disease?
Well, several have been accused
from time to time. Tomatoes and
cancer is one combination which
we can dismiss as purely a mistake
in statistics and reasoning. Just
because a neighbor down the street
used to eat lots of tomatoes and
then came down with cancer is no
proof.
Meat and salt, however, have
come in for accusations that have
some basis, and demand consid-
Grafton. Meat, so the accusation
runs, is not one of Natures foods.
Ergo when we eat it we are going
against Nature and will suffer.
Many doctors prohibit meat to
their patients who have Bright's
disease, high blood pressure, ar
thrills and govt, so by an argu-
ment equally fallacious it is con-
cluded that meat causes these
diseases. Personally l am con-
WINGED that meat does not cause
any disease and that it rs whole
some and valuable and harmless
part of mans diet. But is there
any evidence for or against this
view?
Meat and Blood Pressure
So far as the relationship be-
tween meat eating and high blood
pressure, hardening Of the arteries
and Bright's disease is concerned,
we have, for instance, the evidence
of DR.. William A. Thomas, who ac-
companied the Mcmillan Arctic
Expedition and, with their diet in
mind, examined a group of Eski-
mos. All Eskimos live practically
entirely on meat from the time
they are wesned. Babies are
rursed nv the nnnthers fo- fou- ~
SIX years until their teeth are
strong enough to eat meat.
DR.. Thomas examined 142 adults
between the ages of forty and
sixty years. OF these only three
had blood pressures which an
American life insurance company
would consider too high. In q
group of nine Eskimos over sixty
years Of age none had q blood
pressure over 140. Evidence Of
kidney or Bright's disease was
present in only Is of a group Of
202 Eskimos over sixty years Of
age. This is below the average
Of most of our population who live
on a mixed diet.
DR.. Vilhjalmar Stefansson, the
Arctic explorer, offered to live in
the climate Of New York and eat
an exclusively meat diet. He was
examined regularly by physicians
expert in such diseases and after
two years there was no change in
his blood pressure, no evidence Of
increased hardening Of the arter-
les and no evidence Of kidney dam
age in his urine.
Salt Not Harmful
Salt is another article Of diet
about which similar accusations
have been made. The idea started
in 1904 when Ambard and Beau
jard, two French physicians,
stated that blood pressure was in
fiuenced by the amount Of salt in
the diet. For long time after this
any unfortunate person who was
found to have blood pressure one
millimeter over normal was not
allowed to have enough salt To
help get up decent sweat. There
is no record that this regimen ever
did anybody any good. Later Berg
er and Feinberg, in q carefully
controlled series of experiments,
proved that blood pressure was not
influenced to any appreciable ex-
tent either by removing salt from
the diet, or adding it in excessive
amount. A regular intake of salt
is one CT the basic necessities Of
animal life. Any excess you may
take does no harm, but is excreted
leaving no trace.
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
B. M.:-Last summer | suffered
q sunstroke and now get dizzy
when over-tired or over-heated.
Answer: Persons who have ever
had a sunstroke must ever after
wards be very careful about get