BarracksSi

Veggies, fruit, and lean, grass-fed meats (you could even call it "paleo") were so good for her that it eliminated her MS. Going from nearly bedridden to walking unassisted in a few months is pretty dramatic, IMO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=KLjgBLwH3Wc

kv501

I certainly don't question the benefit of a clean diet, but to claim that it cured MS is snake oil hogwash. If I had cancer that went into remission and was a heavy eater of ice cream I could make the same sort of BS claim. Add in the emotional nature of life-threatening diseases and people are ripe to believe with no proof. Add even further the fact that she has books, DVD's, and classes for sale and one's "critical thinking" radar should go off like a car alarm. Until there are repeatable, peer-reviewed, evidentiary conclusions made you should stay away from anyone claiming that she has a magic cure, especially when she won't tell you what the cure consists of until you buy her handy dandy 5 part book series for $200 plus shipping.

Check out her website and the "Success Stories." Then try to tell me how it's any different than an evangelist on TV making someone's tumor disappear.

BarracksSi

Hmm. Well, maybe she sells stuff to fund her foundation, since there doesn't seem to be a secret to the cure (especially after watching that lecture video). And, at least she's not selling food or supplements herself, unlike other fitness-oriented companies out there.

I hope she's not just another huckster, though. It's already hard enough to spread positive ideas without encountering lots of skepticism.

chet31

I am also skeptical, sorry. Show me these results in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, then I would be more interested.

chandltp

Although FoodMatters would have you believe these type of results are common. While I don't believe everything in that show, I do believe that a proper diet is crucial to prevent and reverse some diseases. Now I don't really believe that cancer can be cured after the fact, but I believe if we don't eat all the junk, it may prevent many of these diseases.

kv501

Steve Jobs caught his pancreatic cancer early enough to treat, but tried to use alternative boogeyman medicine (such as this lady's) rather than conventional treatments and look were it got him. He admitted himself that in hindsight he wished he would have gotten proper treatment because he could have lived much longer.

From his biography by Walter Isaacson:

"for nine months he refused to undergo surgery for his pancreatic cancer – a decision he later regretted as his health declined. Instead, he tried a vegan diet, acupuncture, herbal remedies and other treatments he found online, and even consulted a psychic. He also was influenced by a doctor who ran a clinic that advised juice fasts, bowel cleansings and other unproven approaches, before finally having surgery in July 2004."

That's where this stuff is dangerous.

For the record, I don't own anything made by Apple or worship at the Jobs throne, but it irks me that here was a guy who had unlimited resources and a chance 99.9% of pancreatic cancer sufferers don't get (catching it early), and he pissed it down his leg thinking that his diet was going to miracle the cancer away. To the OP, I'm not bagging on you at all, so I hope you don't take it that way.

digger531

+1

benlees

I love this kind of stuff. Shows how little people know about basic nutrition. Veggies, fruit, whole grain and clean meat is a normal diet. Not a cure for anything. Like saying water cured me of my thirst.

BarracksSi

No sweat, I thought that maybe it was kinda crazy anyway.

BarracksSi

True, but then again, a lot of people think of a normal diet as burgers, fries, energy bars, Gatorade, and God knows what else, and get their fruit from Froot Roll-Ups and their veggies from the lettuce and tomato on their burgers (and maybe salsa dip). Then, "healthy" means fruit juice, grilled chicken sandwiches, baked corn chips and Caesar salad... which still isn't that great of a selection anyway.

Machka 

+1

Veggies are good for us, and should make up a good portion of our diets. But will veggies cure us of diseases .... ???

When I lost 13 lbs last winter (starting at Easter), I did it by switching from large meat-filled sandwiches at lunch to eating a large bowl of lightly boiled veggies with no dressings, sauces, etc. on them. We also ate lots of veggies at our evening meals too, and cut out most of our snacking.

But switching to veggies at lunch cut my lunchtime calories in about half, and still left me feeling full for most of the afternoon.

BarracksSi

It just occurred to me -- I wonder what Dr. Wahls was eating before. She talks about the drugs she took, but not her old diet.

eugenek

This is very true, scientifically proven, and it is the basis for the so-called "Okinawa diet". Human digestive system isn't very good at detecting the amount of calories in the food, so it relies substantially on quantity measures. Veggies have low energy density, and, if you eat a lot of them, your body is fooled into thinking that it's full. Chips and cookies are a lot more energy-dense (up to 20 times more calories per ounce) and they put you at risk of overeating.

There was a study where people were fed seemingly identical meals and left free to choose how much they ate, but some of them got low-calorie meals and others had their meals covertly "padded" with generous amounts of oil. Oil has 9 calories/gram and you don't need much of it to skew the energy density. Sure enough, all subjects ended up eating identical quantities of food, and subjects with largest quantities of fat in the diet averaged 1000 more calories/day than those on the basic low-fat diet.

kv501

She is a medical professor at a major university; she should know the difference between correlation and causation. I say that (partially) in jest, because I'm sure she knows very well how pseudo-scientific her opinions are. My grandfather lived into his late 80s and had hits wits about him to the end. The man never exercised in his life other than while working, ate bacon every day, smoked, and did everything else you could imagine that wasn't healthy. By this woman's reasoning, since it worked for him I should try the same thing and could get the same results.

Now, we all know that that's not the truth because we have scientific proof that the odds are living like that will kill you. But I use the example to illustrate that her "cure" for MS has absolutely no scientific proof, explanation, or basis in reality. She is (IMO) a woman who was blindsided by a terrible disease in the prime of her life, went slightly wacko scrambling for a cure, had her MS go into remission (which she also states in her bio), and now is giving people a very dangerous false hope (see my post #6 above). I think it's totally irresponsible. Her MS went into remission, and since at the time she was eating a lot of vegetables, she tells you to spend a house payment on her books and DVDs (that's the key here), and that you don't need to go get sound medical advise...or chemo...or drugs...or any other proven treatment.

Wesley36

For crying out loud, people keep making the same point, which, IMHO, misses the point. Yes, veggies are good for us and should make a good portion of our diet, no, they are not a miracle cure.

But look at your assumption - veggies are a "normal" diet, and I think it is safe to say that "normal" means healthy. NOT eating this way is BAD for your health, and yes, it can make you sick, or aggravate a sickness that is latent in your body, or make you susceptible to illnesses than you might otherwise not succumb to. So in that context, yes, eating healthy is the cure because good nutrition and exercise help maintain and preserve good health.

PS On living a long time, research on centenarians consistently finds one and only one major variable - genetics. Quality of life is quite a different matter, lifestyle make a huge difference.

kv501

fify

matthewk459

Natalizumab and interferon beta-1a have shown some results at regrowing damaged myelin sheath, there are also promising early stage results from stem cells studies, but no dietary changes to date have been proven to have any effect of reversing the underlying cause of MS.