Last week I listened to an NPR broadcast about chemicals in the human body. It was all very interesting and enlightening - such and such chemicals had been found in the body, how noone knows what this may mean for short and long term health, how noone knows how some of those chemicals even enter human tissue, what legislature and public health systems can do to prevent this from getting worse, how labeling might help (and comparing US and Europe, for ex), what research is being done etc etc.

Then someone called and asked what could be done to remove the toxins that had been found in fatty tissue.

Scientist said: Nothing at present could be done. There is no method.

Had I not been in a rush for an appointment I had called in. How about GREENS and FRUITS and VEGGIES to support the body in its natural cleaning process? How about not adding more toxins by switching to a healthier diet?

Maybe not all of the toxins can be removed this way, but sadly science doesn't even seem to recognize the power of greens and fruit in that regard (even though there has been plenty of scientific research to prove the health benefits thereof - see China Study).

How come at times science and common sense don't go together?
I think it has something to do with people wanting science to fix things for them... popping a detox pill would be acceptable, but if that detox 'pill' were a grape, it doesn't 'count'.

What do you think?

[How come at times science and common sense don't go together? ]

They do, you just haven't looked in the right places. There are 36 papers in pubmed about diet as detoxification. They are not only about leafy greens, but most of them do examine effects of the secondary plant metabolites, which evolved in plants as defense against environmental abuses. They generally work that way in the animals that eat them, too.

I really believe there is a general movement by the entire mainstream medical science community to avoid,or downplay anything in the area of nutrition, as a means of curing diseases,or even like this article says...detox the body.
Why I dont know.
Any opinions on this?

Mine is that its to protect one of the largest industries.....pharmaceuticals.

Brian

[I really believe there is a general movement by the entire mainstream medical science community to avoid,or downplay anything in the area of nutrition, as a means of curing diseases,or even like this article says...detox the body.
Why I dont know.
Any opinions on this?

Mine is that its to protect one of the largest industries.....pharmaceuticals.]

I don't agree with this at all. We know what works and so do they. But the sad truth is that hardly anyone is going to eat right, and doctors and drug companies know this.

Brian,

The AMA has recommended that every medical school require 22 credit hours of nutrition; no school that's accredited requires more than 6 for a typical MD or DO, last time I checked. Also, the AMA is basically a fraternal organization and cannot dictate curriculum. There may not be a deliberate and nefarious conspiracy inherent in this. Rather, it may be one of passive ignorance.

cocoa_nibs and arugula,

I would just assume the scientist on the call-in show truly didn't know that detox through diet is possible. They have to go on what's empirical and peer- reviewed, and I would bet my dominant right hand most of them have never HEARD of the China Study. There isn't an abundance of other data to go on; much of those other studies isn't broad enough. And I believe this would make the difference: if there were a glut of really comprehensive long-term studies, no one could beg ignorance about what we know to be true. Alas, the financial motivation for such large-scale research doesn't exist. So it's just for regular people to discover experientially for themselves.

It's great how knowledgeable and focused people on these boards are about this stuff. Thank you, all. As for me, I try not to get frustrated by misinformation and disinformation. It's hard not to, but it just wastes my life force

Tamkukha, what you are saying is only partially true.

Yes, the large-scale epidemiology is there and yes they know that lots of fruits and vegetables are very protective and yes they have heard of Campbell's research and it isn't the highest quality, which is why he doesn't get as much credit as you would expect.

What is true is there is more money available to researchers to push drugs, or isolated phytochemicals, which are pretty much the same as drugs, because of the profit motive. But this does not make up all research dollars. Just most of it.

If a doctor tells the patient: Don't take statins, but go vegan and eat lots of raw fruits and vegetables, there is a 99.5% chance that the patient will not comply and die sooner instead of later. Whereas, if he continues to eat garbage and take a statin, he will probably live longer. This is no great conspiracy, it's just human nature.

Hmm..
Very interesting input.
I guess we are the lucky ones,who have been led to be mindful of our eating.

Brian

you have to understand that there are other factors other then diet out there; and if diet is in fact the leading prevention factor of anything, then there are thousands of different theories of what people should eat; so it really isn't as obvious as everyone seems to think, especially since a lot of people fail to look at all sides of any argument involving food

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noone knows how some of those chemicals even enter human tissue

I'm not very scientific but I have heard that the body pushes toxins aside into the areas between the cells called the "marshy" areas and then the lymph system tries to eliminate the toxins as best it can. An active person has a better chance of moving the toxins out of the body - so keep moving. Also it helps to not put as many toxins into the body so that the body's workload is lite.
Once a toxin is inside a cell I think it can be eliminated by fasting or by losing weight.

The science says: eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. It says furthermore: sometimes eat some seeds, sometimes eat some grains. Don't eat much meat, it says, especially the red stuff -- but if you must eat meat, sigh, eat oily fish, but don't eat too much of it: we don't fully trust it. Don't eat dairy at all, and don't eat processed foods laden with chemicals, either. Don't shop in the middle of the grocery store where all the boxes and bags are, rather shop around the edges where the whole fruits and vegetables live.

Tune out the noise from the carb vs fat vs protein diet writers and their shrieking internet supporters. The paleo people are getting shrill, too. Watch them from your high perch of mostly raw, whole vegan enlightenment, but do not, whatever you do, be smug or all-knowing or think you know very much about anything: science does not claim to be true, only to be less false. Maybe take a small bit of B-12 every now and then. Don't stress out about it too much. Your beautiful human body is very resilient and forgiving, even as it tries to eliminate what it doesn't recognize as food. And when people insist -- "But HOW do you get your PROTEIN?!" just shrug and smile and show them your white teeth. Remember to floss. Also, relax, stay with the yoga, take a hike, roll around on the floor with your big dorky dog, get some sleep, eat an apple, wear your seatbelt, don't smoke, just drink red wine in small amounts, if at all, stay out of the ghetto at night, leave illicit drugs alone, sometimes a little weed may be fine, better cooked than smoked, though, because, you know, smoke in the lungs, same for incense, relax about the whole issue, maybe Obama will legalize it, but I digress. Take a really awesome vacation this year, even if it's just in your own neighborhood.

People don't want to eat and drink what's right. There's no conspiracy from the "medical establishment" or from "science" or "big pharma" or from "doctors..." Doctors, scientists, drug researchers are individuals, they're not some collective mass that's out to get us in some evil theory of wack.

People think salads are boring. People think fruit is boring. They'd rather eat big fatty meals of animal flesh. Fried up and salted goo tastes good! Most people frankly don't even think much about it at all, except for price. Is it free? Eat it! It tastes yummy, and, hey, what's your problem, you hippie vegan, or whatever lefty freakjob you are...

Even when giant, exhausted, miserable people are told, over and over and over again, to stop with the fried meaty goo, they say yes, they maintain eye contact, they say they're really, really gonna try hard this time, they walk out the door, and they continue with whatever they were eating that brought them into the doctor's office in the first place: "Science is CONFLICTED!" they blame.

shane!

I narc you! You are actually . . . Michael Pollan! From my miserably broad experience with doctors, I have come to believe(with the left side of my brain), that there is actually a push by the pharmaceutical-industrial complex to make medical professionals "unaware" of nutrition[arugula, I agree with your post, and, boy, the stories I could tell--just didn't want to get "political" in me post]. This isn't agreed upon at large seminars where every doctor must come to Crystal Conference Room B at 3 a.m. and dressed in a black cowel to get his/her Pfizer-assigned code name. Most effective conspiracies are too subtle for the instruments of the conspiracy to be aware of their complicity. Like the ox-dumb diabetes II patient who lies to himself as well as his doctor about "eating healthier." But the conspiracy still exists, if, as I stated earlier, it's based on omission rather than overt misinforming of the public and medical personnel. I'm on my sixth primary care doctor, and I've consulted seven specialists throughout my 36 years. This is the first one who was able to discuss nutrition with any intelligence, and who was emphatic about its importance. All different backgrounds, ages, med schools, those other docs. But none of them would countenance the importance of diet to human health. They were rather blasé about it, in fact. That's an acquired attitude. And half of them were too young to have learned to be blasé about nutrition from always dealing with patients that are. My current doctor? Close to genius: "I've had to teach myself a lot of this stuff." Terrifying.

By the way, people who believe this is a strict conspiracy have pinpointed when this all happened--the Better-Living-Through-Chemistry Era after WWII. Pick up any contemporary cookbook from that time, and you will see what industry was passing off as "food" in those days, or just go to James Lileks's Gallery of Regrettable Food online. All those young houswives and their wee kiddies are reaping the woeful wages of diets infiltrated by crap beginning in 1946. They really didn't know any better. That ox-dumb diabetes II patient was raised on that sludge. Can we really say he oughtta know better?

No, I'm not overly stoked with Michael Pollan. I like his foody message: eat food, not too much, mostly plant-based... But, unlike Pollan, I don't eat meat for reasons that are not simply due to health and nutrition, but for the humane, ethical and environmental reasons that are well known, and which he too easily ignores.