I am sure that most of you have had the experience of leaving a grocery store and having someone at a table who is collecting money for various health issues like breast cancer ("Find the cure". I now will not donate. Does that make me a jerk? I recently was asked by a woman collecting for Crohn's disease. I told her that they just need to avoid gluten. I am frustrated because when I went home I double-checked that statement and they actually don't link Crohn's and IBS to Celiac's. I think they are all probably the same dis-ease at various levels. They are just too close in symptoms. My point is that I am not going to give money to people who are just collecting it for Big Pharma. And another person was collecting for Type II diabetes which is clearly linked to dietary habits! So it's really a matter sometimes of either avoiding certain foods or adding certain foods to one's diet. When they act like the cure for cancer is a mystery, it drives me crazy. They really portray cancer as this random thing, in most cases. Lung cancer is the exception. And what of prevention? Crickets, just crickets...

I don't donate, but I do ask them questions to see how much they know. Most think that if diet was an issue, "they" would tell them. You mean the "they" that run the pharma companies who want your money to fight instead of cure these diseases?

Not all diseases and not everyone with a diet curable disease can be cured with diet. Sometimes genetic mutations, chemicals, and injury prevent the body from healing properly.

I don't donate to them either. On the surface it sounds like a good cause, but when you dig deeper you find out what it's all about, just as you mentioned.

Big pharma, guys in suits being chauffeured around, living "high on the hog". It is a shame to see the money that is wasted in campaigns like this, when none of it goes to "health".

There may be a few exceptions, I suppose...maybe the Salvation Army - Red Cross - those that provide disaster relief, etc.

I feel much better helping someone personally that really needs a helping hand, instead of donating to a faceless corp. where the money goes to lavish lifestyles of the higher echelon members...

I won't donate to Salvation Army because one they are religious based.

I donate to Salvation Army because they help my community.

I don't donate to those disease drives because it's all bs: most of that money doesn't go to R & D--it goes to advertising, swag, and administrative payroll, and what's left goes to Big Pharma, which spends it on manufacturing, not research. When we make a donation, we are doing the lobbyists' jobs for them--but how nice!

Around here lately, it's been college age kids at every suburban intersection asking for breast cancer donations. It's such a racket, like that Pizza Hut, I think, is donating some small percentage of proceeds to breast cancer research. Here's an idea for breast cancer prevention--don't eat mozarella cheese or pizzas. Duh! I don't have the desire to engage these people, what's more, because they are soooo clueless, and their hearts are in the right place and there's so much bad news everywhere now, I don't want to be some idealistic young person's stone cold bummer for the day, ya know?

Here is another reason I don't donate to the Salvation Army.

[www.charitynavigator.org]

In 1996 they released some financial info that showed 2 billion in revenue and 1.6 billion in expenses. So, only 20% of the money you donate actually. I would rather buy food and give it to the homeless directly.

I don't to some causes, kids activities, relief aid, etc. But I also always ask what percentage goes to the cause and if it's not 100% or close to it I look for one that is. I'm not using my money to pay salaries and advertising, sorry.

Tamukha, I hear you about not wanting to be negative with young people trying to do a good thing. On the other hand, I am a little jaded with older folk who "run for the cure," etc. Oh, this is gonna make me sound totally like an a-hole! Oh, well, LOL. I see these women who do the pink ribbons and the 5k race for breast cancer and it just seems a bit Oprah-esque to me. You know, Angel Network, my, aren't I a great person kind of trip...Rather than simply say no thanks to various health-related charities, I respond at times to let them know WHY I will not be donating. Perhaps this can plant the seed within them, even if it takes another decade to flourish. In this age of legal drug pushers invading the evening news, magazine ads, etc. with so-called answers to people's health issues, I think people need to hear a bit of opposing views now and then. Where else will they be exposed to it? As long as it's done in a low-key manner, I don't see why not!

banana who,

Yeah, eventually I will work up the nerve to say, "I know for a fact that my donation won't go to research, and that if it does the research will not promote lifestyle changes, which are the best remedy/preventive for cancer." I expect that this will be met with surprise or, worse, scorn, because in today's America, one's passionate rebuttal is apparently inversely correlated with one's frame of knowledge. So the kid, or middle aged lady who's bought the lie that breast cancer is genetic[not really], or that ductal carcinoma in situ is a treatable cancer[tisn't cancer at all] will think me a heartless Negative Nelly, and will not budge at all in their world view. Still, I guess it would be worth trying.

I think I would start by asking who is taking the donations and where will they be used. I believe I asked and was told that they were looking for a "cure." At this point, I would say that I think it's wonderful that this person is giving of him/herself to help others but that I do not believe that drugs heal and therefore cannot in good conscience donate money which will go to drug companies.

For the most part, I don't bother saying anything. But I am thinking that maybe I should start to speak out. If we all held our peace, where would we be?

I am glad that someone spoke out so I could hear. You can tell when someone is receptive and wants to hear the truth.

Too many people have bought the lie...And if the "establishment" can get them indoctrinated while they are young, they have them hooked for life.

Just label me "No longer a sheeple..."

JK: I like that idea for a pin or bumpersticker: EX-SHEEPLE.

I don't donate to the Red Cross after reading about how their money goes to the bureaucracy, or to the Cancer, Diabetes and all those other big groups for the same reason, and because they don't want to find a cure, or they'd be out of business.

And when everybody was donating to Haiti, of course the smart people knew that the money would just get wasted and fraud would reign --

The Associated Press: Report: 1 million Haitians in 1,300 squalid camps:

[www.google.com]