| This may be a strange topic for someone who | | | | part, you are better off without them. What I am |
| runs a natural health-oriented web site to be | | | | questioning is the wisdom, practicality and even |
| writing, but I want to discuss the possibility of | | | | ultimate health benefits of trying to be completely |
| being overzealous about "purity" in one's diet, and | | | | pure or perfect. I don't have the statistics on this, |
| life in general. I recall watching the comedian | | | | but I have observed that many proponents of |
| George Carlin, whose seemingly absurd outbursts | | | | very strict dietary regimes, such as macrobiotic, |
| often have a ring of truth, telling the audience | | | | vegan and "100% all natural, no exceptions, ever" |
| why you are better off eating junk. He also | | | | diets often live average, sometimes below |
| reminisced about swimming in the filthy Hudson | | | | average life-spans. Could it be that having a |
| River as a child (as an aside, the Hudson is one | | | | basically relaxed and unstressful attitude towards |
| rare case where it's actually cleaner now than the | | | | life is even more important than what you eat? |
| 50 or so years ago when Carlin was a child). | | | | This is my suspicion. I mean this within reason, of |
| Carlin's argument, keeping in mind that he is doing | | | | course. You still have to pay some attention to |
| a comedy act, is that he developed resistance to | | | | what you eat, how much exercise you get and |
| pollution and impurities compared to people who | | | | other common sense lifestyle choices. If you |
| avoid such things. While I would not take this | | | | study the eating habits and lifestyles of traditional |
| argument to an extreme, I do think there is | | | | people who tended to live long lives, such as the |
| some truth to it. | | | | Hunzas, you find that, in addition to living very |
| I am all for eating a natural diet consisting, as | | | | active lives physically, they ate a fairly |
| much as possible, organic ingredients and practicing | | | | omniverous (as well as natural) diet. You really |
| healthy habits in general. When I speak of being | | | | cannot find any traditional diets that are as strict |
| overzealous, I mean having the mindset that any | | | | as those advocated in many modern books on |
| of a usually long, often ever-increasing list of "bad" | | | | the subject. |
| things will make you ill, even in small or moderate | | | | This topic reminds me of a very good but not |
| doses. There are some rigid diets, for example, | | | | that popular film by the name of Safe, directed |
| that forbid consuming any sugar, animal products, | | | | by Todd Haynes. In this movie, Julianne Moore |
| white flour and most commonly consumed | | | | plays a troubled Los Angeles housewife who |
| carbohydrates, caffeine or alcohol. Some raw | | | | develops an extreme sensitivity to various |
| foods advocates will tell you that you should only | | | | environmental contaminants. As the film |
| eat, predictably enough, foods that have not been | | | | progresses, she becomes more and more |
| cooked. | | | | sensitive until, by the end, she literally has to live |
| Add to these dietary restrictions notions about | | | | in an isolated bubble. Now this movie is somewhat |
| electromagnetic pollution coming from cell phones | | | | ambiguous about whether the problem is a toxic |
| and power lines, second hand smoke, | | | | world or an oversensitive person, but I think the |
| environmental pollution coming from cars and | | | | answer is both. |
| industry, the uncertain quality of much drinking | | | | We have to come to terms with the fact that |
| water (including bottled) and what can we do? | | | | world is simply not completely safe or pure. It |
| Many of these factors are virtually impossible to | | | | never was, and probably never will be. If we |
| avoid much of the time. Others that we can | | | | cannot avoid all impurities, perhaps it makes sense |
| avoid, such as the dietary ones I just listed, can | | | | to, on the one hand, consume high quality foods |
| result in a quite rigid way of life where one has to | | | | and supplements, live as healthy a lifestyle as |
| live a fairly isolated and insulated existence in | | | | possible in terms of exercise and other beneficial |
| relation to most of society. | | | | practices, but on the other hand to have a kind of |
| To compound this rigid attitude, many people who | | | | relaxed and perhaps even fatalistic attitude about |
| aim for a very "pure" way of life also avoid | | | | the impurities that will inevitably intrude on us. |
| television, the media and other potentially | | | | This, rather than an unrealistic policy of strict |
| corrupting influences. Now I am not trying to | | | | avoidance, may give us more resistance to them |
| advocate any of the products or behaviors that | | | | or even allow us to live in harmony with them. |
| such people are trying to avoid. For the most | | | | |