-->Smoking does indeed increase as one goes east to Asia. Smoking is still very prevalent in Europe as well.
What is interesting to me as a clinical nutritionist is the fact that amongst industrialized nations Japan leads the world in per capita consumption of cigarettes, but has the lowest rate of lung cancer and cancer in general.
This is even more interesting when one considers the fact that in the late 1940's and early 50's, when per capita consumption of tobacco peaked in the US, the incidence of lung cancer was less than half of what it is now. Therefore, even with the significant decrease in smoking that has occurred in the US since that time, lung cancer has increased substantially and is now the number one cancer. Is there an explanation for this? I think there is.
Dr. Butterworth at the U of A Birmingham discovered over a decade ago that 2 pack a day smokers who consumed 10 mg of folic acid (10,000 mcg) daily for 60 days had complete healing of lung lesions even while they continued to smoke. None of those who participated in the study had lung cancer, but all had lung lesions prior to taking folic acid. Folic acid (a B vitamin) seems to have a remarkable healing effect on lung tissue. The results of this study were even more impressive because they occurred in every participant.
The Japanese diet is 10 to 20 times higher in folic acid than the standard American diet (SAD), depending on what region of Japan is considered.
Furthermore, the US per capita consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables -- the only good source of folic acid in our diet -- has decreased 400% from 1945 to 2000. Stunning, but Americans currently eat four times less fresh fruits and vegetables per capita than 55 years ago. This decrease directly parallels the increase in lung cancer even while consumption of tobacco has decreased.
I tell all my clients who smoke to discontinue, but if they refuse I encourage them to take 10 mg of folic acid daily. I am not a smoker.
What has happened with the industrialization of our nations food supply is pathetic and disgusting. It has altered the health of our country in profound and disastrous ways. Ketchup (30% sugar) qualifies as a vegetable in the school lunch program, as do French fries. Fruit flavored drinks, containing 10% actual fruit juice, qualify as a serving of fruit. Food has become an industrialized product rather than fresh produce from the farm or garden. In 1900 ninety-seven percent (97%) of the US population worked in agriculture. In 2000 this had decreased to 2.7%. Today, the US has become the least efficient producer of food energy in the world. We put 18 calories of energy into our agriculture for every 1 received in return. China, on the other hand, is the most efficient producer of food, investing 1 calorie of energy into it's agriculture and receiving 14 in return. In all the discussion of how China is kicking our butts in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, nary a word is written about their incredible agricultural foundation. While Shanghai and Beijing get all the publicity, no one seems to notice that seventy percent (70%) of China's population works the land. That's a lot of people. With 7% of the worlds tillable land, China produces 23% of the worlds food.
Seems to me we have forgotten that the rise of the US as a superpower was built on it's agricultural foundation -- good nutrition for the people.
Some, even most, call what has and is happening in the US progress, but perhaps that's more of a value judgment than reality.
The deterioration of the US in so many ways parallels the nutrient destruction of our soil and agricultural foundation -- the nutritional building blocks of our health as a people. As a result, we as a nation are overfed (in empty calories) and undernourished (in real nutrition). This does not bode well for the longevity of our culture, as we raise the sickliest generation in the history of our country.
I hearken back to my first teacher in the field of nutrition, the late great V.E. Irons -- a man who was put in jail by the FDA in 1959 for selling and making health claims about fiber -- who offered these words of wisdom regarding diet and nutrition,"Eat only those foods which will spoil and rot, but eat them before they do."
That will provide some folic acid.....and a lot more real nutrition.
(Jim Ehmke, in Richard Russels Daily Comment vom 25.4.2005).
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