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Parasites and Resistance
Published in Let’s Live, 1962.
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Lowered resistance caused by deficient nutrítion is evident if you observe parasitic invasions. It has been shown, for example, that grain produced on worn-out soils is more likely to become infested with weevils than grain in a healthy state, grown on good soil.
It has taken a long time to find the answer. Healthy wheat has an insect repellant wrapper, known to millers as the “bee’s wings”, because of its transparent nature, resembling cellophane. This can be removed by moistening the grain and running it through a huller.
Sealing Wrapper
After removal of this covering, the wheat is a little darker in color, the exposed bran causing the difference in appearance. Bread baked from this hulled wheat flour is better in flavor. lt has lost the tendency to leave a bitter aftertaste in the mouth. lt has lost its insect-repelling layer! Wheat germ oil is reported to have vermifuge effects. lt is likely that this is due to the same insect-repelling component.
Such hulled wheat will, no doubt, be more likely to spoil in other ways than by insect infestation. This outer “cellophane” layer probably is a sealing wrapper that keeps oxygen from destroying the germ oil by rancidity.
Animal Instinct
Apparently the taste-instinct for rancidity is still intact in the dog and monkey, because if you offer them a slice of bread made by commercial bakers from stale flour, they will refuse to eat it. But, offer a slice of home-baked bread made from fresh ground flour in one hand, and a raw hamburger in the other, and the dog will invariably eat the wholesome bread first. Unfortunately, the human taste instinct for rancid oils is not so keen, and grave toll exacted by its ingestion is far more serious than the simple bout of indigestion or gastritis which may be the only immediate concern.
Lowered Resistance
Another good illustration of the lowered resistance caused by deficient nutrition is shown by Dr. Northen in his tests on insects and plants. He showed that tomato vines from two plants–one growing in good soil and another growing in poor soil, intertwining on the same support, in fact–presented the interesting phenomenon of the tomato worms eating the leaves off the deficient plant, leaving the healthy plant strictly alone.
In a report published by the Canadian Medica! Association by Robertson and Tisdall, titled “Nutrition and Resistance to Disease,” it is stated: “There is evidence that a lack of almost any one of the 32 elements for animal nutrition will result in lowered resistance to infection.” A few examples of their work with animal testing follows:
VITAMIN A | |
Deficient Diet
Survivors 40% |
Non-Deficient Diet
Survivors 79% |
VITAMIN B | |
Survivors 20% | Survivors 72% |
VITAMIN C | |
Survivors 28% | Survivors 55% |
MINERALS | |
Survivors 54% | Survivors 87% |
PROTEINS | |
Survivors 57% | Survivors 90% |
This report shows that there is much merit in the theory that disease germs, insects, and other parasitic enemies are simply scavengers, eliminating the unfit.
Bearing in mind that when the attacking invader is present in sufficient numbers, the healthy, as well as the sick, may be destroyed. It is the physician’s duty to ask why the infection or infestation developed. Are the patient’s eating habits and the quality of the food he eats such as will provide the highest level of resistance? The answer can only be in the negative if the patient is living on artificial, counterfeit foods, such as hardened fats made from rancid oils, white flour made from completely devitalized wheat by processing, demineralized sugar made by refining raw sugar.
Ill Effects of Diet
In this matter of resistance, we must not forget that not only is resistance to outright ínfectíous disease concerned, but also resistance to a wide variety of degenerative diseases, such as heart disease and arthritis, including some of the less well-defined disorders, such as obesity and mental disease. The panorama of ill effects from the “missing links” in our modern diet, like the evil from Pandora’s box, spreads its havoc whenever we fail to obtaín “Nature’s Stamp of Approval”–the wholesomeness of natural foods.
Aid From Vitamins
A recent article by A. W. Pearson, M.D., titled “Anti-Pellagra Vitamins in Anxiety-Tension States”, which appeared in the October, 1961, issue of General Practice, illustrates the point. Dr. Pearson states that in a group of patients suffering from anxiety symptoms, palpitation, irritability, perspíration and general muscular aches, four out of five showed marked improvement when given vitamins. Their memory improved, they slept better and were better able to cope with the day’s tensions. However, in those members of the group who were given placebos (pills with no medicinal or therapeutic value) a reversal of this result was shown. Four out of five of these patients reported a reduction in memory, increased palpitation, perspiration and anxiety. They had less ability to cope with daily affairs.
No wonder our draft board must examine five citizens before it can find one candidate for soldiering!