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Hi, Dr Mercola recently stated that most if not all grains are not good. Any opinions? Also, as part of active surveilance, I consume walnuts by the handfull..is there a downside to eating too many walnuts??
Here are my basic views on the debates that go on about supplements and foodstuffs:
1. Too much of anything is not good for you - even oxygen and water. You can kill yourself by overdosing on water for example. So, handfuls of nuts? Not for me.
2. If anyone gives me advice about foodstuffs or supplements in particular I look to see what the basis of that advice is. Has anyone else come to the same conclusion - are they they only person who knows about this? Is there anything published that supports the view?
3. Are any of the folk involved in spreading the good news making money out of it? If so is their advice likely to be sound or perhaps biased - to persuade, as most salesmen do?
I have nothing against Dr Mercola, but he does make a deal of money apparently out of persuading people to use his supplements, but there is very little proof given to support what he says - see some examples below. If he is 'selling' these supplements, maybe all of his advice is related to his sales pitches?
We all have to make up our minds who we believe and why we believe them - but..... be careful in what you accept at face value.
Here are the products that you might like to assess:
Miracle Whey I am especially wary of anything with Miracle in the name or the spiel - not sure that there are that many miracles around.
Would I buy any of these products? NO! Would I believe anything else Dr Mercola told me - I doubt it. But that's me - naturally suspicious. But because of that I've never sent money to a Nigerian who mailed me about the $35 million we can share and on my last trip to New York I didn't buy the Brooklyn Bridge, although it was a bargain when I think about it.
It is pretty commonly recognized that those things that are SUPPOSED to help prevent prostate cancer MAY also help slow the progression of the disease as well. In that light, the American Cancer Society (ACS) lists eating grains among its dietary recommendations for PREVENTING cancer, BUT not just any grains.
The ACS has this to say: “Choose whole grains instead of refined grain products. Choose whole-grain breads, pasta, and cereals (such as barley and oats) instead of breads, cereals, and pasta made from refined grains, and brown rice instead of white rice”. A complete listing of their dietary recommendations is on their website, which can be found under the heading: “ACS Guidelines for Nutrition and Physical Activity”.
For what it is worth, noted John Hopkins Urologist Dr. Patrick Walsh lists these ACS recommendations in his book: “Guide to Surviving Prostate Cancer”. (I also pulled these quotes from his book to back up Terry’s comment about too much of anything not being good for you: “Remember...moderation in all things. You must resist the more is better approach. Such thinking is dangerous”).
I have the same feeling about Mercola, always peddling stuff as are many other alternative docs out there, difficult to assess honesty. My diet since I came down with PCa 5+ years ago has been pretty much as stated in the ACS recommendation Alan.
As for excessive consumption and too much of anything not being good for you, I don't believe that applies to Vit C. Recently I have found my "body-tolerance" approach as it relates to vit C in accordance with Dr Linus Pauling's theory....keep increasing until you start getting gas or loose bowels. In my case it's around 6-7 grams daily. I plan on supplementing just below, we will see how it goes.
Wow, I knew that, like everything else, there are differences of opinion regarding the supplementation of Vit C but…...who is Dr arret and who funds the website QUACKWATCH???
For as long as I remember and ever since I took a chemistry class in about 1960 or so that utilized the Linus Pauling book as a text, I have been taking Vit C supplements. Recently, however, I have read or have heard others talk about the importance of having adequate Vit C. , Dr. Jonathan Wright in his newsletter last month recently wrote on it and others have also.
Warwick, thanks for your post, I am going to stop for now the increase in supplementation and to do additional research. BTW, put me on the side of those that oppose fluoridation of water and tooth paste, at home I filter out the fluoride.
Life is too short for me to go through the Quackwatch attack on Pauling or to list the failings of the Quakwatch site.
I just like to think of the fact that Pauling was still co-authoring papers of interest to those with an open mind in the year before he diead at the age of 92 - ironically of PCa. When one of the reptiles from the media challenge him about his impending death with a sneering question about how effective Vitamin C had been for him, he answered, with customary humour "When do you thnk I would have died if I had not taken my supplements?"
92years is a pretty reasonable survival period, especially bearing in mind when Pauling was born and what the life expectancy was then.
