Food attitudes, misinformation, and the media

[Seshat]

We see very few prescription drugs advertised (over the counter ones, yes, but not prescription drugs). Those that are, are advertised in a 'blah can be cured, see your doctor' way. And usually they're for illnesses which have been incurable for a long time.

Australian food guides:

Nutrition Australia
CSIRO (PDF viewed as HTML courtesy of Google)

[DesignFox]

Oh, I'm not saying the commercial's don't advise you to see a doctor, but we seem to be inundated with prescription drug commercials. I wanted to see if it was the same elsewhere. Thanks.

I just don't think the drug companies should be advertising to lay-people- at least, not nearly as extensively as they are.

[ArenaBoy]

This is why I avoid print media along with TV. Don't have to see much of those insipid ads.

[Seshat]

No problem. I think I've seen - or maybe noticed - about three different ad campaigns for prescription drugs in the last year. And only a few ads for each campaign. Like, maybe I've seen five billboards total, I've not noticed any magazine ads, and I think I've seen two different TV commercials. Maybe.

That said, I'm pretty good at filtering out ads, and I don't drive, and I don't watch much TV. So some other Aussie may have a different answer.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

I have the same kinds of issues with the Dairy Industry. I am a raw milk devotee. I've suffered from terrible allergies all my life and drinking raw milk is the only thing that helps.

Unfortunately the Dairy Industry and the FDA claim that drinking raw milk is like 'playing Russian Roulette with your health'. Nevermind that millions of people all over the world do so, everyday. Many states outlaw raw milk entirely; others make you jump thru so many hoops to get it it is ridiculous. I have to get my milk from a Washington state dairy and have it shipped down here once a week. I pay nearly 10 dollars a gallon for it...but there is nothing else like raw milk.

[Rapscallion]

The environmental health folks run courses on basic food safety, and I had to attend one. Amusingly enough, they brought up unpasteurised milk as a major health risk, citing an unnamed wannabe bodybuilder who took advice from other bodybuilders for growing his body mass. He'd been told that raw milk was better, so he drank loads. He allegedly got so sick he lost two stones (nearly thirty pounds) in a month and took ages to recover.

A hand from a certain furry bastard went up. "I drank that for the first twenty-five years of my life," he said. He patted his ample gut. "I'm certainly wasting away!"

They didn't like me after that.

Rapscallion

[Boozy]

Adults who were not raised on unpasteurized milk should not start drinking it in large quantities. That's why that guy got sick. You need to build up a resistance to the natural bacteria slowly over time.

Once you've done so, there's a lot of health benefits to drinking raw milk. The bacteria is good for you, as long as your body knows how to handle it.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

Yes, Boozy is exactly right. Ingesting anything in large amounts is not good for you. I drink 2 small glasses of raw milk a day. I started with one small glass a day, and after a month started drinking it more often. I also make butter out of the raw cream by shaking it in a mason jar. Before this, I was completely lactose intolerant...pasteurized dairy still gives me bad symptoms, and I avoid it like the plague.

Scientists did a study on 15,000 European children regarding allergies. They wanted to understand why rural farm children were much less likely to develop them. They studied kids from all different backgrounds extensively over a long period of time and what they discovered is that children who were fed raw milk on a regular basis---no matter where they were from, city or country---had a distinctly lower rate of developing allergies as they grew.

I love my raw milk. My body loves the stuff and runs like a well-oiled machine when I drink it regularly.

[Seshat]

Pasteurisation was a great boon in an era where many of the dairy cattle had undiagnosed, untreated illnesses, and where there was no refrigeration, little or no food safety, and peoples' milk jugs might have been 'cleaned' in dirty water from a well downstream of a privy.

I think it's obvious that it may not be as important now as it was then. Time for some new studies.

[MMATM]

Sorry to any pharmacists/doctors/etc here, in advance of what I'm about to say.

All the following paragraphs have been shortened for the sake of the reader (they were all pretty verbose before).

Short version of paragraph: I have really good doctors and my parents are very helpful, so they are not to blame for any of the following.

Short version of paragraph: I have cystic fibrosis (CF).

Short version of paragraph: As a result of this CF, I must take a lot of medications on pain of death or permanent disability, and have taken many of them since I was an infant, including digestive enzyme supplements.

Short version of paragraph: I worked as a camp counselor at an overnight camp one recent summer, during which I could not take said medications and so skipped all but the digestive enzymes.

Short version of paragraph: For the last two weeks of the summer, I skipped all medications entirely. My parents and doctors assumed that I would end up extremely, irrevocably sick.

Short version of paragraph: Despite my parents'/doctors' beliefs, I actually improved over the course of the summer simply by living an active lifestyle. However, when I returned to school and all the medicines, I rapidly worsened after about a month.

Short version of paragraph: The following year, I was much more disciplined in taking all prescribed medications, and was rewarded with my worst health to date, including severe hypoxemia throughout the last week or so before graduation, and several hospitalizations which prevented me from competing for the track team of which I was captain.

Short version of paragraph: The best medicines in the world cannot make up for a healthy way of life. "Healthy" is determined by the individual. I have not been hospitalized in over 17 months (wish I could say a year and a half but I can't) and am taking fewer medications now than I used to, but am walking more and farther, and becoming more physically active (longboard club and paintball team).

[Boozy]

I am glad that you have taken control of your own health and found something that works for you.

But you are one person. There are countless others who need the medications that you don't.

It doesn't mean the medications are crap or the doctors are wrong in thinking they might help. It just means that MMATM's individual body does better on less medication. This won't be true of everyone, and you can't condemn the entire medical profession based on your one personal experience.

[ThePhoneGoddess]

I don't think MMATM was condemning the entire medical profession. He did express his faith in his doctors for their expertise and care. I think he (she?) is like most Americans and coming to the realization that what we were taught about the American medical profession as a whole is no longer true.

We have always been taught to treat Doctors with the utmost respect and defer to whatever they might recommend without protest, even if it goes against our better judgment, because they are, well, Doctors! Of course they know better than us. Unfortunately, we are constantly subjected to drug peddling from drug manufacturers, who shower the medical profession here with gifts and money in order to get them to prescribe certain drugs. They have also transformed the FDA's approval process from an actual process to determine if a drug is hazardous or helpful, to a political game whereby if they can jump through enough hoops, the FDA will approve a drug no matter what studies say. Americans are learning the hard way that we can no longer place blind faith in the medical profession.

[Boozy]

Americans are learning the hard way that we can no longer place blind faith in the medical profession.

I can definitely agree with that. Its important for everyone to do what MMATM did, and find out what works for them.

[MMATM]

But you are one person. There are countless others who need the medications that you don't.

It doesn't mean the medications are crap or the doctors are wrong in thinking they might help. It just means that MMATM's individual body does better on less medication. This won't be true of everyone, and you can't condemn the entire medical profession based on your one personal experience.

Your point is perfect, well made, and entirely true. Especially the first part whole thing. I didn't mean for my comments to come across that way, though. I meant more to demonstrate that what other people (or even you) believe is the best remedy for the situation is not always what is right, and so there is no simple answer to any medical problem, as every individual's body is unique. Ironically, I'm at University (undergrad) right now to eventually become a doctor, if I end up having the money and the luck I'm going to need.

I don't think MMATM was condemning the entire medical profession. He did express his faith in his doctors for their expertise and care. I think he (she?) is like most Americans and coming to the realization that what we were taught about the American medical profession as a whole is no longer true.

He.
And you read me right. I used to take everything just because "mom/dad/the doctor said so" but I'm coming to understand (through both experience and studies) that what seems like the best solution is not always ideal, and that there are many ways to attack every problem. At the best, I may end up learning to live a much more "normal" life by minimizing the medicines I need through careful selection and implementation of lifestyle, habits, and the medicines themselves. At worst, I'll have one hell of a doctorate thesis to write about myself.