A clickbaity title for sure, but essentially true. Of course it was not remotely their fault, and in fact they spent large amounts of money, and eons of time, trying to deal with my many childhood and teen-aged maladies. Obesity, acne, asthma, and severe eczema to name but a few. Everything they tried, following a "doctor's" advice, failed utterly. Lotions, potions, creams, pills, shots, dietary interventions, chiropractic, temporary removal to other locations in the country, and even gruesome "Aveeno" baths, which was merely powdered oatmeal stirred into bathwater. It was supposed to sooth eczema racked skin, and it sort of did, but only while actually sitting in the noxious mixture.
I was hyper-sensitive to skin infections, including a particularly nasty one called impetigo, which was a routine occurrence. As an overweight asthmatic my ability to exercise was very limited. All in all it was a miserable childhood for me, and a frustrating expensive nightmare for my parents. I recall one attempt at a dietary intervention in the early 1960s which involved "gluten" bread. An odd name for bread that was supposed to be devoid of gluten. In any case, the experiment was just another failure. Any benefits were swamped by an otherwise extremely high-carb diet. They tried cutting out several different foods in the quest for my relief, but oddly they never considered limiting starch, sugar, or fruit.
It's not that we didn't eat meat. We ate quite a lot, but it was always accompanied by mounds of potatoes, rice, bread, and other starchy vegetables. And there was an endless parade of sugary cereals, sugary soft drinks, candy, cakes, pies, spaghetti, toast, jams, jellies, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, syrup, brownies, fudge, cookies, donuts, fried pies, milk chocolate, ice cream, bananas, watermelon, Jello "salads", fried everything, etc. etc. etc, ad, literally, nauseum. Oh, and barrels of "vegetable" oils of one kind or another, especially Crisco and Mazola corn oil. All of which were, essentially, poisonous to me.
The utterly clueless doctors in our town, and everywhere else for that matter, told them I might grow out of all the problems in time. Some of the problems did ease up after puberty, but many did not, and in fact some got worse. Suffice to say that doctors were not my favorite class of people, and they still aren't. And now doctors who are clueless about the healing powers of low-carb eating are even more deserving of my disdain. They receive little nutrition training, and what there is, is just the old tired mantra of recommending low-fat, low-cholesterol, low red meat diets filled with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and "healthy" vegetable oils. It's all a huge crock of debunked doody, and it was no less so sixty years ago. It has to be counted a near miracle that I did not end up a diabetic with a missing foot, have a fatal heart attack, a stroke, contract cancer of some kind, or already be in cognitive decline.
It took me seventy years to work my way around to realizing the benefits of low-carb eating, losing a wife to the ravages of sugar and carbs along the way. Seventy years in distress and difficulty because virtually the entire medical establishment was/is dead set against nutritional sanity. Annnd, the increasingly shrill propaganda of vegan kooks and the PETA-philes affects docs no less than the public. propaganda that is aided and abetted by a welter of corporate and governmental interests. In short, if you break an arm, or have another traumatic injury, the doctor is your huckleberry. If you have an autoimmune condition, they won't help worth a damn, and very likely will make things worse.
This disgusting state of affairs is changing, but at a glacial pace. Unsurprising considering that real change in this arena is battling entrenched social headwinds. Every time a doc recommends the government food pyramid, they are violating their Hippocratic oath. They don't know they are doing it, but as they say in law, ignorance is no excuse.
Yes, I had already read this post. Blame it on dementia m.
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