Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for November 21, 2014

You can’t make chok’lit cake without eggs and milk, and a life without chok’lit cake is almost as bad as a life without bacon. YUM! BACON! How ‘bout a bacon sammitch and a slice of chok’lit cake and a glass of ice-cold whole milk? Sound good?

Meat was always a big deal in the past, and having it was a sign or wealth. (Remember Robin Hood? Poaching animals on the King’s land was a serious crime in those days.)Putting meat on the table became a symbol of a successful provider (either as a hunter/fisherman or having the wealth to buy it).We’re still acting the way they did 500 years ago, even though the meaning’s been lost.Well, except to the TV commercials, which insist we need to eat meat at all three meals…

Cash flow problems make me sick….Prosp long and liv’er ….

Anesthesia existed in the Middle Ages, it was stopped because some patients never woke up so it was thought that anesthesia was the reason. Better operate on a screaming, fighting body, at least he wouldn’t go to sleep and never wake up.

Today’s strip seems to contradict yesterday’s strip, unless Big Pharma and Whole Foods are in cahoots somehow.

Last words of the doc: too true by half.

Dr. McCoy: Who knows? It might eventually cure the common cold, but lengthen lives? Poppycock! I can do more for you if you just eat right and exercise regularly.

If nobody gets sick, than nobody gets paid.

I cannot commend Mr. Miller more for this series of cartoons! People are dying needlessly because they mostly are NOT being told about the benefits of better food choices (PLANTS!) I realize that some are told and refuse to change BUT the default should be: tell the patient about how heart disease is NOT inevitable and if you change what you eat, you WILL reverse many diseases, not just coronary heart disease!

I would rather die living then live dying

yes, weird that the focus is on this. something is up. still profits before people is the focus, though. lol good ole wiley

A hundred years ago, when someone got sick one of two things happened: either they got well, or they died. Today, the medical industry can keep you alive for a long time, without ever curing you. So, now when we get sick, we neither get well, nor die, but get treated. There is no money in curing people, and existence is valued over quality of life.

For a libel like this I think Wiley should be denied all medical care. But if he’s just making a joke here, then so am I. (Or are we?)

Just remember the Bill comes First…your life second!

That last panel is unfortunately so true.

(damn popups)Well, a doctor who tells it like it is. Actually, what ever happened to ethics?

Sorry, Wiley, but the doctors aren’t the ones who are keeping Big Pharma going. Big P does a great job all by itself through its purchase of lawmakers and its fleet of lawyers. And most doctors don’t have shareholders to satisfy, but for-profit hospitals and for-profit Big Pharma does.-Doctors have become puppets in a system that is wildly out of control. If they don’t order all possible tests and a patient dies, legal precedent will hold them to be guilty of malpractice because they didn’t explore all possible avenues. In my former hometown of Pgh, the so-called nonprofit University of Pgh Medical Center (UPMC) has become a giant that bought out most other hospitals AND most doctor’s practices, and now refuses to treat anyone with medical insurance sold by the Western PA affiliate of Blue Cross Blue Shield – even if that patient is able to pay 100% cash out of pocket. Apparently this is legal, because no State Attorney is taking action on it.-In Florida, where I now live, the State Legislature passed laws to punish any doctor who dares to ask parents if they keep a gun in the house, in order to advise them to keep it locked up where children can’t get at it. (If that isn’t a health issue in a state where kids routinely find a parent’s gun and end up killing themselves or a brother, I don’t know what is.)-You’re blaming the wrong villain…

moderation in all things.do unto others as you would have them do unto you.…life is but a dream.

That doesn’t sound like my doctor!

the doc looks more and more like Flo from the diner…..any relation?

Medicine is based on the average person. For example, the average body temperature is 98.6 degrees F. However, my body temperature is 97.1 F (I’m part reptile). When it goes up two degrees, it’s 99.1 F. But I don’t have a fever because that happens at 100 F. I’m barely over normal.

So if your cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar level isn’t average, you’re sick.

Don’t even get me started on the fallacy known as BMI.

And you cannot avoid ‘most diseases just by eating the right foods’. Polio, influenza, pneumonia, cystic fibrosis, ms, Crohn’s disease, Lou Gehrig’s disease, the list goes on and on…

Bravo Wiley for telling the truth about the plant-based story. Where do you get your information? Forks over Knives? Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn , Dr. John McDougall? T. Colin Campbell? or one of the other gurus. It works for my wife and me for sure.

It seems to me most people including Willey want to sit around and blame others for problems that are mostly their own fault or at least in their control. Not to mention some really unrealistic expectations.

All this talk about ethics and such. Frankly I have no doubt that my doctor has good ethics, and if you don’t why are you with that doctor? I also understand that if each person sees the world through their own viewpoint/experience/training. I wouldn’t go to a surgeon to ask them about nutrition, and I do expect that they will be more basis to find a surgical solution than any other kind of solution.

If you want “eastern medicine” why would you go to a doctor trained in “western medicine”?

And why people think that doctors are some how gods that some how can take into account that you are not say normal in a certain way without you telling them? Or that they will be trained in any kind of current social view point that is being put out at the moment. They are humans with a very complicated job, and do the best they can with what they have. They also have a society that wants to believe that they are not human, and no matter what the mistake they should pay, and pay big. This results in doctors that have to stick to standard procedures and to run tests that might not be needed, just in case, so that they can point to this when someone tries to sue them.

People talk here about how it is a known fact that being a vegan will solve all your health problems. And others disagree with that statement. But some how your doctor is suppose to be an “expert” and know not only which is true, but some how convince you that you should do it, because if they don’t they have failed you in some way.

I got news for you folks, if it was so cut and dry no one here would be arguing.

In this world nothing comes for free. People don’t eat right and exercise, because it is hard to do. And after the train wrecks they come to the doctor and say fix it! The choice of eat right and exercise is mentioned most of the time, but clearly the people have ignored that, so why keep pointing it out? That leave drugs and surgery. And each person needs to weigh the cost. Is the risk of getting diabetes worth the price for staying alive for a few more months? Is the risk of having liver failure worth not having some rash that causes no real problem except it embarrasses you?

Hello! While I definitely appreciate this series of strips on healthy eating (it is a serious issue which our culture is only half aware of, and this is a fine platform to spread awareness), I feel like I have to defend all the doctors I’ve ever met throughout my life – they have all been pro-nutrition/prevention and anti-overmedication. I’ve met lots of doctors, but never one who overprescribed because of pressures from pharma (generally they’ve been quite reluctant to give unnecessary medication); they all seem to be drawn to medicine with a genuine desire to help people, and good nutrition and healthy lifestyle has always been part of the equation they’ve put forth (I’m sure there must be exceptions, but I just haven’t run into them, and I don’t think I’m being blind.)

All that said, I do wish good health to everyone in Mr. Miller’s life; this strip seems more pointed than usual.

Wow, how true and how currently applicable.

It’s the same reason PP and other similar corporations can make billions, and why there’s no real research on what causes autism. More money in creating multiple problems and then making people pay you to “solve” them in the first place, and keeping research money flowing instead of doing the real work in the field.

Moderation is the key..Is it possible for a vegan diet to be healthy? Absolutely!Is it possible for a vegan diet to be unhealthy? Again, yes.Is it possible for an omnivore diet to be healthy? Absolutely!Is it possible for an omnivore diet to be unhealthy? Again, yes..Whether a diet is healthy or not is based on how the food is prepared and whether all nutritional needs are accounted for. A healthy vegan diet is actually harder to do (and more expensive to boot) than a healthy omnivore diet because you have to somehow account for the proteins and other nutritional needs that are easier to get from animal sources than from plants..Each person has their own personal nutritional needs. Some people find it easier to live on a diet that does not include any meat than others (consider, for example, someone who is allergic to nuts/beans… which are the primary source of proteins in a vegan diet). There is no “one size fits all” diet..As for the claim earlier in this arc that a “plant based diet” will “cure” diabetes… if caught early enough, diabetes can be controlled by diet, yes, but diet cannot cure it. Furthermore, I know diabetics and have talked to nutritionists. The foods that are on a diabetic’s “no-no” list are things such as alcohol and sweets… which (oddly enough) are all derived from plants..Unless Bob changes his whole lifestyle and eliminates those drinks he is always shown as drinking at the bar, then this entire arc is bogus. Just changing his diet won’t do it… not even if he knows enough to find (and the gumption to stick to) a healthy vegan diet.

@Wiley: THANK YOU !! How refreshing! As far as I’m concerned you can take that last thought and expand it throughout our society. Why are dangerous toys allowed to be sold? Why did GM (among others) allow dangerous cars to remain in use? Why did a hospital allow a man to bleed to death in the street outside its doors? There is one answer to all of the above and on and on and on and.., and it’s in the last panel. We are a hairbreadth’s away from allowing money-making become the only viable standard, all in the name of “jobs.” That scenario, in its final form, is not employment but slavery.

And Joseph Smith in 1833 …Doctrine and Covenants 89

I am amazed at the negative responses to a plant based diet. I have done both and plant based was the best for me. Don’t complain until you tried both. What have you got to lose besides fat. Congrats Wiley.

Well, WELL! Looks like you are on the right track after all, Wiley! My comments yesterday presaged today’s strip. Guess we’re on the same team after all. Well done.

Wiley, Have you ever been to the Schulz Museum?

Sadly true. It’s too bad that health care was allowed to become an “industry.” Most other countries at least have some control over it — but not here in “free market” America.

I notice our most avid Leftists most actively defending Wiley. They at least know where they are politically, which Wiley denies.

Yep. My rheumatologist didn’t poster-it-up that I got well due to food change…..or start recommending it to patient’s. I’m sure meds are BIG bucks for them all. Sad. Stents and balloon angioplasties….prop OPEN your vessel. Temp-fix. Doesn’t fix HOW it got like that in the first place. People my age are dropping like flies from this. Get a clue people.