Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for November 22, 2014

Steve Jobs thought he’d found a better alternative, too. Ironically, he had one of the variants of pancreatic cancer that does respond to early surgical or medical intervention.(One of my best friends, and her Dad, did not.)-But Steve preferred to go to Mexico and eat grasses or something. And we all know how well that worked for him…

So much hate for others chosen life.style..Biggest thing to do, cut down the treats, cut out the beer and soda and don’t hit the fast food any more..Get down the weight to the levels mentioned in the Mayo Health Clinic web site..Then if there are still issues, hit the meds etc.

All I know was what I read in his biography; it didn’t give details about whether he also did liquor. But given his intensity when he was dedicated to a project, if booze was not on the list, the answer would be ‘no’…

Not a prison? Consider this:

If a doctor claims you are a danger to yourself or others, he can have you detained for at least 72 hours. If you try to go “AMA”, you will then be held (maybe for weeks) until you can be brought before a judge. A probate judge. In probate court you do not have the right to confront the witness(es) (i.e., the doctor) against you. You have none of the civil rights afforded by criminal justice. The doctor does not even appear at the hearing. He can knowingly claim you did things that you did not do, and go on his merry way knowing that he will never have to account for it.

Go for it – show’em what it’s all about!

“A new controlled diet study has found that increasing the levels of saturated fat in the diet does not lead to increased levels of saturated fat in the blood.” http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/285915.php

If only we could get the human body to work the way we think it does, all of our medical problems would simply disappear.

He must have good insurance or a lot of money, otherwise, they would have recommended an alternative………!

Steve Jobs was on a high fruit diet, which is a very wrong way to go when your pancreas is failing. Fruit sugar is still sugar. Ketogenic, which is high animal fat, moderate protein and very low carb, would be the correct choice but Jobs had been brainwashed by the vegans and Paleo hadn’t gone big yet. Lots of ex-vegans in the Paleo community. Paleo is a good starting point. Some people thrive on ketogenic, some need more carbs but from safe sources like sweet potatoes, some can tolerate high-quality dairy. Nobody needs grains, soy or just about anything the Medical Industrial Complex promotes. Nor do livestock for that matter. Pay up for pastured meats and fats.

Patients’ Bill of Rights, part 27: before consenting to any medical procedure, you have the right to inquire as to the condition of your doctors’ Mercedes and boat.

I’m not buying where the strip’s been going this week. The most I’ve ever heard anyone (reputable scientist, anyway) claim about the value of diet in treating heart disease is that it can prevent plaque buildup, and perhaps slowly reverse it over time. But these strips have been about an acute problem. The artery’s already blocked. Dietary changes might help prevent a recurrence, but they’re not going to instantly unblock a clogged artery, and that’s what the guy needs to avoid further damage to his heart.

why fight their game, the lid will close on all of us!

To all the health advice shoved down our throats I have one reply: show me the controlled studies. No one wants to do the work. “Super food” today, silly fad tomorrow.

I don’t see this guy making such a radical lifestyle change. Yeah, cutting down on meat and upping his intake of fruits and veggies, sure. Also, has anyone talked to this guy about exercise. Changing diet is great but you’ve got to move around some too.

Best doctor’s advice I ever got was to simply eat in moderation; that way, you can enjoy your treats. Also, buy the best quality you can afford. It’s hard to do right now on our small food budget, but we do the best we can.

Hey Wiley, you really stirred up a hornet’s nest with this arc. Take 2 stings and call me in the morning.

I love your strips, including this arc.

Good genes can only go so far; both my parents (and a majority of relatives on both sides) lived into their late 80’s.My old brother, on he other hand, recently died at the ripe old age of 60.

There are tossups. There is allopathic and there is homeopathic. But what about that diet and ‘life style’?Is it his life? Or Not?

Wiley, I loved the storyline until it became a commercial.(Even putting in the e-address? Really?)-Bob is the posterboy for stupid lifestyle decisions, which doesn’t speak too highly of his choice of vegan over heart surgery.He’s just the kind of fool who’d say, “What do they know? They’re just doctors. They just want my money.” and waltz out of the hospital.-—It’s easy to imagine a sequel strip where Bob (no lighter than before) is at the bar, knocking back a martini as Joe silently watches.“What? It’s got an olive in it. Okay?”Next, Bob lying in an open casket.He wakes up, to see Joe, Flo, Cap’n Eddie (and Pauly) by his side.Flo explains he had a heart attack when he choked on a martini olive.“Ye gotta stay away from them veg’tables!” Eddie chides. “They’ll kill ya! – ’at’s why I stick ta whiskey.”-—-BTW – I was born with a heart defect, had it fixed with open heart, and had cancer and a few other goodies. I’d rather trust myself to somebody who’s studied medicine, and some common sense.

sigh And we get the final bit of “magical thinking”. Just change your diet and it can magically fix a blocked (!!) artery! And the evidence is so conclusive. Just watch a “documentary” by a couple of people pushing their diet books and videos. Are they medical researchers? No, of course not. Just a couple of doctors, who might be sincere — but they’re only doctors. People need to understand that doctors are NOT scientists or researchers.

“Drs. Pulde and Lederman joined Whole Foods Market in 2010 where they serve as health and wellness medical experts.” Hmmm. Whole Foods Market, the home of where a small bottle of SOOPER DOOPER VITAMINS costs $80. They have a whole quackery section there, it’s disgusting.

I shouldn’t care this much, it’s just a comic strip, but I hate this kind of thing. These doctors take a seed of a good idea (more plants, less meat) and they manipulate people into buying books and believing that they have some secret answer. It’s just plain quackery and manipulation.

And they’ve manipulated someone with a relatively broad audience into telling people that a diet can cure a blocked artery that needs immediate attention. That’s the danger of quackery. Delaying procedures based on science in favor of magic cures.

Actually, my respect for Wiley would increase 100x if the brother died like Steve Jobs for ignoring the doctor’s advice. :)

PS: as regards my older brother; he was a vegetarian.There was not a speck of meat on his cheese nachos.All washed down with Coca-Cola.

This comic strip is spot on with the recommendations for diet. Read the China Study. We in the USA are eating ourselves sick. We have the most heart disease, high bp and diabetes. Doctors are not given this info in med school. It is all about drugs for them.

Without standing on either side of the veg/carn debate, one has to acknowledge that science and history have shown that many diseases can be cured and prevented by avoiding chronic inflammation (cancer being the poster child for chronic-inflammatory disease) and adhering to caloric restrictions. Meat takes longer to break down in our systems, and generates more systemic inflammation. Cooking at high temps produces mutagenic carcinogens, which cause cancer, etc. Eating only plants doesn’t save the lives of animals however, much as vegans would have you believe… they like to forget about the mice and birds that get chopped up in the farm equipment, the aphids that die on the organic kale, the deer that are shot to keep them from eating the crop (since putting up fences over vast expanses of farmland is impractical). Etc. It’s all about balance. As for the fat debate, there are good fats; in fact, many fats improve overall athletic performance, mental function, and quality of life.

What a great series by Wiley Miller over the last few weeks.

FORKS OVER KNIVES is a good look at the plant based diet for human health.

The new documentary COWSPIRACY examines a plant based diet from the environmental perspective. COWSPIRACY is a must see!

COWSPIRACY: The Sustainability Secrethttp://www.cowspiracy.com/

Cowspiracy may be the most important film made to inspire saving the planet.— Louie Psihoyos, Oscar-Winning Director of “The Cove”

A documentary that will rock and inspire the environmental movement. — Darren Aronofsky, Director of “Noah” and “Black Swan”

Comment on the greed or excessive health care costs. BTW: Wiley, I hope you are in good health and happiness.

I never said diet wasn’t very important — obviously it is. But to say that diet can cure an artery apparently so severely blocked that it caused a trip to the hospital and a recommendation of a bypass is magical thinking.

As I’ve said before in these threads, there is no doubt – NO doubt — that diet is crucial to health. Duh! Everyone knows this. And science has proven over and over that more plants and less meat is beneficial. But there is NO proof that a meatless diet is better than a moderate meat diet, and in fact, moderate meat is probably better because it’s easier to ensure that you’re getting all amino acids.

Believing that a meatless diet will cure a severely blocked artery to such a quick enough extent that it renders bypass operations completely unnecessary (which is the point of this strip) is magical thinking and quackery at its absolute worst. You might as well claim that meatless diets can cure a broken arm so you don’t need to put a cast on it.

But perhaps Wiley would also claim that setting broken arms is a conspiracy by orthopedic doctors.

I care about science. And there is no scientific proof that meatless is better than moderate meat. And certainly a couple of doctors selling their Miracle Diet™ is not science in the least.

All of you people who think that diet can’t be effective even with advanced cardiac disease need to watch “Forks Over Knives”. The standard American diet makes people sick. If we really wanted to reduce health care costs in our country we would be encouraging people to move toward a whole foods plant based diet.I am loving this non sequitur series and I hope that the next series will expose the horrible way that non-human animals used for food are treated. He could start with gestation crates because that is in the news right now.

I know people who get awfully sick from eating vegetables; all they eat are nuts and meat, plus some roots, no greens at all. All have a disease that’s pretty uncommon but the only treatment is avoiding vegetables One’s now 92, one’s now 80. So going vegan for them years ago meant death.

I’m still wondering why Dick Nixon is such a strong character in this arc.

rick scott GoComics PRO Member said, about 2 hours ago

“Moderation in all things. Even sobriety.”~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I really enjoy subtle humor.

Sorry, I should let this go, but this is too funny. From the F.O.K. web site: “We believe … That nature knows exactly what our bodies need.”

Indeed. And funny how our digestion system is designed to process both meat and plants. And how meat supplies many nutrients that are difficult to get in plants, such as B12, which you CAN’T get in plants, but you (naturally) can in animal products. Also funny how we can’t digest much of the fiber in plants that herbivores can naturally make use of.

It’s almost as if our bodies are designed to be omnivores… almost like nature knows exactly what our bodies need. Hmm.

Our local “non-profit” hospital gave $3,000,000 to have the local minor league park named for them, and chipped in $10,000,000 to get their own interchange on the Interstate. Aren’t we glad our suffering is paying off?

So far I have outlived four vegetarians/vegans from my class (’71) and two more look to be on their last legs. I am an omnivore that leans toward carnivory.

If anybody still cares check out this blog, it’s long but a good read.http://rawfoodsos.com/2011/09/22/forks-over-knives-is-the-science-legit-a-review-and-critique/

NG – I’ve look back over my comments and have to say, you’ve gotten me mixed up with someone else. S’okay, not the first time I’ve been mistaken for someone else. I guess I’ve just got that kind of face.

40%! Fortunately, other countries are catching up to us.

So great to see Forks Over Knives get the credit here it deserves! As Roger Ebert said, it’s a film that can save your life. How we wish he’d seen it a few years earlier. As for the comment below asking how well a plant based diet worked for Steve Jobs; given that diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, his Western doctors gave him a few months to live ,and he lived for seven years on a vegan diet, I’d say it worked out pretty well.

excellent !!

as docs my wife and i see the consequences of a standard american diet (SAD) and it isn’t funny – from heart attacks to strokes to cancer to erectile dysfunction and more. good for you for calling attention to the power of a plant-based diet!

Mr. Miller, you are brave to tell the truth about the food/medical/big pharma connection. A vegan diet is the only thing that will save the billions of animals we slaughter each year, our endangered planet and the millions of human lives lost to the consumption of animal products. Thank you and please keep up the good work!

Steve Jobs lived many many years with cancer that he would probably ( and might as well air on the side of probable)never have gotten were it not for this toxic, cancer cell proliferating, cell clogging, heart stopping diet we call food. It always amazes me that people be like, “don’t tell ME what to eat.” Ha! Good one. Watch TV! Learn how the FOOD PYRAMID was formed, with massive animal agribusiness interests at the table making it meat, dairy, animal protein friendly.. Learn how YOUR tax dollars, with little debate or scrutiny, are spent subsidizing dairy, eggs, meat, livestock feed, instead of helping farmers who grow cruelty free foods that do NOT increase disease risk for viral diseases(H5N1,H1N1, SARS,Swine Flu, Whooping Cough for starters)and non-communicable diseases. Farm Bill subsidies=$300 BILLION, that’s BILLION, over ten years to the largest agribusiness corporations who are not only a threat to public health, but treat animals criminally barbaric, including standard practices. See Mercy For Animals investigations! Vegans eat so much wonderful food, becoming one expanded my food choices, it did not limit them. What it limits is torturing needlessly, animals who FEEL pain NO differently than you and I. SEE www.earthlings.com Get the entire picture.