Vietnamese Noodle Soup

I have a stack of books which I have partially read.  Not that they are bad, or even mediocre, but I have to switch between books to keep from being bored with one or the other.  I prefer non-fiction. 

I'm about 75% through Natural Cures 'They' Don't Want You to Know About by Kevin Trudeau.  He's a paranoid freak on some points, but I can't disagree with him too much.  Some drug companies are insidious with the marketing, and what big company isn't more worried about making money than the absolute health of their customers?  I'm not naive about that.  I'm pretty sure that most medical doctors do a lot of guessing.  I'm also sure that if you mostly eat food that comes from boxes and cans loaded with artificial flavoring, sweeteners, coloring, preservatives, and chemicals they don't cover in organic chemistry class, there are health consequences.  He's not wrong about that.  I can vouch.  It's almost impossible to avoid a lot of acidic foods, however. 

I always think twice about the side effects of over-the-counter stuff.  Alleve will destroy your stomach lining.  But everything is all about the dosage.  How much of any toxin can your body handle without any negative effect?  Even Vitamin A can cause ataxia and may even make your hair fall out if you took even five times the RDA for a period of time.  We bombard our liver with tons of bad stuff already without adding to the problem by overdosing on vitamins.  I did notice that food companies add B vitamins to even crackers and such to make you more hungry.  Insidious.  Why is there sodium in Coke?  Makes you more thirsty later.  Insidious.

He's right about antibiotics, too.  I have experienced negative side effects of antibiotics, even months after taking them.  If you kill all the good bacteria in your intestines, you have to replace it or foul things happen.  Yogurt with active culture is good.  I take Kyo-Dophilis caps that contain millions of bacteria. . . especially after drinking gin or vodka.  If the good bacteria aren't there to help you digest your food, they are also not there to compete with the bad bacteria.  Yeast from beer and bread can get on top of you and cause chronic indigestion and heartburn. Candida is one of the bad ones.  Giardia is positively terrible. 

Kevin goes on about the toxicityof the chlorine and flouride they put in our water and how much you absorb through your skin or by breathing shower steam or swallowing toothpaste.  If you know how bad that stuff is, you start actively avoiding it. 

My initial reaction is that Kevin is a nutcase, but I don't underestimate the marketing and lobbying power of the food and drug companies.  He absolutely hates the FDA.  There is a rule/law that says only a drug can cure a disease.  That's to keep people from selling something that is a drug as if it were food to avoid regulation.  Oranges are the cure for scurvy, but it's not a drug.  Where do you draw the line?  I dunno, but I know that some of the "dietary supplements" and "herbal remedies" on the market are certainly in the realm of drugs, despite the claims that they are not intended to "cure or treat any disease."  I think you can overdose on anything.  I also think that too much regulation can skew and corrupt any industry.  I agree with him that the drug industry is one of those.  Medical doctors are the gatekeepers and they are bombarded by drug company propaganda.  So, who can you trust if you can't trust your doctor to come up with the best cure for what ails ya? 

I love it when doctors recommend a kind of food to cure something.  One time I was put on a banana, rice, applesauce, and toast diet for a few days.  Problem solved.  Broccoli, spinach, and red meat can cure anemia.

I think the answer to being healthy is to exercise enough to sweat out the toxic stuff, drink plenty of pure water, avoid sugary bad stuff, and eat a variety of healthy food.  I'm keenly aware of which food makes me feel bad (certain Taco Bell items qualify here), and which ones make me feel good (Vietnamese Noodle Soup is mighty fine.). 

Speaking of Vietnamese food, I actually like pigblood soup.  It's coagulated pig blood cut into cubes like tofu, and added to noodle soup.  It's great, if you can avoid thinking about what it actually is.  Even better once you've come to grips with what it really is and like it anyway.  Tripe?  Tolerable, but not my favorite thing.  Chitterlings?  I'll pass.  Escargot?  Yuck, man.