Dr Andrew Chung, a cardiologist, is under considerable public scrutiny after the arrest of a friend, Ebony Berry, 38, and the death of her daughter, Markea Blakely-Berry. The 16-year-old weighed only 40 pounds and the police discovered that Blakely-Berry was a follower of Chung hunger diet where he advocates the value of staying “wonderfully hungry” by eating no more than two pounds of food a day. Below is a video of his advocacy of the program, which appears as medically sound as hitting your head with a hammer because it feels so good to stop.
Chung has visited the mother in jail and insists that his philosophy of “hunger is wonderful” does not advocate starvation.
The case against Blakely-Berry, pictured is one of simple neglect but there remains questions over the influence of Chung and his bizarre views. Chung’s arguments in favor of the program rarely leave the most elementary level with such explanation as “being hungry is wonderful. The opposite of hungry, which is not hungry, is the opposite of wonderful, which is terrible.” He insists that Berry is “an ordinary, single mom who’s stressed out.” Really? She had a daughter who was 16 and died at 40 pounds. She also has a history of child abuse from Michigan.
The potential liability for Chung could be challenging. He has protected speech rights in advocating this lifestyle. It could be compared to other extreme low-calorie programs offered by others. These programs are sometimes based on research showing low-calorie diets in animals like mice result in greater longevity. Unless he had knowledge of the abuse or directed Berry in some fashion, the liability exposure would remain limited. There is the question of whether an adult can survive and thrive on two pounds of food a day, a proposition contested by medical experts.
Source: Daily Mail
First, this is a horrible and completely unnecessary death. I feel very badly that it occurred.
1. isn’t Dr. Chung responsible for recognizing malnutrition? Even if he truly believes in his “cure”, if he sees a particular patient isn’t being “cured”, but is in fact appearing harmed, doesn’t he need to discontinue his “cure” until an evaluation of malnutrition is made, preferably by an outside specialist, a pediatrician? Many doctors prescribe diets, medicine, etc. on their belief that those things will work. When clearly, they are not working and are in fact causing harm, doesn’t that create legal responsibility?
2. the entire matter appears to be a working Milgram experiment. Why is the mother unable to see her daughter’s deterioration? If she abused this girl in the past, she may hate the girl, she may be insane, she may be unable to parent at all. Add to that background, an “authority” telling her this is the right thing to do and it isn’t difficult to see how this could happen.
People, ordinary people, were willing to turn on others because an authority told them to do so. A history of being an abuser amplifies the power of an authority figure.
This is very sad and I am sorry for all this young girl’s needless suffering death.
Do you have a smartphone? Then these USDA Supertracker nutrition and motion people need to develop an app. Tell them that. Get help making menu choices, shopping, getting told to take a walk instead of a nap.
Even we non-smart cell owners can get a 800-number to dial. There we can listen through 100 different alternatives to choose between, and spend the 30 minutes time we should have spent taking that walk, OR the nap!
Do your bit for a more responsive and responsible government. The bureaucracy will be there long after you, so gettem to do some work meanwhile. Good luck.
And you tea-baggers can go bite the bullet. You may cut back funding. OK. But bureaucracy knows how to survive. All of them. The tactic is to do less real work but to make it look bigger, flashier, etc.
And keep all the bodies except the incomps and the walking wounded. Things always get “better” when a new war is started. Never long to wait.
(Sorry about that double post; the first one ended up in “moderation” so I modified it to eliminate links and reposted it. Usually when posts go into moderation they never come out, that is what I expected this time too.)
AY – I don’t know if that was a compliment or an insult but I will plead guilty either way!
The universe gave me this personality & I’ll be darned if I won’t inflict it back on the universe.
https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/default.aspx
Why does the Department of Agriculture tell you:
—-what’s in 6,000 different foods?
—-what’s in what you eat and does it meet nutrition goals?
—-that you can register all or part of your
activities and see if it is healthy???
Because the interests of the “food producers” was more important than yours. Now it is better, But the fights are still vigorous every five years when it is updated. Now the FDA is involved. And more money spent on it. Diabetes, etc growth scares them.
It’s more attractive now, maybe with a view to attracting youth.
I tried the old version for at least a year. It was not easy for me but will be for you. Because it is based on the “foods” on your shelves, not those in my grocery store.
Why did I do it? That is another story. Ask yourself. Good but time consuming. Maybe the new version is less so. It does contain surprises.
https://www.supertracker.usda.gov/default.aspx
Nick,
Now I’m getting all “family” of me, but let me say that that would be one wedding I would have liked to attend.
Elaine, Thanks, excellent point. I can see parents wanting organic food for their kids. Our daughter is a nanny for two beautiful girls. Mom is an MD[internist] and dad an engineer. They buy organic but aren’t nuts about it. When they go out to eat they don’t sweat it. However, mom is an internist and the girls[2 and 4] drink full fat milk, yogurt, cheese etc. Our daughter just got married last Saturday and we all talked about how being a nanny is great preparation for our daughter when they decide to have kids. The 4 year old was @ the wedding and seeing her eyes light up when she saw her nanny as a bride was worth a million bucks.
nick,
That is so true … balance is the key and a good GP is uber-important when attempting to implement all the specialists’ recommendations into one’s health regimen.
nick,
Your comment brought to mind stories about “failure to thrive” babies from a couple of decades ago:
A Yuppie For A Parent Can Be Hazardous To Baby`s Health
April 24, 1988
By Ronald Kotulak and Jon Van
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1988-04-24/features/8803110641_1_viral-infection-sexual-activity-nursing-homes
Health experts are seeing problems of stunted growth among children of yuppie parents who are overly health conscious, according to a child nutritionist at the University of Illinois, Champaign. Some young, well-educated, high-income parents are inadvertently malnourishing their infants because of fears that they might become overweight or develop a lifestyle that leads to heart disease, said Mary Frances Picciano, U. of I. professor of nutrition. “What we`re seeing is yuppie parents raising children who suddenly stop growing. That`s what failure to thrive means,“ she said. Children normally nearly quadruple their birth weight during the first two years, but this natural growth period can be slowed when infants are fed low-calorie, low-fat diets, said Picciano. Many of these parents were overweight as children and don`t want to see their offspring become fat, Picciano said.
The typical recommended diet is 2000-2300 calories a day; however, for weight loss, average women can reduce to 1200, and men to 1500.
Two pounds of Table Sugar has about 3500 calories.
Two pounds of Cheddar cheese has 3600 calories.
Two pounds of cooked bacon has about 5800 calories.
Two pounds of mayonnaise has about 6200 calories.
Those are extreme, but my point is simple; two pounds of high calorie food is far more than sufficient to provide all the calories a person needs in a day. With about an ounce of supplements to ensure sufficient essential minerals, nutrients and vitamins (particularly vitamin C) the issue is really getting sufficient protein, and a half-pound of meat provides about what is needed.
A person could become obese on two pounds of food per day. And before I am criticized about “good calories,” “empty calories,” cholesterol, etc, let me point out that for medical reasons (related to cancers) some people have been on 100% fat diets with nutritional supplements for over a decade and are still lean and living.
The basic idea of many diets is to find a simple rule that ultimately limits caloric intake, restricting the weight to two pounds is not even necessarily going to cause hunger; it will just drive people to depend on calorie dense foods and avoid vegetables; which are usually calorie-light (two pounds of iceberg lettuce has only 127 calories).
The typical recommended diet is 2000-2300 calories a day; however, for weight loss, average women can reduce to 1200, and men to 1500.
One pound of Sugar has 1754 calories; two pounds has about 3500.
One ounce of Cheddar Cheese has 113 calories; so a pound has 1800. Two pounds would have 3600.
Two pounds of cooked bacon has about 5800 calories, and two pounds of mayonnaise has about 6200 calories.
Those are extreme, but my point is simple; two pounds of high calorie food is far more than sufficient to provide all the calories a person needs in a day. With about an ounce of supplements to ensure sufficient essential minerals, nutrients and vitamins (particularly vitamin C) the issue is really getting sufficient protein, and a half-pound of meat provides about what is needed.
A person could become obese on two pounds of food per day. And before I am criticized about “good calories,” “empty calories,” cholesterol, etc, let me point out that for medical reasons (related to cancers) some people have been on 100% fat diets with nutritional supplements for over a decade and are still lean and living.
The basic idea of many diets is to find a simple rule that ultimately limits caloric intake, restricting the weight to two pounds is not even necessarily going to cause hunger; it will just drive people to depend on calorie dense foods and avoid vegetables; which are usually calorie-light (two pounds of iceberg lettuce has only 127 calories).
“Andy Chung and Ebooooneee!
So different when in harmoneeeee!
Too small for some,
As one would think,
But thinkin aint something these can drink…”
Probably SOME, maybe even MOST, cardiologists can be obsessed with weight and fat in diet. But many other kinds of people are too. I haven’t met very many cardiologists, but those I met were normal people; this guy is out of his mind and dangerous.
I have a very knowledgeable GP. She’s told me that cardiologists are obsessed w/ weight and fat in diet. Here’s the problem. Our brains consist of mostly fat and we need it in our diet to function properly. It’s beginning to look like this obsession w/ fat in our diet is causing dementia. Our culture, in so many aspects, has lost the most basic rule, that being balance is the key to health and happiness.
The research was interesting on this extreme low calorie thing. It worked for mice, and increased their longevity. But then it didn’t work when it was tested on mammals of a higher “order” than rodents — I believe it was small apes of some sort. That was recently reported. So it can only be concluded that it might foster longevity in the rodents. That might make it more likely that rodents will take over the world if we ruin our agriculture, destroy our oceans, and continue overpopulating. Hmmm.
The guy is obviously nuts; the mother who is incarcerated is obviously both nuts and dangerous; the particular method of child abuse, starvation, is a standard one, though.
I am presuming that the “two pounds” of food does not include water? I am also presuming that the doctor has lost his license to practice? “First, do no harm.”
The Mother and this ”Doctor” both need to be investigated… I can’t believe that the mother didn’t see anything wrong with a 16 year old girl weighing only 40 lbs. Shouldn’t she have seeked help before her child died? And while this doctor is under investigation, put him in prison, and put him on his own diet… Feed him two pounds of grass a day….
” Georgia ” Doctor ” under fire ! Why not arrested for murder ? Is it really legal to kill people slowly in USA ? Well thinking about it – maybe it is.
Has to be Frankly…..just has to be….
AY – I think what gets in their heads is a huge dose of methane because they have them firmly planted in in their own personal methane factory.
One has to wonder…..what gets into these people’s heads…..