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
TonyC,
Let me say that here torts against medical practitioners is not “legal”. But here they have their norms prescribed. Some are curious and will consider new stuff like micro-CRP tests, ie tests for low level inflammation, presumably in the walls of the arteries.
High doseage atorvastatin (80mg) was studied and shown to drive down this CRP level. It was also said to stabilize the plaque accumulations.
My doc was interested in the micro-CRP, but got rebuffed by his boss. And an increase in statin level was not in order since my lipos were excellent and risk for liver damage was there.
So much for central steering of clinical practice.
Ansel was Eisenhower’s private physician, if that had any importance. He was I presume the first to do a large study, not alone I guess, but his name is the one remembered. Ansel left the well-known French paradox, but not many in the media talked about carbs. Well, can it be the sacred corn product so loveed by America?
So the first. like Ansel, are often given too much credence, since the days of Aristotle.
We have later examples: the race to discover DNA, the race to decode it, the race for polio vaccine (Jonas Salk), the race for HIV source, etc. And now the race for cancer cures, Alzheimer cure, ALS, MS, type 1 and 2 diabetes, autism (one in eight now), and the unification of gravity and quantum mechanics.
Sorry, words tumble out. It is late here. CUL.
“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.” -Joseph Stalin
@Idealist: Most MDs are parrots. They are so afraid of malpractice suits, they simply do not pay attention to research that is perfectly valid and repeated a hundred times; they worry (with very good reason) that a malpractice attorney and a jury will find fault with veering from the status quo.
Sometimes they don’t know the truth, sometimes they do, but will not prescribe it; they will just not resist a patient that figures it out for themselves.
Culturally speaking, as cultures become wealthier (since the early middle ages) their consumption of meat AND refined flour and sugar both increase together. They start eating candy, cakes, putting sugar into sauces, candying their vegetables and making glazes for everything.
Ansel Keys missed that, and as smart as he was, still engaged in “magical” thinking, namely the idea that eating fat makes you fat, as if fat was not digested and there were no waste system. He did that despite evidence to the contrary; even Ansel Keys knew of native Eskimos that survived on nothing but fat and proteins, with zero sugars and carbs, and ignored it. IMO Keys did bad science, and has done the world harm in the process.
chimene,
Not to play “wise” because I am not. But we can reflect that whatever happens to a loved one, we can always find some reason to blame ourselves. I did.
And I will summarize my position by saying: If you did not poison him so he died within 24 hours, you are not guilty of anything. You made the food he liked, most women do. (I made it in our family.) But if it isn’t the food then it is something else you take the blame for.
I can even go so far as to say that the best of things
happening don’t guarantee a good outcome in the end.
Examples from both South America and America are sport teams crashing in their planes on the way home after winning the match. Should thay have stayed at home? Well, what would have happended to their bus going to the neighboring school for a match?
But reasoning does not always help, but keep trying with yourself, for those who wish to do so.
That’s life.
Friends,
You know yourselves that oranges, lemons and bananas are not all equal, just like we humans.
The Cretian oranges were too large to be allowed to be
exported to EU. The Cretian lemon was actually sweet and full of umame. The frost nipped red oranges of Sicily are the most wonderful in the world, but must be bought in a “food for the moneyed” store to get the right ones. One NEVER encounters them in the chains here.
So let’s give ourselves a little latitude in all this.
I bet you Americans can beat me hands down with all the specialty products you have available. The things I note from the USA matches the internet in its diversity and richness. Now how much is for show and how much is for consumption is another thing.
Blouise gave me an early lesson, and that was on one subject ONLY. Go check your neighbors garbage can when they are away for the weekend. Maybe they are secret connaisseurs. 😉
And when the Swedes years ago kidded about American food I smiled wryly. The young generation has been there; and they are only starry eyed on return.
well shucks, Idealist, you got a big chunk of it right there — “And I make my own foods, no pre-fabs.” That’s where the manufactured food-like substance makers stuff in all the extra fat/salt/sugar! (see The End of Overeating by Kessel)
I expect it may be slowly leaking out (the info about animal protein NOT being the cholesterol problem) — eggs became OK to put back in your breakfast a couple years ago, eh?
Sure wish the “it’s the sugar, not the animal fat/protein” had been around even 10 years ago, so I could have let my dear mother know daddy’s heart attack was NOT the fault of her feeding him the foods he wanted — farm boy wanted bacon and eggs for breakfast, so that’s what she made him, ca. 1945-1959. She beat herself up over that for the rest of her life. Now we know there’s ALSO a huge genetic component in Daddy’s side of the family, AND he was a total, ginormous Type A…
Malisha, Avgolemeno soup is one of my favorites[beef or mushroom barley is my other fav]. The avgolemeno is my personal cure for the common cold. It warms the body and soul.
Idealist, I spoke @ length w/ the patriarch of the Iranian family. He reminded me of many of my Italian uncles growing up. He sits @ the bar drinking Persian coffee and holds court. He despises what his home country has become and was ashamed the current President of Iran was speaking @ the UN. The man is Christian and spoke of atrocities by both the Shah and “Those thugs” now running his country.
PS to Malisha,
As one who has been on the inside, you should know.
Once was given the advice to do as they claimed that all greeks do: go direct to the kitchen, raise the pot lids, smell, ask to taste, and then decide. ?????
Never dared myself.
Malisha,
You see what happens when you have too little to compare with and really are just a red-neck from NC.
After a three days in Athens just before the junta takeover and eating two meals on the
Placa, my only experience is here in the world’s capital of “bad-food-restaurants”, ie Stockholm.
I also spent a week in Crete, where the best restaurant had great reds and local brandy, but were
the owners private reserve. The fish were fresh, but none were brought in on election day.
Here in Stockholm, non-discerning customers are satisfied with whatever as long as it is saucy (not sexually so).
My favorite is kinda OK. They buy their lamb, chilled to 32 degrees, imported from NZ. But most Swedes look only at the prices and listen to the music. The greek wave died out in 1990s. Now it is Turkish pretenders who enjoy a modest wave. Turkish resorts are the cheapest now especially since Egypt is a hazardous place.
You folks don’t realize what good food you have in the USA.
Try this if you fancy the best sushi and sashimi, Edomae style, and have a “thick wallet”, in NYC.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/26/dining/reviews/restaurant-review-ichimura-at-brushstroke-in-tribeca.html
I doubt if there is one equal in the whole of Europe to this one. Just read it and salivate.
PS Let’s face it, Greece had their wild spice herbs, but were not on the spice route. Just my ignorant opinion. Glad it was noticed.
Idealist, I can’t believe I’m hearing this: Greek food is too sparse for you? Maybe I knew all different Greeks! Have you had kote arakas? Lamb stew? Imam Bayeldi? Egg-lemon soup? OMG, those white beans? Maybe the Greek restaurants you’ve been to are following Dr. Andrew Chung’s diet, but the ones I went to (and worked in) were not sparse at all!
TonyC,
Thanks for that. 7 nation study and Ansel Keys I knew about. The dangers of refined and simple carbo as opposed to fats and own cholesterol generation also.
But that his study missed the carbo side amazes me.
But that scientists agree that fatty acids are not important, is not what I had heard, and apparently not most people either. Not contradicting, just saying. I’m outa touch. My BP is fine 130/70 and my HDL/LDL ratio is too. And I make my own foods, no pre-fabs.
So what’s to worry.
Doctors and USDA are still pushing to stay away from saturated fats, empty calories, and salt (sodium). Other doctors use triglyceride as an indicator of relative concentrations of PUFA,and variants, pushing to get away from the small molecules which easily penetrate and attach to blood vessel walls. (Empty calories being alcohol and simple carbos)
Nick S.
Tell the groom that personally I would prefer to be called “durse” rather than “murse”. Yours to figure out why.
My, at times, morning helper is a 19 year old from Tehran originally. She’s going home for a month to visit Grandma, part of a line of Dutch and Iranian generals’ families. Untouchable there in Iran. Their restaurant here is too far from Stockholm to visit.
Hwe older brother started it, she ran it for two years, and now little brother has taken over a year ago. No drones here. Going to take her SAT when she oomes back.
Nick Spinelli,
Wonderful. Great ingredients, great people, lots of kids. And good Persian food. Any ME food if done well and honestly is magnificent—except Greek, which is too sparse for me.
Your menu sounded great.
Speaking of Playa del Carmen, I was in Cozumel for a week in 1980 and took a excursion to Tulum with a local guide. On the way back we stopped to bathe in a wonderful shallow water cove where the only amenities
were a bathhouse for changing and fresh water. Now it is commercialized. Maybe worth taking a peek at now.
The world has changed so much in the last 40-50 years.
The coast line from del Mar was unexploited then.
http://www.xelha.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
My souvenirs: a ChacMool belt buckle and a sea conch shell fished up by a local after he had extracted the maat with his knife.
There is a holocaust happening every year now:
(Perfect Storm: New Global Ground Zero). The “other” holocaust only happened once.
So, those who deny a holocaust each year are condemning those from nations that deny the holocaust that only happened once.
That fits a psychopathological profile quite nicely.
idealist, Thanks, it was a great wedding. All I insisted was that it be great food, not wedding fare..great food. The couple picked a Persian restaurant, owned by Iranian immigrants. It’s in downtown Minneapolis. They had the wedding and reception right @ the restaurant. An uncle of the groom is a minister[PHD from Yale Divinity] and he performed the ceremony. He flew in from Spain w/ his mate and they were wonderful. The mate was like Franc from the flick Father of the Bride. The daughter and her husband were afraid a couple homophobes might cause a stir after a few drinks. But even one of the homophobes went up to the minister and genuinely thanked him. He was that great. We had hummus, flatbreads, and fire roasted lamb appetizers. Dinner was a salad, fire roasted tenderloin, chicken, or sea bass[I tasted all 3 and they were superb]. Cupcakes instead of wedding cake and as everyone ate, drank, and danced there was flatbread pizza put out @ 10:30 to help soak up the drinks. There were lots of kids @ the wedding which in my opinion makes it even better. The groom is an RN. He calls himself a “murse”. He’s what any parent wants in a son-in-law.They’re in Playa Del Carmen and going to Tulum tomorrow. I’m pretty much recovered but my bank account will take awhile to recuperate!
@David: Sounds good!
Once you have figured out your supplements, it really does not make much difference where you get your calories, I do not think bacon, cheese and mayonnaise is unhealthy at all. IMO the bread is worse for you; the carbs and sugars are a weak poison that require moderation.
The modern “ingested cholesterol” panic is medically ridiculous and being proven so in one study after another. Stomach acid breaks down cholesterol; all the cholesterol in the bloodstream is manufactured by the body, and the ingredients for that cholesterol come primarily from sugars and carbohydrates in the diet; not the proteins and fats in the diet.
I could go on, but people that really are on a low carb diet (<30g a day, <2300 calories a day) and eat lots of protein and fats have the best blood work; in fact this diet has reversed borderline diabetes.
This can all be traced back to Ansel Keys, who missed a key ingredient in his analysis of diets and heart disease across various populations. His study produced a significant correlation between the consumption of animal protein and dietary fat and atherosclerosis; but he failed to include in that study the consumption of refined sugar. It turns out these two things (animal protein/fat and refined sugar) rise together; but if the sugar is included in the statistical analysis, it becomes responsible for the rise, and the correlation between atherosclerosis and the consumption of animal fat/protein vanishes almost completely.
This has been proven in one study after another since 1990 or so, and the message still isn't out there. High cholesterol foods do not produce high blood cholesterol; high sugar diets produce high cholesterol. And refined flours are converted by digestion into sugar, fast.
I am not personally on a low carb diet; I restrict my caloric consumption (by the week, not by the day; I find it easier to eat much less during the work week to permit a higher consumption during the socializing weekend.)
I imagine the state’s medical licensing authority is going to take two pounds of flesh out of Dr. Chung.
Tony C. THANKS A LOT !!!
How am I supposed to enjoy my Bacon and cheese sandwiches, slathered with mayonnaise now! ….. However I do add lettuce and whole wheat toast to make them healthier. That’s why I allow myself two :o)
Actually I am semi serious, two X a year I do make those. I have a hard time thinking of any sandwich worse for humans, thus my “moderation”.
The fast food joints sell them, and add a 1/4 pound of hamburg.
Dung Ho say Chung full of dung. He should learn the way of Pol Pot.
The good doctor is the perfect metaphor concerning psychotic government that is praised for democratic ideals, when actually it is part of a planetary species that is not the brightest bulb in the celestial chandelier:
(Perfect Storm: New Global Ground Zero). Odds are that some of the deniers in the House would consider him to be Ayn Rand spot on.