Meme Watching

If you go to Regina Wilshire's blog and have a look at this page you will get some idea of how a meme fights.

She includes this link, to a post by a doctor with a very simple and highly effective rule of thumb for saving the vision (and legs and kidneys and hearts too, though he doesn't claim this) of diabetic patients.

Quote from Dr Eichenbaum:

I then offer them a simple, five-finger diabetic diet saying: "There are five things you cannot eat: bread and baked goods, potatoes and root vegetables, rice, pasta and fruit except for berries."



The man is a genius. I have a mass of admiration for Dr Bernstein, but look at the simplicity and elegance of this five finger rule from Eichenbaum. It won't get the results that Dr B or Dr Kwasniewski can, but for the average early type 2 diabetic this is a lifesaver. And it's easy.

It's also not very friendly to the low fat meme.

Perhaps some heavy weight guns should be brought in for the defence. Now neither Connie B. Diekman, president, American Dietetic Association - Chicago or Lana Vukovljak, chief executive officer, American Association of Diabetes Educators - Chicago are consciously criminal in their intent. They are merely the product of their education, which is part of the structure generated by the simple idea that dietary fat is bad.

Their advice will do the opposite to that of Dr Eichenbaum. Do you want to be the blind and legless person sat in the wheelchair in the dialysis room? Following the low fat meme is your ticket there. Diekman and Vukovljak do not intend this, but the meme generates it.

As I said in my last post, the meme does not need healthy or long lived patients.


The next post from Regina documents the pro active behaviours set out by the low fat meme to expand its client base. If you can read this post and not be deeply disturbed you have eaten too many carbohydrates for too long.

To quote Regina:

"How this expert committee sleeps at night, I don't know!"

It's obvious, by eating carbs at bed time...

I would stress that these people are not acting with deliberate criminal intent. They are again simply part of the complex structure generated by the simple idea that fat is bad for you. You can bet they do not recommend the Atkins diet for teenagers! Or themselves.

Early intervention is the current UK buzz word, we'll be following along very soon...

I'm worried.

Peter