John Stossel of ABC’s 20/20 has never been one of my favorites. He’s one of those folks who often poses as a skeptic by using doubt and mockery indiscriminately. Tonight, though, he got it right. He discusses food obsessions and fads, pointing out the contradictions inherent in food cultists.
One of the worst of the food cult leaders is Viktoras Kulvinskas, a leader of the raw food movement. Stossel’s interview with this wacko is great…he actually calls him out on his bullshit.
Raw foodists believe cooking vegetables even a little destroys their nutritional value. And eating meat is even worse, Kulvinskas said, because you eat the animal’s fear.
“When they go through slaughter, they go through a lot of fear, and that fear is taken into the dietary habits of America.”[Stossel calls that ridiculous and ask him how he knows. Kulvinskas says he just knows.]
Everyone knows that eating too much meat can be a problem. But does Kulvinskas even make sense? All over the world, as people have gotten wealthier, they are eating more cooked food, more meat and life spans keep increasing.
“That’s correct,” Kulvinskas said, adding that people are “sicker than ever. Living longer doesn’t mean quality of life. It only says that you’re living longer under medical intervention. These are not natural, whole people.”
So living longer isn’t good if you’re not “natural and whole”. WTF does that mean? But maybe he really values quality of life over quantity and is filled with compassion for his fellow humans? Nope.
When questioned about a raw foodie who died from her obsession, he responded, “at least she got detoxified and clean and moved on to another incarnation.”
Do you get why I liken altmed gurus to cult leaders? This guy prefers that his followers die pure and organic than live against his rules. This is typical of cult and other alternative medicine. Irrational ideology trumps logic every time.
Kudos to Stossel for calling out the purveyors of food woo and their manipulation of their victims’ psychopathology (and thanks to Mrs. Pal for making me watch the show).