PROBLEM

2. 4 million Americans die of disease every year.

Biopharm is a great field to be in. All your market research is done for you for free by the CDC (United States Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). It consists of counting the sick people and what they die of. Cardiovascular disease is number one at almost a million per year in the U.S. It’s caused by atherosclerosis — fat deposits in the blood vessels that eventually block the blood flow enough to cause a heart attack or stroke. Atherosclerosis is caused by too much food and too little exercise. Take a bite of your snack and consider this article a form of assisted suicide.

HEIRLOOM SOLUTION 1:

Live by hunting, the oldest of all human technologies.

Recent bestsellers The Zone, Protein Power, and Dr. Atkins’ Diet Revolution make carbohydrates the culprit in heart disease. It seems humans have not yet adapted to the change from the protein-and-fat-rich diet of the hunter to the carbohydrate-rich diet of the farmer. Hunter-gatherers as a rule have no heart disease, diabetes, or tooth decay. The exceptions are those who consume abundant carbohydrates.

HEIRLOOM SOLUTION 2:

Eat an 800-calorie diet for several weeks.

Read Hunger Disease, written by the Jewish doctors of the Warsaw Ghetto prior to the exterminations of 1942. This work chronicles the terrible effects of a starvation diet. The first phase is surprising: “Disappearance of surplus fat. This stage was reminiscent of the time before the war when people went to Marienbad, Karlsbad, or Vichy for a reducing cure and came back looking younger and feeling better.” (Hunger Disease, ed M. Winick) The subsequent phases are all bad. But no trace of atherosclerosis was found in any autopsy.

This book is a true heirloom. These scientists literally died to give us not only a moving work of literature, but data that could help save our own lives. We owe it to ourselves and to them to make good use of it. Fasting/controlled starvation needs further research to be understood as a treatment. Oprah Winfrey (a diet victim) and Steve Callahan (a lifeboat survivor and author of Adrift) have experienced one hazard, which is that the body responds to starvation by reducing its metabolism for a long time, leading to rapid fat buildups when food intake is increased.

HEIRLOOM SOLUTION 3:

Establish and obey taboos.

Declare that overeating (gluttony) and lack of exercise (sloth) are bad (sins, taboo) and will eventually kill you (deadly). Decathlon winner Bruce Jenner, the Surgeon General, and innumerable others have tried this approach with disappointing results. However, when practiced as part of a complete program (orders) in a supportive community (monastery), it can be more effective. Such authors as John Cassian (c. 360 - 435 A. D.) and Augustine of Hippo (354 - 371 A.D.) claim success. According to the CDC, these “deadly sins” are the leading causes of death, especially if you include the alcohol fatalities under Gluttony and the firearm deaths under Anger. Tobacco is the major killer after gluttony and sloth, and some sects have responded by making it taboo as well. (Tobacco couldn’t have been in the original list of sins, because Christians didn’t encounter it until Columbus.)

Make: 41