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Critical Evaluation of Harvey & Marilyn Diamond's Book, Flt For Life, by Dr. Victor Herbert

Professor of Medicine Mt. Sinai and Bronx Veterans Administration Medical Centers, New York

@ 1988 - Victor Herbert, MD, JD Preamble

The snake-oil promoters of nutrition frauds claim that "physicians only get about 3 hours of nutrition in medical school, so listen to us--we have had years of study of nutrition." Their study, of course, is of pseudonutrition - basically, how to deceive the public with pseudoscientific double-talk.

Experimental psychologist Tom Creed of St. John's Un iver s i ty ( Co l legev i l l e , M N) wr i t i ng about "Pseudoscience on the college lecture circuit," in the Summer 1987 issue of The Skeptical Inquirer stated: "The inability to benefit from feedback appears to be the primary cause of pseudoscience. Pseudoscientists retain their beliefs and ignore or distort contradictory evidence rather than modify or reject a flawed theory. Because of their strong biases, they seem to lack the self-correcting mechanisms scientists must employ in their work. Science can be viewed as a special situation in which scientists acknowledge their human frailties and, through experimental design, construct situations in which their biases will have as little impact as possible. This process is even more critical in the social sciences, since the subject matter, namely ourselves, is one on which we all have strong opinions and biases."

Pseudonutritionists state the literal truth that physicians in a number of medical schools only get about 3 hours labeled nutrition, in order to convey the false message that physicians do not learn nutrition in medical school. Physicians dQ learn nutrition in medical school, and learn it intensively and extensively. What they don't learn is dietetics, which is why physicians should work with registered dietitians as an integral part of the patient care team. Nutrition is an integral part of almost every course taught in medical schools. This reviewer's entire career in nutrition patient care, teaching, and research was solidly grounded on the nutrition learned as a medical student at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, which, at the time I earned my MD degree there, had no � labeled nutrition, but extensively taught bisi.c nutrition as an integral part of courses labeled biochemistry, physiology, embryology, microbiology, pharmacology, and pathology, and extensively taught � nutrition as an integral part of courses labeled medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics/gynecology, neurology, and psychiatry. From this solid grounding, I proceeded to win both the 1972 McCollum and the 1986 Herman Awards of the American Society for Clinical Nutrition (ASCN), the highest awards for clinical nutrition research given in the US. ASCN is the clinical nutrition arm of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) (whose Public

Information Committee I chaired from 1982 to 1986). FASEB consists of the American Physiological Society, the American Society of Biological Chemists, the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Association of Pathologists, the American Institute of Nutrition [AIN], the American Association of Immunologists, and the American Society for Cell Biology.

Within the past decade, there has been a strong swing to include in the medical school curriculum more courses � nutrition, coincident with the formal recognition of clinical nutrition as a subspecialty of medicine. This formal recognition occurred in 1980, when ASCN (of which this reviewer was 1980 President) by letter dated May 27, 1980, secured official recognition by the AMA as a national scientific medical society. In the same year, ASCN brought to fruition at our concurrent annual meeting jointly with the American Federation for Clinical Research (AFCR), the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI), and the Association of American Physicians (AAP), a formal joint subsection of the latter 3 organizations (of which the author is also a member) on Clinical Nutrition, which Robert Herman and a core group of us had sought for years, and which took its place at every subsequent annual meeting, alongside the joint AFCR/ASCI/AAP subsections on Cardiology, Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research, Clinical P h a r mac o l o g y , Der mat o logy , Endoc r ino logy, Gas t roentero l o g y , H emat o log y, Hypertens ion, Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Metabolism, Oncology, Pulmonary, and Renal and Electrolyte.

Perhaps the single most effective force for more courses labeled "nutrition" in medical schools has been Maurice Shils, an outstanding leader in clinical nutrition, now Professor Emeritus (and still active) at Cornell Medical College and Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. His views were reflected almost verbatim in the recent National Academy of Sciences repo� on nutrition teaching in medical schools.

[Pertinent to this review is Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary (1987) definition of "liar": iar. One who tells lies. ie(verb): 1. To make an untrue statement with intent to deceive. 2. To create a false or misleading impression.ie (noun): 1. A:. an assertion of something known orbelieved by the speaker to be untrue with intent todeceive. B: an untrue or inaccurate statement thatmay or may not be believed true by the speaker.2. Something that misleads or deceives.]

REVIEW

With this book and their media tour promoting it,the Diamonds keep up their relentless sustained salvo ofpseudoscientific deception, misrepresentation, andcharacter assassination. Such character assassination,imputing evil and mercenary motives to responsiblehealth professionals, is a necessary part of the act ofsnake oil promoters, for only by making good seem evilcan they make bad seem good.

The quackery mafia-type litany of characterassassinations of responsible dietitians and physicians inthis book and in the Diamonds' media appearancesreflects the similar behavior of the organized quackerymafia in the US and reminds one of the attemptedassassinations of Elliot Ness and other lawmen by AlCapone, Frank Nitti, and the Chicago Mafia. The bookis right out of Orwell's .1SM - evil is good, good is evil; black is white, white is black.

Few recognize the breadth and coordination of thedelivery of misinformation by the quackery mafia in theUS. A succinct but complete expose of the quackerymafia was this reviewer's testimony, pages 88-105 and131-133, at the Hearing, "Quackery: A $10-BillionScandal." Subcommittee on Health and Long Term Care(Chair: Congressman Claude Pepper, D-FL) of the SelectCommittee on Aging, US House of Representatives, 98thCongress, 2nd Session, May 31, 1984. CommitteePublication #98-463 (509 Cong. Rec.). A free copy ofthis 250-page book is available from House DocumentsRoom, US Capitol, Washington, DC 20515 (send self­addressed label). Also available by telephoning PepperSubcommittee in Washington, DC, at 202/226-3375).

In Living Health, the Diamonds display the same hatred toward health professionals that Al Capone had for lawmen. In her cover story interview of the Diamonds in USA Today (June 1, 1987), Karen S. Peterson states: "The Diamonds ... are visceral in their hatred for the medical community. Harvey contends treatment for his father's cancer helped kil l him. 'That's what started me on this thing."' Their character assassination of responsible health professionals, particularly dietitians (R.D.s) and physicians (M.D.s), consists largely of blatant lies claiming a non-existent economic interest in the processed food industry overrides interest in patient welfare. For example, in an interview in a magazine which promotes nutrition scams (East/West. February, 1987 issue), the Diamonds lied when they stated that this reviewer "is on the board of the sugar industry." I have never had any such relationship, and have never received a penny of salary or honorarium from the sugar industry.

In the opening segment of the "Larry King Live" show, the Diamonds summarized the reason for the popularity of their books as "the power of truth," but this reviewer summarized it as "the lure of lies." The frauds are both of �mission and of Q!J'lission (omitting

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adverse facts which destroy their claims). Living Health, like Fit for Life before it, is an

example of the big lie - lie up front, lie big, and lie often. Publishers know that titles sell books: sensational titles sell sensationally. The biggest lies in both books are their titles. Fit for Life is unfit for life. Living Health teaches you how to destroy your health. The Living Health book jacket deceives that "the Fij for Life series puts you in control of your health." It puts you in control of destroying your health. Double-talk characterizes both the book and the promotional tour for it. Both seemingly ignorant (despite the "pop psychology" in their books) of psychosomatic medicine (knowledge of which explains their recurrent symptoms), Marilyn, a divorced mother of two, met Harvey in a health food store; they shared their neurotic histories of similar psychosomatic problems (periodic stomach pains and low energy) and a partnership was born. The result is a cunning exploitation of the vulnerable and the unsophisticated.

As this reviewer stated at the beginning of the King Show, "It's a quack book, full of deceptions, misinformation, and fabrications, with a lot of advice harmful to your health if you follow it. Children can be killed by the advice in this book," and, about the Diamonds, "They are charismatic. They are charming. They are smiling. They are liars." Masters of pseudo­scientific double-talk and double-speak, and ruthless exploiters of the gul lible, the Diamonds are phony health scientists, complete with sham credentials from a sham college, run by a high school d rop-out cult leader named T.C. Fry, whom the State of Texas forbade in 1986 to continue calling his diploma mill a college. In 1983, the US Senate Committee on aging described such operations as "schools for scoundrels, run by con artists to teach other con artists how to make a sting."

The problem with the Diamonds is not only what they don't know, but what they claim to know for sure that is dead wrong. They display an appalling ignorance of epistemology, the science of "how do we know the things that we know," and they prey on the

· wlnerable and the millions unsophisticated in theepistemology of health science. For two people whoclaim a combined 29 years of self-study of healthscience, they display the grossest ignorance of physiology and biochemistry, which sciences arefundamental to understanding and giving intelligentadvice about nutrient intake, both of which everymedical student learns in his/her first year of medicalschool, and every dietitian must learn before gettinghis/her RD credential.

The loony cult diploma mil l that sold the Diamonds their nutrition credentials publishes Healthful Living. In the October/November/December, 1985, issue of that publication (for my copy of which I thank quackbuster

Kurt Butler of Hawaii), T.C. Fry (indicated by the Diamonds to be their guru) writes that viruses do not exist, and that AIDS, polio, and cancer are inventions of a government-drug industry conspiracy designed to foist dangerous and expensive drugs and vaccines on the public.

As background to this second book of fabrications about health, one should read "Fit for Life: Some Notes on the Book and Its Roots" by James J. Kenney, PhD, RD, in Nutrition Forum 3(8):57-59, 1986, in relation to the first book by the Diamonds.

The authors are masters of double-talk, ignoring the dictionary meaning of words, and give words their own private meanings. They write of "health science" as if it were distinguished from, and opposed to, medical science. (Harvey on the King show: "Health science is a totally different field from medical science"). In fact, medical science is a health science. The Diamonds' private meaning of "health science" is pseudoscience, a denial of science. Judging by their output, their "combined 29 years of self study of health science" was 29 years of "garbage in," resulting in two books of "garbage out." It reminds one of the computer mnemonic "GIGO" (Garbage In, Garbage Out) - feed a computer garbage and all it can spit out is garbage. Feed your brain only pseudoscientific garbage like the Diamond books and the Fry teachings they "studied," and all it can spit out is garbage.

Among the more notorious snake oil peddlers the Diamonds indicate they have read, and fraudulently represent in their book to be reliable sources of information on the health sciences, are T.C. Fry, Herbert Shelton, Dean Burk and Maureen Kennedy Salaman (look in the book's index to easily locate these people). Salaman, a leader in the quackery mafia (see V Herbert testimony on the quackery mafia and on the Salamans before Congressman Claude Pepper's May 31, 1984 Quackery Hearing), is President of the quackery­promoting National Health Federation (NHF), which the book promotes (page 309) as a reliable source of nutrition information.

Warner Books and their public relations people (see the Warner Books "News from the Trade Division" press release on Living Health) appear to be co-conspirators in this fraud on the public, and those whose children are harmed by having the Diamonds' advice imposed on them should sue them all for redress, and include a RICO conspiracy claim (see Herbert testimony before Pepper Committee, May 31, 1984). This is what parents successfully did when their children were permanently damaged or killed by the advice in an Adelle Davis book (for details see: Herbert and Barrett: Vttamins and "Health" Foods: The Great American Hustle. Stickley, Philadelphia, 1985 paperback, $8.95).

The publisher's lawyers, possible co-defendants in a RICO attack (Harvey on the King show: "Warner Books'

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attorneys would not allow us to say anything foolhardy") attempted to forestall redress to consumers by inserting a "see your doctor" disclaimer on the back of the title page. I do not believe this will protect the Diamonds or their pµblisher, because the Diamonds, funded by their publisher .. to appear, gave the same advice on the Larry King national TV show, with no such blanket disclaimer. Furthermore, they assassinate the character of your doctor in the book, undermining the disclaimer "See your doctor" by indicating your doctor is untrustworthy and should be avoided. The disclaimer creates neither an informed consent nor an assumption of risk by the reader, since there is fraud in the inducement (i.e., deception for profit) in the title, the Warner press release (further discussed below), and the text, and fraud in the inducement voids both consent and assumption of risk. The two elements of fraud are deceit and profit. Criminal fraud adds the element of scienter (i.e., knowledge). The Diamonds and their publisher cannot claim lack of knowledge of potential harms from following their advice after the Larry King show - all the plaintiff need do is play the King show videotape iur the jury and point out that the Diamonds' appearance with no disclaimer was funded by Warner Books as advertising for the books. Plaintiff's lawyers can also point out that even if you bring the book to a "health professional," the book maliciously and repeatedly defames M.D.s and R.D.s, thereby suggesting your "health practitioner" should be a phony like the Diamonds with no responsible credentials in separating fact from fiction.

On the King show, Harvey stated, "Here we have information that I have studied for 17 years and the medical profession lashes out at it." When physician Jack Yetiv on the same show pointed out they should have done a study comparing their unbalanced weight loss diet for safety with an equally low calorie balanced diet, Marilyn responded (giggling), "We've already sold the book."

Those in the media who give the Diamonds an audience, by providing that audience, promote the Diamond books and aid and abet a scam dangerous to the public health, even if they put on responsible health professionals (like Dr. Yetiv) to oppose them. Old PT Barnum had it right when he said, "There is no such thing as bad publicity" (i.e., mention the book on the air and you sell the book), and followed that aphorism with, "There's a sucker born every minute."

The book is falsely represented as providing new information. In fact, it combines generally recognized truisms with false, deceptive and misleading information and blatant fabrications - there are no new health facts in this book. It follows in the footsteps of a long line of writings by other scam artists for whom, like the Diamonds, defamation of responsible health

professionals is an essential ingredient in the "formula of fakers" to lend credibility to themselves.

Seeing the disingenuous and ingratiating Diamonds on the King show brought to mind the description of cult believers and cult gurus on page · 44 of Nutrition Cultism: Facts and Fictions (V. Herbert, George F. Stickley Company, Philadelphia, 1981), to wit: "Nutrition quackery feeds on specious slogans and beliefs which appeal to needs for control of one's own destiny and of the environment, such as the sophistic concept that natural is good and synthetic is bad. This need for control is accompanied by lack of respect for knowledge, repudiation of knowledge, and perception of established experts as hated paternal authority figures, whereas promoters of quackery are seen as courageous, independent persons with the foresight to penetrate the fakery of the establishment. Those most vulnerable to nutrition quackery are unable to perceive the difference between a genuine authority and expert, i.e., someone who has earned, by disciplined controlled study, scientific training, and experience, the right to make a judgment, and persons who do not follow the basic scientific canons for evaluating medical information, and thus are not authorities and have not earned the right to be classified as experts. Many lay persons are blind to the difference between creative originality and intemperate rebelliousness and unable to recognize the many characteristics which, taken together, define nutrition quackery."

"Psychiatrist A.J. Mandel l con siders Hervey Kleckley's book, The Mask of Sanity. a classical psychiatric explanation of certain cult gurus. He notes they are 'apparently sane, often dynamic ... almost always seductive .. .impress others with their sincere motives and positive intentions and wind up causing great institutional and personal harm. With an unexplainable capacity to engender trust, even an experienced and cynical observers, these people create chaos ... the single most powerful diagnostic test was his own willingness to cash their checks ... charm, a quick sensitivity to the unspoken needs of others, and a certain flexibility with the facts, are woven into a personal charisma that entrances.' They are confidence men par excellence. Kleckley speaks of the psychopath's immunity from anxiety, extraordinary poise, sense of well-being, and remorselessness. The people around usually think, 'He's found it."' The Diamonds, displaying themselves on the King Show to be as cool, cunning, and evasive (a caller pointed out they evaded every question by Dr. Yetiv) a pair as ever came down the pike, appears to fit the Nutrition Cultism description to a "T." On the King show, they demonstrated themselves perfectly willing to distort the truth whenever it suited their fancy and whenever it served their economic interest in selling their book. Only a publisher blinded by dollar signs could fail to see this, or, seeing it, ignore it.

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What Kleckley was describing in his book was the classic psychopath, also known as the "pathologic liar" (renamed "personality disorder" in the newest American Psychiatric Association classification). Recent work in the U.S. and Canada indicates that 2 to 3% of people are psychopaths, and they gravitate into careers and appear as fringe health professionals, shyster lawyers, and shady business people. In an article entitled "Brain defect tied to utter amorality of the psychopath," (New York Times, July 7, 1987, p.C1), Daniel Goleman reviews "the slippery ease with which psychopaths lie, twist language, and manipulate and destroy people in the pursuit of their own ends." Psychologist Robert Hare indicates that the psychopath "can use words any way he wants. If you catch him lying, he'll jsut shift gears and go on as if nothing had happened" (Herbert, V: Scientific Fraud. Chem. Eng. News, 65(47):3, 1987).

On the King show, the Diamonds defended their "education by self-learning" by invoking self-learners Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, and Thomas Edison. If I had been Larry King, at that point I would have said, "Interesting, but irrelevant. Although Twain and Shaw also wrote fiction, they didn't try to pass it off as fact, like you do. Additional ly, their fictions are more realistic than your 'facts.' Also, unlike Edison's, your 'inventions' are not useful, but harmful."

Among the deceptions, misinformation, and fabrications in the book are:

Page xvi: "This book will show you how to take care of your health. With the same confidence, you can assure yourself a pain-free, disease-free existence."

Fact: The Diamonds lie in small letters. Following the advice in this book can be harmful to your health.

Page 5: "FIT FOR LIFE WAS A HEAVY DOSE OF NEW INFORMATION."

Fact: THE DIAMONDS LIE IN CAPITAL LETTERS. Fit for Life was a heavy dose of misinformation, some

of it harmful to health (see Kenney article in Nutrition Forum).

Page 6: "A GREAT DEAL OF WHAT IS PRESENTED I N T H I S BOOK I S N EW LY UNCOVE RED INFORMATION. II

Fact: There is no newly uncovered information (i.e., facts) in this book; what is passed off as new is misinformation, disinformation, and fabrication (both falsehoods and lies).

Page 39: "Fruit contains all of the necessary nutrients required by your body for sustaining life." Fact: Vitamin 8-12 is a necessary nutrient required

by the body for sustaining health and life; there is no vitamin B-12 in fruit (Herbert V: Recommended dietary intakes (RDI) of vitamin 8-12 in humans. Amer J Clin Nutr 45:671-8, 1987 [April]). There are other

nutrients also missing from fruit, or present below adequate quantities. A diet of just fruit will shorten your life.

Page 49: "ALL HEAL TH PROBLEMS ARISE FROM THE ABUSE OF NATURAL LAWS." F a c t: F a t a I salmonella infections from drinking raw milk (which is promoted by the Diamonds on page 236) do not arise from "the abuse of natural laws," to name just one of thousands of illnesses which do not "arise from the abuse of natural laws."

Page 50: "You don't just get sick. You have to work hard at it."

Fact: This pernicious lie implies that if you get a bacterial infection (like a strep throat, diphtheria, tuberculosis, etc.), it's your fault and you "worked hard to get it." This is the "blame the victim" strategy of many health quacks.

Page 62: If a newborn infant is given a whack on the behind, "this is a contributing factor to asthma and other respiratory impairments later on in life ... the ignorant whack of the physician breaks blood vessels in the spine, and that contributes to sudden infant death syndrome in too many cases."

Fact: This is a combination of fabrication and cha racte r assass ination of responsible health professionals.

Page 63: Claim: The post-birth whack on the behind "affects our breathing for the rest of our lives."

Fact: This is a lie. P a g e 67: "ALTE R N A T I V E N O S T R I L

BREA THING ... Alternative nostril breathing ... breathing in one nostril and out the other, then in the second nostril and out the first...can be used as a highly effective tool to balance your nervous system ... Each nostril connects to the opposite side of the brain and using this information in a breathing exercise, you can actually balance the two sides of the brain, and the result is an amazing sense of equilibrium." Fact: This is a pure fabrication, revealing gross ignorance of human anatomy (a first year medical school subject). The air breathed through either nostril goes to the back of our throat and then direct to the lungs. Ajr breathed through either nostril goes to the brain only through our lungs. That breathed through the right nostril carries no label saying to the lungs, "Take me only to the left side of the brain." Either the Diamonds' "years of self study of health science" included no anatomy, or they are incompetent to understand pictures in anatomy texts. The reader need not study anatomy to know the Diamonds are wrong about breathing - all you have to do is notice that when you inhale, it is your chest that swells, and not your brain.

Page 88: "Drinking liquid, any liquid, with or after the meal...severely slows the digestive process, giving rise to many of the digestive complaints that

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plague so many people." Page 34: "PROTEINS AND ST ARCHES CANNOT DIGEST EFFICIENTLY IN THE STOMACH AT THE SAME TIME." Page 41: EAT EXCLUSIVELY FRESH FRUIT AND FRESH FRUIT JUICE FROM THE TIME YOU AWAKEN IN THE MORNING UNTIL 12:00 NOON. Exclusively! Anything else will stay in your stomach and hamper the elimination cycle." Page 35: "Undigested protein putrefies and undigested starch ferments" when you eat a protein with a starch. The food "spoils" in the stomach. Anyone who makes the statement that food can't rot in the stomach is guilty of the most abysmal, unforgivable ignorance of physiology."

Fact: Diamonds, meet the "ignorant" William Beaumont, father of American physiology. There is no basis in reality for these grossly ignorant statements. The Diamonds display total ignorance of human digestive physiology, a health-related science fundamental to understanding human nutrition, which all medical students and registered dietitians (R.D.) are taught. The Diamonds either don't read or don't comprehend any of the extensive studies of the physiology of human digestion, starting with the studies by US Army doctor William Beaumont on soldier Alexis St. Martin. In 1833, William Beaumont published his classic studies on his patient, St. Martin, who had a gunshot wound opening to his stomach. Beaumont had put a variety of foods on strings in St. Martin's stomach and later pulled them out by their strings and showed that all were digested equally well regardless of the ratio of starch to protein. There was no selective "spoiling in the stomach" of combined proteins and starches.

Beaumont was the father of American physiology. His name graces the Bethesda, Maryland, headquarters of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). FASEB is the largest non-governmental association of basic scientists in health-related subjects in the world. (This reviewer was, for 5 years (1981-1986) Chair of the Public Information Committee of FASEB).

In 1902, Pavlov published in London his classic book The Work of the Digestive Glands showing that the seeing or chewing of any appetizing foods resulted in generalized salivary enzyme secretion and gastric secretion of acid and enzymes, and that any food in the stomach stimulates more gastric secretion. The same year, Bayliss and Starling published their classic study showing that gastric juice hitting the upper intestine caused release of "secretagogues" which traveled through the blood stream to the pancreas causing the pancreas to release its many digestive enzymes. That the various pancreatic enzymes for digestion of carbohydrates and proteins are synthesized and secreted simultaneously regardless of the type of food eaten was published by Baxter in an article

entitled "The Parallel Concentration of Enzymes in the Pancreatic Juice" in the American Journal of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition 2: 108, 1935. By 1935, it was established that carbohydrate digestion is started by a carbohydrate digesting enzyme in the saliva, protein digestion is started by protein digesting enzymes in the stomach, with both the saliva enzymes and the stomach enzymes aided in their work by gastric acid, and major digestion continued in the small intestine. All of this was laid out, for anyone who knew how to read, in the 1938 edition of Mountcastle's Medical Physiology, published by the CV Mosby Company of St. Louis, and every digestive physiology text since. Either the Diamonds don't understand what they read, or they don't read any competent physiology texts, or they read them and lie about the significance of what they read. Since they claim Pavlov supports their ridiculous physiology claims, they are either lying about having read Pavlov, or lying about what Pavlov wrote, just as they lied on the King show about what articles in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition proved.

All of the above information on the studies of Beaumont, Pavlov, Bayliss and Starling, and Baxter was provided by me to Marian Burros of the New York Times, to whom I sent it, for her New York Times review of the first Diamond book. The Diamonds responded as the liars they are by indicating the studies did not exist, stating I was on the board of the sugar industry (a lie) and Marian Burros was jealous because their book sold better than hers (see interview with the Diamonds in East/West Magazine, February, 1987).

Additionally, over the past half-century, there has been published in the responsible (peer-reviewed) scientific literature a large body of work showing other w,ays in which the presence of carbohydrate aids in the assimilation (digestion and absorption) of protein, and the presence of protein aids in the assimilation of carbohydrate.

As anyone can read in the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) tables of food content, it is almost impossible to find a vegetarian food without protein in it, so the only way one could eat only carbohydrates and no protein before lunch is to extract from each fruit and vegetable the protein in it before putting it in one's mouth. The Diamonds' book does not discuss the necessity of having a protein-extraction laboratory in your kitchen in order to follow their advice.

Is it possible that the Diamonds never heard of a Pavlovian reflex? That was Pavlov's classic work showing that if you could make a dog (or a human) think they were getting � appetizing food (regardless of carbohydrate/protein ratio), you stimulated secretion of saliva. One of Pavlov's students then showed that this "Pavlov reflex" also caused the autonomic nervous system to trigger all our digestive secretions in mouth, · stomach, and pancreas. · L

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The Diamonds' knowledge of human digestive physiology is back in the pre-Beaumont age. Physiology is a course taught in first-year medical school, and all dietitians are required to learn digestive physiology before they can be registered (i.e., become an R.D.), but apparently digestive physiology was not taught (or not learned) in the diploma mill which gave Mr. Diamond his "Ph.D." Incidentally, New York State Education Law forbids Mr. Diamond calling himself "doctor" or "Ph.D." in this state. In New York, it is a crime (a consumer fraud) to call yourself "doctor" or "Ph.D." if your degree is from an unaccredited institution (see pp. 1937-8 and references 57-59 of: Herbert V: Unproven [questionable] dietary and nutritional methods in cancer prevention and treatment. Cancer 58:1930-41, 1986). I believe it was after I pointed this out as a consumer crime, which New York State had just started prosecuting, on the Regis Philbin TV "Morning Show" the day before the Diamonds were his guests in 1986 that the Diamonds and their publisher stopped calling him "doctor." (In a letter dated July 29, 1987, Harvey Diamond represents I was scheduled to appear with him--1 do not knowingly appear with phonies).

Today we can study food digestion in anyone by slipping a fiberoptic gastroscope through the mouth into the stomach (and beyond). As did Beaumont, we see no evidence of the protein-carbohydrate incompatibi lity the Diamonds claim exists. The Diamonds write as if they have not caught up with the physiology studies of 150 years ago, 1 00 years ago, or 50 years ago, much less those of today.

There is no evidence that liquid gyg__ liquid slows the digestive process or produces digestive complaints. Of course, excesses of anything are harmful, but the Diamonds seem oblivious to that concept as well, as witness their promotion of excessive quantities of raw fruit (violating all three of the basic rules of sound nutrition: moderation, variety, and balance).

Page 91: "Since it is pure water that your body needs, there is only one type of water suitable for your body - distilled."

Fact: Pure fabrication. If this were so, how did Adam and Eve, and millions of their descendants, survive without a still? The body needs water; the "pure water" claim is pseudoscientific babble that sells expensive distilled water nobody needs, and sells stills nobody needs.

Page 92: "THE BODY CAN USE ONLY ORGANIC MINERALS ... Minerals are only usable as they are found in organic forms of 6fe ... the human cannot use inorganic minerals."

Fact: This is a fabrication based on gross ignorance of human digestive physiology of minerals.

�'. : :Thousands of studies in the peer-reviewed scientific :,i · literature demonstrate the absorption of inorganic

minerals (and not just those minerals found in organic forms of life). If the Diamonds would like to learn a little nutrition �e (as opposed to scam, which is their strength), they might start with: Herbert V: Recommended dietary intakes (RDI) of iron in humans. Amer J Clin Nutr 45:679-686, 1987 [April]. There they will learn that the mineral iron is found in plants primarily in nonorganic forms and, in animal protein, (which the Diamonds tell us not to eat) in organic forms, and that the iron in meat (which they tell us not to eat) is absorbed much better than that in the fruits and vegetables they tell us to eat, and that the absorption of vegetable iron is improved by eating it with meat. This is another case of animal protein improving the absorption of a nutrient in plant products, a fact the Diamonds deny occurs.

Page 100: "From 1981 to 1986 ... a whopping one­quarter of a million people died from fluoride poisoning" from fluoridated water. On page 99, they imply these deaths are from cancer.

Fact: This is a blatant lie, compounded by omission of contrary facts such as the extensive information published in Consumer Reports that fluoridated water is sate. Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports is a responsible consumer protection organization. The Diamonds promote cavities in your teeth and inadequate fluoride in your bone structure as part of the antifluoridation campaign of fear, largely by a miscellaneous assortment of crackpots and entrepreneurs who make money selling unneeded expensive stills and distilled water. (Note the promotion of distilled water on page 91 as the "only type of water suitable for your body.")

The pseudostatistics of Burk and Yiamouyannis (quoted by the Diamonds on page 99) were long since destroyed by the real statistics available to the Diamonds or any other layman from the National Institute of Dental Health, Consumers Union, and the American Dental Association. On the King television show, Marilyn lied that "Dr. Dean Burk from the National Cancer Institute gave testimony on that" (i.e., that fluoridated water causes cancer). In fact, when Dean Burk "gave testimony on that," he was no longer "from the National Cancer Institute." He is a Ph.D. biochemist who retired at age 70 in 197 4 from his job as head of the small 4-person cytochemistry section of the Laboratory of Biochemistry of the National Cancer Institute. Since then, as head of the Dean Burk Foundation, he has had a lucrative career working with the quackery mafia promoting nutrition frauds, including "vitamin B-15" ("pangamate") and "vitamin B-17" ("laetrile"), plus the claim that fluoridated water causes cancer (see: Herbert V: Nutrition Cultism: Facts and Fictions. Stickley, Philadelphia, 1981; see chapter "The Assault on Fluoridation" in the 1980 Consumers Union book Health Quackery).

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Page 1 02: "THE GREATEST THREAT TO YOUR HEALTH IS PROCESSED FOODS."

Fact: This is a lie. People don't get ill or die from responsibly processed foods. Many get ill and die from bacteria and viruses in raw foods. (Distilled water is a processed food� the Diamonds promote it on page 91. Can't they remember on page 102 what they said on page 91?)

Pages 122 through 212: Consists largely of filler "pop" material on rest, sleep, exercise, sunshine, loving relationships, cleanliness, pleasant surroundings, and quiet moments.

Page 216: "ANIMAL PRODUCTS WILL MAKE YOU SICK." and Page 229: "Actually, the list of ailments that can be linked to dairy products is so extensive, there is hardly a problem it doesn't at least contribute to."

Fact: Dairy and other animal products are among the pillars of sound nutrition. See "Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans," second edition, 1985, Publication HG 232 ($1.50), USDA and USDHHS, and "Dietary Guidelines and Your Diet," a packet of 7 information bulletins on nutrition and your health from the USDA, Washington, DC 20250 (Publications HG-232-1 through HG-232- 7, $4.50, April 1986).

Page 218: "Ever hear of high blood cholesterol, arthritis, or osteoporosis?... The only reason they exist is because of the consumption of animal products." and Marilyn Diamond, on the King show: "There are lots of journals proving that milk causes all these diseases."

Fact: These are blatant lies. All three of these would exist if there were no animal products, and many people with genetically determined (see article by Ahrens and the Rockefeller University group in the May 1987 Journal of Clinical Investigation) high blood cholesterol would still have it if they ate no animal products. Genetics is another health-related science (taught in all medical schools) of which the Diamonds appear ignorant. An average of 85% of our blood cholesterol is synthesized in our own livers. There is no relation of animal products to any form of arthritis (except gouty arthritis), and whole animal products have no relation to osteoporosis. Purified amino acids, such as those sold in health food stores, or gelatin, or egg albumin eaten alone, may pull calcium out in the urine, but studies such as those of Herta Spencer (in American Journal of Cl in ical Nutrition. 1983) demonstrate this does not occur when one eats whole foods.

When Dr. Yetiv demanded on the King show that the Diamonds name just one study proving that dairy products cause osteoporosis, Harvey replied, "I don't have to name one. Look in the back of our book. There's a bibliography of over 400 citations." Harvey, as usual, was deceiving. Not one of the 423 references

present evidence proving that dairy products cause osteoporosis, and, among others, Professor Robert Heaney of Creighton University (Diamond references 172 and 173) has published extensive evidence that dairy products are major protectors against osteoporosis. The Diamonds not only lie, they lie in spades.

Page 229: "While SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) can't be blamed on any one cause, dairy products are unquestionably partially to blame."

Fact: This is a blatant lie. Page 237: DAIRY PRODUCTS ARE A MAJOR

CAUSE OF OSTEOPOROSIS and Harvey on the King show: "I took the information out of very specific journals that proves that osteoporosis is contributed to by high protein foods such as milk."

Fact: How does one deal with a lie so profound? Dairy products constitute 72% of the absorbable calcium in the average American diet, and constitute the main bulwark in female American children against future osteoporosis. Read the studies of Prof. Heaney of Creighton University, or any other genuine expert. On the Larry King show on June 10, 1987, the Diamonds blatantly lied that studies published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition and "many other scientific journa ls" "proved" that dairy products cause osteoporosis. There is no such study in .any_responsible scientific journal.

Marilyn on the King show: "The calcium we take in from the plant kingdom is easily absorbed."

Fact: The fiber and phytate in grains markedly reduces the absorbability of their calcium, as compared to the much greater absorbability of calcium from milk.

Harvey, defending himself against Dr. Yetiv on the King show: "We are not telling people not to eat dairy products." Compare this lie with the text: Page 59: "WHAT'S NOT GOOD IS NOT GOOD IN ANY AMOUNT." and Page 216: "ANIMAL PRODUCTS WILL MAKE YOU SICK! Page 220: Animal products cause cancer." Page 224: "THE CASE AGAINST DIARY PRODUCTS ... The fact is that the majority of people on earth react to cow's milk by getting sick. It's an insult to nature's grand scheme to go to another species for milk." and Page 225: "DAIRY PRODUCTS ARE DISEASE-PRODUCING. They're harmful. They � suffering. They're the perfect thing to eat if you want to be sick and have a diseased body ... To say that dairy products are a good food for humans is evidence of unpardonable ignorance of the facts. There is simply too much evidence proving dairy products to be a clear and present danger." and Page 231: "DEAD FOOD CAN NOT SUPPORT LIFE. Pasterization kills." and Page 236: "DAIRY PRODUCTS, IF EATEN AT ALL, SHOULD BE CONSUMED RAW­BUT CLEAN!" and Page 247: "Dairy products are implicated in all respiratory problems."

Fact: These statements are fabrications. The Diamonds display ignorance of the pathogenesis of

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respiratory problems and other human disorders, a subject every medical student studies in great depth. Instead of admitting ignorance, the Diamonds make up lies. They should read a textbook of pulmonary disease to learn how grossly ignorant they are about respiratory problems.

Page 247: Claim: "Over 30,000 children under the age of 5 die of respiratory disease each year. Fifteen thousand of these unfortunates die in the first month of life. Over 5,000 die in the first week from respiratory disease syndrome (RDS) or what is called hyaline membrane disease ... The massive amounts of dairy products that pregnant women are routinely terrorized into consuming is the cause of this national tragedy ... Ever wonder why it's necessary to have a suction tube at every birth to such the thick mucus from the infant's throat and nose immediately upon delivery so it can breathe? Babies born of women who do not consume dairy products during pregnancy do not need this suction, because they breathing passages are clear."

Fact: This is part of the Diamond blatant lie that dairy products produce mucus (page 226: "Cow's milk causes more mucus than any food you can eat.") - they don't. To look for the truth, look in the peer reviewed scientific literature. If a woman follows this advice and does not consume dairy products during pregnancy and consumes only fruits and vegetables, thereby suffering inadequate nutrition and promoting osteoporosis, and then tells a midwife mucus need not be sucked from the infant's throat and nose on delivery, it is possible that infant may die as a result. Here again we see the Diamonds' gross ignorance of biochemistry. A ir w a y mucus (mu cins) are carbohydrate-rich proteins which comprise the major portion of the mucosa! layer lining the respiratory epithelium. They are synthesized equally well from building blocks absorbed after digestion of plant products as they are after digestion of animal products.

Were the Diamonds not so ignorant of human physiology, they would know that airway mucins provide the first line of defense of the lung from inhaled (through either nostril!) foreign matter, through well-defined functions including mucociliary clearance and prevention of epithelial desiccation. Were they not so ignorant of human pathology (another basic health-related science every medical student learns in his/her second year of medical school and which is essential to understanding human disease), they would know that there is increased synthesis and/or secretion of airway mucins during various pulmonary diseases such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, and cystic fibrosis, and their secretion is unrelated to whether we eat plant products or animal products. For tru.ts (instead of Diamond fictions), on airway mucins, write: Chief, Airways Diseases Branch, Division of Lung Diseases,

National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), NIH, Westwood Building, Room 6A 15, Bethesda, MD 20892, or read any modern text of pulmonary physiology and pathology.

Page 260: In a typical example of deception by misrepresentation, fabrication, character assassination, and omission of facts adverse to their claims, it is stated that "Dr. Victor Herbert must have thought he was talking to a bunch of nitwits (on the Donahue Show) ... He ... practically got hooted off the stage when he tried to tell the audience - with a straight face, mind you - that some tests had been done that showed that sugar actually calms kids down ... Then Dr. Herbert attempted to defend his asinine position, explaining himself in terms that no one in the audience could understand. Fortunately, Donahue saved him and went on to another subject. I must admit that watching him squirm while trying to defend himself against this more enlightened audience was enormously encouraging."

Fact: What actually transpired (Donahue transcript #09013, pages 8 and 9) was:

Dr. Victor Herbert: "There were good studies at the NIH by Judy Rapoport ...

Plant in audience (interrupting): "Ask the teachers!" Dr. Victor Herbert: " ... and those kids were studied

by Judy Rapoport at the National Institute of Mental Health and she showed that sugar actually calmed the kids down."

Plant in audience (interrupting): "I'm a teacher." Dr. Victor Herbert: " ... also Richard Wurtman and

others at MIT ... " Dr. Victor Herbert: "They have found it raises the

level of brain serotonin. If you eat carbohydrate, you can raise the level of brain serotonin, which calms kids down."

Donahue: "You took the words right out of my mouth."

Audience (laughter). (Note the Diamond deception by om1ss1on which

characterizes quacks. The Diamonds left out the names and institutions Herbert gave of those who conducted the relevant sugar studies maliciously conveying there were no such studies ["he tried to tell the audience, with a straight face, that some tests had been done"], so readers will believe the Diamond lies conveying that Herbert is a mercenary 6ar [Diamond lie: Herbert is "on the board of the sugar industry").)

Thus, in fact, Dr. Herbert responsibly addressed the audience as intelligent people, and was comfortable and relaxed with the audience, contrary to the Diamond lies that he was "squirming" and "trying to defend himseH." It is the Diamonds who address audiences as if they are "a bunch of nitwits," feeding them misinformation, lies, and character assassination of responsible health professionals. The ir m isrepresentation of what transpired on the Donahue show is typical of their

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chronic distortion of the truth whenever it suits their fancy and serves their economic interest in selling their books and other products and services. It is impossible for a reader of the Diamond book to know they are lying, since the reader does not have a videotape or transcript pf the Donahue show to compare with the Diamond lies about what transpired.

Donahue profits from promoting scam artists like the Diamonds - their sensational lies make for exciting shows with bigger audiences, and bigger audiences mean more dollars for every second of advertising time sold. His staff deliberately seed the audience with supporters of cult nutrition. In the show on which I appeared, his staff had culled from letters written in over the past year those people who had written that they believe d that sugar and additives cause hyperactivity and planted them in the audience, plus planting a naturopath cultist to whom Donahue gave the microphone as if it was a spontaneous gesture. The man then spewed out a grocery list of lies about nutrition, presenting them as facts, while Donahue stood there smiling. After the show, the cultist walked back to the "Green Room" with me and the other invited guests. When I asked him where he thought he was going, he told me he was an invited guest also and pointed out the Donahue staff member who invited him and to whom he was "personal nutritionist." He even gave me his business card, "nutrition consultant to doctors," which I kept as a souvenir of how the Donahue staff fixes the shows. When you sit at home and view the Donahue show "live from Chicago," you believe the studio audience walked in off the street and are impartial judges - not so. The live audience is hand-picked by the Donahue staff from the thousands who wrote in over the past year or so, and they are selected for the cult beliefs they state in their letters to be invited to the specific show Donahue wants them on. The show is taped and what is seen in Chicago and elsewhere as "live from Chicago" was, in fact, "taped" weeks before. The Donahue show I was on, for example, was taped in Chicago on August 18, 1983, and shown "live from Chicago" in Chicago on September 1, New York and Los Angeles on September 5, Boston on September 15, Omaha on September 22, and in New Orleans on September 29. In contrast, when the much more honest Oprah Winfrey show says "live from Chicago," my experience is that they mean !ML- not videotape.

As quackbuster Kurt Butler of Haleiwa, Hawaii 96712, wrote, under the heading "The Diamonds are Quacks:" "Harvey and Marilyn Diamond ... are absolute quacks who have been made mill ionaires by irresponsible talk-show hosts and the gullible public ... lt is a national disgrace that the media have helped these snake-oil salesmen rip off the public with their dangerous hoax. Talk-show stars like Phil Donahue

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and Michael Jackson have hosted the Diamonds repeatedly without asking them tough, skeptical questions, putting them on the spot about their phony credentials, or raking them over the coals for their preposterous and dangerous diet advice. Instead Donahue et al. have given them a million-dollar forum to freely propagandize. On one show, Donahue defended their 'education' as being just as good as that of any nutrition graduate from an accredited college ...

Donahue's activities promoting health frauds from A to laetrile through megavitamins to zinc may make him and his network appropriate co-defendants in an action by anyone harmed by following the advice of the snake oil promoters on his show, as we pointed out by analogy to the California case of Weirum vs. RKO General, Inc., discussed on pages 156-7 of Vitamins and 'Health' Foods: The Great American Hustle.

Page 242: "STUDIES SHOW THAT THE MORE PROTEIN YOU CONSUME, THE MORE CALCIUM YOU LOSE!"

Fact: What studies show is that you lose calcium if you eat purified protein separated from foods, such as health food store purified protein powders, or gelatin, or egg albumin. Protein in whole food does not produce this problem (see the studies of Dr. Herta Spencer at Hines VA Medical Center in Illinois, cited above). This subtle distinction between the effects of purified proteins and of protein in whole foods has escaped a number of legitimate nutrition professionals, so it is far beyond the grasp of nutrition phonies like the Diamonds.

Book: All of chapter 17 (pp. 283 et seq.) is devoted to the myth that illness is due to "auto-intoxification, or sett-poisoning, brought on by enervation."

Fact: For people who claim a "combined 29 years of self study of health science," the Diamonds display abysmal ignorance of toxicology (a branch of pathology) and of bacteriology. All medical students study both these health-related sciences. "Auto-intoxication" and the "detoxification crisis," as they describe them, are figments of the imagination of scam artists. The College of Life Sciences, the credential mill from which the Diamonds purchased their nutrition credentials, teaches that every ill is a waste matter "elimination crisis," and contagious diseases do not exist (see Healthful Living. published "monthly" by the Diamonds' guru, Fry, and his College of Life Science, October/November/December 1985 issue, page 3: "Contagion is a myth;" page 14: "Up to a point, elimination crises called the measles, mumps, a cold, the flu, pneumonia, etc., are a blessing inasmuch as they forestall the development of chronic ailments." (They sure do, if you die from lack of appropriate medical care.)

The reason the Diamonds don't name the toxins with which we allegedly become "autointoxicated" or

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provide data on their guantity when we are "autointoxicated," as compared to when we are not is because the "autointoxicants" they speak of do not exist. What do exist are the causative bacteria and viruses which Fry and his College of Life Science teach do not exist. Where toxins exist, real health scientists (not phonies like the Diamonds) name them and guantitate their presence in the human body, such as the toxicants in tobacco smoke, which the Diamonds copy on pages 71 and 72 from the real toxicology literature.

Their advice on page 283, that, if you get a sore throat or diarrhea, the treatment is rest and sleep, can lead to rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease from a strep throat, death from salmonella diarrhea, and a host of other harms from untreated curable infectious diseases and from toxins released by a variety of harmful bacteria, such as potentially lethal Clostridia toxins (which killed some babies fed raw honey contaminated with it in California), as well as harms from ignored viral infections. They promote disease and death in the guise of promoting health. Their guru, T.C. Fry, teaches that viruses do not exist; the word "virus" does not appear in their extensive index, and on page 19, they revere T.C. Fry as "a man interested in truth, not accolades. He simply does his work and lets his results speak for themselves."

Raw fruits worsen diarrhea; continuous diarrhea in infants and small children can be lethal in 24 to 72 hours (diarrhea due to cholera toxins can be lethal in 24 hours if untreated and only "rest and sleep" prescribed). Clear liquids, including appropriate electrolyte solutions, are mandatory and life-saving. For non-cholera diarrhea, and for nausea and vomiting, clear liquids, particularly colas (flat or fizzy) and soups are usually good to start with.

Page 291: "Chiropractic adjustments realign the spine and normalize the flow of energy."

Fact: This is a blatant lie, and you could be seriously harmed by believing it. Chiropractors do not produce x-rays showing "before" pictures of misaligned spines and "after" pictures showing the spine "realigned" after chiropractic adjustment. Their patients are not sophisticated enough to demand to see such pictures, which would reveal the fraud (i.e., the "before" and "after" x-rays are the same); it takes more pressure than even a 500-pound chiropractor can exert to alter the relation of one normal spine bone to another. Patients with damage to the bones, making the spine "adjustable," have been permanently paralyzed from the neck down by chiropractors doing neck "adjustments." These devastated quadraplegics are reported both in court cases and in the scientific literature - the Diamonds omit them from their book. See the chapter "Chiropractors: Healers or Quacks?" in the 1980 Consumers Union book Health Quackery.

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On June 14, 1987, "Doctor Dan," D.C. (recent graduate of Atlanta [Georgia] Chiropractic College) was handing out at a New York City street fair (The Turtle Bay Festival) "get your spine adjusted" cards (sold by the thousands to chiropractors by Si-Nel Publishing Company in Atlanta (Telephone 404/422-8836). A typical card was titled "Help for HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE. Chiropractic ... FEEL GOOD NATURALL Y ... Since the nervous system controls the mechanics of blood pressure, a misaligned vertebra can produce an abnormality in nerve impulses ... We can realign your spine and help your body restore health." This is a gross deception; chiropractic adjustments are worthless for treating hypertension, beyond the effect of suggestion. Page 291: "Swedish and lymphatic massage and reflexology both facilitate the lymphatic drainage," and Page 148: "SPECIAL EXERCISE FOR THE ELDERLY OR WHEN HEAL TH IS IMPAIRED. LYMPHATIC BOUND: Works to pump and cleanse the lymph system, your body's in-house 'vacuum cleaner.'"

Fact: There is no data in the peer-reviewed scientific literature demonstrating a "facilitation of lymphatic drainage" by bouncing up and down on a trampoline ("THE LYMPHATIC BOUNCE") or that either massage or reflexology "move the waste material through." All a reader need do is look up the lymphatic system in any modern textbook of anatomy (a health­related science of which the Diamonds, "students of health science," display an appalling ignorance) to realize there is no way you can "pump and cleanse the lymph system" by "the LYMPHATIC BOUND," "bouncing lightly on a trampoline without your feet leaving the mat, keeping your hands at your sides" (page 148). Additionally, the infirm elderly, neither in wheelchairs or bedridden, are subject to many episodes of falling (extensive studies of this phenomenon have been conducted at our geriatric center at Mount Sinai in New York City), and telling such people to get on a trampoline with their arms at their sides places them in great jeopardy.

Page 292: "Accupuncture [sic) ... can be used to repair shorts in electrical energy."

Fact: Pure fabrication. There has never been any demonstration in the peer-reviewed scientific literature of the existence of such a "short" or its "repair" by acupuncture. The Diamonds don't even spell the word "acupuncture" correctly.

Page 298: If you have a Candida infection, "if you properly combine your foods, eat fresh fruit correctly, and avoid fermented foods (alcohol, vinegar, miso, yogurt), your Candida problem will become a thing of the past."

Fact: Food has nothing to do with Candida infection. Anyone who has thrush (a severe Candida infection of the throat), can die of untreated candidiasis if they follow this worthless advice instead of getting

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proper treatment. Page 309: To "keep you up to date with what is

really happening in the world of health," the Diamonds recommend "Health Freedom News ... put out by the National Health Federation."

Fact: This is an organization characterized by Stephen Barrett as "promoters fighting for the right to cheat and victims fighting for the right to be cheated." For facts on this major arm of the quackery mafia, read the chapter "The Unhealthy Alliance" in Vitamins and "Health" Foods: The Great American Hustle by V. Herbert and S. Barrett (George F. Stickley Company, Philadelphia, 1981, and the Herbert 1984 Pepper testimony).

Page 311: If you have a hysterectomy, "when this channel of elimination is lost, body wastes tend to build in the body."

Fact: The uterus is not a "channel of elimination." Again, the Diamonds reveal their ignorance of basic anatomy. This lie falsely represents to a woman who has a hysterectomy that she has placed herself in danger of "body wastes building in the body."

Page 311: "For those of you who have had a hysterectomy, lost your thyroid, or both and subsequently ballooned up ... there is an emergency measure you can take ... Eat only raw vegetables."

Fact: Following this ignorant advice will deprive you of essential nutrients, producing disease, and eventually produce death from undernutrition.

Page 312: "The appendix detoxifies poisons in the colon. Losing the appendix is a severe blow. This is why people who have had appendectomies frequently complain of becoming bloated and/or constipated ... For those who have lost their appendix, i t is crucial to take whatever steps possible to keep the colon clean. It is dangerous not tol ... Rely heavily on high-water­content foods and minimize the amount of more concentrated foods."

Fact: The statement is pure fabrication, revealing gross ignorance of the health sciences of gastrointestinal t ract physiology, biochemistry, and toxicology.

The book is dedicated "for God and for all God's children." What a sacrilege! A book of fabrications dangerous to your health dedicated to God! Nothing makes clearer this is health cultism, than the cultists' characteristic sacrilegious inference of an alliance with God.

Should responsible health professionals debate folks like these on the air? I think not. One can't effectively debate fabricators and character assassins in a forum with no penalties for fabrication or character assassination (especially when, as on the Donahue show, the host favors snake oil promoters and plants their disciples in the audience). In addition, the endorsement represented by giving them air time sells

their books and other products. For responsible health professionals to debate the likes of the Diamonds about nutrition and health matters is like Bliot Ness and other law enforcement officials debating Al Capone and the Chicago Mafia about legal ethics. (I counseled physician Jack Yetiv against debating the Diamonds on the Larry King show, with him in a Chicago studio and them in the Washington, DC, studio with host King. I warned him the Diamonds would exploit such a set-up to keep interrupting him and he would not be able to do likewise, and that is exactly what happened.)

The Diamonds fill the airwaves with anecdotes and testimonials about themselves and their disciples. The life-blood of the snake oil peddler is the anecdote and the testimonial. Anecdotes and testimonials do not separate truth from erroneous belief, because they do not separate cause-and-effect from either coincidence or suggestibility or the natural history of the disorder. The word "anecdote" is from the Greek "anekdota," meaning not published. To a health professional, "published" means published in the peer-reviewed scientific literature, which will not take a study unless the conclusions are adequately supported by the data. It does not mean published in the lay press or on the media, whose cause and effect are not separated from coincidence, suggestibility, or the natural history of the disorder.

If you believe something will make you feel better, you will feel better, even if it is slowly and insidiously destroying your health. Examples of worthless testimonials and anecdotes on the King show:

Marilyn: If our advice doesn't work," how come we feel so good? What about us personally? What about all the (Ed: laudatory) letters from readers of our book?" Contrary to their testimony and anecdotal eye­wash, if she in fact has been following the Diamond advice for 17 years, she has slowly and insidiously become depleted of iron, zinc, calcium, and vitamin B-12. On the King show, Harvey stated "Every word inour book is backed up." He lied.

In their USA Today interview on June 1, 1987, Harvey is quoted as saying, " The issue has never been our credentials. Our credentials are the truth." Their "truths" are lies, and what they call "lies" is the truth. The Diamonds are right out of George Orwell's book �- The Diamonds use the same deception on pages 17-18: "The dietitians' all-time favorite smokescreen, theissue of credentials, should not even be the issue. Thereal issue is truth. HAVING "CREDENTIALS" DOESNOT MAKE THE TRUTH MORE THE TRUTH AND NOTHAVING "CREDENTIALS" DOES NOT MAKE THE TRUTHLESS THE TRUTH."

As part of their cover-up for their malicious defamation of responsible health professionals, the Diamonds lie that they are the victims of unwarranted defamation. For example, in countering physician Jack

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Yetiv on the King show, Harvey stated, "Jack likes to talk loud and call names." Dr. Yetiv is a non­confrontational person who never once called the Diamonds any names; he even gently volunteered "she looks OK to me," in response to a caller's observation that Marilyn looked anorexic. On the show, Harvey referred to Dr. Yetiv as "Mr. Yetiv" and "Jack," falsely conveying that Dr. Yetiv was at Mr. Harvey Diamond's incompetent level of knowledge of health science. He did likewise when Yetiv pointed out the frequency of stomach cancer in the US was about 2.6%, and not the 33% the Diamonds allege - Harvey lied that he had statistics as good as Yetiv's (which were from the American Cancer Society that there were an estimated 965,000 cancer cases in 1987, of which 24,600 were stomach cancer).

The Diamonds' pathologic hatred of responsible health professionals combines with their gross distortion and misrepresentation of reality to cause them to devote pages 14-16 to lying about the Flexner report which revolutionized medical education in the United States. The superb 1910 Flexner report (fraudulently characterized by the Diamonds on page 15 as an "infamous report") described the fact that most of the health teaching of the day was based on worthless anecdote and testimonial (the phony Diamond-Fry approach), instead of objective studies separating cause and effect from coincidence, suggestibility, and the natural history of the disorder (i.e., the scientific method). The Flexner report brought about a public outcry against incompetent health science teaching, resulting in the closing of the majority of the medical schools in the U.S. Those that survived were those that gave up the unscientific approach in favor of the scientific one. The Diamonds either haven't read or deliberately ignore all the responsible medical education literature about the Flexner era. One wonders if their "research at various institutions" (page 12) included any in any medical school library or the National Library of Medicine.

Page 270: 0 When you cut down on cows' milk and cheese and yogurt and ice cream, (your children's) little bodies, which have been clogged up from foods that they cannot efficiently metabolize, will sing for joy and spew out all that is clogging them. That stage will pass quickly and your children will be practically 'cold-free' from that point on, if you keep them away from dairy."

Fact: The whole statement is a fabrication. The vast majority of children efficiently metabolize all their food, including cows' milk, cheeses, yogurt, and ice cream. The "clogging" does not exist. It is pure fabrication that keeping children away from dairy products protects them from colds, which are caused by viruses. This fabrication may reflect the teachings of Fry (guru to the Diamonds) that viruses do not

exist. Page 271: After breast feeding, ins tead of cows'

milk, mothers should give their children "nut and seed milks ... excellent sources of usable ... vitamins."

Fact: There is no vitamin B-12 in nut or seed milk. Page 272: Avoid giving children animal protein for

as long as you can. Never is best. .. Leukemia and intake of animal protein are related, without a doubt. .. Fruits and vegetables are the most ideal foods in a young child's diet."

Fact: H you never give children animal protein and only give them fruits and vegetables, their growth will probably be permanently s tunted, many will get a variety of serious mineral deficiencies, and all will get vitamin B-12 deficiency (see Proceedings, First Interna tional Congress o f Vegetarian N u trition, sponsored by Loma Linda University [Seventh Day Adventists], March, 1987, including paper by Herbert). The fabrication that leukemia and intake of animal protein are related appears to be stated to promote their brand of extreme vegetarianism (Marilyn on page 249: "The last seventeen years [of my life] have included a minimal amount of animal products [raw butter and sour cream]"). Luckily for the health of Adventist vegetarians, less than 2% of them eat no animal protein, 29% add milk and egg products, 25% also eat meat less than once a week, 29% eat meat one to four times a week, and 15% five or more times a week, according to Dr. Roland PhiUips of the Adventist Health Study at Loma Linda University.

The caller on the King show who said Marilyn looked anorexic was correct. She certainly appeared so in her skin-tight body suit on her exercise bike. She appears there to be substantially below desirable weight for height by either the old or the new Metropolitan Life tables, and the diet she describes for herself and her son is one which promotes iron, zinc, calcium, and 8-12 deficiencies.

When she claims good health, talk show hosts should ask her some serious questions: What is her height? What is her weight? Her serum iron and serum iron binding capacity? Her serum ferritin? Her serum vitamin B-12 level? Her bone density? Her zinc status? Does she know? Does she care? Does Harvey know? Does Warner Books know? Why isn't the data in their book? If. the Diamonds have been feeding their son as they claim, there is a good chance they are stunting his growth and are predisposing him to zinc and calcium deficiency. Is he in a low percentage of the growth curve for his age? What is � iron, zinc, calcium, and B-12 status? Do the Diamonds or Warner Books know?If so, why isn't the data in the book? The book �the Diamonds are healthy, but gives no supporting proofof health (i.e., does not give any of the above data).

As the New York Tjmes pointed out in the June 26, 1987 Isabel Wilkerson page-one story "Infant mortality:

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Frightful odds in inner city," each year, a quarter­million babies are born dangerously underweight in this country and face a 1-in-10 chance that they will not live to their first birthday... They are the children of unwanted pregnancies and fractured homes, born to mothers who may not have seen a doctor until they went into labor. These thousands of underdeveloped babies are more likely than other infants to suffer brain hemorrhages, infection, pneumonia, or dozens of o ther l i f e- t h rea ten ing com p lica tions . . . pover ty ,ignorance, lack of proper care ... At least 20 percent ofthese babies must be hospitalized again in the firstyear of life, and others bear handicaps that requirecostly surgery and medical care for life ... ldeally, apregnant woman sees a doctor once a month throughthe seventh month, then weekly until delivery tomonitor fetal progress, to insure that the mother eatsproperly, and to detect problems such as anemia, highblood pressure or diabetes, which can endanger theunborn child. Yet each year abou t 300,000 women givebirth after little or no prenatal care, and their babiesaccount for two-thirds of all infant deaths." Imaginethe carnage i f the Diamonds or their disciples were putin charge of a national state or local program ofhealth for the poverty-stricken, with their hatred ofphysicians and advice to avoid milk and eat inadequatenourishment.

On page 16, Harvey Diamond states "I received my Ph.D. in nutritional science from the American College of Health Science in February, 1983." He deceives by omitting the fact that, in 1986, the school's dean, a high school dropout named T.C. Fry, agreed to a permanent injunction barring him from representing the school as a college or selling any more "degrees" or "academic credits" such as those he sold to the Diamonds unless he acquires a certificate of authority from the Texas Department of Higher Education. He has renamed his operation "Life Science Institute" ("a non-profit educational organization"). The Diamonds (page 330) refer to this high school dropout as "Professor T.C. Fry, the Dean of the American College of Health Science," deceiving their readers by omitting the fact that, since 1986, Mr. Fry has been forbidden to call his operation a "college." Fry is "mister" on page 19 but "professor" on page 330. On the Larry King television show, physician Jack Yetiv, author of Popular Nutritional Practices: Sense and Nonsense (Dell Publishing, New York, NY, $4.95 softcover), stated he had a tape-recorded conversation with Fry in which Fry told him the only people who couldn't pass the courses the Diamonds passed were those who can't read.

The 423-item bibliography in the Diamond book is useless. The cited articles in the peer-reviewed literature do not prove any of the fabrications alleged as facts in the book, none of the references are keyed

in the text, and many are from the garbage literature the Diamonds self-studied (egregious examples: References 13 to 16: (13) Allen, Hannah: Lesson #33: Why we should not eat animal products in any form. In: The Life Science Health System by T.C. Fry. Austin, Texas: Life Sciences, 1984; also, (14) "The happy truth about protein," (15) "Why we should not eat meat," (16) "Why we should not eat animal products," all by the same Hannah Allen.

On page 17, the Diamonds state "The real issue is truth." Since they are chronic liars, one can only say, "Amen."

The final fabrication in the book is the statement in the conclusion (page 410) that "there is no money to be made" in promoting health misinformation. The millions the Diamonds and their publisher have made from their disinform at ive writings a nd public appearances, tapes, and charts (which they offer for sale on page 412 of the book), as well as the profits they will undoubtedly make from their "sweet bar" (replacement for a candy bar; page 276) give the lie to that claim, as they and their irresponsible publisher and public relations agents (with the millions they have made selling the Diamonds' fabrications) well know.On the Larry King show, the Diamonds claimed the millions of copies sold of their diet book, Fit for Life, proved it was true. Larry King replied that the best selling diet book of all time, Calories Don't Count, with more than 6 million copies sold, was a pure fraud. Amen to Larry King! Like Fit for Life and Living Health, the biggest lie is the title of the book. (The lyingest title sold the most books.)

When a caller asked, "How come the authorities didn't take action against it if the book is lies," King pointed out that freedom of speech includes the freedom to lie, and only a victim (a financially or physically injured party) can sue. At the top of the book's jacket, it is stated "by the authors of American's all­time #1 health and diet book." - It is not #1, [deception by �mmission], and it is a health and diet misinformation book [deception by QD1ission of the word "misinformation"].)

On page 230, the Diamonds assassinate the character of the great nutritionist, E.V. McCollum, who

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first distinguished fat-soluble from water-soluble vitamins by lying that he was "sacrificing the health of the people for the almighty dollar." People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

The Diamonds defend the Fit for Life weight-loss diet on the grounds that "it works." That is not the question. Any diet, no ·· matter how dangerous and irresponsible, "works" to bring about weight loss so long as it results in eating each day less calories than one burns. The consumer protection question is not "Does it work?", but "Is it safe?" The Diamonds' Fit for Life diet is more accurately characterized as Unfit for Life - it is unsafe. Living Health is more accurately characterized a s Lies about Health­following its advice can harm you or your child, and, in some situations, leave your child maimed or dead.

Final Comment As health science phonies, the Diamonds should

change their name to Zircon. By publishing this second Diamond book with full knowledge that the Diamonds are health phonies, Warner Books displays itself as an irresponsible publisher, interested only in money, with a reckless disregard of the harm they may cause. I hope their victims sue them, as victims successfully sued the publisher of the Adelle Davis books.

Postscript On August 11, 1987 Harvey Diamond wrote to

Michael Botts, Dr. Herbert's attorney, complaining that charges that "children can be killed by the advise (sic) in this book" were baseless. Dr. Herbert responded by citing advice regarding sore throats by the Diamonds on their page 283, and enclosing an article on the resurgence of rheumatic fever (" Mysterious return of a childhood scourge" U.S. News & World Report, August 31, 1987) underlining the words "parents should take the precaution of getting their children to a doctor right away if they have sore throats." Further, Herbert cites a recent epidemic of salmonella diarrhea deaths in New York City and points to Diamonds' advice that diarrhea be treated only with "rest and sleep" which could make salmonella diarrhea lethal.

Herbert, V.: Critical Evaluation of Harvey & Marilyn Diamond's Book, Fit For Life. Loma Linda, CA, 92354: The National Council Against Health Fraud, Inc., 1988.