FACTS, FADS AND FRAUDS IN NUTRITION 21 



DISEASE CURES AND FALSE THERAPEUTIC CLAIMS FOR FOODS 



Perhaps the most dangerous of all food fads and quackery are those which 

 claim to cure any or all of the list of diseases which are most puzzling to medical 

 science; cancer, diabetes, arthritis, rheumatism, hypertension, arteriosclerosis, 

 heart disease, and kidney troubles. Beware of any remedy advertised to cure 

 these conditions. Medical science is spending millions in research on these 

 diseases. Definite progress has been made and is being made and the public 

 will benefit just as fast as this information can be put in the hands of reputable 

 physicians. Valuable time and money are lost fooling around with quacks. 

 In general, popular advertising dealing with the treatment of disease or the 

 nutrition of the sick is considered scientifically unwise and undesirable. This 

 practice promotes self-diagnosis and self-treatment for which the layman is 

 not qualified, and thereby may endanger health and life. 



1. ACID STOMACH 



The acid stomach scare constitutes the quack advertising lingo for a number 

 of digestive remedies and diet systems. The stomach is normally acid and 

 necessarily so for adequate digestion of food. There is just as likely to be too 

 little as too much acid in certain abnormal states, but careful diagnosis and 

 medical advice is necessary in such cases. Yet the quack who encourages 

 self-diagnosis and medication still persists in suggesting the serious results of 

 acid stomach and offers "anti-acid," "relief of acid stomach," and "cures for 

 acid indigestion." 



2. DIABETES 



There are a number of diabetic remedies or treatments which hold out false 

 hope of cure to the diabetic patient. In addition, there are numerous products 

 advertised as diabetic foods which are recommended as safe to be eaten by 

 diabetics in any amounts. 



(a) Ethical Diabetic Treatment. The diabetic patient whose disease is 

 being controlled by diet or by diet and insulin under a physician's supervision 

 should never relinquish this safe and reliable regime for any of the quack reme- 

 dies advertised. Persons not under the care of a physician will find no short 

 cut, cheap cure for diabetes among the advertised nostrums. The discovery 

 of insulin and our present understanding of its use have taken the dread and 

 hopelessness out of this disease although no real cure for diabetes is known to 

 medical science. The story of diabetes and insulin is interestingly told in 

 popular language by Joslin, 87 a recognized authority in this field. 



(b) Fraudulent Diabetic Cures. The active campaign against diabetic 

 nostrums waged by the American Medical Association 38 ' 39 and the Federal 

 agencies has made many of them short-lived but new ones are continually 

 cropping up. Several such nostrums or treatments are listed and discussed^by 

 A. J. Cramp 40 in an article which is well worth reading. Some of these nos- 

 trums are nothing more than chopped-up wild carrot (Queen Ann's Lace) 

 which is one of many diuretics sold as diabetic cures. Wild carrot is irritating 

 to the kidney, resulting in an increased excretion of urine. The catch is that 



Joslin, E. P. Hygeia, January and February 1937, pages 37 and 168. 



Bur. Inv. J.A.M.A. 103, 1639, 1934. 



Bur. Inv. J.A.M.A. 108, 317, 1937. 



Cramp, A. J. Hygeia, October 1935, page 916. 



