OCR Text |
Show Food fads may prove harmful Some of the mistaken ideas people have about foods can be expensive and even dangerous, according to Cecilia Follis, director di-rector of Dietary Services at University of Utah Medical Center. If people patronize their neighborhood grocery store, selecting foods from each of the basic four food groups, expensive supplements, of people who sell a certain food as a cure-all for any kind of ailment. A sure way to identify the product as not being be-ing all that its promoter says that it is, is by reading the label. If there are secret ingredients in-gredients or formulae involved, the product is probably of no benefit at all, and may even be harmful. A second group of people who promote food fallacies are those who "take excerpts from doctor's reports and use them to fit their own needs." such as high protein foods and wheat germ, are unnecessary, she explained. Ordinarily the body uses only on-ly as much of a vitamin or mineral as it needs, the excess passing through the body, according ac-cording to Miss Follis. There are four groups of people who can utilize supplemented vitamins vita-mins and minerals, she added. These are young children, pregnant women, elderly people, peo-ple, and people with diseases. Other peoplecan drive all the food nutrients they need through a balanced diet. The best rule to remember is moderation mod-eration in all things. According to Miss Follis, one of the dangerous results of a food fallacy occurs when a person who is sick believes that eating a certain food will cure him of his ailment, and so he substitutes use of that food for the advice of a competent com-petent physician. A common example of this is a person who has cancer and who is afraid of surgery. Instead of having an operation, which could save his life, the cancer patients eats a so-called wonder won-der food which does nothing to help him at all. Miss Follis warned against people who sell food misinformation, misinfor-mation, and classified them in two groups. One group consists |