Word: burkitt
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Surgeon-Captain Thomas Cleave of Britain's Royal Navy wrote a scathing indictment blaming the increased consumption of sugar and other refined carbohydrates (like bleached flour) for a host of diseases, from diabetes and diverticulosis to varicose veins and possibly colon cancer. British Surgeon Denis P. Burkitt followed with a recommendation for dwellers in developed countries to increase their fiber consumption toward the almost 1 oz. per day consumed by Africans he studied. Some eminent nutritionists have protested that the Britons' claims were gross exaggerations. At the fifth Western Hemisphere Nutrition Congress in Quebec last month, one authority...
This provocative idea was conceived by British Surgeons Denis Burkitt* and Neil Painter and Biochemist Alexander Walker in an attempt to explain the differences reported in disease rates between Africans living under tribal conditions and the peoples of Western countries where, they say, there has been a rapid increase in certain illnesses in less than a century...
Medical statistics are admittedly imprecise, and are distorted by improvements in diagnosis. Nevertheless, Burkitt and his colleagues believe that the increases in these diseases are real, and were caused by a change in the type of food eaten in developed countries, particularly in food that reaches the large bowel with the least change: indigestible fiber, the roughest of roughage. Until about 1890, they say, the pound of bread that average Britons and Americans ate every day contained much indigestible fiber; because of more elaborate milling techniques, bread now contains less fiber and people are eating less of it. This...
...ways in which low-weight, sluggish bowel movements might contribute to so many diverse diseases are complex and indirect, the Burkitt group concedes. Diverticulosis-in which the large bowel is deeply pitted and fecal material is trapped in the crevices-appears to be directly related to a diet rich in such highly refined carbohydrates as white flour and sugar. Tumors, both benign and malignant, are related to biochemical and bacterial changes caused by long retention of feces. As for heart disease: "Evidence is accumulating that shows that the removal of fiber from the diet raises serum cholesterol levels, a process...
...short, the Burkitt team says, the physiological function of cereal fiber has been largely ignored because the fiber supplies no calories and has scarcely any nutritional value. Now, if the scientists' findings are confirmed, the time has come to rely not on commercial chemical laxatives but on nature's own brands -root vegetables, unpolished rice and such other unprocessed cereals as wheat, corn, barley and oats-to put fiber back into the diet of modern...