Great Construction
The Comedy of the “Science of Nutrition”
The Comedy of the “Science” of Nutrition
“The Comedy of the ‘Science of Nutrition’” will surely seem a rather strange title. I would really not care to use this sort of expression, but I do hope readers will see why any other expression is impossible to find.
The science of nutrition generally accepted and followed today is fallacious. It is more than pathetic that in spite of the fact that this fallacious notion of nutrition does more harm than good, today enormous amounts of effort and money are expended in what is popularly believed to be a facet of advanced culture. I make this bold, audacious statement knowing that I may be thought crazy because I cannot watch the situation nowadays and remain silent. The following explains why.
At the very peak of what is considered nutritive today are the vitamins called A, B, C, followed by a further classification of different and varying substances such as amino acids, carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, but when ingested or injected as is into the body, these substances have a temporary but not a continual effect. Indeed, the effect is ultimately contrary, because as more nutritive supplements are ingested, the human body weakens as much. It should not be necessary to explain here that human beings ingest foodstuffs to continue life and maintain vitality, but it is the very interpretation of this point that is so at odds with human knowledge of and theory about “nutrition” today.
Let us observe how human beings consume foodstuffs. First of all, food is chewed with the teeth and passes through the throat after which it enters the stomach, then the intestines, what is unnecessary is separated into excrement and eliminated. Throughout this process, at various stages, the nutritive-producing functions of the liver, gall bladder, kidneys, pancreas, and so forth, produce, select and send to the appropriate areas of the body all the necessary elements for the functioning of such parts as the blood, muscles, bones, skin, hair, teeth, and nails in a very inscrutable process that maintains life. Indeed, the mystery and subtly of the wonder of creation cannot be expressed in human terms. This process is the state of nature as it is.
The necessary elements to support human life are included within all foodstuffs. The fact that there are so many different varieties of foodstuffs is because each contains necessary elements of nutrition. Also, taste differs for person and time, and the fact that needs in differing locations are not the same everywhere comes about because what is needed by physical bodies in varying places also differs. Basically, if your stomach empties, you eat. If your throat gets dry, you drink water; if you want something sweet, it is because your body is lacking in sugar content, and if you want something spicier than usual, it is because your system lacks salt. The basic principles of nutrition are well illustrated by the natural desires of human beings. It is clear that human beings require food which naturally is delicious. Therefore, it should be understandable why it is a mistake to forcibly ingest the unpalatable and bitter substances that are labeled medicines. The aphorisms and maxims which have existed since antiquity that emphasize the benefits of bitter medicines are greatly mistaken as the Creator made poisons bitter as an indication that human beings should not ingest them. Thus, the more delicious something is, the more nutritious it is, and foodstuffs are delicious because they have a high spiritual content. The fresher the fish or vegetable, the higher is the level of spirituality. The fact that taste declines as time passes is because the spirituality has dissipated.
At this point, I would like to discuss nutritional supplements. Within the human body, nutritive-producing functions create as necessary a good amount of nutrition, that is, vitamins or other substances. The nutritive-producing functions of human bodies have the uncanny power to produce what is necessary of vitamins even from foods that do not contain vitamins. The vitality of a human being is the very activity of the process that generates the nutritive elements from ingested food. Simply speaking, human vitality is none other than the process that creates a perfect substance from an uncompleted one.
From what I have explained above it should be obvious that so-called nutritive supplements, which are finished and complete substances, if ingested, will naturally weaken the body’s nutritive-producing functions since there is no room for their activity. As the nutritive-producing function weakens, other bodily functions naturally weaken due to the collective responsibility of all the body’s functions, and finally the entire physical body gradually weakens. Let me give a few examples of how this can happen.
The first example is Fletcherism which used to be highly touted in the United States. This approach held that chewing the food thoroughly until it was mush in the mouth was beneficial. I myself religiously followed this system for a month, but I found that, rather than helping me, I became weaker. I was surprised to feel that I just did not have the energy that I thought I should have, so I stopped following the method, went back to my normal eating habits, and my strength returned. That was when I learned what a mistake it is to completely masticate one’s food. I realized it is mistaken because when the teeth overly masticate, the stomach has no room to function fully. Thus, food really only has to be masticated halfway, so the old saying that says that the person who eats and defecates quickly is a healthy person shows how, in this sense, the ancients were well advanced of our contemporary civilization.
Another factor is the ingestion of stomach medicines which weaken the stomach, so as the sufferer’s stomach weakens, still more medicine is taken, and the stomach continues to weaken. It is an unmistakable fact that the cause of stomach conditions is the use of stomach medicines. I often hear of patients long suffering from stomach diseases or conditions who do not improve as long as they continue to eat regular food that is easy to digest, but who upon eating pickled vegetables in Japanese rice gruel, that is, food that needs exercise of fundamental digestive action, improve.
Let me compare to a manufacturing plant the energy, the vitality, within the human body that upon ingestion changes unprocessed foods into the necessary nutritional elements for the human body.
First, the raw materials are brought into the factory. The furnaces are lit, the machinery begins to move, workers perform their jobs, and gradually the finished product is created. That process is the raison d’être for the factory. If, on the other hand, finished goods were brought into the factory, there would be no need for work in the factory, coal would not be burned, machinery would not be operated, and there would be no need for workers. Shutting down the plant would be the inevitable outcome.
I have sought to explain the issue of diet in terms easy to understand, and if my discussion is given some thought, “comedy” should be the only word available to describe the vapid, worthless substances such as nutritional supplements that squander money and do nothing but weaken the body. Hence the title of this essay.
Hikari, Issue 13, June 18, 1949
translated by cynndd