Fast food
I refer to the article published on Sept. 9, 1994 under the title: Western fast food is a mere fad: Sociologist, in which you publish a declaration by a sociologist, Mr. Rusdi Mochtar.
Fast food may be a fad but this fad threatens people's lives without anyone doing anything about it. I am not pointing at Indonesia in particular but to the world as a whole. Let me explain.
Medical research in developed countries, and in the USA in particular, has taken great pains to establish that smoking is the main cause of cancer and coronary disease. As a result, many governments force tobacco companies to adorn their packages with a warning that smoking is dangerous or may endanger your life. Some governments ban advertisements for tobacco products. People are happy because they now feel safe. How wrong could they be!
Other studies started decades ago (mostly in France) to find out why the French, who smoke more than the Americans, have high cholesterol and high blood pressure like them, but outlive them by four years. Those studies show more and more convincingly that the main cause of cancer and heart disease is the food you eat. My point is that, when you eat the right food, you'd better keep away from cigarettes.
Now, what are wrong and right foods?
The French must have either a secret drug or a special immunity that their American counterparts lack. The secret drug is wine which prevents cholesterol and fat accumulating in our arteries and clogging them. My doctor in Jakarta also claims that I should drink one glass (not a bottle) of red wine every day to increase the amount of good cholesterol in the blood.
One may object that other Europeans and Americans also drink wine, although in lesser quantities. Americans, Scotsmen, Finns, Belgians and people of other northern European countries consume much more red meat and butter than the people of Southern France, Spain and Portugal, who live on fish, fruit, grain, vegetables and olive oil. The latter have a considerably lower death rate from cancer and heart attacks (less than a quarter of the former). The Japanese, who smoke like chimneys but live on fish, have an even lower death rate.
Research also established a relationship between the two kinds of diseases: whatever food causes cancer is also bad for the heart.
A conclusion is that fast food like hamburgers, filled with beef, are bad for the health. Places selling them should post a warning to that effect, just like the cigarette producers. There is no reason to single out one secondary cause of the diseases and let the main culprit go scot-free. Safe hamburgers would be filled with fish or chicken.
ALEX WOLVESPERGES
Medan, North Sumatra