Afraid of the radical

253a:

Dr Neal Barnard, President of the US group, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, is advising on how to reverse diabetes. He’s written a book of that title. This is one ambitious plan. It’s seen as radical. But all he’s suggesting is that you can reverse this terrible health condition by way of food.
Now that proposition is almost laughable to most people and especially to diabetics. Perhaps food might alleviate the symptoms but to reverse the whole condition?
He suggests reversing diabetes is as simple as a three week experiment in using vegan food. But because this is such a serious condition, one needs to find vegan foods that are also low in oil and low-down on the glycemic index (see: www.pcrm.org/newsletter/jan07/diabetes). The fact is that he’s had great results, which speak for themselves.
In much the same way, vegans in general have had great results (mainly amongst less ill people) advocating a change to plant-based foods. The vegan diet which vegans ‘practise’ isn’t necessarily so very radical because we aren’t necessarily addressing a remedy for reversing a major health condition, we’re simply suggesting a diet for people who want to stay in reasonable health and who don’t want to exacerbate any ill-health condition they may have.
A radical change in diet, for whatever reason, involves a great leap of faith. This is where, in the considering-stage people usually envision the ‘change’ to be quite radical. Later, once into it, it doesn’t seem radical at all.