'Diet is a key to diabetes help' and more letters to the editors

Diet is a key to diabetes help

Re: "Encouragement vs. diabetes" (Free Press editorial, March 28):

Is there a cure for diabetes Type II, and even help in decreasing the amount of insulin necessary for diabetes Type I (child onset), without expensive, risky surgery?

The answer is yes!

Along with refined foods (white flour, white rice, cakes, pastries, refined pasta, etc.), both animal and vegetable fats are more implicated in diabetes than sugar.

Switching to whole grains, and a combination of mainly raw (but also cooked) vegetables and fruit has completely cured Type II diabetes in as little as a few weeks, and has helped Type I diabetics reduce their insulin requirements.

"The China Study," for instance, is the largest epidemiological study ever conducted and shows a definite relation between the American diet and diseases such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

Changing one's diet is difficult, but if physicians would educate themselves and then their patients, at least giving them the opportunity to choose for themselves, diabetes might become a thing of the past in this country.

Milk, for instance, has long been implicated as a causative factor in Type I childhood onset diabetes (even Dr. Spock stopped recommending cow's milk for infants and children).

KATHERINE HAUBRICH


Divine creation gives life meaning

There are basically two choices concerning the origin of life. One choice states that life began from nonliving material. The second choice states that life was created by the eternal God.

A textbook currently used at UTC, Biology, eighth edition, 2008, Thompson Brooks/Cole, p.447, states: "How did life begin? Although biologists generally accept the hypothesis that life developed from nonliving matter, exactly how this process, called chemical evolution, occurred is not certain."

The opening statement from the Holy Bible in Genesis 1:1 is "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth."

Notice that the scientific text classifies evolution as hypothesis. Notice that the Bible states divine creation as fact. Since no human being was present in the beginning of the universe, whatever we believe about the origin of life on planet Earth must be accepted by faith.

What if the evolutionary hypothesis is correct, and there is no God? The natural conclusion is that we are all just highly developed animals, and doomed to live as such. That concept provides no real meaning to your lives.

What if the Bible is correct, and there is a God? Then life has meaning and significance now and forever.

WILLIAM A. GREER JR.

Hixson


Bessie Smith Strut move a mistake

The mayor's summary decision to move the Bessie Smith Strut without any input from the M.L. King neighborhood or the community at large is a big mistake. Far from making the city safer, it is a setback for racial harmony that only serves to further divide us.

The Strut has been a uniquely integrated event, fostering an appreciation of African-American culture. The fact that it takes place in the black community, on King Boulevard, in front of the Bessie Smith Cultural Center is integral to the event and sends a message that the city is at least trying to be inclusive when it holds Riverbend.

It also bothers me that the decision was made in a secretive and undemocratic fashion. What chance did opponents have to voice their opinions before the fact? I have never felt threatened or unsafe at the Strut. We bring my 96-year-old mother-in-law, and she is always treated with respect.

It's amazing that the mayor can ignore 30 years of history and move the Strut by proclamation, but he cannot move the shuttle two lousy blocks to stop at the Bessie Smith Center.

JOHN C. REIS


Strut move marks defeat for our city

Gangs, thugs 1; City Hall, 0.

Moving the Bessie Smith Strut inside the Riverbend gates and fences, accompanied by just about all of Chattanooga's police force, is the same as admitting the gangs, thugs and random violence win and the mayor and his inept police lose.

What next for Riverbend? Watchtowers, K-9 dogs and searchlights? Moving the fence a few blocks south? No more beer? I suppose they have to let people in carrying guns by Tennessee law?

Or, more practically, why not tear down the fences and let the festival happen, as it started out, all over town, in all venues, with all art forms - like just about every other successful, and as safe as is possible, town festival?

This bunker mentality is ignorant, embarrassing, unsupported by analysis or public input, and Mayor Littlefield's Strut decision should be reversed. There is no such thing as perfect security, no matter what the police chief claims.

No doubt, with Bonnaroo nearby, this is one way for Riverbend to get national press attention when the Strut happens anyway and opens the door to an independent Riverbend Fringe Festival that no one can shut down.

SID HETZLER

Chickamauga, Ga.


Tea Party support is lacking

Wherefore art thou, tea party support?

While trying to make sense of what the tea party is all about, I find myself wondering what others are thinking or saying about it.

I hear politicians proclaiming themselves "tea party candidates," but I don't see many of them coming by to shake hands with tea partyers, or to share a few words of promise for what they plan to do in office.

I wasn't around for the original Boston Tea Party, but I suspect that it was supported by the community in far greater numbers than ours in the 21st century.

Granted, the present day tea party has a significant number of patriots who seek to improve our lot as citizens of this great country. To be sure, not every American citizen sees the aims of patriots in the same way.

However, the United States Constitution charges and challenges us with the three words that lead into the greatest American document ever written, "We The People ... "

"Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country." - JFK

LAWRENCE HEADRICK

Tunnel Hill, Ga.


Government should not repair

In response to the article, "Villages' troubles," I am so sad for them.

They get a "federal incentive" allowing a $110,000 home for $71,000, then have roofing and plumbing problems and want the government (taxpayers) to pay for the repairs/replacement of these.

I have a house with similar problems. Can I ask the government (taxpayers) to pay for mine, too?

The old saying - "teach a man to fish" - you already have a house that even I cannot afford. Leave the taxpayers out of it.

CANDICE McCALLIE

Lookout Mountain, Ga.

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