On Thu, 8 Jun 2000, Justin Hasselman wrote:

> The above was spooled to every employee at the Dept of Health.  Well, I
> would like to post a clever response to this.  If one of the experts on this
> list (eg Todd, Ray, etc...) wants to write a convincing response, I will
> spool it back to all the employees and give you credit for it.  I would do
> it myself, but there are many on the list who can make a better argument
> than I.  And I really want to take advantage of this oppurtunity.

I don't know how clever this is, but when Okinawa, a Japanese
territory, is considered separately from the rest of Japan, the
Okinawans are found to have longer life expectancy than the
Japanese average.  Pork is a staple of the Okinawan diet, even
though it is widely considered an "unhealthy" meat in the West.

However, the average caloric intake of the Okinawans is only
about 80% of that of mainland Japanese.  Some, such as Walford,
think that this is the explanation of their longevity.

Also, autopsy studies show that although the Japanese have fewer
cardiac episodes than we do, their arteries are in fact just as
plaqued.  But this is not called "heart disease" until symptoms
appear, such as angina, MI, etc.

Todd Moody
[log in to unmask]