HOW I FELL IN LOVE WITH POLY

After finishing my doctorate in chemical pathology at the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School, London in 1960, I worked five years at Makerere Medical School in Uganda, and I became mainly interested in the pathogenesis of the problems of Ugandans. Possibly, their propensity to eating huge quantities of green bananas might have had something to do with their intestinal disorders which resulted in volvulus and double volvulus being the #1 reason for surgery: The green banana is rich in serotonin which stimulates intestinal motility. The other unique problem was endomyocardial fibrosis (EMF) a fibrotic condition which affects the endo- and myo-cardium, leading to heart failure and death. But the idea that diet was a factor in EMF did turn out to be right. Africa had taught me that nutrition was important. {}

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With the permission of the Author, John Reeves

The Influence of Agriculture on Mineral Nutrition and Health 

 INTRODUCTION

I would like to start with just one cautionary tale from history. There was, in the Ohio River valley, a nation of first Americans who vanished around 1500 AD. These people are known to the archaeologists as the mound builders, for they left many intriguing earth works. They also left a cemetery which had been in use for 1500 years. In early times this nation had been hunter gatherers. Skeletons from this period showed no consistent health disorders. Skeletons from later times, after they had become farmers, indicate the extensive presence of juvenile anaemia, arthritis, tuberculosis and bone demineralization (osteoporosis).

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