The Myth of Essence.

Our culture is so strange.

We're forever chasing some magical substance hidden deep inside things.

It's the Myth of Essence.

People who eat fruits and vegetables get cancer less. So extract the vitamin C or the beta carotene from vegetables and take it as a pill.

There's some strange belief in efficiency. Who would want to eat all those nasty fruits and vegetables, when you can just take a pill?!

Weight gain might be cured by a pill. If only we added some exotic substances to our normal diet, we could avoid chaning our lives.

How backwards!

The alternative theory could be called the Hippocratic Theory: first, do no harm.

Do fruits or vegetables--or whatever--contain some magical essence that has curative powers?

Perhaps.

Do they prevent you from eating other things that are worse for you?

Definitely.

Fruits and vegetables are mostly water. They contain fiber, which helps things flush through your system quickly. And yes, they probably have good stuff in them, too.

But mostly the water and fiber displaces fat and sugar you might otherwise be eating that can do you definite harm.

So why not just eat the fruits and vegetables?!

Give up on chasing the magical whatsis which will cure all ills.

Instead: do less harm.

--E. R. O'Neill