At the ceremony for my brother’s graduation from Columbia Medical School in the early 1980s, the dean noted how medically eventful those four years had been.  He said that during that span they had discovered a new vaccine, developed a new cancer tracking procedure, and discovered a new disease (AIDS).

I remember thinking at the time:  “That’s not such a great ratio!”

The guest post below, from my Florida colleague, Bob Clark, is certainly welcome news over three decades later.  And his comments about how spirituality positively affects our health are also very encouraging….

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 Also published in West Central Tribune

I remember oat bran….

It burst upon the scene in the late 1980s with promises of helping us to be healthier in several ways, including lowering cholesterol.  Before we knew it, oat bran seemed to be in everything!

There was oat bran garlic bread, oat bran muffins, oat bran animal cookies, oat bran brownies, oat bran-dusted potato chips and doughnuts.  I can remember eating pizza with oat bran and it was even added to the cookie dough in ice cream!  (For me, oat bran’s taste ruined many delicious foods.)

And then a few years later, almost as suddenly as it arrived, it was gone.  Apparently, a new report challenged a lot of its health claims and it was removed from most ingredients lists.  (I’m convinced that the taste had to do with the rapidity of its disappearance. 🙂

I’m not coming down on one side or the other of the oat bran argument – which included law suits alleging false advertising claims.

But I bring up this history because February is “wise health care consumer month.”  And in our efforts to make wise choices, we often follow the latest trends – only to see them shift.

Please click here to read the rest in its original context

Also published in West Central Tribune