MORE: Natural News Special Report Interview

The following is a portion of the interview referenced in the Feb. 14, 2009 "blog" (pages nine and ten). It follows HERE for continuity although the dates are reversed (does that make sense?).

Mike: What's your take on the situation with drugs from Canada? The FDA insists that they're unsafe, yet some states are trying to allow their citizens to purchase drugs from across the border.

Dr. Strand: Well, it's the same drugs as we're getting here in the United States -- unless someone is being fraudulent and substituting some scam, which is totally illegal. I've had my patients go to Mexico and Canada and pick them up. I look at them, and it's the same drugs that they're getting here. The same pharmaceutical companies are making it. It's only that they can get more money from the United States than from anywhere else. How much this medication costs is really a sad situation for those people who have to take it. Generics are part of the answer, and using older drugs are part of the answer. But there has to be some kind of economic pressure put on the pharmaceutical industry to get these drugs down to a reasonable and affordable price. The prices are increasing at 17 percent per year, and they're shooting up costs. Yes, drugs cost a lot of money to develop; these companies spend over $500 million each time they want to get a new drug approved on average. They've got to recover their costs. But, again, a lot of these drugs have no advantage over what's already on the market. I quote [in my book] that, back in 1960, we had something like 800 drugs on the market. Today, we've got 8,000 to 10,000. It's out of control. We've got to realize that not every new drug around the corner is really needed.

Mike: I have one last question for you, Dr. Strand. You mentioned that you're writing a book on obesity and diabetes. Would you like to give a few hints of what people might find in that and when it might be available?

Dr. Strand: What we're finding is that the problem is insulin resistance. Here, again, the recommendation started thirty years ago. Because the problem was fat and cholesterol, we went to a high-carb, low-fat diet, thinking this was the healthiest diet in the world. Not only has heart disease not come down, it's going up. What we're finding is that those recommendations by the medical community have created our obesity and diabetes epidemic. The CDC came out last year and said that a child born after the year 2000 will run over a 30 percent risk of developing diabetes at some time in their lifetime. If they happen to be black or Hispanic, it's going to be nearly 50 percent. It's all because of processed foods, high-glycemic foods and fast foods that this is happening. People have to understand that there are good carbohydrates out there, and we need them, because they contain our antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. We need our fruits and our vegetables. They aren't the bad culprits -- it's the processed carbs. Not all fat is bad. We're learning that there is good fat. Taking omega-3 fats, mono-saturated fats and vegetable fats in their healthy state will actually lower LDL cholesterol. They lower total cholesterol and raise your good HDL. For proteins, it's the same thing. There is good protein out there, and there is bad protein. So my book pretty much focuses on eating a healthy diet that does not spike your blood sugar, and it talks about exercise. It is just modest exercise that gets your body moving. It's also about, of course, taking what I called "cellular nutrition" which, as I explained earlier, is just a good, complete and balanced nutritional supplement that’s high in quality.

Mike: It seems that the implied message in all of this -- if you'll allow me to paraphrase -- is that obesity and diabetes are almost universally preventable.

Lorraine here: Just a portion of the eleven page interview. Please click here to access the entire document.