Eggplant Cures Cancer!
January 8th, 2007 by Bob Bly
Nutrition & Healing, a consumer health newsletter, sent a mailing, which I received today, to sell subscriptions.
The headline: “Cure Cancer With Eggplant?!”
If you think they’re joking, the subhead sets you straight: “That’s C-U-R-E, not just improve–one of today’s most common and scariest cancers … usually in under 3 months!”
I had an immediate reaction upon reading the headline, and I bet you did, too.
Which of the following best describes your reaction to the eggplant headline, and why?
A. Curious and fascinated — I want to learn more. I’ll keep reading.
B. What utter B.S. — snake oil being sold here! Mailing goes into the round file.
C. Skeptical but interested enough to read further.
D. Gotta have it! Where do I order?
E. Other (please describe):_________________
This entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 10:48 am and is filed under Direct Marketing, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 8th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
E: Other: SPAM
January 8th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
My first thought was B. When I “Googled” it and read the copy, it supported my opinion:
http://www.isecureonline.com/Reports/NAH/W600GA32/
It sounds and reads like BS to me. I’d love to believe it…but I don’t.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:36 pm
E. ANYTHING is possible … Most natural foods have some sort of healing properties.
And, as a friend of mine told me once when I was teaching a motivational class: If your placebo works better than my placebo, I’ll take your placebo.
January 8th, 2007 at 5:56 pm
My first impression was (B). For me the copy rings of BS.
January 8th, 2007 at 7:29 pm
B) Like the saying goes: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
January 9th, 2007 at 12:41 am
When I read it, I thought, here comes another snake oil salesman.
My father had cancer and I know the pain, heart ache and the frustration I felt during those trying time.
When I remembered it, I went past the BS meter,thinking What if… ( Btw, my father passed away sometime back)
So the target market will definitely give it a read.
I choose A,
Edward Santosh
January 9th, 2007 at 10:01 am
Hey Bob;
Had the newsletter altered the headline slightly, I think they would have had a more favorable response.
Perhaps: Cure Cancer With Eggplant: Claim of New Study
Grab readers with the WHAT! and pull them in with the part about a study.
Just my 2 cents.
Mike
January 9th, 2007 at 11:25 am
My reaction is BS. While I suppose that there could be something in eggplant that MAY help or prevent cancer, I am highly skeptical of claims it can cure anything (except maybe hunger).
January 9th, 2007 at 11:30 am
Bob–Michael has the right idea, but I think it still needs some softening… like framing it as a question.
In essence, it’s not all that different from the “fascinations” headline from Bottom Line Secrets and Rodale Press. (Wasn’t Gene Schwartz the first one to use those?) But I think to make them work, you need to establish some credibility first. Even when I see the envelope teasers from Bottom Line, I recognize who it’s coming from and are willing to suspend disbelief.
Morty
January 9th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
Bob–Whaddayaknow? I just read the headline again. I skimmed the it so fast I didn’t know it WAS written as a question! I guess the exclamation point threw me.
A few lessons: I should read more carefully, and I should from their mistake learn to use exclamation points more sparingly!!!!
Mortyfied
January 9th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
I’d be outrageously sceptical but the subhead would be enough to get me reading the next line.
Of course THAT line had better have some REAL proof or it’s trash bin time!
Kindest regards,
Andrew Cavanagh
January 10th, 2007 at 7:31 am
The first reaction of a lot of people would be B.S. However, the most important question is: Would they read the promotion? And I suspect most would. Especially those in the target market.
January 10th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Let’s look at some interesting ideas. Cancer is the number two killer. Studies have shown a correlation between lifestyle and many preventable diseases such as cancer, and the number one killer, heart disease.
There is a mountain of evidence that an alkalizing diet is one of the best at reversing and curing some diseases while an acidic diet adds to the problems. I am living proof as I have eliminated a disease through diet. I am not radical or wild eyed about any of this, just open minded.
Eggplant is an alkalizing food. If cancer is the number two killer and today’s science has done little to change that fact, would an open mind toward eggplant be such a stretch?
Good copy uses one idea to lead the reader to the rest of the story. As one with experience in this area, this headline not only gets my attention, it keeps it until proven guilty.
Thank you for this excellent blog/forum.
January 10th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I think that kind of headline falls under the category of hype. Yes, it attracts attention. But it cannot live up to its claims. It’s fluff of the worst kind.
Another reason why many of us would label it bs is because we have been saturated by promises of Nature’s miracle cures–from beeswax to yogurt. All this stuff may be good for you—but the claims of preventing cancer etc are still speculative.
And PS….eggplant is not even considered particularly nutritiious. I looked it up not long ago hoping that the eggplant dinner I was preparing that night had a lot of nutrients in it. Not much!
January 11th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
I say D, Gotta Have it.
After all, besides making eggplant parmesan, what else can you do with a frickin’ eggplant?
January 13th, 2007 at 10:35 am
My reaction: this is bullshit. Never open such letters.
January 26th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
Hey… it cures my eczema in 1 day….compared to the “Dr.” giving me tubes of steroid cremes that did nadda for years!!
What if the combo of the strong purple color, massive seed content actually have some unknown qualities, not to mention it is often accompanied by lots of quality omega 3 oils!?
If you’d watch the shotgun approach of “DR’S” who can’t even tell you what the chemo is made of,coupled with their ability to scare people to only “do it their way”… let alone not being honest about the odds and years of killing off massive numbers of immune systems…you might open up your mind just a little. After all…who knew a type of natural mold would save thousands of souls from everything from blood poisoning to pneumonia?
February 12th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
The study was done by the Royal London Hospital and is for the
majority of non-melanoma skin cancers (Squamous and Basal Cell Cancers) How accurate were the tests,I do not know, but adding a little bit of eggplant to our diet sure couldn’t hurt.
Happy Health
February 28th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Having had extensive cancers and being cured by both traditional and natural means for both, to roundly dump on this research without any knowledge of the product is falling for what big pharma wants. I’ve seen too many incredible results for natural medicine to discount them out of hand, and intend to try this product as opposed to the slash and burn technique that has disfigured me.
March 2nd, 2007 at 8:58 am
Having grown up surrounded by MD’s some of them world-reknowned near a major metro-hospital, and many among them who were friends of my immediate family, I know first-hand just how (little) Dr’s are trained during their 12-14-year course of training, internship, residency and budding practices on the causal relationship between food and disease-prevention. Diddly is the key-word here!! At most, the average MD receives maybe two classes (more is a stretch!) on this very crucial subject. And we call or look to them as ‘experts’ on this subject. Once I roomed with an MD while on a concert tour with the world famed Mo-Tab Choir who admitted to me personally, that he only received “maybe a couple” of classes on basic nutrition. Nothing on or about causal or preventative classes in general nutrition.
Let’s face it, the western diet is an abomination with all of its nightmarish ingredients rubber-stamped by the FDA, i.e. hydrogenated cooking oils (a.k.a. trans-fatty carcinogens), aspartame (with studies suggesting causal associations of lupus, to MS, to tumours to seizures of the magnitude of grand-mal, and more), MSG–your neuro-excitotoxin and instant lipo-potentiator (fat facilitator) and migraine friendly, etc., etc, and thus pad the deep pockets of big-pharma.
The closer one gets to eating more holistically, the more life there is to be lived. Think, “live, Live, LIVE–foods, i.e. produce, grains, seeds, lentils; not refined, processed taste-engineered, and boiled/deep fried, etc. ‘foods’!
Give me an MD’s ability to perform surgery and diagnostics, but give me a master naturopathic, or a savvy holistic clinician who’s worked for years and with a great track-record–over MOST MDs (who metriculate and/or are ‘educated’ by or with the help from big-pharma corp’s). Note the next time you enter a Dr’s office, from what manual he or she will cite when discussing your malady or the pharm-meds they’re about to prescribe. Between the these groups, there’s the best of four worlds out there: the clinical, the herbal, the nutriceutical (supplemental), and the holistic. Combined, they MORE realistically/practically equate to the words “heal”, “healing” and “healed”… I know, my life has been saved by an MD/surgeon and by talented, skilled clinicians and I am fortunate to live another day, each and every day since twenty years ago!!!
June 24th, 2007 at 9:25 am
http://www.bellybytes.com/food/eggplant.html
http://www.goaskalice.columbia.edu/2180.html
http://www.malenaskitchen.com/products/korean_eggplant.html
http://www.prweb.com/releases/basalcellcarcinoma/squamouscellcarcinoma/prweb529297.htm
It looks real to me.
July 11th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Hey!
i’ve just uploaded a demo version of complete natural herbal remedies database: www.herbsinlatvia.com
Please check it out if you’re interested! Any comments and suggestions are very welcome!
Additionally forums with lots of Q&A are to be launched soon so see you there!
Warm regards!
Janina Veisola
September 7th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Hopefully the cure for cancer will not be too far away, interesting about the eggplant!
November 29th, 2007 at 7:32 pm
A cancer cure has been suppressed for 75 years.
See: www.morpix.biz/rife
also: www.morpix.biz/x2
I have many links on depopulation
November 30th, 2007 at 11:46 am
As several bloggers above have stated in one way or another, western medicine is bought and paid for by the pharmacuetical companies. They control the FDA, (that’s not a conflict of interest), they control what is taught in medical schools, and they educate your physicians on an ongoing basis. (Ever see the compansation for drug reps?) who by the way have a significantly greater chance of being hired with sales experience rather than for possessing a science background.
Therefore, western medicine for all the worship we give it is based on far less scienctific integrity than that of alternative medicine, which has been around for thousands of years. That’s because it works. Maybe that’s the reason God created food in the first place!
Since I have just started to do a reasonable amount of study on eggplant, I will keep my comments directed at other foods. This of course with the understanding, that it is possible it may well be vindicated in the minds of those above bloggers, who as many of us at some point also believed the healing claims were bologna or even falacious! However, even introductory level college science, especially bio-chemistry, (if they are truly studied) will educate one enough to see the truth in the science behind foods, nutrition, and healing.
Take a look at Johanna Budwig, who was nominated aproximatly 6 times for the nobel peace prize when there was actually science rather than a political agenda for recieving the award. Google her name or go to this link http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/cancer1/budwig.htm. You could check many others, but I found the science info in this article not only to be legitimate, but the site sells no product other than a few publications so as to stay objective and above reproach. However there are many others.
Basically, Dr. Budwig, who was a German bio-chemist found that a mixture of flaxseed oil and organic cottage cheese healed cancer. If you just want to goofa this, go ahead. But to those who want scientific truth check it out. You will quickly find it lines up with the chemistry of your body!
January 17th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
If all the illnesses are found in nature, all the cures are also found in nature. But the Big Pharma Combines want to suppress that and make believe it’s not true. It all started with one of the Rockefeller family member selling crude oil as medicine to people.
Here’s an interesting story :
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/open_letters/pharma_laws_history.html
February 6th, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Ther Pharmaceutical Industry would not be in business if people were:
1. Dead
2. Healthy
Presents an interesting ‘dilema’ as far as making a profit.
Think about it.
How about this…
You go to the doctor, doctor tells you that you have high blood pressure. Doctor prescribes medication that you will more than likely have to take for the rest of your life. What the doctor does not tell you (there are exceptions to every rule - but this, I think is the norm)that your high blood pressure can be brought back down by changing your dietary and lifestyle habits WITHOUT THE USE OF PHARMACEUTICALS.
If I am off base, please…
somebody check me.
April 20th, 2008 at 6:02 am
Actually to be quite honest… Eggplant is something that does its own thing. This is the first time I heard about the works of Eggplant which I received in my email box today. However Eggplant is one of my favorite on my menu..Anyway never consider taking eggplant right after surgery because it will make you very itchy on your incision.. Otherwise it is very good.. It cured me in someway. Eggplant taste good with combination with spinach…