I don't think the author's point was that vegetarianism or veganism is strange or bad.

The point was that Steve Jobs took it to such an extreme that he may have damaged his health.

There are doctors now who want to coin a new eating disorder: orthorexia.

Basically, this is an eating disorder where the person becomes so preoccupied with eating "healthy" or "right" that their health suffers.

For example, my father has familial hypercholestemia - he has very high cholesterol because of genetics, not diet.

My father is 65, 6' 5", about 175lbs, and he runs at least a half-marathon every day (and full marathons for "fun").

When told that his cholesterol was high, all my father heard was the word "cholesterol" and assumed (wrongly) that he should not eat anything with cholesterol in it (like meat).

He now eats so little protein that he suffers from cachexia (where your body starts digesting itself) like a cancer patient.

I always suspected that prior to getting cancer, Steve Jobs also suffered from cachexia due to his sunken cheeks and gray skin tone.

So, the point is that people can go to far with a "healthy" diet until it becomes something obsessive.

I find it strange that the authors mention fruititarianism, yet describe a vegan diet. I'm vegan, and I still have no idea what the hell a fruititarian is after reading this article.

The point is Steve Jobs was a dirty hippie whose fruity veganism shortened his life to 56 years. If he had washed, used deodorant, and eaten bacon, he would have died 70+ like most people.

See more about why bacon is important at :

Yeah, I'm sure bacon would have saved him from the cancer with the lowest survival rate of any type.

Allie, I believe a fruitarian eats only what can be eaten without destroying the plant--so it's a more restricted version of a vegan diet.

@Alex-3171793 Bacon might not have saved him when he was already sick but his forcing his body into Ketosis on a regular basis is probably what caused his pancreas to freak out and start making cancer cells in the first place. Yes, there are pancreatic cancers that have the lowest survival rates of cancers but Steve didn't have that form of pancreatic cancer, his was survivable but he decided to try to eat himself healthy before he had surgery and the foods he chose while healthy were probably the worst he could have chosen when dealing with the pancreas.

I've met a number of "vegans" in my line of work.

The ones I've met have all been overweight, extremely pale (with purple bags under their eyes), and looked like they were going to keel over at any minute.

Veganism has certainly taken off over the past 10 years, but I think more as a fad than anything else. When I would eat regularly with these people in the lunch room, I couldnt help but notice how awful their diet was. Bread and Pasta. Salad. More pasta.

Yes, a vegan diet can be healthy, but you really have to know alot in terms of nutrition and dedicate yourself financially. And even the most knowledgeable vegans will not get a complete set of amino acids in their diet. So don't plan on joining a gym, your body is not going to be able to sustain the additional wear and tear on your muscle groups.

By all accounts, Jobs lived his life the way he wanted to.

It seemed pretty full.

I wouldn't recommend his diet (or the typical American diet).

Moderation is the key. A little exercise, some vegtables with meals, and don't forget: a little fun. These things go a long way to making you healthy.

Jobs, like other geniuses, may get so engrossed in what he is doing that he forgot to do the normal stuff.

Some geniuses forget to comb their hair or other things the rest of us would never forget.

So my thoughts: find a physical game you love to play, and you will never have to work at exercising. Find out what your favorite recipe is for raw spinach. We switched from lettuce to spinach. (There's more nutrition in the spinach in a soft taco than the rest of the taco combined.)

And relax! We all have our dietary weaknesses. Do the best you can, but don't stress out over it. Stress may well be the worst thing for our bodies.

I thought Jobs was HIV positive? Was I mistaken?

I've only know a few people that were true geniuses, and every one of them were quirky. Great artists, same thing. I think Steve had to do what he did because that is how he ticked.

If it cost him years, that is sad, but he appeared to be a non-conformist. Non-conformity can be a really good life if done right. And I don't know about you, but I'd rather live a shorter life with zeal, than a long boring life.

But then I am one of those kooky people who believe in heaven, Jesus, and all that.

Steve Jobs being HIV positive was a rumour that began because of his cachexia.

Most people associate cachexia with "AIDS" patients from the late 1980s like Freddy Mercury.

Cancer can cause cachexia as the tumours begin to suck up all the nutrition from the food you eat, leaving nothing for your body. A cancer patient can easily go through thousands more calories a day and still lose weight because of this.

Plus, people on extreme diets who are otherwise healthy can also put themselves into cachexia by denying themselves enough carbohydrates, fats, or proteins.

I have a post with more info a little higher up.

Although I believe mankind is meant to be omnivorous, if carefully managed one could live well on a vegetarian or possibly vegan diet. I'm not much of a meat eater but do like my dairy and could not imagine living without it. As far as Jobs diets are concerned, they sound pretty nuts to me. I guess all his brain power went into his work--certainly not his personal habits.

Thus is once more exposed, the fine line between insanity and genius, and in some cases, they are intermingled..

In questions of diet, it seems likely that we would thrive on foods easy to obtain. That would be mostly fruits, veggies, nuts, and eggs. Next would be fish and poultry, and last red meat.

So eat a lot of fruits, veggies, nuts and eggs, add some fish and poultry, and occasionally eat red meat. Leave the philosophizing and spiritual issues to more appropriate areas of life.

Some people intellectualize too much. They are usually quite unhappy and frightened, and often unhealthy.

Allie: the article's author incorrectly described fruitarianism. The person quoted had it right: "the reproductive parts of plants that can be consumed without doing any harm to the plant itself". In other words, a vegan will eat something that killed the plant it came from (e.g. grains or a carrot); a fruitarian will only eat what can be harvested without even killing the source plant (e.g. an apple or an orange). The author should have said "fruits, nuts, seeds" AND NOT "vegetables and grains."

All grains are biologically fruit. They can be harvested without killing the plant.

Commercial farms just find it easier to harvest the entire plant then thresh the grains out.

Because humans need the calcium.

Our teeth and bones start to deteriorate around age 30-40, and worsens every year thereafter. Our modern lifestyle and medicine helps us live well beyond the life expectancy we had a century or two ago, but our bones haven't yet "caught up" to this change. Dairy is an excellent natural source of calcium that is essential to building and repairing strong bones.

I'm fairly sure humans were using dairy in their adult years long before there was a dairy industry to "brainwash" us.

JIM: You tell that to my cat

I'm a vegan and a triathlete and I assure you that you don't need dairy to be healthy. However, you have to be willing to make up for the calcium and healthy fats by eating other sources- like tons of spinach for calcium and nuts for fat. It's not as simple as eliminating the dairy and not replacing the nutrients.

Most people would be better off if they severely limited the amount of dairy they consumed.

If anyone deals with lots of bloating, lots of sinus mucous...it would be worth cutting out dairy for a month and seeing how much their body changes.

Lots of other sources for calcium, including supplements.

Leafy green vegetables

Broccoli, kale, spinach

Fruits

Oranges

Beans and peas

Tofu, peanuts, peas, black beans, baked beans

Fish

Salmon, sardines

Miscellaneous

Sesame seeds, blackstrap molasses, corn tortillas, almonds, brown sugar

That would be like milk or butter. Many mammals eat eggs although uncooked, lol!

Maybe not everybody's lifestyle lets them afford the luxury of substituting cheap, readily available, and—to the vast majority of us—delicious dairy products with all those products you mention.

I'm not saying that veganism is very expensive or that it's even questionable, but to many people out there it would entail making sacrifices that are not necessarily worth it. Just to throw it out there, the countries with the smallest incidence of lactose intolerance (i.e., the ones with the highest dietary intake of dairy products) also happen to be the countries with the highest life expectancies (save for Japan, of course). I'm not establishing causality, but I'm saying, it's not like dairy products kill you.

So be a vegan. You have the right to do so. But don't expect us all to be vegans.

Other animals love to drink milk if they can get it. But they can't. Because they don't have thumbs! Or large brains! We drink milk because it's nutritious and it tastes good, AND because we smart humans have figured out how to get a steady supply of this food source. No other animals have figured out that problem yet. My cat however has figured out that if she circles my leg constantly when I open the refrigerator, then she will have a constant supply of milk. So maybe I'm wrong one that one point.

JIMrado- actually animals, just like humans do get milk in the form of breast milk. They lactate when pregnant, just like women and feed their young by breastfeeding - just like humans.

jimRADIO..............when my daughter was a baby, she developed an allergy to cows milk (I could not breast feed) the doctor told me exactly what you said, that we are the only mammals that go on drinking milk (it is the dairy industry pushing this). There are other ways of getting calcium and you will be perfectly healthy. My daughter is now 46 and extremely healthy.

Jessica -- Check countries like France and the Netherlands where people eat a considerable amount of dairy. They live longer than we do. Basically what it comes down too is that anything in excess is bad, whether you're eating broccoli or cheese. Actually, a little parmesan on your broccoli makes it taste all the better.

Food for thought... www.notmilk.com

"Only mammal to drink milk as an adult"....

We are also the only animal to be able to do it, same with making fire, and flying without wings. Should we stop doing those things too?

You give a starving animal milk, any kind of milk, and it's going to drink it. I know you think you're being clever with that little vegan saying, but you're not. Here's a little clever saying along the same line of thinking, "We are one of the few animals that doesn't eat it's own feces.", so by your logic, are you also going to force that dietary knowledge nugget on your children too?

Vegans that force their stupid "animals are people too" crap on their kids should be jailed, unless you yourself were brought up from birth as a vegan, you are performing a science experiment on your kids.

Oh BTW, bees aren't animals, and they aren't harmed by you eating their honey, you choosing not to eat honey doesn't show me how pious you are, it shows me that you are trendy. Veganism-based dietary issues are an example of a "First World" problem.

humans are the only mammals...i believe....that after being weaned still drink milk.

Strangely, I've never seen a cat or dog for that matter turn down a bowl of milk. Or eggs, or cheese. I had a dog once that went completely bonkers for a ham, egg and cheese omelet. Go figure.

Some humans drink milk as adults because they can, and because their ancestors developed husbandry and ways of cooking to turn milk into foods that taste good. One problem with modern day dairy is the method of pasteurization used, which kills the enzymes. Fast pasteurization at higher heat costs less than slower pasteurization at lower temperatures, which preserves enzymes and helps with digestion. Another problem is that cows' milk contains much more casein than human milk, so calves can develop the heavier bones required in cows. That's way too much casein for humans and isn't good for people in general. Another problem is that when digested, cows' milk is acidifying, which causes calcium to leach out of bones to buffer the acidity, so cows' milk isn't really the best source of calcium for people.

Cows' milk tastes good, which is why cats will drink it but it isn't good for cats either and will give them diarrhea, by the way.

Which isn't to defend Steve Jobs' eating habits -- I don't know what he was thinking of, either.

my god people, calm down. i'm not a vegan. i eat dairy. 'clever little vegan saying'?? what saying? i was just curious about why dairy is considered necessary. and you treat me like i'm some sort of 'vegan' spokesman. i'm not. i was asking a serious question.

so to those who bad mouthed me, and treated me like @!$%#.....screw you.

Oh BTW, bees aren't animals, and they aren't harmed by you eating their honey, you choosing not to eat honey doesn't show me how pious you are, it shows me that you are trendy. Veganism-based dietary issues are an example of a "First World" problem.

Bees aren't animals?

@BlueMist, Technically they are animals, I was using it in the colloquial sense, I was referring to the animals we normally associate with food. You are correct, I should have phrased it better.

Apparently, we are only supposed to feel bad about eating cute, big-eyed, fuzzy animals.

Re: Human adults drinking milk. That is only in SOME cultures. In pre-WWII Japan and China and most of Asia, few adults drank milk or ate any dairy products. The older generation in Japan is the longest-lived people on the planet, most of them have ingested very few dairy products in their lifetime. The younger generation, who drink a lot more milk, use milk in cooking, eat butter and cheese, are the ones who are now beginning to have weight issues and the health problems associated with obesity....

In the US we think dairy products are necessary because of the dairy industry's advertising and powerful lobby.

So true, homesick yank. I developed severe stomach aches as a child. Parents took me to doctors and nobody could find anything wrong so they assumed it was all in my head. That was back in the 60's when the words "latose intolerant" had never been used. And milk was considered good for all (pushed by the dairy industry). So I suffered and figured it out for myself when I grew up. I'm sooooo happy that I don't have to buy gallons and gallons of expensive milk. I can buy a gallon of gas instead. :\

Since early childhood, the taste of milk has been so repulsive to me that I'll gag if it even touches my lips. So I have never drank it. I have no calcium issues and as an adult broke my wrist, which healed well and in the usual amount of time. I am now a senior woman with no sign of osteoporosis or other bone thinning.

Nor have I ever gone to any trouble to get calcium into my diet or taken calcium supplements. I do like raw veggies, such as spinach, which I believe is loaded with calcium.

Consequently, I think the milk thing is about a federally-protected diary industry.

I love dairy products. I'm 27 and never had a cavity. I chalk it up to all the years of gobbling up cheese and chugging milk.

It depends on ancestry to a great degree. Northern Europeans and certain African groups generally retain the enzyme needed to break down lactose--because their ancestors herded milk-producing mammals and milk was a large portion of their diet. Those who lacked the enzyme could not get as much nutrition, and so became a smaller part of the population. Most Native Americans, in contrast (to name just one group), do not retain this enzyme after infancy, and so these populations have a higher percentage of lactose intolerance.

or a sign they arent so great, in all regards.

we just tend to overlook their insanity, simply because they copied already existing products - tweaked them slightly and presented them as if they were BRAND NEW "see this ipod, it can fit in your pocket! your entire music collection in your pocket"

mp3's already existed at that point...but didnt stop him from presenting it like he was the first one to sell an MP3 player.

in fact, lots of other companies had mp3 players, along with the ability to store the music on a computer.

Steve Jobs really didnt innovate much - just gave it a catchy name, and presented it like the world had never seen it before HE brought it to their attention.

Apple's "success" is directly connected to the fact that come the early 2000's - more and more households had personal computers...in the 90's, not nearly as many people did.

Had Apple come out with their ipod in 1996 like Audio Highway did...it would have fell just as flat, without as much of a customer base to sell it to.

The cinic in me tells me that the cannibalistic feast on the weird side of Steve Jobs has started. Up to now it has been mainly if not all praise (Well deserved)for Steve...Steve Jobs was Steve Jobs the one and only because of what he accomplished what he did and hoe he did it. That he dipped his feet in the toilet? really Melissa! so what?...his feet, his toilet! That he smelled?...you try to resucitate from the abiss where he was thrown albeit having been from the company that he created, and and by the ex/CEO with the experience of sugar water making that Steve brought in...I wonder how many of us would have done that! that he ate carrots and apples...my God!...so what!...hey writers, critizise his work but leave the man alone at the place from where he cannot defend himself. Not fair!.

Talking about the dead is the only way to ensure you don't get sued for slander.

You are correct! Thank you for pointing this out.

I think Melissa needs to go to a community college so she can take a basic writing course.

• Don't be such an ass Kyle.....!!!

Were you raised in a cardboard box? Don't be so closed-minded.

You mean like Natalie Portman? Stevie Wonder? Shania Twain? Anthony Hopkins? Dustin Hoffman? All vegetarians. AllieB's right, you need to get out of that cardboard box.

I am REALLY wondering how you can THINK you know somebody is vegetarian just based looking at them? Other than the fact that you are completely wrong, your statement lies in no factual base.

Where I work, the ones who eat bacon are the happiest, and the ones who eat oatmeal are the grumpiest.

Is that why some meat eating religions ban bacon?

On the other hand... It seems to me (nonscientific observation coming) that often people with eating disorders turn to vegetarianism. And I do personally know some vegetarians who don't look particularly healthy. It's because they are not being careful enough about what and how much they eat. It's harder to get enough B vitamins and protein on a vegetarian diet, especially if one is vegan.

As someone who worked at Apple in the 1980s--I can tell you that Steve Jobs' strange eating habits were around a long time before any diagnosis. And pancreatic cancer isn't something that lurks quietly for 20 years before being found. So I disagree with your assessment.

"Steve Jobs was a genius when it came to Apple and Pixar and marketing but his thinking on food was off and he needed proper nutritional advice."

I completely agree with this statement. Problem is, Steve had a head like a rock and would never listen to a mere nutritionist.

Drink Soy Milk! Unfortunately, now that farmers have been enticed into the energy market through ethanol the price of soy products have escalated very much. Just as the price of food products, in general, have increased because our food source, CORN, is reverted into an energy source.

Think solar, wind and hydro, and drink soy.

Food scientists don't do much with nutrition, except for the ones who are artificially adding vitamins into water and putting the B-vitamins back into white bread.

Most food scientists deal with putting all those artificial chemicals into food that people such as you complain constantly about.

Almost all food scientists get their money directly or indirectly from one of the large agricultural corporations such as Cargill.

But, yes, Food Scientists do know the real science behind food. And they say all these things are fine for us to eat. And I believe them, as well, as they have nothing to personally gain from the process other than their paycheck.

Whereas, the people working in the "holistic" fields profit on the backs of the blind people who buy their non-scientifically-proven snake oil.

Science good. Faith medicine placebos bad.

You obviously know absolutely nothing about the education of Registered Dietitians! They are educated to base their advice to others on scientific findings. Now, if you follow reports of scientific findings, you know that studies tend to have different findings, so it is important to not jump on each new 'bandwagon' as it comes along. Not all studies are done properly, and even when they are, findings are not always valid, that's why it is important to take a long view over many studies (and also apply some common sense). Generally, if it sounds too good to be true, be very skeptical. But, RDs have a long and arduous path, most have Master's Degrees or more, and can give far more reliable information than you get from a random search of the internet. However, not all RDs are up on all aspects of nutrition. If you consult an RD who tells you that you cannot have a healthy vegetarian diet, you have not found the right RD.

It is true that as you cut down on the types of food you will eat, it does get harder and harder to have an adequate diet. By the time you restrict yourself to only apples and carrots, you are over the tipping point. As noted by others, once you refuse all animal products over an extended period, you really do have to worry about adequate protein and iron. And if you refuse all dairy, it is hard to get the necessary calcium. Simply eating vegetables contain lots of iron and calcium may not be sufficient. Often these minerals are bound to other compounds in the vegetables that make them unavailable......... they just pass through without being absorbed. So, if you are going to be a vegan, please study up with a good nutrition book, and unless you really know what you are doing, please do not be a vegan while pregnant and do not subject your children to this diet.

David,

Soy is actually an extremely dangerous little bean. It metabolizes as estrogen in the body, which is why breast cancer patients are told to avoid it at all costs if they have ER+ forms of BC. The fact that soy has been approved by the FDA means nothing, since you can go back and look at evidence from doctors all over the world, including Japan, who begged the FDA not to approve it.

If you're allergic to milk, almond milk, rice milk, and coconut milk are all options, but for love of Gatsby, PLEASE stop promoting soy as a safe alternative to dairy!

@GrIDisappearing, you are correct about the problems with soy. Soy is also bad for many who have thyroid disease, which I have. Soy products interfere with thyroid hormone production. For many years, soy was promoted for menopausal women to help with the symptoms of menopause; you don't hear any of that anymore, because many post-menopausal women had thyroid diseases and breast and other reproductive cancers, that the soy was actually contributing to. I actually was a vegetarian for almost 10 years and I ate lot's of products that are derived from textured soy-based vegetable proteins. I now have to read labels because food manufacturers put TVP in just about anything as a cheap filler and meat extender. I can only tolerate small quantities of it, so it has to be pretty far down the ingredient list. The only soy product I will buy and use, are soy candles; because they burn more cleanly than paraffin-based ones. I happen to be lactose-intolerant (happened within the past 5 years), but I take the lactase pills before consuming lactose-containing dairy (milk, cream, cottage cheese, ice cream, etc.) @mad2002mad, not all dairy has BGH and/or other hormones in it, the milk I buy states on the label that the suppliers do not use hormones. Read the labels, and choose from brands who's farmers don't use hormones or other additives; or buy organic. The negative backlash over the use of BGH's led to many, if not most, dairy's, stopping the use of them. I rarely see a product that actually doesn't state on the label "no BGH".

I am someone who has soy intolerance. I can't eat foods that use soy protein isolate as a protein source without experiencing food allergy symptoms. However, I can eat whole-soy foods without a reaction. But for me, the idea that soy protein is an ideal solution isn't true. I carefully read all labels, especially on high-protein bars. I even have trouble with whey protein isolate if I overdo it. Just keep in mind that there is no one-solution-fits-all when it comes to human nutrition.

sdtone,

LOVE STINKS!! eh, eh, eh!!

People in ketosis smell like acetone (imagine nail polish remover).

So, people on fasts and fad diets, especially ones that don't provide enough simple carbohydrates, will often smell absolutely repulsive.

When the Atkins diet started going "mainstream", I could always tell which customers were coming to my pharmacy counter for Keto-diastix by their smell - they didn't even have to ask.

sdtone

You may be correct in assuming that vegans who don't bathe sometimes occasionally do actually have a slight body odor. But it is nothing compared to a meat eater's body odor which is SO much worse. And as one of those who don't clog up their nasal passages from the consumption of dairy products, I tell you I can really smell the difference.

Steve Jobs was far from a saint - quite the opposite - people should stop beatifying him.

He refused to admit he fathered a child and forced the kid and her mother to live on welfare while he made millions upon millions.

He completely stopped all charitable giving at Apple, and he didn't give to charity on a personal level either.

He thought so little of his customers - the source of his millions - that he would tell millions of people they were wrong before he would consider that his product might have a defect.

He manipulated the organ transplant system to get at the top of the list for donation in a state in which he never lived, and managed to get a transplant while he was still healthy enough to work (when degree of sickness is one of the most important considerations in where you are on the list).

He also decided to not seek conventional medical care for his cancer, as he felt he was genius enough to cure himself. That, if anything, is what killed him in the end.

Thanks for your honesty. I'd also like to add that his ideas that people shouldn't own CDs or books anymore but should have to download or rent them instead from itunes, is absolutely ridiculous. Why should Apple be a clearinghouse for everyone? I want my friendly neighborhood book and music stores back.

Maybe he did eat just fruit for a while, but the article reports he changed to a vegan diet. One or two items is not healthy but a vegan diet certainly can be.

Corn is a grain, not a vegetable.

Culinarily, corn is a vegetable.

Biologically, corn is a fruit, just like all grains.

http://www.extension.org/pages/36971/please-settle-a-dispute-is-sweet-corn-a-vegetable-or-a-grain-what-is-the-difference-how-about-field-c

Wow, that's a trip! Thanks.