usual suspect wrote:

> Orthorexic John Coleman wrote:
>

>> Tell us why you don't think crummy diets contribute to the common cold.
>
>
> Your claim wasn't about generically "crummy" diets. People who eat junk
> foods are acquire illnesses, no doubt. So do people who eat healthful
> diets. I know people who eat meat and consume dairy and wheat --
> so-called mucus-forming foods according to you and Ehret -- but who are
> seldom if ever ill. I know raw vegans who are always suffering from
> something, including occasional bouts of food poisoning. Your thesis is
> ****ed by science and by anecdotes.

My diet varies but little. I eat meat in moderation,
very little dairy, starches, vegetables, and some
(probably not enough) fruit. I drink lots of coffee,
some beer and wine, the very rare soda. Some years I
get several colds; other years I don't get any. In the
early 1990s I got enough colds that a then-girlfriend
thought I was basically "sickly" (despite getting on my
bicycle and riding in and finishing the Solvang Century
with no training whatever.) From 1996 up to about 2000
I think I had maybe one cold. I have no idea what
caused the difference, except that I ditched that toxic
girlfriend.

A diet that is unbalanced and doesn't provide what are
recognized to be important, if not essential, nutrients
will probably make one more susceptible to colds; that
doesn't mean it "causes" colds.