Written By: Nirmalya Dutta | Updated : April 22, 2015 3:33 PM IST
Steve Jobs was one-of-a-kind. There's no denying that whether it was marrying hippie-like freewill values with cutthroat capitalism or demanding an almost Zen-like capacity from his products, the ability to distort reality, brutally taking down people he considered incompetent or even going to the extent of asking interviewees whether they had dropped acid (LSD a hallucinatory drug) he was simply not like any other CEO or entrepreneur on this planet. For him, it was never about the money but the desire to create a legacy and a slew of products that would redefine different industries personal computers, music players, smartphones and even go to the extent of creating new ones like tablets.
With his biopic Jobs in theatres in the US, in which he's portrayed by Ashton Kutcher of Two and a Half Men fame(though he simply can't measure up to Charlie Sheen) and set to hit theatres in India this weekend (we don't know why it didn't) we look back at Steve Jobs' crazy dietary beliefs that he followed for the better part of his life and was greatly influenced by a book written by German author Arnold Ehret entitled The Mucusless Diet Healing System.
Ashton Kutcher followed the diet to get into the mood for the role and ended up in the emergency room for his efforts as his insulin levels fluctuated out of control. The actor lost 18 pounds to look the part of the thin Jobs and actually criticised the diet. '[The book] talked about the value of grape sugar and that was probably the only pure sugar you could have in your body,' Kutcher told reporters during a Jobs press conference in New York City. 'I think the guy who wrote that book was pretty misinformed. My insulin levels got pretty messed up and my pancreas kind of went into some crazy, the levels were really off and it was painful. I didn't know what was wrong.' (Read: Healthy Eating - the right way to lose weight)
For the better part of his life, Jobs was a strict vegetarian and wouldn't even consume dairy products or eggs (Read: Eggs - good or bad?), something that came in for strict criticism from his wife during his final battle with pancreatic cancer. For years, when he was young, Jobs adhered to fasts where for days he would just eat fruits or carrot salads. 'Even after he married and had children, he retained his dubious eating habits,' Walter Isaacson his official biographer wrote. 'He would spend weeks eating the same thing carrot salad with lemon, or just apples and then suddenly spurn that food and declare that he had stopped eating it. He would go on fasts, just as he did as a teenager, and he became sanctimonious as he lectured others at the table on the virtues of whatever eating regimen he was following.'
What is the Mucusless Diet?
Pioneered by Arnold Ehret who believed that the diet was best for healing, he believed that one's food should be free of mucus and albumin (the long-term benefits of the diet could never be personally verified as Ehret died after falling on a curb and hitting his head two weeks after writing the book in 1922). The basics of the diet are ingrained in Ehret's philosophy that every disease is caused by mucus-clogged systems that results due to the accumulation of unnatural and undigested foods and one could remain healthy if they could remove these obstructions. He stated the fruit was the perfect food and along with leafy vegetables was enough to sustain a human being healthily. He was also convinced that fasting was the key to maintain one's health and recommended starting his programme with a two or three day fast and also advocated longer fasts (up to forty days) once the body was used to fasting.
Food plan
A sample Mucusless Diet Plan would be something like fresh fruits in the morning, a vegetable broth, steamed vegetables and baked sweet potatoes for lunch, an afternoon snack of carrot juice and another salad for dinner!
The Pros of the diet
The diet is actually good in the short term for detoxing and is beneficial for people with digestive problems. It's also healthy, cuts out many bad foot items like red meat which are largely responsible for obesity and its related diseases. (Read: Antioxidants - facts you should know)
The Cons of the diet
The cons of the diet are obvious since the diet excludes lots of different nutrients especially proteins and fats. The most important one is protein, the absence of which causes excessive body weight loss since they're the building blocks of our muscles. The same goes for fats without which a person's hormone levels fluctuate and can harm brain function. There's also the problem that just eating fruits and vegetables won't give you enough calories which can result in conditions like osteoporosis, dehydration, heart ailments and even weakens the body's immune system. Dietician Shilpa Mittal agrees. 'The mucusless diet system which is based on only fruits and vegetables can in the long run result in deficiencies of essential nutrients like proteins, carbs and fats. Each nutrient has a different function and the lack of it can cause problems. Even though the person may be getting enough they're not getting enough carbs and fats. Also proteins are needed for the regeneration of new and the lack of it causes issues.
The final word
During Jobs' last years, his wife Laurene Powell was furious with him as she tried very hard to get him to eat a more variety of foods to help him cope better with the therapy he was undergoing and even considered consulting psychiatrists to help him deal with his eating habits but of course no one could talk a man as stubborn as him into doing anything. In conclusion, while the Mucusless diet might appeal to those with major health issues, it's wise to note that it's an extreme approach and should be tried (if it should be at all) for short durations. In the long term, it's sure to produce many health issues due to its nutritional deficiencies.
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