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The Steak That Tried to Cure Everything · Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson

• 0:04
  >> Dr. Terry Simpson: There was a time not long ago when
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  vegetables were accused of everything short of
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  witchcraft. They were blamed for arthritis,
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  brain fog and moral decay. And
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  the man leading that charge wore a white coat.
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  On, uh, today's Fork U, we're introducing you to Dr.
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  James Henry Salisbury, a Civil War
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  physician, amateur chemist, and the patron
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  saint of, uh, meat based diets.
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  I'm your Chief Medical Explanationist, Dr. Terry
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  Simpson. And this is Fork U
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  Fork University, where we bust myths,
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  explain medicine, and occasionally resurrect the
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  ghost of a doctor who thought toast and beef
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  patties were the path to human salvation.
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  Dr. James Henry Salisbury wasn't some fringe
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  quack. He was well educated, well
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  intentioned, man of medicine in the 19th century,
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  a time when microscopes were new, anesthesia
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  was optional, and science was often built
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  on bold certainty rather than pesky
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  evidence. During the Civil War, Salisbury
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  noticed a problem. Soldiers were
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  constantly sick. Diarrhea,
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  dysentery, fevers, and chronic gut issues
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  ran rampant through the ranks. More
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  soldiers died from illness than the
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  battlefield. His diagnosis? The
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  vegetables did it. To the delight of children
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  across the nation, Salisbury believed that starches
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  and plant matter rotted in the gut, created
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  internal decay and disease. And
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  so he set out to eliminate them
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  with a vengeance. Salisbury's solution was
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  simple minced beef shaped into a
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  patty, cooked thoroughly and eaten
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  three times a day. This, he believed, was the
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  most digestible and pure form of nourishment.
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  He paired this with hot water or boiled coffee. And
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  a little else. No fruit, no sugar,
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  no grains, and certainly
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  no vegetables. What he served was basically
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  a carnivore diet with battlefield flair. A
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  meal plan for the man who thinks ketchup is too spicy.
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  This meat patty would, of course, become the now legendary
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  Salisbury steak, a, uh, staple of TV dinners and
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  hospital trades for decades to come.
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  Now, here's where Dr. Salisbury did something rather
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  profound, albeit by accident. He
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  observed that when soldiers drank boiled coffee, their
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  symptoms often improved. He also noticed
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  fewer gut problems when they avoided raw produce.
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  But instead of discovering the germ theory, which was
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  still in its infancy, he blamed plants and
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  starches. What actually worked was the
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  boiling. Boiled coffee sterilized the
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  contaminated water. Cooked meat killed
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  waterborne pathogens. And he didn't cure
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  dysentery with beef. He cured it with
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  heat. But rather than realize this, he doubled
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  down and declared vegetables were the enemy of public health.
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  Again, to the absolute joy of school children
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  everywhere. Let's give credit where it's due.
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  Salisbury was observing patterns. He believed in diet
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  as a form of treatment, and he emphasized sanitation
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  long before it was popular. But like many
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  before and after him, he mistook correlation
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  for causation. And armed with the microscope and
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  moral certainty, he went to nutritional war.
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  He never discovered bacteria, never recognized
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  fiber, and never questioned why so many of his
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  patients were living in filthy conditions. In
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  short, he mistook the symptom for the sin
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  and prescribed salvation in a stake.
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  Though Salisbury himself eventually faded from
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  memory, his ideas live on. Sliced,
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  grilled and hashtagged. The Atkins diet,
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  the carnivore crowd, TikTok, uh, nutritionist eating
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  raw liver by the pound. They all echo his
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  distrust of, uh, plants, his glorification of meats,
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  and his overconfidence in a single
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  macronutrient salvation.
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  Salisbury thought he found the universal cure in a
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  beef patty. His modern followers think they've
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  evolved. They haven't. They've just added
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  branding and a ring light.
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  We know now that fiber is essential to gut health, that
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  vegetables reduce the risk of cancer, cardiovascular
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  disease, and cognitive decline, that high consumption
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  of red and processed meat is linked to colon cancer and
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  heart disease, and that diets based on
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  diversity, not dogma, uh, are
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  consistently the most effective. So if
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  you still think vegetables are poison and steak is the cure,
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  you're not on the cutting edge. You're just eating like
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  it's 1863 with none of the
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  context and all of the constipation.
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  This episode was written and researched by me, Dr.
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  Terry Simpson. More on this and other
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  dietary myths can be found on the blog associated with
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  this, uh, @yourdoctorsorders.com and
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  forcu.com and while I am
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  a board certified physician, I am not your
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  physician. If you're thinking about going full
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  carnivore or living off the Salisbury steak in
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  boiled water, please consult with your doctor
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  and your registered dietitian. Not a
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  chiropractor, not a Civil War reenactor,
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  and not some guy who grills spleens on Instagram.
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  All things audio and distribution were handled by my friends at
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  Simpler media and the pod God himself,
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  Mr. Evotera. Have a good week,
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  everybody.
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  Hey, Evo, do you think Salisbury would
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  have lasted a day on TikTok before getting roasted by the
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  vegan influencers?
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  >> Speaker B: I'm pretty sure that in the 1860s, anybody calling themselves
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  a vegan influencer would have been burned at the stake.
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  Lights. Uh, not the steak, the Salisbury steak, but the steak
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  that you put. You know what I mean? Yeah.