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Overthrowing dietary dogma
Chicago Libune ^ | 8-21-2005 | Jeremy Manier

Posted on 08/21/2005 4:23:52 PM PDT by satchmodog9

Americans can thank the legacy of Leon Trotsky for some of the most influential research on the addictive qualities of food.

It was Trotsky's great-granddaughter who helped make obesity a top priority of the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse. When Nora Volkow became director of the institute in 2003, it was far better known as the home of research on drug addicts, not junk food.

But Volkow's restless interests expanded in recent years from cocaine abuse to include the puzzle of why people overeat.

Intellectual upheaval is the birthright of Volkow, an intense, fast-talking scholar with weaknesses for decaffeinated Frappuccinos and long-distance running.

She was born and grew up in the house in Mexico City where her great-grandfather, the exiled Russian revolutionary, had been assassinated in 1940 with an ice pick. Volkow, 48, said her family's history helped shape her ambitions.

"It's a sense of doing something that can improve the quality of life for people," Volkow said. "Of course I admire [Trotsky], I think he was an incredibly visionary individual."

Volkow built her career using brain-imaging technology to study schizophrenics and later drug addicts at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York.

She helped cement the idea that drug addiction is a brain disease, and some people become addicts because their brains are vulnerable to the effects of drugs.

(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: addicts; diet; icepick; trotsky
While I agree with many of her assertions, I have to wonder why the relative of Trotsky was hired by our government. More globalism I guess.
1 posted on 08/21/2005 4:23:57 PM PDT by satchmodog9
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To: satchmodog9
Every American has the God given, inalienable right to get fat and die early.

Pass me another beer.

2 posted on 08/21/2005 4:27:28 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon (Recall Barbara Boxer)
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To: satchmodog9
Statement: "Intellectual upheaval is the birthright of Volkow, an intense, fast-talking scholar ......"

Translation:An hysteric with histrionic overlay.

3 posted on 08/21/2005 4:28:38 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: Jeff Gordon

I read her study and it told me what I already knew. I abuse pizza as a way to raise my Dopamine levels.


4 posted on 08/21/2005 4:31:13 PM PDT by satchmodog9 (Murder and weather are our only news)
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To: satchmodog9
Volkow, an intense, fast-talking scholar with weaknesses for decaffeinated Frappuccinos and long-distance running.

She sounds weight-obsessed and food-phobic. She probably thinks anyone who eats food, period, is obese...

5 posted on 08/21/2005 4:31:23 PM PDT by LibFreeOrDie (L'chaim!)
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To: satchmodog9
Trotsky was Joe Stalin's enemy, not necessarily our own.

Actually, Trotsky was further to the right than people like Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy and Mother Teresa.

6 posted on 08/21/2005 4:47:56 PM PDT by muawiyah (/ hey coach do I gotta' put in that "/sarcasm " thing again?)
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To: satchmodog9

I'm sick of these people who think everyone has a problem but themselves.


7 posted on 08/21/2005 4:49:46 PM PDT by tbird5
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To: muawiyah

He was still a communist and a revolutionary one at that.


8 posted on 08/21/2005 4:54:30 PM PDT by satchmodog9 (Murder and weather are our only news)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
Translation:An hysteric with histrionic overlay.

Nice shot.
9 posted on 08/21/2005 4:55:14 PM PDT by Riemann (Multiculturalism -- hate teach.)
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To: satchmodog9
Why does it not surprise me that Leon Trotsky's posterity ended up on a US government payroll..?

I wonder where Stalin' grandchildren work today.
10 posted on 08/21/2005 4:57:43 PM PDT by mmercier (die thou unheard, tears unshed)
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To: satchmodog9
There were a lot of commies. However, there were only so many Stalinists and they ended up being the most dangerous ones.

Trotsky simply wasn't a risk to the US, and his great granddaughter is not much of a risk either.

11 posted on 08/21/2005 4:58:35 PM PDT by muawiyah (/ hey coach do I gotta' put in that "/sarcasm " thing again?)
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To: mmercier

Sometimes I wonder if the conspiracy kooks are right and everything is connected.


12 posted on 08/21/2005 4:59:21 PM PDT by satchmodog9 (Murder and weather are our only news)
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To: AEMILIUS PAULUS
Statement: "Intellectual upheaval is the birthright of Volkow, an intense, fast-talking scholar ......" Translation:An hysteric with histrionic overlay.

Well here's what the fast-talking intense hystrionic hysteric looks like.

Interesting sidenote: This photo was taken from a website called Girls Can!.org, which proudly trumpets that it is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (i.e., your taxpayer dollars).

13 posted on 08/21/2005 5:11:58 PM PDT by shhrubbery! (The 'right to choose' = The right to choose death --for somebody else.)
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To: shhrubbery!

Her picture makes me want to devote my life to the study of physiognomy. There is a whiff of degeneracy there!


14 posted on 08/21/2005 5:48:43 PM PDT by AEMILIUS PAULUS (It is a shame that when these people give a riot)
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To: satchmodog9

"assassinated in 1940 with an ice pick"
Ice AX not ice pick.


15 posted on 08/21/2005 6:55:57 PM PDT by DUMBGRUNT (Sane, and have the papers to prove it!)
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