Opinion

Much ado about bean

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-05-29 16:28

The price of green gram has risen almost threefold since last year to more than 20 yuan a kilogram. Among other things, a food therapist's promotion of the bean as having a miraculous effect on diseases such as cancer is said to have contributed to the hike in its price.

Almost all the prescriptions of food therapist Zhang Wuben reportedly include consumption of green gram, which is traditionally believed to detoxify a human system and help remove the accumulated heat from the body.

The popularity enjoyed by therapist Zhang is surprising. And though the number of his listed patients is so long that one has to wait until 2012 to get an appointment, some doctors and scientists have accused him of being a quack and swindler.

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Irrespective of Zhang's claim, it is impossible for green gram or, for that matter, any other thing to be a "miraculous cure" for cancer and other diseases.

This is not the first time that so many have come to blindly believe in something that could easily be proved a sham.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, hundred thousands of people across the country began practicing qigong in the false belief that it would ensure good health and long life. Several so-called qigong masters became so popular that they admitted disciples to their organizations for a fat fee.

Therapist Zhang has already made a fortune. One has to reportedly pay 2,000 yuan to get an appointment with him. His books, too, are selling well.

All this farce will not end unless people become sensible enough to face up to reality that there is nothing that can help keep a person healthy and young forever.