4A COTTAGE GROVE SENTINEL August 19, 2015
O PINION
CONTACT
YOUR ELECTED
OFFICIALS
Cottage Grove City Hall: 942-5501.
www.cottagegrove.org/
Cottage Grove Mayor Tom Munroe:
942-5501.
Cottage Grove City
Councilors:
Mike Fleck, At Large:
942-7302
Heather Murphy, At Large: 942-3444
Jake Boone, Ward 1:
653-7413
Jeff Gowing, Ward 2:
942-1900
Garland Burback, Ward 3:
942-4800
Lane County Commissioners:
Faye Stewart, East Lane Commissioner
Lane County Public Service Building
125 East 8th Street
Eugene, OR 97401
Phone: (541) 682-4203
Fax: (541) 682-4616
Offbeat Oregon History
Six Central Oregon
picnickers were only
victims of balloon bombs
BY FINN J.D. JOHN
For the Sentinel
O
ne sunny Saturday morning, a
few months before the Second
World War came to an end, the Rev. Ar-
chie Mitchell and his wife Elyse fi lled
their car up with children and headed
into the woods for a picnic lunch.
Archie was the pastor of the Chris-
tian and Missionary Alliance Church
in the town of Bly, a tiny town about
halfway between Klamath Falls and
Lakeview. The kids were the children
of friends and fellow church members.
The Mitchells’ own child was on the
way; Elyse was fi ve months pregnant.
It was May 5, 1945. The war was still
going on, and Americans were still dy-
ing on battlefi elds; but everyone knew
the end was coming soon. The Ger-
mans were on the brink of capitulation
(they would surrender two days later),
and the Japanese were holding out from
sheer stubbornness.
The early years of the war had been
fearful times for Oregonians who lived
along the coast, where the Japanese sub-
marine I-25 had busied itself remind-
ing West Coast residents that should
the war in the Pacifi c go poorly, they’d
be on the front lines. But that had been
1942. By now, even the Coast Guard
beach patrols had been discontinued in
most places. The Japanese were in no
position to consider invading Oregon,
and everyone knew it. They were too
busy trying to slow the torrent of B-
29s that was daily pouring megatons of
high explosives into their cities.
As for the Mitchells, living as they
did deep in the barely-populated heart
of Lake County 200 highway miles
from the nearest beach, it likely never
entered their mind that they might be
faced with enemy action. It certainly
wasn’t in their thoughts on that sunny
spring morning as Archie drove them
up into the hills to their picnic spot.
They were nearly there when Elyse
started feeling carsick. So she opted to
hike through the woods to their picnic
spot while Archie drove the car there,
following the meandering roadway.
The children — 12-year-old Sherman
Shoemaker and Jay Clifford; 13-year-
old Eddie Engen and Dick Patzke; and
11-year-old Joan Patzke — accompa-
nied Elyse.
“As I got out of my car to bring the
lunch, the others were not far away and
called to me they had found something
that looked like a balloon,” Mitchell
later told a UPI reporter.
It was 11-year-old Joan who’d spot-
ted it, that strange-looking white thing
lying on the ground nearby. The six of
them gathered around it, tugging at it,
trying to fi gure out what it was.
And then, of course — just as the
suspicious Archie was shouting to them
not to touch it — the peaceful spring
morning was transformed into a grisly
scene from a battlefi eld.
Archie ran to the scene. Everyone
was dead. Everyone had, it appeared,
died instantly.
As he frantically searched through
the mutilated little bodies looking for
some faint sign of life, a pair of For-
est Service rangers arrived; they’d been
close enough to hear the explosion and
had raced to the scene. They covered
the bodies and took Mitchell back to
Bly, leaving his car behind.
And they confi rmed Archie’s suspi-
cions: his family and friends’ children
had been killed by a balloon bomb.
Archie had heard rumors about bal-
loon bombs. He said those rumors had
been in his mind when he shouted to
his wife not to touch this one. The ru-
mors were that the Japanese had started
launching balloons made of paper from
Japan, with bombs dangling beneath,
to ride the high-elevation air currents
across the Pacifi c Ocean. When they
arrived over the U.S., they were sup-
posed to release their bombs and self-
destruct. Several of them had been
found, and several others had been
spotted self-destructing.
But there had been nothing but ru-
mors, because the U.S. government was
keen to keep the success of the balloon
bombing operation from the Japanese.
The enemy, they knew, didn’t really
know if the balloons were working. So
they kept all mention of the program
out of the newspapers.
By the time of the Bly explosion,
that silence had worked. The Japanese,
after months of monitoring West Coast
newspapers without hearing anything,
had given up the program.
But that silence had been a costly
one for the children of Bly.
The newspapers had to report some-
thing, so they simply announced that
the deaths had been due to an unknown
Please see OFFBEAT, Page 8A
Nuts: An important component of an anti-diabetes diet
BY JOEL FUHRMAN, MD
For the Sentinel
C
omplications from dia-
betes result from con-
stant elevations in blood glu-
cose, which
damage
the blood
vessels
and other
tissues.
Excess
glucose in
the blood-
s t r e a m
results in the formation of Ad-
vanced Glycation End Prod-
ucts (AGEs)—products formed
when sugars react with and con-
sequently damage proteins or
fats in the body’s tissues, espe-
cially the blood vessels. AGEs
are produced at an accelerated
rate in diabetes and contribute
to complications such as im-
paired wound healing, diabetic
nephropathy and atherosclero-
sis. In addition to the AGE pro-
duced in the body due to excess
glucose, some can also come
from the diet. Fried foods, meats
and dry cooked starchy foods
(roasted/fried potatoes, bread,
crackers, cookies, muffi ns and
other baked goods, cold cereals,
etc.) are high in AGEs.
In designing a diet for type 2
diabetics, we aim to limit after-
meal increases in blood glucose
and to avoid dangerous AGEs by
choosing major calorie sourc-
$ PUUBHF ( SPWF 4 FOUJOFM
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(USP 133880)
es with a low glycemic load
(GL)—foods that provoke rela-
tively small increases in blood
glucose. An important point
here is to choose high nutrient,
low GL foods, not just any low
GL food—this is where some
conventional diabetes diets fall
short. Meat is a low GL food,
but higher meat consumption is
associated with reduced lifespan
and increased risk of developing
type 2 diabetes; the diabetes risk
is likely due to weight gain and
AGE content. A diabetic diet
emphasizing meat sacrifi ces
long-term health for short-term
glycemic control. Whole grain
intake is indeed associated with
reduced risk of diabetes, prob-
ably due to fi ber content. A
low-fat vegan diet emphasizing
these foods in place of refi ned
carbohydrates has shown some
success with improving gly-
cemic control. However, these
diets tend to increase triglycer-
ide levels (a risk factor for heart
disease), and cooked grains and
starches are not ideal calorie
sources for diabetics because
they still have a signifi cant GL,
as you can see below:
White potato: 29
White rice: 23
Whole grain (brown rice): 18
Beans (black or kidney
beans): 7
Legumes (lentils): 5
Nuts (cashews): 3
Beans and nuts (and seeds)
are high in nutrients and low in
GL and are far more appropriate
than grains and meat as major
calorie sources for diabetics.
Beans and legumes are higher
in fi ber and resistant starch than
whole grains with a lower GL.
(To read more about why beans
are superior to other carbohy-
drate sources for diabetics, read
my book The End of Diabetes).
Regular consumption of nuts
and seeds has well documented
cardiovascular benefi ts, includ-
ing cholesterol lowering, anti-
oxidant activity, improved en-
dothelial function and reduced
risk of sudden cardiac death and
coronary heart disease.
In addition to reducing the risk
of cardiovascular disease, nuts
have a number of properties that
make them a favorable food for
diabetics. Nuts are a high-nutri-
ent source of plant protein, fi ber,
antioxidants, phytosterols and
minerals. Nuts provoke a mini-
mal glycemic response, which
helps to prevent post-meal hy-
perglycemia, hyperinsulinemia
and AGE production. They also
help to reduce the GL of an en-
tire meal—almonds have been
found to decrease glycemic and
insulin response of a carbohy-
drate-rich meal while reducing
oxidative stress. Nuts aid in
weight maintenance—impor-
tant since excess weight is the
primary risk factor for diabetes.
Despite their calorie density,
greater nut consumption is asso-
ciated with lower body weight,
potentially due to appetite-sup-
pression from healthy fats. Nuts
have anti-infl ammatory effects
that may help to prevent insulin
resistance.
In a recent study HbA1C, an
indicator of long term glyce-
mic control, was measured in
diabetics consuming either 2.5
ounces/day of mostly raw mixed
nuts or an equivalent number of
calories in a muffi n—a cooked
starchy food (the muffi n had the
same amount of fi ber and calo-
ries as the nuts). HbA1C levels
were lower in the nut group,
suggesting long term protec-
tion from hyperglycemia when
replacing carbohydrate foods
with nuts.
This new data cements the re-
sults of previous observational
studies that have found inverse
relationships between nut con-
sumption and diabetes. For ex-
ample, the Nurses’ Health Study
found a 27 percent reduced risk
of diabetes in nurses who ate
fi ve or more servings of nuts
per week. Among nurses who
already had diabetes, this same
quantity reduced the risk of
heart disease by 47 percent.
Nuts are an important part of
a diabetes-reversal diet, along
with green vegetables, beans
and low-sugar fruits. In a recent
study on type 2 diabetics follow-
ing this diet, we found that 90
percent of participants were able
to come off all diabetic medica-
tions, and the mean HbA1c after
one year was 5.8 percent, which
is in the non-diabetic (normal)
range. Nuts, seeds, beans and
vegetables not only keep glu-
cose levels in check but promote
long-term health as well.
In a study on type 2 diabetics
following the diet-style I out-
line in “The End of Diabetes,”
we found that 90 percent of
participants were able to come
off all diabetic medications, and
the mean HbA1c after one year
was 5.8 percent, which is in the
non-diabetic (normal) range.
All people with type 2 (and also
type 1) diabetes should read
this book. In the case of a type
two diabetic, they could resolve
their diabetes completely and
in the case of a type one, they
could reduce their insulin needs
by more than 50 percent, which
could prevent much suffering
and a premature death.
Dr. Fuhrman is a #1 New York
Times best-selling author and a
family physician specializing in
lifestyle and nutritional medi-
cine. Visit his informative web-
site at DrFuhrman.com. Submit
your questions and comments
about this column directly to
newsquestions@drfuhrman.
com. The full reference list
for this article can be found at
DrFuhrman.com.
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