Jewish Book & Arts Festival: Spotlight on Houston authors at Local Literati
At this point, we know for certain that obesity is a risk factor for many types of cancer.
“Why do obesity and cancer tend to show up together? My conclusion is that the underlying story is elevated insulin, which is causing both obesity and the underlying cancer,” Sam Apple told the JHV.
Apple is not a research scientist. He’s a science writer. Sam Apple is the Faculty Program coordinator of the Master of Arts in Science Writing program at Johns Hopkins University.
Apple is the author of “Ravenous” (Liveright), a book that combines science, history and storytelling. His book tells three interrelated stories. One is about Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Otto Warburg, an openly gay Jew whose research on how cells extract energy from food initially was considered groundbreaking, then ignored and then rediscovered.
A second narrative is about the history of cancer research over three different centuries. A third storyline explores one particular hypothesis, which Apple endorses: Most cancers are linked to diet and obesity.
Apple will be one of the keynote speakers at Local Literati on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m.
Local Literati features Houston authors who will present their most recent books, followed by a reception and book-signing. The in-person-only program is part of the Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival.
All attendees must wear masks.
Apple grew up in Houston, the son of Max Apple, who taught Creative Writing at Rice for 29 years. Sam attended Beth Yeshurun Day School and became a Bar Mitzvah at United Orthodox Synagogues.
“Even though I’ve made the case against sugar, I have a warm place in my heart for Three Brothers Bakery,” he told the JHV.
When Apple’s wife became pregnant with their son Isaac, he became curious about parenting practices “hoping to find order in the chaos that new parents face in the months before and after the birth of a child.”
Although he didn’t find the order he sought, the search resulted in a book, “American Parent: My Strange and Surprising Adventures in Modern Babyland.”
“Once you produce a science writing book, you can go to other book editors and they will listen to your proposals. About that time, I became interested in cellular metabolism. Science journalist Gary Taubes, author of ‘The Case Against Sugar,’ influenced me,” said Apple.
A good science writer is able to capture why science is important and relevant to our lives. They must be able to communicate complicated conceptions, finding the sweet spot between being simple and scientifically accurate. They must be able to find the story in science.
Apple writes that the question is not whether too much insulin explains our modern epidemic of cancer but whether it is the crucial factor we have long overlooked – the missing piece of the puzzle that best explains why prevention efforts continue to fail.
“The larger question is why cancer used to be rare and is now very common. I write that diet has long been suspected, but it’s so hard to figure out why.
“In 1980, Dahl and Pieto published a paper that concluded diet might be responsible for as much as 70% of all cancer. Their findings caused me to change my eating habits. I had already started to cut carbs, especially refined carbs like sugar. I’m not as strict as some people. It’s hard to give up sugar.
“I grew up keeping kosher in Houston, so I was used to not eating foods that looked good.”
In his book, Apple writes that many of the Nazi leaders were strangely focused on diet and cancer. And, that Dachau was the location of a 200-acre organic farm, spice mill and apiary.
Prior to the Nazi takeover in 1933, cancer had became a common disease in the West. Germans were leading the world in science research but not making progress in conquering cancer.
“I learned from Robert Procter’s ‘Nazi War on Cancer’ that everything in the Nazi mind was about impurities. They associated Jews with cancer and other impurities.
Himmler’s initiative at Dachau came out of his interest in eliminating impurities. It sounds somewhat similar to the ideas about whole foods today. What is striking is the Nazis combined this pursuit of healthy living with the killing of prisoners in the concentration camp.”
Although Otto Warburg was hated as a Jew and a member of the Warburg banking family, the Nazis tolerated him and built a new lab for Warburg to continue with his research when the Allies bombed his Berlin lab.
For his part, Warburg applied to be legally cleansed of his Jewish blood.
“He was never officially cleansed, but did apply for a German blood certificate. You could apply to have your status officially changed.
“Warburg was born a half-Jew; that is, someone who had two or one Jewish grandparent. Warburg had two and was applying to have only one grandparent declared as Jewish. Others in his situation were applying to upgrade their status as Germany became more Aryanized. I could never find any official record that his status was finally changed.”
Although Warburg did not live long enough to see the most convincing evidence linking sugar to metabolic diseases, he was aware of the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and its connection to cancer.
Two-thirds of American adults are now overweight or obese. More than 115 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Apple points out that for all the thousands of studies and billions of dollars spent on research, there is no agreement among the experts on why Americans have grown so much more fat and sick over the past several decades or what we should do about it.
Local Literati lineup on Nov. 7, beginning at 11 a.m.
Congregation Emanu El Senior Rabbi Oren Hayon will be co-keynote speaker at Local Literati. Rabbi Hayon is editor of “Inscribed: Encounters with the Ten Commandments.” Co-keynote Sam Apple is the author of “Ravenous.”
Other Houston authors scheduled to appear include:
Kevin Eisenbaum, “Zark”
Judith Finkel, “An Unkosher Death”
Steve Friedman, “The Corporate Introvert”
Barry Jagoda, “Journeys with Jimmy Carter and Other Adventures in Media”
Melonie Promecene, “Grit & Magic”
Rona Rose Train, “The Miracle Known as Ed Levine”
Cantor Vadim Tunitsky, “Max’s Morning Adventures
Sam Young, “Four Play”
“Why do obesity and cancer tend to show up together? My conclusion is that the underlying story is elevated insulin, which is causing both obesity and the underlying cancer,” Sam Apple told the JHV.
Apple is not a research scientist. He’s a science writer. Sam Apple is the Faculty Program coordinator of the Master of Arts in Science Writing program at Johns Hopkins University.
Apple is the author of “Ravenous” (Liveright), a book that combines science, history and storytelling. His book tells three interrelated stories. One is about Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Otto Warburg, an openly gay Jew whose research on how cells extract energy from food initially was considered groundbreaking, then ignored and then rediscovered.
A second narrative is about the history of cancer research over three different centuries. A third storyline explores one particular hypothesis, which Apple endorses: Most cancers are linked to diet and obesity.
Apple will be one of the keynote speakers at Local Literati on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m.
Local Literati features Houston authors who will present their most recent books, followed by a reception and book-signing. The in-person-only program is part of the Ann and Stephen Kaufman Jewish Book & Arts Festival.
All attendees must wear masks.
Apple grew up in Houston, the son of Max Apple, who taught Creative Writing at Rice for 29 years. Sam attended Beth Yeshurun Day School and became a Bar Mitzvah at United Orthodox Synagogues.
“Even though I’ve made the case against sugar, I have a warm place in my heart for Three Brothers Bakery,” he told the JHV.
When Apple’s wife became pregnant with their son Isaac, he became curious about parenting practices “hoping to find order in the chaos that new parents face in the months before and after the birth of a child.”
Although he didn’t find the order he sought, the search resulted in a book, “American Parent: My Strange and Surprising Adventures in Modern Babyland.”
“Once you produce a science writing book, you can go to other book editors and they will listen to your proposals. About that time, I became interested in cellular metabolism. Science journalist Gary Taubes, author of ‘The Case Against Sugar,’ influenced me,” said Apple.
A good science writer is able to capture why science is important and relevant to our lives. They must be able to communicate complicated conceptions, finding the sweet spot between being simple and scientifically accurate. They must be able to find the story in science.
Apple writes that the question is not whether too much insulin explains our modern epidemic of cancer but whether it is the crucial factor we have long overlooked – the missing piece of the puzzle that best explains why prevention efforts continue to fail.
“The larger question is why cancer used to be rare and is now very common. I write that diet has long been suspected, but it’s so hard to figure out why.
“In 1980, Dahl and Pieto published a paper that concluded diet might be responsible for as much as 70% of all cancer. Their findings caused me to change my eating habits. I had already started to cut carbs, especially refined carbs like sugar. I’m not as strict as some people. It’s hard to give up sugar.
“I grew up keeping kosher in Houston, so I was used to not eating foods that looked good.”
In his book, Apple writes that many of the Nazi leaders were strangely focused on diet and cancer. And, that Dachau was the location of a 200-acre organic farm, spice mill and apiary.
Prior to the Nazi takeover in 1933, cancer had became a common disease in the West. Germans were leading the world in science research but not making progress in conquering cancer.
“I learned from Robert Procter’s ‘Nazi War on Cancer’ that everything in the Nazi mind was about impurities. They associated Jews with cancer and other impurities.
Himmler’s initiative at Dachau came out of his interest in eliminating impurities. It sounds somewhat similar to the ideas about whole foods today. What is striking is the Nazis combined this pursuit of healthy living with the killing of prisoners in the concentration camp.”
Although Otto Warburg was hated as a Jew and a member of the Warburg banking family, the Nazis tolerated him and built a new lab for Warburg to continue with his research when the Allies bombed his Berlin lab.
For his part, Warburg applied to be legally cleansed of his Jewish blood.
“He was never officially cleansed, but did apply for a German blood certificate. You could apply to have your status officially changed.
“Warburg was born a half-Jew; that is, someone who had two or one Jewish grandparent. Warburg had two and was applying to have only one grandparent declared as Jewish. Others in his situation were applying to upgrade their status as Germany became more Aryanized. I could never find any official record that his status was finally changed.”
Although Warburg did not live long enough to see the most convincing evidence linking sugar to metabolic diseases, he was aware of the obesity epidemic in the U.S. and its connection to cancer.
Two-thirds of American adults are now overweight or obese. More than 115 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes. Apple points out that for all the thousands of studies and billions of dollars spent on research, there is no agreement among the experts on why Americans have grown so much more fat and sick over the past several decades or what we should do about it.
Local Literati lineup on Nov. 7, beginning at 11 a.m.
Congregation Emanu El Senior Rabbi Oren Hayon will be co-keynote speaker at Local Literati. Rabbi Hayon is editor of “Inscribed: Encounters with the Ten Commandments.” Co-keynote Sam Apple is the author of “Ravenous.”
Other Houston authors scheduled to appear include:
Kevin Eisenbaum, “Zark”
Judith Finkel, “An Unkosher Death”
Steve Friedman, “The Corporate Introvert”
Barry Jagoda, “Journeys with Jimmy Carter and Other Adventures in Media”
Melonie Promecene, “Grit & Magic”
Rona Rose Train, “The Miracle Known as Ed Levine”
Cantor Vadim Tunitsky, “Max’s Morning Adventures
Sam Young, “Four Play”