CAMBRIDGE—You wouldn’t think that sausages, Snickers and the Bible would be part of the same presentation, but to Dr. O, the modern diet is an affront to the human body; instead, Adam and Eve’s menu in Eden was a healthier example for us. Including the apple!

The presenter, Dr. Oluwole Olusola, or Dr. O, as he is affectionately called by friends and patients alike, is the Vice-President of the medical staff at the Eastern Shore Hospital Center in Cambridge. On Tuesday evening, he led the community seminar on health at Waugh Chapel in Cambridge.

Reverend Emanuel Johnson of the Waugh Chapel says the churches of Cambridge have joined in a partnership to build community. Already the vegetables in the Community Garden behind the chapel are witness to the effort to foster community spirit. Another was a recent forum discussion on Human Trafficking and the ramifications for Cambridge at the Dorchester Center for the Arts. The purpose of the third community initiative was the health of the individual and some thirty people attended, enjoying a very informative lecture on food and health.

Dr. O stressed that the current diet of fast food and hydrogenated oils are not what Adam and Eve were eating and in fact, are killing us. He lists the diseases of the generation as diabetes, heart attacks, obesity, cancer, arthritis, dementia, and hypertension. The cause, he charges, is what we eat. He decries the practice of feeding our children the same diet and making them fat and inactive. The American Society of Pediatrics has issued a shocking prediction: that many in the younger generation will not live as long as their parents, the first generation to be so threatened by a shortened life span. Dr. O says “Our kids are dying of diseases that killed their grandparents.” Painfully put, but a call to action.

Dr. O explained with diagrams the structure of a cell, how it is nourished, and what happens when you feed it toxic trans fats. Animated and amusing, the doctor engaged the listeners as he explained that hydrogenated oils are like plastic, changed by a chemical process of hydrogenization from normal to lethal, so that sausages, popular among his gasping audience, and the popular peanut butters can have the eternal shelf life of plastic. Those trans fats are found in almost everything, from bread to ice cream. Dr. O has a particular horror of Snickers, once a favorite of his, and now anathema (in the original sense of the word). Eating foods that contain those fats is like putting diesel fuel in a car manufactured for unleaded gas. Disaster.

Dr. O’s aim is to educate and change our tastes which have been corrupted. Instead of over-productive livers, the organ that overproduces cholesterol to patch up our damaged bodies, we could heal our bodies by eating what Adam and Eve ate—God’s original fast food, fresh fruit and vegetables.

The seminars are free, open to all, and will continue at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesdays at the Waugh Chapel on High Street.