The Truth About The Bruce Lee Diet

[SMK]

 

[Cognoscente]

One of the things that has been said about Bruce Lee's dietary habits is what drugs that he was putting into his body, not just for recreational purposes but medical. When I was reading the post-mortem documents, I noticed that there was a documented attempt by the medical staff to look for any indications of him having taken Spanish fly or Cantharidin. They wouldn't have done this if there was nothing in Bruce's history to suggest that he would ingest the drug e.g. both Jon Benn and Fred Weintraub talked about how flirtatious that he could be.


Cantharidin has been used since ancient times as an aphrodisiac, hence the Spanish fly rumours surrounding Bruce's demise. It also lends credence to the passage in the below South China Morning Post article...

At the time rumours were rife that Lee died while having sex and that his lower body showed compelling evidence of that, Wang recalled recently.

"So I paid the morgue beautician HK$1,500 to let me take pictures of Lee’s corpse. There was a big swelling on the left of his neck. When I tried to photograph further down, the woman shoved me aside and dragged me out of the morgue, saying that I would get her fired."


https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-entertainment/article/1896970/bruce-lee-world-exclusive-and-one-got-away-hong-kong


Recently, I've been perusing sites to find issues of The Covered-Ups. It's a semi-erotic magazine which contains advertisements for a drug that was known in English as The Royal Gold. Coincidentally, Bruce often spoke about taking Royal Jelly but perhaps this was code for the other stuff. Sort of like how Cheng Pei-Pei talked about Bruce smelling of incense (i.e. weed). The Royal Gold, as it were, consists of herbal balls that look like Maltesers (chocolate balls).


In the first advertisement that I've posted, the advertiser promises peace and tranquillity with no side effects. It's a herb to take if you want to recuperate or if you're feeling overworked. After the hash scare of May 10, it would make sense for Bruce to look for other means of calming down. From when he fatally took hash on May 10 to when he was given the clean bill of health in the States, there was enough time for himself to be addicted to these distinctly Chinese herbs. Think about it, he had more reasons to be anxious.


In the second advert that I've posted, the marketing team added more text to boost sales, and they changed the colour of the name so as to imbue a decidedly more amorous appeal (e.g. red lipstick, red hot babe). Speaking of colour and passion, they updated the third ad by glamourizing the herb with a golden glaze and suggesting that it would be beneficial to one's sex life ("the most effective tonic for men"). The advertising implies that the herb is a gift that a woman would go out of her way to give. It may seem strange to think that Bruce would be so gullible as to suffer fools gladly from marketing, but remember how Bob Wall relayed about Bruce pitching him the virtues of hash by showing him an article from the September 1972 issue of Playboy.


In the fourth ad, more medicinal qualities are listed - it helps those with back pain, and it reduces insomnia. We don't hear too many stories of Bruce not being able to sleep post-collapse. One of the Chinese characters on the ad means "birth" since they wanted to promote it as a romantic's drug and not just a lothario's one. The marketers have even gone out of their way to say that the drug is police-approved.


In the fifth and final ad that I've posted, the advertisers have used an older gentleman so as to guarantee that it is not just a young man's drug...that there is a guarantee for longevity of life. In Chapter Ten of Alex Ben Block's biography, it's revealed that Bruce told his elder brother and mother that he wanted to live to be a hundred. This differed from what Bruce told Linda about how he didn't want to grow old because the idea of losing what he strove so hard to attain was too much to bear.


Bruce Lee's diet gives food for thought.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Cognoscente