Caustic Commentary, Summer 2019

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Sally Fallon Morell takes on the Diet Dictocrats

DEADLY FUNGUS
While shrill warnings about measles consume media attention, a toxic fungus called Candida auris is spreading unheralded through hospitals, wreaking havoc in intensive care units and premie wards. After taking root in India, Pakistan and South Africa, the fungus has entered the U.S., reaching hospitals in New York, New Jersey and Illinois. C. auris is impervious to antifungal medications; once it invades an institutional setting, it is very difficult to remove. At risk are those with immature or compromised immune systems, such as a newborns, the elderly, smokers, diabetics and people with autoimmune disorders who take steroids to suppress the body’s defenses. The public knows little about C. auris, even though it is a threat much greater than measles, but it is impossible to find out which hospitals harbor the fungus. Hospitals are reluctant to disclose outbreaks for fear of losing customers, and the Centers for Disease Control, under its agreement with states, is not allowed to make public the location or name of hospitals involved in the outbreaks. As with antibiotics in animal agriculture, antifungal drugs called azoles are overused in crop production—including potatoes, beans, wheat, tomatoes and onions—causing resistant strains to evolve (The New York Times, May 6, 2019). Of course, WAPF-ers know how to protect themselves from deadly organisms with a vitamin-A-rich diet and plenty of fermented foods.

SALAD FROSTING
Kraft has repackaged its best-selling product, Ranch Dressing, as “salad frosting,” in order to sell even more of the stuff—oops, according to Kraft, the purpose is “to get kids to eat more greens.” In a promotional campaign, Kraft is asking parents to submit examples of “little white lies” that they tell their children, in order to get them to eat their salad (Washington Post, June 12, 2019). The campaign has drawn lots of criticism for encouraging parents to lie to their kids, but no one in the media is focusing on the truly horrible ingredients in Kraft Ranch Dressing: soybean oil, vinegar, sugar, salt, MSG, polysorbate 80 and artificial color. (Yes, ranch dressing does contain a small amount of egg yolk, shipped in huge tanker trucks—ever wonder why the industry keeps promoting egg white omelets?) The really huge lie is that “salad frosting” is good for kids!

WHO BEGS TO DIFFER
In the Spring issue, we reported on the EAT-Lancet report, which calls for imposing a plant-based diet on the world’s population in order to save the planet from destruction. But not everyone is convinced. The World Health Organization (WHO) has rescinded its endorsement because of concerns about the impact of such a diet on people’s health and livelihood. The WHO withdrew its planned sponsorship after Gian Lorenze Cornado, Italy’s ambassador and permanent representative of Italy to the international organizations in Geneva, questioned the scientific basis for the diet. Cornado warned that a global move to such a diet could lead to the loss of millions of jobs linked to animal husbandry and destroy the traditional diets that define the cultural heritage of the world’s population. He also noted that the EAT-Lancet “dietary regime” could be nutritionally deficient for human health. Unfortunately, this voice of reason has been largely ignored; a launch event on March 28 in Geneva, Switzerland, sponsored by the government of Norway (a country that never in its history consumed a plant-based diet) went ahead as planned (nutritioninsight.com, April 16, 2019.

THIS IS GETTING RIDICULOUS!
New rules in London ban ads for junk food in the city’s busses, the Tube and train networks, and a recent ad to get the axe is one featuring strawberries and cream to promote the Wimbledon tennis matches! Banned foods include breakfast cereals, yogurts, cakes, pizza, bread, sausages—and cream! The new transport policy is backed by Mayor Sadiq Khan and celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver. Said Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs, “This ban was sold to the public as a clampdown on junk food advertising. We can now see that it extends far beyond junk food and even includes non-food advertising” (dailymail.com, April 24, 2019). The new rules also stopped the grocery delivery service Farmdrop from advertising free-range butter, eggs and bacon.

JUNK FOOD AND WEIGHT GAIN
An intriguing study published in Cell Metabolism (May 16, 2019) indicates that eating ultra-processed foods actually drives people to overeat and gain weight compared with a diet of unprocessed foods. Conducted at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the study recruited twenty healthy, stable-weight adults—ten men and ten women—to live in an NIH facility for a four-week period and eat only the meals provided for them. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two diets for two-week stretches—one group eating a diet of minimally processed foods and the other eating ultra-processed food—such as chicken salad made with canned chicken, jarred mayonnaise and relish on white bread, served with canned peaches in heavy syrup. After two weeks, the groups then switched to the other diet plan. The two diets contained the same amount of calories, fats, protein, sugar, salt, carbohydrates and fiber. Both groups ate about the same amount of protein but those on the ultra-processed diet ate a lot more carbs and fat (processed fat), resulting in an average of five hundred eight calories more per day. On average, participants gained about two pounds during the two weeks of the processed-food diet and lost about two pounds on the unprocessed-food diet. The researchers tracked blood glucose and hormone levels, including levels of an appetite-suppressing hormone called PYY and a hunger-stimulating hormone called ghrelin. PYY went down on the processed-food diet and up on the unprocessed-food diet; the opposite occurred for ghrelin. The processed diet will of course be higher in industrial seed oils, refined sweeteners and artificial flavors like MSG—all known to stimulate increased food consumption and weight gain.

IT’S NOT WORKING
The measles vaccine is mandatory in China, where 99 percent of the population is vaccinated. Yet, China saw over seven hundred measles outbreaks from 2009 to 2012. The 2019 article, “Assessing measles vaccine failure in Tianjin, China,” published in the journal Vaccine, reports on substantial measles cases in Tianjin, China, among individuals who have received multiple measles vaccine doses. The authors suggest that those who receive the vaccine at eight months of age—the earliest possible time for giving the live-virus vaccine—“may have a reduced immune response” and that the vaccine effectiveness may be as low as 23.1 percent for one dose. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one dose of the MMR vaccine is about 93 percent effective.

AUTISM INCREASE
California’s draconian vaccination law, SB 277, went into effect in September 2016. The law removed religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccines, and many parents with young children who were behind on the vaccination schedule or had not started vaccinating yet were forced to catch up or no longer attend a public or private school. As a result, many children received lots of vaccines in a short period of time—sometimes as many as eight in one visit. During the period of December 2015 (pre-SB 277) to December 2017 (sixteen months after SB277 was enforced), the number of autistic three-year-olds in California special education courses increased 24 percent! The increase was 14 percent for four-year-olds, 13 percent for five-year-olds and 15 percent for eight-year-olds, according to computer searches via DataQuest. Mainstream media have reported on the increase, but dance around the question of why. “The increased prevalence of autism has been a medical mystery for years,” wrote Michael Finch II for The Sacramento Bee, citing “increased awareness” and “broadened medical definitions” as reasons for the increase (The Sacramento Bee, January 19, 2019). The Los Angeles Times papered over this appalling tragedy with the headline, “Here’s why the apparent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children” (April 26, 2018).

SHOCK AND AWE FOR CHILDREN
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a medical device for children ages seven to twelve with so-called attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)—a “disease” voted into existence by a show of hands by American Psychiatric Association members that often represents the spontaneous behavior of normal children. The device delivers an electric current to the brain with an electrode taped to the forehead. The device—which is supposed to work by increasing blood flow in certain areas of the brain and decrease it in others—has been tested on a mere sixty-two children for four weeks. The researchers observed a number of side effects including drowsiness, increase in appetite, trouble sleeping, teeth clenching, headache and fatigue. So instead of focusing on the true causes of disruptive behavior—poor nutrition, vaccine injury, drugs, toxic overload, abuse, boredom, bullying and stress—the FDA proposes the equivalent of shock treatments to vulnerable children (cchrstl.org, May 13, 2019).

SWEDEN BANS MANDATORY VACCINATIONS
While California and New York have eliminated religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccinations, claiming that “the science is settled” and that “vaccinations are perfectly safe,” the Swedish Riksdag (Parliament) has rejected motions that would have enshrined forced vaccinations into law. “It would violate our [Swedish Constitution] if we introduced compulsory vaccinations or mandatory vaccinations,” was the official statement. Noting also “massive resistance (by Swedes) to all forms of coercion with regard to vaccinations,” the Riksdag also made reference to “frequent serious adverse reactions” in children who receive vaccinations. The statement also made reference to “an extensive list of the additives found in vaccines—substances which are not health foods and certainly do not belong in babies or children” (dailyhealthpost.com, May 24, 2019).

VITAMIN K AND BLOOD PRESSURE
The Weston A. Price Foundation has been a leader in increasing public awareness about the importance of vitamin K2. This vitamin works synergistically with vitamins A and D to regulate calcium metabolism, support learning capacity, ensure fertility, protect against cancer and play a host of other roles in human metabolism. Now we learn that new study published by the American Heart Association has linked higher vitamin K2 status (as measured in the blood) with “greater pulse wave velocity. . .central pressure, forward pulse wave, and backward pulse wave”—in other words, less calcium in the arteries and better blood flow. Only vitamin K2, the animal form of vitamin K, provided the cardiac benefits. “Vitamin K1. . .had not been linked to cardiovascular benefit as K2 seems to be the form of K active outside of the liver for cardiovascular health” (J Am Heart Assoc. 2019 Apr 2;8(7):e01196). No, the vitamin K we need for cardiovascular protection comes from animal foods like poultry fat, poultry liver and aged cheese—the kinds of foods the cardiologists have been warning against for years.

NATURAL REMEDY
Pepe Casanas, age seventy-eight, of Havana, Cuba, has found an infallable way to treat his rheumatism pain: scorpion bites. Once a month for the last ten years, Casana traps a blue scorpion and lets it sting him. “I put the scorpion where I feel pain,” says Casanas. “It hurts for a while, but then it calms and goes, and I don’t have any more pain.” Here’s a folk remedy validated by science: scientists have confirmed that scorpion venom has anti-inflammatory and pain-relief effects. A Cuban pharmaceutical company sells a homeopathic pain remedy called Vidatox, made from scorpion venom, but Casanas takes a more direct route. He reports that he sometimes keeps a scorpion under his straw hat for luck, where he says it likes the shade and humidity (Reuters, December 14, 2018).

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