Letters, Fall 2023

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THE HEALING POWER OF SAUERKRAUT

For those who weren’t aware of the healing power of fermented vegetables, in this case sauerkraut, this story may be a surprise. I’ve learned that one tablespoon of organic sauerkraut has more probiotics in it than an entire jar of probiotics bought at a health food store.

I’ve been a member of Weston A. Price since I first heard about the Wise Traditions diet in Detroit in 2000. These ideas were stunning to someone who had no idea that her diet was contribut­ing to her asthma and eczema, and like most newcomers to the WAPF family, I spent the next several years improving my health.

During that time, I told friends and family what I was learning, especially after I started working with our local organic farmers on issues like raw milk. As with most people who first hear our ideas, my family rolled their eyes and ignored me. Several years later, my nephew Dale, in his forties, had a very bad experience with diverticulitis. This devastating condition is likely caused by bad eating habits and stress. Diver­ticulitis seems an enigma to allopathic doctors, whose main solution seems to be removal of the colon, little by little, which affects our immunity and absorption. This irreversible path is not the only option for many sufferers.

When Dale called me from the hospital to tell me what the doctors wanted to do, I convinced him to wait until I could drive from Michigan to Tennessee with organic cabbages and organic whey made from raw milk. My friends had warned me that he would probably think my recommendations for a cure were a “Mary Poppins-style fantasy,” one that only someone hav­ing just dropped from the sky with her umbrella would offer. But if my nephew felt that way, my guess is that his fear far outweighed his skepticism.

In Tennessee, we bought a food processor, many quart-sized mason jars, a meat pounder, and I demonstrat­ed how to make sauerkraut, which is so easy. Thirteen and one-half quarts later, Dale had his antidote: one tablespoon of sauerkraut in the morning, and one tablespoon of sauerkraut in the evening, which is the usual suggestion.

Here’s Dale’s story from his per­spective:

When I was forty-two years old, I had some unusual lower abdominal pain, which I thought was a pulled muscle from racquetball, so I ignored it. Four or five days later, a sharp intol­erable pain sent me directly to the ER, where the diagnosis was a ruptured colon from diverticulitis: the colon had burst from the diverticulii, and had spread nasty bowel and intestinal fluids and toxins into my abdominal cavity, which is life-threatening.

“For five days, the doctors had me lie on my left side with a drain tube through my left hip that went into my abdominal cavity on one end and into a container on the floor on the other end where the poisons from my body drained. If I moved too much, I could become septic and I could die, even though I was on tranquilizers to remain calm and taking antibiotics for infec­tion. The doctors told me that I had a fifty-fifty chance of leaving the hospital.

“A further plan for me later was the doctors’ intention to remove twelve to fourteen inches of my colon, after I’d healed enough. During that opera­tion they would give me a temporary colostomy bag, waiting to see whether the operation went well. If it did not, I would have another operation to remove all of my colon and the colostomy bag would become permanent. I was forty-two!

“About two months after my initial hospitalization, I was scheduled for a doctor’s visit which I assumed was a follow-up. Imagine my surprise when the doctor wasn’t a gastroenterolo­gist, but a surgeon who’d already scheduled surgery to start remov­ing my colon and who refused to hear that I was not in agreement. I told the doctor that I was heal­ing very nicely with sauerkraut, which he informed me would kill me in short order. I asked for time to think about it and left his office, never to go back.

“A diagnosis such as I’d received completely focuses your thinking. So on the fifth day in the hospital, I called my aunt Heidi for help. I’d known that she was involved with organic health and healing groups and I prayed she could help me. Little did I know just how much or how easily.

“Heidi arrived shortly after my hospital discharge and we made our first batch of sauerkraut. At that time, I thought one tablespoon of kraut seemed totally inadequate so I ate a bowlful morning and night until I felt healed enough and then dropped to a tablespoon morning and night. That was probably after two months.

“Determined to heal myself quick­ly, I quit eating conventional beef, which I’d read was hard on your intes­tines, and started eating organic food. At the same time, I found an organic raw milk dairy, began drinking raw milk and started making my own whey plus more batches of sauerkraut. Be­cause my knowledge of healthy eating was so inadequate, I started reading Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, Fire Your Doctor by Andrew Saul, A Prescription for Nutritional Healing by Balch and issues of the Wise Traditions journal.

“I’d also realized that the develop­ment of diverticulitis was exacerbated by the terrible stress of working for a corporation that had unrealistic and abusive expectations of their workers, so I changed jobs. The absence of stress was such a relief both for me but also for my family, as was the amazing healing of my body.

“In the years since, I’ve real­ized that developing life-threatening conditions such as diverticulitis is totally within our control by the food and lifestyle choices we make, and furthermore, if we slide back into our old habits, these conditions can reoccur because our bodies now have that ten­dency. I’ve also talked to several friends who have had health issues and shared my experience with sauerkraut, which in turn has helped them. My aunt and I hope that our stories can help others who may be unaware of healthy solutions. No matter how strange this sounds, it ac­tually works and didn’t involve removing body parts.”

Heidi and Dale Allen
Milford, Michigan

FROM SENOMYX TO A BETTER WORLD

Thank you for your Caustic Commentary on Senomyx (Sum­mer 2023). According to the “al­ways” accurate Wikipedia, “Senomyx patented several flavor enhancers. . . which have been previously expressed in human cell culture, in HEK293 cells.”

HEK293, Wiki says, is “Human embryonic kidney 293 cells. . . derived from a spontaneously miscarried or aborted fetus or human embryonic kidney cells grown in tissue culture taken from a female fetus in 1973.”

Why would our “trusted” food providers put something like this in food? Good question!

Behind the “what’s in our food” and “how to eat better,” the question is, why are we being attacked? Why has our health system been turned into such a harmful monstrosity? Why are our children being “educated” in such an absurd manner? Why can’t we trust the “news” to bring us truth?

Why is our world going so crazy? Are our “authorities” there for our own benefit? If not, then what is their agenda?

Difficult questions. Difficult an­swers. While not developing severe anxiety about it all, we can still calmly face what’s happening in our world. In my research into where we’ve been, how we got to here, and where it’s all headed, I’ve seen horrid insights but also heartening solutions, solutions that are actually of the order of magnitude needed to matter.

When an intensely divisive, manip­ulative, deceptive, controlling, corrupt system that’s been in place for so long finally meets its match, sparks might fly. For what it’s worth, I see calmer seas ahead of us and a lot of work to build a better world.

Janice McLain
Colorado Springs, Colorado

LIVESTOCK VACCINES

Thank you for your article in the Summer 2023 issue on livestock vac­cines. The distinction between antibiot­ics and vaccines is accurate. However, the toxins in the preservatives and boosters in vaccines are much more worrisome than the antibiotics in the food that we eat—yet antibiotics are barred and vaccines are allowed in organic production.

I understand that mRNA geneti­cally engineered vaccine material is or will be used on animals including livestock, which is a huge concern now that we know just some of the serious side effects of these. And, since we also now know that vaccines largely just reduce symptoms rather than prevent transmission, it would be much more consistent with the organic model to bar vaccinated animals from organic labeling, while encouraging improved diet, exercise and natural remedies consistent with organic farming. I am a certified organic farmer and have been for years. I have livestock, but do not sell the animals or animal products. Thank you for discussing this important topic.

Kristina A. Boudreaux
Sebastopol, California

REPORT FROM NEW ZEALAND

I want to let you know where my family and I are after the December 2019 raids on raw milk farms in New Zealand. Eight cars, Ministry of Pri­mary Industry (MPI), Serious Fraud Squad and our local police charged up our drive at nine in the morning.

It was the most gruelling day of our lives. They sure were intimidating, but we stood strong in that we had not broken any law. In our house, the only true law is God’s Law. “They” have achieved their objective of removing so many sources of real food from so many good people.

We have been avoiding regular mail communications for a very good reason. We have battened down the hatches and trusted no one until this battle was over.

We were originally charged with the selling of raw milk, but as all of our donations were donations to a charitable trust, they couldn’t make that charge stick. Instead they came back at me for “promoting an unsafe food item.”

The irony of the situation was we had seen the writing on the wall, and had gone from supplying raw milk only to charity members to supplying the bulk milk company. On the day of the raid, when one of our sons at the shed was questioned as to what we do with our milk, he strung them along. “Well,” he said, “the cows come in full and ever eager to donate their milk, and return to a paddock of lovely grass to repeat the exercise morning and night. The milk goes into the big vat and then in the night, this big tanker lit up like a Christmas tree comes and takes the milk off to the treatment station, and each month we get a goodly payment into our bank account.” To say the guy from MPI was annoyed was putting it politely.

Months later, in December of 2022, we finally got through the many court hearings, the comings and goings with lawyers, all interrupted by our lockdowns, to have me finally found guilty of the charge. The ensuing fine is minimal in light of the possible fine I could’ve received. In my defence I gave my life history of half a century of teaching new breastfeeding mothers, on to mothers as their children grew up, and adults themselves, all along the lines of health not through supplements, but from a diet of traditional tried and tested eating habits. My Maori judge would’ve been a true hypocrite if she had fined me heavily, as everything I wrote in my affadavit is exactly what the Maori cry out for in their people needing to return to the eating ways of their ancestors.

They wouldn’t let me spread the payment out over ten years, I don’t think they believed I was good for that long, so I have five years of deductions from my pension. The biggest loss is all of our lovely friends who partook of the beau­tiful raw milk. We are hearing stories of how they and their families are not coping healthwise with the removal of it from their diet. There are a few farms who have braved the legalities and registered into the government control system, but only to drop out over the cost of the system.

In the early days of our struggles I contemplated getting a T-shirt printed RMF, for either “raw milk fan” or for me “raw milk felon”!

My sincere thanks for all the good work that WAPF formulates; the jour­nals are amazing.

Alison Ellett
WAPF Auckland

WHAT MAKES US SICK?

A cousin of mine read the article “What Makes Us Sick?” (Spring 2023), which dismisses viruses as a cause of disease, and sent me this comment: “But we have found the DNA and RNA of many viruses (including SARS-Co-V-2) and can see that their genetic code correlates with the symp­toms that we observe and a specific kind of protein capsids that the virus uses to package itself.

“The genetics of the virus are of­ten used as a more useful proxy of the virus because it’s easier to work with. We know how to replicate or amplify DNA or RNA and then sequence it. It turns out this is easier than trying to isolate specific viruses in their capsids and then trying to isolate the genetics.

“We also have studied our cells enough to know that we have built-in responses to certain strands of RNA and DNA. This is part of our innate immune response. If our cells detect a certain strand of genetics inside them, they start the process of apoptosis (cell death). When a virus is not detected by the innate immune system our body can still detect foreign proteins in the debris field from viruses taking over cells and reproducing until the cell pops. Our immune system can learn to produce antibodies, which are protein molecules specifically coded to bind to certain other specific proteins and mark it for destruction by the immune system’s autophagy response.

“You don’t have to believe me, but at least question this article as much as you want to question me and what I said. Honestly this is a terrible article that appeals to the scientific process and then ignores any actual knowledge from the field of molecular biology.”

Anonymous

Tom Cowan replies: This thinking is straight out of standard virology textbooks and doesn’t even attempt to address the issues I brought up in the article. This is typically how these ex­changes go, there is no mention of the actual issues brought up

Virology rests on five sequential premises, each of which has been proven false, but if he has the references that dispute this, I am happy to review them and change my opinion. Here are the principles and what I am request­ing:

1. The assumption that diseases are contagious. We have shown many studies showing that sick people don’t make well people sick. Please send us a proper study with appro­priate methodology that shows that sick people can make well people sick when exposed in normal ways.

2. Viruses, before electron micros­copy, were called filterable agents. Please provide a single study showing that the filtrate from a sick person, the part that contains the virus, when exposed to well people or to animals, causes the identical illness. As far as we can tell, no such study exists.

Given these first two facts, there is no point in the further investigation into virology; however the virologists press on, so the next principles are:

3. “Isolation” means to separate one thing from all other things. Please provide a study in which a so-called virus was isolated from any sick person or animal, which includes a photograph of the pure virus. No such study exists meaning no virus has ever been purified and isolated, which by definition means that no component of such an entity (DNA or RNA) could possibly be said to be coming from this particle. Neither could there be any “immune re­sponse” against this particle, which has never even been shown to exist or to be seen in pure form.

4. Given that no particle that fits the definition of a virus has ever been found, how do we know the electron microscope photos of cellular debris represent these viruses? Many studies were presented proving that all such photos are not viruses but cellular debris. Please show us one study proving that any electron microscope photo is actually a pathogenic virus.

5. Given the fact that no virus has ever been isolated or purified, how can we possibly know the origin of the DNA/RNA in the debris? The fact is, all such DNA/RNA has been shown to be cellular or microbial in origin. Please provide a study showing the DNA/RNA was extracted from a purified particle, so by logic and reason we can know its origin.

The truth is there will be no response, for the simple reason that none of the above studies exist and the “science” of virology is a fraud.

KEN HARDY

I am writing on behalf of my hus­band and me. We lived in Nevada for a number of years and Ken Hardy was our chapter leader there. I am writing this in memory of him.

Ken was a friend, teacher, men­tor and resource. We are stunned and heartbroken about his passing. We still cannot believe he is gone. I feel rather lost, because I cannot imagine not being able to contact him and pick his brain. I just cannot process it.

Fourteen years ago, I read a book that greatly affected my life and set me on this journey of learning real medicine, nutrition and wellness. I also had to unlearn a lot of things and that is even harder because I am a nurse and entrenched in allopathic medicine for so many years. Right after reading this book, I discovered the Weston A. Price Foundation. Ken and Rosemary were the chapter leaders in our area. I called and left a message and when Ken called me back, we spoke for an hour. I was so voracious for information and Ken loves to teach. We hit it off right away, and then Steve and I met him in person shortly after and we have all been friends ever since. Ken was a lifetime learner. He was so incredibly generous with his knowledge and infor­mation. He was also tireless in doing all he could to provide good food, healthy natural medicine resources and so many other things. He represented WAPF and its values so well. He truly lived it.

While Ken could be quite intense, because he was so passionate about waking people up, he also had a great sense of humor. I cannot count how many times over the years we have laughed out loud at some of the emails and videos he would send. He par­ticularly had a heart for helping single moms and their kids find healthy food.

They say when a person passes, an entire library of knowledge, wisdom and information is lost. That is particu­larly true where Ken is concerned. He was one of the most intelligent and well-read people I have ever met. We are so incredibly grateful to have known him for so long. It has been a privilege. We truly feel that the Lord led us to Ken and we hope we were a blessing to him, as he sure was to us.

Steve and Julie Martin
Kalispell, Montana

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