DISTRESSED
I was distressed to receive the press release from the Weston Price organization (westonaprice.org/press/studies-show-that-vaccinated-individuals-spread-disease/). I recently joined, as I think it is a valuable voice in the advocacy for a traditional, nonprocessed food diet—this despite some of the articles and assertions on your site appearing to be only loosely related to scientific evidence.
In this time of polarization and high emotions surrounding the issue of vaccinations, to publish a piece titled “Studies Show that Vaccinated Individuals Spread Disease” only serves to further the impression that the Foundation is a “fringe” organization, despite any more balanced opinions within the article itself.
Please consider carefully your press releases and articles, so as not to undermine the very good work you are doing to educate people about maximizing health.
Julie Kern, MS,OTR
New York, New York
I AM AN ANTI-VAXER
I am an “anti-vaxer.”
I wish my child had lived long enough to get measles, but sadly she died a few hours after receiving a vaccine. At a routine “well baby” appointment, she had her first shots. I had no idea adverse reactions were even possible. I trusted my doctor completely. I trusted my doctor blindly.
The doctors believed it was the pertussis vaccine that caused her death, but they did not know for sure because she was given a combination of four vaccines, all at the same time. How could we possibly know which one caused her death?
I lost the most precious gift of all, to “the greater good.” I sacrificed my beautiful child. . . for your child.
What did I get in return? I was labelled an “anti-vaxer.” You see, I have a very healthy eleven-year-old son who is completely unvaccinated. He is alive! Did I attend Google University? Or get my advice from Jenny McCarthy? Absolutely not! I spent years poring over the peer-reviewed medical journals, FDA, CDC, WHO and Health Canada files and speaking to doctors and politicians. I had to pay to access my daughter’s vaccine records through Freedom of Information at Health Canada. I did all this to figure out the facts, so that my other child did not also die! I did this so that your children do not die from vaccines!
In Canada we do not have a vaccine injury compensation program, so legal recourse is not an option. In the U.S., the vaccine compensation program has paid almost three billion dollars for injuries and deaths, while Canada has paid nothing! They simply deny that vaccine injuries exist. A company that publicly reports yearly profits—in the billions—is not held accountable for vaccine injuries and deaths. The manufacturers of vaccines conduct their own, very limited, safety studies, and many vaccines are licensed and used without any safety studies at all. Health Canada told me it is more cost-effective to release vaccines and then watch for reactions later.
There are serious problems with many of the vaccines starting with the fact, which their own studies show, that vaccines are often ineffective. After the previous pertussis vaccine caused thousands of deaths and brain injuries, many mothers worked together to demand change. The pertussis vaccine was then replaced with a different one, which was less reactive but also turned out to be less effective. As a result, we began to see many whooping cough outbreaks in North America. At first they blamed the outbreaks on “anti-vaxers,” but then it became undeniable that the vaccine was failing, the vaccine was responsible!
There has not been a measles death in over a decade in North America, while there have been deaths from vaccines. We have measles outbreaks in North America every year. Many years ago they increased the MMR shot recommendation from once to twice, and we have a vaccination rate of over 90 percent, yet they still have outbreaks of measles! At first they blamed the “antivaxers,” but according to their own studies, the measles vaccine is failing and is responsible!
In a three-year study, in Ontario Canada (March 2006-April 2009), it was discovered that several infants died and one in 168 Canadian children end up in the emergeny room after receiving the MMR vaccine (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3236196/?tool=pmce ntrez http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/statisticsreport.pdf http://journal.cpha.ca/index.php/cjph/article/view/2936).
Parents need to stop pointing fingers at other parents and work together, for the greater good, for the good of our children. Parents everywhere need to ask questions and demand safer and more effective vaccines for our children. Pharmaceutical companies should be given a clear message that we want them to put more money and research into the existing, basic vaccines, which are presently failing to protect our children, instead of rushing to develop and license dozens of new, untested vaccines for non-life-threatening illness. Parents everywhere need to demand that the manufacturers of vaccines be held liable and accountable, to ensure the quality of the products they manufacture. Canada needs to create a vaccine injury compensation program for the thousands of children killed and injured by vaccines. Pharmaceutical companies should be monitored by an unbiased committee, or council of watchdogs, to ensure they are putting the health and safety of our children before profits. Our children deserve to be protected! Our children deserve better!
Measles has not killed a child in over a decade in North America but vaccines have killed and injured thousands. That is a painful fact I live with. Rather than “anti-vaccine,” I am pro-health and pro-safety of my children and your children.
Do your research and demand better vaccines. From the heart of one mother to another.
Christine Colebeck
Canada
MEASLES HYSTERIA
What is going on regarding measles is truly frightening and clearly wellcoordinated. It is clear that the rate of non-vaccination has reached such a level that the powers that be will do anything to strip us of our rights, spread fear, and yes, lie, or at the very least withhold the truth.
The last I looked there were about fourteen hundred news stories on Google related to a measles outbreak affecting seventy people. That is it, just seventy people. To put this in context, there are about one million kids in this country with autism, but that does not seem to be an emergency. And roughly 18-20 percent of all children have learning disabilities or developmental delays.
Health authorities have been conspicuously quiet about where the outbreak began, perhaps because it might have started with a vaccinated person who transmitted it to others—the science is clear, vaccinated folks can and do transmit disease, though this is an uncomfortable truth. What we do know is that two of the original five workers who got measles were fully vaccinated; status of the others was not known last I looked. What is also clear is that original reports said most folks who got the measles were unvaccinated but recent reports say that some of the folks who got it were unvaccinated, which implies that most were vaccinated.
When we combine this information with Fox News’ call for a federal mandate to force vaccines, and CNN’s assessment that non-vaccinators are as dangerous as drunk drivers, and recent legislation in several states to rescind philosophical exemptions to vaccines, my takeaway is that this is a coordinated effort to scare the public, defend a wrongheaded public policy statement, and take away our rights.
There are simply too many folks doing their research and opting out, and health authorities have lost control. They have lost control because too many families have seen first-hand the damage vaccines can wreak.
In addition, we now understand that the premise upon which vaccines originally were built is flawed: antibodies (the reason we vaccinate) do not mean a person is immune. A person can be immune and have no antibodies or conversely have antibodies but not be immune. Moreover, the promise of life-long vaccine-induced immunity was empty: we now know that vaccines wear off, often much faster than admitted and that the only true immunity is natural infection. These unfortunate truths that stand in the way of the vaccine market going from twenty-seven billion dollars in 2012 to a forecast one hundred billion dollars by 2020.
There is another major issue, which is that vaccines damage the immune system, making it more vulnerable to future challenges. Research in the past couple of years has demonstrated that getting the flu vaccine makes one more vulnerable to flu. Our understanding of the immune system is vastly improved from the time when vaccines were originally conceived. It is time medical authorities admitted this fact that vaccines harm the immune system.
When one considers the fact that vaccines cause gut damage, autoimmune disease, brain damage, autism, death and more—and that they are filled with toxins and are impermanent—it is hard to defend them.
Although I used to think that there were many shades of gray in relation to vaccines, I have come to the conclusion that they are never safe, although in many folks the damage is subclinical or delayed so that one never connects the two.
Leslie Manookian, Producer of the film, “The Greater Good”
CONTAMINATED VACCINES
Thirty years ago, I worked in the vaccine industry as a quality control PhD scientist. I was responsible for testing vaccines and assayed them regularly to look for contamination in accordance with FDA regulation. I found contamination and then personally experienced the industry’s corruption to cover up these issues. I will never forget the horror and disdain that I felt when they told me, “This vaccine is all over the world; it’s too big to recall,” and “Don’t worry, we will send the rest of that batch to the Third World.” I reacted strongly. Then I was abruptly removed from my position.
The company that I was working for doesn’t exist anymore. Soon after I was removed, it was acquired by a larger pharmaceutical company. That was the strategy back then when vaccine companies were still liable for bad drugs they merged with other companies so that they could not be sued. In recent years, these companies lobbied for and got a federal law passed making them above the law for any injuries due to vaccines, so that they are not liable and cannot be sued.
Beverly Rubik, PhD
Emeryville, California
ANAPHYLACTIC CHILD
My first-born daughter was very little; she was never “quite right.” She was pale and very lean. She had dark rings under her eyes. She would often cry for hours and have meltdowns daily, seemingly without cause.
However because she was reaching all her developmental milestones, the medical profession made me feel that I was a paranoid first-time mother. I thought we had a healthy diet: she was breastfed until twenty-one months. But the rest was lowfat, lots of fruit, rice crackers, sugary homemade sweets, gluten-free pasta, cheap meat, commercial yogurt, rice cereal, etc.
As a veterinarian who had been indoctrinated by mainstream medical and pharmaceutical practices I didn’t think twice about the recommended childhood vaccination regime.
However after my daughter’s eighteen- month vaccinations her demeanor was worse: crying, irritable, and I was terrified that her language had regressed. A month after this vaccination she had an acute, systemic anaphylactic reaction to one-fourth of a cashew nut. Holding her blue, floppy body in my arms was the worst day of my life. Living with an anaphylactic child is living on edge.
This started us on an amazing journey of real food discovery and healing. Although it took us almost two years to find WAPF, we have never looked back. Bone broths, ferments, organ meats, no processed foods, no sugar, raw dairy, grass-fed meat, pastured eggs, organics, real fat and lots of it, cod liver oil, etc. And needless to say there were no more vaccinations.
My daughter’s disposition and health continued to improve over the years. Then in November last year, when she was six, we did our final nut challenge without a reaction! No more EpiPens, action plans or medical alerts.
Thank you, WAPF, for your continued dedication to finding the truth about food and commitment to our future generations.
Rebecca Taylor
Brisbane, Australia
DISEASE FROM A VACCINATED CHILD
They say you can’t get the disease from a vaccinated child—yeah right! My pal Doug—a super strong, healthy guy—had his kid get a whooping cough booster to get into seventh grade. Within days the boy developed whooping cough. Within more days both his sisters developed whooping cough (they did not get the booster). And within days, Doug got whooping cough (no booster).
Doug told me that the whooping cough itself was nothing more than a nuisance—a chronic cough that took a month or so to clear.
But then Doug developed a Guillaine-Barré sequelae to whooping cough or his kid’s shot, became paralyzed, was in intensive care for twenty-one days, barely escaped with his life, and had a medical bill approaching three hundred thousand dollars.
He slowly recovered, first a wheelchair, then crutches, then a cane. It took nine months to get better. He was told that his syndrome was caused by stress. As we speak two California state senators (one is a pediatrician) are introducing legislation repealing California’s personal belief exemption.
Bruce West, DC
Monterey, California
QUORUM-SENSING BACTERIA
A few years ago, I watched Natasha Campbell-McBride’s WAPF presentation, in which she talked extensively about the microbes in our body and especially our gut. She suggested we have hundreds of species of bacteria, fungi, and viruses, friendly as well as pathogenic, and the reason we did not get disease from the pathogenic bacteria was because the largely healthy bacteria “crowded” out and neutralized the effect of the minor numbers of pathogenic bacteria. She said that it was only when this healthful balance was subverted that pathogens took over and that having this immense diversity of friendly as well as unfriendly microbes was critical to good health.
This was a beautiful idea that made instant sense to me, especially because I was in the midst of inundating my family and imbuing my house with ferments of every description.
Mainstream medicine in the mean time has continued its blitzkrieg on pathogenic bacteria, treating them as “infections” instead of symbiotic colonizations. Then I came across the research of microbiologists hot on the trail of something called quorum-sensing bacteria. It appears that many, if not all, bacteria communicate with each other through hormone-like signaling molecules called auto-inducers. These auto-inducers transmit information to the bacteria about their co-located brethren. That is, they signal population density to the microbe. This molecular signaling brings about the expression of certain bacterial genes that were previously switched off. This “knowledge of their numbers” in turn guides all new bacterial behavior. This behavior can be friendly to the host environment, or it can be toxic. Thus, it can be harnessed for good or for bad. For instance, when pathogens reach certain critical numbers, they can start to exude toxins in concert, which make their host very sick. These are the bacteria that were previously dormant or commensal, living in harmony within their host’s ecosystem and secreting non-toxic metabolites that were either neutral or healthful. Thus the lowly bacteria can change their fundamental behaviors in response to their increasing population density. They have remarkable and sophisticated ability to communicate and synchronize their behaviors based upon these signaling mechanisms.
Cartoon by Richard MorrisThis is what occurs in marine bacteria called Vibrio fischeri. These bacteria colonize the light organ of a certain squid’s body. When gathered in large enough numbers, they possess the ability to generate luminescence and enable the squid to mask its shadow, thereby preventing detection by predators. This is a friendly action. On the other hand, the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is normally a harmless resident in our nose and on our skin, and exudes benign proteins—until it reaches a certain population density. When it does, it turns from a quietly commensal bacterium into a malignant bacterium, and exudes toxins that can infect the skin and lungs, cause endocarditis, inflame organs and kill us. The questions to ask ourselves are: Why does it turn against us? What causes its numbers to increase suddenly? And how should we treat it when it proliferates?
The important point here is about balance between the commensal and the pathogenic. The bad can become good under the right circumstances, and vice versa. Our body houses an immense and healthy microcosm of these tiny creatures.
The quorum-sensing mechanism explains why killing off bacteria with antibiotics is so harmful to health. Our body, and as a matter of fact, the entire world, contain mainly friendly, symbiotic bacteria. But it is these larger quantities of friendly microbes that get killed in programs designed to massacre the minority of the pathogens. The pathogenic bacteria that survive turn into mutated, drug-resistant microbes, and come back, ever more ferociously, into a largely competition-free environment. But far more deadly is what happens when their numbers grow. Once their numbers grow, their quorum-sensing mechanism signals these microbes to express genes that cause them to secrete toxins they were previously unable to exude. These previously harmless creatures now become deadly to their host. This is because there aren’t enough commensal bacteria left to curb their destructive forces. In a two-pronged attack on our health, our body becomes deprived of the life-giving metabolites these friendly bacteria once served up, and at the same time we become viciously attacked by pathogens that are now capable of doing immense damage.
All this of course was as yet undiscovered by science for many decades. In the meantime, we poured on the antibiotics. But our wise ancestors figured out these complex relationships with great perception over the centuries. They might not have spoken to us in terms of quorum-sensing bacteria, nor did they have access to genomic sequencing, but they were giving us the right counsel— make and eat ferments, add commensal bacteria to your internal and external biome, and you will live in health.
Somewhere between refrigeration and our arrogance in the belief that science has discovered all there is to know, we got lost on eating and medication. While double-blind studies and genomic analysis will carry on for decades, it is unwise to put our health on hold as we wait for results to trickle in.
In eating fully with our senses, in eating the way nature intended us to eat, and in eating the way our wiser ancestors ate, we are not taking a leap of faith in the dark, but rather operating on the sound premise that the laws of nature are far more important to follow than the dictates of partially understood science.
Sushima Gokhale
Larkspur, California
FERTILIZE OR DEFERTILIZE?
I saw this on ScienceDaily: “Longterm nitrogen fertilizer use disrupts plant-microbe mutualisms” (sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/02/150223142254.htm).
When exposed to nitrogen fertilizer over a period of years, nitrogen-fixing bacteria called rhizobia evolve to become less beneficial to legumes, the plants they normally serve, researchers report in a new study.
Fertilize or defertilize? Another snafu. Can we beg for forgiveness, for we knew not what we did? But how much longer can we go on discounting Nature’s ways, because we know better—and there’s money to be had from it—and then pleading ignorance when the lessons come home? Science supposedly should let us appreciate the consequences before we act, but sadly that’s not how it’s being applied. Poco a poco, enlightenment!
Henry Becker
Kingston, Ontario
PASTEURIZATION ALWAYS BAD
I just finished watching the debate sponsored by the Harvard Law School with Sally Fallon Morell and David Gumpert debating Fred Pritzker and Heidi Kassenborg. I have a couple of observations to share (www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLRdihFi6gwsponsored).
First, I was amazed the attorney got away with saying the Constitution does not give us the right to eat what we want. This is a staggering misunderstanding, and is either intentional deceit or this lawyer is a tribute to the misinformation being taught in law schools. The Constitution is not the source of any of our rights. Those are explicitly defined as coming from God (see the Declaration and other early writings of the Founders). The Constitution is mainly there to limit government. According to the enumerated powers clause and the Tenth Amendment, the federal government can only function in the areas listed in the enumerated powers, nowhere else. Therefore most of the actions of the federal government today are criminally illegal. Apparently the public is so dumbed down we don’t even notice. This is a really important issue. Ignoring it has allowed almost the complete destruction of our inherent freedoms. How could the two of you in the debate not have jumped on this as soon you had the opportunity to rebut this nonsensical statement?
Second, I have been an independent holistic health scientist since 1965 and have done decades of deep research and experimentation into nutrition, detoxification and other health aspects in order to see how to prevent and cure most or all degenerative diseases as well as most of what is now considered normal “aging.”
What I have found is that the arguments you have in favor of raw milk are one hundred percent correct. Even organic milk is in my opinion not edible after pasteurization and becomes a health-destroying food. Commercial poisoned milk is far worse. Yes, I am one hundred percent against pasteurization, whose only real use is to allow the sale of contaminated food. Even once the bacteria are dead, the “food” is still not fit to eat.
Not only is the process of pasteurization itself a complete scam, but so is the theory that all these conditions are caused only by micro-organisms. According to that theory, a totally sterile world would be completely healthy. One of the strongest attributes of fresh organic raw milk is its ability to inoculate the body with helpful living microorganisms. Pasteurizing milk is wrong for the same reasons that antibiotics destroy your body’s immune system. The entire foundation of the medical paradigm in looking at disease is wrong. Those organisms come in and cause harm because the body’s normal balancing defenses are not working. This is the case now in many people who are medical drug addicts or otherwise damaged by medicine and sub-standard poisoned food and water. For them, unfortunately, good food becomes dangerous in some cases, although bad food will also hurt them. Their systems have to be healed by someone who knows how to oversee this, but it can be done, and has been done successfully, after which they can eat food with lots of good microorganisms safely.
Also, no one mentioned that when good raw milk sours, it does not “go bad” but becomes very beneficial as long as it is clean.
Now here is a point that you may not like, but my interest is in telling the truth, and then seeing the best way to deal with it. This requires courage and honesty. What applies to raw milk also applies equally to other natural organic fresh whole foods. When you cook them, their value is mostly destroyed. Not only that, but as in the case of milk, they become a source of a lot of waste for the body in what used to be full of vibrant life energy. I have spent decades experimenting with the implications of this. By using a combination of various forms of fasting and raw live foods, most diseases can be cured, even in late stages.
This is completely known to those at the top of the power structure, and the information is hidden very carefully from the public. Those unwittingly helping our malevolent top-level rulers are mostly oblivious to what they are doing, and they don’t understand how thoroughly they have been brainwashed by their wonderful “education.” I do; I’ve been through it.
No one jumped on the attorney for making fun of conspiracy theories. Yet conspiracy is the rule in real life, not the exception, especially at the high levels of power (collaboration toward a common end). The reason the non-thinking public has come to believe there is no such thing as conspiracy is because they just repeat what they hear all the time, and the media have worked hard to make fun of this concept. Now the religion of the day is “science,” which is full of misconceptions and used as a weapon by big corporations (members of conspiracy to carry out agendas constructed at top power levels, partly elaborated in Agenda 21 documents and many other places, assuming the public will never read this material). Conspiracies are not only real, they are a major threat to the survival of the entire biosphere, and at the top, they are not about money.
So the bottom line is, I am sorry no one brought up the point our rights exist without being specifically listed in the Constitution, and that is a super-important point that no one stood up for. Second, not only is raw milk a superhealth food (as is proven by the SWAT team attacks on raw milk producers and vendors, when the same authorities are fine with the unlimited production of deadly drugs by the medical industry which kills millions), but it is a clue which all of you should be following to its logical conclusion. That is, the correct use of raw foods with other associated measures like fasting, etc. could almost totally eliminate disease in America, and make the criminal “health care” system irrelevant other than in cases of accident and a few necessary surgeries.
Richard Sacks
Sedona, Arizona
Editor’s Note: Thank you for your interesting letter. However we have to disagree that the “logical conclusion” to the fact that pasteurization is bad for milk is that cooking is bad for all foods. Many foods—such as grains and many vegetables— are indigestible or even toxic when not cooked. And all healthy populations studied by Dr. Price cooked some or even most of their foods. Meat and fish were consumed both raw and cooked. To balance any enzymes lost by cooking foods, we suggest eating “super-raw“ lacto-fermented foods which are so rich in enzymes (and good bacteria) that they more than compensate for the enzymes lost in cooking meat, grains and vegetables.
NOURISHED BY BLOOD
My family and I have eaten a WAPF-style diet for more than ten years now. About six years ago we started a micro-dairy and began raising our own meat, vegetables and staple crops like heirloom corn, sweet potatoes and cassava. We have always tried to eat liver about once a week. Even so, I still take supplements like calcium and magnesium, feeling like I need them after ten years of breastfeeding and/or being pregnant (all my kids are at least three years apart though).
We have processed our own chickens, turkeys, rabbits and pork for years now, and we always like to get the most out of everything. Recently we slaughtered our first beef steer. He was an American milking Devon, raised from birth on only grass, hay, mama’s milk, kelp and various natural mineral licks. We saved the blood from our beef steer and I made black pudding with lard, bread crumbs, eggs, cream and spices. I am writing to say it is the most nourishing, intense food I’ve ever tasted, even more so than liver, and I think it bears mentioning in the WAPF literature.
After just one single serving of black pudding, I felt so totally nourished, I didn’t feel like I needed anything extra—supplements felt extraneous that night, as did even cod liver oil!
Angie, Gainesville, Florida
I know there are many traditional recipes that use blood beyond black pudding—the traditional French coq au vin, for example, as well as a Hungarian duck soup made with blood. I keep telling people I know who are struggling (despite a good WAPF-style diet) with nutritional shortfalls about this, because it just felt so incredibly, intensely nourishing. All week after the black pudding was gone, I would look at other foods and think to myself how poor they seemed to be, nutritionally speaking. We ended up freezing the rest of the blood (we got about two gallons) so we can have black pudding about once a month. I am hoping this will rebuild my nutritional stores, and I have already felt like just that one black pudding has helped me feel healthier!
I am sending along a photo of my WAPF baby stirring the cooling beef blood so it would not coagulate. She is wearing a t-shirt extolling the virtures of white blood—raw milk!
Angie Minno
Gainesville, Florida
Editor’s Note: WAPF has published an article about cooking with blood: westonaprice.org/health-topics/cooking-with-blood-boudin-noir-and-czarnina/. For recipes by Angie Minno and others, see our Food Feature, page 70.
LEDs
I want to thank Julia Hattori for bringing to our attention additional information on the subject of lighting choices and their benefits and drawbacks (Letters, Winter 2014). Some of it we already planned to address and have written about in a forthcoming article on the issues and dangers of blue light. Some we will briefly respond to here.
First, it is important to note that at least one of the major studies used to cite the dangers of LEDs involved albino rats (I was unable to get an original copy of the Madrid study to evaluate its experimental design), whose unpigmented eyes are far more sensitive to damage from all types of light, including blue. In commentary on the article a number of researchers pointed out that additional study is needed to determine how great the risk is and under what circumstances and for which people. Some scientists have expressed skepticism at a link between blue light and AMD (age-related macular degeneration), especially given that what matters is not just the light spectrum in question, but the intensity (strength) of the light and the duration of exposure. As one article noted, even incandescents can cause damage to the eye. LEDs are just able to do this more quickly. This single albino-based study does little to illuminate what will probably end up being a very complex final picture.
Two, the damage the study found wasn’t caused by blue light in general, but by looking directly at the light. As the Madrid scientist herself put it, “Eyes are not designed to look directly at light—they are designed to see with light.” Given that this is how light bulbs function (people rarely look directly at them), the greater issue isn’t with lighting choices but with the technology many people use. Also, the studies and research are not at all totally clear or in agreement. A number of studies show significant benefits to exposure to this portion of the light spectrum, such as protection from myopia, help with SAD (seasonal affective disorder), and for those who have no choice but to work indoors and receive little sunlight exposure, help with regulating circadian rhythms, among others. They have also found other possible drawbacks, some dependent on the timing of exposure to this particular wavelength of light. If blue diffuse light in general is a concern, we are in very big trouble not solely from the light indoors but the sun outdoors, which produces this spectrum as well.
Third, given that incandescent bulbs are now banned in many countries (and had their own drawbacks), and given the drawbacks I discussed regarding CFLs (which also have the blue light issue, albeit to a slightly lesser degree), people have little choice but to use LEDs unless readers can point us all to yet another new (and untested?) option.
In a future article, I will address how to use all blue light-emitting devices as wisely as possible. It is also good to note that the LED industry is aware of these concerns and is studying the issue and actively making changes as they do risk assessments in conjunction with a number of European regulatory bodies. Who knows? In another decade, we may have lights that adjust their brightness throughout the day to better mimic natural light and its effects.
Finally, the researchers also pointed out that the most likely mechanism for damage is oxidative stress. We may end up discovering, as with sun exposure, that the culprit isn’t the light, but the poor nutritional and health status of those exposed to it. Thus, a traditional, nutrient-rich (especially in the all important fat soluble vitamins, but especially vitamin A) and antioxidant-laden diet is really the best option for people who have little choice but to look at light, along with employing commonsense (learn to sit farther away from technological gadgets when being used, read real books instead of e-books) technological fixes that we will discuss in the forthcoming article.
John Moody
Irvington, Kentucky
COD LIVER OIL & DENTAL DECAY
I have a personal story about cod liver oil. Twelve years ago, when I had just turned forty and was experiencing the breakup of my family, I was also in the process of adjusting to proper nutrition à la WAPF, after years of being a tall, skinny vegetarian—six foot six inches tall and one hundred sixty-five pounds. I plunged into a diet that included lots of raw meat and raw organ meats, and I discovered that too swift of even a dietary change‒even a positive one‒seemed to plunge me into further mid-life chaos. After a terrible year, I learned to take it easy with adopting the new regimen, as well as all else.
The point being that, some five years later when I started taking cod liver oil, I only took about one-fourth teaspoon daily. Better than nothing, right? And so it went for another five years, until a few months ago, when I started to have severe dental pain due to long-neglected teeth. I had begun seeing a dentist months prior and I had several cavities. Priority was placed on the most urgent issues, but my ability to pay for the procedures has slowed progress.
When the pain became chronic, I was forced to survive on ibuprofen while waiting for my next dentist appointment, ten days away! Then one day, I remembered reading about Dr. Price’s work in reversing cavities in his patients with improved diet using cod liver oil and butter oil. I suddenly realized that I needed to increase my cod liver oil intake, and did so—to two full teaspoons per day.
After two days of this, my dental pain began to subside! I soon didn’t need painkillers, and within a week or so, I could comfortably eat foods that previously would have caused me great pain.
I’ll complete the remaining dental work, of course, which is amalgam-free. My dentist says other than the cavities, my gums and teeth mineralization are excellent. By the way, my weight these days is around two hundred fifty pounds. Thanks for everything you do!
Wade Larson
Bellingham, Washington
ANTI-SMART METERS
Thank you for covering the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) issue so well in your latest edition (Winter 2014).
I am an anti-“smart” meter activist in Arizona and longstanding WAPF member. When I first got into the “smart” meter issue four years ago I thought the health/EMF aspect of the issue was our weakest argument against the meters. I thought that perhaps the people with EMF-related health problems were hypochondriacs. But I kept an open mind and became aware of the huge health impacts that EMF has on all of us, not just those currently manifesting symptoms.
As someone who has spent his life focused on diet as the source of good health or ill health, it was quite an eye opener to realize that something we cannot even detect with our senses, EMF, could have such an effect. I have a friend who measures EMF and remedies home and workplace environments for a living. The consistent before-and-after stories he has of people’s health are nothing short of miraculous—but not really since it is all based on sound science.
I urge everyone to heed the advice in the Winter 2014 edition of Wise Traditions. Also, consider finding an EMF professional in your area and get measurements and remediation for your place, especially your bedroom since it is extremely important to get good, rejuvenating sleep, something your body will not get under constant EMF bombardment. Professionals can often be found by doing an Internet search for your location and Bau Biologist.
Warren Woodward
Sedona, Arizona
SNAKE OIL
Amy Worthington’s article on smart meters (Winter, 2014) is an opinion not based on any scientific evidence. It’s basically snake oil. It is based on hysterical stories from women who clearly do have issues, but they have little if anything to do with smart meters.
A far greater worry should be our use of cell phones and cordless phones (worse than cell phones) which we all have in our homes.
We also like to go wireless and now use WiFi for our TVs, our computers, wireless keyboards and mouse.
We spend hours sitting in front of our computers, and don’t recognize the radiation from them. We also fail to be concerned about the microwave ovens in our homes because we are so used to them and are basically ignorant of their harmful radiation we expose ourselves to daily. But we now create hysteria over a smart meter because it is new, and we are basically clueless. So we attribute all our ailments to the smart meter.
I have one and since it emits far less radiation than my cell phones or my cordless phones, my attention goes to limiting my cell phone use and putting my cordless phone on “speaker” and put it on the table. I have checked your site and so far agree with everything I have read with the exception of your smart meter article.
Geraldine Vaccaro
West Palm Beach, Florida
INTOXICATING SMELL
I am a sixty-nine-year-old master carpenter who was conceived and raised on raw milk and nutrient-dense food, as were all of the farmers before me. When I was five or six, a supermarket came to the area, and things seemed to change overnight. People who refused to switch to the industrial food were called “old-fashioned.” My parents had a difficult time getting me to eat the new food, particularly the pasteurized milk, which I still dislike. I literally lived for the times I could eat food that tasted good at my grandparents’ house.
It was a time when most of our people had either forty or eighty acres, before they bought into the mantra “ Get Big or Get Out.” Neighbors shared and helped with planting and harvesting, and took up the slack to keep things going if a farmer died or was incapacitated. The most intoxicating smell I have known was the rich Midwestern humus as it warmed in the morning sun. By the time I was eight or nine, those smells were gone. After reading The Unsettling Of America by Wendell Berry, it became clear what I had lived through.
About eight years ago I was beginning to have knee pain and stiffness (even though I ate organically), and considered giving up carpentry. About that time I was introduced to WAPF, and began drinking at least two cups of bone broth a day. In a little more than six months, all of my joint problems were gone, and today I enjoy hard work more than ever.
If you have the capacity, please get out on the farms, pitch in and stand beside real heroes. In the time I have left, my purpose is to do everything I can to help build a future where more children wake up to that most intoxicating smell.
Mike Ward
Longmont, Colorado
HEALTHY ANCESTOR GALLERY
How about an ancestor gallery so this generation knows what people used to look like? This is a photo of my parents, Catherine and Del Wilson, (Dad once published an article in the Wise Traditions journal about the farm food) taken in 1951 when Mother was pregnant with my younger brother.
I love to see their radiance, beautiful smiles and beautiful teeth. Both were raised on farm food and Dad was a farmer. No orthodontics here, no makeup but lipstick, and no hair dye, unlike today’s crowd. This picture always makes me happy.
Janice Curtin
Alexandria, Virginia
This is a great idea! Please send your ancestor photos with caption to us at liz@westonaprice.org
LARD FOR WEIGHT LOSS
Here is a true story an Amish friend told me today about lard. He has a non-Amish friend who weighed about four hundred pounds whose doctor was always on him to eat healthier foods. Problem is this guy was into fishing and hunting, and he deep-fried all the food he ate—meat, fish and vegetables—and he was not going to change.
Last year he bought a hog and asked my Amish friend to fatten it and then butcher it, which he did. The guy was going to throw the back fat away but my friend asked if he could render it. In turn he gave the large friend enough lard to replace the vegetable oil in his fryer.
That was last June. Come October the guy goes to his doctor who commends him for finally taking his advice and changing his diet because his cholesterol was the best it had been in over ten years! However he told the doctor he had not changed his diet except swapping the vegetable oil for lard. And not only had he not cut back on his fried food, he was eating more since the food tasted so much better when fried in lard. He had also lost sixty pounds!
Jim Fiedler
Rome, Indiana
MEAT, EGGS AND BROTH
My husband and I have been watching this melodramatic period series (1900s), “Gran Hotel,” produced in Spain 2011-2013. In episode sixteen the young maid Belen gives birth to twins and almost dies, losing lots of blood. The doctor examines her and says, “She’s very weak. She needs meat, eggs and broth.” Loved that! Would like to know the screenwriter who put that line in!
Lynn Wright
Tucson, AZ and Fort Jones, CA
WAPF FOR DANCERS
As a dancer, I always struggled to maintain my energy levels and my physical and mental health. My health hit an all-time low the summer before my senior year, while I was living in Phoenix dancing with Ballet Arizona. I was attempting raw veganism, and I grew very thin and had no energy for ballet, let alone energy to put towards living a vibrant, joyful life. I searched for answers, and finally I discovered the Weston A. Price Foundation.
I spent last year recovering by applying the Foundation’s teachings and my life has dramatically turned around. I have never experienced such vitality and happiness in my entire life! I am so grateful for WAPF. I have become so passionate about physical and mental health as well as farmer rights, and I’m so eager to become involved in sharing knowledge about these things.
Eden Garcia Thaler
Leesburg, Virginia
JUNK FOOD IN ARGENTINA
I am English traveling in Argentina. Argentinian people are warm and friendly and I am made to feel welcome whereever I go. It saddens me to notice how many of the indigenous people are seriously overweight. They seem to be reacting badly to modern foodstuffs, in particular refined carbohydrate and sodas.
I have just been lucky enough to spend time in the home of a mixed Argentinian and Paraguayan family, the kindest, most generous people, but suffering from all types of illnesses. The mother has type 2 diabetes, which she is not looking after as the demands of the family come first; she has what I suspect is gout, very painful. I did talk to her about it. She told me that her doctor advised her not to eat meat or fat, only vegetables and fruits, impossible for her in the land of beef production. I asked about the diet of her grandparents. It was soups, vegetables, fish, a little meat and fruits. They used to keep a cow so they had raw dairy for sure. I suggested eating what they ate in those days but that is too radical a concept; they are fixated on the all-American supermarket diet. Huge bottles of Coca Cola and jars of mayonnaise appear at every meal time. On the other hand, they are farmers and prepare a lot of food from their own animals.
I believe it would not be such a huge jump to the Weston Price-type diet but I didn’t have enough time with them or the language to explain. I would like very much to send them Spanish translations of Nourishing Traditions.
Lesley Alkin
Southampton, England
Our main brochure and our Healthy 4 Life booklet are available in Spanish.
KOTARE VILLAGE
We are a group of people in beautiful New Zealand who are developing an eco-village, Kotare Village (kotarevillage. co.nz), where we are committed to regenerating our health and the health of the ecosystem we live in. This means we are creating our own food culture out of the Weston Price principles and it also means the land use design for the entire village is based around our food requirements put together with what works on this land in this climate.
It all looks something like this: A small dairy farm producing raw milk which meets all of our dairy requirements, the dairy also provides curds to feed poultry and whey for pigs, poultry follow cows around the pasture or they are in forest gardens, pigs are free-range or in perennial polyculture systems, we catch fish in our river, we eat our own lamb, beef, pork, poultry and wild goat, all grazed following holistic management practices, and perennial polycultures. We grow nutrient dense vegetables and fruit and nuts and are experts in this field. We are all currently gardeners although we recognize that everybody isn’t a gardener, we garden our own gardens as well as a main crop community garden. We make and eat lots of ferments and we teach all of this to others through the Koanga Institute.
The Koanga Institute (koanga.org. nz) is at the heart of the Kotare Village, where we are currently running an urban garden research project to see how much of a family’s nutrition can be provided from a 200 square meter garden. We have a How To Grow Nutrient Dense Food research project in its early stages as well. Plus we are growing and saving the New Zealand national heritage vegetable seed collection and an important heritage fruit tree collection. There is much potential for eco-village settlers in these fields and we envisage a cooperative as soon as we have enough families invested. The way we have structured our business plan means we will have money to invest in businesses that come out of our passion and the land for the good of the whole.
Kotare Village is actively looking for like-minded people who want to support a shared dream of embracing a regenerative future through independent village living, local economies and co-evolution. There are opportunities for settlers, investors and supporters.
It is a very exciting time in the village! Through this venture we are planning to have around 30 families live in Kotare Village to ensure we have enough of a population to create a strong economic base.
We’d love to hear from you NOW if you are interested in investing in your future or becoming a settler. Email us at koangainstitute@gmail.com
Kay Baxter
Havelock North, New Zealand
TURKEY ATTACK
I can’t think of anything more terrifying than chest pain that doesn’t go away, followed by an ambulance trip with lights and sirens, and a frantic rush into the emergency room. The first time was justified by two 80 percent blockages in a major coronary artery. Stents were installed, and then the horrible journey through medication side effects from the one-size-fits-all treatment protocol. This treatment doesn’t work very well if you’re not the right size.
Three months later, still in the throes of side effects, there was another trip to the hospital. Crushing chest pain again, just like the first time,. Two nitroglycerin tablets didn’t stop the pain. This time, the EKG didn’t show any abnormalities. I was puzzled. The doctor was puzzled. Finally the doctor asked if I’d eaten anything unusual. “Just turkey,” I said in bewilderment. I’d roasted a commercial turkey and my son and I had been eating that for three days. I went home, and the cardiologist arranged for more tests, which I came through with flying colors. My heart was doing fine. I didn’t think any more about it. A month later, the same thing happened. Intransigent chest pain. Nitroglycerin. Ambulance. ER. Nothing showed up. “Did you eat anything different?” “Just turkey.” I went home and wondered what was in turkey that we didn’t know about. Google being my friend, I quickly discovered: ractopamine.
Ractopamine isn’t exactly a household word. It’s a beta-adrenergic agonist which is used as a feed additive in the commercial production of beef, pork, and turkeys. Red flags went up! Weren’t beta-blockers used to treat angina? Wasn’t that what I had? What’s going on? The answers were: yes, yes, and who knows? Further research showed that ractopamine was used in 20 percent of commercial beef, 80 percent of commercial pork, and some unknown quantity of commercial turkeys. I raise my own organic beef and pork. Being an engineer as well as a farmer, I decided to test my hypothesis. I had canned some turkey and broth, and made some soup. Yes, the reaction was the same. I didn’t call the ambulance this time, just waited out the pain.
Ractopamine use as an animal feed additive is banned in much of the world—such as the European Union, Russia, and China. This is the reason that we cannot export meat to these countries. Residue testing in those countries has shown significant residues in US-produced meat. But in this country, we have no restrictions on its use. It can be fed up to the time of slaughter. No residue testing is employed. No withdrawal time is mandated. This is an anecdote. The plural of anecdote is not data. But I will never again eat commercially grown turkey.
Pegi Ficken
Groton, New York
MILK PROBLEMS?
Can one have too much of a good thing? The well-read of course know the answer. Some of us know that it can be tempting to have more of something that “must be good for us.” I once met a young man who had seriously compromised his health with an overconsumption of water leading to brain edema.
In New Zealand, one can, relatively easily, find a source of raw milk, and being New Zealand, it tastes wonderful and, as so many of us believe, is a very rich source of calcium. It is also balanced for carbohydrates, protein and fat.
My devotion to raw milk in recent years did not figure in my puzzlement over difficulties I was having with muscular soreness following exercise. It was severe enough to have me walking with considerable discomfort; and enough discomfort to prevent my skiing for over a week.This was not an isolated incident; normal activity on a sailing boat had resulted in similar outcomes. In retrospect I was probably consuming enough milk (over 700 ml daily) and supplementing with molasses (high in calcium) to be well in excess of normal intake values.
In Dr. Thomas E. Levy’s hard-hitting book, Death by Calcium (MedFox Publishing 2013), he notes that calcium supplementation of more than 500 mg per day gives us a 30 percent greater chance of a heart attack, and up to a 20 percent greater chance of a stroke. His advice, following personal contact, has resulted in my abandoning my two large glasses of milk daily, and of course no more molasses.
Mortality from all causes will come sooner, rather than later, the research tells us. Very quickly, my muscle stiffness disappeared.
I can imagine a certain stiffening of backs and necks from many who may pause to consider the ramifications of these words, given the almost religious excitement which surrounds the “magic” of raw milk. But we are intelligent people—most of us—and those of us with a research background know how important it is to have an open mind, but not too open that our brains fall out, or so closed as to prevent curiosity and motivation for some detective work.
Neil G. Hilford PhD
New Zealand
There is no food that can be consumed safely by everyone. Some people get deathly ill from shellfish; others are allergic to beef. And there are individuals who for one reason or another can’t tolerate milk, even raw milk, or other dairy products. But that does not mean that everyone should avoid raw milk. After all, raw milk has supported healthy populations for thousands of years and in all parts of the globe. Many have reported to us that muscle stiffness and joint pain improve when they begin drnking raw milk. And we have documented cases in which osteoporosis was reversed in individuals who began drinking several glasses of raw milk per day. Raw milk is a particularly important food for growing children.
ASTONISHING EFFECT
My health has been failing. Nothing specific, just thought I was aging at fifty-nine. I bought raw milk the other day and I’m hooked. Instantly calm. I think my body has been starving for nutrients. It has amazed me that it has had an instant effect and I feel like a flower that finally got water. Louis Pasteur has done nothing good for the milk industry. Loving the taste, and the effect on my health and well-being is astonishing.
Jane McCallum
Richland, Washington
GET REAL?
“Get Real”—the dairy industry’s newest ad campaign—is their latest effort to increase milk sales, which began a downward trend in the 1970s. The dairy industry blames this decline on the growth of non-dairy alternatives such as soy and almond milk, PETA, the paleo diet and vegan groups. They also blame a recent study published in The British Medical Journal, which suggests that drinking lots of milk could lead to earlier deaths and higher incidents of fractures. The real problem for the industry is that this study used pasteurized milk.
More than fifteen years ago, the Weston A. Price Foundation launched the “A Campaign for Real Milk” to promote full-fat, grass-fed raw milk. The “Get Real” word play is clearly an attempt by the dairy industry to piggyback on their success. Not only were people buying alternative non-dairy drinks due to trendy diets of various beliefs, thousands of people also started buying milk directly from farmers who were dedicated to producing high-quality, grass-fed, raw milk.
Humans have been drinking milk for thousands of years; maybe not quite as far back as the Stone Age, but the milk we did drink was produced by cows raised on pasture, not confinement feed lots, and it was raw or fermented, not skimmed or ultra-pasteurized. It is full-fat, raw milk that does a body good and my smart, healthy, beautiful daughters —who have been drinking raw milk for more than ten years—are a living testimony.
Mary Wilson
Falls Church, Virginia
When we founded “A Campaign for Real Milk” in 1999, we had only thirty-eight sources in the whole U.S. to list; today there are more than two thousand!
SIDEBAR
JOHN RUSSELL SILVER
I would like to report the death of my husband, John Russell Silver, a chapter leader in Layton, Utah. He died on January 20, 2015.
Thankfully, Russ was always very health conscious and became even more so when he was introduced to the WAPF protocol at age sixty-six. From that day until his death at age seventy-eight, he not only followed this program faithfully, but he became a hero advocate in getting the word out to anyone who would listen.
He lectured locally, in cities along the Wasatch Front, and in several states as he promoted the program in person. DVDs were made during his active lecture time. And at home he was often on long phone calls assisting those with questions about this protocol.
Our eight children, thirty-seven grandchildren and the twenty-one plus great-grands have been and are, thankfully, influenced by the WAPF program due to Russ’ example.
Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm and dedication in keeping the Weston A. Price Foundation going. Our lives are so much better for having had our membership in it. And though Russ is not with us physically, his powerful influence will always be felt for good through the generations to come. And, those of us who continue to follow what he taught will always be grateful that he “happened” on to this program because we have all benefited greatly from it.
This tribute is in gratitude for him who lived and promoted this program. And it is also in gratitude for all of you who are now still dedicated to spreading the WAPF word. You have made, and are still making, lives better through your dedication to this wonderful program.
I thank you. Norma N. Silver, Layton, Utah
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