Correction
I think the Foundation does a great job to dispel the misinformation surrounding health and nutrition in our modern, corporate-laden world. I am a graduate student in Biomedical Sciences (specializing in Nutritional Biochemistry) in Montreal and I think I can evaluate the scientific value of one’s work or opinions, and the Foundation’s work is very scientifically sound indeed. Furthermore, anybody who uses his or her logic will realize that the current guidelines and approaches in medicine and healthcare are not optimal nor appropriate.
The only negative comment I have to make concerns your “Adventures in Macronutrient Land” (Wise Traditions, Winter 2002). I thoroughly enjoyed this article, especially the fact that you pointed out that the Asian diet, thanks to white rice, is actually a high saturated-fat diet, but the part on the Optimal Diet by Jan Kwasniewski has an error: Dr. Kwasniewski did not establish his recommended ratios between macronutrients based on the composition of human milk. He based these recommendations on his own experiments feeding animals (especially pigs, the animals that we eat which are the closest to us biochemically and morphologically) different ratios of macronutrients, and different types of foods to fulfill these macronutrient needs (vegetable and animal). He studied the health of these animals under the different diets, and then went on to establish his ratios, and his strong preference for animal fats (especially pork fat) as the basis of one’s diet. I am a strong supporter of Dr. Kwasniewski’s work, as well as your own, and I thought that this info would be useful to you.
Michel Boyce, BSc
Montreal, Canada
Editor’s Response: Thanks so much for the correction! We hope to review the Optimal Diet in a future issue.
Update
As a follow-up to my article “Clouds of Death” (Wise Traditions, Fall 2002) I have since found out quite a bit about Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA). I had a female deer fawn this summer which had quite severe JRA. In searching the web, I was totally shocked to learn how conventional doctors attempt to “cure” JRA in young children. In most cases the children never get better or may get better if they make it to adulthood. It took me less than a week to “cure” my little deer. The deer suddenly began having symptoms at the same time on the same day as many adult humans in our area of Montana became ill and many species of mammal and bird began showing symptoms of nerve damage. She was fine at her 12:30 pm feeding. When I went to the deer pen to feed her at 3:30 pm (just 3 hours later) she couldn’t stand up at all and her joints just above the hoof were very hot and swollen. She had hair loss (it took more than a week for the hair to grow back) and severe blepharitis of the conjunctiva. Severe blepharitis happens when the animals are exposed to air pollution, which affects the eyes.
The symptoms of JRA in the young wildlife I have “cured” are actually very similar to rickets, except veterinarians say that it is impossible to “cure” rickets in less than a month or more, if ever. In fact, the first animal I cared for, a 6-week-old female coyote, was diagnosed by two veterinarians as having rickets. She recovered in two days. Both vets said that was impossible. She suddenly had very bent “ankle” joints on the front legs, began shaking when she walked and was carrying her right hind leg, after a storm front went through during the night on a Friday night. By Monday, she was whining every time she tried to move and couldn’t move much. She was eating many mice with bones in them and drinking all the fresh goat’s milk she wanted each day before and after she got the symptoms. The two vets said she had rickets. I decided to try the Calc. Phos. 6X. I gave it to her 5 times spread out from morning until I went to bed on Monday and again on Tuesday. She was totally well by Tuesday afternoon. She was the first animal with developmental bone problems that I “cured” with the Calc. Phos. 6X.
I have heard that little children are also getting what the doctors call rickets. It may be the result of hormone disruption causing the calcium not to be utilized properly–which also causes the underdeveloped skull and maxilla.
The bottom line, lots of fresh goat’s milk with a tablet of Calc. Phos. 6X and a tablet of Bioplasma (all 12 Homeopathic Cell Salts in one tablet) and one fourth of a teaspoon of MSM (methylsulfonylmethane) in each feeding made the deer able to walk, the swelling in the joints went down and her health returned so she could be released to the wild a week after the day she was totally unable to walk.
It says on the web that doctors treat JRA in human children by giving steroids which make them puff up like a water balloon, and in some cases they giving them chemotherapy, which damages what is left of their immune system. This makes me ill to think about.
The good news is that the reproductive malformations I reported in the Fall 2002 article are not so severe as before, although the incidence is still high. The prognathism incidence rate in the white-tailed deer has leveled off at around 30 percent (over 2 mm underbite) in 2003. Prognathism went up significantly in 2000, from 4 percent in the years from 1995-1999 to nearly 40 percent by 2001-2002. Unfortunately, no one seems very concerned about the malformations in the wild and domestic animals. No one but me is doing any research here. Frogs are still getting lots of attention though, and that is good.
Prognathism in domestic goats all over the US just caused the people to change the rules at goat shows so that goats with prognathism could be shown. Otherwise they wouldn’t have enough eligible to have a show. I think that is very weird in a sick sort of way.
There are lots of animals with one or both malformations in Yellowstone National Park, but no one seems to care. You should have seen the Bighorn sheep male I saw in the park last fall. Very short scrotum–not at all like a normal sheep scrotum. The people who are down at Yellowstone all winter protesting the bison being hassled or killed when they step out of the park apparently don’t care about the very obvious malformations in bison there. I told them about the malformations and that the underbite especially was likely affecting the survival of young bison since they can not eat properly. They acted as though they didn’t care about that at all. Their only concern was that adults are killed when they leave the park. Dying of starvation is a very inhumane way to die.
Fortunately, the hearts are all normal on the accident-killed deer and the lungs aren’t bumpy. So some things are better here.
Judy Hoy
Stevensville, Montana
Giant Open-Air Market
My wife Kasma and I are just back from Thailand and Kasma thought you’d be interested in seeing some baby pictures of hill tribe infants and of a contented pig sleeping amongst the rice bran. As always, it was a revelation to be in Thailand. After we spent $165 at the grocery store today and $110 the other day, I reflected that amount would probably feed the two of us for a month, eating out, in Thailand. A three-course meal at a good restaurant runs you about 300 to 400 baht, or about $7.00 to $11.00.
Most days we ate breakfast on the street: a banana leaf basket of coconut “pancakes” for 10 baht, then two dishes over rice (for both of us) for another 55 baht for a total of 75 baht, about $2.00. The description of Thailand as a “giant open-air market” is not far from the truth. They truly do have affordable, good food.
Endangered, of course. Soy oil has become way too popular as a cooking oil. And the Prime Minister is trying to use the avian flu crisis (part of which he created by trying to cover up its existence for so long) to push factory-farmed chickens raised in closed factories.
One of the best days this year was attending a house dedication in Nakhon Si Tammarat, down in the south. The host was a Muslim who recently moved back home to live on the family compound along with 6 other (out of 8 total) siblings. The family raises catfish, shrimp, and crab. They also have a store (lots of junk food, which the kids were snacking on), and a dock with a gas pump.
The ceremony was all-day long, starting with the men slaughtering and butchering a young bull and making gallons of coconut milk; then both men and women prepared enough food to feed about 200 people, including maybe 50 to 60 Muslim men who came for the ceremony. (Curry recipe: Start with 10 gallons coconut milk . . . . ) We were probably the only non-Muslims there and were warmly accepted and treated. As always I am humbled by the generosity and warmth of people who “have so much less” than we do.
Michael Babcock
Oakland, CA
Soy Damages
I have two adult children who were fed soy formula as babies, until they were one year old. Fortunately, they were both able to go on cow’s milk without difficulty after their first birthdays.
Unfortunately, the damage may already have been done. My son may well be infertile, as evidenced by having had a long-term relationship with a young woman who didn’t get pregnant despite never using birth control. When they broke off their relationship and she became involved with another man, she became pregnant within just a couple of months.
My daughter developed polycystic ovarian syndrome as a teenager and suffered periods so painful she vomited and had to miss school one to two days every month. I can’t make the connection with soy definitively because this condition runs in our family, although with less serious symptoms. In addition to the ovarian disease, my daughter developed hypothyroid symptoms shortly after the birth of her daughter.
I myself developed thyroid disease in the early 1990s which went undiagnosed for six years because my doctor (he doesn’t deserve the title) believed I was “hysterical” and told me to “go see a psychiatrist”–without ever running a single test to find out if something was physically wrong with me. Six miserable years later, sixty-five pounds heavier, sicker than sick and in debilitating pain from numerous health problems, I finally found a doctor who helped me.
Fixing the thyroid problem helped a little, but there were still a lot of residual health problems brought on by being obese for so long, and which I am still battling today. About a year ago I began using soy in earnest in the mistaken belief that it was “healthy” and would help me lose weight. Imagine my horror when the overwhelming fatigue from which I’d finally been freed, along with hair loss, returned, and I actually began GAINING weight again!
I was aware that the symptoms seemed to begin concurrent with my increase of soy intake, so I stopped using the soy protein powder and did a little research. Unfortunately, not enough, because the only information I found was a warning to not use soy products within four hours of taking my thyroid medicine. This led me to believe that soy at supper was still okay, since I took my medication before breakfast, and I continued to feed soy to myself and my family, still under the misinformed notion that soy protein was good for the health. I eventually had to begin taking more thyroid hormone. It is only recently, while doing research on coconut oil, that I found all this other information about the dangers of soy.
I’m so angry I could spit nickels, but except for protecting my own family from soy, I don’t know what else I can do. It’s already too late for my kids, and for my granddaughter, who was also fed soy formula–WIC, a government agency, provides it for free to low-income families, and they won’t allow any other milk-free formula for infants who can’t tolerate cow’s milk formulas unless a clear case of soy-allergy exists. Horrifying, isn’t it?
The American people are notorious for laughing at, scorning, ostracizing, and labeling as “lunatic fringe” and “fanatics” anyone who dares question the status quo and has the courage to speak out. Indeed, this is a big part of the reason why the Great American Soy Hoax, as I call it, was, and is, possible. (This soy hoax is right up there with the USDA’s Food Pyramid, with its lethal amounts of grains and so-called “healthy” vegetable oils, the direct cause of the obesity epidemic in America.) I am not afraid of being laughed at, labeled, and ostracized, but nobody outside my own family, who has been with me through the sick years and has had health issues of their own, is likely to listen to me. That won’t keep me from trying, though, because if even one person listens and is protected from harm, my efforts won’t be in vain.
Thanks for the wealth of information (and legitimate sources of that information) on your website. I am a born skeptic, but even I was completely duped by the USDA’s propaganda.
Teresa Downey
Naugatuck, Connecticut
Soy and Autism
I think the increase in soy formula fed to infants as young as one day old is causing autism in geometrically increasing rates that go off the scales. The reason: 74 percent of the soy is Roundup Ready (genetically modified to accept Roundup herbicide). This RR soy has “marker genes” that were introduced to tell how much of GE genes there are in the GE soy and their location inside the soy. These marker genes now have “horizontal gene transfer” with bacteria normally found in the gut; this new bacteria is antibiotic resistant and causes “leaky gut” syndrome, and the weakest links of the young children develop autism when the peptides and bacteria and other stuff go directly from the “leaky gut” to the blood and into the brain causing brain aging.
This is the basics from an electronic engineer layman.
Chris Walker
St. Louis, Missouri
Nauseated and Forgetful
I have been a soy consumer for approximately four years now, mostly tofu and soy milk sporadically. Over the course of the past three months I had increased my soy consumption substantially. Last week I had to have a D & C due to thickened endometrial lining with the subsequent frequent menses. I’ve also noted that I’ve felt nauseated and forgetful. I have a hard time retrieving the names of people I have known for years. And I’ve recently had bronchitis which led to atypical pneumonia in the past month.
I now believe that my second son’s ADHD could have been from the soy formula he consumed as an infant. I have two children, both boys.The oldest just graduated from high school with honors. He received four scholarships for college. He was an excellent, well-rounded student. He never consumed soy. My youngest has ADHD. He struggles in school with C’s and D’s.
I have a lot of soy products that I’ve stocked up on through a co-op that I belong to. I have to decide to either throw it all away or donate it to charity. I just want to thank you for the information I’ve received through your Foundation. If not for your website, I’d still be poisoning my system with soy. Now, I’m boycotting and sharing the information.
Suzanne Miron, RN
Atlantic Mine, Michigan
A College Diet
Thanks for all the excellent research the Foundation provides. I’ve always been interested in environmental matters and health and nutrition. I used to think of my interests as separate issues. Now, thanks to you, I understand they are well connected. I am very excited to begin my freshman year at the University of Vermont with the wealth of information I have learned directly and indirectly from your Foundation.
As an example of indirect knowledge, I went to a local dairy so much for milk the farmer offered me a summer job. I am learning how to do just about everything on a dairy farm! For the first time I can say I have a job I love. We milk about 45 Jersey cows, which are pastured all summer and fed hay in the winter.
Now I understand that when I eat I can make a positive impact with my food dollars. Many environmentalists say, “Eat less and don’t eat meat!” However, when I buy meats from local farms I know I am doing something good, not only for myself but also for my environment and community.
I’ve included a picture of myself as proof that diets high in saturated fat don’t mean jelly rolls, spare tires and extra chunk-in-the-trunk. Each day I drink a half gallon or more whole unpasteurized milk, 4-5 eggs from pastured hens and ducks, butter, raw wholemilk cheddar cheese, yoghurt, grass-fed beef and much more. I have beef liver (grass-fed) twice a week. Many weight lifters go for lowfat fare, eating lean chicken, skim milk and protein powders. Some of them get quite large this way; I don’t know how.
Anyway, I am very thankful for everything you do.
Daniel Lynch
Montpelier, Vermont
Editor’s Response: Weight lifters who bulk up on lowfat, high-protein foods and use steroids risk burnout and serious health problems due to depletion of vitamin A and other nutrients found exclusively in animal fats. See Splendid Specimens: The History of Nutrition in Bodybuilding and Vitamin A: The Forgotten Body Building Nutrient.
Milk Cow Fever
I have come down with a bad case of Milk Cow Fever. I thought you might like to warn other Weston A. Price advocates who live on farms or complain about the price of butter. I was especially susceptible because I live on a farm AND recently complained about the price of yellow butter.
Milk Cow Fever begins when you get up at 6 am, take care of the pastured poultry, then go to work in the garden so you will have some organic vegetables. At noon, you are so proud of yourself, you decide to take a break. After a lunch of raw milk cheese and sprouted wheat bread, you feel you deserve a nap. But, just as your head hits the pillow, you hear the goat guard dog bark and know he never barks without provocation. So you grab a gun and run to his aid. Since city people love to dump their dogs on country roads so they can enjoy an idyllic life, you find your guard dog is being pursued by five wild dogs. He sees you as a refuge and runs straight to you, pack snarling at his heels. After discharging the gun into the midst and killing one, you decide to walk a 1/2 mile out and back to try to get another shot.
On the return trip, you notice your Jersey heifer is calving. She produces a beautiful purebred heifer calf, and after the dog incident you feel it is necessary to take the new pair to the house. The only way to accomplish this is by carrying the 40-pound calf a quarter mile. Hence the first symptom of milk cow fever–exhaustion. At this point, symptoms of Milk Cow Fever are just beginning. It is still necessary to make sure the calf gets colostrum, and milk out the excess.
We all know butter is best from cows grazing rapidly growing green grass. An unfortunate side effect of rapidly growing green grass is that it causes loose stools. Vesuvius pouring out green lava would be a good comparison. So here we have the unfortunate combination of green grass scours, a wicked long hairy tail coated with such, and a heifer who has never been milked before. Even with her back legs tied together she manages to kick the bucket and swing her tail. This produces the next symptom of Milk Cow Fever–a green sticky coating on the face, arms and blue jeans, caused by a mixture of colostrum and manure. When you go to the house to strain the small portion of the colostrum that went in the bucket, you realize it is 8 pm, no one has had supper, and your husband has to go to bed early to be up at 3 am. The husband, upon viewing your condition, asks to go to bed with no supper, and is believed to be suffering from the vicarious form of Milk Cow Fever.
But there is hope! A cure can be effected! Symptoms improve when you sit down to milk a nice, clean, gentle, easy-milking milk goat. In two minutes you have as much milk as it took 20 minutes to get out of the heifer. Said milk drunk with eggs fried in butter some one else made, a long soaking bath, followed by a well-earned night’s sleep will put the patient on the road to recovery. After all, tomorrow is another day!
Audrey Hacker
Lincoln, Arkansas
Pasteurized Juice
It is interesting for me as an apple grower just to see how pasteurization has played out amongst my friends. This is the year the FDA has finally whittled down to the core, making it illegal for even the smallest cider makers to wholesale their product. Now there are one or two big producers in each state who find it quite convenient that other orchards can’t compete. The middle-sized operations have shrugged their shoulders and accepted that they can only sell their best (unpasteurized) cider at the farmstead, and some of those folks buy in the pasteurized juice to give their customers a choice! The point being that the powers-that-be know how to divide producers into separate camps and then proceed without protest.
Sometimes I wonder whether at the heart of the official bad diet was an incredibly insidious plan to dumb and numb people to the point of total nonresistance. TV and public schooling certainly enhanced the effect. Right up there in the plan had to be getting farmers off the land. Any agrarian by rights has to think for him- or herself.
Michael Phillips
Groveton, NH
Rows of Pearls
We could not delay in writing this letter to let your readers know how powerful the combination of cod liver oil and butter has been for our children’s growing teeth. Our adopted twins turned three recently and went for their first dental checkup this week. Naturally we were a little nervous since they had had a rough start on cheap formula in the orphanage and we’ve been a little late in getting them off bottles.
Nevertheless, they had not a single cavity and their teeth are beautiful rows of perfectly formed pearls. What a blessing!
We know from experience that their diet made the difference because our first child had many cavities early on. During those years we were still deluded by the “cow’s milk is only for calves” idea that some of our vegetarian mentors had promoted. Then we found out about the Weston A. Price Foundation and switched to animal fats, whole raw milk and plenty of butter and cod liver oil right around the right around the time we got our twins. Just in time to make a world of difference for these kids.
Many thanks to everyone who has helped with the teaching of these important insights!
John Umlauf
Boston, New York
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