FUNDING FOR RESEARCH LAB
When I saw your request for research funds it touched my heart. So many charity campaigns or health research campaigns (cancer research, heart disease, autism, etc.) are a waste of good money. When Weston A. Price is involved, I’m in! I quickly donated and felt good about it. I hope we meet our goal and it works out. Fred Kummerow is amazing—may he live many more years and pass his wisdom to Chris Masterjohn.
Stephen Foxman
Champlain, New York
WAPF PRINCIPLES
I have been a paying member of the WAPF for several years. The main reason I ended up at WAPF was to get away from diets and begin to eat real food. When I found WAPF I thought I had found my home―no diets, just real food, and then I learned about properly prepared foods, like soaking grains, which were not and are not evil. I also learned about healthy fats, organ meats, raw milk, cultured dairy and lactofermented foods.
Yes, I do understand there are folks who cannot eat grains and raw dairy, but why, oh, why is WAPF starting to become more of a GAPS or paleo diet site? I see little mentioned at the last conference and also in the last quarterlies about fermenting the gluten-containing grains and properly preparing beans (a food that has nourished many cultures throughout the globe).
My goodness, didn’t some of these cultures, Northern European for instance, survive on fermented glutencontaining grains?
Anyway, I would like to see “us” get back to WAPF principles and not be so swayed by the GAPS and paleo folks. Yes, I understand that some people can’t tolerate even soaked grains or raw milk, but please, let’s have more for us folks who eat grains, beans, and dairy and do just fine!
Jessica Warner
Fresno, California
Editor’s Response: You are right, the WAPF diet is inclusive of grains, dairy, and beans―it is not a paleo diet (see my President’s Message). The GAPS diet is meant to be temporary, allowing people to heal the gut and then consume grains, beans, and dairy again.
THRIVING ON RAW MILK FORMULA
I discovered raw milk a few years back, and am forever thankful for that discovery. For the first few years, I was just thankful to drink milk without throwing off my whole body. It was after the birth of my second child, however, that raw milk and the Weston A. Price Foundation began to play a big role in my life. Besides starting to overhaul the food choices I make for my family, I receive confirmation from your work of suspicions I have held about the food industry. It is validating, yes, but more so empowering.
I also wanted to thank you for the recipe for homemade formula. I suffered from postpartum depression after the birth of both my children, and had to stop nursing my second because I got so lost and depleted. Thank God I am now back on track and better than I was before! I credit whole food nutrition, yoga, and raw milk with the bulk of my rejuvenation. My son is thriving on his raw milk formula and his daily egg yolk, and my daughter guzzles her raw milk!
Katie M. Clark
Grandview Heights, Ohio
TOOTHACHE CURED
Recently I had a severe toothache which I treated in a much informed way thanks to Hal Huggins’s Uninformed Consent, the wonderful WAPF site, your comments on bacteria not being the cause of tooth decay, and the various fine discussion places on the internet. But the temptation to just give myself over into the hands of a dentist was high. I can easily see a mum with a couple of kids, a tight budget, not enough time, sleep deprived from her howling child―going straight to a dentist to fill, anesthetize, root-canal, antibiotic up her child, and put it out of its misery. Neuralgic pain from inflamed dental nerves is horrendous. Neuralgic pain from inflamed nerves when you are sitting in semiconfrontational meetings at work is probably career death. Thank heavens I was able to hide behind my computer last week.
Over the past week, I tried a combination of garlic chewing, clove chewing, salt water swishing, turmeric tea drinking, flax seed oil swishing and drinking (Seth Roberts), regular oil pulling (Ayurvedic), one and one half teaspoons cod liver oil morning and evening, gently brushing with baking soda or coconut oil, drinking nourishing broths, resting the inflamed side from chewing, resting as in being horizontal, sitting out in the warm sun over the weekend, knitting, not running around, being kind to myself.
Result: pain gone, infection pretty much gone (I will continue turmeric in warm raw milk for a week), face is throbbing no more, gums feel better, and bonus, my complexion feels like a baby’s bottom. All this oil swishing and cod liver oil drinking must be good for it! But it was a lesson. All this started because a dentist scraped off enamel near my gum line several years ago. The tooth was just never the same after that cleaning. The gouge became more sensitive as my gums eroded over the years. I did not pay attention. I intend to fix all that by re-mineralizing the enamel and improving my gum health.
My daughter’s teeth actually remineralized with Gerolsteiner water and butter! A weird combination you might say, but not really― if you consider the combination of minerals, fizz and fat soluble vitamins. She also thinks measurably better (she was studying for her exams).
My teeth are vastly improved from raw milk. But I need to take better care of that gouge, and my gums. Thank you again for everything you do.
Sushama Gokhale
Larkspur, California
FLUORIDE POISONING
When I began suffering from migraine headaches, I did research on this subject. After some process of elimination, I realized it was a fluoride rinse I was using, on top of all the other fluoride treatments I did because of a problem with sensitive teeth. I just Googled “can fluoride cause migraines?” and found the story (http://hartkeisonline.com/natural-health/meet-a-fluoridepoisoning- survivor/). When I read it I realized that all of the other symptoms I had were most likely caused by fluoride: gastrointestinal problems, skin problems, joint problems, as well as the migraines, lethargy and fogginess.
When I found the information, I almost cried from relief that I finally understood what was causing all of these embarrassing symptoms―I had become such a scatterbrained, forgetful ditz― and how to stop it. I did more research and tried to avoid fluoride in every way that I could by drinking and cooking with spring water, using a non-fluoride toothpaste and avoiding drinking tea. I feel so much better!
In the past, each time I’d visit my dentist and dental hygienist, my teeth would be more sensitive. My hygienist would have me try a different toothpaste for sensitive teeth; eventually, I tried them all. My sensitivity was getting bad. Even breathing with parted lips (in the winter) hurt. We had no options left so she had me start using a rinse too. That is what started the migraines. I had a terrible and somewhat scary choice to make: constant pain in the head or constant pain in the teeth.
I chose painful teeth, because I could have more control over it. I started avoiding fluoride.
After about a week of avoiding fluoride rinse, my migraines were gone and my teeth were getting sensitive again. I avoided putting anything cold in my mouth. A month later, at a Fourth of July picnic, my friend had chocolatecovered strawberries. (Does anyone really expect me to not have one?) I was trying to find them, but I guess they disappeared before I could get to them. She said, “Don’t worry, I have more in the fridge.” She pulled them out, and without thinking, I grabbed one and bit into it. After I already took the bite of a fresh-from-the-fridge strawberry I cringed, expecting a flash of intense pain. It never came. I was thrilled. No more sensitivity. The fluoride was also causing my teeth to be more sensitive too!
So, the next time I saw my dental hygienist, when she asked me how the sensitivity was (as she always did), I told her that it was almost gone. She asked me what did the trick. I told her avoiding fluoride had actually helped my sensitivity to go away. That seemed to be a stumbling block for her. She said she’d look into it, but she was obviously disturbed. The most she could bring herself to say was, “Well, everybody’s different.”
Adrienne Tanner
New Haven, Connecticut
UN AGENDA 21 CONSPIRACY THEORY
I am concerned about the promotion of the UN Agenda 21 takeover conspiracy theory, which WAPF reported on its website on February 11, 2013 (www.westonaprice.org/farm-a-ranch/agenda-21). The Agenda 21 conspiracy is a couple of decades old and targets my profession, which is urban and regional planning. As a planner at the heart of one of the most volatile endangered species protection efforts in U.S. history, the protection of the federally endangered Florida manatee, I have been personally accused of promoting the UN takeover of the United States by Agenda 21 conspiracy theorists because I worked on behalf of endangered species protection. Consequently, I came to know the conspiracy before many, I have publicly debated the conspiracy theorists and I have crushed their arguments. The arguments today are as baseless as ever.
According to the article, “Here’s how Big S Sustainability works: If you own livestock and they can drink from a creek, then they want you to permanently fence off your own land to prevent any upset of potential fish habitat. If you want to irrigate your crops and somebody decides it isn’t good for a certain insect, then you no longer have irrigation rights.”
Here is what Agenda 21 actually says, which doesn’t remotely reflect what the article states: “Water-supply for livestock: i. Improve quality of water available to livestock, taking into account their tolerance limits; ii. Increase the quantity of water sources available to livestock, in particular those in extensive grazing systems, in order to both reduce the distance needed to travel for water and to prevent overgrazing around water sources; iii. Prevent contamination of water sources with animal excrement in order to prevent the spread of diseases, in particular zoonosis; iv. Encourage multiple use of water-supplies through promotion of integrated agrolivestock-fishery systems; v. Encourage water spreading schemes for increasing water retention of extensive grasslands to stimulate forage production and prevent run-off.”
The above is only a portion of what Agenda 21 encompasses regarding the promotion of livestock. It is clear that Agenda 21 is not opposed to the raising of livestock if one takes the time to actually review the policies it lays out.
The article goes on to state: “Vegetarianism is a major tenet of Sustainable Development. Agenda 21 focuses on the goal of eliminating meat consumption and using pastures to grow wheat, corn and soy for human consumption. To get us to comply, we’re told in endless propaganda campaigns that meat is dangerous and the vegan lifestyle is the only healthy alternative.”
If this were the case, why would one of the foci of Agenda 21 be livestock production? Agenda 21 talks a lot more about how to promote livestock than I listed above.
The article relates the California smelt issue to Agenda 21. This is a ridiculously flawed effort at promoting the conspiracy. The smelt issue is a United States Endangered Species Act concern and it is completely inappropriate to draw a comparison between established U.S. law (since 1967/72 depending on which version) and UN recommendations for sustainability established in 1992.
The hyperbole from the article would be laughable if it wasn’t so damaging and undermining of environmental protection. The author can’t even get his agencies correct, as the smelt is protected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an arm of the Department of the Interior, not the Environmental Protection Agency, as the author states: “Out-of-control environmental regulations destroyed the livelihood of all the farmers in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the richest agricultural region in the U.S., when the water was shut off by the EPA to protect a two-inch long fish called the delta smelt. The San Joaquin Valley used to grow twenty billion dollars worth of vegetables and fruit per year, more than any individual state in America. California has a new endangered species on its hands―farmers!”
I have been an award-winning planner working on sustainability issues since I received my Masters degree in 1991 from Florida State University, and I was deeply involved with the practices that John Hammell demonizes. In my professional life I couldn’t afford to be wrong or else my work would be legally overturned, and I regularly exploded the myths promoted by people like John Hammell.
Florida led the American sustainability effort with the passage of the Comprehensive Planning and Growth Management Act of 1985, well before Agenda 21. Other states followed. Agenda 21 is very much reflective of sound planning principles that had been in place for at least seven years in America. States have passed “Takings” laws that protect landowners from overly burdensome regulations, and those same regulations have stood in the way of needed environmental protections―it is a long and convoluted story, but suffice it to say that no one loses the ability to use their land profitably. In fact, the ability to effectively plan for and balance growth and development with environmental protection has been undermined by a gradual erosion of planning laws over the last two decades.
I could continue to critique the UN Conspiracy theory but will stop after addressing this hyperbolic statement, which cannot be factually supported, which sows discord and isn’t remotely truthful: “The end goal of the peoplepushing of this agenda is to have vast areas made off limits to human beings and to cluster people into envisioned futuristic ‘sustainable’ hive-like cities inside which every aspect of our lives is to be dictated, and from which travel is to be very highly restricted.” Whenever you read a statement like that, a statement that seems over the top and fantastical, please take a moment and research. If the argument can’t be supported by the documentation being critiqued, please do not promote it further because you will be growing confusion and discord. Critical thinking is imperative to our survival. Questioning everything is imperative, and acting or not acting based on facts will be the foundation of success as we build alliances to ensure that the Earth will sustain us and the creatures who manage to hang on in spite of us.
Laura Combs
Raleigh, North Carolina
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
In his “Farm and Ranch” (Winter 2012), WAPF Chapter Leader John Hammell expresses his disdain for the movement known as “Sustainable Development” by stating: “It elevates nature above man.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Is Mr. Hammell implying that man (including Mr. Hammell) is above Nature? Is that a tenet of the Weston A. Price Foundation?
John Hammell’s thinking represents for me the machismo of patriarchal culture that glories in its ability to conquer and subdue Nature by such technological feats as diverting the course of rivers solely for human profit. From my perspective, Mr. Hammell and others like him are as disoriented as a fish out of water, especially that puny fish, the delta smelt, that he has no time for. As a long-time WAPF member and supporter, I would like to know why the organization sanctions the public expression of such attitudes by members of its leadership.
Lucille Balukian
Wayne, Pennsylvania
ENVIRONMENTALISM AGAINST FARMS
Thank you for your article on Agenda 21. I wonder whether Agenda 21 was behind the efforts to eliminate the woodlands-foraged pigs of Mark and Jill Baker in Marion, Michigan; I am certainly suspicious. Last spring the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) went on a mission to eradicate the heritage pigs, calling them a feral invasive species. This move would wipe out the entire small-scale farm whose animals pose no threat to typical hog species. New blockages from multiple government agencies are making it impossible for the Bakers to to run the farm. If the Michigan DNR is successful, we can expect to see further moves to eliminate pigs (and other animals) raised outdoors, with environmental concerns given as justification.
John Hanson
Santa Monica, California
RAW MILK FOR CROHN’S DISEASE
I was diagnosed with Crohn’s and colitis in 2006. I was a junior in college when I first heard the devastating news of my condition. I had spent three weeks in the hospital being fed through a bag because my intestines had completely closed! I was twenty years old. I have since had numerous hospital stays as well as a major bowel resection surgery in 2009, and six more surgeries in the last two years. I graduated with a BFA degree in 2007 and went to work right away. I also have gotten married and bought a house with my husband. Still, every day is a struggle living with my severe Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.
Last year amidst more surgeries and devastating news regarding my disease I first heard about raw milk’s positive health benefits for diseases. Because of the long standing stigma against raw milk, I immediately decided to research my options before trying it. After many articles and lots of research, I felt confident enough to give raw milk a try.
Many people with digestive diseases feel ill effects rather quickly after consuming food or drinks. I drank regular pasteurized milk many years ago and would have bowel movements, cramping and bloating minutes after. Coffee is another drink that I had to give up because of the effects it would have on my body, effects that would last for hours.
When I drank my first glass of raw milk, I felt no negative symptoms at all. I waited another few hours, expecting to have diarrhea and bloating. After a few hours, still no signs of any bad reaction. I was stunned and elated! I continued cautiously drinking the raw milk. I noticed within the first few days, I felt less cramping of my intestines and fewer, more formed bowel movements. Since then, I have been drinking at least two glasses of raw milk a day. It has helped my intestines get much needed probiotics as well as give my body much needed immunity.
I still maintain my doctor’s orders for my medications. But I do feel that together with raw milk and traditional medications, I am getting the best wellrounded care I can give to myself. Even with my changing symptoms, my husband and family have been the biggest support for me.
With them at my side I have managed to make it through every obstacle and challenge Crohn’s throws at me. I have found that becoming an activist for the disease and speaking out about my experience with raw milk and Crohn’s has given me the courage to keep moving on with life.
Kristin Gray
Danielson, Connecticut
CELL PHONE DANGERS
In the early 1900s, the cancer rate was half of what it is today, and childhood cancers and autism were rare. Now childhood leukemia increases 2 percent every year, and autism is on the rise. Why?
Did you know that the instructions that come with most cell phones recommend that the phone be held from five-eighths to one inch from the head, and also that calling time be “limited”? Why do the manufacturers recommend this?
With the recent adoption of cell phone usage worldwide beginning about a decade ago, electromagnetic “pollution” has increased to the point that everyone now lives in an “ocean” of unnatural electromagnetic energy. Just as with smoking and lung cancer, scientists believe there is a ten-year or greater latency period before cancer begins to appear from electromagnetic exposure. Are we now on the verge of a new cancer epidemic?
I strongly suggest that your readers watch the documentary film, Resonance-Beings of Frequency, about the biological effects of man-made electromagnetic energy in our environment― from power lines, cell phones, appliances, and so forth.
When I first looked into this subject in the 1980s, there was no conclusive evidence of danger. Now there is! I guarantee that you will be shocked by what is revealed in this film.
By the way, I just tested my wife’s iPhone and I was ‘shocked.’ My meter measures both microwaves and magnetic fields. Not only did the phone put out the expected microwaves, which are the waves that transmit signals to and from the towers, but it also generated a huge electromagnetic field. The phone spiked my meter from three feet away using the one-to-one-hundred scale. (I usually use the more-sensitive one-to-three scale to measure appliances.) I have never seen such strong fields from any appliance― that’s what was so shocking.
Roger Windsor
A farm in Tennessee
ELECTROSMOG
I really appreciate your including stories about electrosmog in Wise Traditions (Spring, 2013).
I’ve been researching problems with compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) for nearly ten years, and I did not know about the cracked coating that John Moody reports. Thank you, John, for this info. However, his piece did not illuminate the health problems that arise because 1) most fluorescents do not provide full spectrum light, and 2) all fluorescents are designed for direct current electricity. To access the alternating current at most outlets, the bulb must go through a switch-mode power supply. (This is true for most electronics.) This puts high frequencies (dirty power) on the wires in your home, office, school or hospital.
Because of CFLs’ detrimental effects on children’s behavior, a Maine legislator has recently proposed banning them from that state’s public schools. My forthcoming book, An Electric Silent Spring, will cover this topic more thoroughly.
Katie Singer
Santa Fe, New Mexico
SALMONELLA AND PASTEURIZATION
Undoubtedly our food is in an evergrowing danger of contamination by assorted viruses and bacteria before it reaches our tables. Long transports, unsuitable handling of the food, unhealthy, cramped living conditions for many of the animals that we eat or that produce our staple foods like dairy products, meat or eggs, create prime conditions for contamination.
Every now and then we hear of people getting ill from consuming contaminated foods. Worse, the infections caused by many of the bacteria found in contaminated food today are becoming more and more difficult to treat. This is the result of indiscriminate and often unnecessary use of antibiotics as preventive medicine; for instance in chicken and pig feeds, and for rearing calves. The routinely recommended use of intra mammary antibiotics in many countries when drying off the cows before calving, even if their udders are absolutely healthy, is another extremely unfortunate method of trying to keep the udders of our cows healthy. This uncontrolled use of antibiotics in healthy animals has created innumerable cases of resistant bacteria, now causing infections that are very difficult or even impossible to treat.
Sweden has always had an extremely strict and restrictive policy in the use of antibiotics, in animals as well as in humans. For this reason the amount of resistant infections used to be much less frequent in that country than in the rest of Europe. Today however, due to the increasing international travels and the very open immigration policy of Sweden, this country now also has imported multiple resistant infections.
The vicious intestinal virus known as ESBL used to be very unusual in Sweden, but now there are new cases appearing every day. “With the appearance of ESBL–Carba we are back to 2003, when this virus first appeared,” says Dr. Johan Tham. “The difference is that we then had a vast selection of very efficient antibiotics to work with. Today we don’t, as the virus has become resistant to them all. This makes it very difficult, even impossible, to treat many of these cases.”
The appearance of this kind of infection can be prevented by a careful hygiene: washing your hands before eating or touching food, taking care to use only clean products when preparing the meals. Also, the virus is killed by thorough heating before consuming.
In Europe there have been several cases of intestinal infections caused by salmonella over the last years. In most cases they were thought to be related to different kinds of vegetables, like soya sprouts and baby lettuce. It seems that the vegetables had been irrigated with water that might have been contaminated by slurry from dairy farms upstream. There have also been cases of salmonella in meat. Again, the infectious agent seems to have been bovine feces, possibly contaminating the meat at the slaughterhouse.
There can also be unexpected risks of contamination. If we choose to eat food prepared by others, there can be some “hygienic surprises.” A hidden camera in a McDonald’s in Sweden showed the personnel stepping on the cut lettuce trying to press it into boxes from where it was then served to the customers.
Although most of the salmonella infections can be traced back to the feces of infected animals: chicken, pigs or cows, or even reptiles, like tame snakes, it is extremely infrequent to find salmonella virus in the udder of cows. When milk is contaminated by salmonella is it almost exclusively due to lacking hygiene when milking, feces sticking to the teats and not being properly cleaned before milking. But more often the infection seems to be caused by contaminated water, by feces from infected animals like rats or birds, from dust or from the person milking. There have been cases of mastitis caused by salmonella, in which case salmonella is in fact excreted from the udder, but this is extremely rare.
Of course, when choosing to consume raw milk, it is extremely important to know the farm where the milk comes from, and to know that the cows are healthy and the farmer trustworthy. Applying today’s milking routines, it is extremely unlikely that the milk should become contaminated during milking.
I understand that in the U.S. there are special farms certified to be able to sell raw milk, where a strict control and hygiene is always maintained. However, it is always of vital importance to check on the conditions in which the cows are kept and the milking is carried out. I vividly remember being taken to one “ecological” farm, where the cows were standing knee deep in the muck and mud and where somatic cell counts were soaring. The “ecological” side was that the cows were allowed “out” in this muddy corral and that no antibiotics were used.
However, if the milk comes from healthy cows that are milked properly in clean conditions there should be no problem whatsoever in consuming unpasteurized milk. In fact, the pasteurized milk can easily be contaminated after pasteurization, and the infections and deaths that have been attributed to milk has been due to pasteurized milk, not to raw milk.
Since arriving in Argentina in the 1960s, I and my family have been thriving on raw milk. In the beginning we had no dairy, only two or three Holstein cows that were milked by hand every morning, outside and maybe not always in the best hygienic conditions. Our three boys were brought up on this raw milk, homemade butter, cheese and yogurt and we never experienced any health problems. On the contrary, they are today grown up men and all three are healthy enough and still prefer to drink their milk raw.
Today we have a herd of three hundred fifty cows, and being Swedish Reds, our cows have an excellent health status: very low cell-counts (good udder health being a characteristic trait of this breed), high in solids and free of TB and brucellosis. Also our cattle graze outside and receive only very little grain at milking time.
Therefore the sometimes ferocious and untrue attacks on the raw milk consumers do seem quite inexplicable to us, who have enjoyed the raw milk for decades.
When reading in a British dairy magazine that “the small but significant group that insists on consuming raw or non-pasteurized milk and dairy products, regularly succumbs to zoonotic infections from the milk they consume. . .” (International Dairy Topics, Volume 12 No 1, 2013 ), one cannot but wonder what interests incite a person to publish this kind of totally unfounded information. Not only do I speak from my own personal experience, but from that of many friends who regularly consume unpasteurized milk and dairy products, simply because it tastes better and is healthier. The author and publisher of the British journal probably does not realize that many of the enzymes and vitamins are destroyed in the pasteurization process, making the pasteurized milk difficult to digest for many, and much less nutritious for the consumer. The author is also unaware of (or chooses to ignore) the fact that many famous French cheeses build their reputation on the very special results with raw milk. Should these consumers “regularly succumb to zoonotic infections” the production of raw milk would in all likelihood be forbidden.
Elisabeth Avedano
Trenque Lauquen, Argentina
WHAT THE COWS PREFER!
I am writing this letter in regard to genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Shortly after GMOs were planted, I decided to test how well the cattle liked them. I give grain to the bulls a few weeks before I turn them in with the cows on the first of June.
I was running short of organic corn and went to a neighbor who is a seed corn dealer, to see whether he had any GMO corn. He sold me two five-gallon pails of the corn. Nice bright yellow corn.
The next morning in feeding the bulls, I carried out one fivegallon pail of organic corn and one of GMO corn. I was feeding them in two feed bunks, so I put the GMO corn in a bunk first. The bulls never even tasted it. They followed me around to the other bunk where I put the organic corn. They went straight to eating it. Before GMOs, if we didn’t get our corn harvested before the snow got too deep, we would just leave it and harvest in the spring.
With so much GMO corn being planted now, we have to get our organic corn harvested in the fall. If we have to leave it, the deer find it and harvest it for us—they don’t want GMO corn either.
Donald Jarrett
Britton, South Dakota
A BLESSING AND A GIFT
I’m writing this letter feeling very blessed and thankful. I have a thirteenmonth- old daughter and another baby on the way. At age forty, I attribute my past and present excellent health and being able to naturally conceive to my nutritional choices as well as through God’s grace.
For years I was a “healthy eater,” shopping at farmers markets and preparing much of my food. However, I was a semi-vegetarian who ate fish, tofu and other soy products. I had no idea about the downside of industrial oils or the difference between the words pasteurized and pastured; and I had bought into the myths about lowfat and cholesterol proclaimed by our government, schools and media.
Thanks to WAPF and the unprecedented chapter network I learned, before it was too late, the importance of vitamins A, D and K, B6 and B12, choline, cholesterol, salt, bone broth and enzyme-rich foods. I also learned to avoid processed foods, soy, industrial fats and oils and MSG. I learned to prepare my body nutritionally for carrying a baby and how to nourish her once she arrived. I feel that one of the biggest gifts I can give my children is the love of real and unprocessed foods and to help them fall in love with the tastes and how they make them feel; as well as to have an appreciation for where and how the food is grown and gets to their plates.
It has been one of my greatest joys feeding our daughter nutrient dense, traditional foods. She truly loves her liver, cod liver oil, sauerkraut and other foods. It takes planning but in the end feeding our daughter the foods we eat rather than a special “kid-friendly” food like go-gurt, puffs and other processed foods is actually much easier and more economical!
Even as a certified holistic health coach and educator, I feel that I’m continually learning. WAPF has been there to support me with responsiveness and insightful answers to questions, providing materials that I read, re-read and read again and pass along to my clients, friends and family. Thank you for following your passion and vision to educate, advocate and research— and for not getting off-course with the flavor-of-the-month agenda or the temptation to profit by pushing products or services that are not necessarily in the best interest of your readers and members. Thank you for connecting me to the famers and creating a web of trusted chapter leaders who are connecting people all over the world. Thank you for making a difference at the grassroots level with consumers who care and where real change is happening.
Leslie T. Schall
Herndon, Virginia
FORBIDDEN FOODS
I’m in Malaga, Spain doing seminars and couldn’t help but think of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Yesterday we visited one of the acorn-pig operations, the Dehesa. The Romans introduced these farmers to salt-curing pork. It became strategically important after Spain threw off the Arabs, who had thrown off the Romans, and once the Spanish empire began sending ships to the New World during the 1500s. They desperately needed protein that could withstand months at sea, and the Iberian salt-cured pork industry really took off.
Interestingly, when the Conquistadors took the Americas, they couldn’t believe how strong and healthy those cultures were: the Incas and Aztecs. Had it not been for metal and gunpowder, the Europeans wouldn’t have stood a prayer. The Conquistadors brainstormed how these superior human specimens came to be, and finally concluded it was quinoa and amaranth grain―these were unknown in Europe.
As a result, the first thing the Spaniards did when they seized these areas and established their governmental authority was to outlaw quinoa and amaranth throughout the Spanish empire. They did not want their subjects to develop superior body types that could throw off their Spanish oppressors. I was unable to find out whether the Spanish royalty could eat these grains or not; my understanding was that they were simply universally banned in the empire generally, and the Americas specifically.
That brings up two interesting thoughts: first, wouldn’t it have been a different situation in the U.S. if we had developed grain from the meso-America germ plasm rather than the middle eastern germ plasm? And second, could there be some subliminal consciousness going on in the U.S. hierarchy that fears superior humans who eat WAPF-type foods? And of course, it shows that denying food choice is not new.
Joel Salatin
Swoope, Virginia
DRAMATIC EFFECT
I just wanted to thank you so much for all the information on the Weston A. Price Foundation. I have read all the literature and made a few changes to my diet that have had a dramatic effect already. The main changes have been to switch to the WAPF recipe for bread (delicious and so filling!) add a daily dose of sauerkraut (which I have never eaten before) and to eat as much butter, cream and Jersey milk as I want.
Having struggled with my weight for the last twenty-five years (Ever since I ate vast quantities of soya for a couple of years) I was a little bit scared to try eating so much saturated fat, as convention tells me that I would gain weight. But it is now obvious to me that weight has definitely nothing to do with calories; since the festival I should have put on at least half a stone with the amount of calories that I have eaten, but I have lost five pounds and it was so easy! I never felt hungry or deprived once! I also feel much happier, my eyesight is improving daily and the dreadfully dry skin I have been suffering from has improved dramatically. I can not thank you enough!
Karen Coker
Hemel Hempstead, UK
WAPF COURSES AT HAWTHORN UNIVERSITY
I want to thank you so much for creating the Wise Traditions Nutrition Consultant certification program at Hawthorn University! I am truly grateful. For years I wanted to get a nutrition consultant certification, but the programs I looked at were just more of the same nutrition misinformation. So I was so happy when the Wise Traditions courses became available.
I think the classes and material are excellent and I learned so much!
Mary Larkin
San Rafael, California
Editor’s Response: Hawthorn’s WAPF certificate is designed for students who want an academic credential that is shorter than an associate, bachelor’s, or master’s degree. Generally, in a certificate program courses are focused on a specific topic such as the Weston A. Price principles. Students who are interested in this certificate have told us that they want to review or master the subject matter contained in the courses. Other students already hold a college degree and wish to gain the specific knowledge that is offered in the WAPF courses to use in their professional careers or to enhance wellness in their own lives. Graduates of Hawthorn’s WAPF Certificate Program, who have a bachelor’s degree, may transfer all of the WAPF courses to pursue a Master of Science in Traditional Nutrition degree at Hawthorn.
🖨️ Print post
Leave a Reply