Message from the Editor: Winter and Spring Journals
Due to extreme demands on your editor, plus circumstances beyond our control that resulted in a very late Fall issue of Wise Traditions, we have decided to combine the Winter 2005 and Spring 2006 journals into one issue. This will allow us to get back on track with timely journals in 2006. We thank you for your patience in this matter!
Harmonious Enlightenment
Thank you so very much for accepting my application to be a chapter leader, as it connects me with such a wonderful family which has been doing so much good for mankind! Indeed, the honor is all ours here in this part of the world!
With our connection with your Foundation, more souls would be enlightened in the most harmonious manner and as such more lights will be put forth in bringing a bigger scale of enlightenment. We thank you for all the wonderful work you and your colleagues have been doing and we appreciate them highly.
We look forward to contributing our efforts–however small–into helping reach the goals set forth by your Foundation which in their truest essence represent all the needs of living souls. God bless you and all yours!
Dr. Kang-Pang Chan
Hong Kong
No More Asthma
I was talking to a friend last night who told me that while his son was drinking the raw goat’s milk, he had not one asthma attack. When it was gone, his son tried store-bought milk and had two attacks.
Billie Paxton
Elkview, West Virginia
Con-Ola
With great interest, I read your comments about canola oil on Dr. Mercola’s website. I am very curious about this oil: I have noticed it causes certain foods to go rancid sooner than later, plus it gives them an unpleasant odor and taste–one example is the corn bread I bought at Whole Foods. Also, it seems that whenever I consume foods prepared with canola oil, it feels as though I have major indigestion–the food sits like a rock in my stomach.
I think it takes quite a refined palate and sense of smell, as well as someone who is tuned in to his or her body, to detect the foul effects of canola oil in foods. It seems particularly evident in baked goods. They take on a funny smell and taste “weird.” For example, I tried a brownie (again from Whole Foods) and it tasted as though it were made with old fish oil! No one else seems to notice– except both my parents, who found that the oil had a peculiar and unacceptable odor right out of the bottle.
I walk through the amazing array of prepared foods at Whole Foods Market, feeling kind of left out, because they put canola in everything except the plain lettuce.
How did this insidious substance make its way into virtually everything that is on the market now? It’s in hummus–nearly every brand, everywhere! What happened to olive oil, if not extra virgin olive oil?
Naturally this forces me to prepare more foods at home, which I happen to love doing–I enjoy my own cooking! I suspect that when I feel as though I’m not digesting a meal I had out, they may very well have used canola in it. It’s pretty much guaranteed.
Here’s what I think, based on how I feel when I consume (accidentally or consciously) foods made with canola: I think that, like cottonseed oil, rapeseed oil was never intended–and remains unfit– for human and animal consumption (we’ve been giving our pets cancer for many years now). I think canola prevents digestion from the start, interfering with the breakdown of food in the stomach. At the very least I’ll wager that it likely prevents absorption of nutrients in the intestinal tract. I would not be surprised if it destroys flora as well, making us vulnerable to a host of disorders and diseases.
I believe we are setting our children up for failure with this and many other substances. Digestive failure, health failure. Only time will tell. And let’s not forget our elders who must consume institutional foods. . . who knows what’s used in those kitchens, but it would be no big surprise to find canola in everything. Anyone who’s worked in a nursing facility or a hospital knows how difficult it is for elders to have any kind of normal digestive function. Canola would only worsen this situation.
I long for the day where there is a mass outcry against canola oil, and for the time when places like Whole Foods wake up and walk their talk about caring about people’s health. For now, I just know this oil is bad news.
Laura De Ponte
Editor’s Response: Actually, rapeseed oil was used traditionally in many parts of the world. But there is a huge difference between the oil when is it extracted in small oil presses compared to the oil when extracted by industrial processing, which destroys the omega-3s in the oil, making them very difficult to digest. Trans fats may also be formed during the process. We should all write letters to markets and manufacturers that use canola oil, informing them that we will not purchase foods made with this modern, highly processed product.
For more on canola oil, read The Great Con-ola here.
No More Bingeing
I came across your information on the internet. I had spent the better part of my life, since my teen years to up to a few months ago (I’m almost 50), trying to stay on low-fat or no-fat diets. I would struggle terribly, fall off the wagon and binge on processed cakes, cookies and other packaged food. Ultimately, this landed me at a weight of 235 (at 5’3″!!). I felt miserable and discouraged.
When I read your information, I couldn’t believe it. Your advice went against everything I believed–or was told to believe! But I couldn’t go on as I was, so I plunged in. What amazed me was how “hungry” I was. My family too! We were drinking organic heavy cream straight from the carton, eating organic butter like crazy, steak with the fat, whole milk. . . I felt so good but was a little afraid we were all going to drop dead from a heart attack.
A few months later, our portions normalized and we all lost our cravings for bingeing on packaged foods. I never felt so good…and when I got on the scale, I had lost 15 pounds! I went to see my doctor who thought I was crazy for how I was eating but, amazingly, my blood pressure was normal (I’m off the meds) and my triglycerides and cholesterol levels had gone down. He had to admit that I was healthier!
But the best part of this is not what the numbers say but how I feel. What a difference–and to be free of all the bingeing.
My mother-in-law is a total no fat gal and she is plagued with health problems –osteoporosis and macular degeneration. She is blind in one eye and has only 30 percent sight in the other. She has dangerously high blood pressure and she has lost much of her hearing.
My mom, on the other hand, is in her 80s and so healthy. She never embraced the low fat movement. Her skin looks amazing. And she has tons of energy. Most people think she’s in her 60s. She has always eaten her butter, whole milk organic yogurt, cod liver oil and plenty of red meat–with the fat on. I should have always listened to her.
Recently she fell one night in the bathroom, and my Dad rushed her to the hospital (although she said she was fine). The doctors x-rayed her and then did a bone density test. The doctor came in the room looking perplexed and asked her what she ate. To his horror, she told him. But he had to shake his head and say, “Well, you must be doing something right because you have the bone density of a young woman–I’ve never seen anything like it!”
Meg Fisher
Cleveland, Ohio
Happier Kids
I was very much into letting my young children have more autonomy in food choices and in not requiring them to do certain things, like take cod liver oil, until they both turned up with cavities at their last dentist visit. The cavities are tiny and they don’t need to be filled, but given my knowledge I felt quite foolish. Our family made sweeping changes in diet, lifestyle and parenting after that. I say “no” more liberally and firmly, I require them to take cod liver oil and desserts are strictly limited. I expected all manner of hell-raising and rebellion. Instead I have been rewarded with significantly happier, more well-behaved children. Before, I was deeply anxious before for my children be “normal” like all the other kids, but I realized it’s better to spare them the “normal” diseases. It’s crazy, sometimes I feel guilty because they aren’t allowed to have the Capri Sun or the donuts and whatnot.
This is a very confusing time to be a parent, especially if you are into natural parenting as I am. I agree we all must find our way that works for us and avoid the dogma that is out there.
Elaine Marshall Fawcett
Portland, Oregon
Vaner’s Cats
For almost five years I have been doing an unscientific, uncontrolled experiment with soy involving cats. Bear in mind that more than a quarter of married couples in the US cannot conceive. Some of you may be familiar with “clover disease,” which happens when a sheep, cow or other animal gets too many legumes (alfalfa, clover, soy, peas, beans). One of our organic dairy farmers said he solved the problem getting his cows to cycle and settle when he switched from soybean meal to sunflowers. From my experience with legumes, too much means a bull can become sterile, while cows abort or do not get pregnant.
Knowing that soy can affect reproduction, about five years ago I started feeding soy-based dog food as part of the cat food for the wild cats on the farm to try to keep the reproduction rate down and maybe get the cat population to three or four so I would still have good gopher control.
It worked–sort of. Only the female cats that were adults when I started feeding soy get pregnant, and only the two adult males court females. The other females do not pregnant as long as they stay here and keep eating soy. The young females cycle but do not settle unless they leave and go the neighbors to eat for a couple of months. The first year all the males died; there are two from last year but they really aren’t active with the females so the older males do not need to drive them off. The only surviving female from last year got ovarian cancer this summer and I had her put down.
The litters that are born to the adult females have four to six kittens which usually die within minutes of birth. Of the 22 or so kittens that were born this spring, only four survived and only one of them is alive now. There were only three of the five adult females still alive this spring (one had cancer) so this summer the dominant male brought in three or four pregnant females from somewhere else; there are about 6-8 kittens still alive from them. The total number of cats here stays at about 20. Like all critters living in the wild there are some viruses that affect kittens, plus feline leukemia and they fall prey to predators, so this is not a controlled environment.
However, I grew up on a farm and have lived on this farm with wild cats for almost thirty years. My experiment has convinced me that soy is the critical factor in the birth survival rate of the kittens. If I could catch the females I could get them spayed but even at $150 per cat, it would not lower the total cat population–others would just move in.
June Varner
Little Falls, Minnesota
Traditional Diets for Rehabilitation
I have begun a new job as a cook at The Canyon, a high-end drug and alcohol rehabilitation center in Malibu California. (The website is www.thecyn.com.) It costs 36,000 dollars a month to stay there and it is owned by Fred Segal, the fashion designer. Fred has been doing the primal diet for several years now and wanted to implement some of it at the center, namely raw dairy products and raw fish (sushi, ceviche, etc.). On our own initiative, we have also begun to implement other healthy Weston Price food practices such as sourdough bread, cooking with stock, all organic produce, whey vinegar, raw ice cream, lard, etc. The results have been phenomenal–everyone loves the food and most of the clients say that they see a definite improvement in their health. Especially with the raw dairy and fat, they say that it cuts drug and food cravings, makes their skin less oily and fills them up quicker. In the past, I have had problems with alcoholism, drug addiction and bulimia. Once I started implementing the Weston Price diet in my life, especially tons of raw fat and raw dairy, I no longer craved alcohol or drugs and no longer engaged in binge eating. I knew that what had worked for me would also work for others and now I am beginning to see the physical proof of that.
Nathan Donahoe
Marina del Rey, California
Not on the Label
One thing I always tell people who think they are being so careful about their health drinking lowfat milk is the fact that it may contain powdered milk and doesn’t have to say so on the label because it is an industry standard. I got the distinct impression that the last person I told this to thought I was into conspiracy theories and so began my search for the the actual document wherein this is stated.
I couldn’t find it on the FDA website, but I am not too good at that kind of research. So I called the number on a carton of milk that my neighbor had to see what the producer’s PR people would say. Talk about a Kafkaesque experience!
After much skirting the issue the woman finally said that it’s not powdered milk that’s added but milk solids and that this is stated as such on the particular types of milk to which it is added. However she never did say whether there was such a regulation or not, thereby avoiding the question of whether it might in fact be in the other kinds of milk with no indication at all.
When pushed she did explain that milk solids are from “fluid milk that has the liquid removed.” After more prodding she did allow for how that was accomplished by heat. But still staunchly refused to call it powdered milk!
This was followed by a series of phone calls trying to find the people who actually made these milk solids, which took me through the labyrinth of corporate dairy–many names of many companies, of a constantly moving shell game, but all connected and became apparent when one frustrated woman on my sixth phone call transferred me to good old Tiffany, the woman who answered my first phone call.
Resorting to other means I finally found the actual regulations. They are in the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, Volume 6, Chapter 1, Subchapter E, Part 501. Item (3) states: Skim milk, concentrated skim milk, reconstituted skim milk and nonfat dry milk may be declared as “skim milk” or “nonfat milk. ” Item (4) states: Milk, concentrated milk, reconstituted milk and dry whole milk may be declared as “milk.”
Ellen Ussery
Hume, Virginia
Missing the Obvious
I recently had dinner with a PhD in osteopathic medicine. He is trying to spearhead a new program here at the University of Michigan in bone research. He designs and implements plastic replacement parts but he’s now interested in research for prevention. He said that bone loss and arthritis are reaching epidemic levels. He’s intent on studying femur bones from people 100 years ago.
That word prevention triggered my response. I found that he did not have a clue about 1) phytates leaching minerals from the body; 2) the importance of cartilage, bone broths, and connective tissue; and 3) vitamins A and D, plentifully available in cod liver oil, as essential for countermanding such losses. He was very interested, and I recommended all the literature from your website. How is it possible that a bone doctor interested in prevention can miss the obvious? It’s the diet! It’s time for doctors to start learning from scientists like Dr. Enig, and others at the Weston A. Price Foundation.
Neil Rishoi
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Inaccurate Picture
As one of your UK subscribers, I felt I must reply to the writer from Australia (Fall, 2005) and his views about his visit to my country. It is a shame that the food and supplements he found were of poor quality, but his letter paints a very inaccurate picture.
The UK has seen a revolution in recent years in the organic and health food sector and we have the most stringent standards set and monitored by our Soil Association. The majority of our highstreet supermarkets stock enormous ranges of organic produce, we have thriving healthfood stores in every big town, while farmers’ markets and farm shops are now commonplace.
I have just moved from the north of England further south and found to my delight no fewer than three food outlets in my town selling fresh produce including wonderful grass-fed meat, raw milk and organic free range eggs, in addition to a large choice of top quality supplements, without a drop of soy oil or hydrogenated fat to be seen! I have been eating organic for many years and have never found a greater choice than that now on offer.
Alison Dalby
Rugby, Warwickshire, UK
A Huge Thank You
I owe you a huge thank you for the article you posted on your website about Mary Megson’s work with autism. My daughter had a weird form of ADHD that was really scary and now after a few months of cod liver oil it’s all gone. And she went from not knowing any of the letters or numbers (dyslexia?) to knowing the whole alphabet, all the numbers and starting to read in just a few months. My husband’s ADD is getting much better also. We also switched to raw milk thanks to the Real Milk campaign. The health food store sells out by noon now, so I guess word is getting out.
Renate Haeckler
West Chester, Pennsylvania
Dry Kefir Culture
Thank you and all the folks at Wise Traditions for your hard work and continuous efforts over the years at providing life-saving information and facts.
This letter is to provide vital answers to a question in your Wise Traditions Summer 2005 Edition on page 26 about “Dry Kefir Culture.” (Posted on our Homemade Baby Formula FAQ) The question read: “Is Body Ecology’s dry kefir culture just as acceptable as the piima culture or culturing with kefir grains?” The question was answered in the negative because of concerns about the thickness of the culture.
However, you can control the thickness of the kefir when using the Body Ecology Culture Starter. For a thinner consistency for kefir used in making the baby formula recipe for instance, simply stop the fermentation process at 18-20 hours by placing the kefir in the refrigerator. If you prefer a thicker kefir, let the fermentation process go for a full 24 hours. It’s just that simple. If you want cheese or whey, let it sit out at room temperature for another 6 hours or longer. The “soft kefir cheese” will be at the top of the jar, and the cloudy whey will be in the lower half. The ideal temperature for fermentation is between 72 and 75 degrees.
According to Donna Gates, author of The Body Ecology Diet, “In Russia, kefir is given to babies diluted with bottled water at 4 months. Kefir is offered to Russian school children each morning, and we feel Americans should follow suit. If the inner eco-system is established at birth as nature intends, the baby can easily digest the mother’s milk. If a fermented easy-to-digest dairy food like kefir is introduced at this time, digestion and enjoyment of dairy will continue throughout life. By drinking Young Coconut Kefir (YCK), which is rich in dairy-loving beneficial lactobacillus, and beneficial yeast, this will also help ensure that these dairy foods are digested. Often times when one loses the ability to digest dairy foods, reestablishing these beneficial bacteria in the intestines in large quantities will allow one to digest dairy foods again. However the dairy foods should be reintroduced slowly so the microflora in the inner eco-system can readjust to what has now become a new food.”
As a Certified Body Ecologist who has studied with Donna, I can assure you that Donna has researched extensively over the years, and is continually expanding her knowledge of the system of healing promoted by Body Ecology and Wise Traditions. With the various pathogenic viruses and other microorganisms around the planet, we feel as though we are still struggling to get the word out. If Wise Traditions subscribers would like a free CD titled “Benefits of a Probiotic Diet,” please contact me at 1-866-4BEDIET.
Pam Craig
Fayetteville, Georgia
Real, Raw Milk
I am a 17-year-old gir l writing to encourage you and your Campaign for Real Milk. After studying pasteurization, homogenization, ultra-pasteurization, hormones, antibiotics, plus the living conditions and diet of the modern day dairy cow. . . I now have a Jersey named Buttercup. My sister and I milk her every morning and barter or give away our extra milk. In the future we would like to start a cow share since it is illegal to sell raw milk in Ohio.
My family and I realize the life-giving nutrients of real, raw milk. In fact, we know a 7-year-old boy who suffers from a rare disease called eosinophilic colitis, which only 300 people in the world have, and a high functioning form of autism called Asperger’s syndrome. He could only eat six foods, but surprisingly, his body accepted Buttercup’s whole, raw milk. We supplied him with milk for a while until we had to dry off Buttercup because she was expecting a calf. During those few months of no milk, he tried raw goat’s milk but his body didn’t accept it and he lost four pounds.
Finally, when we began milking again he gained 11 pounds. The transformation is miraculous! He now eats more than 20 foods, his face has color and he is friendly and not withdrawn.
However, not only does he drink the milk, he also spices up his food with raw butter, cream cheese and mayonnaise. Just last week when his mother told him to thank me, he did and then took a jar of milk off the counter and hugged it. Real milk has given him life!
I hope you will continue blazing the trail for raw milk because the health of our families depends on it.
Katelyn Wey
Not Brainwashed
I am currently a student in the dietetics program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I am so glad that I knew about your Foundation before I joined the program! It is often very frustrating to hear my teachers lecture because they just spit back the same politically correct information that the USDA and other governmental organizations provide. I feel like we are paying money to be brainwashed into supporting food habits that don’t really keep us healthy.
I almost went through the roof when one of my teachers discouraged me from recommending liver to a pregnant woman for fear of causing birth defects.
The other advice they keep providing also drives me mad! They run the whole litany of politically correct eating including: reduce saturated fat intake to prevent high cholesterol, stay away from coconut oil and butter, stay away from raw food, especially raw milk, etc., etc. I recently had to take a test about hypertension and cardiovascular disease and all the diet recommendations they wanted me to give were the same: keep fat intake to 30 percent of your calories, with no more than 7 percent as saturated fat; consume less than 200 mg cholesterol per day, eat 20-30 grams of fiber per day; and eat lots of fruits and vegetables. Nobody seems to be able to take a step back and look at the big picture. Nobody bothers to distinguish between natural saturated fats and hydrogenated saturated fats. Meanwhile, these same teachers that lecture to us about “healthy” eating are suffering from various health problems.
When I graduate, I will be glad to know that I have not been brainwashed, that I really understand the principles of a healthy diet and that I will be able to provide truly healthy eating plans to my clients. Thank you WAPF for all that you do! You are really making a difference in the world.
Julia Thompson
Elmhurst, Illinois
Further Encouraged
I am a 28-year-old female who was raised on a nourishing traditional diet without ever knowing about your work. I come from generations of people who used raw, whole, grass-fed dairy, beef and lard. We made our own kefir and butter, soaked our grains, pickled vegetables, haven’t ever used a microwave, never received a vaccination and were born through natural childbirth. I remember Grams and Mom telling me that you eat liver to help your liver, brain to help your brain. We were unconventional in our diets to say the least! But I never thought I would find an organization that espouses the right, whole, natural way to eat!
You are saving people’s lives. Our family is healthy, strong, bright and hasn’t broken a bone in generations! We could be a case study. Now that I have a chance to start my own family, I am even further encouraged because I have seen the difference in my life.
Ann Whitney
Whey Curdling Problem
In the last issue of Wise Traditions (Letters in Fall 2005), a reader wrote that she has had difficulty preventing her formula from curdling when heated. I had this same problem when I used whey leftover from cheesemaking. This whey contains some active rennet and even if the formula is only brought to room temperature, it will curdle. In the refrigerator, the curdling will occur more slowly, but even within 24 hours there is significant separation. Whey from cheesemaking (the whey typically sold at farms) cannot be used for the formula. For my own baby, I drain yogurt to obtain whey.
Katie Bush
Cedar Hills, Utah
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