Letters, Winter 2017

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FRESH MILK IS HEALTHY!
My daughter’s opera company, Orlando Youth Opera, is presenting Brundibar by Czech composer Hans Krása. The opera was composed right before World War II and tells the story of a brother and sister who search for fresh milk for their ailing mother. Many lines celebrate milk, butter, cream and cheese! One of my favorite lines is “Who needs a doctor’s care? That’s for the wealthy. Milk and cream your mother needs. Fresh milk is healthy!”

It makes me happy to hear these children singing about milk—especially knowing the composer meant real raw milk from a Czech family farm!

Lee Burdett
Altamonte Springs, FL

A WAPF-INSPIRED BUSINESS
I’ve been following the WAPF recommendations since I first learned about Weston Price’s work in 2008 (right after my son Oliver’s birth). In fact, I was so very moved and inspired by Dr. Price’s work that we named our second son for him. After my first attempted home birth resulting in a C-section, I was beyond thrilled to give birth to Weston at home, safe in my own space, with no complications. It has truly been life-changing to be on this journey to better health through dietary changes and traditional nourishing foods!

I will advertise in the journal very soon, but I wanted to let you know that we have a small but long-established prepared foods business, the Oliver Weston Company. We use all WAPF-approved ingredients and cooking methods, providing soy-free pastured eggs and poultry, fully pastured meats, beef tallow, lard, coconut oil, Himalayan pink salt, raw honey and grade B maple syrup. We soak and cook our beans in bone broth with kombu. We make gluten-free “sourdough” breads by fermenting whole millet and buckwheat grains. We ferment locally grown and organic produce into delicious cultured veggies. And, of course, we make bone broths with pastured bones and spring water—this is what we started with!

It has been a journey and we recently took a big plunge and rented our own kitchen with shop in Red Hook, New York (in the lovely Hudson Valley). We are slowly gaining local customers and continue delivering to New York City twice weekly, directly to our customers’ homes. We especially love serving people who are seeking the highest quality food or recovering from illness, and also families with young children.

Our three boys have been raised this way and are beautiful, healthy children. Thanks to your work, and the work of Dr. Campbell-McBride, we have been able to address digestive issues in our first son and our marriage has been saved since getting off of gluten and sugar (my husband suffers a great deal of depression when he has these things).

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. We seek to educate and support everyone who is searching for a better way, as you and the Foundation do as well.

Hannah Springer
Chapter Leader
Dutchess County, New York

CHILDREN WITH HIGH IMMUNITY
One evening in the fall of 1999, on a whim, I went to the presentation, Oiling of America, in Nashua, New Hampshire. Little did I know how my life would change that night. I walked out of the meeting “on cloud nine” as my husband put it, because I had found someone unafraid to speak the truth regarding nutrition.

As a dietitian, I had struggled with the current lowfat tenets and with the pressure to promote margarine and vegetable oils, intuitively knowing this advice was wrong. WAPF validated my suspicions and I wholly embraced its philosophy. I became a chapter leader and never once looked back.

Fast forward nearly twenty years—I now have three children, all WAPF babies, all incredibly healthy and bright. (My daughter is a freshman at Fryeburg Academy High School where she is one of only two students, in a class of one-hundred-and-fifty, eligible to take Honors Algebra II.)

My son’s best friend was recently diagnosed with pertussis. The condition actually went undiagnosed for three weeks, while this young boy coughed and coughed in our car and at our house. His mother, knowing my children were not vaccinated, called to alert me to his diagnosis. I was never worried, knowing that the foods we were eating would protect them. To the surprise of friends and family, my kids never came down with even a slight cough.

This is just one of many examples of how WAPF has affected our health over the years, and I cannot count the ways your work has helped family and friends, too.

Indeed, my life changed on that fateful night in Nashua so many years ago. I have only immense gratitude for the advice that WAPF provides through its website, journals, and presentations.

Donna Dodge, Chapter Leader
Denmark, Maine

VACCINATION AGENDA FOR ADULTS
Check out this article in the September issue of the AARP Bulletin, setting the stage for forced vaccination of older adults just as the stage has previously been set for children from birth to eighteen, and now into the college years: aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2017/adult-vaccinations-risk-fd.html.

First, vaccination laws targeted the helpless infants and toddlers who couldn’t verbalize what was happening inside their brains and bodies post-vaccination. Next, they targeted school-age children, and now college-age young adults, withholding school entrance and sometimes medical care from them unless they comply with scores of extremely dangerous, health-destroying, life-shortening vaccines. At the same time, they forced numerous vaccines on all military personnel, denying them the most fundamental freedoms of self autonomy and bodily integrity, while at the same time telling them they are putting their lives on the line in order to protect and uphold our “freedom” in America. Most recently, they targeted babies in the womb, lying to their pregnant mothers by telling them they must have multiple vaccines during their pregnancies in order to protect their developing babies.

Now, they are targeting older adults (already happening in hospitals and elder-care facilities, and of course, at each and every doctor visit). Soon, doctors will be kicking out seniors who refuse vaccinations, and Medicare and health insurance companies will no doubt soon require vaccinations as a prerequisite for coverage.

Young and middle-aged adults, you are the last bastion—and you will be next. There will be no driver’s license or passport renewals for you soon, no health insurance coverage unless you comply, nor will you be allowed to travel, maybe not even shop. Yes, it is coming. Unless we put a stop to it.

It appears that it is going to get worse before it gets better, if it ever gets better. Time will tell. We are living in tyrannical times. Don’t be deceived that we are living in “the land of the free.” When the powers that be dictate that heinous concoctions, by the score, and with no liability, be injected into your children, your aging parents, and you, you are not free.

Laura Hayes
Granite Bay, California

A GRANDMOTHER’S TESTIMONIAL
This was a testimonial I published on the Nourishing Our Children blog, and hoped it may inspire others!

Becky Audet Comeau explains that this photo was captured (next page) “when food was food and we grew almost everything we ate, and food was homemade. My parents also drove ten miles round-trip to buy raw milk. This would have been 1953 or so. I’ll be sixty-eight in a few weeks which proves it’s never too late to start, or go back to what you knew as a child.” Today, Becky posted in our Nourished Children forum on Facebook, and her words moved me to tears. I’ve been supporting community members like her for twelve years and this is what makes it all worthwhile.

Becky continues: “I so appreciate this group and I have learned so much! Thank you all for the things that you contribute. Our dietary habits have changed one hundred eighty degrees and we are all the healthier for it. I am an active grandmother in my eight-year-old grandson’s life, and now fix him a wonderful breakfast every day of sausage and farm eggs cooked in a tablespoon of excellent butter. That plus a spoonful of cod liver oil and a glass of raw milk and he is off to school. He is looking and feeling healthier and his eczema and other skin conditions have completely cleared up. I also make his school lunch now and pack healthy nutritious foods in it. We do give him the option of school hot lunch maybe once a month, and in printing that menu today, I saw that the children have an option of either lowfat or 1 percent milk. It made my blood boil to see how government interference has negatively affected the school lunch programs. Our refrigerator is filled with whole raw milk that we get here in Colorado Springs and we are so blessed to have this.”

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BECKY AUDET COMEAU’S LIST

1. No processed food, everything is homemade
2. Raw milk from a local farmer
3. Farm eggs from a different local farmer
4. Organic everything including bananas
5. Grass-fed beef (we bought a split quarter from a local rancher)
6. Organic chicken, locally obtained
7. No more supermarket meats at all (actually buy little from supermarkets in general)
8. Eating liver and lots of it
9. Organic butter and lots of it
10. No artificial or vegetable oils
11. Using avocado or olive oil
12. Lard for pie crust (no Crisco)
13. Organic flour (no Roundup) and sprouted when I can get it
14. Butter in baked goods
15. Heat-popped organic popcorn
16. Discontinued use of microwave (threw it out)
17. No sugary cereals; limit grains in general
18. Emphasis on low sugar food in general
19. No Fake Food [Emphasis is Becky’s]
20. No fast food
21. Homemade ice cream
22. Plain, organic, full-fat yogurt or homemade
23. No more orange juice or juice of any kind
24. Making fermented foods
25. Kombucha
26. Bone broths
27. Locally or single obtained honey, maple syrup, olive oil
28. Grinding coffee beans, Parmesan cheese, other cheeses, bread
29. Discontinued use of antibacterial soap
30. Using natural-based soaps (olive)
31. Avoiding chemicals in personal and skin care products
32. Discontinued use of most commercial toothpaste, and nothing with fluoride
33. Homemade almond milk
34. Nothing GMO
35. Water filters in showers
36. Water purifier for drinking water
37. Threw out my cookware and replaced them with cast iron

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She went on to add: “You have influenced me deeply and I’ve subsequently been able to influence others. I know now this message is carried one-by-one to those who are willing to dig for information and challenge the SAD [Standard American Diet]. It’s work to change deeply embedded ways and ideas. Just for the fun of it, I made a list of the things and foods we have changed. It’s now over thirty-five things. Some small, like the kind of salt we buy. Some are huge, like the water purification system and shower filters we installed. The goal is gut health and complete health. I could not have done it without you.”

When and how did you learn about us, I asked? “A few years ago I lived in Florida and was attending, a nutrition talk at a local chiropractor’s office. He was all about the Weston A. Price Foundation teachings and was attending their seminars. I thought it was great and true information but did not fully grasp the importance of it all. My life got crazy and I backslid. Fast forward to last October. In complete desperation with obesity, I joined Weight Watchers. I did well but soon became disillusioned with the fake food and the empty nutrition they espouse. I started searching and saw something that triggered what I had learned in Florida. So we revisited the WAPF info and jumped in. I just followed the trail of breadcrumbs and became a student of the Weston A. Price Foundation and its teachings. The information and assistance is all there but you have to be willing to cleanse your mind of all of the misinformation. By the way, I’ve now lost fifty-five pounds and I’m loving the butter.”

I think that is a positive note to end on!

Sandrine Perez, Founder
Nourishing Our Children
Portland, Oregon

NUTRITION AND DISEASE IN SRI LANKA
It would come as no surprise to most Wise Traditions readers that over the past few decades the “displacing foods of modern commerce” have found their way into the homes of families in Sri Lanka. The corresponding decline in nourishing whole foods has been exacerbated by almost thirty years of civil war, which has disrupted agriculture and the passing down of nutritional wisdom.

Since war ended in 2009, glyphosate, synthetic fertilizer and other chemicals, previously restricted since they could be used for bomb-making, have been aggressively promoted and are now used extensively. Prior to the war, Mannar district in the country’s northwest, was one of the “rice bowls” of Sri Lanka. Now that there is peace, agriculture is fast recovering. However, there is widespread dependence on herbicides and pesticides. Sadly though, there is a dramatic increase in the incidence of cancer, diabetes, kidney and heart disease—this, in a country whose cuisine features such healthy ingredients as coconuts, turmeric, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and gotu cola.

A few large non-government organisations (NGOs) operated in Sri Lanka and helped to relieve the devastation wreaked by the Boxing Day tsunami (2004) and the culmination of civil war, but they have now left. Bridging Lanka is a small NGO that has several community development projects operating at the grassroots level in Mannar, employing ten local people and benefiting from overseas volunteers. The organization has recently influenced four farmers to allocate half an acre each to trial organic food production. They have also started a catering business with war widows. The focus is on preparing healthy traditional food to earn income, but they have also conducted workshops to raise awareness of nutrition and how to prepare wholesome meals for the wider community.

What Bridging Lanka needs now is people with expertise who can assist with nutrition awareness and who can help create a model of nutrition education that can be replicated in other Sri Lankan communities. Just as a Maasai elder reached out to WAPF for input a couple of years ago, so is Bridging Lanka, on behalf of the Sri Lankan people, who are noticing a sharp increase in the incidence of chronic disease and disability. Those with expertise, compassion and a sense of adventure—we call upon you to lend a hand. For more information and contact details see bridginglanka.org or email: director@bridginglanka.org

Nigel Sloss
Brisbane, Australia

FLUORIDE EXPERIENCE
I’d like to share first-hand my my experience with fluoride. When I would get out of bed in the mornings I could hardly walk the six feet to my bathroom. The bones in my feet felt like they could crumble at any time. It was very painful to walk.

Then one day while perusing Facebook I read an article about the dangers of taking fluoride. I checked and found that the anti-depressant I was on was full of fluoride. I immediately stopped taking it and within three or four days I could feel a noticeable improvement in my feet. Within seven to ten days I was walking without any pain.

I did some research on the internet and found an article stating that fluoride causes skeletal fluorosis, which is often misdiagnosed as osteoporosis. It stated that doctors are not taught anything about this condition in med school. I took all the info to a young doctor who was only out of med school eight months and he had never heard of it before.

It pays to research every medication that your doctor provides to you. It could be causing you more harm than good.

Karen Dahle
Holyrood, Newfoundland, Canada

GcMAF CONCERNS
In the Fall 2017 issue of Wise Traditions, Lee Emerson reported on a method to make GcMAF yogurt. Reviewing the literature on this subject, one quickly discovers that the majority of the research with GcMAF is with a lab-produced purified form of GcMAF or a human serum-derived version, both of which are administered intramuscularly.

There is a third compound called bovine or colostrum MAF whereby bovine colostrum is enzymatically processed to form a macrophage activating factor. Although there is one human case study administering oral bovine MAF as part of a larger treatment protocol (that also included injected human serum GcMAF), the only paper that provides a methodology for manufacturing and assaying bovine MAF is a mouse study in which the finished product was injected directly into the mouse small intestine.

To my knowledge, no other paper discusses an orally active form of GcMAF that has been verified by assay. Even if it were present, we have no randomized controlled clinical trials documenting an anticancer effect. Although we can measure a decrease in nagalase and report on an increase in quality of life in human case studies, the anticancer benefits of an orally active form of GcMAF as bovine MAF remain speculative. Furthermore, the method with which to make bovine MAF, as detailed in the research literature, bears no resemblance to the recipe reported in this article and on related websites.

I am hopeful that dairy ferments may be a source of orally active GcMAF, but until we have a testable and repeatable protocol in place, there is insufficient evidence to claim that a specially prepared form of yogurt or kefir contain GcMAF.

Please see EastTroyAcupuncture.com/GcMAF for a comprehensive article on the subject with linked references.

Brandon LaGreca, CAc, MAcOM
Chapter Leader
East Troy, Wisconsin

IODINE DEFICIENCY
Thank you for your issue on cancer (Fall 2017). I would also like to recommend the website, breastcancerchoices. org which looks at iodine deficiency as a factor in many breast tumors. I’ve personally seen lumps go away in a couple of days with iodine and a little cream that they recommend. They used to (and may still) send a free kit to have iodine tested for anyone diagnosed with breast cancer.

Isabella Smith
Bowie, Maryland

HOW MUCH SUN EXPOSURE?
In the article, “Cholesterol Sulfate and the Heart” (Summer 2017), Stephanie Seneff, PhD, reviewed her hypothesis that UVB rays from the sun synthesize cholesterol sulfate from dietary sulfur and cholesterol, and that the synthesized soluble cholesterol sulfate is essential for decreased risk  of cardiovascular disease and high blood pressure. Accordingly, Dr. Seneff recommends eating foods rich in sulfur and advises readers to “get plenty of sun exposure to the skin without sunscreen.” Sunscreen interferes with synthesis of cholesterol sulfate by suppressing sunlight catalysis; in addition, the aluminum content of sunscreen interferes with cholesterol sulfate synthesis.

Other chemicals interfere with cholesterol sulfate synthesis, including glyphosate, the active ingredient in the pervasive herbicide Roundup. A strong correlation has been found between the increased percentage of hospital patients admitted for heart failure and increased application of glyphosate to corn and soy crops. Dr. Seneff also believes that use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs may increase risk of heart failure.

Accordingly, Dr. Seneff recommends eating only certified organic foods and avoiding use of statin drugs. The hypothesis that cholesterol sulfate synthesized by the skin is important to heart and blood pressure functions makes sense. Dietary garlic, which is rich in organosulfur compounds, has been recognized for centuries for its health benefits including reduction of multiple factors associated with cardiovascular disease. Geographical data show an inverse association between sunlight availability and cardiovascular disease that apparently is unrelated to vitamin D. The recommendations to avoid use of sunscreen, eat only certified organic foods and avoid statin drugs also make sense. I plan to try my best to follow all of these recommendations.

However, Dr. Seneff’s advice to “get plenty of sun exposure to the skin is questionable in my opinion because of potential skin cancer resulting from excessive sun exposure. Over the past two decades I have had many skin cancer surgeries due to earlier excessive sun exposure, so I have avoided significant sun exposure. During that time I have relied on vitamin D supplements to meet vitamin D requirements. Dr. Seneff’s article made it clear that some sun exposure for synthesis of cholesterol sulfate is essential for good health, but the question of how much sun exposure is required for cholesterol sulfate synthesis was not addressed.

Dr. Seneff’s article mentioned the fact that the low risk of heart attacks as well as extended life expectancy in Iceland, Japan and Crete has been attributed to sulfur-rich soil and water derived from sulfur-containing volcanic basalt rock. Inasmuch as Iceland is located far north (65 degrees latitude) where sun availability is low during much of the year, it seems reasonable to conclude that cholesterol sulfate synthesis by the skin does not require a lot of sun exposure when sulfur intake is adequate. Accordingly, it is my hypothesis that the amount of sun necessary for adequate vitamin D synthesis is probably sufficient for synthesis of cholesterol sulfate. I have therefore attempted to determine how much sun exposure is needed to produce 1000 IU of vitamin D, the amount which is probably necessary for an old man of eighty-three years.

The gap between beneficial UV exposure to obtain desirable vitamin D and harmful exposure leading to erythema (skin damage) is very narrow when the sun is high on a summer day. A minimal erythemal dose (MED) is defined as the amount of UVB radiation that produces perceptible pinkness in the skin, which is considered to be the beginning of skin damage. One MED is equivalent to an oral intake of somewhere in the range of 10,000 to 25,000 IU vitamin D. In Boston at the spring equinox (noon, March 19) exposure of one fourth MED in those with type 2 skin exposing face, neck hands and arms (25.5 percent of skin area) yields a dietary equivalent vitamin D dose of about 1000 IU in about 10 minutes, whereas a MED (and possible skin damage) occurs in about 40 minutes. If legs are also exposed under the same conditions, the time for production of 1000 IU is reduced to four minutes. Obviously, sun exposure required to synthesize vitamin D, and most likely cholesterol sulfate as well, does not require a lot of time (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257661).

A study in Australia addressed the problem of insufficient levels of vitamin D which contribute to the development of osteoporosis—costing almost two billion dollars per year in direct medical costs in Australia—versus the problem of excessive sun exposure, which results in about half of the Australian population experiencing skin cancer during their lifetime. Australian guidelines for recommended vitamin D intake are 200 IU/day from birth to fifty years of age, 400 IU/day for people fifty to seventy years, and 600 IU/day for those over seventy-one years. It was estimated that UV exposure required to produce 1/6 to 1/3 the erythemal dose is sufficient to meet Australian vitamin D recommendations. The amount of UV exposure required by those with type 2 skin and 15 percent of skin exposed (face, hands and neck) for adequate vitamin D synthesis was estimated at 10:00, 12:00 and 3:00 in seven Australian cities located between 19 to 38 degrees latitude. The UV exposure that results in a MED was also estimated. Because of the increased risk of skin damage that occurs at 12:00, the authors of the Australian study recommended avoiding exposure between the hours of 10:00 and 3:00 and advise “extreme care” when getting UV exposure near high noon. The data provided in the study can be used to estimate the amount of sun exposure required for vitamin D synthesis in areas of similar latitude in the U.S.

The recommendation in the Australian study to avoid sun exposure between 10:00 and 3:00 reduces risk of skin damage only modestly during warmer months. Further, exposure of only 15 percent of skin used in the study poses unneeded risk since increasing exposure to about 60 percent of skin area decreases sun exposure required for vitamin D synthesis by a factor of four. Perth, Australia, one of the cities in the study, is about the same latitude as my home in Baldwin County, Alabama. Data from Perth suggest that during the hottest six months of the year in Baldwin County the average time required to synthesize 1000 IU of vitamin D is about 2 minutes at noon and 3.7 minutes at 9 AM and 3 PM for those with type 2 skin with 60 percent of skin exposed. The time required for absorption of one MED of UV which may cause skin damage is about 11 minutes at noon and 14 minutes at 9 AM and 3 PM (MJA, Volume 184 Number 7, 3 April 2006).

The data also suggest that in Baldwin County, Alabama, limiting sun exposure to times when the sun’s altitude is about 30 degrees (early morning or late afternoon) can produce 1000 IU of vitamin D in ten to fifteen minutes in those with type 2 skin (including me) with 60 percent of skin area exposed. Under those conditions, the time for sun damage to begin (one MED) increases to about one hour. I don’t think such exposure would meet Dr. Seneff’s advice to “get plenty of sun exposure to the skin” but such exposure is apparently sufficient to synthesize 1000 IU of vitamin D, and I expect will also produce adequate cholesterol sulfate.

Dr. Seneff’s hypothesis regarding the association between cholesterol sulfate synthesis in the skin activated by sun exposure and cardiovascular disease is very convincing. Dr. Seneff’s recommendations to consume foods high in sulfur, eat only organic foods to prevent the toxic effects of glyphosates, and avoid sunscreen and cholesterol-lowering statins all make sense and have no associated downside. In contrast, the recommendations to “spend significant time outdoors” and “get plenty of sun exposure to the skin” may result in a high risk of skin and eye damage. To the best of my knowledge there is no reason to believe that sun-activated synthesis of cholesterol sulfate in skin requires more sun exposure than is required for adequate vitamin D synthesis. It is my hypothesis that the sun exposure required for adequate vitamin D synthesis, which can be obtained during early and late hours of the day when risk of sun damage is reduced, is sufficient for synthesis of cholesterol sulfate.

Jack Cameron
Fairhope, Alabama

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