Page 6 - Summer2014

Letters

topic. See www.facebook.com/groups/ gets consumed by McMansions. Do Taura, Taura, Kamio and Kummerow
nourishedchildren/. you have any thoughts on these mat- (citation 16) and the chart in Figure 2. I
ters? Land trusts? Non-profit grants? don't think these two pieces of evidence
LINCOLN, NEBRASKA Farm loans? What's a good structure? are strong enough to support such a
I went to Lincoln, Nebraska last Any ideas? If so, do pass them along to definitive statement.
week and rented a room with a WAPF me. There is a somewhat similar three- The animal study showed calcifi-
family (hotels were full for the Berk- hundred-acre intentional community cation and lesions in coronary arteries
shire Hathaway Shareholder event that of fifty first-generation farmers here in (similar to that seen in humans) in pigs
weekend). I had an incredible time. Sebastopol. It’s very cool, and they are who were supplemented with vitamin
WAPF education has gone far and deep just starting. I think two of the farmers D. But the pathology was found only in
into America and has helped entire bought this land outright several years pigs who had been supplemented with
families become healthy and mentally ago. They are still figuring out leasing 31,250 IU or more per kilogram of feed.
well-adjusted that give birth to children arrangements, revenue sharing, etc. I don't know how much feed pigs con-
free from chronic, lifelong problems. It Sushama Gokhale sume but my guess is it is some major
was shocking for me to see the differ- Larkspur, California fraction of a kilogram per day, making
ence between WAPF nourished children their supplementation level much higher
and non-WAPF nourished children. We VITAMIN D LEVELS than most humans would take. Their
all owe the Foundation a great debt of Chris Masterjohn has made so serum 25(OH)D levels were apparently
gratitude. many valuable contributions to our never measured.
I did not know Nebraska lets its understanding of how food and health The other piece of evidence was the
farmers sell raw milk on their farms. I intersect—I have great respect and chart shown as Figure 2. At first blush, it
went to four different farms in the four gratitude for him. But his article, "Be- seems to support the premise—the rate
days I was there and drank some of the yond Cholesterol: Fat-Soluble Vitamins of major cardiac and cerebrovascular
best Jersey milk I've ever tasted. I think in the Prevention of Heart Disease," left events is lowest for a 25(OH)D level of
I overdosed on milk, pastured eggs and me uneasy about his conclusions on 20-40, and is higher for the >40 group.
fine cheeses! All the farmers' wives had optimal serum 25(OH)D levels. I am But this study was not done on a
heard of WAPF, fed their children along not a scientist, only an avid reader and general population—the subjects were
the same principles, and the children that thinker about food and health, so please cardiac surgery patients. Could it be that
I met were simply bursting with life, forgive my layman's vocabulary and lower vitamin D levels were part of what
health, curiosity and intelligence. lack of clarity. got these people into the study group
Also, I met farmers Charuth and I think that what Masterjohn really in the first place—and that if they had
Kevin Loth who make goat milk and wanted us to take away from the article higher 25(OH)D levels and still wound
cheese. They want to create a fund to was that we don't know exactly what up as cardiac surgery patients, that
purchase a one-hundred-sixty-acre ad- the connections between serum 25(OH) there were other underlying factors that
jacent lot for about one million dollars, D levels and heart disease are, and we undermined their health and increased
where they want to set up a farmer- need to ensure that we are getting A, K their risk? In addition, what we are re-
owned community—before the land and D together, through food sources. I ally looking for is—where does the right
agree. hand side of the U-shaped curve begin?
But at the same time, he makes this But how can we tell, when everything
SHOPPING GUIDE CORRECTION statement: ". . . people with vitamin D over 40 is lumped together in a single
status higher than 40 ng/ml. have a high- band? What if everybody from 40 to 60
New phone number er risk of heart disease." As evidence were fine, but then at over 60, the inci-
for Azure Standard for this statement, he apparently relies dence of events jumped sharply? That
(971) 200-8350
on two citations—the animal study by could be depicted with the same graph.
6 Wise Traditions SUMMER 2014 Wise Traditions

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