Page 13 - Winter2018

Caustic Commentary

suggest that early-life exposure to genistein, a naturally blockages. London officials had to excavate a one-hundred-
occurring component in soy formula, interferes with the thirty-ton “fatberg” from the Whitechapel sewer last year,
development of the reproductive system, including fac- and in Baltimore, officials had to scrape out a twenty-four-
tors involved in menstrual pain. Earlier research links soy inch pipe in midtown where grease had congealed, clogging
formula feeding to higher rates of endometriosis, heavy 85 percent of the pipe. An article in The Wall Street Journal
menstrual bleeding and larger fibroids among women with (August 9, 2018) gives readers the following advice: pour the
fibroids. Other studies have found that female infants fed bacon grease into a foil-lined bowl, let it cool and throw it
soy formula had changes in the cells of the vagina, including in the trash; mix it with bird seed and put it in a bird feeder;
differences in how specific genes are turned on and off. In or give it to your dog. Of course what you should do with
1998, the American Acadamy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a bacon fat is store it in a container and use it for cooking—
general endorsement of soy formula, but then began hedging but generations of anti-saturated-fat propaganda have made
its bets. A policy statement issued in 2008 warned against home cooks afraid to do such a sensible thing.
use of soy formula for premature babies; for full term infants
the AAP now “recommends soy formula in rare cases where COUNTERING CAFOs
the child’s body cannot break down the sugars in milk or if Iowa CAFO owners are increasing the size of their hog
the family prefers a vegetarian diet.” herds in order to sell to Asia, where an outbreak of African
swine virus is decimating pig populations. The sewage will
UNHEALTHY AND UNPREPARED be spread, smells and all, over the Iowa landscape, forcing
A recent report published by the Council for a Strong many to abandon their homes. In North Carolina, families
America catalogs the woeful state of America’s teenagers and living near a hog farm in Bladen County fought back, not by
young adults. Nationwide, 71 percent of young people ages suing the farmer but by targeting the farm’s owner, Smith-
seventeen to twenty-four do not qualify for military service field Foods. A jury awarded the ten plaintiffs fifty million
and obesity disqualifies 31 percent of youth from serving if dollars in damages, agreeing that the impact of the farm’s
they so choose. These ineligibility rates are a major reason operation was so intrusive that people couldn’t enjoy their
the Army was not on track to meet its annual recruitment rural homes. The case was the first in dozens of lawsuits filed
goals as of September 2018. And obesity among those who do by more than five hundred neighbors complaining about hog
serve in the military makes soldiers more vulnerable to stress operations. Positive outcomes could do what years of lobby-
fractures, serious sprains and similar injuries (strongnation. ing and legislative initiatives have failed to do—eliminate
org/articles/737-unhealthy-and-unprepared). Unfortunately, CAFOs and bring back small, pasture-based operations.
the authors of the report and the military in general haven’t
a clue how to fix the problems. The best they can do is rec-
ommend that recruits eat more fruits and vegetables, when
these vulnerable men and women need real, nutrient-dense
food—organ meats, animal fats, raw dairy, pastured eggs,
shellfish, cod liver oil, bone broth and butter, butter, butter. FOR SCIENTISTS AND LAY READERS
Please note that the mission of the Weston A. Price
CLOGGED PLUMBING Foundation is to provide important information about diet
Bacon is making a comeback and that has led to an epidemic and health to both scientists and the lay public. For this rea-
son, some of the articles in Wise Traditions are necessarily
not of clogged arteries but of clogged plumbing under the technical. It is very important for us to describe the science
kitchen sink. Unaware that grease solidifies when it cools, that supports the legitimacy of our dietary principles. In
many just pour hot bacon fat down the drain, resulting in articles aimed at scientists and practitioners, we provide a
plumbing clogs that require the services of a plumber. Even summary of the main points and also put the most techni-
worse, the fat that gets through residential pipes makes its cal information in sidebars. These articles are balanced by
way to the city sewers where it accumulates to form massive others that provide practical advice to our lay readers.

WINTER 2018 Wise Traditions 11