Letters, Spring 2013

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AGENDA 21

It would not be surprising if a small beleaguered organization as WAPF would be prone to believe in conspiracy theories like the UN Agenda 21.

Obviously there are plenty of people out there who believe that vegetarianism and decrease of consumption are necessary to feed the billions of people in this world. The UN, being a global organization, would take up this concern and make plans and propose treaties.

But as far as I know, Agenda 21 is not the law in this land. It would have to be ratified by both Houses of Congress and signed by the President to be so.

In our democracy there are many ways to prevent this, and I don’t believe there is any chance it would pass Congress anyway. I would be more concerned over the numerous Free Trade Agreements which are already law. Their global ruling body, the World Trade Organization (WTO), has the power to declare our laws contrary to the trade agreement and demand that they be eliminated or there would be a heavy fine. To mind comes a California law banning MTBE, a gasoline additive which contaminates groundwater. The three judges of the WTO panel demanded the law be dropped. The National Animal Identification System (NAIS) on the contrary would be a law that facilitates free trade and probably to their liking.

If we want to have restrictive laws that prevent access to raw milk and other nutrient-dense foods off the books we necessarily have to work in the political arena. But first and foremost there should be education and sticking to the facts on hand. People’s mind can be changed―just remember the sea change we witnessed in the use of tobacco. Truth will prevail.

Heike M. Eubanks
Myrtle Point, Oregon

HIGH CALORIE MALNUTRITION AND THE BRAIN

I spent twenty years at Cleveland Clinic Foundation as a pediatrician and between May of 1975 and August of 1976, I kept a diary of “interesting patients.” Because of my fascination and experiences with what I have come to call “dietary mayhem,” I recorded some of the amazing diet histories and the nature of the associated symptoms.

I will mention two as examples. A young adolescent was seen because of “nervousness and change of personality.” He had consumed ninety-five gallons (calculated) of a popular cola over a two-month period and was severely deficient in vitamin B₁ (thiamine). The other was a seventeen-year-old girl who presented with “nervousness” and obesity. She had widespread bleeding into the skin of her thighs, numbness in one leg below the knee and a history of years of swelling in one knee joint. Her diet history was appalling. She consumed a half grapefruit for breakfast and five to six cups of coffee; twelve cups on a Saturday. For lunch, she had half a grapefruit and sixteen ounces of pop. For dinner she had up to four candy bars, two cups of coffee before “dinner” and two cups after. She claimed that she consumed twenty-eight gallons (calculated) of cola in a two-month period.

At about this time in the 1970s, a newspaper reported a murder. A young man raped and killed a girl with countless stabs of a penknife. He walked to his apartment, leaving a trail of blood that the police followed to arrest him. He had not thrown away the bloody penknife and the coroner reported that it was “the most vicious murder he had ever encountered.” There was no attempt at evasion. A large number of empty pop bottles were found in his car when it was inspected by police. Of course, the pop bottles were reported simply as a kind of signature of a wastrel personality and never thought of as being of potential importance in loss of civilized control. I have often wondered whether O. J. really did commit the infamous murder unconsciously and in a blind rage because of consumption of the “soft” drink that he enthusiastically advertised. Could it be that President Clinton’s lack of judgment in office was related to his well-known predilection for junk food?

There has been recent interest in coffee and dark chocolate as “exemplary foods” for their antioxidant content. Dr. Weil wrote an article in Time Magazine advocating the consumption of seven or eight cups of coffee for everyone. There is a fundamental flaw in this reasoning. Yes, they do indeed provide antioxidants, but this benefit is overwhelmed in chocolate by the added sugar (the chocolate bean is bitter and it is the addition of sugar that provides its characteristic taste and makes it addictive) and the caffeine in coffee. For this reason, they are not the best sources of antioxidants.

Caffeine excites brain cells to function and consumes cellular energy, thus giving a false impression of “more energy.” This consumption of cellular energy often occurs in a person whose cells are already struggling to meet energy demands. I have seen hundreds of patients for whom these commodities are the cause of their symptoms. Of course, it depends on the individual sensitivity. I saw a polysymptomatic woman who drank two cups of coffee a day. I asked her to stop. She said, “That is absurd, my husband drinks seven cups and he is fine.” I said, “Well, you will never know unless you try it,” and she did. During the next forty-eight hours an extremely severe headache kept her in bed. The headache cleared and after that her symptoms disappeared. I admit that this was unusual but since we never know the individual biology, how many people suffer without anyone suggesting the possibility? I have seen hundreds of patients with PMS and 90 percent were addicted to chocolate and coffee. With withdrawal of the offending substances and the addition of a few vitamins, the PMS invariably disappeared.

Sweet tasting junk is responsible for producing the “walking sick” in millions because the empty calories produce a relative deficiency of vitamins, thiamine in particular. I have compared it to a choked car engine where gasoline is burned inefficiently and proved the issue by performing a blood test called “erythrocyte transketolase,” a superb and highly accurate test for thiamine deficiency that is affecting millions.

Doctors still do not take much notice of diet in their patients and they are missing the very obvious symptoms that have long been forgotten, those due to classic vitamin deficiency disease that modern medicine has assumed to be conquered. The mechanism is mild hypoxia (lack of the biochemical use of oxygen in creating cellular energy ) affecting the limbic system and brainstem. When this happens the limbic system (which is an obvious computer that automatically organizes our emotional and physical ability to adapt to our environment) becomes much more reactive. Since this is the part of the brain that produces our emotional reflexes— monitored and advised by the cortex and higher centers—a “nursed grievance” in a grade school boy can, I believe, explode in violence, perhaps the secret of school shootings. Nobody has looked at this possibility. I consider it to be an urgent necessity. An experiment was done in healthy human subjects in 1942 by giving them an artificially produced thiamine deficiency diet. They all developed typical so-called psychosomatic symptoms, including quarrelsome behavior, headaches and abdominal pain.

The point is that we are still a relatively primitive animal. All animal brains are built on the same principle. We still have the primitive brain, sometimes called the “reptilian system” and our higher brain centers have evolved to monitor and “advise” the cave man that lies within us all. We all know that alcohol will upset this physiological balance and it is well known that thiamine deficiency is an associated factor. Sugar in all its different and widespread forms also produces relative thiamine deficiency, thus inducing a mild degree of oxidative inefficiency.

Derrick Lonsdale, MD, FAAP, CNS
Strongsville, Ohio

VACCINATION AND VIOLENCE

Published in 1990, Dr. Harris Coulter’s book Vaccination, Social Violence and Criminality provides one of the most powerful critiques ever written on the subject of vaccination damage. In it he predicted a wave of violence in our schools.

The mechanism which he discussed in detail was a certain type of brain damage known and acknowledged to be caused by vaccination: sub-acute encephalo-meningitis. This condition was known to cause inflammation of the base of the brain, which affects personality and behavior.

This was no mere theoretical exercise. As one of America’s most creative medical historians, Coulter did extensive research to reveal that encephalitis was an acknowledged medical reaction to all (or nearly all) vaccinations and that a very mild form left in its wake serious personality distortions and disorders. A review of the “epidemics” of infectious encephalitis that swept America and Europe in the 1920s reveals that those who survived such a condition would suffer from various conditions that we recognize today but were exceedingly rare at that time. These conditions include ADD, ADHD, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, allergies, anorexia, bulimia, impulsive violence, stuttering, mental retardation, dyslexia, sudden infant death syndrome (crib death), processing disorders, the inability to feel empathy (seen in autism spectrum disorders but also in criminal behavior), bed-wetting, Tourette’s, seizures and many other conditions which, it must be repeated, seemed to come out of nowhere (or rarely occurred) in those times.

Coulter seemed especially concerned about the violence emanating from such diseased brains. His discussion of prisoners revealed that a surprisingly high number suffered from various neurological disorders such as tics, stuttering, dyslexia and other conditions which were reflective of nervous system problems.

In his book, Coulter discussed America’s youngest serial killer, a young teen in the late 1800s whose mother stated it was the smallpox shot that changed her child’s personality and turned him violent. Coulter’s book had a chilling interview with the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy who in his own words discussed his uncontrollable urge to kill. Bundy (who was a psychology major) repeatedly said his was not a personality disorder but a neurological disorder (uncontrollable impulses in his brain).

Remember, this was before the Columbine shootings, before school violence was even discussed as a serious problem. Coulter predicted that our increasing mass vaccination program would reap us more violence.

The victims of vaccines are damaged. Damaged brains are often prescribed psychotrophic medication, which has been linked to suicide and homicide. While we don’t know enough about the Connecticut killer we do know that most of those who committed school killings were on such medication.

We should not let our investigations be driven into areas that are comfortable to discuss (gun laws, poor parenting, more secure schools) but rather look at what has turned our children into killers no matter how uncomfortable the road traveled. How many more such acts of violence and murder must occur before we ask the question, “What is making these children murderously violent?”

Are these acts of violence a medical, iatrogenic (doctor-caused) phenomenon as a result of vaccination-induced chemically damaged, neurologically sick brains? The evidence is compelling and our refusal to investigate objectively that unpleasant possibility may ensure continued tragedies of this nature.

Tedd Koren, DC
Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania

APPALLED

I recently and inadvertently received a copy of your publication for Winter 2012. The anti-vaccination bias you have in your articles is appalling, and furthermore damaging to your readers’ health. Educating your readers is one thing, and in fact is one of the important goals of anybody related to the medical field. However, your little disclaimer on the inside front cover hardly counteracts the tone, bias, and misconceptions of at least two articles in your publication.

The first, a column editorial “Crossing the Blood Brain Barrier” has medical facts stated in it that are not supported in the article. Two case studies from Canada without any control cases or studies are hardly enough to state damning and untrue medical facts which will drive people away from the vaccines. Also, anybody has access to the full side effect profile and practitioners must, by law, answer questions about potential side effects and provide an information FAQ sheet for every single vaccination. Go on the product website or ask a medical professional to get these items.

Then I got to the book review of The Solution: Homeoprophylaxis, and I was incensed at what I found, especially at the paragraph which begins at “Yes, yes; we know that vaccination is an ill-founded concept. . .” Do you all have any idea of the mortality rate of smallpox? According to the Centers for Disease Control, it’s thought to be 30 percent while death from the vaccine is estimated at 2 in a million at most. I truly hope you email me back telling me which number is greater. What of the monetary and human cost of care for a patient with polio? These two diseases were brought to their knees by mass produced vaccines. The very first vaccine was what you call a “nosode” used to prevent smallpox, but was eventually replaced by standardized vaccines. To hear your book reviewer decry vaccines while the book proposes to do the very same thing as vaccines, using the same methodology, but just with different products is hypocritical at least.

I believe that you do not intend people harm, in fact I believe you are only looking to keep people healthy. I also believe that there is value in your publication and community’s methodologies of holistic approaches and finding and correcting root causes of ailments and disease. However, to exploit the grave tragedy of some very few to incite greater tragedy in the future by using your publication to turn biased medical and public opinion about vaccines into medical fact is a serious transgression of your desire to help people. I hope in the future you take a more informative tone and seek to have your readers initiate a dialogue with every one of their health providers instead of seeking to misinform and scare your readers.

Name Withheld

Editor’s Response: Diseases like smallpox were eradicated by sanitation measures, and polio is likely caused by the pesticide DDT. As you state, the side effects of vaccines are listed in the vaccine FAQ sheets, but few doctors read these to their patients or are even prepared to have a discussion about the subject. Meanwhile, more and more children suffer the adverse effects of vaccines, especially of so many vaccines, which introduce toxins like aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde and MSG into the bloodstream. Our philosophy is to protect our children with good nutrition, not with toxic vaccines.

OSTEOPENIA REVERSED

In July of 2010, I had a bone density test done. In the past when the doctors checked my bones, I had always come out with good density. Because of this, I didn’t worry about bones breaking, even though I am in my sixties. It was a concern of mine because I have an aunt who has osteoporosis, and I seem to follow after her in many ways. She has fallen and broken some of her bones.

So imagine my surprise when my 2010 test came back with a diagnosis of osteopenia, the start of osteoporosis. I was very concerned but as life goes, I kind of forgot about it. At the time I was drinking store-bought, pasteurized, homogenized milk.

In the 70s and 80s, I lived on an acreage with my family and we had our own milk cow (along with beef, chickens, hogs, turkeys and rabbits). I was raised five kids on good, wholesome, real food, drinking a gallon of raw milk a day for the family. After moving to town, I have missed that life tremendously so I have always been in search of raw milk, right from the cow, just like we had at home. As most of you probably know, that’s not easy to find. Finally, I found a resource and I am grateful every day.

Fast forward to September 2012 (two years after the 2010 bone density test). My doctor suggested I get re-tested. I remember thinking, “That’s a good idea―I wonder whether the raw milk will make a difference?” I don’t think I really thought it would, I was just curious.

Well, lo and behold, my test results came back with the statement: “Since 7/12/2010 there has been a significant increase in bone density in the lumbar spine (2.8 percent).”

I was amazed and so excited―I couldn’t wait to see my doctor again. When she read my report, she couldn’t believe it. She said she had never seen osteopenia reversed. I asked her if she wanted to know what I was doing differently? She said she did and I told her, “The only thing I have changed is that I’m drinking raw milk.” She looked at me strangely and said, “Aren’t you afraid if it isn’t pasteurized?” I replied, “No, actually I’m more afraid of pasteurized.” She replied, “Well, keep doing what you’re doing.” I know I had to be the first patient that had told her that.

So my raw milk is gold to me. I love the taste and I love the results!

Elaine Andrews
Marion, Iowa

GROWING UP IN ARGENTINA

I grew up on a farm in Argentina. My mother was a petite woman, under five feet tall, who had fifteen children, all of them healthy. They were born at home with the help of a midwife.

We lived mostly on beef—usually as a stew cooked in a cast iron cauldron over a big fire. Everything went into that stew—meat, organ meats, bones, feet, beans and vegetables. Blood went into sausage. In fact we never ate anything raw, everything was cooked. The exception to that was raw milk, of course, which we all had throughout our growing years. For bread we had dough fried in lard. We also had plenty of eggs. We ate chicken, duck and pork on special occasions.

Of course, my mother breastfed all of us. One custom in Argentina was for a new mother to stay in bed and rest for forty days after the birth. The midwife stayed at the house for two months, making chicken soup and other nourishing foods. She took care of all the other children so my mother could rest. Then when she left, we other children helped with the child care and child minding.

A new baby was put in a basket to sleep in my parents’ room. When the baby was old enough to sit up, that signaled the time for the baby to move out of my parents’ room and in with the other children.

An important thing for baby was anise tea, for digestion and colic. We collected the anise ourselves and made the tea faithfully for the new baby. My father lived to age eighty-seven and my mother lived to age ninety.

Ina Russell
Silver Spring, Maryland

POWERED BY RAW MILK

Recently, I qualified to compete in the World Latin Dance Cup in Miami, 2012 December 12-15 in the ladies solo division. There will be over seventy countries there to compete and I will be representing the United States.

At the qualifying competition in Portland, people repeatedly asked me, “How do you do it?” “What do you eat?” I always tell them, “Raw milk and butter.” Since then, I have been holding dance workshops for fundraisers for my trip in December. Lately, people have asked me to help them get on a better diet. I share with them my views on traditional whole nutritious foods. My college nutrition class taught me the holistic way and the USDA way as well, so that I could know the difference. Having grown up on an Indian reservation where my family is one of the few that still practices eating from nature’s marketplace (the medicine food wheel), I carry that on in my life.

This competition opportunity to take place in December has given me a leg to stand on to support raw milk and whole nutrition. I am a fan of nourishing traditional diets and the tribal food wheel of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.

I will be sharing information on the benefits of raw milk at my “just for women Latin dance workshop” this Sunday in Walla Walla, Washington. I’m so glad this foundation exists.

Chelsie Bonifer
Walla Walla, Washington

“RAW” CHEESE

I am a WAPF co-leader in SW Colorado. Our chapter serves as a buying club of sorts for our members to save on shipping charges. We were about to place a large order (over one hundred fifty pounds) for raw cheese from a company from whom we had ordered before, one that uses milk from Amish farms. I received a tip suggesting I check to see whether the cheese was truly raw. It was not. The milk had been heated to 144.5 degrees for fifteen seconds prior to making the cheese. It was similar in that respect to at least one national brand that markets its cheese as “raw” even though it too is heat-treated, rendering it a “less-alive” food.

This type of treatment is called thermization which the U.S. categorizes as raw with regards to cheese and the European Union categorizes as pasteurized. Apparently there are only two official categories for cheese, pasteurized and raw, but unofficially there are gray areas. In the U.S., high-temperature pasteurization requires heating the milk to a minimum of 161 degrees F for a certain length of time. There is also a category called low-temp pasteurization wherein the milk can be heated to just under 145 degrees.

For some reason, low-temp pasteurization, or thermization, of the milk used for cheese-making allows for labeling the resulting cheese as “raw” in the U.S. even though much of the beneficial bacteria and enzymes are destroyed through the heating process (although not as much as is destroyed with hightemperature pasteurization). Enzymes begin to break down at 118 degrees. So if you are trying to purchase truly raw cheese for the health benefits, you might want to check with your cheese-maker to see whether any heat-treatment has been used on the milk prior to making it into cheese.

Cheese-makers who are producing truly raw cheese will be getting a clean supply of milk from which to make their cheese. Those cheese-makers who have doubts about the quality of their milk, whether because of the conditions under which the dairy cows live or are milked, or how the milk is stored prior to processing, or with the transportation between the dairy and the cheese-maker, should certainly thermalize or pasteurize their milk prior to cheese-making. However, when the conditions are optimal and result in a healthy and beneficial raw milk, the cheese-maker can make a truly raw cheese, all enzymes and good bacteria intact.

It is always a good idea to have a dialogue with your food suppliers! In the case of cheese, it’s not just a matter of antibiotics or hormones or how much grass and grain the cow is fed but also what happens to the milk from the teat to the finished product. It didn’t used to be so complicated to get wholesome, clean, nutrient-dense food―hopefully we will get there again someday!

Zoë Groulx
Pagosa Springs, Colorado

Editor’s Response: Thanks for reminding us about cheese manufacturing processes. All the cheeses in our Shopping Guide listed as “raw” are truly raw, not heated above about 105 degrees. Cheeses that are thermized are listed under “good.”

GRAIN-FED VS GRASS-FED

I thought you would be interested in our experiences with grain fed-beef. Our daughter has had a rash that has been slowly spreading, starting first on the front of her ankle, then spots of it spread to the backs of both her knees, then to the inside of her elbow. We tried elimination diets, and she still had it. She was down to only eating meat (grainfed) and our own eggs from our hens (grass-fed).

I was at a loss as to why she still had this rash, until I heard a broadcast on Coast-to-Coast AM. They interviewed the lady who owns the website farmwars.info, and she was telling her own story about GMOs and her health problems, which included a horrible rash she got from eating GMO foods.

The light bulb went on in my head! So, although this was an unscientific experiment, I took my daughter off the grain-fed beef and started only giving her some venison we had from last year. It’s only been a few days and her rash is actually disappearing! I wonder whether she is reacting to the GMO grains the animals had eaten?

We also found a source for grass-fed butter at Trader Joe’s, and she has also been eating that with no ill effects. The rash seems to be disappearing fastest from the backs of her knees and her elbow, but I am so glad that I finally found the reason, and I think it’s the GMO grains that the animals are eating.

I must add that she also reacts to grains as well, even grains that are soaked and organic. However it seems that wheat causes a faster reaction than oats. I speculate that she may have also inherited her sensitivity to toxins from her father, as he is super sensitive to toxins in any and all forms, and our daughter is a WAPF baby to boot.

Jennifer Murdock
mersiepoodledoodle@yahoo.com

FRENCH RESTAURANTS

My husband and I just ran into a friend of his who just returned from a trip to France (his birthplace, where his family ran a restaurant). He reports to his horror that many of the mid-priced restaurants and bistros he and his wife saw in Paris and the Loire were all using pre-prepared food that was heated up to serve to customers. He said that the price range was from fifteen to fifty Euros per person, so the practice was not just at fast-food places. You could tell, he said, because no smells of cooking were coming out of the kitchen and all the menus were similar.

High-end restaurants and a few bistros still cook, but corporate food seems to have infected a country I thought would resist to its dying breath. He said that the economy has been down for long enough that people are willing to put up with inferior food. Also it seems that many traditional bistros have been purchased by holding companies and fixed up to look typique, but are only Disney versions serving fake food. I am heartbroken!

Victoria Bloch
Los Angeles, California

METHANOL HAZARDS

Not untypically, I had my eyes opened by something fascinating in the latest issue of Wise Traditions. This time it was the hazard of toxic methanol in canned fruits and vegetables.

I don’t eat any canned fruits and vegetables at this time, because we have fresh vegetables all year round from our greenhouse. However, I do eat canned meat. Fortunately, the latter does not contain pectin, the substance in fruits and vegetables believed to morph into the dreaded methanol. Methanol is also known as “wood” alcohol or “rubbing” alcohol . . . the stuff for sale in the supermarket that makes desperate winos go blind when they drink it. Some scientists now think methanol from canning is the cause of many modern diseases of humankind, particularly multiple sclerosis.

I was wondering how the process of canning created methanol . . . and Google was my friend.

I read an article on the Internet suggesting that with traditional cooking, methanol escapes by evaporation, so harmful levels of the chemical are not present in the finished product. But with canning, the metal cans or the glass jar lids are tightly sealed, thus preventing any methanol from escaping. Here’s another case of technology supplanting the traditional ways and surreptitiously leading us into trouble.

Apparently, canning is not the only worry. All fruits and vegetables contain toxic methanol, and apparently just the process of chewing them up and digesting them releases it naturally.

“Methanol is also formed when fruits and vegetables are physically prepared for consumption by methods that include, but are not limited to, slicing, chopping, puréeing and juicing. Pectin will break down to methanol when the plant cell walls and middle lamellae are disrupted, as can happen through physical processes of food preparation.

“Methanol is also produced when pectin is broken down by microorganisms in the digestive tract, after fruits or vegetables are eaten. It has been reported that apples contain approximately 1 percent pectin, and that consumption of one kilogram of apples typically results in release of 0.5 grams of methanol in the human body. Because the pectin methylesters in fruits and vegetables will break down to produce methanol either during food preparation or during subsequent digestion, the “total amount of methanol released from consumption of chopped or otherwise physically prepared fruits and vegetables is not expected to be higher than the level that results from consumption of the equivalent amount of unprepared fruits or vegetables” (Proposition 65 Interpretive Guideline, 3 March 2012).

Now, this last bit is very interesting. Since chewing must be considered a form of “food preparation” similar to “slicing, chopping, pureeing or juicing”, this article suggests that if one wishes to minimize harmful methanol entering the body, eating cooked fruits and vegetables is preferable to eating them raw . . . an idea perhaps especially hard to swallow for many raw-food enthusiasts.

According to the scientists on the History Channel, cooking allowed humans to evolve bigger brains and achieve the great “advances” of the modern world. Is another advantage of cooking the reduction of toxic methanol’s negative effects on human health?

I often measure the validity of health theories against my intuition . . . not very scientific, but my intuition is the product of billions of years of evolution, as opposed to the scientists’ accumulated knowledge which is a mere twenty-five hundred years or so old. In the case of the cooking-methanol question, in general I find that I “naturally” prefer eating cooked fruits and vegetables to raw almost all the time―and amazingly scurvy has yet to strike me down. That preference for cooked goes for nuts and seeds as well.

I guess it’s time to write that bestselling book: The Methanol-Free Diet ― How To Avoid Multiple Sclerosis, Cancer and Other Modern Disease by Cooking 99% of Your Food!

But actually, this emphasis on cooked food was championed many years ago . . . by macrobiotics, a diet popularized in the 1960s that recommends almost no raw food. Too bad the macros almost entirely avoid almost all animal foods, ruining an otherwise excellent traditional diet.

Unlike humans, animals don’t cook, so obviously their bodies have evolved to neutralize the toxic effects of methanol. But cooking has been well established in human culture for tens of thousands of years, so our ability to tolerate methanol has probably diminished significantly. On the other hand, I suspect that small amounts of methanol will not harm us, because humans have always eaten some raw foods.

I have a suggestion for those wishing to avoid methanol while enjoying canned fruits and vegetables. Pre-cook the food for a while before sealing it in the canning jars. How long? Long enough for the methanol to evaporate. You’ll have to ask the scientists on the History Channel how long that might be . . . I have no idea.

Roger Windsor
A Farm in Tennessee

Editor’s Response: It is typically the high-pectin fruits such as apples, that are cooked in traditional cultures.

MRSA IN MILK?

A recent press release here in the U.K. has advised consumers against drinking raw milk due to MRSA (antibiotic-resistant staph) being found in five bulk tanks (www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/new-mrsa-superbug-strainfound-in-uk-milk-supply-8431187.html). This press release coincides with an imminent review of raw milk regulations by the Food Safety Authority (FSA). The writer fails to make a distinction between raw milk which the FSA has certified for human consumption versus lower grade commodity milk that must be pasteurized.

Indeed, commodity milk produced without a raw milk license is frequently contaminated with a whole host of pathogens, principally because the farmers are satisfied that the milk will be heat treated. Had MRSA not been found, the researchers could have trotted out the long list of other contaminants frequently found in the milk of intensively farmed cows. Indeed, many outbreaks occur when said low quality milk goes through a faulty pasteurizing unit simply because such high levels of infection are permitted in the bulk tank. This creates a moral hazard which has significant implications for milk quality and is part of the race to the bottom in milk quality and wholesale prices. Not only is quality compromised, but low wholesale prices are caused by excess quantities of low quality milk.

The article states that routine use of antibiotics is the cause of MRSA in bulk tanks, citing this as a reason to avoid drinking raw milk. However, any herd sickly enough to require routine antibiotics would have a bacterial count too high to qualify for a raw milk license. Furthermore, in raw dairies, cows are taken off milking as soon as there is any sign of infection or need for antibiotics. Indeed, the entire herd will be taken off milking for raw drinking milk with even the slightest antibodies to TB in just one cow, and they are tested far more frequently and to a higher standard than cows producing conventional milk. Consumers concerned with routine use of antibiotics should therefore be encouraged to drink certified raw milk because raw dairies do not milk any cows on antibiotics. This one of the reasons why farmers producing artisan raw milk, sold directly to consumers, can command a price of between one and two pounds per liter ($1.50 to $3), bucking the trend in the wholesale market where milk sells below the price of production at around thirty pence per liter. We encourage journalists to support local, successful artisan farmers.

The FSA Board stated in their recent board meeting announcing the raw milk review that they were united in the view that raw milk is inherently dangerous; yet the same report confirms the lack of danger, for there has been no outbreak from raw milk for decades. This dichotomy and lack of confidence in the regulatory process is due to a combination of industry lobbying, in particular from Dairy U.K.. Their position is based on the fraudulent failure to recognize the success of modern raw milk regulations and to make a distinction between raw milk certified for human consumption and commodity raw milk destined for pasteurization.

Philip Ridley, Chapter Leader
London, U.K.

MEAT EATER’S GUIDE?

I was very disappointed when I went to Environmental Working Group’s site today after receiving an email about the EWG’s Shopper’s Guide to Pesticides in Produce. On the main page of the email they also have EWG’s Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health. Here they offer tips for meat eaters recommending that people eat more grains, legumes, tofu and lowerfat dairy products like non-fat yogurt. I plan to send them an email with my comments and hope that others might do the same. You can do so here: http://www.ewg.org/contact/hq.

Karen McFarland
Mansfield, Texas

PHOSPHORUS CONCERNS

Many people have decided to cut back on meat, dairy and eggs because of warnings from the Institute of Medicine about excess phosphorus consumption. High levels of phosphorus are considered an independent predictive factor in mortality and morbidity from cardiovascular problems, kidney disease and osteoporosis. The average American consumes twice the RDA of 700 mg per day. Phosphorus, of course, is an essential nutrient, and people shouldn’t be deterred from eating traditional foods such as grass-fed meats, pastured dairy and free range eggs.

Cutting out carbonated beverages is the most obvious way to reduce phosphorus levels in the diet, but people also need to take a look at their consumption of all packaged and processed foods, including health food store versions. Phosphorous is routinely added via additives such as the anti-caking agents, stabilizers, leavening agents or acidifiers. Since these are not required to be listed on the label, it is difficult to know how much is being added and consumed. When listed on the labels, they may show up as: tricalcium phosphate, trimagnesium phosphate, disodium phosphate, dipotassium phosphate. According to current regulations, these ingredients are safe when used in good manufacturing processes, but obviously the more one consumes prepared foods, the more elevated the blood phosphorus levels can rise.

People with celiac disease need to be especially careful. The Institute of Food Technology in its December 2012 journal states, “It has been difficult for consumers to find gluten-free alternatives that taste good and have desirable texture properties. Consequently, manufacturers are looking for different ingredient solutions that will address these problems.” Phosphate additives have provided that solution without consumer awareness of the health implications. With any processed food, the message is take care and always remember: Fresh is best!

Betty Wedman-St. Louis PhD, RD
St. Petersburg, Florida
Editor’s Response: Below, Betty has provided us with a list of phosphorus sources in processed foods.

HOMEOPATHY FOR EPSTEIN-BARR

When I was twenty-five, I was diagnosed with Epstein-Barr (chronic mononucleosis) and spent two years in bed, sleeping sixteen hours per day. I could not function or work, much less socialize, due to extreme exhaustion. Conventional doctors said I had a chronic condition that would come and go for the rest of my life. During that time, I removed gluten, dairy, yeast, and caffeine from my diet, and tried numerous forms of natural medicine. I sought the advice of many holistic doctors who prescribed vitamin IVs and handfuls of supplements. In 1997, I became acquainted with the Weston A. Price dietary principles, which were vital to help my body heal.

Immediately, I started making chicken broth and fermented vegetables, and increased the amounts of healthy meats and fats in my diet. I started to feel stronger and stronger within just a few weeks. The symptoms of Epstein-Barr continued to be up and down for a few years, and I was still not able to work. I tried yet another modality and saw a classical homeopath. He warned me that my healing could take a long time. I took one dose of the homeopathic remedy and scheduled an appointment for six weeks later. To my surprise, three weeks later, my fatigue was completely gone. I had plenty of energy to go out and do all the things I had missed for all those years. My homeopath believed that my quick recovery was due to my nutrient-dense diet. My body had the nutritional base to heal, it just needed homeopathy to flip the switch for a full recovery. My body became so healthy that the Epstein-Barr virus was not able to live in it, and blood tests confirmed that I was in the normal range.

In addition to Epstein-Barr, for twelve years I had suffered from depression, anxiety, ADD, bladder infections, migraines, insomnia, hypothyroidism, goiter, acne, eczema, PCOS, and menstrual cramps. Over time, each illness vanished with homeopathic treatment and my steady WAPF-inspired diet.

I was able to return to work and I started a four-year graduate homeopathy program in New York. I have been practicing homeopathy since 2001, and I encourage my clients to embrace the WAPF diet for optimal health. What I saw in my life is what I see in my clients’ lives: the body knows how to heal itself; it just needs the nutrients and the right stimulus (such as homeopathy) to bring itself into balance and truly heal.

I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to the Weston A. Price Foundation, for helping me heal and making such powerful tools available to my clients and the rest of the world.

Marnie Reasor, CCH candidate
San Francisco, California

SEEKING TEAM MEMBERS

I represent a small group of Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) members who are planning a venture to make nutrient-dense food more available to people when they are away from home.

We are passionate about eating real food and following Dr. Weston Price’s nutritional guidelines, and we wish to make these nutritious foods easily accessible on the go. And we need your help.

Each of us has a transformative story of how Dr. Price’s work and the message of the Foundation has profoundly impacted our health and well-being. After adopting this more healthful lifestyle, however, we became increasingly aware that eating real food outside of the home is an enormous challenge; oftentimes, it’s impossible. Mainstream restaurants like Chipotle and Chick-fil-A are touted as healthier options by some, but they still fall far short in many respects. The complete lack of options outside the home inspired this project, and we are now in need of your help to move it forward.

We are looking for individuals with restaurant-industry experience, preferably in management and/or procurement, to join our team. If you are interested in participating, please contact me, or forward this message to someone you know who may be interested.

In the words of Dr. Price, “An adequate, well-balanced diet is capable of building people strong and well in all respects and adequate for maintaining health and strength. This is the right of all mankind and their sacred birthright.”

We want to see nutrient-dense foods be more readily available and appreciate all you do in support of this noble goal. Thank you!

Katharine Spehar
Branford, Connecticut

MUCH IN DEMAND

I thought your members would like to know that the librarian in charge of periodicals at our local library says that Wise Traditions is one of the most sought-after publications in the library’s holdings and always much in demand. I’m told there was typically a wait list after they came out. The thing is, too, that I think a fair number of people who go to the library to read their magazines or use their computers don’t have internet access at home, so the hard copy of Wise Traditions is really their only way of seeing it.

Chris Decker, ND, Chapter Leader
Northampton, Massachusetts

 

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SIDE BAR

 

SOURCES OF PHOSPHORUS IN PROCESSED FOODS

BAKED GOODS: Cake mixes, donuts, refrigerated dough, pyrophosphates for leavening and dough “improver.”
BEVERAGES: Phosphoric acid in colas for acidulant, pyrophosphate in chocolate milk to suspend cocoa, pyrophosphate in buttermilk for protein dispersion, tricalcium phosphate in orange juice for fortification, tetrasodium phosphate in strawberry flavor milk to bind iron to pink color.
CEREALS: Phosphate in dry cereals to aid flow through extruder and fortification.
CHEESE: Phosphoric acid in cottage cheese to set acidification, phosphate in dips, sauces, cheese slices and baked chips for emulsifying action and surface agent.
IMITATION DAIRY PRODUCTS: Phosphate as buffer for smooth mixing into coffee and as anticaking agent for dry powders.
EGG PRODUCTS: Phosphate for stability and color/foam improvement.
ICE CREAM: Pyrophosphate to prevent gritty texture.
MEAT PRODUCTS: Tripolyphosphate for injections into ham, corned beef, sausage, franks, bologna, roast beef for moisture and color development.
NUTRITION BARS & MEAL REPLACEMENT DRINKS: Phosphates for fortification and microbiological stability.
POTATOES: Phosphate in baked potato chips to create bubbles on surface, and pyrophosphate in French fries, hash browns, potato flakes to inhibit iron induced blackening.
POULTRY: Tripolyphosphate for moisture and removal of Salmonella and Campylobacter bacterial pathogens.
PUDDINGS & CHEESECAKES: Phosphate to develop thickened texture.
SEAFOOD: Tripolyphosphate in shrimp for mechanical peeling, pyrophosphate in canned tuna and crab to stabilize color and crystals, surimi (“crab/sea sticks”) triphosphate and pyrophosphate as cryoprotectant to protein.

 

 

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