Page 83 - Spring2009

Tim’s DVD Reviews

Naughton returns to his doctor to tell him what was mainly about the benefits of vitamin D, with some small coverage of
he has been eating (hamburgers, fried chicken, vitamin A and cod liver oil at the end, he goes into detail about vitamin
eggs, etc.). The doctor is naturally unimpressed A toxicity and cod liver oil toxicity. He does show some discernment in
and starts collecting vital statistics to assess the recognizing that cod liver oil was shown to be beneficial in the 1930s,
damage. First is the weigh-in. Mr. Naughton that many modern brands are different due to over processing and high
is now 194 pounds. Already his doctor has a vitamin A to D ratios. He says there is an ideal ratio between A and D but
puzzled look on his face and says,“I don’t like he doesn’t know what it is. And he knows there is considerable variation
what you’re proving here.” Cholesterol was 222 between modern brands of cod liver oil.
and body fat was 28.2 percent. The good doctor He then takes a mix of studies, some on vitamin A, some on cod
tried to argue with the results but admittedly liver oil, throws these apples and oranges into the hopper and pulls out
really couldn’t. some results he believes are adequate to make blanket condemnations of
This film gets a thumbs up but you do need to all cod liver oil. He doesn’t seem to grasp the fine point that the Weston
be careful what you take away from it. The infor- A. Price Foundation has been saying for years, namely that not just any
mation from the various experts he interviewed cod liver oil is OK. His reasoning gets even more chaotic when he brings
is impeccable. If a viewer wanted to, however, evolution into the discussion. He claims that to know how much vitamin
he might jump to the conclusion that living on A humans need, we need to look at how much we needed in our evolu-
the “right kind” of fast food is okay (it’s not, just tionary development. To figure that out, we must look at the great apes.
in case you’re wondering). I know it is controversial and politically incorrect to say this, but there
“Fat Head” is an entertaining way to under- are reputable scientists (not all of whom are religious zealots) who don’t
score the fact that saturated animal fat is not the unquestioningly accept evolution over long periods by chance mutations
deadly poison it is cracked up to be even when as fact. But let’s suppose it is a fact. I remember hearing years ago that
present in the industrial fast food supply. And it the idea that humans evolved from apes was abandoned in favor of both of
is reassuring to know that “No fat people were us evolving from a common ancestor. Also, as one of the listeners during
harmed during the making of this documen- the call pointed out, vegetarian apes are pretty shaky examples on which
tary.” to base human nutritional needs.
The other glaring problem with his reasoning in general is his insis-
Dr. Mercola’s Conference Call tence on taking a reductionist, fragmented view of nutrition. As Chris
with Dr. John Cannell Masterjohn has made clear in several articles, all of the fat-soluble vitamins
must be present, balanced and working together. Despite paying some lip
This audio recording (no longer posted on service to this reality, Dr. Cannell keeps pulling isolated nutrients out of
the internet) picks up somewhere after the call the line-up and examining how they might work by themselves. That’s the
began. Dr. Mercola initiated the conference call problem. They don’t. He managed to come up with sixteen experts who
and we hear at least two other women on the line agreed with him, which apparently implies the case is closed. I continue
with occasional questions and comments. One to insist that the truth is not up to a vote.
woman seems very impressed with everything Dr. Cannell may be well-intentioned and I’m sure he has done a lot
Dr. Cannell says while the other is clearly not of work. I’m sure he’s very intelligent. He brought up a very interesting
buying all of it. Dr. Mercola is non-committal observation that high vitamin D levels raise glutathione levels, greatly
for the most part. reducing mercury toxicity. He was so certain that very high levels of vi-
After making it clear that his paper (not yet tamin D make one almost immune to mercury that he bandied about the
released at the time of this recording but eventu- idea of drinking mercury at large demonstrations to prove the point. Cod
ally published in the November, 2008 issue of liver oil is toxic but mercury is OK. . . . I can’t help wondering whether he
Annals of Otology, Rhinology and Laryngology) has already experimented. That would explain. . . everything.

SPRING 2009 Wise Traditions 81