Page 74 - Spring2010

Sad feedlot cows are raised on genetically modified grain and soy because it speeds growth and bulk quickly. To
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help further cut feed costs, producers include other “add-ins,” such as municipal garbage, stale pastry, chicken manure
and feathers, as well as candy. This backward diet causes the animals to suffer various disorders such as bloat, liver
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abscesses and acidosis. Jo Robinson, author of Pasture Perfect and owner of the online resource www.eatwild.com,
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tells us that “Cattle with subacute acidosis kick at their bellies, go off their feed, and eat dirt.” Poor things.
On top of an artificial diet and confinement, modern methods of raising cattle also involve considerable amounts of
hormones, steroids, and other chemicals. Approximately twenty million pounds of antibiotics are given to animals each
year—most to prevent disease and promote growth. Antibacterials, topical antimicrobials, and insecticides are also used
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in the feed, living quarters, and directly on the animals themselves. Subjecting animals to this chemical abuse is terrible,
and the ramifications to your family are also significant.
Non-therapeutic uses of antibiotics in agriculture have created what can be called “super-bugs,” bacteria that have
adapted to the overuse of antibiotics over the years and become stronger, more virulent. When researchers tested ground
chicken, turkey, beef, and pork bought in supermarkets, they found that 20 percent of them contained Salmonella. Even
worse, 84 percent of the contaminated samples were resistant to at least one antibiotic and more than half were resistant
to at least three. 28,29,30
Finally, hormone residues in meat and dairy products can disrupt our body’s natural hormone balance. Many experts
suspect that consumption of hormone-treated beef and dairy products may contribute to girls reaching puberty earlier,
thus making them more susceptible to hormonal conditions later in life. Interestingly, the European Union has banned
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the use of hormones in livestock for fear they pose a health risk, and refuses to import hormone-treated Canadian and
U.S. meat.
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PASTURED CHICKENS AND EGGS VS. FEEDLOT RAISED:
Chickens allowed to forage for bugs and grass and soak up sunshine in the great outdoors produce eggs with greater
amounts of vitamin E and vitamin A than their commercial, cooped up, pellet-fed counterparts. The extra nutrients avail-
able in the pasture-fed eggs are obvious by the color of the egg’s yolk. The more yellow/orange the yolk, the higher the
level of carotenoids. Eggs from pastured hens also contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in the beneficial ratio of
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approximately 1:1, unlike commercial eggs, which average an unhealthy 1:19! Similar to caged cows, battery chickens
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are squeezed into small cages or sheds, often windowless, and overrun with their own droppings. There is no room for
them to do what chickens do—graze, root, dust themselves, or roost, let alone sit.

UNREFINED OILS AND BUTTER VS. REFINED OILS AND MARGARINE:
Weston A. Price found that butter was a staple for many vibrantly healthy native peoples. The groups he studied
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particularly valued the deep yellow butter produced by cows feeding on rapidly growing green grass in the spring and
fall. Butter began to lose favor in the early 1950s when margarine, the new kid on the block, took the spotlight. The food
industry capitalized on its ability to turn cheap liquid vegetable oils into solid fats, with a process called partial hydroge-
nation, to supply cheap fats and oils to the budding fast food and snack food industries.
Partial hydrogenation turns liquid oils (like soy, corn, or cottonseed), into hardened fats for margarine and vegetable
shortening, which are used in almost all processed and packaged foods. Not only is the original oil severely damaged
through the process, but a worse side effect is the production of abnormally arranged molecules known as trans fatty
acids. When trans fats are incorporated into cell membranes, they inhibit a wide range of biochemical reactions, such as
enzymes and receptors. 36
Mary Enig, PhD, Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and expert in the chemistry of fats, first warned
the public about the dangers of these fats more than twenty years ago. Yet her warnings fell on deaf ears in the scientific
community—much to the public’s misfortune—due mostly to the ties between the vegetable oil industry and big-money
corporations with their government subsidies. See more on this fascinating topic in the article The Skinny on Fats by Dr.
Enig and Sally Fallon Morell (http://www.westonaprice.org/The-Skinny-on-Fats.html). The article dispels the premise that
saturated fat and cholesterol cause heart disease and sheds light on the positive research about saturated fat and why it
is actually necessary and healthful to consume.
How a fat is processed helps determine whether it is a good choice to eat. Most commercial oils are processed by
crushing the oil-bearing seeds and exposing them to extreme heat (often up to 450 degrees F). In addition to excessive
temperatures, the oils are also exposed to high pressure, light, oxygen, and solvents (usually hexane). This creates an
undesirable food that has been bruised and battered—especially so for the less-stable polyunsaturate-rich vegetable oils.
This is why most commercial oils become rancid, full of harmful free radicals, before hitting the grocery store shelves,
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including canola and soybean oils, which are often marketed as healthful. When the oils are heated for cooking, more
rancid free radicals are formed.
74 Wise Traditions SPRING 2010