Page 14 - Summer 2019 Journal

busses, the Tube and train networks, and a recent ad to get the axe is one featuring strawberries and cream to promote the Wimbledon tennis matches! Banned foods include breakfast cereals, yogurts, cakes, pizza, bread, sausages—and cream! The new transport policy is backed by Mayor Sadiq Khan and celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver. Said Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs, “This ban was sold to the public as a clampdown on junk food advertising. We can now see that it extends far beyond junk food and even includes non-food advertising” (dailymail.com, April 24, 2019). The new rules also stopped the grocery delivery service Farmdrop from advertising free-range butter, eggs and bacon.
JUNK FOOD AND WEIGHT GAIN
An intriguing study published in Cell Metabolism (May 16, 2019) indicates that eating ultra-processed foods actually drives people to overeat and gain weight compared with a diet of unprocessed foods. Conducted at the National Insti- tutes of Health (NIH), the study recruited twenty healthy, stable-weight adults—ten men and ten women—to live in an NIH facility for a four-week period and eat only the meals provided for them. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two diets for two-week stretches—one group eating a diet of minimally processed foods and the other eating ultra- processed food—such as chicken salad made with canned chicken, jarred mayonnaise and relish on white bread, served with canned peaches in heavy syrup. After two weeks, the groups then switched to the other diet plan. The two diets contained the same amount of calories, fats, protein, sugar, salt, carbohydrates and fiber. Both groups ate about the same amount of protein but those on the ultra-processed diet ate a lot more carbs and fat (processed fat), resulting in an aver- age of five hundred eight calories more per day. On average, participants gained about two pounds during the two weeks of the processed-food diet and lost about two pounds on the unprocessed-food diet. The researchers tracked blood glucose and hormone levels, including levels of an appetite- suppressing hormone called PYY and a hunger-stimulating hormone called ghrelin. PYY went down on the processed- food diet and up on the unprocessed-food diet; the opposite occurred for ghrelin. The processed diet will of course be higher in industrial seed oils, refined sweeteners and artificial
flavors like MSG—all known to stimulate increased food consumption and weight gain.
IT’S NOT WORKING
The measles vaccine is mandatory in China, where 99 per- cent of the population is vaccinated. Yet, China saw over seven hundred measles outbreaks from 2009 to 2012. The 2019 article, “Assessing measles vaccine failure in Tianjin, China,” published in the journal Vaccine, reports on substan- tial measles cases in Tianjin, China, among individuals who have received multiple measles vaccine doses. The authors suggest that those who receive the vaccine at eight months of age—the earliest possible time for giving the live-virus vaccine—“may have a reduced immune response” and that the vaccine effectiveness may be as low as 23.1 percent for one dose. According to the Centers for Disease Control, one dose of the MMR vaccine is about 93 percent effective.
AUTISM INCREASE
California’s draconian vaccination law, SB 277, went into effect in September 2016. The law removed religious and philosophical exemptions to vaccines, and many parents with young children who were behind on the vaccination schedule or had not started vaccinating yet were forced to catch up or no longer attend a public or private school. As a result, many children received lots of vaccines in a short period of time—sometimes as many as eight in one visit. During the period of December 2015 (pre-SB 277) to De- cember 2017 (sixteen months after SB277 was enforced), the number of autistic three-year-olds in California special education courses increased 24 percent! The increase was 14 percent for four-year-olds, 13 percent for five-year-olds and 15 percent for eight-year-olds, according to computer searches via DataQuest. Mainstream media have reported on the increase, but dance around the question of why. “The increased prevalence of autism has been a medical mystery for years,” wrote Michael Finch II for The Sacramento Bee, citing “increased awareness” and “broadened medical defi- nitions” as reasons for the increase (The Sacramento Bee, January 19, 2019). The Los Angeles Times papered over this appalling tragedy with the headline, “Here’s why the appar- ent increase in autism spectrum disorders may be good for U.S. children” (April 26, 2018).
Caustic Commentary
12 Wise Traditions SUMMER2019