Page 87 - Winter2014

All Thumbs Book Reviews

excessive at all. we know of for human beings. If we can’t make One billion
If you like honey bees and the variety of it here, how are we going to make it on Mars?
foods they make possible, then you need grass- Mars is a wasteland. In fact it’s cold as hell (I of the world’s
land and pasture, which is not possible in the long think I heard that from some guy named Elton poorest

run without cows and other ruminants. John). people
There is also evidence that human immune That makes almost as much sense as the
systems are more robust when regularly exposed idea that we can produce more food by kicking depend on
to livestock. One interesting illustration of this cows off the land. That idea may fool city-slicker livestock.
point is what happened when Europeans invaded vegans but not anyone who knows anything about That is all
the western hemisphere. The Plains Indians with agriculture or nature. Probably most of the land
their buffalo seemed to be much less affected occupied by cows is not good for anything else. they have.
by the European diseases that nearly wiped out Large tracts of land in the world are useless for
eastern tribes. growing crops but can support grass and cattle.
Many pages are devoted to debunking health Removing cattle will reduce our total food sup-
claims against beef. Cancer and heart disease ply, not increase it.
skyrocketed in the 20th century. Some people In the discussion of ethics at the end of the
want to blame the cow for that too. One of the book, the author makes a very important. One
most obvious counter-arguments is that we are billion of the world’s poorest people depend on
eating less animal food and saturated fat than livestock. That is all they have. That makes the
we did 100 years ago. If that proves anything, it ethics argument pretty simple for me.
proves we need more, not less of those things. So we have here a book loaded with good
I read recently that it is important for us to points about the value of beef written by a veg-
establish a colony on Mars because the survival etarian cattle rancher. How can the thumb point
of the human race may depend on it. That is hi- anywhere but UP? Review by Tim Boyd
larious. Earth is the most optimal environment

CHOLESTEROL IS NOT THE CULPRIT: A GUIDE TO PREVENTING HEART DISEASE
Fred A. Kummerow, PhD with Jean M. Kummerow, PhD

At one hundred years of age, Fred Kummerow is still going strong! For decades he has researched the subject of
trans fats and heart disease at the Burnsides Laboratories of the University of Illinois. Much of what we know about the
dangers of trans fats can be attributed to Kummerow, whose research Mary Enig quoted when she began her crusade
against these nasty industrial products.
It's industrial fats and oils, not cholesterol and natural saturated fats, that cause heart disease and Kummerow delineates
the fruits of his decades of labor in this short volume. Kummerow explains how both hardened trans fats and rancid liquid
oils lead to a train of biochemical events that result in hardened arteries. What hardens the arteries is not cholesterol but
calcium, which is built into the endothelial cells under certain conditions, namely the consumption of industrial fats and
oils, along with nutrient deficiencies.
Kummerow is particularly critical of efforts to lower cholesterol. He points out that by taking drugs to lower choles-
terol, the capacity to make new cells needed by our bodies is diminished. Normal cholesterol in our food and bodies is
not the culprit, but oxidized cholesterol—created by polyunsaturated oils and encouraged in diets low in protein, natural
fat, vitamin D, B vitamins and magnesium, is the villain in the process that leads to hardened arteries and heart disease.
Kummerow is a product of conventional training and misses some of the finer points brought up by students of tra-
ditional diets. Nevertheless, it is refreshing to see such logical thinking coming from this source. His chapter on protein is
especially good, and in fact was published in an earlier issue of Wise Traditions. Thumbs UP for this book and a big thank
you to Fred Kummerow for his service to mankind! Review by Sally Fallon Morell
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