Caustic Commentary, Winter 2023

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Sally Fallon Morell takes on the Diet Dictocrats

COVID JABS

The bad news about Covid shots just keeps accumulating. In the UK, the Office for National Statistics published an update on deaths by vaccination status in England, which revealed that the vaccinated population accounted for 95 per­cent of the Covid-19 deaths during the twelve months from June 2022 through May 2023. Ninety-four percent of those deaths were among either the triple or quadruple vaccinated population, while the unvaccinated accounted for the lowest number of Covid deaths in every single month (expose-news.com, November 19, 2023). And it’s not just Covid that is carrying off the vaccinated. Physicians are describing a surge in aggressive, rapid-onset cancers following the rollout of the shots in December 2020, especially lymphoma, even in young people (Epoch Times, August 15, 2023). Cardiovascular deaths in the U.S. and UK are up also (vigilantfox. substack, August 31, 2023) and disability rates in the UK have almost doubled. Most alarming of all is the damage inflicted on military members forced to take the Covid jab. Data obtained from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) in­dicate that some 43 percent of service members developed nervous system diseases (such as epilepsy) between August 2021 and January 2022. DMED also records huge increases in cancer (especially testicular, breast, stomach and thyroid), MS, thyroid dysfunction and various forms of heart disease. The babies of almost nineteen thousand vaccinated pregnant servicewomen were born with congenital malformations and more than twenty thousand men and women became permanently sterile (americanlibertyreportnews.com, March 20, 2022). Who needs battles and weapons to destroy the armed forces of a country when you can incapacitate them with a simple shot in the arm?

LOW UPTAKE

Why are so few people getting the latest Covid shot? whines Dylan Scott, healthcare reporter for vox.com (November 17, 2023) when the Covid-19 injections were hailed as a miracle that “proved exceptionally effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.” More than 90 percent of adults in America received at least one dose, claims Scott, but only 14 percent of adults have received the latest booster. Maybe it’s because “the novelty is gone,” says Scott. “People aren’t scared of this virus anymore,” says vaccine developer Paul Offit, who calls the Covid shot “the most amazing medical and scientific accomplishment” of his lifetime. Scott notes a “worrying trend” in the decline in vaccination rates among children, with 3 percent of U.S schoolchildren reporting a vaccine exemption for the com­ing school year, the highest on record according to the CDC, and ten states reporting an exemption rate above 5 percent. Maybe all this “hesitancy” has to do with the inconvenient fact that the Covid shot has caused widespread death and disability and offers no protec­tion at all (see above). Or maybe because Pfizer’s new booster was tested only on mice—ten to be ex­act—which reveals nothing about their safety or effectiveness in humans, while Moderna’s version was tested on a mere fifty adults, with one experiencing a “medically attended adverse event,” the details of which the company refuses to disclose (media.mercola.com, September 26, 2023).

CUTTING MEAT CONSUMPTION

Health officials want us to cut meat consumption, but the public isn’t buying it. Total meat consumption is projected to increase more than 60 percent between 2010 and 2050. When people enter the middle class, they want more steak and bacon! How to get the public to eat a more plant-based diet? Researchers writing for the recently launched CABI One Health journal, which will explore “the interconnec­tions between humans, animals, plants, ecosystems and their shared environment,” claim there is “robust evidence that a reduction of animal product consumption is . . . needed in regions where these consumptions levels are currently high.” They call for phasing out support for industrial meat produc­tion—something we can all agree with—but with a goal of reducing animal protein consumption overall rather than shifting production to pasture-based farms. Meanwhile, in the UK, environmental activists are taking the government to court over its “failure” to adopt measures to reduce meat and dairy production and consumption. The plaintiff, a group called Feedback, says the government has a duty to introduce the measures in order to meet climate targets. According to Feedback, reductions in meat and dairy consumption are essential for meeting the net zero target to combat climate change. Carina Millstone, executive director of Feedback, says the government must adopt measures to slash meat and dairy consumption to “avoid climate and environmen­tal breakdown. We are confident our judicial review will establish that the government has a legal responsibility to put in place policies to reduce emissions in the food and farming sector” (farminguk.com, November 7, 2023). What to do if the public just won’t stop eating meat in spite of government persuasions? The lawsuit doesn’t address this difficult question.

SHOULD WE BAN CANTALOUPE?

An outbreak of salmonella linked to cantaloupe and pre-cut fruit products has sickened ninety-nine people in thirty-two states. Two people have died. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), these numbers are much lower than the actual numbers because many people aren’t treated or tested for salmonella. The outbreak is spread across several brands (news.yahoo.com, November 24, 2023). Clearly the solution is to treat cantaloupe like raw milk and ban it from interstate commerce! Sorry for the sarcasm but imagine the uproar if ninety-nine people got sick and two died from raw milk!

THE SATURATED FAT DEBATE

Lots more people are using butter these days, and some even have the audacity to cook in lard and tallow! “Don’t listen to the dissonance. Saturated fat actually (still) is bad for you,” an article appearing in the Washington Post (June 14, 2023), aims to halt this trend. The author, journalist Tamar Haspel, a big fan of USDA’s disastrous dietary guidelines, notes that Americans started eating more butter when the New York Times published an article by Mark Bittman titled “Butter is Back.” Bittman reviewed a meta-analysis published in PLoS One (2016 Jun 29;11(6):e0158118) which found “relatively small or neutral overall associations of butter with mortality, CVD, and diabetes.” Said the authors, “These findings do not support a need for major emphasis in dietary guidelines on either increasing or decreasing butter consumption, in comparison to other better established dietary priorities.” But Haspel “believes” we should limit saturated fat intake because she “believes” two things: that saturated fat raises LDL-cholesterol and cholesterol increases heart disease risk. Instead of reviewing the science (which does not show that butter eaters have more heart attacks), she interviews the “experts.” While the “experts” point out that coconut oil and “some dairy” are not harmful, “everyone I spoke with agrees” that raising LDL raises heart disease risk. As Ronald Krauss, one of Haspel’s experts, puts it, “There’s no reason we need [saturated fat] in our diet.” This kind of statement takes one’s breath away. Don’t these “experts” realize that our cells, our mitochondria, our lungs, our kidneys, our brains, our immune system, our hormone production—all require saturated fats to function? Aren’t they aware of the indisputable fact that as butter consumption has plummeted over the last hundred years (replaced by industrial seed oils), rates of heart disease (and cancer and diabetes) have soared? Aren’t they aware of the important nutrients carried in the one fat that nourishes growing mammals? For another reason to embrace saturated fat, read on.

LICKING THE SUGAR HABIT

Research is finally beginning to confirm what many of us already know: sugar is indeed an addictive substance, which temporarily raises dopamine levels and activates feel-good endocannabinoids. Indeed, the effects of sugar addiction, withdrawal and relapse can be compared to those of other addictive drugs. A 2020 study published in the journal Ap­petite, describes an easy solution to the problem of sugar addiction, although one wouldn’t glean that from the title: “Chronic high-fat diet affects food-motivated behavior and hedonic systems in the nucleus accumbens of male rats.” The gist of the study is that rats fed sugary foods—described as “caloric-dense palatable foods”—didn’t want them when fed a “chronic high-fat diet” containing almost 40 percent of calories as lard. Eating lard caused a “significant moti­vational impairment for sweet palatable foods. . . [and]. . . modulation of hedonic feeding behavior and related neuro­chemical systems.” It seems that saturated animal fats like lard also raise our dopamine and endocannabinoid levels, but in a good way that avoids the sugar crash and actually feeds the brain. Of course, researchers could not just come out and say that eating lots of animal fats like lard can cure sugar addiction; instead, they hide their findings behind contrived language that almost makes it sound like a bad thing!

CHOLESTEROL AND LONGEVITY

Our article “Dangers of Statin Drugs” comes up first when you Google “statin dangers” and is the most popular post on our website. Nevertheless, doctors are pushing these poison­ous cholesterol-lowering pills with enduring vigor to just about everyone, from young women to elderly men. It turns out that if you want to live a long life, taking statins is exactly the wrong thing to do. AMORIS, a Swedish study, looked at biomarker profiles of more than eight hundred thousand individuals measured during 1985-1996 and followed for up to thirty-five years. About twelve hundred participants lived to their one hundredth birthday. Two key factors were associated with reaching this age: higher levels of iron (read, higher consumption of red meat) and higher levels of total cholesterol. That’s right, those with higher levels of cholesterol were much more likely to reach their hundredth birthday. Longevity was also associated with lower levels of glucose, creatinine, uric acid, aspartate aminotransferase, gamma-glutamyl transferase, alkaline phosphatase, lactate dehydrogenase and total iron-binding capacity (GeroScience, September 2023).

NATIVE FOODS ON THE MENU

Reindeer pot pie, herring roe, salmon belly, moose meatloaf and seal soup—these are some of the items that hospital patients enjoy at the Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) in Anchorage, Alaska. They can also get Eskimo ice cream (made with animal fat, fish oil and berries), smoked hooli­gan (a fish rich in nutrient-dense fat) and birch sourdough biscuits. These ingredients are donated by a statewide net­work of hunters and gatherers dedicated to the concept of nourishment through traditional foods. Up until 2014, the ANMC food staff relied on Western processed foods because federal law prohibited foraged food on hospital menus due to concerns over safety. Then former Alaska Senator Mark Begich and retired Alaska Native physician Dr. Ted Mala lobbied for the inclusion of a specific measure on traditional foods in the 2014 Farm Bill. In the five years since the pro­gram’s inception, the hospital has received more than twenty thousand pounds of donations—Alaska state law prohibits the commercialization of any basic food source, so most fish and game is donated or bartered. Selling foraged plant vegetables and berries is not illegal but considered taboo; custom dictates giving extra to family members or village elders. When a patient learned that seal was the food most requested but least available, he began donating the extra seal meat he captured during his hunting forays. Head chef Amy Foote credits the success of the program to the tradi­tion of caring for elders in Alaska Native culture, as well as their belief that traditional foods have healing properties. The native foods are also available in the hospital cafeteria, so we hope some members will visit and report back on this wonderful program (altasobscura.com, December 30, 2020).

THE MOZART EFFECT

Be careful what you eat and also what you listen to! Research­ers have found that music by Mozart can have an anti-epi­leptic effect on the brain and may be a possible treatment to prevent epileptic seizures. Specifically, listening to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos K448 led to a 32 percent reduction in epileptiform discharges (EDs). These are electrical brain waves associated with epilepsy and seizures. Not all music has the same effect. Listening to Haydn’s Symphony No. 94 caused a 45 percent increase in EDs. Experts believe the study’s findings could pave the way for individualized music therapies to prevent and control epileptic seizures in the future (medicalexpress.com, June 19, 2021).

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