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Vitamin D and Grass-fed Foods

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

American Kids Need

More Vitamin D?

Two recent studies found that millions of U.S. children have extremely low levels of vitamin D. Lack of this important nutrient weakens the immune system, putting kids at increased risk for infections like colds and flu, as well as osteoporosis, heart disease, cancer and other health problems as they get older.

Vitamin D also helps the body absorb calcium, which is necessary for the normal development and maintenance of healthy teeth and bones.

While some experts recommend using vitamin D supplements, others believe the natural approach works best. Vitamin-fortified foods, such as cereals and breads, and pill supplements can contain artificial ingredients, which aren’t always recognized or absorbed easily by the body. Over-supplementation is also an unhealthy possibility.

So if you really want to protect your kids from the swine flu and other infectious illnesses, feed them vitamin D-rich foods and make sure they spend enough time outdoors in the sunshine to let their young bodies make vitamin D (experts say about 20 minutes several times a week without sunscreen).

Good vitamin D food sources include some types of fish such as salmon, raw whole milk products (as pasteurization reduces vitamin D), farm fresh pastured eggs and grass-fed beef. If you must supplement, use high-quality cod liver oil.

You may even want to have your children’s vitamin D levels tested so you’ll have an idea of where they stand.

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Infertility and the Role of farm fresh foods

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009

baby-picture1

Having trouble conceiving? Before you spend time and money on expensive tests and treatments, you may want to evaluate your diet.

A study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health found that women eating low-fat diets had a lower chance of conceiving.
http://www.dairyreporter.com/Industry-markets/Low-fat-dairy-raises-infertility-risk-study

During the eight-year study, researchers documented the health and nutrition of 18,555 women: 438 were diagnosed with anovulatory infertility, a condition that accounts for a third of female fertility problems.

The women in the study who ate only low-fat or skim-milk dairy products, had an 85 percent chance of experiencing infertility. However, those who ate full-fat dairy foods were 27 percent less likely to have the condition.

The study concluded that women trying to conceive should eat up to two servings of full-fat dairy foods a day, including whole milk, cheese, ice cream and cream cheese. These suggestions are similiar to what the Weston A Price Foundation advises. Though of course WAPF speak about the benefits of grass-fed milk and pastured eggs an grass-fed beef.

Katie Singer, author of “The Garden of Fertility” and follower of the nutritional principles of Dr. Weston A. Price, advises women to eat more fat from whole grass-fed raw dairy foods, grass-fed beef, and free-range eggs and poultry, especially if they are trying to conceive.

Singer says many women in her fertility workshops have irregular or nonexistent ovulation. Because of this, she believes they are at increased risk of uterine cancer, polycystic ovarian syndrome and infertility.

After Singer’s students eliminate sugar and tofu from their diets, many of them begin ovulating immediately. However, other students need to add whole dairy and animal fats to their diets to regulate their bodies.

“I’ve seen many women’s temperatures increase significantly when they cut soy out of their diets,” Singer said. “Yet others become ovulatory after they cut back on sugar and increase their consumption of cod liver oil, butter and eggs.”

So the take home message for women is to ditch the low-fat dogma and return to real foods…foods that have nourished human pregnancies before so-called experts convinced us otherwise. Fortunately access to local farm foods are increasing in the Orlando area.

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Heart Disease on the Rise: Could Grass-fed foods help?

Wednesday, August 5th, 2009

Heart Disease on the Rise:
Is the Prudent Diet of any Help?

There are reasons heart disease in the U.S. has increased dramatically in the last 50 years, and you may be surprised to find that they are not related to the consumption of saturated fat or your blood cholesterol levels.

In the early 1900s, heart disease was practically unheard of. By 1950, coronary heart disease, especially fatal clots that caused myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attacks, was the leading cause of death in the U.S., causing more than 30 percent of all deaths. By 1960, there were at least 500,000 heart disease deaths a year in the U.S. As of 2005 roughly one in five deaths was due to heart disease.

Why the increase?
Americans are living longer giving them more time to develop the disease, have more sedentary lifestyles, and are feeling the effects of years of cigarette smoking, but diet is the main contributing factor.

Back in the 1950s, we gave up our “natural” diets and started eating the way that food conglomerates, the American Heart Association and the government told us we should. Instead of using butter, lard and coconut oil for cooking, we ate the recommended vegetable oils, which contain heart-harming trans fats.

Americans were advised to follow the “Prudent Diet,” in which corn oil, margarine, chicken and cold cereal replaced butter, lard, beef and eggs. (The diet was based on the lipid hypothesis, which states: “saturated fat and cholesterol from animal sources raise cholesterol levels in the blood, leading to deposition of cholesterol and fatty material as pathogenic plaques in the arteries.”)

When asked to support the diet, Dr. Dudley White refused, saying: “Back in the MI-free days before 1920, the fats were butter and lard and I think that we would all benefit from the kind of diet that we had at a time when no one had ever heard the word corn oil.”

To decrease your risk of heart disease, include grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, organic eggs and produce, and raw dairy in your diet.

Sources:
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/oiling.html

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Soy…and Male infertility?

Sunday, August 2nd, 2009

In the rush to embrace soy foods some inconvenient facts are becoming more apparent. In particular soy foods have are been promoted as a safe alternative protein source for men.

In 2007 , scientists at the Harvard School of Public Health concluded ” that higher intake of soy foods and soy isoflavones is associated with lower sperm concentration.”  This conclusion was reached after an experiment they conducted showed that men eating just  half cup of soy foods  per day  resulted in 41 million fewer sperm per milliliter than men not consuming soy in their study.

I’ve addressed some gross inaccuracies made by Dr. Ian Smith in the interview above:

So called natural soy foods  he claims are safer (soy milk, edamame, and tofu). In reality these are the foods that provided  high levels of the sperm-reducing isoflavones. Especially if you are a vegan or vegetarian.  The real take home message is to avoid them period! http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/dangersisoflavones.html

Asian have been eating fermented soy foods in relatively small amounts.  Mostly in the form of condiments as soy sauce.  Also this was never the main source of food only in times of famine or in isolated places like their monasteries.  Soy was also eaten in the context of a traditional diet that had high levels of minerals which offsets soy’s negative impact. Take home message: Americans overeat soy foods and Asians never had the variety of fake soy foods as we have access to. Avoid them!

Soy lowers cholesterol:  This claim approved by the FDA “relied largely on a 1995 meta-analysis by Dr. James Anderson, sponsored by Soy Protein International and published in the New England Journal of Medicine”   Meta-analysis has come under fire for potentially supporting very unscientific claims . “Researchers substituting meta-analysis for more rigorous trials risk making faulty assumptions and indulging in creative accounting,” says Sir John Scott, President of the Royal Society of New Zealand.  Ronald M. Krauss, MD calls research that ties soy to lower levels of  cholesterol  “incredibly immature,” who is Senior Scientist Director, Atherosclerosis Research at Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute. Take home message: Don’t believe the hype!

Dr. Smith claims that 25-50 grams of soy is considered healthy.  Well research shows that  just 30 grams of soy daily resulted in significant suppression of thyroid function as measured by the rise of thyroid stimulating hormone. Y.Ishizuki, et al, “The effects on the thyroid gland of soybeans administered experimentally in healthy subjects”Nippon Naibunpi Gakkai Zasshi 1991,767:622-629

Take home message: Keep your soy consumption to a minimum if at all.


Soy’s negative effects are not limited to sperm counts.  In a study called ” Impact of Exposure to Endocrine Disruptors in utero and in childhood on Adult Reproduction”  the authors found that high levels of the genistein ( the plant estrogen found in soy) had feminizing effects on men.  This included breast development, and reduced sex drive due to a decrease in androgen’s.

The answer to this marketing hype is a dose of real food.  Food that humans have thrived on for millennia, grass-fed beef, free range chickens, eggs, butter, raw milk and a variety of produce.

For more info see:

http://westonaprice.org/soy/index.html

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/dangersisoflavones.html

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Traditional Diet for Babies

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
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What Should You Feed Your Baby?

Many parents wonder if it is safe to feed their babies raw milk. The answer is an emphatic YES, as long as you know the raw milk comes from a clean and reliable source.

It is also best if the milk comes from cows that eat a more natural diet of green grass, hay and root vegetables.

While mother’s milk is the most ideal for your baby, raw cow’s milk produced safely is not dangerous in spite of what public health propagandists have lead you to believe. Raw milk actually contains enzymes and antibodies that make it less susceptible to bacterial contamination than pasteurized milk, while many toxins that cause diarrhea and other ailments survive the pasteurization process. Raw milk is easier for your baby to digest than pasteurized and less likely to cause cramps, constipation and allergies.

Many doctors warn that feeding cereal grains to babies too early can lead to grain allergies. Because your baby’s digestive system is better equipped to supply enzymes for digestion of fats and proteins rather than carbohydrates, baby’s first solid foods should be animal foods.

Some experts recommend feeding an egg yolk per day, starting at four months. Eggs from pasture-fed hens are rich in the omega-3 long-chain fatty acids that may be lacking in cow’s milk. These fatty acids are essential for brain development.

Cod liver oil can also be added to baby’s foods for additional omega-3s and vitamin D.

Around 10 months of age, you can introduce meats such as grass-fed beef liver, and mashed fruits and vegetables, and raw buttermilk or yogurt. Avoid fruit juices, as they are mostly sugar.

Of course your baby will come in contact with processed junk foods sooner or later. But if you help your child develop a taste for nutritious foods in infancy then he or she will make better food choices for a healthier future.

nourishing-traditions1Source: Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats by Sally Fallon with Mary G. Enig, PhD.

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