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.
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.
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.
We’ve all seen the countless warnings from the American Heart Association, American Medical Association, food conglomerates and our own doctors warning us to avoid eating saturated fat because of the “heart-disease-causing” cholesterol it contains. But have you ever stopped to ask why?
Since the dawn of time, humans have eaten a diet rich in animal fats such as butter, lard and tallow, which are loaded with saturated fatty acids. So just what is a saturated fat? These fats are straight chains of carbon and hydrogen that pack together easily. It is this feature that allows saturated fats to remain relatively solid at room temperature. Vegetable oils(polyunsaturated fats), however are missing various amounts of hydrogen connections and instead have a weaker double bond. Now here is the crucial part, these very same double bonds are weaker and prone to damage from heat, and excessive processing. This same weakness causes vegetable oils to form free radicals much more easily than very stable saturated fats. It is this process (free radical formation) that makes vegetable or seed oils like flaxseed go rancid. Free radicals damage results in inflammation, chronic inflammation is know recognized as the underlying cause of modern degenerative diseases. Most saturated fat is of animal origins with the exception of coconut oil which is a plant source of saturated fats. Grass-fed beef, free-range eggs, liver, raw dairy are excellent sources of these neglected nutrients.
So what are the facts?
• In 1900, at least 35 percent of the calories in the American diet came from saturated dairy fats in the form of raw butter, cream and whole milk. Other sources were pastured eggs, natural pork and grass fed beef. During this time, heart disease was practically unheard of.
• Research dating back to the 1950s indicates saturated fats are necessary for a strong immune system, healthy function of hormone levels and reproduction, for calcium to be used by the bones, and omega-3s to be used by the body properly.
• Animal foods that contain saturated fat and cholesterol provide vital nutrients necessary for growth, energy and protection from degenerative disease. Dietary cholesterol helps strengthen the intestinal wall, which is why low-cholesterol diets can lead to intestinal disorders.
• Cholesterol is essential for proper function of serotonin receptors in the brain. Serotonin is the body’s natural “feel-good” chemical. Low cholesterol levels have been linked to aggressive and violent behavior, depression and suicidal tendencies.
• Mother’s milk is rich in cholesterol. Children need cholesterol-rich foods for proper brain and nervous system development.
So why is it that the United States spends more than $60 billion a year on cholesterol screening and cholesterol-lowering drugs even though a positive risk/benefit ratio for this treatment has never been established? Do your own research then…You decide!
Early Americans understood the importance of eating fermented foods. In fact, early American traditions included foods such as pickled beets, watermelon rind, and cucumber relish, which were originally lacto-fermented.
Many cultures around the world still use lacto-fermentation as a healthful method of preserving foods today.
In Russia and Poland, they eat pickled green tomatoes and peppers. The peoples of Japan, China and Korea enjoy pickled cabbage and eggplant, as well as fermented soy products like miso and tempeh. Cultured raw milk yogurts and cheese have been popular in India and Europe for centuries. Fermented sour dough bread, wine, artichokes, olives, sauerkraut and grape leaves are still staples in the European diet today.
What is lacto-fermentation?
Thousands of years ago, people learned to preserve fruits and vegetables for long periods of time using lacto-fermentation. This process creates lactic acid, a natural preservative that inhibits putrefying bacteria. The starches and sugars in foods are converted into lactic acid when combined with lactic-acid-producing bacteria and allowed to ferment, usually with just pure water and sea salt.
Benefits of fermented foods.
Fermented foods are loaded with amino acids, vitamins, and minerals. Fermented milk is a great source of B vitamins and fermented vegetables are a great source of vitamin C.
Lactic acid promotes the growth of healthy flora (probiotics) in the intestines, which aids in digestion and strengthens the immune system. Getting these bacteria from fermented foods is more beneficial than popping a pill or eating commercially prepared foods — and it costs less too.
Unfortunately in today’s Western world we are taught to be afraid of bacteria. Most commercially processed “pickled” or cultured foods are pasteurized, use vinegar for a standardized taste and are not created with the healthful methods our ancestors used.
But that is changing as more lacto-fermented products become available on the market and Americans learn to make fermented foods at home.
Along with naturally fermented foods, be sure to include farm fresh organic grass-fed beef, free-range poultry, organic eggs and produce in your diet.
