Attacking Anti-Vaxxers

It appears that my local paper, The Blade, was doing the bidding of Big Pharma by providing a very biased editorial last year about the banning of Vaxxed from the Tribeca Film Festival. Describing the depiction of the research of a serious medical scientist as “crackpot” and the doctor as spreading “spurious notions” reflects a total lack of understanding of the issue. One suspects they don’t want to undermine the profits of this industry. Then again recently an editorial appeared with the heading Anti-Vaxxers Threaten Everyone, aiming to put the fear of God into everyone if they don’t get their flu shot. Before you consider these flu shots harmless, read this story of Dr. Suzanne Humphries who left a successful hospital nephrology practice because she saw so many of her patients get sicker after getting the hospital-required flu shot on admission.

Let’s see, experts are now saying that our young people will probably not live as long as their parents because of increasing chronic disease, but we seem to be unwilling to examine serious attempts to understand possible causes. The goal of “herd immunity” is bandied about, with little basis in fact. We build new medical facilities and spend enormous amounts on sickness care and research, with results that are disappointing, as our children suffer ever more chronic disease. Meanwhile the medical establishment ostracizes any scientist doctor that doesn’t follow the party line – exactly what happened with Dr. Wakefield. In fact there has been little serious research comparing the health of vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated children – that would undermine the whole industry. A recent independent pilot study of home-schooled children showed that unvaccinated children had lower incidences of allergies and neurodevelopmental disorders than vaccinated children.

I grew up in a very healthy fashion without the benefit of most of these vaccines. In those days we got sick, developed natural immunity, got well and moved on. Now I know how to support my immune system without vaccines or pharmaceuticals if I should happen to get sick. High dose vitamin C is powerful therapy against serious infections we should all be aware of, as most hospitals won’t allow it, and Big Pharma would like to see it outlawed. Sorry if I’m undermining the profits of Big Pharma, but maybe that is what we all need to do. If you are still unconvinced and fearful, check out the links here.

Kris, the retired and reformed dietitian

Democratic Dilemma

I just read three articles that illustrate the dangerous situation in this country that we must face up to before there is any hope of Universal Health Care, or any other progressive objective.

First – the long standing drive of the GOP to gain power – gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc. The demonizing of Hillary is just one nasty, aspect detailed in this story:

Hillary Need Not Apologize For What Happened  Her destruction [by the GOP] was decades in the making.

"The real answer to what happened to Clinton in 2016 won’t be found in her book. You’d have to go back more than a decade, when the GOP took dead aim at then Senator Clinton as a potential presidential contender. Their plan was pretty simple. It entailed digging up every scintilla of old and new dirt it could dredge up against her to torpedo her candidacy even before [it] officially took off."

Second, Russia’s efforts to influence Trump and our election, as well as the elections of other Western states, as illustrated in this story:

The Gripping Story Behind the Case for Trump-Putin Collusion  Bill Browder's explosive testimony provides compelling insight for the corrupt bargain at the heart of the Russia investigation.

And finally, this lengthy interview (there is a transcript) discussing the insidious influence of White Supremacists/Neo-Nazis in our current administration. It’s scary that up to a third of US citizens seem to have fallen for this line of thinking – blame the Jews, the Blacks, the Muslims for all our troubles!

Life After Hate: Full Intv. with Nephew of Fascist WhoMarched in Charlottesville & Former Neo-Nazi

[O]ur complete discussion with a former neo-Nazi and the nephew of a white supremacist who marched in the Charlottesville, Virginia, protest. Christian Picciolini is co-founder of Life After Hate, a nonprofit helping people disengage from hate and violent extremism. He was a leading neo-Nazi skinhead gang member and far-right extremist in the 1980s and 1990s. We also speak with Jacob Scott, the nephew of Peter Tefft, who was disowned by his father, Pearce Tefft, in a letter published in a local newspaper.

It’s especially interesting the techniques Picciolini uses in changing the beliefs of Neo-Nazis that his organization works with – the same techniques we need to use in interactions with right-wingers – listen, and help establish contact with those they are afraid of.

  

At this point bashing the Democratic Party is not helpful, blaming them for Hillary’s defeat, since they were fighting against these powerful forces. Yes, they made major mistakes, but our mission now should be to support the progressive wing of the Dem. Party, promote a progressive platform and encourage the progressive candidates that are running, with the goal of transforming the party (which is what OurRevolution is doing). Other progressive parties have important messages, but they aren’t going to win elections anytime soon. They have a much better chance of transforming the party and the country by running candidates in Democratic primaries, shaking up the party, as Bernie did, and moving it to the left (just as the Alt-right moved their party to the extreme right by running in their primaries).

With the current administration bent on undoing every progressive change made in this country, we have our work cut out for us!

Misguided School Lunch Guidelines

On 3/4/17 I sent a letter to the editor of the Toledo Blade, which has not appeared, so I’m posting it here. It was in response to this editorial:

http://www.toledoblade.com/Editorials/2017/03/04/Health-and-balance.html

Good for Rep. Steve King taking aim at the misguided school lunch guidelines.

Where is the evidence that the current low fat, low salt guidelines for school lunches has led to healthier students? The notion that limiting fat will help kids lose weight is based on a misunderstanding of how the body deals with real food. Research has shown that children who drink whole milk tend to be slimmer than children who drink low fat milk. The butterfat contains valuable nutrients, such as true vitamin A. The nutrients in vegetables are absorbed better when you butter those veggies. The idea that natural saturated fats are bad for you has been thoroughly debunked, though it has been dying a very slow death unfortunately.

Salt is an essential mineral in the blood stream. The notion that you can’t add enough salt to soup made from scratch to make it taste good is nonsense! They seem to be using the guidelines for elderly people with high blood pressure.

We are giving our children the awful message that healthy food doesn’t taste good, which is simply not true when real food is properly prepared. I speak as a slim, retired dietitian who uses plenty of butter and drinks [raw] whole milk.

Kris Johnson, MS Nutrition, retired dietitian

Williston, OH

www.MercyViewMeadow.org

419-320-2309

I would have liked to add more information supporting my position, but the length of letters to the editor is limited.

The Healthy Nation Coalition, consisting of many health and nutrition professionals, has a goal of changing the USDA Dietary Guidelines so they actually promote good health: http://forahealthynation.org/healthy-nation-coalition-letter/

The Weston A. Price Foundation has several article on this topic: https://www.westonaprice.org/dietary-guidelines-usda/

And, of course, on my website there are many links to healthy dietary guidance.

So learn to take with a grain of salt some of the advice that you so often see in the paper, such as this article that appeared in today’s paper, Bacon, soda & too few nuts tied to big portion of US deaths.

Kris

Whole Foods = Good Health!

We Must Claim The High Moral Ground

Sunday I listened to John Ikerd speak on sustainability at the OEFFA (Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Asso.) conference. He emphasized that we must take the high moral ground that what we are promoting is the right thing to do, whether farming ecologically or organizing local food systems or communicating with our politicians. As he says in this recent blog:

“For purposes of this discussion, I have defined an ethic as: a set of rules of behavior based on individual or collective ideas about what is morally good and bad and thus is right and wrong. An ethic can be individual, communal, or societal and thus can guide the decisions and actions of individuals, communities, societies, or humanity as a whole. An ethic of sustainability ultimately must eventually encompass humanity, if the global sustainability movement is to succeed in its mission. However, individual ethics eventually shape communal ethics and communal ethics shape societal ethics, which ultimately guide the evolution of humanity.”

http://johnikerd.com/toward-an-ethic-of-sustainability/

And then I reread Rev. William Barber’s piece in a recent issue of The Nation, where he speaks of the same issue of what is morally right and wrong and raises some pointed questions:

 “This is why progressives must learn to “speak in tongues” toward a new political Pentecost, because the issues we face in 2016 are not matters of left and right; instead, they are matters of right and wrong. What religious tradition urges its devotees to fleece the poor and destroy public schools? What concept of God informs the believer that it is right to turn hungry children away from preschool programs where they can get a head start in life and a nutritious breakfast, or to deny poor children medical care and dentistry? What Scripture permits the beating of prisoners or refuses a person a fair trial? We have a genuine moral vision, and it is time that we embraced it.”

http://www.thenation.com/article/how-progressives-can-and-must-regain-the-moral-high-ground/

There are many conservatives who are religious, but progressives have the high moral ground, while it seems like the Right Wing has become totally greedy and selfish and legalistic.  Setting aside the “hot button” issues, about which religious people sincerely disagree on ethical grounds, progressives are fighting for what is morally right, and we must maintain the high moral ground in all we do. And, as Rev. Barber emphasizes, we must band together with all those fighting for what is ethically right on a host of different issues if we are going to turn things around in this country. As Ikerd, who is an economist, said, we farm ecologically because it is right, not because it is highly profitable, we shop at the farmers market because it is the right thing to do, not because it is cheaper. We must appeal to folks’ higher moral standards if we are to win them over and change our society.

Kris Johnson

Nutrition in the headlines again - or it should have been!

I just finished reading this book, The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet by  Nina Teicholz (https://thebigfatsurprise.com/)

It's familiar territory to me, but what an indictment of our nutrition authorities! Nina documents the shocking refusal of so-called nutrition experts to entertain the idea that there might be another way to look at the issue of saturated fat, instead accusing those who have studied the research carefully of 'quackery' for suggesting that saturated fat is not bad. They simply refuse to look at all the research with an open mind - a very bad habit for anyone calling themselves a scientist!

Two recent stories in The New York Times (one after the other in my large print weekly edition) make me wonder if we’ll ever get the nutrition right!

“Rising Obesity Rates Put Strain on Nursing Homes”

relates the problems nursing homes are having taking care of massively obese patients. And I’ll bet they are feeding them the very low fat high carb type of diet that made them fat in the first place, since that is the standard diet in nursing homes. And that is what we’ve been told is a healthy diet for nearly 40 years - still recommended in the government’s 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

This is what guides food policy in many institutions, including our public schools.  Pity the poor children that can have low fat chocolate milk with extra sugar, but not the whole milk that is truly nourishing – and never any butter on their tasteless vegetables.

Which leads me to the other shocking article, where nutrition is completely ignored, as babies are given drugs for problems that are probably the result of missing nutrients.

“Still in a Crib, Yet Being Given Antipsychotics”

Imagine giving babies,  or even toddlers, Prozac or Risperdal for depression! The doctors who prescribe these drugs know so little about nutrition, they have no idea that faulty nutrition of the child or even the mother could be at the root of the problem. Yet good nutrition is essential  for the brain to work properly. The influence on behavior of several common nutrient deficiencies is detailed in this article:

“Violent Behavior: A Solution in Plain Sight”

And good natural fats, like butter, are needed to absorb several of these important nutrients.

Parents who follow the Dietary Guidelines based on the research of Dr. Weston A. Price, DDS, rich with natural fats, have healthy happy children with little in the way of behavior problems. As evidence, check out the Healthy Baby Photo Gallery

These happy faces are an inspiration!

Kris, retired and reformed dietitian

Merry Christmas to all!

Not a good place for family news, but here's a bit of my news. With a world in turmoil, I’d rather talk about what we can look forward to. I continue to teach classes on eating traditional realfoods. Some refer to it as the Paleo Diet, but that’s a pretty nebulous description, with many versions, though they often emphasize many of the traditional foods that Dr Price discovered nourished the healthy societies that he visited back in the 1930’s. For those who want to learn more, visit the website of the Weston A Price Foundation, www.westonaprice.org, or prowl around on my website www.MercyViewMeadow.org. I’m happy to report that many people are discovering that butter is better and eggs are excellent!

I’ve continued working on GMO issues (see last year’s Christmas letter). Efforts to get genetically engineered foods labeled have been sidetracked by nationwide efforts to defeat the so-called Dark Act (“Deny Americans the Right to Know” Act) which would prevent all GMO labeling nationwide and pretend that somehow genetic engineering is “natural”.  Meanwhile, in the face of growing evidence that this artificial genetic engineering is not good for our health or that of the planet, global food, farming and environmental justice groups will put Monsanto on trial for crimes against human health and the environment in the International People’s Court in the Hague. You can find out more at www.organicconsumers.org And most importantly you can take action to acquire your food from clean organic sources, including meat from animals raised and finished on well-managed pasture.

And in doing that you will also make a contribution to reversing climate change - much in the news these days. We always hear about the need to switch to renewable energy, and there is much good news on that, but we haven’t heard much about the other side of the equation – putting carbon back into the soil where it belongs. It turns out that organic style farming, sometimes referred to as ecoagriculture, not only puts carbon back into the soil, but also is highly productive, and very healthy for all.

I’ve been reading a book, World Hunger: 10 Myths (smallplanet.org), which ties this all together – food security, healthy food, happy farmers, fertile soils, stable climate. Food First (foodfirst.org) has been in the forefront of spreading the good news about ‘agroecology’, as farmers around the world learn to increase their food production by focusing on soil health not pesticides. The prospects are very encouraging, as long as they can fend off the efforts of corporate agriculture. Don’t be fooled when you hear “experts” claim that we need GMOs to feed the world. It is simply not true!

Another exciting activity this year has been participating in our local Multifaith Women’s group, getting to know women of other faiths, sharing garden and cooking knowhow, and attending demonstrations for peace and understanding. Our community celebrated a visit by the Interfaith Amigos (interfaithamigos.com), a pastor, a rabbi, and an imam who have become good friends and spread the message of unity, love, and compassion, having found that their friendship has deepened their faith. We need to understand and respect each other’s faith. I highly recommend inviting the Interfaith Amigos to your community. 

As we celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus, may we remember that we are all children of God, and that God loves us in spite of our many foibles and disappointing behaviors. I pray that understanding that Love, we are inspired to spread love and compassion far and wide. Our country and our world desperately need them!

Wishing you the best in 2016

Kris

A Letter to the Editor of BBC World Service concerning their coverage of GMOs

Dear BBC,

I listen to  BBC World Service night on Sirius XM. I was appalled that BBC would broadcast such a biased report about GMOs as the one I heard recently (6/1/15) on The Inquiry. It sounded like a propaganda press release from the genetic engineering industry (Monsanto) attempting to gloss over the serious scientific questions raised about their safety and affects on the environment.

I didn’t hear anything about the good quality, independent research that has revealed serious health concerns.
Nor did I hear anything about the serious problems farmers have experienced when they use these products and their associated pesticides.
Nor did I hear anything about how modern organic/ecological sustainable agriculture can be just as productive, if not more so under adverse weather conditions.

The notion that there is scientific consensus that GMOs are safe is totally misleading, as most scientists have no idea of the depth of deception coming from the industry.
The book, ‘Altered Genes, Twisted Truth, documents the unethical practices of the industry in their efforts to minimize oversight by government authorities and protect their profits.

We deserve better reporting from the BBC!