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!

Concerning recent headlines

A letter to the editor which didn't get published:

The price of eggs is up because of bird flu hitting giant commercial layer factories. Millions of piglets died last year in commercial pig factories due to a strange virus. Health insurance premiums are set to rise significantly. Salt is targeted as causing poor health, so labeling is mandated in restaurants. Our children are plagued by obesity and diabetes. The common weed killer, glyphosate, is a probable carcinogen and contaminates many foods.  What is wrong with our systems???

Commercial chicken and hog factories may provide us with cheap food, but animals that are so vulnerable to disease do not provide us with the healthiest food, to say nothing of the ethical issues they raise. The minerals missing from refined foods (salt, flour, sugar, & high fructose corn syrup) are keys to good health, rather than restricting salt. Now we are learning that the recommended low fat foods actually contribute to obesity, while butter and eggs are good for us, but modern vegetable oils are not.

Shockingly, unless they study nutrition on their own, doctors are not of much help, as they get almost no nutrition instruction in  medical school.

When are we going to learn that the quality of the food we eat and how it is raised are keys to keeping us truly healthy, cutting our health care costs, and restoring a healthy environment? They are all interconnected!

Why I’m reluctant to throw some things away!

Yesterday while working in the garden pulling weeds. The sun was bright, but it was getting late and the sun was lower in the west, and there was not much shade protection. I kept shifting my hat visor to try to keep from being blinded by the sun, and realized I needed a wide brimmed hat. Aha! I thought. I have an old wide brimmed straw hat (that I almost threw away at one point because it wasn’t very useful) that might work, so I went and found that. It might have served the purpose, except thanks to the loose weave, the sun was still able to get through and make it hard to see. Aha! I thought. I need to add some dark cloth that would keep out the sun. (I have a white hat with quite a wide visor, but being white and not very opaque it had a bit of the same problem in bright sun.) I was about done for the day, it would soon be dark, so I went looking for a solution to my hat problem – heading for the rag drawer, which is full of assorted old clothes, etc. I found a very old, faded, well-worn brown work T-shirt that my husband had worn out. It had already been cut across the bottom for some reason. It looked like as if I cut off about 4 more inches it just might work for my purpose. I made the cut and ran big stitches along one edge on the sewing machine, pulled the thread to gather that edge, and tried it on the hat, pinning it to the edge of the hat brim. It worked! It was just the right size! (Well, close enough.) But it was definitely ugly and needed a finishing touch.  I have an assortment of colorful decorative ribbons from my mother’s sewing things, including a bit of 1/2 inch ribbon with brown highlights that just happened to be sitting in a little basket on the shelve above the sewing machine - perfect! I stitched that on by hand, fastening down the old T-shirt in the process, and the result looks really promising – from three things that others might have thrown in the trash, or maybe to Goodwill!
So – my new garden hat for a really sunny day of working in the sun.

In the process of looking for the hat I did find 3 back packs that I don't need, and put them in the car to take to Goodwill.

Let's deal with the Ebola Crisis!

With the ebola virus scaring the wits out of everyone, and even doctors and nurses dying from the infection, it’s time to remind folks that there is a very likely effective cure which is still being ignored by mainstream medicine. Dr. Thomas Levy, MD, JD, in Curing the Incurable¹ (page 109ff) addresses the issue of Ebola infections. This extensive quote from Dr. Levy’s books should convince you there is a better way!

Ebola Virus - (Curable-?, Reversible-?, Preventable-?)

Ebola is probably the best know of a class of viruses known as hemorrhagic fever viruses. [There are many others. Levy lists 13.]…

These viral hemorrhagic fever syndromes share certain clinical features. The Cecil Textbook of Medicine notes that these diseases are characterized by capillary fragility, which translates to easy bleeding, that can frequently lead to severe shock and death. These diseases also tend to consume and/or destroy the  platelets, which plan an integral role in blood clotting.  The clinical presentation of the viral disease is similar to scurvy, which is also characterized by capillary fragility and a tendency to bleed easily. Characteristic skin lesions develop, which are actually multiple tiny areas of bleeding into the skin that surround the hair follicles…

In the classic form of scurvy that evolves very slowly from the gradual depletion of vitamin C body stores,  the immune system will be sufficiently compromised for infection to claim the patient’s life before the extensive hemorrhage that occurs after all vitamin C stores have been completely exhausted. Ebola virus and the other viral hemorrhagic fevers are much more likely to cause hemorrhaging before any other fatal infection has a chance to become established. This is because the virus so rapidly and totally metabolizes and consumes all available vitamin C in the bodies of the victims that an advanced stage of scurvy is literally produced after only a few days of the disease…

To date, no vital infection has been demonstrated to be resistance to the proper dosing of vitamin C as classically demonstrated by Klenner². However, not all viruses have been treated with Klenner-sized vitamin C doses, or at least the results have not been published. Ebola virus infection and the other acute vital hemorrhagic fevers appear to be diseases that fall into this category. Because of the seemingly exceptional ability of these viruses to rapidly deplete vitamin C stores, even larger doses of vitamin C would likely be required in order to effectively reverse and eventually cure infections caused by these viruses…

[I]t seems clear as evidenced by the scurvy-like clinical manifestations of these infections that vitamin C dosing must be vigorous and given in extremely high doses. [Perhaps up to 5000 – 10,000 mg every 1-2 hours throughout the day and night.]... Death occurs too quickly with the hemorrhagic fevers to be conservative when doing the vitamin C.

Belfield and Stone (1975) reported enormous success in the treatment of a variety of viral infections in animals:

The intravenous use of ascorbate [vitamin C] is especially valuable in the therapy of the viral diseases as it appears to be an effective, non-specific, non-toxic virucidal agent. We have not seen any viral disease that did not respond to this treatment. Successful therapy appears to depend on using it in sufficiently large doses.

[This] certainly seems to agree with the phenomenal success that Klenner reported in his treatment of viral infections with vitamin C in humans. It also implies that Ebola viral infection and the other acute viral hemorrhagic fevers should respond to large enough doses of intravenous vitamin C. (end quote)

Why are doctors so reluctant to use this effective therapy? In another book by Dr. Levy, Primal Panacea³, chapter 7 deals with this issue. Titled “High-Dose Vitamin C: Spin Doctors Lie, 7 medical lies that kill!” Levy states:

"[W]ithout a doubt vitamin  C lies – like urban legends – are sincerely believed by most of those who pass them along. But, unlike relatively harmless urban legends, vitamin C lies are responsible for much sickness and death because doctors continue to refuse to administer vitamin C correctly, or at all. As a result, patients are far too often denied optimal health and even life because their physician believes one or more of the following vitamin C lies." (page 95)

Dr. Levy then lists 7 lies and rebuts them thoroughly, concluding with this section (page 107):

What About Negative Studies?

With over 50,000 published studies and counting, it's no surprise that a some reach conc1usions other than what has been presented thus far [in Primal Panacea].

However, the vast majority of “negative'' studies are only negative in the sense that vitamin C was determined to be ineffective. Often conclusions are so broad they leave out important facts. Instead of conveying a dose-specific truth such as, ''A daily vitamin C dose of 50 mg was found to be ineffective in the treatment of lung cancer,'' the researchers and media will convey what is effectively a lie by saying, "Vitamin C is ineffective in the treatment of lung cancer."

Since successful treatment is always dose-dependent, this omission of dose in the conclusion is misleading at best, and basically dishonest.

He then concludes:

"From my own experience, exhaustive research in the medical literature, and through consultation with doctors in this country and throughout the world, I am absolutely convinced of one thing - when enough vitamin  C is given, in the right form, and for a long enough time, vitamin C helps virtually every condition, resolves many of them, and prevents still others. Although I have not personally analyzed every negative study the ones that I have reviewed use very inadequate quantities of vitamin C, or they are clearly flawed in some other way. Furthermore, I have never found a single article showing properly dosed and administered vitamin C to fail to improve the status of a toxic or infected patient."

In Chapter 8, “High-Dose Vitamin C: Revolution Required, Are profits more important than people?,” Dr. Levy discusses the massive conflict of interest between the drug industry and the FDA that has led to the situation where an effective therapy is aggressively suppressed and the reputation of doctors using the therapy is attacked. In spite of the pressures, there are many physicians using these therapies, and you would do well to find a physician knowledgeable about and willing to appropriately use high-dose vitamin C when needed.  For guidance on dealing at home with lesser infections I’d suggest Ascorbate, The Science of Vitamin C⁴, which, among other things, recommends frequent large doses throughout the day when fighting an infection or dealing with some toxin. He also explains the use of bowel tolerance as a guide to dosage.

For those health professionals who might happen to read this I’d recommend studying Primal Panacea³, which has the technical information needed for dealing with an extensive list of conditions, though the much thicker, Curing the Incurable¹, is fascinating reading, with over 1,200 scientific references. Get with the program, and discovered a more satisfying and successful practice, though you may have to do battle with the powers that be. 

Kris Johnson, Retired and Reformed Dietitian

www.MercyViewMeadow.org

1. Curing the Incurable, Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, and Toxins, by Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, LivON  Books, Third Edition, 2009

2. In Curing the Incurable, chapter 2, Curing, Reversing, and Preventing Infectious Diseases, Dr. Levy reviews the extensive, ground-breaking research of Dr. Frederick Klenner, M.D. (and many other doctors), in the use of high-dose IV vitamin C.

3. Primal Panacea, by Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD, MedFox Publishing, 2011

4. Ascorbate: The science of vitamin C. by Hickey S and Roberts H.  2004

5. There are more useful links on my website at http://home.roadrunner.com/~krisjohnson/Recipes/Odds&Ends.htm#Vitamin%20C

Fight the Flu with Vitamin C

It’s all over the news papers – People are dying of flu – get your flu shot! Is this really the answer to flu? There is a much better way – giving your body the nutrients it need to fight off infections such as the flu. To tell the truth, when your body is fighting an infection of any kind it revs up it’s use of many nutrients, especially vitamin C. Most animals can make their own vitamin C, so they have a ready supply to fight off most things. Humans can’t, so we must consume vitamin C in our food. Our body’s use of vitamin C increases greatly when we’re fighting infections – 5,000 mg and more daily.  Such large amounts are impossible to get from food, so high quality supplements are in order. There are links on my website to more information about vitamin C and sources, including Curing the Incurable: Vitamin C, Infectious Diseases, & Toxins by Thomas E. Levy, M.D., J.D., the book that alerted me to this powerful therapy.

In spite of the efficacy of high dose vitamin C, conventional medicine has been very resistant to accepting this therapy, mainly because no drug company is willing to fund proper research. (It would cut greatly into their profits to find a low cost effective substitute for their drugs!) There is a link on my website to a powerful little video, called Living Proof, about the battle a family had with the doctors and hospital to use vitamin C on the patient who was on death’s door, but was finally completely healed with vitamin C.

So there is really no need to fear the flu or any serious illness. The secret is frequent large doses of vitamin C throughout the day to bowel tolerance, to maintain high levels in the blood while fighting an infection. And don’t wait until you are seriously ill – the sooner you start, the better. To learn more, check some of the links on my website or find ‘Vitamin C’ on my site map. One day your life may depend on this knowledge.

Kris
www.MercyViewMeadow.org

Some Fruits are Better Than Others...

Blueberry Data

In the headlines this month:
"Some Fruits Are Better Than Others"
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/04/some-fruits-are-better-than-others/
Our local Toledo Blade picked up on the story today and here's Dr. Mercola's take on this research.
 The "reader pick" comments on the NYTimes article are interesting, but they all miss a vital point - the quality of the fruit makes a big difference. Quality is something that is seldom mentioned in an intelligent way - that is, more than just 'it looks good and is nice and big.' Some folks lift the fruit to get a feel for the 'heft', feeling that density reflects better fruit. And of course the taste is important to quality, but far too much fruit is poor in that respect. Those big huge strawberries they may have tested were probably nearly tasteless.

Some folks have been digging into the genuine source of quality, and have found that mineral content is an important factor. Jamil, in his blog, High Nutrition Blueberries Nutrition Analysis: Why Are They Better Than Wild/Organic?, has been looking at this aspect and has an a chart showing the mineral content of various blueberries, including some by a farmer who has been working to remineralize his soil, so as to get top quality and high nutrition. The chart above from this blog shows higher levels of most minerals and a couple key vitamins in the high nutrition blueberry.

Why is this so important? The research highlighted in the NYTimes article says eating apples, grapes, grapefruit, and especially blueberries was associated with decreased risk of developing Type 2 diabetes. One comment claims that to avoid diabetes cut down on carbs. Another says cut out processed foods. Another comment says 'no, it's a matter of insulin resistance,' but he's not sure what causes that. Well, minerals have a lot to do with that! People eat large quantities of refined carbs (you know, white bread, pasta, white sugar), which have had the minerals stripped out of them. Processed foods contain refined carbs and modern vegetable oils, which add another piece to the puzzle, as these modern oils are highly subject to oxidation. Oxidized oils create all kinds of problems in the body, including contributing to insulin resistance. In addition, Dr. Mercola highlights the problems with too much fructose in fruit.

But, in truth, those missing minerals are key to proper body function. We took them out because white flour is nicer, and so much easier to work with, figuring we'd just get the vitamin and minerals from elsewhere or by 'fortifying' the flour.  But now we see that "elsewhere" is also low in vitamins and minerals. (see Food Quality Issues) As a result, between refined foods and low quality unrefined foods, mineral deficiencies are common in American today. Diabetes is just the tip of the iceberg. Heart disease, cancer, and a host of chronic disease conditions are caused by or made worse by mineral deficiencies. Eating blueberries instead of strawberries is only going to get us so far.

So where do we go from here? Start thinking about quality. Pay attention to taste - high quality tastes better. Pay attention to keeping quality - high quality keeps better. Get yourself a refractometer and do some actual testing. Buy from a farmer that has better quality produce - and let him know you appreciate his efforts. Grow some of your own food and learn how to garden for Maximum Nutrition.

It's not simple like taking a vitamin/mineral tablet, but likely to be much more effective!