Natural Cures Carnival Highlights Food that Nourishes
On my library shelf, is a wonderful little book by Dr. Henry Bieler, M.D., Food is Your Best Medicine. Written in 1965, before Big Pharma had such a stranglehold on the business of healing, this doctor details case after case of how nurturing food played a role in healing his patients.
Believe it or Not, in the 1960’s Doctors Prescribed Food
My brother was diagnosed as celiac, when he was very young, by our pediatrician, Dr. Knop. She was an old school German doctor, and worked in the prestigious Yater Clinic in downtown Washington, D.C. She looked like a fierce school marm, with her dark hair pulled back in a tight bun. Yet, we loved her. Mom kept copious notes in binders for each of us on all her advice. My little binder was pink, which may explain my penchant for that color, even today!
In her clipped German accent, Dr. Knop gave my mom a prescription for food. She prescribed a strict diet for my brother of nothing but cottage cheese. For two years, Kevin ate cottage cheese.
As my mom joked, “Until it was coming out of his ears.”
And, he thrived. After that, he went back on a normal diet. That was in the early 60’s, about the time Dr. Bieler’s book was written.
The father of medicine, Hippocrates once said, “If you can heal it with food, don’t open your medicine bag.”
How far we have strayed.
The Corrupting Influence of Corporations Without Consciences
Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration tells us the only thing that can heal is a drug (and only the things that they approve of can be called a drug). In order to make a health claim for a food, you must pay big bucks to get government permission to make that claim. So, naturally, the only ones who can make health claims are the huge mega-corporations. They have so much money, they are getting health claims approved for food that has never been “Generally Recognized as Safe (or GRAS)” by the FDA.
The most prominent example of this, is soy protein isolate, which has never been granted GRAS status, yet has been given a “heart health claim.” The FDA claims, up to 25 grams of soy a day may improve your heart health.
Two years ago, the Weston A. Price Foundation filed a petition and reams of evidence of the harm caused by soy to the FDA to retract that health claim. There has been no action on the petition.
Soy protein isolate is a waste product of the soy oil industry. Thirty years ago, biological scientists who examined soy protein isolate said its only safe use was for binders and sealers of cardboard boxes. But, not if the boxes were to be used for food!
Today, and millions of lobbying and advertising dollars later, it is being sold in many forms, soy milk, food bars, meat replacement, flour, cheese. If the label says Vegan and high protein, you can almost be certain it is soy based.
The Prison Soy lawsuit that Weston A. Price Foundation is involved in, is a situation where political contributions and reckless health claims have reached absurd proportions. Over 140 prisoners have contacted the Foundation, because they are being fed upwards of 100 grams of soy protein isolate a day! Four times the FDA recommended dose.
Soy, in addition to its questionable value as a dietary staple, is also a leading allergen. So, the prison system is in big trouble, for simply not offering an alternative to the prisoners who are highly allergic to this food.
My Family’s Decision to Go Off the Industrial Food Grid
As for me and my family, we are choosing to substitute real food for the “displacing foods of modern commerce,” as Dr. Weston A. Price called them.
At the heart of our new diet is unprocessed, full fat, raw milk from grass-fed cows. We eat plenty of cottage cheese, raw cheese, raw cream, kefir, yogurt.
In doing so, we find ourselves food renegades. Well, so be it.
We no longer trust the pronouncements of our government, because we have seen that big money has corrupted the morals of our institutions. These large sums of money, paid to the federal government to secure GRAS status and health claims are paying for our bloated bureaucracy that could care less about our health. The FDA and USDA have become the marketing arm of the fake food and toxic drug industries.
We are opting out of the whole program. As independent consumers, we are shifting our buying habits to local, true organic farms. We own 2/26’s of a Jersey cow named Aster. We have our own herb garden. And, we spend our health savings account on alternative health care, such as Oriental medicine. I will tell you more about the amazing results we are having by going the road less traveled…
For more information about the Prison Soy lawsuit visit the Westonaprice.org Press Room.
See also Kaayla Daniel’s expose on the soy industry. I highly recommend her book The Whole Soy Story.
You’re Next!
Ok, now it is your time to share. Please post your Nourishing Food stories and recipes or testimonies, either in the comments, or on your blog, and email me a link to add to this article. My email address is kim.hartke at gmail.com
Now, I am off to the gym to nourish my body with some blood pumping exercise!
Seize the day!
Here is our first blogger, Kelly the Kitchen Kop, with a post about How Nourishing Foods Changed Us.
The Bovine Blog in Canada submits two posts about raw milk:
Does Raw Milk Really Kill Pathogens
Raw Milk on Queen Charlotte Islands
Local Nourishment blog submits a healing story involving real food and her daughters eye.
Paid Endorsement Disclosure: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of renumeration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.
I would have never imagined that I would be blogging, or that I would join a group like Real Food Media. None of this would have happened without you. I mean more than the help you have given me, though I appreciate it very much. I also mean seeing the great good you do with your blog, with supporting WAPF, with advocating real food and the great info you provide on so many issues. There is such a desperate need for this information. You are an inspiration to me. Thank you for being who you are, and for doing what you do.
I have always been a food renegade, and for the most part, ridiculed for it. I drink raw cow’s and sheep’s milk, soak my grains before making oatmeal, consume only sprouted, organic bread, and buy organic fruits and vegetables every single time. For this, I have been accused of being a faddy foodist, a freak, someone who likes eating ‘wallpaper paste’ (the alleged consistency of the oatmeal, haha), of being a Communist, and anti-agribusiness rabblerouser. There are not many people in my social circle who understand, let alone approve, of my Weston A. Price-inspired food philosophy. But, I am the only 40 year old I know with no teeth problems, no diabetes-related ailments and no sleeping issues.
Not only that, I have perfect blood pressure, no mood swings, and my reproductive cycles are nominal.
Last, but not least, I get to consume food the way it’s supposed to be prepared and consumed. It’s also very tasty and satisfying, just like Mother Nature had intended it to be.
Its like you read my mind! You seem to know so much about this, like you wrote the book in it or somethingI think that you could do with a few pics to drive the message home a little bit, but instead of that, this is great blogA fantastic readI will definitely be back.