rocketdog wrote:I did look into them, and they're a dangerous group with ties to the dairy and beef industry.
Uh no. They don't have "ties to the dairy and beef industry." The foundation actively supports organic and biodynamic farming, pasture-feeding of livestock and community-supported farms. In other words, they support
local family-owned and community-owned farms. Most sane people consider those to be worthy farming practices.
If anything the foundation
opposes the dairy and beef industries — since those industries rely on confinement and factory environments that they
oppose.
rocketdog wrote:They give out plenty of other bad advice, not just bad diet advice. Did you know they promote the bogus placebo treatment known as "homeopathy"?
http://www.westonaprice.org/homeopathy/
I don't know very much about homeopathy. And there is certainly a lot of evidence to debunk homeopathy — which isn't surprising since it was formed during a time of great scientific confusion and snake-oil salesmanship. But, my sense is that there is probably
some legitimacy to some of it. For instance, if I do a quick search of PubMed, it seems that there is
some evidence to support some of its herbs/remedies...
PubMed: Homeopathic ear drops as an adjunct to standard therapy in children with acute otitis media
PubMed: Early udder inflammation in dairy cows treated by a homeopathic medicine (Dolisovet(®)): a prospective observational pilot study
PubMed: Homeopathic treatment of premenstrual syndrome: a case series
Hard to imagine that the cows in the study, above, are improving from a "placebo" effect, but what do I know?
I don't personally agree with that aspect of their recommendations (my child is fully vaccinated). But, having said that, everyone is allowed to make their own decisions. And the truth is that there are probably some risks to vaccinating. Chris Kresser — who has chosen not to vaccinate his kids — explains the logic of that choice:
Chris Kresser wrote: Someday I will [write a series of articles on the subject]. It will be the most difficult, time-consuming, polarizing and controversial series I’ll ever write – which is probably why it hasn’t been written yet. Here’s the other thing: I don’t believe it’s possible to reach a place of “certainty”?, or anything near it, by reading the literature. Thus the decision whether to vaccinate or not, or which vaccinations to use, is highly personal and subjective and dependent on factors well outside of scientific evidence. For us, the crucial question is this: would we rather take the exceedingly small chance of our child dying from an acute infection, or the much larger chance of permanently impairing our child’s immune system and predisposing him/her to autoimmune disease? Since both my wife and I have autoimmune diseases and can track their onset to soon after we received vaccinations as adults (for third-world travel in my case, for emigration to the U.S. in Elanne’s case), we’re admittedly biased toward the former.
Source:
http://chriskresser.com/the-healthy-ske ... episode-12
Personally, I prefer to vaccinate — particularly since it prevents epidemics — but I think it's good to occasionally question the status quo.
It's a poorly written article. Interestingly, much of holistic dentistry is based on the research of Sir Edward Mellanby, GBE, KCB, MD, FRCP, FRS. Mellanby
discovered Vitamin D — was one of the world's most respected physicians of his time — and was knighted by the Queen in 1937 for his discoveries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Mellanby
Mellanby was able to show that proper nutrition could be used to "heal" cavities, via a process known as remineralization.
http://bit.ly/K1Tz46
Mellanby believed that tooth decay could be eradicated in the 20th Century from dietary changes alone — a diet which required reducing the consumption of cereal grains and increasing the amount of nutrient-dense foods that are rich in fat-soluble vitamins — which is only found in animal meat/dairy/fat.
But, I suppose if you don't want people to know that you can heal cavities with nutrient-dense food than you can call him a "quack". Few people — including most Western dentists — know that Mellanby discovered that cavities could be healed from diet alone. His discoveries suggest that fat-soluble vitamins from animal food — as well as a reduction of improperly prepared grains — are a necessity for proper dental health.
Sir Edward Mellanby, GBE, KCB, MD, FRCP, FRS wrote:If some rich source of vitamin D be added, such as cod-liver oil or egg-yolk, the structure of the teeth will be greatly improved, while the addition of oils such as olive or arachis oil leaves the teeth as badly formed as when the basal diet only is given. Not only are the defects in the dentine and enamel obvious on microscopic examination, but external examinations reveals the surface enamel also to be badly formed...
These results show that the incidence of dental caries can be greatly reduced by feeding children on diets rich in vitamin D. Since, however, the animal experiments had shown that there was another side to the problem of teeth calcification and reaction, namely, that cereals interfere with the processes, it seemed likely that, if a diet could be made not only rich in vitamin D but at the same time be deprived of cereals, the teeth of children eating such a diet might offer still greater resistance to caries...
Although Diet 8 contained no bread, porridge or other cereals, it included a moderate amount of carbohydrates, for plenty of milk, jam, sugar, potatoes and vegetables were eaten by this group of children...It is of interest to note that these results are in harmony with those of Boyd and Drain who found that caries in the teeth of children on diabetic diets (devoid of cereal) did not spread or develop.
The hardening of carious areas that takes place in the teeth of children fed on diets of high calcifying value indicates the arrest of the active process and may result in "healing" of the infected area.
Source:
http://bit.ly/K1Tz46
Mind you, these experiments on children and dogs were done before Vitamin D was available as a supplement, so a "diet rich in Vitamin D" had to include lots of animal fats — since Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and was only bio-available from animal fats, such as raw milk, cream, butter, lard or cod-liver oil. In his paper he also showed that Vitamin A worked synergistically with Vitamin D in dental health. "True" vitamin A (i.e.
Retinol) is only found in animal foods. (Vegetables only contain "carotenoids" which the body must convert into Retinol — and humans, in particular
vegetarians, are notoriously bad at this conversion process).
Interestingly, Melanby's experiments match up perfectly with
Dr. Weston A. Price's observations (remember, Dr. Price was a dentist, and again, WAPF was created decades later and has nothing to do with his original work). Here's the kinds of dental health he found in native populations who ate fatty foods and no improperly prepared grains.
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Here is what he found in Africans eating a traditional diet:
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And here's what he saw in the same tribes whose parents and children migrated to civilization and began eating modern grain-based foods:
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Source: http://www.w8md.com/nutrition_vs_physic ... _price.pdf[/align]
Price, Mellanby and Pottinger all independently observed that animals and individuals with poor diets
genetically passed on their poor dental health to their offspring. In other words, the modern diet was somehow negatively shaping the genes of offspring.
By the way, some more recent studies suggest that vegetarians tend to have poor dental health — seems to be from a deficiency of fat-soluble vitamins that are necessary for proper tooth enamel and the high acidity of raw foods:
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/01/24/dental ... et-part-1/
Yikes, you think that T. Colin Campbell's "The China Study" is an example of good science? His book has been pretty
well debunked.
Fuhrman is a smart guy, but he doesn't seem to understand that animal meat — when it's properly raised — is
very different from factory-farmed meat. And I have a hard time taking seriously anyone who doesn't understand that distinction. His recommendations to limit meat consumption could only make sense if one only had access to factory-farmed meat.
When Paleos and WAPF recommend meat consumption, they aren't referring to factory-farmed meat. Once you understand that grass-fed meat and butter are good sources of Conjugated linoleic acids (CLA), long-chain Omega-3s, fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, K1, K2) and beneficial dietary cholesterol, it becomes clear that for Fuhrman's recommendations are too simplistic and misguided.
rocketdog wrote:That doesn't mean WPF's studies and conclusions aren't contradicted by most other major studies; they are
What do you mean by "WPF's studies"? 99% of the studies they reference are published studies have nothing to do with their foundation. Are you saying that any study they reference isn't legitimate? Talk about bias... That kind of narrow-minded attitude doesn't advance our understanding of anything.
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