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Health Publishing

(From his bio on the back cover or inside back cover of  PIN)

Excerpt from Politically Incorrect Nutrition

Author's Endnote: A Teacher and Parent's Perspective

Americans consume 25% of their calories in the form of cookies, chips, candy, cakes, ice cream, and soda.  And for one in every three Americans, 45% of their calories come from these “foods.”  Is it no wonder, then, why heart disease, obesity, and diabetes are so common today?  When you add to this situation the thyroid-inhibiting effects of fluoridated water and unfermented soy products, we have nothing less than a disaster.

Even sadder is the pronounced effect which trans fats, refined flour, and sugary foods is having on our children. Health-conscious adults who attempt to have their children eat a “politically-correct” low-fat diet usually make the problem worse.

I have been a teacher of children for the better part of thirty years.  I have been witness to growing rates of obesity and hyperactivity and have seen the quality of lunches go from bad to worse.  I have attempted to do a small part in stemming the tide of this form of child abuse in recent years by working with a privately-funded group of educators who go into public schools to instruct youngsters in the areas of physiology, drug prevention, and nutrition.  In the area of nutrition, we are often teaching the children to go home and educate the parents.

The job is not easy.  We are working with children who, in many cases, are already struggling with learning disabilities as well as with endocrine and thyroid disruption which may have been caused by the soy formula fed to them in their earliest days.  Many are impaired due to a lack of essential fats in their current diets.  Many cannot concentrate.  Many cannot listen.  And a good number of them are unable to learn.  A surprising number of children come to school without having eaten breakfast.  For lunch, their parents provide food which consists of the most convenient things to throw into a bag: chips, boxed fruit punches, processed cheeses, colas, fruit “leather,” candy bars, and hastily-made sandwiches on white bread.

If they eat at the school cafeteria, they may have access to soda vending machines and to fast-food quality fare, or in the case of some politically-correct food providers, they are subject to the dangers and deficiencies of soy and low-fat products, which lack healthy fats for healthy brains.  In many cases, the children have become conditioned to eat only the fried or processed foods; the fruit cocktail may be eaten, but the apple or orange served to them winds up in the trash.

The outlook is not good for the health of our children.  Children whose diets are low in important nutrients also face the specter of acne, early osteoporosis, dental irregularities, and problems with brain chemistry which can lead to violent behavior.  Aware of the health problems facing our children today, government agencies like the USDA claim they are doing a service by developing lower fat meals for school lunches (in addition to pushing for the use of irradiated beef in school lunches).

According of Dr. Mary Enig of the Weston A. Price Foundation, these lower fat diets are actually causing some of the very problems they were designed to prevent.  She adds,  “Children need a diet rich in traditional fats in order to achieve optimum growth and development, as well as protection from heart disease later in life.”

What can we do as adults to protect our children from chronic diseases that are the result of the highly refined American diet, from food irradiation, bovine growth hormone, the dangers of aspartame and fluoridation--along with its accompanying levels of brain-damaging lead?  What can we do to help raise a generation of children whose level of physical and mental health will promote the self-esteem and abilities to be happy and to succeed in this world?  We can first educate ourselves.  And then we can become active in fighting to change those political and corporate interests which act to undermine the health of all Americans in the name of profit.

I have found the Weston A. Price Foundation to be of help in this cause. According to their website (w.w.w.westonaprice.org), “The Foundation is dedicated to restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through education, research and activism. It supports a number of movements that contribute to this objective including accurate nutrition instruction, organic and biodynamic farming, pasture-feeding of livestock, community-supported farms, honest and informative labeling, prepared parenting and nurturing therapies. Specific goals include establishment of universal access to clean, certified raw milk and a ban on the use of soy formula for infants.”

When we become activists and make the necessary changes, the results are often phenomenal.  A case in point is what happened in 1997 at Central Alternative High School in Appleton, Wisconsin.  It had been a school out of control with a high number of discipline problems.  Some students even carried weapons.

At that time a private group called Natural Ovens initiated a truly healthy lunch program.  Access to soda, candy, chips, and chemically processed food items was prohibited.  No more fried, highly-processed, or sugary foods. No more vending machines and packed lunches. Instead, students were served salads, fruits and vegetables, pure water, and baked meats, as well as soups, stews, and entrees made from scratch.  In addition, the kids gained knowledge of the role a healthy diet plays in an improved quality of life, gained an understanding of how good nutrition supports a healthy brain, and how proper eating can prevent certain life-threatening diseases.

A few years later, the environment at Central Alternative High showed an enormous change.  As reported in the Feingold Association’s newsletter “Pure Facts”

(http://www.lauralee.com/news/healthylunch.htm):  "Grades are up, truancy is no longer a problem, arguments are rare, and teachers are able to spend their time teaching."  One teacher stated, "I don't have to deal with daily discipline issues--I don’t have disruptions in class or the difficulties with student behavior I experienced before we started the food program."  In addition, there were no longer any drop-outs, no students expelled, and none carrying weapons.  There were no suicides and no students found to be using drugs.

This sounds something like a miracle.  But perhaps traditional, unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods should always be considered miraculous by virtue of their ability to heal and strengthen both body and mind.  As evidenced by the Wisconsin teenagers, it’s not too late to make smart, dietary changes which are not based on what food industry propoganda tells us, but rather on the types of food which have sustained cultures for thousands of years.  We owe it to our children. We owe it to ourselves.