Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook That Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and The... (12 page)

The amount of meat you include in your diet depends on your genetic makeup and on hormonal factors. Some people require lots of meat while others do not produce enough hydrochloric acid in their stomachs to handle large amounts very well. Some researchers claim that our need for protein declines in later years. Requirements for individual essential amino acids vary enormously. For example, dark-skinned people may need more tryptophan, found in eggs and dairy products, as this essential amino acid is used in the production of melanin; deficiencies may lead to insomnia, hyperactivity and other nervous disorders. Some individuals have high requirements for carnitine, a nonessential amino acid found plentifully in lamb or beef, because they have difficulty manufacturing enough of it for proper functioning of the heart.

Our endorsement of animal products must be tempered with this important caveat: The meat, milk and eggs in our supermarkets are highly contaminated and vastly inferior in nutritional quality to those available to our ancestors just a few decades ago. Modern cattle-raising techniques include the use of steroids to make meat more tender and antibiotics that allow cattle to survive in crowded feedlots. Many cattle supplying steaks to the American table have never seen the open range, and calves raised for veal are often confined to crates for the whole of their pathetic short lives. Diseased animals routinely pass inspection and find their way into the food supply. Chickens are raised in crowded pens, often under artificial light both night and day, and fed on substandard food. They, too, must be guarded from infection by antibiotics. Their eggs are inferior in nutritional qualities to those of free-range, properly nourished hens. According to the renowned cancer specialist Virginia Livingston-Wheeler, most chicken and nearly half the beef consumed in America today is cancerous and pathogenic. Her research has convinced her that these cancers are transmissible to man.
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Some have argued that cows and sheep require pasturage that could be better used to raise grains for starving millions in Third World countries. This argument ignores the fact that a large portion of our earth's land is unsuited to cultivation. The open range and desert and mountainous areas yield their fruits in grazing animals. Grasslands perfectly suited to grazing cover an area in China's interior equal to
three
times the entire amount of land under cultivation in the rest of the country.
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Citing the arguments of vegetarians, the Chinese government has opted to more intensely cultivate existing agricultural lands rather than to develop those untapped regions as grazing lands, a measure that would supply much-needed animal products to the Chinese diet.

A far more serious threat to humanity is the monoculture of grains and legumes, which tends to deplete the soil and requires the use of artificial fertilizers and pesticides. The educated consumer and the enlightened farmer together can bring about the return of the mixed farm, where cultivation of fruits and vegetables is combined with the raising of livestock and fowl in a manner that is efficient, economical and environmentally friendly. Cattle providing rich manure are the absolute basis for healthy, sustainable farming. Moreover, chickens allowed access to pasture eat worms and insects whose nutrients end up in high-quality eggs; sheep grazing in orchards obviate the need for herbicides; and livestock foraging in woodlands and other marginal areas provide rich, unpolluted meat and milk, making these lands economically viable for the farmer. It is not animal cultivation that leads to hunger and famine but unwise agricultural practices and monopolistic distribution systems.

We don't recommend that you stop eating meat, but we do suggest that you be careful of your supply. Make an effort to obtain organic beef, lamb and chicken. Range-fed beef that is finished with several weeks of grain feeding is fine, as long as the grains are organic and no cottonseed meal or soy protein are added to the feed. Grain finishing merely imitates the natural feeding habits of cattle and other ruminants, which get fat in the late summer and fall when they are feeding on natural grains in the field. The use of small quantities of animal parts in livestock rations allows the rancher to shorten the feedlot period, because this practice imitates nature as well. Animal-based supplements replace insects that cattle consume in the field. Outbreaks of scrapie and mad cow disease are most likely caused by neurotoxic pesticides and toxic mineral overload, rather than the inclusion of animal parts in feeding, a practice that dates back almost 100 years.
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When animal-part feeding is prohibited, soy meal is used as an inferior replacement.

Other good meat choices include buffalo and wild game such as deer and antelope as well as game birds like duck, geese, pheasant and wild turkey. These are rich in nutrients and add variety to the diet.

Learn to eat the organs of land animals as well as their muscle meats—traditional peoples studied by Dr. Price consistently prized organ meats for their health-giving properties.

Eggs from pasture-fed chickens are available at many health food stores. They constitute the most complete, nutritious and economical form of animal protein available and are valued by traditional cultures throughout the world.

Make a habit of eating fish, especially cold-water deep-sea fish, as often as possible. They are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, fat-soluble vitamins and many important minerals including iodine, selenium and magnesium. Dr. Price was amazed to find that primitive landlocked peoples made great efforts to obtain food from the sea. However, we recommend avoidance of farm-raised fish—which often receive antibiotics inappropriate feed, such as soy meal—as well as scavenger-type fish like carp and catfish, which test high in PCBs and other contaminants.

Two types of meat require further discussion—pork and shellfish. Investigation into the effects of pork consumption on blood chemistry has revealed serious changes for several hours after pork is consumed.
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The pork used was organic, free of trichinosis, so the changes that occurred in the blood were due to some other factor, possibly a protein unique to pork. In the laboratory, pork is one of the best mediums for feeding the growth of cancer cells. The prohibitions against pork found in the Bible and the Koran thus may derive from something other than a concern for parasite contamination. However, in fairness it must be noted that many groups noted for longevity, such as the inhabitants of Soviet Georgia and Okinawa, consume pork meat and lard in their diet on a daily basis. Lard is an excellent source of vitamin D.

Shellfish such as scallops, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp, crab and lobster are highly prized by traditional peoples. They are rich sources of fat-soluble nutrients, particularly vitamin D. They should be eaten very fresh and in season, as they are subject to rapid spoilage. Some people are highly allergic to shellfish and should avoid them completely.

Ocean fish that contain mercury also contain substances called alkylglycerols that remove mercury from the body, but organically bound mercury in fish from industrially polluted waters is toxic and has caused deformities and mental deficiencies in the children of Japanese women who ate mercury-contaminated fish from Minamata Bay. A similar contamination poisoned natives near the Hudson Bay in Canada.

Research indicates that meats cooked at very high temperatures contain elevated amounts of carcinogens.
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Meat should be eaten raw, rare or braised in water or stock. Avoid processed meats such as sausage, luncheon meats and bacon that have been preserved with nitrites, nitrates and other common meat preservatives. These are potent carcinogens that have been linked to cancer of the esophagus, stomach, large intestine, bladder and lungs. Traditionally, sausage was a healthy, high-fat product containing nutrient-dense organ meats and preserved through lacto-fermentation, a process that actually increases nutrients; while bacon was preserved through salt curing and smoking. These delicious old-fashioned products will return to the marketplace with consumer demand.

Charcoal grilled meats and smoked foods contain chemicals called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are used to induce cancer in laboratory animals, yet our ancestors ate liberally of smoked meats and fish without suffering from high levels of cancer. There are probably factors in traditional diets that protect against these carcinogens. Modern man is best advised to eat smoked and barbecued meats sparingly.

MILK & MILK PRODUCTS

What about milk? Among nutritionists, there is no other subject that arouses so much controversy—even animosity—as the debate on milk consumption. While our hunter-gatherer ancestors did not use milk products, there are many healthy nomadic and agricultural societies, dating back as far as 9,000 years, that depend on milk of cattle, sheep, goats, horses, water buffalo and camels for their animal protein and fat and value this "white blood" for its life-sustaining properties. Just a few decades ago, Americans accepted without question the premise that milk was good for us and that a safe, plentiful supply was actually vital to our national security. Today milk consumption is blamed for everything from chronic ear infections in children to cancer and diabetes in adults.

Some people have a low tolerance to milk because they lack intestinal lactase, an enzyme that digests lactose, or milk sugar. All baby mammals produce lactase but production of the enzyme declines and may even disappear after weaning. In humans, a mutation or recessive gene allows the continued production of lactase in some individuals. In an isolated population that depends on milk products for animal protein, those with this gene would have an advantage. If a gene for the persistence of lactase had a frequency of 5 percent in such a population, in 400 generations its frequency would have risen to 60 percent assuming that those who possessed it had 1 percent more children per generation than intolerant individuals.
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Natural selection is the mechanism for adapting isolated populations to the food available to them. But modern man is highly peripatetic, and no society in the western world is composed entirely of people whose ancestors come from the immediate region.

By some estimates, only 30-40 percent of the world's population produces lactase in adulthood. Overuse of antibiotics also contributes to lactose intolerance. However, most lactose intolerant individuals can consume milk products in small quantities without problems.
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Asians are said to be lactose intolerant but many of the inhabitants of Japan and China drink milk and eat milk products like cheese, yoghurt and ice cream when they can obtain them.

In addition, some people are allergic to a milk protein called casein, which is one of the most difficult proteins for the body to digest. Once again, the process of natural selection will result in a population more able to digest casein if milk and milk products are part of the traditional diet.

The practice of fermenting or souring milk is found in almost all traditional groups that keep herds. This process partially breaks down lactose and predigests casein. The end products, such as yoghurt, kefir and clabber, are often well tolerated by adults who cannot drink fresh milk. Butter and cream contain little lactose or casein and are usually well tolerated in their natural state, even by those who are lactose intolerant. Even so, fermented or soured butter and cream are more digestible. Those with an extreme intolerance for milk protein can take butter in the form of ghee or clarified butter from which the milk solids have been removed. Cheese, which consists of highly concentrated casein, is well tolerated by some and best completely avoided by others. Cheeses made from raw milk contain a full complement of enzymes and are therefore more easily digested than cheeses made from pasteurized milk. Natural cheeses, whether from pasteurized or unpasteurized milk, will be more digestible when eaten unheated. Processed cheeses contain emulsifiers, extenders, phosphates and hydrogenated oils; they should be strictly avoided.

While some lucky people are genetically equipped to digest milk in all its forms, the milk sold in your supermarket is bad for everybody, partly because the modern cow is a freak of nature. A century ago cows produced two or three gallons per day; today's Holsteins routinely give three or four times as much. This is accomplished by selective breeding to produce cows with abnormally active pituitary glands and by high-protein feeding. The pituitary gland not only produces hormones that stimulate the production of milk, it also produces growth hormones. Recently the FDA approved a genetically engineered growth hormone for cows. These hormones are identical to those produced by the pituitary gland in today's high-production cows. This practice will simply add to the high level of bovine growth hormones that have been present in our milk for decades. These hormones are present in the water fraction of the milk, not in the butterfat. Babies receive growth hormones from their mothers through their mothers' milk. Small amounts of these hormones are necessary and moderate amounts are not harmful, but a superfluity can result in growth abnormalities. Excessive pituitary hormones are also associated with tumor formation, and some studies link milk consumption with cancer. The freak-pituitary cow is prone to many diseases. She almost always secretes pus into her milk and needs frequent doses of antibiotics.

Another serious problem with today's dairying methods is the feeding of high-protein soybean meal to the cows. This stimulates them to produce large quantities of milk but contributes to a high rate of mastitis and other problems that lead to sterility, liver problems and shortened lives. Little research has been done to determine what these soy feeds do to the kind and quality of protein in cow's milk. Is the current high rate of milk-protein allergies due to the use of inappropriate feed in our dairy herds? The proper food for cows is green plants, especially the rapidly growing green grasses in the early spring and fall. Milk from properly fed cows will contain the Price Factor and cancer-fighting CLA as well as a rich supply of vitamins and minerals. Unfortunately, under the current system, farmers have little incentive to pasture-feed their herds nor to follow other practices that result in high quality milk.