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Soy and the Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on April 16, 2012

Odwalla’s Chocolate Protein Monster made the news last week when four consumers experienced severe allergic reactions.   This set off  a “nationwide allergy alert”, a product recall and a lot of speculation about what might have caused the reactions.   Although all four of the victims were allergic to peanuts, and two were also allergic to tree nuts, the drink contained neither peanuts nor tree nuts.   There was also no evidence of accidental or malicious cross contamination at the manufacturing plant.

With the possibility of contamination from peanuts unlikely, detectives are considering the potential for cross reactivity.    Cross reactivity refers to a reaction that occurs when people allergic to one class of proteins react to another similar in structure.   A good example is soy and peanuts, members of the grain-legume botanical family.   In fact, scientists have known for years that people allergic to one are often allergic to the other.   Food safety experts say they are clueless as to what might have happened in the Odwalla case, but given that the Chocolate Protein Monster drink contained soy protein, and the victims all suffered from peanut allergies, the likely culprit is soy.

Severe reactions to soy were once rare.   Today they are increasingly common, and pose especially high risks to children already afflicted with peanut allergies.   In 1999, the journal Allergy reported that four children in Sweden died after eating a minuscule amount of soy “hidden” in hamburgers.    The Swedish National Food Administration promptly warned parents and pediatricians of the soy-peanut link, and stated that children suffering from both peanut allergy and asthma are at very high  risk.   Additional risk factors reported included other food allergies, a family history of peanut or soy allergies, a diagnosis of asthma, rhinitis or eczema, and/or a family history of those diseases.    The researchers found it took only a tiny, almost indiscernible, amount of soy to create a severe and even life-threatening reaction in susceptible individuals.   Even more surprising, they discovered severe allergic reactions could happen suddenly and unexpectedly to people with no known soy allergies.    In fact, the reactions documented by the Swedes were very similar to the reactions to the Odwalla Chocolate Protein Monster drink.

Tragically, the Swedish National Food Administration warning has not been publicized much in the U.S.   Indeed, the Soyfoods Association of North America –  and even many allergy support groups –  recommend soy nut butter and soy nuts for children allergic to peanuts and tree nuts.   As a result, few people have heard of the deadly soy/peanut connection, and numerous adverse reactions have been reported.

Tragically, there have also been several deaths.

Six years ago, 13-year old Emily Van Der Meulen died on April 13, 2006.   Emily had a severe peanut allergy and assiduously avoided peanuts, but did not know she should also have avoided soy.   She died after eating a meal that was apparently peanut free but contained a tiny amount of soy.  Just as in the Swedish study, she had not previously reacted to soy.

After Newsweek ran a cover story on the growing threat of food allergies to children, Emily’s parents Paul and Catrina Vonder Meulen spoke up to warn people about soy:“

“The Newsweek article talks about the growing threat of food allergies but with no mention of soy.   Soy is a silent killer—a hidden ingredient in almost every type of food out there from hamburgers to breads.  We were never told about the dangers of cross reactivity despite well-documented cases of children with peanut allergies who have died after eating soy, not peanuts.   The Mayo Clinic has warned about the dangers of soy for severely peanut-allergic people with asthma, yet most allergists and allergy information websites fail to warn parents of this danger.     We very much want to alert the many parents who are unaware of soy’s risks to children with peanut allergies and asthma.”

On February 22, the Weston A.. Price Foundation learned the sad news of the death of a nine year old girl who was allergic to peanuts but died after drinking soy milk:

“My cousin’s daughter just passed yesterday after having soy milk for the first time.  She was known to have peanut allergies and asthma.     My cousin watched what she ate but he was not aware of the relationship between the peanut allergy and soy.  She had an asthma attack and did not respond to treatment.  My cousin and his wife performed CPR; she was taken to a hospital in Baltimore then flown to DC Children’s. All of her systems failed and she died Tuesday morning.  She was the light in her father’s eyes. Her brother thought she hung the moon just for him; her mother is devastated.”

Hundreds of other mystery deaths may also have been caused by the soy-peanut connection.   Indeed, it’s a question that needs to be asked whenever we hear that someone with peanut allergies dies suddenly after eating a hamburger, a burrito or some other food that did not contain peanut ingredients.   The obvious question is, why so many reactions, and why now?

Soy is now widely acknowledged to be one of the top eight allergens, and many experts believe it will soon be in the top four.   Reasons for the rise include the widespread use of soy infant formula, growing numbers of vegetarians and others health-conscious individuals who substitute soy products for meat and/or dairy,  and the increased number of allergens found in genetically modified (GMO) soy.   The last appears to be particular important as the number of people diagnosed with soy allergies has increased by 50 percent since 1998, the first year that genetically modified soybeans entered our food supply.

The GMO issue may be the key to the increasingly number of severe soy-peanut cross-reactions.   As reported by Robyn O’Brien on the AllergyKids website:

“According to previously undisclosed research and the Peanut Genome Initiative, it appears that in the genetic engineering of soy, a soy allergen was created that is 41 percent identical to a known peanut allergen, ara h 3. This new allergen, now found in soy, is recognized by 44 percent of peanut allergic individuals.    Recent studies out of the University of London conducted by Gideon Lack support this undisclosed research and highlight the role that conventional soy (and soy formula) play in the development of the peanut allergy.  . .   In the United States, 90 percent of soy now contains these new proteins, chemicals and allergens.”

Why hasn’t this news gotten out?   Why do so many allergy support groups neglect to issue warnings about the soy-peanut connection?     Given the fact that soy ingredients are in more than 60 percent of processed or packaged foods and nearly 100 percent of fast foods, this is simply irresponsible.   Not surprisingly, the reason appears to be the usual principle of profits over people.    According to Robyn O’Brien of AllergyKids, “Leading pediatric allergists and researchers have been funded by the agrichemical corporation responsible for engineering these proteins, chemicals and toxins into soy.”

Will the Odwalla case bring this lifesaving information into the mainstream media?   As yet, the culprit hasn’t been identified as soy.   The likelihood is high, however, that soy will soon be accused and proven guilty.   In the meantime, we can only hope, pray, and make a concerted grassroots effort to share this information with as many people as possible.

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths.  A popular guest on radio and television, she has been on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and will appear early this summer on PBS Healing Quest. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences,  Vice President  of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Posted in Dr Kaayla Daniel, Kaayla T. Daniel, Naughty Nutritionist, soy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Researchers who Lie, Cheat and Steal . . . and the Journal that Exposes Them

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on March 5, 2012

Recent news from the British Medical Journal is bad but hardly surprising.   A survey of 2,700 doctors and scientists revealed 13 percent have witnessed colleagues altering or fabricating data during their research.   That manipulation has included “inappropriately adjusting, excluding, altering or fabricating data.”

The BMJ further revealed that 6 percent of scientists and doctors think their own institutions are not properly investigating possible misconduct.   In many cases, junior academics who might object are told  to keep concerns to themselves, bullied into not publishing their findings, or had their contracts terminated when they spoke out.   Given that a 2001 BMJ study reported similar  “misconduct,”  it’s clear that the problem is not going away on its own.

The findings were presented January 12 in the UK at a meeting cosponsored by the BMJ and by the International Committee on Publications Ethics (COPE).   It included senior representatives from academia, government, funding agencies, and journals, who agreed individual researchers should have high ethical standards, but employing institutions have the prime responsibility of ensuring research conducted within their walls is honestly performed and reported.

Flagrant cases of fraud — such as the case of resveratrol researcher Dipak Das, who was exposed earlier this year after a University of Connecticut investigation revealed he had faked data on 145 different occasions over a seven year period  —  make the news headlines, but the delegates agreed that the greater problem is the “lesser offenses.”  These include the  selective publishing of research to avoid publishing disappointing results or the complete failure to publish any results from a study.   Sadly, this is considered by many researchers today to be “business as usual.”

Why does so much of this happen?    In today’s “publish or perish” culture, some researchers will do almost anything needed to get ahead.   Another common reason is  “checkbook research” in which data and conclusions are manipulated, massaged or omitted to please sponsors.   Whatever the reason or reasons, junior academics who might object are advised to keep concerns to themselves if they wish to protect their careers, bullied into not publishing their findings, or fired for speaking out.

Liz Wager, PhD, a freelance writer and editor who serves as chair of COPE, concluded in her BMJ Blog that “problems in reporting research studies distort the scientific literature and provide an unreliable base for the development of systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines. ”   Furthermore, while “plagiarism may be a nasty symptom of a sick system, it has probably never killed anybody while unreliable guidelines and misguided research undoubtedly have.”

BMJ Editor in Chief Dr. Fiona Godlee believes, “UK science and medicine deserve better,” and “doing nothing is not an option.”   Although she conceded the survey fails to provide a full estimate of how much research misconduct takes place in the UK, it  proves there are a “substantial number of cases” and institutions are “failing to investigate adequately if at all.”

In their BMJ editorial, Dr. Richard Lehman of Oxford University, and Dr. Elizabeth Loder, the journal’s clinical epidemiology editor, added, “A large proportion of evidence from human trials is unreported and much of what is reported is done so inadequately.  We are not dealing here with trial design, hidden bias, or problems of data analysis — we are talking simply about the absence of data.  And this is no academic matter, because missing data about harm in trials can harm patients, and incomplete data about benefit can lead to futile costs to health systems.   Moreover, researchers or others who deliberately conceal trial results have breached their ethical duty to trial participants.”

The two called for an end to what they called the “culture of haphazard publication and incomplete data disclosure” and proposed more robust regulation and full access to the raw trial data, not just what ends up being published.

These are all excellent suggestions, especially the last.    Those of us who review studies need to be able to look at raw data to judge the quality of a study and and the accuracy of its conclusions for ourselves.    As public watchdogs, we too can help journals and researchers stay honest and accountable.

That said, it’s most interesting that the BMJ — a respected whistleblower on research misconduct for many years –  itself chose to play a primary role in the smearing of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, whose controversial research connecting vaccinations and autism has proved highly troubling for the future profits of Big Pharm.

Given that numerous independent researchers and doctors have found troubling links, high-quality, independent research is clearly needed.   That, of course, is exactly what Dr. Wakefield recommended.   Media accusations to the contrary, he never claimed to have established clear cause and effect.    As he wrote in the Discussion section of the Lancet paper,”We did not prove an association between measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine and the syndrome described” and the last paragraph of the study he adds, “We have identified a chronic enterocolitis in children that may be related to neuropsychiatric dysfunction.  In most cases, onset of symptoms was after measles, mumps, and rubella immunisation. Further investigations are needed to examine this syndrome and its possible relation to this vaccine.”    In fact a substantial body of credible research published since 1998 — listed on Dr. Mercola’s website and available at medical libraries  –  suggests the validity of Dr. Wakefield’s concerns.

Yet another reason to mistrust the BMJ expose is its failure to disclose that since 2008 both BMJ and The Lancet have been in lucrative partnerships with Merck.  This is clearly a serious conflict of interest and breach of ethics.

Truth cannot be suppressed so BMJ may well find itself in the embarrassing position of having boldly pointed one finger at disreputable researchers with three other fingers pointing back  at itself.

*  *  *  *  *

SOURCES AND FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

Tavare A.  Institutions must do more to eliminate research misconduct, meeting hears. BMJ. 2012 Jan 16;344:e446. doi: 10.1136/bmj.e446. No abstract available.

http://www.bmj.com/rapid-response/2012/01/07/re-research-misconduct-uk

http://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/category/liz-wager/

Wakefield’s article linking MMR vaccine and autism was fraudulent, BMJ 2011; 342:c7452 (Published 5 January 2011). http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.c7452

“BMJ & Lancet Wedded to Merck CME Partnership,”  Alliance for Human Research Protection,

14 February 2011      http://www.ahrp.org/cms/content/view/766/9/

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/02/07/new-research-shows-link-between-mmr-vaccine-and-autism.aspx

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths.  A popular guest on radio and television, she has been on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and will appear later this spring on PBSHealing Quest. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences,  Vice President  of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Posted in Dr Kaayla Daniel, Dr. Kaayla Daniels, Kaayla T. Daniel, Naughty Nutritionist | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

Soy for Valentine’s Day? Better Bypass This Idea!

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on February 14, 2012

The Soyfoods Association of North America suggests we serve lots of  “great tasting and great-for-you soyfoods” this Valentine’s Day “to protect the hearts of those we love.”   What’s more, SANA offers some naughty suggestions to make this day memorable for lovers.  To wit:

  • Surprise your sweetie by making them breakfast in bed; heart-shaped pancakes made with soymilk and topped with fresh fruit will start their day off right.      

Interesting idea there –  making “them” breakfast in bed.   How hot is that?   Is SANA suggesting a threesome or an orgy?   Or perhaps a cardio morning of trotting quickly from one sweetie’s bed to the next?   Naughty minds want to know.

  • Plan a picnic in the park; pack sandwiches made with veggie deli slices and soy cheese for a high protein, low saturated fat, cholesterol free meal.

With soy many picnic possibilities, how will we ever pick?   Phoney Baloney,  Approximeat, Mockwurst, Soyloin, Roast Almost, Soysage, Nauseage, Misteak, Veat, Sham Ham, Wham, Tuno, Fakin’ Bakin, Soylent Green?    Gotta love all those veggie deli slices and soy cheeses high in “healthy” ingredients such as MSG (hiding under the aliases “natural flavors,” “spices” and “autolyzed yeast extract”), hexane-extracted soy protein isolate,  wheat gluten or vital wheat gluten, wheat starch, carrageenan, canola oil, soybean oil  . . .     With ingredients like that, the Naughty Nutritionist is not jesting but dead serious when she says “Hide the soylami!”

  • Coffee shops are the perfect place for an afternoon date; go for the soymilk option when ordering your favorite beverage.

And a good strong cuppa Joe might be just the thing to help hide the beany flavor and dingy color of soymilk, a product made palatable only because of its high sugar content.   Soymilk also offers cheap vitamins and minerals such as hard-to-absorb forms of calcium and vegetarian Vitamin D2 that’s been linked to hyperactivity, coronary heart disease and allergic reactions.

  • There’s nothing more romantic than a home-made meal; set the mood by serving spaghetti and meatless meatballs with a glass of wine by candle light. 

Love those meatless balls made out of textured vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, soy protein concentrate, wheat gluten, wheat starch, soybean oil, caramel color,  MSG (hiding in the guise of “natural flavorings,” “hydrolyzed protein,” “yeast extract” and “spices”),  dextrose, and even cultured dextrose.    Warning to devout vegans:  some brands of “meatless meatballs” contain egg whites.  On the plus side, they might also contain carrots, perhaps leading a romantic partner to say “What’s up, Doc?”

Needless to say,  the soy industry would have us believe the “goodness of soy” outweighs any possible risks associated with MSG and the other fine ingredients.   Our FDA, after all, allowed a soy/heart disease health claim back in 1999 though the European Food Safety Authority has rejected such a claim three times, making the “soy industry’s blood boil,” according to the newsletter NutraIngredients.    In fact, the body of evidence (http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert/soy-heart-health-claim) has established that soy protein does not prevent heart disease, does not reliably lower cholesterol, may raise homocysteine levels,  and has even been linked to heart arrhythmias, cardiomyopathy and endothelial damage in women.

As for affairs of the heart, soy actually has a reputation as a libido downer.   Rather than promote soy as a sexy food for Valentine’s Day, the Soyfoods Association of  North American missed a fine opportunity to push soy for President’s Day.   What better food than soy for politicians with the “zipper problem”!!!

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths.  A popular guest on radio and television, she has been on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and will appear later this spring on PBS Healing Quest. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences,  Vice President  of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Posted in Dr Kaayla Daniel, heart disease, Kaayla T. Daniel, Naughty Nutritionist, soy | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

iVegetarian2: The Eating Disorders of Steve Jobs

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on December 27, 2011

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Steve Jobs died October 5, and the animal rights organization PETA  stepped right up to honor him as a vegetarian who was deeply committed to animal welfare and the environment.  PETA, of course,  has yet to acknowledge the role that Jobs’s near vegan diet may have played in his death, and continues to maintain that their particular brand of “right eating” will virtually guarantee freedom from cancer and other major health problems.

When I blogged about this topic in October,  I promised I would follow up once I learned more about Jobs’s dietary habits from Walter Isaacson’s biography Steve Jobs (Simon & Schuster, 2011).   This column delivers on that promise.

The bullet points below include every reference to diet in the entire book, followed by page numbers.  My brief comments are found at the very end.

  • Jobs came to appreciate organic fruits and vegetables as a teenager when a neighbor taught him how to be a good organic gardener and to compost. (14)
  • Between his sophomore and junior hear of high school, he began smoking marijuana regularly and by his senior year was dabbling in LSD as well as exploring the mind bending effect of sleep deprivation. (18-19)
  • Toward the end of his senior year in high school, he began his “lifelong experiments with compulsive diets, eating only fruits and vegetables so he was as lean and tight as a whippet.”  (31)
  • He attended the love festivals at the local Hare Krishna temple, and went to the Zen center for free vegetarian meals. (35)
  • During his freshman year at college he went to the Zen center for free vegetarian meals and was greatly influenced by the book Diet for a Small Planet by Frances Moore Lappe.   At that point, he swore off meat for good and began embracing extreme diets, which included purges, fasts or eating only one or two foods , such as carrots or apples for weeks on end.  (36)
  • For awhile at college, Jobs lived on Roman Meal cereal.   He would buy a box, which would last a week, then flats of dates, almonds and a lot of carrots.   He made carrot juice with a Champion juicer, and at one point turned “a sunset-like orange hue.”  (36)
  • His dietary habits became more obsessive when he read the Mucusless Diet Healing System by Arnold Ehret.     Jobs then favored eating nothing but fruits and starchless vegetables, which he said prevented the body from forming harmful mucus, and determined to regularly cleanse his body through prolonged fasts.   That meant the end of his consumption of Roman Meal cereal — or any bread, grains, or milk.     At one point, he spent an entire week eating only apples, and then began to try even purer fasts.  He started with two-day fasts and eventually stretched them out to a week or more, breaking them with large amounts of water and leafy vegetables.    “After a week, you start to feel fantastic,” he said.  “You get a ton of vitality from not having to digest all this food.  I was in great shape  I felt I could get up and walk to San Francisco anytime I wanted.”   (36)
  • As a $5 an hour technician at Atari, he was known as “a hippie with b.o.” and “impossible to deal with.”   He clung to the belief that his fruit-heavy vegetarian diet would prevent not just mucus but also body odor.   As Isaacson writes “It was a flawed theory.” (43)
  • “He was doing a lot of soul-searching about being adopted .  . .  (with) the primal scream and the mucusless diets, he was trying to cleanse himself and get deeper into his frustration about his birth.”  (51)
  • He was a fan of the Whole Earth Catalog and particularly taken by the final issue, which came out in 1971 when he was still in high school.   On the back cover it said “Stay Hungry.  Stay Foolish.” (59)
  • The name Apple Computers came to him when he was on one of his fruitarian diets.  “I had just come back from the apple farm.  It sounded fun, spirited and not intimidating.   Apple took the edge off the word ‘computer.’”  (63)
  • His mother Clara Jobs didn’t mind losing most of her house to piles of computer parts and house guests, but she was frustrated by her son’s increasingly quirky diets.  She would roll her eyes at his latest eating obsessions.  She just wanted him to be healthy, and he would be making weird pronouncements like, “I’m a fruitarian and I will only eat leaves picked by virgins in the moonlight.”  (68)
  • He was still convinced against all evidence that his vegan diet meant that he didn’t need to use a deodorant or take regular showers.   .  .  .   At meetings people had to look at his dirty feet. Sometimes to relieve stress, he would soak his feet in the toilet.  (82)
  • A colleague who recommended he bathe more often was told that “in exchange” he  would have to read fruitarian diet books.  “Steve was adamant that he bathed once a week, and that was adequate as long as he was eating a fruitarian diet.” (82-83)
  • In 1979 or so he “put aside drugs, eased away from being a strict vegan, and cut back the time he spent on Zen retreats.”   (91)
  • He decreed that the sodas in the office refrigerator be replaced by Odwalla organic orange and carrot juices.”   (118)
  • The kitchen was stocked daily with Odwalla juices (142)
  • At the launch of the Lisa computer in 1983, he ate a special vegan meal at the Four Seasons restaurant.  (152)
  • He had edged away from his strict vegan diet for the time being and ate vegetarian omelets. (155)
  • In 1984 in Italy, Jobs demanded a vegan meal and became extremely angry when the waiter very elaborately proceeded to dish out a sauce filled with sour cream.  (185)
  • The menu for his 30th birthday day celebration included goat cheese and salmon mousse. (189)
  • He had a lot of mannerisms.  He bit his nails.   His hands were “slightly and inexplicably yellow” and in constant motion. (223)
  • At a meal with Mitch Kapor,  the chairman of Lotus software, Jobs was horrified to see Kapor slathering butter on his bread,” and asked, “Have you ever heard of serum cholesterol?”   Kapor responded, “I’ll make you a deal. You stay away from commenting on my dietary habits, and I will stay away from the subject of your personality.”  (224)
  • At a 1988 NeXT product launch, the lunch menu included  mineral water, croissants, cream cheese, bean sprouts. (233)
  • Jobs was a vegetarian and so was Chrisann, the mother of his daughter Lisa.  Lisa was not vegetarian, but Jobs was fine with that.   “Eating chicken became her little indulgence as she shuttled between two parents who were vegetarians with a spiritual regard for natural foods.”  Jobs’s “dietary fixations came in fanatic waves,” and he was “fastidious”  about what he ate.  Lisa watched him “spit out a mouthful of soup one day after learning that it contained butter.” (259-260)
  • “Even at a young age Lisa began to realize his diet obsessions reflected a life philosophy, one in which asceticism and minimalism could heighten subsequent sensations.  “He believed that great harvests came from arid sources, pleasure from restraint.  He knew the equations that most people didn’t know:  Things led to their opposites.”   (259-260)
  • Once he took Lisa on a business trip to Tokyo and they stayed at the Okura Hotel.   At the elegant downstairs sushi bar, Jobs ordered large trays of unagi sushi, a dish he loved so much that he allowed the warm cooked eel to pass muster as vegetarian.    Lisa later wrote, “It was the first time, I’d felt with him, so relaxed and content, over those trays of meat; the excess, the permission and warmth after the cold salads, meant a once inaccessible space had opened.  He was less rigid with himself, even human under the great ceilings with the little chairs with the meat and me.”  (260-261)
  • Jobs had hired a hip young couple who had once worked at Chez Panisse as housekeepers and vegetarian cooks (264)
  • At his wedding to Laurene Powell, the cake was in the shape of Yosemite’s Half Dome.  It was strictly vegan and more than a few of the guest found it inedible.  (274)
  • “Since his early teens, he had indulged his weird obsession with extremely restrictive diets and fasts.  Even after he married and had children, he retained his dubious eating habits.   He would spend weeks eating the same thing — carrot salad with lemon, or just apples — and then suddenly spurn that food and declare that he had stopped eating it.  He would go on fasts, just as he did as a teenager and he became sanctimonious as he lectured others at the table on the virtues of whatever eating regimen he was following.”  (477)
  • Jobs’s wife ,Laurene Powell, had been a vegan when they first married, but after her husband’s first cancer operation, the partial Whipple procedure, she began to diversify the family meals with fish and other proteins.  Their son, Reed, who had been a vegetarian, became a “hearty omnivore.”  They knew it was important for Steve to get diverse sources of protein. (477)
  • In early 2008, Jobs’s eating disorders got worse.   On some nights he would stare at the floor and ignore all of the dishes set out on the long kitchen table.  He lost 40 pounds during the spring of 2008.
  • Dr James Eason “would even stop at the convenience store to get the energy drinks Jobs liked.” (485)
  • He remained a finicky eater, which was more of a problem than ever.  He would eat only fruit smoothies and he would demand that seven or eight of them be lined up so he could find an option that might satisfy him.  He would touch the spoon to his mouth for a tiny taste and pronounce  ‘That’s no good.  That one’s no good either.’”   His doctor  lectured him: “You know this isn’t a matter of taste.  Stop thinking of this as food.  Start thinking of it as medicine.” (486)
  • Early in 2010, Jobs went to dinner and ordered a mango smoothie and plain vegan pasta.  (505)
  • At the launch of the  iPad2, Isaacson reported “For a change he was eating, though still with some pickiness.  He ordered fresh squeezed juice, which he sent back three times, declaring that each new offering was from a bottle, and a pasta primavera which he shoved away as inedible after one taste.   But then he ate half of my crab Louise salad and ordered a full one for himself followed by a bowl of ice cream.”  (527)
  • Jobs’s eating problems were exacerbated over the years by his psychological attitude toward food.  When he was young, he learned that he could induce euphoria and ecstasy by fasting.   So even though he knew that he should eat — his doctors were begging him to consume high-quality protein — lingering in the back of his subconscious, he admitted was his instinct for fasting and for diets like Arnold Ehret’s fruit regimen that he had embraced as a teenager.  Powell kept telling him it was crazy. ‘I wanted him to force himself to eat,’ she said ‘and it was incredibly tense at home.’”  (548-549)
  • Bryar Brown, their part-time cook would produce an array of healthy dishes, but Jobs would touch his tongue to one or two and then dismiss them all as inedible.  One evening he announced, “I could probably eat a little pumpkin pie,” and the even-tempered Brown created a beautiful pie from scratch in an hour.  Jobs ate only one bite, but Brown was thrilled.”  (549)
  • During the final years of his life, Powell talked to eating disorder specialists and psychiatrists to try to get help, but her husband shunned them.   (549)

That’s it.    Not a lot to work with, but more than enough to show a longstanding pattern of eating disorders.

On the plus side, Jobs’s diet seems to  have been consistently organic and high quality.    He employed chefs who’d worked at Chef Panisse, and his wife Laurene Powell founded Terravera, a company that produces ready-to-eat organic meals for stores in northern California.    Jobs does not appear to have ever been a junk-food vegan who indulged in all-American junk foods such as soda, chocolate, cookies and crackers.

Soy is not mentioned at all in Isaacson’s biography.   Although the Apple culture was soy friendly with soy milk readily available in vending machines and at coffee stations, Jobs himself may well have rejected it.   Jobs had a longstanding fascination with the book The Mucusless Diet Healing System by Arnold Ehret (1866-1922), who claimed the human body is an “air-gas engine” that runs well only on fruits, starchless vegetables and edible green leaves.   Soy and other legumes, according to Ehret’s way of thinking, were to be disdained as mucus-producing forbidden foods.   Ehret not only condemned protein and fat as “unnatural” but said they could not be used by the body.   Inspired by such theories, Jobs appears to have eaten a diet low in both fat and protein for most of his life.  And what did he eat instead?  Carbs high in fructose.

Whether or not Jobs was in one of his fanatic fruitarian phases, he favored a lot of fruit and fruit juice.   These are not only high on the glycemic index, but loaded with fructose.   Fruits and fruit juices greatly stress the liver and pancreas, contribute to diabetes and many other blood sugar disorders, and have been linked to pancreatic cancer.   Jobs suffered from a type of pancreatic cancer known as islet cell carcinoma, which originates in the insulin-secreting beta cells.

Research published in the November 2007 issue of American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded there was “evidence for a greater pancreatic cancer risk with a high intake of fruit and juices but not with a high intake of sodas.”   More recently, in the August 2010 issue of Cancer Research, Dr. Anthony Healy of UCLA’s Jonsson Cancer Center proposed that aberrant fructose metabolism — and not just aberrant glucose metabolism — might be involved in the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer.   Seems fructose provides the raw material cancer cells prefer to use to make the DNA they need to divide and proliferate.    Although the UCLA findings are preliminary and more research needs to be done, the Reuters headline “Cancer Cells Slurp Up Fructose” is fair warning to all of us addicted to fruit and fruit juices.

Clearly Jobs broke away  from strict veganism from time to time and indulged in a few eggs, salmon and unagi sushi.   The words of his daughter Lisa (quoted above) provide a moving testimony to how well Jobs’s body and mind responded to eating eel, a fish rich in protein and fat.   That said, vegans who would like to think Jobs became sick because he failed to be “perfect vegan” now have evidence to support that belief.

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty Nutritionist™ because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences,  Vice President  of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

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Soy, Sex and Naughty Bits: A Case Study in the Journal Nutrition

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on October 13, 2011

Can soy be used as an aid to celibacy?    Is it true that Zen monks eat soy because naughty behavior goes down when tofu consumption goes up?  Do Japanese wives feed unfaithful husbands extra helpings of soy?    Could politicians with the “zipper problem” better control their errant behavior if they consumed enough soy?

Anecdotally, the answer is, yes, and a fair amount of science backs it up.  To date, many studies show that soy’s estrogenic isoflavones interfere with the production and usage of testosterone in the body.   Some evidence points to soy as a feminizing influence that can lead to  gynecomastia (man breasts).   And there’s massive evidence of reproductive toxicity.

The latest news is a case study in the journal Nutrition.  The subject is a 19-year-old heterosexual man who become vegan, began consuming a lot of soy,  and, soon after, experienced loss of libido and erectile dysfunction.   Prior to adopting veganism, he had an active sex life with no reported problems.

Lab assessment revealed low levels of free and total testosterone with increased levels of DHEA.   During the year prior to this workup, the young man’s diet had packed a whopping punch of soy isoflavones, averaging 360 mg per day, from soy milk, soy crisps, tofu, soy sauce, soy nuts and edamame.   This level of soy consumption is far above average, yet increasingly common these days as people quit meat and dairy products for soy substitutes.   Prior to becoming vegan, the man had been on a Standard American Diet (SAD).  After discontinuing his vegan diet and eliminating soy foods altogether, he noticed a gradual improvement in  sexual function over the course of a year and his lab tests revealed  gradual normalization of testosterone and DHEA levels.

The researchers conclude with the usual caveat “more studies are needed.”  Yes, indeed, and as soy consumption increases, doctors and other health practitioners will most likely report many such cases.   Let’s hope future studies focus on women as well as men, and include a study on the link between sex, soy and vulvodynia.   What to do now?   The science may not be entirely in, but the message is already clear:  “If you love and respect your Naughty Bits, Practice Safe Soy.”

To read the study:

Siepmann T, Roofeh J, Kiefer FW, Edelson DG. “Hypogonadism and erectile dysfunction associated with soy product consumption.” Nutrition. 2011 Jul-Aug;27(7-8):859-62. Epub 2011 Feb 25.

For more about soy and reproduction, including citations, read chapter 29 of  The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food. For information on how much soy is safe to eat read my article “Sex and the Soybean www.naughtynutritionist.com/naughtynutritionist.com/Practice_Safe_Soy.html

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty NutritionistTM because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences,  Vice President  of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Posted in Dr Kaayla Daniel, Kaayla T. Daniel, Naughty Nutritionist, soy, Uncategorized, vegans | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

iVegetarian: PETA Honors Steve Jobs

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on October 9, 2011

Steve Jobs died this week, and PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is lifting a tall glass of carrot juice to his memory.   That’s what Jobs gave out to trick or treaters one Halloween, and PETA reminds us not only of that, but of some of the many  other positive steps Jobs took for health and the environment.   Jobs played a role in Disney’s 2006 decision not to renew its Happy Meal toy deal with McDonalds, for example, and more recently decided to “green up” Apple’s manufacturing operations in China and elsewhere.

Sadly PETA and other vegetarian groups have chosen to honor Jobs’s commitment to animal welfare and the environment without acknowledging the role that his vegan or near vegan diet may have played in his death.

I say “may have played” because none of us knows what caused the  pancreatic cancer that led to Steve Jobs’s  death.   Diet doubtless played a role, but lifestyle factors, environmental toxicity and genetic proclivities would have contributed as well.  Certainly, Jobs was exposed over the years to massive bombardment from WiFi and other electromagnetic fields (EMFs).   Medical treatments involving radiation, chemotherapy, a modified Whipple surgery, a liver transplant and immuno-suppressive drugs may also have contributed to his demise.

It’s human nature to look for something, or someone, to blame whenever someone dies too young, but the answers are rarely clear cut.   At best, blaming provides simplistic answers, and at worst can be a juvenile “I told you so.”   Not long after Jobs’s death on Wednesday, readers began asking me to comment on Jobs’s death and how his diet — and especially soy — might have contributed to it.  In fact, I never met Jobs and have no first hand knowledge of what he ate.

Based on media reports in Forbes and Fortune, however, Jobs seems to have favored organic foods and a plant-based diet.   A Google search turns up lots of claims that he was “vegan,” one reference to “fruitarian leanings,” the possibility that he tried healing through macrobiotics, a few people saying he was “pescatarian,” and a satire of his vegan ways on www.MacComedy.com.   A posting this week on www.scienceblog.com by “Mike” says:  “There might be some truth to Jobs being a vegan .  .  .   I was at Apple during the time Jobs came back to Apple in 1996/1997.  The company cafeteria within weeks of his returning dramatically expanded and improved its vegetarian and vegan menus.”   Finally, Jobs was often reported dining at The Greens restaurant in San Francisco with Dean Ornish, MD, bestselling author and promoter of extremely low-fat, plant-based dietary regimens.

None of the articles and websites I’ve seen talk about Jobs’s soy consumption, but Sean Glazier, a programmer from the Netherlands, who often consulted in the Silicon Valley, contacted me Thursday.   Glazier reports that the Apple environment was extremely vegan friendly, with soy milk flowing freely at coffee stations, Silk soymilk for sale in vending machines, and soy meats served up in company cafeterias.  Jobs ordered catered meals for meetings and there were always soy options.   “During the 90’s especially, I am sure Steve ate plenty of soy products.”

With the timely release by Simon and Schuster of Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography Steve Jobs on October 24, we may learn more about Jobs’s dietary and lifestyle preferences.

Presuming Jobs ate a fair amount of soy, the question is, how might it have affected his health?   Again, hard to say, given our  lack of information about dose and duration.  If we look to science, the studies on soy and cancer development are inconsistent and often contradictory.  Soy sometimes prevents cancer but also can cause, contribute to or accelerate the growth of cancer.   Soy isoflavones have been proven to be mutagenic, clastogenic and teratogenic, and are listed as “carcinogens” in many toxicology textbooks, including the American Chemical Society’s 1976 Chemical Carcinogens. In addition, modern industrial soy processing techniques used to make soy protein isolate, textured vegetable protein and other modern soy products create toxic and carcinogenic residues   Finally, soybeans naturally contain goitrogens, allergens, protease inhibitors and other antinutrients and toxins that damage the digestive, immune and neuroendocrine systems, putting consumers at increase risk for many health problems, including cancer.   These facts led the Solae Company in 2005 to withdraw a petition to the FDA, in which the company had requested  a soy/cancer health claim.  (To read WAPF’s request for denial, go to: http://www.westonaprice.org/2004-action-alerts/2004jul11). Yet the soy industry and vegan proponents persist in touting soy as a safe, proven and all-natural cancer answer.

In terms of pancreatic cancer, the protease inhibitors in soy protein interfere with protein digestion, put stress on the pancreas and cause hyperplasia and hypertrophy.   Animal studies indicate soy-heavy diets can cause the type of pancreatic cancers known as adenocarcinomas that begin in the exocrine cells that produce digestive enzymes.  About 95 percent of pancreatic cancers are exocrine cancers, the type that felled actors Michael Landon and Patrick Swayze.   Steve Jobs, however, suffered from a much rarer, neuroendocrine form of pancreatic cancer.    Known as islet cell carcinoma, this type represents only about five percent of pancreatic cancers, and originates in the insulin-secreting beta cells.

Soy couldn’t possibly have helped Jobs, and it may well have contributed to his cancer’s development, but without additional information it would inappropriate to blame his cancer on soy.  But it is fair to say that years before diagnosis he would probably have suffered from subclinical malnutrition if, in fact, he’d been on a low-fat, plant-based diet that included a lot of soy.   Lab testing likely would have turned up deficiencies in vitamins A, D, K, B2, B6 and B12; the sulfur-containing amino acids, methionine, cysteine and taurine; DHA and EFA fatty acids; and calcium, zinc, carnitine and CoQ10.  Such deficiencies are commonly found in vegan and near-vegan clients.  They neither build the body nor allow detoxification, and so  set the stage for the development of cancer and other chronic illnesses.

Most alternative MDs and health practitioners find serious illness among vegans in their clinical practices, yet PETA and other vegan groups dismiss the idea that non-junk food vegan diets cause nutritional deficiencies and blame animal products alone for the ills of civilization.   PETA also wildly, nakedly and bloodily — many would say crudely and offensively — promotes the myth of healthy, sexy vegans.

Similar ideas — more soberly presented — come from the  Physicians Committee on Responsible Medicine,  an organization with strong ties to PETA, whose “Cancer Project” promotes cancer prevention via a low-fat, high-soy vegan diet.   The fact that this perfect prescription didn’t work for Jobs, Linda McCartney or many other prominent vegetarians does not seem to stop these “responsible physicians” from continuing to make irresponsible health guarantees.

Could anything have saved Steve Jobs?   No way to know, but I think he would have had his best shot at recovery with Nicholas Gonzalez, MD, in New York City.   Dr. Gonzalez has an impressive track record of helping people recover from pancreatic and other cancers.  He prescribes specific diets and supplement programs based on extensive interviews and labwork.    To hear a fascinating interview with Dr Joseph Mercola and Dr. Gonzalez, http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/10/09/dr-nicholas-gonzalez-on-steve-jobs.aspx?e_cid=20111009_SNL_Art_1

Would Jobs have been well served by a diet that contained ample amounts of fat, cholesterol and even red meat?   Would a more modest amount of animal foods have better suited him?   Might he have been one of the  few people who thrives on a carefully designed diet high in fruit and vegetables and low in animal foods?    Had he been a patient of Dr. Gonzalez, Jobs would have learned the code to a well-designed, high-functioning iJobs diet.   As it stands, the  one thing we know for sure is Steve Jobs is dead.   Sadly, his diet did not save him.

*  *  *  *  *

This blog was written on my iMac desktop.   I am deeply grateful for its sleek and functional design as well as for my  iphone and  ipod.     Steve Jobs has also inspired me over the years.   My favorite quote is:  

For more great quotes from Jobs visit:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/05/the-best-steve-jobs-quote_n_997300.html#s338869

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty NutritionistTM because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences,  Vice President  of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

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Do Plant-Based Diets Protect Against Heart Disease? Not Likely!

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on September 27, 2011

The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that 16.7 million deaths occur worldwide each year due to cardiovascular disease, and more than half of those deaths occur in developing countries where plant-based diets high in legumes and starches are eaten by the vast majority of the people.

Yet “everyone knows” plant-based diets prevent heart disease.  Indeed this myth  is repeated so often that massive numbers of educated, health-conscious individuals in first world countries are consciously adopting third world style diets in the hope of preventing disease, optimizing health and maximizing longevity.   But if the WHO statistics are correct, plant-based diets might not be protective at all.   And today’s fashionable experiment in veganism could end very badly indeed.

A study out August 26 in the journal Nutrition makes a strong case against plant-based diets for prevention of heart disease.  The title alone  –  “Vegetarianism produces subclinical malnutrition, hyperhomocysteinemia and atherogenesis” — sounds a significant warning.   The article establishes  why subjects who eat mostly vegetarian diets develop morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular disease unrelated to vitamin B status and Framingham criteria.   The authors are Drs. Kilmer S. McCully and Yves Ingenbleek.

Co-author Kilmer S. McCully, MD, “Father of the Homocysteine Theory of Heart Disease,” is well known as a winner of the Linus Pauling Award, the Weston A. Price Foundation’s Integrity in Science Award, and author of numerous articles published in peer-reviewed journals as well as the popular books The Homocysteine Revolution and The Heart Revolution.  Dr. McCully teamed up with Yves Ingenbleek, MD, of the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, France, which funded the research.   Dr. Ingenbleek is well known for his work on malnutrition, the essential need of sulfur along with nitrogen, and sulfur deficiency as a cause of  hyperhomocysteinemia.

To  learn more, read my article “Heart of the Matter:  Plant-Based Diets Leads to High Homocysteine, Low Sulfur and Marginal B12, ” posted at http://www.naughtynutritionist.com/naughtynutritionist.com/Heart_McCully.html

I promise, this is just what you need when all your vegan friends say their diet will protect them from heart disease.

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty NutritionistTM because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows.  Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences, Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

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Dr. Douglass on Why the Food Pyramid Crumbled!

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on September 2, 2011

Who does The Naughty Nutritionist read for entertainment?  Why Dr.  William Campbell Douglass II, of course!   He and his team regularly provide very naughty, very funny and very caustic commentaries.    This one’s destined to become a classic.

Food Pyramid Finally Crumbles

by William Campbell Douglass II

USDA replaces the symbol — but not the advice

The USDA “food pyramid” is finally being torn down — not because of the horrible advice it contained, but because it was a bit “too confusing.”

So they’ve traded in a triangle for a circle: a multicolored dinner plate with a glass of milk off to the side.

Cost to you: Just $2 million, a bargain when you consider how that fee includes… well… a multicolored dinner plate with

a glass of milk off to the side.

The USDA unveiled its first food pyramid in 1992, and then replaced it with MyPyramid just a few years ago. The latest version had a little man running up the side, presumably to collect the prize of “fats, oils and sweets” (yes, the three were lumped together) locked in the top.

Now the little man is gone, and it’s unclear what killed him. I suppose it could have been all that running up the pyramid… but maybe he binged on those sweets and died of diabetes and heart disease.

RIP, pyramid man. We hardly knew you.

The USDA, on the other hand, we know only too well. This agency’s bad advice, carefully negotiated with help from Big Food’s big-money lobbyists, has turned us into the fattest, sickest, weakest people on the planet.

But that advice won’t change — just the symbol, as the new dinner plate will be loaded with the same crapola that caused the pyramid to topple over: vegetables and sack after sack of grains.

Nothing on earth leads to obesity quite like a grain-based diet — and if you need any proof of that, just take a tour of a factory farm.

The animals in those hellholes are given the same foods the feds want you to eat — grains and soy — to fatten them up as fast as possible.

Throw in some antibiotics, and you’ve got a giant cow… or a giant human. And does it even matter which is which anymore?

We are what we eat — and if we eat cow feed, we’ll turn into cows, waiting for our own demise in the not-too-distant future.

Moo.

*  *  *  *  *

Thank you, Dr. Douglass.   If I ever meet you in person, I would like to honor you with this Pork Ribbon as my mentor and Lard Lord.

To receive Dr Douglass’ reports, take this  link:  http://douglassreport.com

 Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty NutritionistTM because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows.  Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences, Vice President of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Posted in Dr. Kaayla Daniels, Kaayla T. Daniel, Naughty Nutritionist, USDA | Tagged: , , , | 1 Comment »

Not Taking the EWG Pledge

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on August 2, 2011

The Environmental Working Group has asked Americans to go meatless once per week and “Take the pledge to eat less and greener meat!”   Chef Mario Batali and other celebrities have gone on board to help EWG enlist 100,000 people who will sign the pledge, commit to eating a more “veg centric” diet, and “build awareness” of how much our food choices impact the planet.

I personally am not about to take that pledge though EWG’s slogan “Reduce your impact, improve your health” sounds like a “win/win.”    EWG tells us, for example, that Americans who skip meat and cheese just one day a week — such as with a “Meatless Monday” –  can cut carbon emissions equal to taking 7.6 million cars off the road.   And it promises that reducing meat consumption will lower our risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke and cancer.

Sadly, EWG’s proposal will do very little for the environment.   Worse, it will encourage people to feel “feel good” about their growing green consciousness while distracting them from exploring and adopting genuine, sustainable solutions.  While it is certainly good that EWG recommends “greener” meat and not just “less meat” or even “no meat,” the catchy “Meatless Monday” slogan perpetuates the myth that meat is evil and that  plant-based diets are the key to personal and planetary health.

Here’s why I’m not taking the EWG pledge:

  • The true threat to our environment is not animals — which have been covering the earth with manure and emissions for tens of thousands of years — but the globalization and industrialization of agriculture with its unconscionable, factory-farming practices, toxic use of pesticides, herbicides and commercial fertilizers, plundering of natural resources, draining of the water table, and bankrupting of small farmers and cottage industries.  EWG’s nod to “greener meat”  suggests they actually understand this, but the overriding message  is to stop eating meat of any type.   As for all that climate-warming gas,  animals emit far less when they eat natural, grass-based diets and not unnatural, hard-to-digest feeds manufactured from soybeans, corn and other grains.
  • Plowing pastures and rangeland in order to plant crops is not sustainable and won’t do much to feed the hungry or save the environment.    Only about eleven percent of the land on planet earth can be farmed, a percentage that cannot be increased without deforestation, irrigation, chemical fertilizers, and other destructive ecological practices.  Old-fashioned organic mixed-use farms are the answer.   And animals are essential, not optional, for healthy farms.
  • America’s top soil has been devastated by mono cropping, lawns and other unsustainable practices.   While mixing, rotating and composting plants is a start, land cannot be restored without the help of animals.  They are needed not only for their rich manure but for rotational grazing.   Animal waste is truly a horrific problem with factory farming but is valuable and collectible on small, mixed-use farms.  Overgrazing has certainly damaged much of America’s land, but the solution is sustainable grazing practices.   And that solution, properly handled, serves the land far better than leaving it alone for “conservation.”    As Joel Salatin has described so well in The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer, Everything I Want to Do is Illegal and other books, diversity, interdependence and layering are the keys to honoring and restoring our land.  Salatin also argues cogently for putting our trust in local farmers and not in the official certification programs EWG recommends.   How many more exposes of pseudo organic does the Cornucopia Institute need to make before EWG comprehends that certification can — and often has been –  co-opted and corrupted.?  As Salatin explains so well, “transparency” between consumers and farmers is the answer.  That means thinking globally and acting locally by getting “up front and personal” with your food source.
  • EWG blames animal foods for the diseases of modern civilization, including cancer and heart disease.  But the 20th century saw a decline in the consumption of meat, dairy and butter consumption, but a sharp increase in the consumption of sugar, corn syrup, white flour, liquid and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, artificial flavorings, preservatives and other known health hazard of processed, packaged and fast foods.   Contrary to popular belief, science does not support the idea that saturated fat and cholesterol found in animal products contribute to obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer.   All health problems associated with animal products lie with factory farming and other commercial and non-sustainable farming and food processing practices.   As for plant-based diets,  vegan diets especially can lead to vitamin, mineral, fatty acid and amino acid deficiencies and imbalances, contributing to myriad health problems, including cancer and heart disease.
  • EWG recommends low-fat dairy because “less fat will mean fewer cancer causing toxins in the body.”  That’s nonsense, of course, when we are talking about the health-giving fat found in the milk of cows and goats who spend their lives out in the sun on pasture.  This recommendation further fails to recognize that not all toxins are fat- soluble, many are water-soluble, and commercially grown fruits, vegetables, grains, beans and seeds are often loaded with toxins, including the dioxins that EWG erroneously states are found “entirely” in animal products.
  • The idea that eating lowfat could be eco-conscious also defies common sense.   The lowfat gospel is a key reason why factory farms — including so-called organic factory farms — grow freakish hens with size DD breasts.  Big Agra’s goal with such chickens is to minimize the less-profitable dark meat and maximize the lowfat white meat preferred by “health conscious” consumers.   The lowfat message pleases Big Pfood immensely because it profits mightily when whole foods are divided into several different products — which is to say multiple profit centers.   All of these, of course, will require manufacturing, packaging and long distance hauling   As for the skim milk recommended by EWG, nature put fat in milk for a reason, and that reason was not to kill us.  When people drink skim milk, their bodies need and crave that missing cream, leading to compensatory bingeing on ice cream and other unhealthy treats high in both fat and sugar.   Lowfat thus leads to increased consumption, more packages, more products, higher profits,  ill health and environmental destruction.
  • Yet another problem with EWG’s lowfat recommendation is it encourages people not to cook.  How so?   Because fat is what gives food flavor.    Cooks who choose lean cuts and prepare vegetables without butter or other tasty fats, often think they are lousy cooks.   Making lowfat foods tasty, after all, requires complicated spicings and other gourmet tricks.   This drives people to eat out often or to dine at home on lowfat packaged foods.   Out or in, the manufacturers have ramped up flavors with with MSG and other additives.
  • EWG’s tips for eco-conscious consumers include reducing food waste by buying “right size portions.”    What’s wrong with that?   It buys into the idea that meat comes in little packages.   Boneless, skinless chicken breast, for example, instead of the entire chicken — white meat and dark, tough cuts and tender, organ meats like liver, and skins, bones, tendons and cartilage in old-fashioned broth.   EWG is right to point out the cost to the environment of food that goes bad and ends up in landfills, but recommends a “solution” that means more packaging, not less.  How about some emphasis on old-fashioned thrift?   Using leftovers, freezing and, most important of all, valuing and using the entire animal?
  • EWG reports that buying vegetables locally helps the environment, but buying eggs, milk, fish, poultry and meat locally has only a minimal effect.  This is one of the primary reasons EWG recommends we cut back on all meat and adopt a more “veg centric” diet.   Such a bizarre finding could only be the case if the researchers evaluated the environmental impact of buying animal products from factory farms — including “Big Organic” operations — located close to home.  It furthermore fails to take into account the role animals play in restoring our soil and growing nutrient-dense vegetables and fruits.  Without animals nearby, farmers must use fossil fuel fertilizers and/or compost and manure transported from far away.   Not good for the environment!
  • Finally, if  people give up or minimize meat, what will they eat instead?    EWG suggests grains, beans and tofu.   In other words, vegetarian foods that are most likely grown and transported from a distance.   Furthermore,  the mistaken goal of eating less meat  will drive many consumers to buy processed and packaged vegetarian entrees full of soy protein isolate, corn syrup, MSG and other excitotoxins, “natural” or artificial colorings and flavorings as well as other dubious and non-green ingredients.   Clearly not an option for wellness seekers or environmentalists.

What to do instead?   How about committing to one day a week  in which the menu includes nothing that comes in a package?   How about eating nothing with a label or a barcode?   How about 100 percent local, preferably from farmers who use only locally obtained feeds, fertilizers and workers?   In other words, boycott supermarkets and Join the ranks of the Non Barcode People.

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty NutritionistTM because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows. Her own radio show, “Naughty Nutrition with Dr. Kaayla Daniel,” launched recently on World of Women (WOW) Radio. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences, a Board Member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Posted in Big Agriculture, Dr. Kaayla Daniels, fresh and local, grass fed beef, Kaayla T. Daniel, Naughty Nutritionist, soy | Tagged: , , , , , | 7 Comments »

The 2010 Soyfoods Market

Posted by Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN on June 22, 2011

“Soyfoods: The US Market Report” has come out and and it reports a “protracted slide” in soy milk sales as well as “lackluster performance in sales of tofu and soy infant formula” in the year 2010.

The industry blames three factors:

  • Competition from almond, rice, coconut, hemp and other non dairy milks
  • “Premium pricing” for many soy products
  • “Widely distributed information about the impact of soy on health.”

That last makes me proud.   Seems the decade-long campaign by the Weston A. Price Foundation is finally paying off.   We’ve also been greatly helped in the past year by Dr. Joseph Mercola, who has reached millions through his website  www.mercola.com, the world’s leading health and dietary website.   The Liberation Wellness team and many others have also  helped the message go viral.    The soy controversy even aired on The Dr Oz Show on October 5 in a segment that featured Dr Oz, Dr Mark Hyman and me.

Despite growing concerns about modern. industrial soy processing techniques,  meat analogue sales saw a four percent growth in 2010 compared to 2009.   The largest growth was in the soy-protein energy bar category with a whopping 18 percent increase in just the one year of 2010.   According to Joe Jordan, Content Director of Soyatech, “Marketers of soy-based foods have been finding success in developing delicious meat alternative products with sophisticated flavor profiles.  In addition, 14 energy bar brands appeared among the top 50 soyfoods brands in 2010, indicating that this broad market affords many opportunities for creative food manufacturers to reach their key target markets.”

What are the “current market drivers”?   Soyatech thinks it’s fueled by three things:  the consumer focus on convenience; widespread interest in meat-free foods; and new USDA food guidelines that “affect consumer understanding of — and interest in — the added value of foods made from the nutritious soybean.”

In short, the good news is that soy sales are slumping, and the bad news is they are not plummeting.   And it’s very good news of course that soy infant formula sales may have finally peaked.  Meanwhile, we  will continue to do our best to alert people to the risks of  “convenience” foods that sooner or later create inconvenient health problems, and the malnutrition and health risks associated with vegan diets and soy-based and other meat substitutes.

c copyright 2011 Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN

About the Author

Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, is The Naughty NutritionistTM because of her ability to outrageously and humorously debunk nutritional myths. A popular guest on radio and television, she has appeared on The Dr Oz Show, ABC’s View from the Bay, NPR’s People’s Pharmacy and numerous other shows. Her own radio show, “Naughty Nutrition with Dr. Kaayla Daniel,” launched recently on World of Women (WOW) Radio. Dr Daniel is the author of The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America’s Favorite Health Food, a popular speaker at Wise Traditions and other conferences, a Board Member of the Weston A. Price Foundation and recipient of its 2005 Integrity in Science Award. Her website is www.naughtynutritionist.com and she can be reached at Kaayla@DrKaaylaDaniel.com.

Posted in Dr. Kaayla Daniels, Kaayla T. Daniel, Naughty Nutritionist, soy, vegans | Tagged: , , | Leave a Comment »

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