Twenty-five years ago, I met my future grand-mother-in-law at a KOA camp ground. Having been raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York, during the Great Depression, she matured into a strong and healthy adult. She was a survivor, and was determined have things her way. Not long into my relationship with “Granny”, did we become concerned for her overall welfare. My husband and I enjoy eating whole foods that are organic, bio-dynamic, sustainable, and pastured. She enjoyed conventionally farmed foods and the standard American diet. Shortly after our marriage, it became apparent that our Granny was declining mentally. It was subtle at first and she hid it well. She stated that she had a difficult time adding up basic numbers. Then she began to talk incessantly when attempting to have a two-way conversation. She began to say things that normally would have been concealed in one’s thoughts. We tried several times to help her to eat more nutritious foods. She did enjoy sugary processed snack foods. One day we received a call that Granny was in trouble. We were prepared for this call, and had a room set up for her in our house. She lived with us for three years. She liked to wander and wanted to “go home” for the first year in our home. She became very angry for a while, which was very difficult on our family. She eventually became very sweet and stopped walking. As much as we tried to avoid the nursing home, we had to put her in one. It was a nice facility, where she did receive outstanding care in every way. We believe this situation might have been avoided if she would have listened to our advice to eat healthier and get more outside time walking. I liked this article recently posted at https://www.thelunaticfarmer.com/blog
Joel has a great sense of humor, but is passionate about healing the earth one farm at a time.
ALZHEIMER’S IS NOT GENETIC
“Perhaps the most interesting speaker at the Dr. Al Sears’ Confidential Cures summit in Florida last weekend was Nora Gedgaudas. Her emotional opening, showing pictures of her mother with alzheimer’s, added impact to her emphatic statement: “alzheimer’s is preventable and almost reversible . . . and it is NOT a genetic disease.” Wow. How’s that for an opener?
She said 2/3rds of alzheimers’ patients are women. About 1.5 million have it now and within a few years, 14 million will. Right now 1 in 4 seniors die with it. She shared a study publicized by the National Institute on Aging: ” . .. . Emerging findings suggest that dietary factors play major roles in determining whether the brain ages successfully or experiences a neurodegenerative disease.”
Her basic premise was that while we are all different, we are far more alike than unalike. “We have different fingerprints, but we all have fingers,” she said. The brain is 73 percent water, but structurally, it’s 67 percent fat. Of that, 20 percent is DHA which is exclusively animal sourced. “No vegan diet can supply this, either directly or indirectly–EVER. Vegan diets have NO DHA. Most damaged brains I’ve worked with are vegans,” she said.
She completely opposes eating grains, of any kind. She said the human brain has shrunk as more grains are consumed, versus its size when consuming far more animal fats. Breast milk offers infants all of these essential fats and our brains deteriorate if the fats and ketones (dietary fats in the absence of glucose) don’t stay high.
Vitamin K, that elusve and most recently discovered of all the essential vitamins, is found exclusively in animal foods IF the animals are on pasture. What’s the best brain food? Pastured pork fat. After that, fatty fish, then coconut oil, then avocado oil and real olive oil. A diet high in carbohydrates equals an 87 percent higher likelihood for dementia; a high animal fat diet equals a 46 percent lower likelihood for dementia. We should eat ZERO canola oil and soybean oil, she said.
Her book Primal Body, Primal Mind goes into far more detail; these are just some highlights of her presentation, but what a blockbuster. Her website is http://www.Primalgenic.com. She says half of us are intolerant to dairy.
So folks, what does this mean? It means that Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat destroy our brains. It means as the holidays approach we need to rethink our consumption of crackers and party mix. It means we’re smart to eat hot dogs without a bun and of course it means we need to displace carbohydrates with pastured meats. Wow.
It means that one of the problems in dealing with vegans is that their brains are literally not functioning. They’re starving their brains. It means that as cultures leave pastured animal foods as a basis of their diet, people actually lose cognitive ability–en masse! So can a nation heading toward plant foods govern itself? Can it make wise decisions?
Perhaps the new litmus test for governance should be how much pasture-based animal proteins are in the diet. Can you imagine a presidential debate where the first question is about a brain-feeding diet? And all of this helps us understand why vegans are angry, vicious, violent and unreasonable. When John Mackey, founder of Whole Foods, in our debate this summer said my eating a chicken was the same as eating his pet cat, that’s just asinine. And when he said big strong animals like cows and gorillas and elephants are herbivores so if I want to be big and strong I should be an herbivore, that’s so nonsensical scientifically it’s hard to know a response. How do you communicate with someone this nonsensical? The mounting research, however, gives an explanation: his brain is malnourished.
This puts a different twist on veganism. It’s not just an alternative view. It’s a vicious attack on cognitive function. Those of us whose brains are still being nurtured correctly need to step up our game and call veganism what it is: an insulting and direct attack on cognitive health. It’s the new anti-brain choice.
Have you tangled with a militant vegan lately? In the words of Dr. Phil, how did that work out for ya’?
Remember: if you’re enjoying these posts, please send them on to friends and acquaintances. Let the truth network grow. Thank you.” The Lunatic Farmer: Joel Salatin
Surfside Leadership Academy 