Forget Vitamins

"Pottenger Cats!"   That is the comment my husband makes when we see something abnormal, be it a lack of reasoning ability or a rash of premature deliveries, stories on autism, ADD, young people dropping dead of heart disease.  

From the Price-Pottenger site  "Between the years of 1932 and 1942, Dr. Francis Marion Pottenger, Jr. conducted a feeding experiment to determine the effects of heat-processed food on cats. His ten-year cat study was prompted by the high rate of mortality he was experiencing among his laboratory cats..."

This is a fascinating study which linked nutrition to degenerative diseases in cats; but comparative anatomy being what it is, it has terrifying implications for what we are now seeing happen healthwise, in our own society.  Everyday in the news are stories on youth obesity, diabetes, heart disease and other degenerative issues.   We would be very foolish indeed to ignore the warnings of  that study.  Type II diabetes used to be called Adult Onset Diabetes, but they had to change it because children were developing  it..  MS used to be the crippler of young adults, but now children of 4-8 are being diagnosed! . What do YOU think the cause could be?

My youngest daughter recently was told by her OB not to tell anyone she was expecting until she passed the third month.  Now, I am not that old, but  I do not remember a mother in my circle of friends when I was of childbearing age,  being told to wait until the dangerous three month period had passed.  Usually we were told to go home and tell the world!   It was always assumed that we would  deliver a healthy baby and in 9 months, without incident, because the majority of us (98%) did!

Could it be that there are parallels in our society related to our lifestyle habits, that can be drawn from what Dr. Pottenger discovered in his study?

"All four generations of the raw meat and raw milk groups remained healthy throughout their normal lifespans. The first generation of all three processed food groups developed diseases and illnesses near the end of their lives. The second generation of all three processed food groups developed diseases and illnesses in the middle of their lives. The third generation of all three processed food groups developed diseases and illnesses in the beginning of their lives and many died before six months of age. There was no fourth generation in any of the three processed food groups. Either the third generation parents were sterile or the fourth generation cats died before birth!  Remember, all four generations of the raw food groups were healthy throughout their normal lifespans."  

Could this be why the cautionary warnings to newly expectant mothers?  Have we destroyed ourselves with what we eat?

Women in this country and other westernized countries are increasingly noting issues with pre-eclampsia, pre-gestational diabetes, preterm labor, miscarriage and other assorted maladies in the mothers and in the children, developmental delays, respiratory problems, time in NICU, asthma,  allergies, ADD  and  ADHD.  This is the richest and the sickest country in the world!

If diets comprised primarily of  processed food result in the above problems for cats, shouldn't we then examine our own eating habits? 

Processed = cooked, preserved, "chemicalized", dyed,  and enriched. 
Fresh, raw = as it came from the plant, ground, tree, i.e., raw food. 

When I give health presentations, my object is to get folks to think about how much they are trusting the FDA to approve of things such as foods which are not food.   Artificial flavors, artificial sugars, dyes, preservatives, flavor enhancers and overcooking the life out of food, are all culprits in our demise! 

We reason that if it is on the shelf of a grocery store it is therefore safe and is, therefore, food.  It can be ingested but so can leaves from poison ivy, poke berries and dirt, but I wouldn't advise it!  Just because it tickles the tongue, does not mean that it builds your cells.  Sugary, sweet, "good" tasting does not  equal being good for you.  We know all this but we don't understand the implications of a diet high in these yummy items!.

Let's think of your immune system as though it were a brick wall  This wall to the left represents the immune system you were born with. How pretty!  How perfect!  How strong.  Impermeable!  Your healthy cells fought disease on a regular basis and needed building every day. You were nursed, later fed good food and all those cells (bricks) stayed intact and connected.  You grew and were fed by your parents hopefully wholesome, living food; not sodas, chips and fries and candy.  You thrived!  You could run and jump, you were never tired and rarely sick.  Life was good!  Your immune system was perfect!

Then one day, probably in your preteen years, you discovered sweets, burgers and fries, colas -- junk food!  "Dude!  That is good stuff!"  Ice cream, cotton candy, popcorn balls and all those great holidays associated with things that make your broccoli taste like sewage to you!  The cell degeneration begins. See that tiny little hole?  That's a missing or damaged cell.   As you have several trillions of cells, what difference did it make that you were missing a few?   The wall still is there.  You can still run, jump, are not often tired and you were sick a little more often but not enough to make much of a difference.  You did eat dinner occasionally and maybe had a salad, but you had soda everyday just to make that meatloaf and salad palatable.  No big deal, -- yet.

Before you know it after your twenties of too much beer, too much bad food, too little sleep, no water, and very little fresh, raw fruits and veggies, you begin to notice that you are hurting in your knees, your back, you are sick 3-4 times a year.  You have headaches and you  can't get enough sleep.  Your  blood pressure starts to rise and your cholesterol is too  high for your age.   Your wall is still upright but there is now tuck pointing in the form of regular medications. Migraine meds,  pain pills, antidepressants, anti-anxiety pills.  The cells are not really so solid anymore and are hanging on by the little splatters of cement and mortar put there to hold them together.  They are not healthy; they just aren't too noticeable, -- yet.  They are too small as to cause you to be non-functioning,  but sick they are and they are reproducing themselves.  They are starting to make your wall weak and it is starting to crumble.  You say to yourself in your youthful ignorance, "Everyone has to die of something!"

Welcome to your 40s and 50s. This is where you will really see the effects of your lifestyle choices!  The crumbling has begun.  You only feel like watching television.  Walking?  What's that?  Why, who would walk when you can ride?  You are so depressed.  You hate your life.  The only exercise you get is when you cut the grass and you have to stop frequently to rest.   The cells at this point are starting to cause more problems.  But, heck, you reason, you are not 20 anymore, right?

You begin to notice that even sex is too much work, climbing the stairs is too much work.  You don't want to travel because that will involve taking suitcases that you have to drag, load, pack and unpack.  You're just tired.  You can't get through the day without a nap.  You continue to eat your chips and drink your soda.  Your mid-morning snack is a donut and your afternoon snack a candy bar.  What's a carrot?   Then one day:   "Diabetes?   "No one in my family is diabetic!  There must be a mistake!"   It's time to change your diet, but you are angry now and don't want to change because you never developed the habit of eating real food.  You liked the pretty, pink, blue and purple foods with the chewy, fruity flavors or covered with chocolate and caramel, and of course the burgers, fries, pizza and sodas and lots of beer!  Peaches are not THAT good.  Most of the wall is still standing.  You can't feel the deterioration deep inside your body.  You reason that because you are on your feet and you can still work, you must be fine.  But your knees do hurt!  Oh, and that fat in the middle?  It's just middle age spread, -- normal "for your age"

One day, however,  on your way to work, the wall crumbles.  You can't hold it together anymore. You' re sweaty and cold, short of breath, hot and cold at the same time.   A few cells too many have given way and now your wall does not look like a wall anymore.  It looks like this (below right).  This is when most people decide to eat better and  to begin to change some of their unhealthy habits.  It is like closing the door after the horses have gone.  Or is it?  What if I told you that if you start now, you can actually improve your health, not with a pill but with food; the stuff you don't prefer to eat, but you can learn to love?

Why do we wait until the immune system is at this stage?  But,  do you know what?  Nutrition can help you at any stage and just like the way the mortar can be replaced and the bricks can be relaid, it may not yet be too late for you!  If you have noticed that perhaps you need some help getting the nutrition you need there is a solution.  It is simple, inexpensive, and can put you on the road to re-mortaring your brick wall to go from looking like this crumbling, rocky mess, --

to this again!
Unlike taking medicine, which is made to mask the symptoms, health will take time, -- Nutrition is not a  quick fix  but it is going to help you  restore your  health where drugs will not; maybe it will not fix ALL the damage that living in the fast food nation has done to your body, but you WILL improve.  The bricks (cells) have to be rebuilt and fed.

Pottenger's cats failed to thrive after the fourth generation.  What generation are we in since fast/processed food was introduced into the American diet?   Something to think about.

-- Mary C