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THE LEDGER Table of Contents New Tool Coming Up Plaque Canoe Trail Oly. Byway Central Adk Grass-Based Black River Buyer Days ANCA Regional Map Join Us Contact Us Recent News Newsletter Annual Report Board Members Publications Project Partners Staff History Strategic Plan |
High Nutritional Value in Grass-Based Meatsby Martha Pickard On behalf of the Adirondack North Country Association, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop in May 2006 in High Falls, NY presented by Sally Fallon, the founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation. High Falls is southeast of Albany and the rolling hills, lush green pastures and stately stone farmhouses made a perfect backdrop for the workshop. The Weston A. Price Foundation was formed to spread the word about Dr. Price’s research and to bring a new perspective, grounded in traditional knowledge and modern science, on what constitutes a healthy diet. The Foundation is a leader in promoting grass-based agriculture to health conscious consumers. Weston A. Price was a dentist who practiced in Cincinnati, Ohio during the 1920s. He noticed that each year more of his patients were getting tooth decay and dental deformities. Believing there might be a link between diet and dental health, Price decided to research what a healthy diet was. In the 1920s, there were still areas of the world that had not been introduced to western foods, meaning refined flours and sugars. Dr. Price studied those cultures and began his journey in a small village in Switzerland that was cut off from any other village by mountains-- the only access being a footpath over the mountains. When Price examined the children there, he found there was almost no tooth decay. These people did not brush their teeth, floss, or have fluoridated water. The main components of their diet were sourdough bread, milk and cheese from cows grazed on grass. Price traveled around the world studying cultures that were eating their traditional diets, without contact with “western foods,” and found excellent dental health and overall health. Dr. Price not only studied the Swiss but spent time studying the traditional Gaelics on the Isle of Hebrides, Alaskan natives, Native Americans of Northern Canada and Florida, South Sea Islanders, native Australians, and many native African peoples. Each culture ate their traditional diets and had very limited exposure to “western foods.” Price found great variety in the traditional diets. For example, some diets had no plants, some had few animals, while some ate mostly cooked food and some ate large amounts of raw foods. Some diets used milk products, grains and fruits and some did not. . However, all of the diets had the following 11 things in common: *
“In 1920 when Paul Dudley White introduced the German electrocardiograph to his colleagues at Harvard, they advised him to concentrate on a more profitable branch of medicine” quotes Sally Fallon from her book Nourishing Traditions, New Trends Publishing Inc. 2001. It wasn’t until 1921 that the first heart attack or myocardial infarction was recorded. And it wasn’t until processed vegetable oil consumption increased and animal fat consumption actually decreased that these modern degenerative diseases became so prevalent. Great-grandparents’ chickens ran around the yard and their cows grazed on pasture. Antibiotics, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers weren’t available or were too expensive to be used on most small farms, and most of the country’s food supply came from small farms. This leads to the question: are the foods that our country was founded on bad for us or is it the way they are being raised and processed? The Weston A. Price Foundation strives to blend traditional knowledge and modern science. The modern science that is being published on grass-based meat and dairy products support the superior health benefits of these products. Studies comparing grass-fed and conventional butter and cheese have found higher contents of Vitamin E, Vitamin A, carotene and Conjugated Linoleic Acid in grass-fed dairy products. Dr. Tilak Dhiman of Utah State University had been conducting research on CLA or conjugated linoleic acid and found that it is higher in milk and meat products of grass-fed animals. CLA is a fatty acid that has been found to inhibit the growth of chemically induced skin and stomach cancers in mice, as well as cancer in the mammary glands of rats. North Country grass-based farmers are very proud of the food they produce. North Country people value community, independence, and a healthy way of living. Every day connections are being made between farmers and residents of the North Country that strengthen our communities, increase our independence in food selection, and bring back the traditional healing foods that our great-grandparents thrived on. A Time magazine article The Grass-Fed Revolution, June 12,2006 quoted that “pure pasture-raised beef still represents less than 1% of the nation’s supply, but sales reached some $120 million last year and are expected to increase more than 20% a year over the next decade.” ANCA’s goal is to build the infrastructure to have this region benefit from the growth. The connections that Dr. Price saw in his early research in traditional diets and health has important implications for and linkages to the work ANCA is doing today. Through ANCA’s work with the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative and Heifer Project International, ANCA is working to bring back to the North Country the knowledge of grass-based farming practices and the animal genetics to make it work * This information came from Sally Fallon’s presentation titled Health, Beauty and Strength with Nourishing Traditional Diets |
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