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E-Mail Edition Volume 10 Number 1 |
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Published Winter, 2013 Published by Piccadilly Books, Ltd., www.piccadillybooks.com. Bruce Fife, N.D., Publisher, www.coconutresearchcenter.org |
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If you would like to subscribe to the Healthy Ways Newsletter
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Contents
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Gluten Intolerance, Digestive Function, and Coconut Flour Are you gluten intolerant and don't know it? Many people who are allergic to wheat or sensitive to gluten are not aware of it. Sometimes symptoms are obvious, but for most people they are so subtle that the condition can persist for years without detection.
A surprising number of people cannot tolerate wheat because they are allergic or sensitive to the gluten it contains. Gluten sensitivity or gluten intolerance consists of a spectrum of disorders, including celiac disease and wheat allergy, in which gluten has an adverse effect on the lining of the intestinal tract. Gluten intolerance is believed to affect 1 out of every 7 people in the US. Until recently, the terms gluten sensitivity and celiac disease were used interchangeably. However, emerging research indicates that gluten sensitivity has a broader scope than simply celiac disease. Undigested gluten triggers the immune system to attack the lining of the small intestine, causing damage to the intestinal wall. Common symptoms include diarrhea, nausea, bloating, and abdominal pain. Gluten intolerance is not limited to wheat. Gluten is a protein found in a number of grains such as rye, barley, kamut, and spelt and eating these grains can cause similar reactions. Gluten intolerance spans a wide spectrum of severity and most people who are gluten intolerant display little or no obvious symptoms, yet they are affected and symptoms will show up sooner or later. When the lining in our intestines is damaged, nutrient absorption can be severely affected. Important vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other nutrients are not properly absorbed. Nutrient deficiencies will eventually manifest themselves in conditions such as osteoporosis, dental infections, nervous system disorders (dementia, depression, brain fog), low immunity and frequent infections, arthritis, colitis, psoriasis, anemia, fatigue, vision problems, and various other conditions. The number of people affected by gluten intolerance is growing. Researchers analyzed blood samples collected from Air Force recruits during the 1940s and early 1950s. They found that celiac disease was four times more common now than it was then. This finding contradicts the notion that the dramatic rise in diagnoses of gluten intolerance is due simply to greater awareness and detection. Survival of the subjects was measured during a follow-up period of 45 years, which revealed that those with undiagnosed celiac disease had a four-fold increase risk of death. This increased risk undoubtedly was due to the poor absorption of vital nutrients that sustain good health.1 Because symptoms are not immediately noticeable, most people who are gluten intolerant don't know it. As they get older and the nutritional deficiencies grow worse, symptoms begin to surface or intensify. Often these symptoms are ignored because they are considered to be simply the consequences of aging. However, aging does not cause disease. You can be healthy in old age. It would be helpful to test for gluten intolerance so that you know where you stand regardless of whether you have any noticeable symptoms. Treatment for gluten intolerance is simple, avoidance of wheat and gluten. Avoiding gluten isn't always easy. Wheat and gluten are in so many foods, especially baked goods. Giving up breads, rolls, tortillas, pancakes, crackers, and other baked goods can be a challenge. Fortunately, there are gluten-free flours you can use to make a variety of baked goods. Rice, millet, nuts, beans, potatoes, cassava (tapioca) and other starchy grains, and vegetables can be made into flours and used for baking. Often several are mixed together to combine characteristics and achieve the best result. Every food store now sells gluten-free products. In recent years coconut has been added to this list. In 2004 I was invited to the Philippines to lecture on the health benefits and uses of virgin coconut oil. As the director of the Coconut Research Center, I often travel around the world lecturing on various health aspects of coconut. While I was in the Philippines I had the opportunity to visit several coconut processing facilities and see the entire process from the harvesting of the coconuts on the farms to the labeling of the finished product. Although several methods are used to produce virgin coconut oil, the most popular procedure starts with grating the meat from fresh coconuts. The grated meat is then put in a large dehydrator to evaporate the water. The dried coconut is next placed into a press—often a small, hand operated press. The coconut oil is squeezed out of the dried coconut, then filtered and heat- or vacuum-processed in order to purify the product and reduce the moisture content. After the oil is pressed out of the meat, what remains is the defatted, dehydrated coconut meal. It has a texture similar to that of corn meal and still contains a high concentration of vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates, and other nutrients. Sometimes it is used like dried desiccated coconut for making candy and desserts. However, since all of the water and nearly all of the oil has been removed, the meal is fairly tasteless and isn't often used. Dried desiccated or shredded coconut is more flavorful, is easier to find in stores, and is generally preferred in cooking. Generally, the leftover coconut meal is sold as a high quality animal feed or used as an organic fertilizer to enrich farm soils. Income from these types of sales is minimal, though. Since selling the meal for human consumption offers a potentially higher profit, eventually researchers tried grinding coconut meal into a fine powder to produce a product with the consistency of flour. Thus, coconut flour was created. The flour was originally developed by researchers at the Philippine Coconut Authority, a division of the Philippine Department of Agriculture, who experimented with it in baking and food preparation. Coconut flour looks, feels, smells, and even tastes very similar to wheat and other grain flours. However, the physical characteristics are dramatically different. Coconut flour does not perform the same as wheat flour in bread making and baking. The properties of coconut flour are so different from wheat flour that it is impossible to use as a wheat flour substitute. The only way the researchers were able to use it with standard recipes was to replace 20 percent or less of the wheat flour with coconut flour. If much more than 20 percent is used in any recipe, the resulting product will be a complete disaster. Coconut flour was a good idea, but it turned out to be impractical as a wheat substitute using standard wheat recipes. Coconut flour has several desirable characteristics, however, that make it a promising bakery product. It is a good source of a variety of nutrients, including protein. It contains about 10 to 12 percent protein, which is the same as whole wheat flour. It is also an excellent source of dietary fiber. In fact, coconut flour has nearly five times as much fiber as whole wheat flour and more than twice as much as wheat bran. Another benefit of coconut flour is its mild taste. You would think that it might taste like coconut, but it doesn't. In fact, it is nearly tasteless. When coconut flour is used in baking, you cannot detect any coconut flavor. It takes on the flavor of the other ingredients used in the recipe such as lemon, strawberry, or chocolate. Of course, if you want the coconut taste you can add shredded coconut or coconut flavoring just as you would with wheat flour. The primary benefit of coconut flour is its complete absence of gluten. When I learned about the existence of coconut flour I immediately saw its potential. There are millions of people who are allergic to wheat or sensitive to gluten who would love to have an alternative to wheat flour. However, at that time, there were no recipes available. No one really knew how to use coconut flour effectively. It could replace a small portion of wheat flour in recipes, but that doesn't help people who are allergic to wheat because they had to avoid all wheat and gluten. Being well experienced in cooking and baking, I reasoned that I could easily develop recipes using only coconut flour, with no other flours. I started out by taking standard wheat recipes and adjusting the ingredients and substituting coconut flour for the wheat. The first recipes I tried were miserable failures. They were too wet, too dry, over cooked, mushy, etc. I tried again with the same result. I continued to experiment but failed each time. Finally, I contacted the researchers at the Philippine Coconut Authority and asked them if they know how to make baked goods using only coconut flour. They said it couldn't be done. They had tried and were not successful. The only way you could use coconut flour was to substitute a little of it for wheat flour in a wheat recipe. This information didn't help. I was determined to make baked goods using only coconut flour. So I approached the problem with a different perspective. I put away the cookbooks and started from scratch. Using what I had learned from my many previous attempts and started experimenting again, but didn't bother to follow conventional procedures. I soon discovered the secret to making tasty baked goods using only coconut flour. Once I got the correct procedure down, I was able to create a number of recipes for a variety of quick breads, muffins, pancakes, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and other products that tasted every bit as good as those made using wheat flour. These recipes were compiled into a book titled Cooking with Coconut Flour: A Delicious Low-Carb, Gluten-Free Alternative to Wheat. With few exceptions all of the recipes in the book are made using coconut flour as the only flour. Since coconut flour is high in fiber it is naturally low in digestible carbohydrate, I was also able to make low-carb, low-sugar versions of each recipe. With the publication of this book I created a new market for coconut flour. Up to this point coconut flour was not packaged and sold to any great extent because nobody knew how to use it effectively. Now it could be used to make a variety of gluten-free and even low-carb recipes. The book was an immediate success and demand for coconut flour skyrocketed. Soon a number of companies were producing coconut flour and now virtually every health food store stocks it. |
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For the most part, the recipes are very simple; you simply combine the ingredients (generally coconut flour, eggs, and oil) in a bowl, mix and bake, no kneading, rising, or special treatment and no need to add multiple flours, dough conditioners, gums, and other ingredients. It is much easier to make gluten-free baked goods using coconut flour than other flours. However, one thing I was not able to accomplish was yeast breads. I could make breads using baking soda like banana nut bread and pumpkin bread, but not yeast bread. Many people contacted me since the publication of this book and have asked for pizza crust and sandwich bread recipes. In response to these requests I teamed up with my wife and went back to the drawing board, or rather the kitchen, and began experimenting. From experience I knew I could not make suitable yeast bread using only coconut flour. I needed to add other gluten-free flours to get the right characteristics and taste and before long we developed a basic yeast bread recipe that was outstanding. When the first loaf of our final version came out of the oven we could hardly wait to try it. One of our friends just happened to be visiting at the time so we offered him a slice of our experimental bread. He gladly accepted. We handed him a slice and asked, "Tell us what you think of it?" He took a big bite and began chewing. The first word out of his mouth was an enthusiastic, "Mmmmm!" The second word out of his mouth was also "Mmmm." And the third word was "Mmmm." Enough said, we knew the recipe was a success. When we tasted the bread, our reactions were the same. This was without question the best gluten-free bread we had ever eaten. Right out of the oven it was just as good as freshly made wheat bread. Our yeast bread formula uses a mix of coconut flour and three other gluten-free flours. This mix can be used as an all-purpose flour mix to make a variety of yeast-based breads, including sandwich bread, dinner rolls, hamburger and hot dog buns, bread sticks, pizza crust, cinnamon rolls, tortillas, scones, and even calzones. We combined our yeast bread recipes with a variety of new coconut flour recipes (many of which use 100% coconut flour) to make a variety of muffins, cakes, waffles, crepes, and other products and compiled them into a new cookbook titled The Coconut Flour Gourmet: 150 Delicious Gluten-Free Coconut Flour Recipes. |
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Unlike our first book, we put no restriction on the carbohydrate content of the recipes. This allowed us to create our yeast bread formula and to be a little more creative in developing many other coconut flour recipes. Although this book does contain its share of sweets and desserts, it is loaded with savory dishes as well such as Sesame Pecan Chicken, Tempura Shrimp, Cajun Chicken Fingers, and Turkey Stuffing. Every recipe in this book is made using coconut flour and is completely gluten-free. For those people who are gluten intolerant this book provides a wealth of delicious recipes. ■ Reference 1. Rubio-Tapia, A., et al. Increased prevalence and mortality in undiagnosed celiac disease. Gastroenterology 2009;137:88-93. Below are some color photos from the book (the book itself has only black and white photos).
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Artesian Sandwich Bread |
Pizza |
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Very Berry Muffins |
Hamburger and Hot Dog Buns |
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Chicken Fingers |
Dinner Rolls |
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Gourmet Tortillas |
Scones |
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Lamingtons |
Blueberry Almond Muffins |
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Calzone |
Cinnamon Rolls |
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Is it Really Coconut Water? What you get at the store may not be what you think it is.
Coconut water is the liquid you find when you crack open a coconut. For thousands of years this fluid has been used as a refreshing drink and is the most popular beverage in the tropics. It is considered not just a satisfying beverage but also a health tonic. Traditionally, it has been used to treat a variety of health problems including dehydration, heat stroke, digestive complaints, constipation, diarrhea, fatigue, hives, low libido, urinary tract infections, jaundice, nausea, and |
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improve overall health. Modern medical research is confirming the use of coconut water for many of these conditions and is adding others. Recent research suggests that is may also be useful in treating or preventing cancer, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), heart failure, stroke, glaucoma, kidney stones, osteoporosis, and Crohn's disease. There is strong evidence that it even possesses anti-aging properties. In both plant and human cell cultures coconut water extends the youth of the cells. In fact, the water has even proven to be more effective in preserving the life of human organs for transplant than the chemical solutions specially formulated for this purpose. |
Young green coconut. |
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In my book Coconut Water for Health and Healing I describe the science and history behind the use of coconut water, including its amazing anti-cancer and anti-aging properties. While coconut water has gained a fair amount of attention regarding many of these health benefits, it has gained most of its recognition for its ability to fight dehydration and heat stroke. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended it as an effective tool in the battle against dehydration caused by dysentery, cholera, influenza, and other dehydrating diseases. These diseases cause more deaths due to dehydration than by the infection itself. Simply keeping the patient hydrated increases the survival rate 10-fold. Coconut water not only prevents dehydration caused by disease, but also by hot weather or extreme physical labor. In recent years, coconut water has soared into popularity as a natural sports or hydration drink. Most commercial sports drinks are little more than sugar water and salt with added chemical colorings and preservatives. Coconut water is all natural with a full complement of electrolytes, vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants, and other health-giving phytonutrients. Celebrities and athletes have embraced coconut water as a natural, healthier alternative to commercial sports drinks. Although coconut water tastes sweet, it has far less sugar than sports drinks or even fruit juice. It has less than half the sugar of apple juice. The coconuts used for drinking are "young" or "green" coconuts, not the mature brown, hairy ones you see in the grocery store. Young coconuts are six to nine months old. A fully ripened coconut takes 12 months to mature. These |
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are the ones sold in grocery stores. The water in the young coconut is generally much sweeter and better tasting. The water in mature coconuts is often bland and sometimes even slightly sour. Up until a few years ago if you wanted coconut water you had to go to the topics and get it from a freshly opened coconut. Now coconut water is packaged in a variety of cartons, bottles, and cans and delivered all over the world. Companies like ONE, Zico, and VitaCoco were among the first to package coconut water in tetra pak cartons and make them available outside the tropics. Each of these brands were originally produced and packaged in Brazil. |
Mature coconuts are not usually used for drinking, but are harvested for the thick layer of meat inside. |
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As the popularity of coconut has grown, others have jumped on the bandwagon and a variety of new brands have appeared on the market. Beverage giants such as PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Co have taken notice and bought interest in two of the largest coconut water producers, ONE and Zico. With sales rapidly increasing, suppliers in Brazil were unable to meet demands. PepsiCo and others began looking to Thailand, Colombia, and the Philippines for new sources of coconut water. In my travels around the word I've tasted coconut water from dozens of countries and they all taste a little different, some much better than others. The quality of the water depends |
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on many factors including the variety of coconut palm, climate, humidity, soil, age at harvest, etc. Thailand has long been known for its excellent coconut water. The Philippines too has very good coconut water generally. Because of the high demand for coconut water, companies like PepsiCo are now packaging fully mature coconut water rather than use young coconut water. Mature coconut water is far less expensive than young coconut water. Mature coconut water is generally a waste product in the processing of mature coconuts for coconut meat and oil. Instead of throwing away the water they are capturing it and packaging it as coconut water. There is nothing wrong with this process, except the quality and taste suffers. In the beverage industry it is important to standardize the taste. Customers expect a brand of orange juice, for example, to taste the same regardless of when it is purchased. This doesn't happen in nature. The taste can vary from season to season depending on a variety of factors. One of the major changes is the sugar content or sweetness. Sugar concentration is measured on a brix scale. Each type of juice has its own brix value, or level of sweetness, because some fruits contain more sugar than others. The brix levels for 100 percent juices are set by the federal government. For example, the brix for orange juice is 11.8, the brix for apple juice is 11.5 and for grape juice it's 16. Beverage producers are allowed to add sugar to their products to reach the official brix value. For example, if a supply of orange juice has a natural brix value of 9, then the producer is allowed to add enough sugar to bring it up to 11.8 and they can do this without having to state on the ingredient label that sugar was added. The label can read "100% orange juice" with no mention of the added sugar. In fact, they can even legally state "No Sugar Added." So you have no idea if sugar has been added or not. Some brands will also add in artificial or "natural" flavors to make each batch identical in flavor and sweetness. The brix value of coconut water is 5 to 6.5. The natural brix value for mature coconut water is closer to 3. So when mature coconut water is packaged, sugar is added to increase its brix value and make it taste more like young coconut water. But you would never know it from reading the ingredient label. It may only state 100% pure coconut water. I recently purchased some coconut water that at one time was produced in Brazil, but is now being produced in the Philippines. I used to like the flavor of this product but now the taste is significantly different. I could tell it was produced from mature and not young coconuts. It was just as sweet as it used to be but had a sour underlying taste. It was obvious to me that they added sugar to mask the sour taste. Yet, when I looked on the label it stated it was 100% coconut water. Coconut water has been a popular beverage in Asia and the Pacific for a long time. The reason why it took so long for it to catch on in North America and Europe is due to the difficulty in transporting it. Coconut water is highly perishable. Once the coconut is opened and the water extracted, it begins to ferment and the taste and smell rapidly changes. To eliminate the risk of bacterial growth, commercial bottlers are forced to sterilize the product using high-temperature/short-time pasteurization (the same technology used in long-life milk that can sit on the shelf for months), which destroys some of the coconut water's nutrients and much of its flavor. To preserve as much of the natural flavor as possible, pasteurization must be done within a very short time after extracting the water. Since coconuts are bulky and expensive to transport, processing must be done in a location close to where the coconuts are harvested. Another development triggered by the increased demand for coconut water is the production of coconut water concentrate. This is coconut water that has been boiled down into a thick syrup. This concentrate can then be shipped to the US and other countries where it is reconstituted and sold as "100% natural coconut water." One gallon of coconut water concentrate can be transformed into 15.2 gallons of juice. How can you tell if the coconut water you buy is made from concentrate? Some brands may state that they are made from concentrate, but some don't. The ingredient label will say 100% coconut water, even though tap water (which probably contains chlorine and fluoride) has been added to reconstitute it. The best way to identify the concentrates is to locate on the package the source of the product. If it is bottled or packaged in New Jersey or somewhere where coconuts don't grow, you know it is a concentrate. Some will say "Made in USA." Well, if a bottle of coconut water is made in the USA it certainly wasn't made from fresh coconuts. Some brands wanting to distinguish their products from these will state "Not from Concentrate." One popular brand, which used to be produced in Brazil and tasted pretty good, is now made from concentrate from Thailand and is bottled in the US. The taste has changed and not for the better. I can see why, when some people taste coconut water for the first time, they don't like it. There are now a lot of low quality products available. Unfortunately, I see these brands everywhere. To make matters even worse, you can actually buy powdered coconut water. Yes, you read that correctly, powdered coconut water. Simply mix the powder with water and presto you have coconut water. This product is marketed as an easy-to-carry rehydration beverage that you can make yourself. It probably does contain all the same electrolytes that fresh coconut water does and in addition chlorine and fluoride as well, if you reconstitute it using tap water. What happens to the coconut water when it is subjected to high heat pasteurization, boiled down into a syrup, or transformed into a powder? Some of the heat sensitive nutrients are lost that's for sure. The taste is also affected. How it affects other properties of the water is really not known. I have not seen any studies comparing the nutritional or medicinal properties of fresh versus heat-treated coconut water. The makers of the powdered coconut water say it is made using a freeze-drying process. What changes does that cause? Again I don't know. In my book Coconut Water for Health and Healing all of the health benefits I describe and the studies cited are in reference to fresh "young" coconut water. These same benefits may or may not apply to mature coconut water (especially with added sugar) or to coconut water that has been heat pasteurized or concentrated. The mineral or electrolyte content should remain the same, however. In this case, processed coconut water would still be a suitable rehydration beverage. Even the pasteurized coconut water would be superior to commercial sports drinks because it contains more nutrients, including more electrolytes, and none of the chemical flavorings or preservatives. Also the sugar content even if sugar is added is still much lower than any fruit juice (all of which, by the way, have been pasteurized too). So these packaged products aren't necessarily bad, and are still much better than most commercially produced sports drinks and fruit juices, they just aren't the same as fresh young coconut water. When buying coconut water you need to read the label. Don't just assume it is the next best thing to fresh coconut water. It may not be. See if it is bottled in Thailand or Los Angeles, is it made from concentrate, does it have added sugar, what other ingredients does it contain? Some brands list added water, sugar, and preservatives like citric acid, potassium metabisulphite, and sulphurdioxide. When fruit flavorings are added, any number of other substances can be added along with it such as artificial and natural flavors. These beverages are no longer coconut water but just expensive fruit flavored drinks. If you want fresh young coconut water but don't want to go to Thailand to get it, there are some other options available to you. One option is the "white" coconuts you see in health food stores and Asian markets. These are green coconuts that have been slightly trimmed, to reduce their size and weight for shipping, but are otherwise whole. You crack open the coconut and drink the juice just as you would in Thailand. Most of these coconuts come from Thailand |
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and are often referred to as Thai coconuts. The only problem with these coconuts is that they are old. They are picked immature, as they should be for drinking, but they must be harvested, loaded onto a ship, travel long distances over the ocean, unloaded and stored, and trucked to various markets. By the time you buy them in the store they are already a good two months old. The age does affect the flavor. With age they tend to take on a woody taste from the coconut shell. |
Young Thai white coconuts |
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Another concern some people have noted is that these coconuts are dipped in a water bath containing 3 percent solution of sodium metabisulfite—a food grade antioxidant used to prevent mold and prevent browning. As reported in a previous issue of the Healthy Ways Newsletter we showed that none of this chemical penetrates all the way through the husk to reach the shell, let alone the water inside. So this isn't an issue. There is a better source of fresh young coconuts from a company in New England by the name of Noelani Coconut Water and Beverage Company. This company imports whole young coconuts from the Caribbean. Shipping distance and time is much shorter than those from Thailand so the coconuts are only about 2 weeks old. They will even deliver the coconuts to your door. Currently they service Connecticut, New York City, and northern New Jersey. |
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Noelani Coconut Water
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Another source of fresh coconut water is Exotic Superfoods (www.exoticsuperfoods.com). This company imports frozen coconut water from Thailand. This water is frozen almost immediately after the water is extracted from the nuts and shipped to the US. They have 11.7 and 32 ounce BPA-free plastic containers which are kept frozen and can be shipped to locations throughout the US. |
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Of all the bottled coconut water products, there is one that stands above all the rest. The brand is Invo Coconut Water. It is sold at Whole Foods in the refrigerated section. While this product is packaged in a bottle, it is not heat pasteurized. The product is completely raw and tastes more like fresh coconut water than any commercially bottled product I have ever tasted. Instead of heat pasteurization the company uses another sterilization process called pressure pasteurization. In this process, the product is subjected to pressure, at room temperature, which kills any potentially harmful microbes without destroying any of the nutritional value or adversely affecting the taste. It is just a nutritious as if it came directly out of a young coconut and tastes like it too. It is more expense than other bottled coconut waters, but well worth the price. ■ |
Invo coconut water. |
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Gardasil (HPV) Vaccine: Fraud in Plain Sight By Julian Whitaker, MD
The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine is perhaps the most fraudulent and wasteful vaccine of them all. I've spoken out against this debacle since Gardasil, Merck's HPV vaccine, was approved back in 2006. Now it's in the news again, ever since Michele Bachmann dusted up Texas governor Rick Perry during a presidential candidate debate for issuing an executive order to require vaccination of all 11- and 12-year-old girls in Texas. (This order was later revoked by the Texas state legislature.) Mike Toomey, Perry's former chief of staff, was a lobbyist for Merck at that time. If that isn't quid pro quo, I don't know what is. Nevertheless, all females as young as age 9 through age 26 are being urged to get this vaccine—with or without parental consent or knowledge in some states. They're even recommending it for preadolescent boys and young men!
Lack of Scientific Validation The purpose of Gardasil and Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline's HPV vaccine), according to the fuzzy logic of big pharmaceutical companies, is to prevent cervical cancer. Regardless of what the drug companies, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or your child's physician says, not only is there no firm scientific data to support that widespread contention, but the whole concept is irrational. The vaccine has been shown to prevent precancerous changes of the cervix, but to assume that these changes will progress to cancer is dishonest and manipulative. Actually, ninety percent of HPV infections clear up spontaneously.
Task Force Agrees Recognizing this, in October 2011 the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued new guidelines recommending that women be tested for cervical cancer with Pap tests (not HPV tests) every three years rather than annually because more frequent testing leads to overtreatment of low-grade changes that would in all likelihood not turn out to be cancerous. The Task Force further bolstered the stupidity of vaccinating young girls when they changed the screening guidelines to include only women ages 21 through 65, noting that cervical cancer is exceptionally rare in women under age 21. In any case, cervical cancer is very slow growing, so we wouldn't know whether mass vaccination would reduce death rates for 20-30 years! It's all presumption, a huge lottery in which there may well be no winners—other than the drug companies.
Skewed Statistics Even more damning are the infection statistics. The vaccine camp underscores the need for mass inoculation by trotting out government statistics showing that more than a quarter of American females ages 14-59 and nearly 45 percent of those ages 20-24 have been infected with HPV. However, they fail to mention that there are 40 sexually transmitted HPV strains, and those targeted by Gardasil (types 6, 11, 16, and 18) and Cervarix (types 16 and 18) are rare. HPV types 6 and 11, which can cause genital warts, were detected in 1.3 and 0.1 percent of women, respectively, and types 16 and 18, which are linked with some cases of cervical cancer, were present in only 1.5 and 0.8 percent! Bottom line: very, very few women who have HPV are infected with high-risk strains, and far fewer get cervical cancer. Every year in the United States, about 12,000 women are diagnosed with this cancer, and 4,000 die of it. Of course, any premature death is a tragedy, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that, according to the latest statistics from the National Cancer Institute, only 0.68 percent of women will ever be diagnosed with, let alone die of, cervical cancer.
Number Needed to Treat To further underscore the absurdity of universal HPV vaccination, let's look at the concept of "number needed to treat," or NNT, an extremely useful statistic for evaluating any medical treatment. Simply stated, NNT tells us how many people need to be treated with a given therapy to get the desired benefit in one patient. The lower the NNT, the more effective and predictable the treatment. For example, peptic ulcers are primarily caused by Helicobacter pylori bacteria and antibiotics that eradicate it are an extremely effective therapy. For every 11 patients with H. pylori who are treated with antibiotics, 10 are cured of their peptic ulcer. Therefore, the NNT is 1.1 (11 divided by 10). Another example is statin drugs, which are prescribed to millions of people to lower cholesterol. According to a recent study, in order for statin drugs to prevent one heart attack, stroke, or cardiovascular death (the desired outcome of cholesterol-lowering), they would have to be taken by 1,000 patients, making statins' NNT 1,000 (1,000 divided by 1). The other 999 people per 1,000 who take these drugs and are subjected to their adverse effects get no benefit at all.
Unacceptable, Sky-High NNT So what is the NNT of the HPV vaccine in terms of preventing cervical cancer deaths? Even if it completely wiped out cervical cancer—which no one expects it to do—thousands would have to be vaccinated in order to prevent one death. The others would obtain no benefits, yet would be needlessly exposed to the inherent risks of this vaccine. Most statisticians agree that an NNT over 40 is no more than gambling. An NNT in the thousands is an unmitigated fraud, and there's no evidence that the vaccine will save even one life! We already have a system in place for preventing cervical cancer that works very well: regular Pap tests (every three years for women ages 21-65). Even the most vocal vaccine proponents admit the vaccine doesn't eliminate the need for Pap testing—or that most cervical cancer deaths occur in women who haven't been screened in the past five years. This system has reduced the incidence of cervical cancer from 15 in 100,000 women in 1975 to 6.6 per 100,000 in 2008. Why fix something that isn't broken? The answer is obvious: Follow the money.
Astronomical Costs In the United States, there are roughly 30 million females between the ages of 9 and 26 who are "eligible" for HPV vaccination, which requires three doses spread out over six months at a retail price of $130 each ($390 total). That's nearly $12 billion right into the pockets of pharmaceutical companies. Now; let's add in physicians' fees and average the cost for the three-dose course at $500. (Some doctors will charge more, some less.) So $500 x 30 million patients = $15 billion. Imagine spending $15 billion on a vaccination program with no hard evidence that any lives will be saved! Let's take it a step further and assume this lavish blanket of presumed protection actually works and cervical cancer is eliminated. (Never mind that a miniscule percentage of HPV-infected women ever develop cervical cancer, that 30 percent of women with cervical cancer have not been infected with HPV, and that we won't even know if the darned thing works for decades.) Guess how much it would cost per life saved in this best-case scenario? $7.5 million! If we took that $15 billion and put it towards food subsidies and other proven health interventions, we could save tens of millions of lives. But, incredibly, the powers that be prefer to waste it on a fraudulent vaccination program that funnels the money into the coffers of big pharmaceutical companies.
Now They're Going After Boys As if 30 million girls and young women weren't enough, Merck tried to get Gardasil approved for women up to age 45, but even the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recognized this absurdity for what is was. However, big pharmaceutical companies also have males in their sights, arguing that they too must be vaccinated to prevent the spread of HPV to their sexual partners. If vaccinating females makes no sense, going after males is a crime against humanity. HPV is almost always an inconsequential infection in males, so the NNT for them is infinity! No male gets any benefit at all. Unfortunately, they are not immune to the adverse effects of the vaccine. In fact, they are likely at greater risk of damage—at least that's what we've learned from the standard childhood vaccinations, which negatively affect two to three times more boys than girls. As for costs, don't get me started. We would spend another $15 billion vaccinating all males in this target age range—with zero benefits to them and absolutely no assurance or evidence that this "experiment" would ultimately reduce the rate of cervical cancer in women. There's only one given: Any amount of money spent on such an ill-advised campaign would be 100 percent waste to the public, yet hugely profitable for big pharmaceutical companies.
Horrific Damage to "Gardasil Girls" I predict that the entire HPV vaccine folly will not only be a colossal failure in terms of health benefits, but it will also leave an expanding wake of "Gardasil girls" suffering with seizures, strokes, chronic headaches, and worse. One of these girls is Zeda Pingel, whose mother Amy Pingel chronicles her daughter's destruction in the excellent, must-read book Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten Our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children. In 2008, 13-year-old Zeda was a happy, healthy straight-A student and cheerleader with a bright future when, during a routine well-child checkup, her pediatrician suggested she have the Gardasil vaccine. Although neither Amy nor Zeda knew much about it, they went along with the doctor's recommendation. The problems started a week later, and within three weeks, Amy reports, "I began to lose my precious daughter. Zeda stopped talking, stopped eating, stopped walking, and...lost control of her bladder."
Doctors in Denial Despite spending months in a top-notch children's hospital specializing in neurological problems and undergoing hundreds of tests, Zeda's doctors couldn't find a single explanation for her rapid deterioration. Given that it started after Zeda was vaccinated, Amy thought it could be related to Gardasil, yet every time she brought it up, the medical team aggressively denied that it could have been involved. Their denial borders on the diabolical. For weeks, the doctors and nurses accused Zeda of faking her symptoms, even though she was having frequent grand mal seizures. Even worse, they suspected her mother was coaching her to keep up the pretense and went so far as to install 24-hour surveillance cameras in hopes of "proving" that the mother and daughter were involved in a hoax. Today, Zeda is fed through a gastric tube, breathes through a tracheotomy, and lives in a vegetative state in the living room of her mother's home. Her tragedy is not an isolate incident. Tens of thousands of adverse reactions to the HPV vaccine have been documented—including over 100 deaths.
Bypassing Parental Consent One of the most disgusting aspects of this entire charade is the lengths to which they're going in order to force this vaccination program down our throats. Several state governments have enacted laws that require schools to hand out information on the vaccine to sixth graders and their parents and insurance companies to provide reimbursement. For example, the State of New Jersey delivered HPV vaccine propaganda to parents via their children's backpacks. And, in California, Governor Jerry Brown recently signed legislation that enables children as young as 12 to be vaccinated against HPV and hepaititis B without a parent's knowledge or consent. Imagine, parents have to sign waivers for their children to go on a school picnic, but 12-year-olds, without parental knowledge or consent, can have toxic substances injected into their growing bodies. |
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This combination of big pharmaceutical companies plus government is, in a single word, dastardly. There is no other way to describe it.
Parents, It's Up to You Unfortunately, you can't count on your doctor to help you make educated decisions on the HPV vaccine. Virtually all pediatricians follow the dictates of the American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC and other handmaidens of the big pharmaceutical companies and vigorously support every vaccination program that comes down the pike. Their refusal to rock the boat by acknowledging the growing body of evidence about the dark side of vaccines is safe for the doctor but terribly dangerous for your child. (Just imagine what it would be like if you were Zeda's mother, Amy Pingel.) Parents, it's up to you to protect your children. Keep the lines of communication open and make sure your kids understand the extreme risks and no proven benefits of the HPV vaccine. As Amy Pingel says, "...people who pressure you to vaccinate don't own the consequence. Only you, as parents, do."
In Summary In addition to blowing the cervical cancer angle way out of proportion, vaccine proponents are now fabricating additional "benefits" in order to sell their wares. When a recent small study demonstrated a potential, preliminary link between HPV infection and risk of heart attack and stroke, headlines across the country screamed that the vaccine protects against cardiovascular disease! Now, that's a stretch if there ever was one. It may take many years and, unfortunately, countless injuries and untold numbers of deaths, but we're not as naïve or stupid as big pharmaceutical companies take us to be. Mark my words. The public will eventually wake up and see HPV vaccine for what it is—a dangerous, money-grabbing, scientifically invalid fraud. ■ |
Facts About HPV
My Recommendations:
--JW |
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Sources: Dunne, E.F., et al. Prevalence of HPV infection among females in the United States. JAMA 2007;297:813-819. Gostin, L.O. Mandatory HPV vaccination and political debate. JAMA 2011;306:1699-1700. Habakus, L.K, and Holland, M. Vaccine Epidemic. Skyhorse Publishing. New York, NY, 2011. Kuo, H.K and Fujise, K. Human papillomavirus and cardiovascular disease among U.S. women in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003 and 2006. Am Coll Cardiol. 2011;58:2001-2006. National Cancer Institute. Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines.
This article is reprinted with permission from the December 2011 special supplement to Julian Whitaker's Health & Healing newsletter, www.drwhitaker.com.
Revealing Videos on the Dangers of Gardasil Vaccination
Gardasil Victim Speaks Out After 2 Years: to view video click here
Gardasil Primer: Doctors and Vaccine Injured Families Speak Out!: to view video click here
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Red Palm Oil: The World's Next Miracle Food
Dr. Mehmet Oz a cardiothoracic surgeon, author, and host of the Dr. Oz television show announced that red palm oil is the world's next miracle food. Earlier he touted the many benefits of coconut oil on his television show. Now he is extolling the wonders of another tropical oil—red palm oil.
Unlike coconut oil, red palm oil is not composed of medium chain fatty acids. The benefits of red palm oil come from its nutrient content. Red palm oil or virgin palm oil is packed full of nutrition. It is the world's richest dietary source of carotenoids—beta carotene, gamma carotene, alpha carotene, lycopene, etc.—nutrients that give fruits and vegetables their rich yellow, red, and orange colors. These nutrients give virgin palm oil a rich dark reddish, orange color—thus the name "red" palm oil. Carotenoids are potent antioxidants and important nutrients that promote good health. People who eat foods rich in carotenoids are healthier, suffer less from chronic disease, and have a lower mortality rate.1
Red palm oil also contains a super potent form of vitamin E called tocotrienol. There are four tocotrienols and have up to 60 times the antioxidant power as ordinary vitamin E. The combination of tocotrienols and carotenoids makes red palm oil a powerhouse of antioxidants that can protect us from destructive free radicals that are associated with ill health and premature aging.
In additon, red palm oil also contains a variety of other nutrients such as CoQ10, vitamin K, vitamin C, phytosterols, and more. When added to foods, it enhances the nutrient content of the foods by improving the absorption of the nutrients in these foods.
Medical research has shown that palm oil can improve blood circulation, reduce high blood pressure, protect against heart disease, block cancer, improve blood sugar control, calm inflammation, support healthy lung and liver function, strengthen bones and teeth, improve eye health, boost immune function, and protect against mental deterioration, such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. Studies documenting all these benefits are highlighted in my book The Palm Oil Miracle. |
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Red palm oil comes from the oil palm (Elaesis guineensis). The tree is native to Western Africa but it is now grown in the tropics throughout the world. In Africa it is an important part of the culture and a mainstay in the traditional diet. Despite some misguided criticism, the oil palm is one of the most environmentally friendly crops on the face of the earth. One acre of oil palm can produce up to 635 gallons of oil a year. In comparison, one acre of soybeans produces only 48 gallons. A mere 48 gallons versus an enormous 635 |
Red palm fruit |
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gallons, which one is most environmentally friendly? Do the math. You would need to plant over 13 acres of soybeans to equal the amount of oil you get from just 1 acre of palm. The land used for soybeans needs to be plowed year after year after year, and doused heavily with pesticides and chemical fertilizers each time (which do untold harm to the environment). Palms, on the other hand, are planted once and last decades without disturbing the soil or spraying pesticides. There is no such thing as Roundup Ready oil palm like there is for soy. Virtually all soy, including soybean oil, comes from plants that have been genetically engineered to withstand being smothered in otherwise lethal doses of Monsanto's Roundup Ready pesticide. Corn, canola, and other vegetables oils are basically the same, genetically engineered with relatively low yields and larger land use (and abuse) in comparison to palm. ■
Dr. Oz's TV show on red palm oil: click here
Reference 1. A. T. Diplock1, J.-L. Charleux, G. Crozier-Willi, F. J. Kok, C. Rice-Evans, M. Roberfroid, W. Stahl, J. Vina-Ribes. Functional food science and defence against reactive oxidative species, British Journal of Nutrition 1998, 80, Suppl. 1, S77—S112.
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Copyright © 2013, Bruce Fife. All rights reserved.
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