One of the biggest nutritional mistakes I’ve ever made occurred shortly after I weaned my first child when he was 2 years old.
Knowing that commercial milk was not a healthy choice due to the antibiotics, steroids, unnatural feed and confinement the cows are subjected to, I chose organic soy milk for my son to drink instead. Soy was the unquestionably the darling of the health food industry at that time with soy touted as the “cure” for everything from hot flashes to high cholesterol.
I fell hard for the soy industry propaganda which was supported by a number of so called studies I now refer to as “Stealth Science”.
Fortunately, a friend who came visiting one day suggested that I look into the research on soy more deeply.  She said that she had recently read some information that soy was not the health panacea it was cracked up to be. Alarmed, I immediately began to research soy more thoroughly and was shocked to discover that my friend was exactly right – soy was not the healthfood I had naively believed it to be!
The crucial and truly objective research on the dangers of soy that I came upon in 2001 was put out by the Weston A. Price Foundation, a nonprofit, tax-exempt nutrition education foundation based out of Washington D.C.
I will be forever grateful to the Weston A. Price Foundation for taking on the powerful soy industry via its highly successful Soy Alert! campaign. I fully believe that had I not come across this unbiased research, my now teenage son would not enjoy the good health he does today as continuing to drink soy milk for many years would no doubt have harmed his hormonal and digestive development considerably.
Independent Research on Nutrient-Dense Foods Critical to Our Children’s Future
Nearly 12 years later, I still regularly refer to the research of the Weston A. Price Foundation whenever I have a question about the latest nutritional silver bullet promoted by the media or the healthfood industry. The objective, unbiased information and analysis put out by the Foundation both on its website and in the quarterly Wise Traditions Journal has saved my family from many potentially drastic nutritional errors as I have earnestly sought to learn and correctly implement Traditional Diet in my home.
Now, the Weston A. Price Foundation has a unique and very exciting opportunity to take its dedication to objective, unbiased research to a whole new level – by having complete access to an independent research laboratory to further the Foundation’s mission of restoring nutrient-dense foods to the human diet through research, education, and activism.
The research lab is the Burnsides Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign shown in the beautiful photo above, which for many years has been guided by the esteemed Dr. Fred Kummerow. It was Dr. Kummerow who over 40 years ago performed research showing the damaging effects of trans fatty acids, a fact which Americans now take for granted.
Today, at age 98, he continues to do research on the causes of heart disease and has demonstrated the link between oxidized cholesterol, vegetable oils and heart disease.
Dr. Kummerow’s legacy continues with the work of post-doctorate Chris Masterjohn, PhD.
Chris is using the Burnsides Lab to study the interactions between fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K, examining the protective effects of vitamins A and K on soft tissue calcification otherwise caused by vitamin D consumed in isolation.
Chris’s research will provide important insights into the fat-soluble vitamins, the key to healthy traditional diets, as discovered by Dr. Weston Price.
As you can see, the Burnsides Lab plays a key role in maintaining the legacy of Dr. Price as well as the scientific discoveries of tomorrow.
This is the opportunity all of us who know the power of Traditional Diet to transform health have dreamed of–to do the research that will answer the questions we have about nutrient-dense traditional diets.Â
The Weston A. Price Foundation needs our help to fully fund the Burnsides Lab. Please consider donating today to help the Weston A. Price Foundation reach its goal.  $100,000 has already been raised, but the Foundation is unable to obtain the remaining $200,000 from existing sources.
Won’t you please help the Foundation make up the $200,000 shortage?
The Foundation has set up a link to make it easy to donate to the research lab:Â https://donatenow.
Thank you for your support of the Weston A. Price Foundation.  Helping now will go a long way in turning this tremendous opportunity into a reality.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
THanks for the reminder Sarah! Our family is so grateful for the WAPF. The information and research has changed our health (in a positive way of course!). I will surely support this cause. Kaleyi
While I too appreciate the work of the Weston A Price Foundation, you can hardly call them unbiased! We all have a bias; we just happen to agree with theirs:-)
“Unbiased” here seems to mean not tied to industrial interests and funding. “Independent” was probably the better term to use.
Thanks for this grim reminder of the lies that are told in the name of science! I too believed the soy lie, and now my precious 17 yr old daughter is having hormonal issues that I KNOW are related to giving her soy milk as an infant. I feel terrible that I didn’t check into it more thoroughly. Even the Bible says that we should “test” everything and I didn’t. NO MORE! It is “BUYER BEWARE” on almost everything.. thanks for helping us figure things out. (:
A huge amount of the research on food done today is bought and paid for by Big Ag and Monsanto. The government bases its policies on research, and huge harm has been done by purchased research.
This is a chance to get some unbiased, fact based research on food, something very rare in the US today. Research that should conflict with the studies paid for by Big Ag. A very worthy cause, and well worth donating to.
Thanks for this information. I definitely want to learn more about soy milk since I am lactose intolerant and drink a lot of soy milk! I know much of the “nutritional” information out there is driven by the government-supported food and supplement industries, so it’s difficult to find unbiased research. BTW, I love the phrase “Stealth Science”!
A lot of people that say they are lactose intolerant can actually drink raw milk. Go to the link http://www.realmilk.com for more information. They are associated with WAPF.
Thanks for the link, Traci, I’ll definitely check it out.
Thanks for the reminder Sarah. I’m a member of the WAPF and the email has already gotten so far down in my emails that I forgot! Better get onto it soon. Definately worth supporting and if we all give just a little they’ll get the money they need 🙂
I just donated some to the foundation. I’m very excited and proud of this research being done and look forward to the many breakthroughs that Chris Masterjohn and Dr. Kummerow’s discover.
Things like this will help further build the Weston a price foundation in so many wonderful ways. The sky is the limit.
-Matt-
This is exciting! I can think of no better place to donate resources in order to build on WAPF’s already profound legacy. Further research will only help to spread the message of the importance of nutrient dense foods while diminishing the confusion caused by industrial food marketing messages. I hope people consider this as an investment in the health of people everywhere — what a great alternative to conventional health care / disease maintenance.
And in case anyone has the misperception that the Weston A. Price Foundation receives funding from any segment of the food industry, they don’t.
I was intrigued, relieved, and thrilled when I first learned from my holistic doctor that there used to be robustly healthy populations the world over and that we can take steps to regain that health today by reviving traditional foodways. Many people today have come to accept chronic disease and multiple health problems as normal, but they aren’t. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Let’s hope that a great many people put their money where their mouth is and take advantage of this opportunity for meaningful giving.