d: "a healthy diet meets most people's needs." Once again, vitamins and mineral supplements are reduced to the status of unnecessary nonsense sought only by the common, the uneducated and the very silly public. And, once again, the stodgy inference is made that a "healthy diet" is always (in these modern times of ours) within our fork's range.

The truth however, is that the majority of the world (including the United States) does not have easy access to a "healthy diet," due in part to the fact that very few people know what a healthy diet actually is. Public officials have been misleading the public as well as the medical community for a number of years regarding what constitutes "a healthy diet."

We are now reaping the consequences of what amounts to a near-global false advertising campaign.

In the United States, where the entire country is currently struggling with an epidemic of epidemics, the epidemics of obesity and diabetes have been blamed on laziness, poor habits, computers, etc. The blame has been assigned to everything except one of the real culprits - the fraudulent Food Pyramid.

Switched before birth, the original Food Pyramid was one designed for optimal health. The real Pyramid was designed to promote the consumption of a diet based primarily upon vegetables and fruits - not starch.

Luise Light, Ed.D, a nutrition expert, was teaching at New York University and broadcasting a popular weekly nutritional radio program in New York when she was recruited (repeatedly) by the USDA to lead the team of experts that would create a new Food Guide to replace the Basic Four. Helping people by teaching them proper nutrition was a lifelong dream, and Dr. Light eventually accepted the USDA's invitation.

After working long and diligently, Light and her team created the Guide that was to become the Food Pyramid. It was submitted to high-ranking authorities within the USDA for approval. When the approved Pyramid finally made its way back to Luise and her team, it had been remade by officials whose main concern was not public health, but industry profit.

Luise described to me her team's reaction upon seeing the "new" Pyramid: "We couldn't believe it!" It bore little resemblance to the Pyramid they had created.

Gone was the team's recommendation that whole grains be limited to 2 to 4 servings, and baked goods consumed only as a rare treat. Gone also were the vegetables and fruits from the most coveted area of the Pyramid - the foundation or base, which was to make up the bulk of the American diet. Taking the place of the vegetables at the foundation were the very grains and starchy foods that the team had recommended for "limited consumption" only.

Turning everything on its head, the new Pyramid called for "6 to 11" servings of starchy grains, cereals, pastas and baked goods daily.

"What possible rationale could there be for such an unprecedented and unjustified switch?" Luise said in a statement to me. "In fact," she continued, "the health consequences of encouraging the public to eat so much refined grain, which the body processes like sugar, was frightening."

The team's exhortations to the political heads of the Agricultural Department, however, fell upon deaf ears. The unassuming public would be given the dangerously revised Pyramid as it stood - catastrophically revised to emphasize dough. The Super Sizing of Americans, which began around 1980 according to the CDC, would now balloon into an epidemic under "official" dietary recommendations.

Obesity, however, would only be one of the more visible clues that something was growing steadily wrong with the American public.

During the years that followed, increasing attention was paid to an apparent folic acid deficiency in pregnant women, which was resulting in birth defects. Studies showed that a deficiency in folate was associated with neural tube defects in infants.

Folic acid, an important component of the B-complex chain of vitamins, is a folate. "Folate," according to the National Institutes of Health, gets its name from "leaf." Folates can be naturally found (as one might suspect) in leafy greens, in vegetables and fruits, as well as beans. It is a profoundly necessary nutrient for human health. Because we are not, by nature, refined grain eaters, those eating a diet based upon refined starch must have supplements that will supply the necessary folic acid and other vitamins and minerals missing from a starch diet.

Various studies conducted throughout the world would eventually show that neural tube defects were not the only problems associated with low folic acid levels, which in turn lead to elevated homocysteine levels.

Elevated homocysteine levels, the studies found, appeared to be associated with heart attacks, stroke, Alzheimer's dementia, Parkinson's disease, memory impairment, venous thrombosis, miscarriage, osteoporosis, colitis, thyroid malfunction, irritability, sleep disturbances, periodontal disease, diabetic retinopathy, etc. The list of problems is similar to those associated with fluoride ingestion. Fluoride not only disrupts thyroid functioning and calcium uptake, but also appears to increase the need for vitamin C. Studies have also shown a correlation between elevated homocysteine levels and severity of Plasmodium falciparum malaria, due to a disturbance of folate levels. In fact, malaria appears to require the presence of xanthurenic acid in the human body before the disease can develop. Xanthurenic acid is a substance that is created when there is a deficiency of vitamin B-6.

All indications suggest we should be paying more attention to vitamins, not less. We should be correcting our inappropriate diets so that they emphasize more vegetables and fruits, and we should certainly be fortifying current faulty diets with supplements. We should be doing this as though our lives depend upon it.

In the US, an attempt was made to correct the folate-deficiency problem without upsetting the grain cart. In 1998, a law came into effect that required refined grain and cereal products to be fortified with folic acid. That way, the Food Pyramid could continue to stand on its head in a foundation of dough, as long as that dough was fortified with an essential nutrient naturally found in leafy greens, vegetables and fruits.

The cheap dough "healthy diet" concept is by no means merely an American anomaly. It appears to be expanding. Similar inexplicable "healthy diet" suggestions can be seen elsewhere, including the EU.

In the UK, the Food Standards Agency (FSA) was set up by an Act of Parliament in 2000 to: "protect the public's health and consumer interests in relation to food." According to the Food Standards Agency, "Although the FSA is a Government agency, it works at arm's length, from Government because it doesn't report to a specific minister and is free to publish any advice it issues."

The following free advice is currently being issued on their website: "Most people don't need to take vitamin supplements, because they can get all the nutrients they need from a healthy balanced diet - We should be eating lots of starchy foods every day, this means foods such as rice, pasta, bread, cereals and potatoes - Most people aren't eating enough starchy foods or fibre - Here are some tips to help you increase the amount of starchy foods and fibre you are eating: Have more rice and pasta and less sauce - "

Because human beings have similar - but by no means identical - nutritional needs regardless of which country we call home, it should come as no surprise that, according to the Euro-Diet Project report (copyright 2000), "Currently, folic acid needs are not being met in perhaps the majority of Europeans."

In addition to a starch-based diet contributing to what is now being seen as a global epidemic of malnutrition, it should be noted that folic acid is utilized by our skin to block, filter and control the effects of UV light to which we are exposed. Our folic acid levels are depleted as it does its work. Due to chemical pollutants and their destruction of the ozone layer, we are now being exposed to greater amounts of UV light. This, in turn, may be adding to the alarming incidence of folic acid deficiency. Since one of the worst pollutants is fluoride, it is possible that people living in certain areas also now have an increased need for vitamin C. Since some individuals are taking steps to block UV rays with sunscreens, some may need to supplement their diets with vitamin D, which is created in the body by UV light. People with darker skin need longer time in the sun to create adequate vitamin D, and therefore might have a greater need for supplementation than their more fair-skinned neighbors. People in northern latitudes might not be able to create adequate vitamin D during winter months, and may need more supplementation than those living in the Deep South. Intelligent assessment of this indicates people should be free to supplement their diets according to their individual needs.

Personnel representing the grain and cereal industries have demonstrated to us they are not the most ideal gurus when it comes to teaching the basics of nutrition, or deciding for us what constitutes a "healthy diet." Their concepts of nutrition have been badly flawed and have ultimately been made to insure the health and prosperity of industry rather than the public.

For those who do not have access to a truly "healthy diet" - meaning most of the population of the world - having access to missing nutrients via vitamins and supplements stands as a profoundly important way for individuals to protect their individual health. Taking such access to health supplements away from the public begs a question similar to that asked by Luise Light and her team upon seeing their Pyramid turned upside-down: "What possible rationale could there be for such an unprecedented and unjustified move?"

We do not need laws blocking our access to the vitamins and supplements needed for survival. We need legislation that will guarantee our ongoing access to vitamins and supplements.

Human beings should have as much right to fortify themselves with missing nutrients as the grain and cereal industries have to fortify their products in order to make us believe they are nutritionally valuable.

(With special thanks to Luise Light, Ed.D, nutrition expert, for her comments and time.)

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Mary Sparrowdancer is an investigative journalist, a spiritual writer, and is the author of "The Love Song of the Universe," published in 2001 by Hampton Roads. Her ongoing studies have included bacteriology, microscopic analysis, hematology, nutrition, electroencephalography, ornithology, veterinary studies pertaining to wild animals and biblical translations from Latin, Hebrew and Greek. She was a wildlife rehabilitator for a number of years, during which she cared for over 20,000 wild animals, including endangered species. She and her two children reside in Tallahassee, Florida. www.sparrowdancer.com

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References:

The Observer, "EU Rules Threatening to Sweep Away Vitamin Pills." 12/27/2004. (12/2004). http://www.rense.com/general61/EWUi.htm

Core Report - folate deficiency in Europe. Copyright 2000. (12/2004)

http://eurodiet.med.uoc.gr/EurodietCoreReport.pdf

Folate - "leaf." 8/3/2004. (12/2004) http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/folate.asp

"Hyperhmocysteinemia in acute Plasmodium falciparum malaria: an effect of host-parasite interaction." October, 2004. Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Catania, Italy. (12/2004)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=

Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=15369744

"Environmental Fluoride - 1977" National Research Council of Canada. (12/2004)

http://fluoridealert.org/nrc-fluoride.htm

"Xanthurenic acid - a key factor in Plasmodium development" World Health Organization. 1997-98. (12/2004)

http://www.who.int/tdr/research/progress/mal_str/xanthurenic.htm

Eat lots of starchy foods - we aren't eating enough yet - Food Standards Agency. (12/2004) http://www.eatwell.gov.uk/healthydiet/nutritionessentials/starchfoods/

"High Homocysteine Levels May Double Risk of Dementia, Alzheimer's," NIH, February., 2002. (12/2004). http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/feb2002/nia-13.htm

"Folate deficiency - global epidemic of folic acid-preventable spina bifida - " Godfrey P. Oakley, Jr., September 23, 2003. (12/2004)

http://www.sph.emory.edu/wheatflour/Comm/

Resource/CDs/London04/ScienceEVIDENCE/GodfreyFolic.pdf

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