EP 71: Why Commercial Baby Formula is Problematic with Sally Fallon Morell

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EP 71: Why Commercial Baby Formula is Problematic with Sally Fallon Morell

In May of 2022 there was a shortage of commercial baby formula here in the United States. I’ve always been very concerned about the toxicity of baby formula with its questionable ingredients that contribute to lack of development and thriving in babies, so today I’m excited to discuss why these formulas are so problematic and what actually led to the shortage, with Weston A. Price Foundation president, Sally Fallon Morell.

We also talk about why breast milk is best and what mother’s can do if they aren’t able to produce their own milk, as well as the best way to wean your baby.

Sally Fallon Morell is founding president of The Weston A. Price Foundation, a non-profit nutrition education foundation dedicated to returning nutrient-dense food to American tables, and editor of the Foundation’s quarterly journal.

She is also the founder of A Campaign for Real Milk, which has as its goal universal access to clean raw milk from pasture-fed animals. She has extensive experience in the testing and production of unpasteurized milk and milk products.

She is the author of the best-selling cookbook Nourishing Traditions (with Mary G. Enig, PhD); The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care (with Thomas S. Cowan, MD); Nourishing Broth (with Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN); Nourishing Fats; and Nourishing Diets. Her latest book is The Contagion Myth, co-authored with Dr. Thomas Cowan.

She and her husband, Geoffrey Morell, are owners of PA Bowen Farmstead in Southern Maryland, which produces raw cheese and milk from pastured cows, pastured meats, and grass-fed poultry and eggs.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Why baby formula powders are never sterile
  • Why breastfeeding and homemade formulas are best
  • The need for lactose to support neurological development
  • Hidden health concerns and issues with soy-based formulas and why iron should never be added
  • Industrial seed oils and how they inhibit hormone and enzyme production
  • The need for cholesterol to aid and support hormones and neurotransmitters

Listen to the podcast here:

Within the below transcript, the bolded text is Samantha Gilbert, and the regular text is Sally Fallon Morell.

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Why and How a Baby Formula Shortage Happened

Welcome to the show, Sally. It’s wonderful to have you.

Thanks for having me.

As a holistic practitioner working with families and children, I’ve always been very concerned about the toxicity of baby formula. So when the Abbott laboratory shortage occurred in May of 2022, with the ensuing negative propaganda around homemade formula using raw milk and other nourishing foods, I knew I just had to have you on the show to discuss it. So to set the stage, we will discuss why these baby formulas are problematic and what parents can do to protect their babies. I’d love it if you would start us off with the conditions leading to this shortage. And why the powdered formula is never sterile nor safe.

As I understand it, the biggest factory for making formula is Abbott Labs in Michigan, and they had numerous safety problems that had been overlooked for several years. 

Babies were dying from microorganisms and toxins, and we don’t know what else, but they had no choice but to shut down the plant. This created a baby formula shortage, and people went online looking for baby formula. We have a page on making homemade formulas and the traffic increased by 1,000%. 

I started getting calls from reporters, and I remember one started very confrontational. The reporter said, “You really think it’s safe to give raw milk to babies? Everybody says it’s the most dangerous thing you could do.” My response: “You’re talking about danger. What about the Abbot formula that was killing babies? Our formula has never killed anybody; as far as I know, it’s never made anybody or any baby sick. 

A little bit of history on this. I was able to nurse my first child successfully, but it was because I was nursing all of the time, and I didn’t have a lot of milk. I put everything into learning it: to eat left-handed, all those things, and read many books. After my daughter was born, I had three boys. The first boy was starving, as I did not have enough milk and was probably more tired with less time to nurse him, and it wouldn’t have worked. I did not want to give him formula.

I had a book called Nutrition: From Tots to Teens, which had a kind of recipe in it for formula based on raw milk. The recipe called for diluting the milk was water, adding lactose, and vitamin C; those are the three things in the formula. 

Using raw goat milk as formula, he gulped it down and stopped crying. I knew I’d done the right thing. With my other boys, I did the same thing. Each is very healthy, and I can’t say my daughter is healthier than my boys. 

EP71: Why Commerical Baby Formula is Problematic: what led to a baby formula shortage in the United States?
Why Commercial Baby Formula is Problematic: Numerous safety problems led to the baby formula shortage in the United States.

I was writing Nourishing Traditions with Mary G. Enig, Ph.D. and I asked her what do you think of putting a recipe in for baby formula, and she felt that was a wonderful idea. Mary has a Ph.D. in lipid biochemistry and knew how bad the formulas were. Mary took the original recipe and modified it, we added a little bit of oil to make it more in line with human milk, and instead of diluting it with water, we used whey. The process is a bit complicated, but it only takes a little time once you get the hang of it. Most mothers are just so relieved and grateful for this formula. 

Radiant Life sells all the ingredients in a kit and has sold about 100 monthly kits for 20 years. That tells me we’ve had 20,000 babies on this formula, at least, and it works well. 

Mary’s primary concern and objection about the formula was that it contained no cholesterol, and all the formulas, even the crunchy organic formulas, were made with skim milk and vegetable oils. As she explained to me, mother’s milk, raw milk is very rich in cholesterol and has special enzymes to ensure that the baby absorbs 100% of that cholesterol because babies cannot make cholesterol. They need cholesterol for growth, to wire their brain to create a good digestive tract, and for hormone production. 

Babies make hormones. Little boys produce as much testosterone as grown men for the first six months of life, which programs these boys to express male characteristics and privileges. They absolutely have to have cholesterol for this, and they’re not getting it from a formula, so that was her primary concern.

Baby Formula Powders Are Not Sterile and Why

I have a lot of concerns and always have. A study came out in 2019 which looked at all of the processes used for treating milk. One was boiling, which is like pasteurization. Another was microwaving or spray drying, and one was freeze drying. Every single one of these processes damages the milk proteins, such that they cause severe problems in rats, including damage to the spleen, the liver, and the blood. The rats were stupider when they had any of these processed milks.

Baby formula is spray-dried, which is a very high-heat process. The proteins in milk are very fragile and easily damaged by this process. It was interesting that even freeze-drying damages these proteins; this is not anything you want to give to your baby. It’s dangerous and it’s toxic. Babies and raw milk go together. Raw milk is nature’s food for growing babies, and raw milk is very available now. It’s very safe. You can get it all over the country. Go to our website, RealMilk.com, to find raw milk near you. 

I have tremendous sympathy for moms having trouble breastfeeding because I did. Even if the breastfeeding seems to be going all right, but the baby’s not thriving, is constantly crying and seems hungry, you need to supplement with this formula.

I’m so grateful for you sharing that because I always want to be tender and sensitive to moms having difficulty breastfeeding. I have several clients I have worked with in the past that have struggled. 

As you said, I have never personally seen in my practice, and I’ve been doing this for over 14 years now; I have yet to see a baby not do well on your formulas. 

I also really appreciate you, and we’ll get into this in a bit more detail, talking about cholesterol and why it’s needed to make hormones, especially for all ages, especially in midlife and beyond.

We’ve picked substances essential for life, good health, and mental health, and we’ve demonized them and made people afraid of them. It’s like, don’t throw me in the briar patch kind of thing. It’s incredible. What’s happened is totally against all science, all common sense. Particularly when this is applied to pregnant women and growing children, they tell the moms-to-be to go on a low-fat and low-salt diet while pregnant. That is horrible. Salt is so essential for a baby’s development. When the baby’s born, the mom is supposed to be on this diet while nursing. The formula contains vegetable oils and skim milk if they use baby formula. Once the baby is two, they say to use whole milk instead of skim milk, healthy spreads, no butter, and maybe an occasional egg. The dietary advice given to young women who want to get pregnant, are pregnant, or are a nursing is a genocide. It’s what it is, and that’s why we have such a crisis today with our children.

I’m so glad you said that, too, because fertility and ensuring that both parents are healthy before conception is another area that I’m passionate about. It’s still a question people don’t ask or don’t think about, which shocks me. It is black and white like you said.  What we’re seeing in our children today, it’s horrifying, and it’s heartbreaking. Yet the powers that be refuse to acknowledge that any natural intervention or therapy should be normal but isn’t get’s demonized. It’s such an odd reversal of things.

EP71: Why Commerical Baby Formula is Problematic: The baby formula is spray-dried at a very high-heat process causing fragile milk proteins to become damaged in the process.
Why Commercial Baby Formula is Problematic: Baby formula is spray-dried in a very high-heat process causing fragile milk proteins to become damaged.

As Dr. Price discovered, all traditional cultures prepared for pregnancy with special, very nutrient-dense foods for six months before conception, and that ensured that all their children were healthy, well-formed, had straight teeth, and we’re all strong, and the girls were girls, and the boys were boys. 

Dr. Price said what the so-called primitive people have to teach us is much more important than what we can teach them. What they have to teach us is a matter of life and death—the survival of our human race. We really must listen and imitate what they do. Sacred foods were things like liver, butter, whole raw milk, and fish eggs were very important sacred foods and eggs. Essentially all of the high-cholesterol, high-fat foods we’re being told not to eat. 

The Hidden Health Concerns with Soy-Based Baby Formulas

Sally, you mentioned some of the specific ingredients in baby formula, and I want to break that down a bit more. People should be told the truth. The marketing is hefty, with samples handed out at the hospital, and these things are heavily promoted. 

You mentioned that industrialized seed oils are very toxic to the body. There’s soy or skim milk than corn sweeteners, artificial vitamins, and minerals, and these are all problematic for us, especially in a brand new life. Can we start a discussion about soy? People will say, “Oh, but it’s organic.” My response is, “You don’t understand.” Can you please educate our listeners on why soy, even if it’s organic, is so toxic, especially to newborn babies?

At one point, 25% of American babies were getting soy formula. You have to ask yourself whether that has led to so much of the gender dysphoria we see today. A baby on soy formula has 12,000 to 22,000 times more estrogens in the bloodstream than a baby on milk-based formula. 

Gerber used to make a meat-based formula for babies who couldn’t tolerate the milk-based formula, and it was too expensive, or who knows, but they discontinued that. Instead, they came out with soy formula even though it was already known that soy is very high in estrogens and goitrogenic because it causes thyroid problems.

There have already been several studies discussing thyroid problems of babies on soy. Soy also causes terrible digestive issues. All of this was known before they brought the formula out. The American Academy of Pediatrics initially said it was dangerous and wouldn’t endorse it. Then the formula industry gave the American Academy of Pediatrics $9 million to build its new headquarters in Chicago, and suddenly they didn’t object to it anymore. 

At one point, 25% of American babies were getting soy formula. You have to ask yourself whether that has led to so much of the gender dysphoria we see today. A baby on soy formula has 12,000 to 22,000 times more estrogens in the bloodstream than a baby on milk base formula. 

Those estrogens have an effect, and they blunt the priming in male babies and cause very early maturation, breast development, et cetera in the girl babies. We started blowing the whistle on this. During a telephone conversation with the FDA, a dietitian complained that the sales of soy formula had dropped to 12% when they had been 25%. I thought it was good, but she thought it was terrible.

Soy-based formulas are still WIC (Women, Infants, Children). They are providing free formula. Even if the formula doesn’t have soy protein in it and it’s based on powdered milk, it often has soybean oil and contains estrogen. Another problem with the formula is they don’t usually use lactose. Lactose is sugar and milk, which are essential for neurological development. That particular sugar supports proper neurological development. Instead, they’re using sugar or high fructose corn syrup, which they now call fructose or maltodextrin, made from corn. It’s a totally inappropriate sweetener. They don’t put Vitamin A in the formula; they just put carotenes in it, and babies cannot convert carotene to Vitamin A. And lastly, they put folic acid in, which should be folate.

Correct me if I’m wrong, Sally, but I read somewhere, perhaps on the website, that it’s akin to a baby taking five contraceptive pills a day.

With soy formula, it is like five to ten contraceptive pills a day.

That is so shocking!

As soon as this was pointed out, it should have been yanked off the market. The other problem with baby formula is they all contain iron. Now, it used to be that the six months formula had iron in it because a mother’s milk is deficient in iron. There’s a reason for that. The baby needs zinc more than iron in the first six months. Iron and zinc compete, and it’s inorganic iron; we know that’s toxic. When the baby starts with inorganic iron, it’s horrendous, and there is a lot of objection. Mary and I both testified about this, along with many others who testified that you shouldn’t put iron in the formula for babies up to six months.

EP71: Why Commerical Baby Formula is Problematic: A baby on soy formula has 12,000 to 22,000 times more estrogens in the bloodstream than a baby on milk base formula. 
Why Commercial Baby Formula is Problematic: The American Academy of Pediatrics initially said soy formula was dangerous and wouldn’t endorse it. Then the formula industry gave them $9 million to build their new headquarters in Chicago, and suddenly they didn’t object to it anymore.

They didn’t listen because it’s still pushed today, and it’s unfortunate. And that’s why we just have to ramp up our efforts to ensure people are aware. 

Industrial Seed Oils: How They Inhibit Hormone and Enzyme Production

I’m just so grateful for the work that you have done over the years, Sally. It’s truly amazing. Another thing that I’m concerned about, of course, is that these foods are genetically modified, and then there’s the glyphosate issue.

Yeah, there’s glyphosate in the formula. Whatever the cows have been fed will be in the formula, which will be a lot of glyphosates. We’ve truly lost our way.

You’re being very kind there. 

Back to the seed oils, Sally, like soy, Canola is the big thing now that the World Economic Forum is pushing as a “healthy example.”

The World Economic Forum has made a statement about canola oil?

They have information on their website about genetically modified foods for the future. Canola oil is on the list of “supposed to be good for us” as a food source. We’re supposed to eat a bunch of soy and genetically modified foods and somehow be healthy. Could you share a little more about why vegetable oils are so problematic?

First, you have to understand these industrial seed oils, as I call them, were not in the diet before 1890. Only oils they could get out with a stone press have been in the human diet for any length of time. Those oils would be olive oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil, coconut, and palm oil, and they were always in the context of a diet with animal fats. 

These industrial seed oils; the first one was cottonseed oil. Procter and Gamble, I’m sure you’ve heard of them, developed a process for taking the liquid cottonseed oil and making it hardened by a process called partial hydrogenation for use in candles. 

Procter and Gamble was a candle maker. When electricity came along and nobody needed candles anymore, they thought, well, what will we do with our process, patents, and product? And they said, “Ah, well, let’s give it to people and get people to eat this stuff.” So they came up with something called Crisco, which stands for crystallized cottonseed oil and partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil. 

Procter and Gamble started this tremendous propaganda campaign to get people to stop using lard and to use Crisco. Then, they came up with margarine, which is fake butter and part of the propaganda campaign. Once these oils came onto the food supply, heart disease increased, especially the myocardial infarction recorded in 1921. Suddenly, by 1950, this was an epidemic; there were half a million a year. What did they do? The dieticians said these new fats and oils are the only thing that’s changed in the food supply, and it’s got to be these new fats and oils. The lobbyists for the vegetable oil industry said, “Oh, no, this is from butter and lard and saturated fats and coconut oil.” They blamed the rise in heart disease on the very thing that could have prevented it and pointed the finger away from what was causing this. 

These oils are total garbage and are rancid in a bottle or spread. And they break down in our bodies into aldehydes, which are very short, reactive molecules that cause havoc on the cellular level. 

One of the aldehydes is formaldehyde. Undertakers are saying they don’t need as much formaldehyde anymore for the body. People seem like they’re already embalmed; that’s capturing the vegetable oils, and they also polymerize in the gut. A fancy word for meaning makes varnish, varnish in the gut. This is not good for you either. All of our modern diseases can be blamed, in part, if not entirely, on the use of these industrial seed oils. The worst thing is that they are what Dr. Price calls a displacing foods of modern commerce. Not only are you eating something terrible, but you’re eating it instead of the healthy fats people used to eat. What are those healthy fats? Butter, lard, tallow, duck fat, goose fat, coconut oil. All of the traditional fats and oils are good for us. How can they not be suitable for us? They have sustained life for thousands of years. You won’t want to give your baby seed oils because they inhibit hormone production. 

I remember when McDonald’s used tallow for their French fries.

Some restaurants are going back to tallow. I’m not saying they were the best thing in the world to eat, but they were safe and tasted delicious. That was all because of the soy industry. They’re the ones who put pressure on fast food places to get rid of this saturated fat full of cholesterol and to use soybean oil instead.

EP71: Why Commerical Baby Formula is Problematic: Zinc deficiency is the number one deficiency that we see in mental health, and we often see it in autism as well. Zinc is essential for growth and development.
Why Commercial Baby Formula is Problematic: Zinc deficiency is the number one deficiency that we see in mental health, and we often see it in autism as well. Zinc is essential for growth and development and is missing in conventional formulas.

The Need for Cholesterol to Aid and Support Our Hormones and Neurotransmitters

Many people have been exposing the issues and challenges of demonizing cholesterol. Then there is the issue with statins, which will damage your liver and cause Alzheimer’s and all kinds of things. 

It’s heartbreaking to see these kinds of medications being pushed on people. I hear it regularly, and I have to make a very concerted effort to educate the people I serve so that they understand well, “No, we need cholesterol for hormone development for neurological balance.” 

You’re exactly right. For digestion, we need cholesterol to make bile salts, and we need cholesterol to make Vitamin D. I mean, the list goes on.

That’s why cod liver oil is so wonderful.

There’s cholesterol in cod liver oil, but not saturated fat. But what cod liver oil gives us is vitamins A and D.

Yes! We talked about soy. And you touched on skim milk, powdered whey, and all the issues with bacterial overgrowth and the factories and drums used in manufacturing. What are the problems, especially with skim milk and whey proteins, because they become denatured during processing?

Correct. The processing is what denatures these fragile proteins. By the way, powders are never sterile, which should be mentioned on the package. 

We recommend making your own whey, preferably from raw milk. Fresh whey is a wonderful, healthy food, and it’s full of minerals, and that’s what you add to the milk. Cow and goat’s milk is dense with a higher protein content than human milk, which is interesting, and the protein content of human milk is only 10%. What’s nature telling us? These babies don’t need a high protein diet; they need a high-fat diet and carbs that are in the sugars.

About the formulas, I’ve had moms tell me their children seem fine on these formulas; however, zinc deficiency is a huge problem all over the world. It’s a condition I work with regularly and test for regularly, and it’s a major issue in children. 

It’s the number one deficiency that we see in mental health, and we often see it in autism as well. Then, of course, in growth and development, we know that zinc is essential for growth and development.

A child will not grow very tall. Where do we get zinc? Milk is a good source of zinc, and those are the best.

I’m a big fan of excellent, high-quality red meat. Red meat is something that I heavily promote, and I know certain people can’t always tolerate red meat, and I do understand that. This goes back to that pre-pregnancy time when our ancestors did recognize the importance of that, and they understood how healthy babies could be developed and born and be thriving. Long-term effects are often only seen once they enter grade and elementary school. 

That’s why breastfeeding and making your formula is so critical.

There are three different options for the formula. One made with cow’s milk, another with goat’s milk, and then a dairy-free option for children who are sensitive to milk.

Why Breastfeeding and Homemade Formula is Best

Although you can make it dairy-free, another choice is the liver formula. When we made these formulas, we took them to be tested, I made the liver formula, and it actually tasted delicious. So the liver formula is liver and broth. Poultry liver is probably best, but we add whey and lactose. You can’t add it if the baby is intolerant of all milk components, then you would add a different sweetener. I recommend maple syrup. 

Add more water if you can’t do lactose; make it very thin. We’ve had babies whose lives were saved by the liver formula. 

I was attending a conference, and the man beside me put a picture of this two-year-old child before me. She was a gorgeous little girl with rosy cheeks. He said she was dying. For some reason, the mother couldn’t breastfeed, and they tried all types of formula, each causing projectile vomiting. They tried my raw milk formula and projectile vomiting. By day 10, the baby was starving. He said we had no other choice; we made the liver formula. We gave her a bottle of the liver formula, and she practically consumed it in a gulp without vomiting. Wow! Her life had been saved! She and her sister were brought up on liver formula and were thriving little girls. So there are several choices out there.

I appreciate that. I also find the backlash to your formulas interesting considering. As you said, what was removed from the market was actually killing babies. You’ve just shared a wonderful story. You may want to try a liver formula over the other two if necessary. 

I’ve seen doctors go on Instagram and slam raw milk formulas. It’s interesting how this whole industry bands together to attack.

I’ve been attacked. I was attacked within an anti-vaxxer group.

Wow, really?

In the group, these mothers called out other mothers who weren’t breastfeeding. I piped up and said if you haven’t been there, please don’t criticize. It’s like the worst thing you can have happen to you in your life to have your baby starving. Well, if you haven’t been there, be quiet. Because you don’t know, and you can’t criticize.

I say the same thing, too. I try to share what I know, link to studies, etc. You can lead a horse to water, right?

EP71: Why Commerical Baby Formula is Problematic: If you choose to have a child, don't you want to give that child the best?  And where are we without our health or healthy foods?
Why Commercial Baby Formula is Problematic: The breastfeeding time frame between 4-6 months. The reason is that milk is low in iron (and high in zinc for growth and development). By six months, your baby needs iron, or it will be anemic, and you do not want your baby to be anemic.

Sales of raw milk are up everywhere. Every raw milk farmer that I have talked to can’t produce enough. We sell raw milk on our farm, and we sell out every week. We started out being a raw cheese farm. Now we make cheese much less frequently because there’s such a demand for raw milk. I don’t know what is causing this. Is it COVID? People don’t believe the government anymore? I just don’t know. It’s a real phenomenon.

I noticed that too. When I can get raw cream, it’s just so amazing. It’s like a precious substance, so I’m so excited when I can get it. Recently, I have noticed that as well. It’s been difficult for me to get actual raw cream. So I stick to making my own coconut milk. It’s not the same, of course, as you know. 

Sally, it’s wonderful, and I agree with you, and all you shared. COVID opened people’s eyes to so much corruption.

I can make a prediction: pasteurized milk consumption is declining yearly – from 1 to 3%, and raw milk is skyrocketing. Within 20 to 30 years, the only milk that will be there and will be in all the stores will be raw milk. You can only do raw milk on a small scale; it must be on small farms. It’s only safe if it’s grass-fed. That’s the future.

I can make a prediction: pasteurized milk consumption is declining yearly – from 1 to 3%, and raw milk is skyrocketing. Within 20 to 30 years, the only milk that will be there and will be in all the stores will be raw milk. You can only do raw milk on a small scale; it must be on small farms. It’s only safe if it’s grass-fed. That’s the future.

That would be so lovely.

Their pasteurization has been one horrible 100-year mistake, which should never have happened.

Who knows what’s going to happen? But you know, the lab-grown stuff. Are you kidding me?

Look what’s happened to the Impossible Burger? I mean, people don’t want it.

So many people I’ve worked with share they get very ill eating Impossible Burgers. Such as massive vomiting and feeling like food poisoning, like a traditional food poisoning situation. We know there’s something nefarious there for sure. 

I’m curious, now we’re getting back to our conversation about the challenges for some mothers. Perhaps breastfeeding is impossible, or we have these wonderful formulas, but it is too challenging to make, or I don’t have the time.  You said babies are a hassle.

I say seriously, you have a baby. You decide to have a baby and don’t have time to prepare food for the baby. It’s not just the formula. If you’re going to be a good mom and parent, you’ll be cooking for that baby for 20 years. Babies are a hassle. They’re a lot of work, they are a lot of time. And pity, you didn’t realize that before you had babies, it’s not just a toy. It’s not just a little monument to your ego; this child needs you to know how to feed it and give it the best possible diet you can. That means preparing food at home. What better place to start them with than the formula? It takes 10 minutes to make per day. 10 minutes. That’s all.

That was my next question about the amount of time. Ten minutes is a small price to make a formula that will allow your baby to thrive. So I wanted to make sure that we touched on that. What about A2 milk? There are some whole milk formulas again, and they’re dried, so we know there are problems with dried formulas. What do you think of those choices?

It’s probably skim milk. A1 or A2 does seem to make a difference for some children. What I have read recently is that it’s really about how you feed the cows; if they are on grass, they’re going to produce A2 milk. If they’re inside on grain, they’ll produce A1 milk. You should definitely buy your milk from someone who has their cows on grass.

What type of guidance do you have in terms of weaning a baby?

I’ve written extensively on this; there’s an article at Weston A Price called Bringing Up Baby. The first question is, when do you wean? I agree with the American Academy of Pediatrics; the answer was four to six months. This is in line with what traditional cultures do, and no traditional culture does exclusive breastfeeding beyond six months, and there’s a scientific reason for that. 

The reason is that milk is low in iron. By six months, the baby needs iron, or it will be anemic, and you do not want your baby to be anemic. That has all sorts of terrible consequences, especially for their mental development. So what do you wean baby on? You want foods rich in cholesterol, rich in fat-soluble vitamins, and rich in iron. Our two winning foods are egg yolk, soft-cooked egg yolk, and liver puree. Babies thrive on this, and salt should be added to these; babies need salt. Then you can branch out into pureed meats, gizzards; a good one to do is fruits and vegetables cooked with cream or butter added. The basis of a baby’s early diet is egg yolks and liver, two of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. Get your baby off to an excellent start.

Wow, thank you for that. I’m glad we could go over that. 

Sally, do you know the actual percentage of moms that breastfeed in the United States?

It is pretty high. It might even be 50%.

The Importance of Raising Healthy Children

That’s extraordinary. If you choose to have a child, don’t you want to give that child the best?  And where are we without our health or healthy foods?

If your child is sick in some way, has asthma, allergies, learning problems, or autism, and you think making formula is a lot of hassle, wait until you have a baby who’s sick. The “hassle” of providing good food to your baby is nothing compared to the hassle of having a sick child.

If your child is sick in some way, has asthma, allergies, learning problems, or autism, and you think making formula is a lot of hassle, wait until you have a baby who’s sick. The “hassle” of providing good food to your baby is nothing compared to the hassle of having a sick child.

Indeed. Sally wasn’t the original formula promoted in the 1950s and was said to be better breast milk? That’s why we have this challenge today, right?

It was condensed milk. A can of condensed milk and Karo syrup formula, and sugar syrup. That’s what it was. I remember my brother got that.

I remember growing up, condensed milk was still popular, and it isn’t anymore except during Thanksgiving when you’re making desserts and things like that. We’ve had that many years of this being pushed on mothers and parents-to-be. I read in Sweden that they achieved 95% breastfeeding in the first month. Formula is banned in the hospital. Every mom has to start breastfeeding, and that’s how they achieved that. We can achieve it too.

Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything else that you’d like to share with us? Is there anything I missed that would be helpful for our listeners?

An emphasis on diet. On one side, you have a good diet; on the other, you want to minimize poisons, toxins, and the baby’s environment. The number one source of the poison is vaccinations. They are loaded with poison starting with aluminum, which is neurotoxic, and formaldehyde in them. They have MSG in them. They have polysorbate 40, which gets all these poisons across the blood-brain barrier. They are a witch’s brew, they have fetal cells in them, they have monkey kidney cells, they’re just a load of poisons. You can protect your child with a good diet. They’re giving these vaccinations for basic things that aren’t serious. The serious one was smallpox, and they don’t provide that anymore because the vaccine was worse than the disease. Polio was caused by pesticides, lead, arsenic, and then DDT. Once these were banned, polio stopped, except for polio caused by the vaccination. 

Do you want to shoot your baby full of poisons on the idea that you must protect your baby against measles and chickenpox? These are not severe diseases, especially in a well-nourished baby. My kids had measles in one day.

I’m glad you brought that up because I’ve shared this on the show before, but for our listeners, I lost my hearing after my first MMR shot in 1976. I think they’re more toxic today, and the schedule is ridiculous. We’re almost up to 80.

That two-month-old, you take him in, they get four. They are giving a vaccine for hepatitis, a disease of drug users; on day one, we have lost our way. We’ve lost our way, and our children are suffering.

Bless you, Sally, for all the work you’ve done all these years.

I want to share that your cookbook Nourishing Traditions brought me back to health. I did have some chemical imbalances, but your guidance helped me, so I want to thank you. 

Thank you for all your service to the world; you have done some amazing work to share the knowledge of what traditional peoples ate and why they were healthy and thriving. Now people are coming back and realizing the truth. They’ve experienced the heartache of the system. Now they’re coming back around and seeing the validity of a nutrient-dense diet and its importance and we have you to thank for that.
My name is never mentioned in nutrition circles. I have to laugh. My husband said, “Oh, look, here’s this conference for women. Why aren’t you invited to this conference?” It’s for influential women, I said. I had a PR gal and said, “Why don’t you see if Stanford magazine would do an article on me because I went to Stanford? I’m a graduate of Stanford.” Oh, boy, they were not interested.

It is a very interesting world we live in. 

I love your vision, Sally, of raw milk in every store, nutrient-dense foods readily available for all families at a reasonable price.

Will You Take the 50% Pledge?

We have something called the 50% pledge. We ask everyone to take the 50% pledge to spend 50% of their food dollars on direct sales with conscientious grass-fed based farmers and food artisans. For the other 50%, we can celebrate how small the world has become and enjoy rice, pineapple, papayas, or whatever you want. 

It’s not like we have to eat entirely local, but if Americans spent 50% of their food dollars on local food, we’d have a completely different system and a different economy. We’d have prosperity in the rural areas, and there would be a stop to using all these pesticides, and it would make a huge difference. 

Each one of us has to do that. We won’t change this system from the top, but that doesn’t matter. We can change it from the bottom. No force on earth is stronger than the educated consumer. If we start doing this, we’ll have a different system.

We’ve lost our way, and our children are suffering.

We are the ones, the taxpayers, with the power. If we come together as a community with more and more farmers doing what Sally and Polyface are doing, we will build a better world where everyone thrives and prospers. That’s a world that I am interested in helping birth. Thank you so much, Sally. It’s been wonderful chatting with you, and I appreciate your time.

Thank you for having me.

As I shared with Sally, I work a lot with preconception diets for parents-to-be to ensure an optimum developing environment for the baby. It’s common for nutrient deficiencies and overloads to be passed on to children. Additionally, babies given commercial formula are more likely to develop allergies, asthma, ADHD, autism, mental health, and growth challenges. Still, the good news is that you have so much power in your choices to create a happy, healthy family.

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