I found this on another board (maybe Soil and Health?) Whole Foods is out to save us. Yay!!
Dear Members,
>
>The Weston A. Price Foundation has issued the following press
>release about the "Health Starts Here" low-fat, mostly vegetarian
>marketing program at Whole Foods Markets.
>
>Please feel free to distribute this press release to your local
>media. In addition, you can contact Whole Foods at
>customer.questions@ wholefoods. com to share your experiences with
>low-fat versus traditional high-fat diets.
>
>Sincerely,
>Sally Fallon Morell, President
>
>WHOLE FOODS PROMOTES MILITANT VEGETARIAN AGENDA
>Has the Upscale Market Outlived Its Usefulness?
>
>WASHINGTON, DC. February 3, 2010: Whole Foods Markets has launched
>a nationwide "Health Starts Here" marketing scheme that endorses a
>low-fat, vegetarian diet, with promises that the diet will "improve
>health easily and naturally." The plan promotes the books and
>private business ventures of Joel Fuhrman, MD, and Rip Esselstyn,
>both of whom worked with Whole Foods to formulate the new
>guidelines. Customers now receive a pamphlet urging them to adopt a
>low-fat, plant-based diet and to cut back or completely eliminate
>animal foods. Many Whole Foods stores no longer sell books
>advocating consumption of meat, eggs and dairy products.
>
>The plan will feature new Aggregate Nutrient Density Index (ANDI)
>labels for foods in the store; the index is designed to make plant
>foods to appear "nutrient dense" by favoring various phytonutrients
>in plants and ignoring many vitamins and minerals essential to
>health. "Whole Foods has stacked the deck against animal foods by
>choosing ANDI parameters that do not include a host of key
>nutrients, such as vitamins A, D and K, DHA, EPA arachidonic acid,
>taurine, iodine, biotin, pantothenic acid, and vital minerals like
>sodium, chloride, potassium, sulfur, phosphorus, copper, manganese,
>boron, molybdenum and chromium," says Sally Fallon Morell, president
>of the Weston A. Price Foundation. "Many of the phytochemicals that
>Fuhrman includes in the index he developed for Whole Foods play no
>essential role in the body and may even be harmful."
>
>"Animal foods like meat, liver, butter, whole milk and eggs contain
>ten to one hundred times more vitamins and minerals than plant
>foods," says Fallon Morell. "Plant foods add variety and interest to
>the human diet but in most circumstances do not qualify as
>'nutrient-dense' foods."
>
>"For years before becoming deathly ill, I followed the dietary
>suggestions in the Whole Foods plan," said Kathryne Pirtle, author
>of Performance without Pain. "I ate large amounts of organic salads,
>vegetables and fruits, lots of whole grains, only a little meat and
>no animal fat. I had chronic pain for twenty-five years on this
>diet, then acid reflux, then a serious inflammation in my spine
>followed by chronic diarrhea. Without switching to nutrient-dense
>animal foods, including eggs, butter and whole dairy products, not
>only would I have lost my national career as a performing artist, I
>would have died at forty-five years old! I am not alone in this
>story of ill health from a low-fat, plant-based diet, which does not
>supply a person with enough nutrients to be healthy and can be very
>damaging to the intestinal tract."
>
>"Consumers can send a message about Whole Foods' misinformed scheme
>by voting with their feet," says Fallon Morell. "Most major grocery
>store chains now carry basic organic staples and a larger array of
>organic fruits and vegetables than Whole Foods markets. And citizens
>should purchase seasonal produce and their meat, eggs and dairy
>products directly from farmers engaged in non-toxic and grass-based
>farming. It's not appropriate for Whole Foods to promote a scheme
>that has no scientific basis and that bulldozes their customers
>towards the higher profit items in their stores." The local chapters
>of the Weston A. Price Foundation help consumers connect with
>farmers raising animal foods in humane, healthy and ecologically
>friendly fashion.
>
>"The growing emphasis on plant-based diets deficient in animal
>protein also serves to promote soy foods as both meat and dairy
>substitutes, " says Kaayla T. Daniel, PhD, CCN, author of The Whole
>Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food. "Soy
>is not only one of the top eight allergens but has been linked in
>more than sixty years of studies to malnutrition, digestive
>distress, thyroid dysfunction, reproductive disorders including
>infertility, and even cancer, especially breast cancer."
>
>"Low-fat patients are my most unhealthy patients," says John P.
>Salerno, MD, a board certified family physician from New York City.
>"The reason we are spiraling into diabetes and obesity is because of
>the low-fat concept developed by the U.S government decades ago.
>Low-fat diets have a low nutrient base, and phytonutrients in
>vegetables cannot be properly absorbed without fat."
>
>Fallon Morell cites recent studies from Europe showing that low-fat
>diets promote weight gain in both children and adults, and also
>contribute to infertility. A meta-analysis published January, 2010
>in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found no significant
>evidence that saturated fat consumption is associated with an
>increased risk of cardiovascular disease.
>
>"Whole Foods CEO John Mackay has stated that eating animal fats
>amounts to an addiction. But in fact, animal fats are essential for
>good health," says Fallon Morell. "The nutrients in animal fats,
>such as vitamins A, D and K, arachidonic acid, DHA, choline,
>cholesterol and saturated fat, are critical for brain function. In
>the misguided war against cholesterol and saturated fat, we have
>created an epidemic of learning disorders in the young and mental
>decline in the elderly."
>
>"Perhaps the vegetarian diet has affected the thinking powers of
>Whole Foods management," says Fallon Morell. "It's time for the
>stockholders to insist on leadership devoted to increasing customer
>base, not promoting a personal vegetarian agenda."
>
>Comments about the Whole Foods Health Starts Here scheme can be
>emailed to customer.questions@ wholefoods. com.
>
>The Weston A. Price Foundation is a 501C3 nutrition education
>foundation with the mission of disseminating accurate, science-based
>information on diet and health. Named after nutrition pioneer Weston
>A. Price, DDS, author of the book, Nutrition and Physical
>Degeneration, the Washington, DC-based Foundation publishes a
>quarterly journal for over 12,000 members, supports 400 local
>chapters worldwide and hosts a yearly conference. The Foundation
>headquarters phone number is (202) 363-4394, westonaprice. org,
>info@westonaprice. org.
>
>CONTACT
>Kimberly Hartke, Publicist, the Weston A. Price Foundation
>703-860-2711, 703-675-5557 press@westonaprice. org