Junk Foods Take Their Toll / Kelp Tablets and Hypothyroidism and Cavities

Dear Dr. Meinig: The awful eating habits of kids today makes me despondent about the future of our country. As a nutritionist you must be even more alarmed by all the junk food they consume. Your articles are very good, but I don’t suppose our young people pay any attention to them. What can be done: It seems so impossible? – C.W.

 

Dear C.W.: It is tempting to answer your letter with just one word…PRAY.

I must admit that the billions spent by the food industry to entice young and old alike to eat all that artificial grub at times makes the small voice of we who care seem inconsequential. However, just last week two teenagers, one on Monday and one on Thursday said to me as they were leaving my office: “I like your column,” and one added, “Keep it up.”

The reception of these articles has been utterly amazing. So many people are saying encouraging words about my words. Teenagers, as a rule, don’t go around complimenting adults on any subject. When two of them do so about nutrition, you may be sure I was more than pleased.

Over the years I have given numerous lectures to students and I often find children most willing to adopt better eating practices. However, when they get home, Mom or Dad actually push the sugary dessert or sweet snack upon them, failing to sense their desire to drop these harmful habits.

Our bodies are such great machines they can work reasonably well at much less than optimum. We should be on diet programs of quality not quantity. These suboptimal junk food junkets do take their toll. They do result in degenerative body breakdowns. Between 1962 and 1967 the incidence of chronic disease in 17 to 24 year olds climbed from 37.7% to 44.6%. Even worse, cancer incidence rates for children under 15 is 12.5 per 100,000 with a death rate of 7.15 and survival rate of only 30%. While we can’t overlook the increased presence of cancer in our young, too many accept arthritis, bad eyesight, heart disease, etc. as just something that happened to them. This continual day to day, less than optimum nutrition, does stress our fine machine and cause it to break down before its time.

I’m encouraged that all around the country a glimmer of nutritional interest is being shown by our young people. They have the ability to make revolutionary changes in their lifestyles overnight. Witness their acceptance of the hippie movement and their brief excursion into the drug scene, which is also rapidly changing. Now for many it appears to be replaced by a genuine desire to become physically charged by the pleasantries, the wholesomeness and vitality of optimum life and health. Be not despondent, C.W. The young have inherited our environment. They didn’t create it, but by golly I think they will change it for the better.

 

Dear Dr. Meinig: I read all your columns and am filing them away in my ever-growing nutrition file. Thank you for writing them. Are kelp tablets useful to people with hypothyroidism? (Instead of thyroid.) Are they a practical supplement for preventing cavities? (Dr. Fred Miller recommends kelp in “Open Door to Health.”) How many should a child or adult take? Thank you. – S.N.

 

Dear S.N.: Yes, the iodine and trace elements in kelp are often helpful in boosting thyroid activity.

This is no doubt due to the small amount of seafood now used plus the many refined foods consumed that are deficient in most trace elements. In Japan the average intake of iodine is 3 mg. and it is claimed that sluggish thyroid cases are infrequent in that country.

Kelp is found in all the various oceans. Because of the wide spread locations a number of varieties exist and chemical compositions of them do vary. The one I have been prescribing for over 30 years has not had any cases of Iodism associated with it even when massive doses were used. The amount usually prescribed for adults is three tablets or a teaspoon full of powder three or four times daily. With small children, cut the dose to one or two tablets. Those who eat kelp as a food get more of it than one obtains taking tablets.

Interestingly, kelp helps both high and low thyroid activity. One must be aware that numbers of 90 existing glandular problems often go along with thyroid trouble. These can involve many glands such as the pituitary, gonads, thymus, spleen, ovaries, pancreas to mention a few. Kelp is also helpful with menstrual difficulties of scanty or prolonged flow. Women who have trouble becoming pregnant or difficulty carrying babies to full term frequently find solution of the trouble by using kelp.

Inasmuch as the diets that lead to decayed teeth are very deficient in trace elements, kelp would be helpful in supplying these. It does supply small amounts of calcium, phosphorus and magnesium, all of which are very important in controlling tooth decay. However, the addition of bone meal would be indicated as the amounts in kelp are relatively small.

It is interesting that you mention Dr. Fred Miller of Altoona, Pennsylvania and his book. He was an exceptional nutritionist and I was proud to know him. I have shown his movie on reducing tooth decay to numerous school children and also use a number of his slides in nutritional lectures.

Not all people will have an underactive thyroid return to normal using kelp. Glands have many basic functions, so it is not unusual for them to have a variety of needs. When good nutrition doesn’t solve the problem, thyroid prescriptions are indicated. At times other glands may also need to be helped to overcome the problem.