The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 143

'irlu rD) 1 ds Mean ealth Too jr. if HP- Plain Good Nutrition Here Are Some Tips on How to Best Feed Your Family and What to Feed Them California, and bottom, Hain important producer of unprocessed many of them used in cosmetics. HEALTH FOOD DISTRIBUTION is no longer a small operation. Top, plant of Kahan Lessin in largest distributors of health food prod BY MARILYN As a teacher of nutrition I am often confronted with the wide disagreements and can understand why some in their confusion would classify those of us who believe in health foods as crackpots or food faddists. One expert says meat is bad while another extolls its virtues.

One says milk is bad while another calls it the food of life. One praises bread as the staff of life and another warns the reader never to touch it. I can only answer to my students that the field of nutrition is a relatively young science and there are bound to be areas of dispute. But there are disagreements in any field and they never present any reason for disregarding well established findings. I also must admit that there are those in the health food field who make unfounded statements.

Unfounded claims, however, are not peculiar to health foods. Misleading claims are a part of the tremendous advertising program of our big food industry and and many fad diets which can be detrimental to health are found frequently in popular magazines. Learn to Sift Those who are genuinely interested in health must learn to sift through the available reading materials and separate the established facts from the unfounded claims. I believe that establishing good eating habits is worth all the necessary effort. In our society it takes careful planning to even find time to eat the necessary foods.

We are living at such a fast pace that a relaxed mealtime is almost unknown. To clear up some of the confusion that may exist, I have formulated the following guidelines. Remember that you are an individual and that your needs will not be exactly the same as mine. If something doesn't agree with you, don't eat it. There is no indispensable food only indispensable nutrients.

Use wholesome foods as near their natural state as possible. This is the secret of good nutrition, more 11 i 4 ft ii tu ni I miniii Hili-rihn- ihiiilii-ll! Uiw mkmht mtm maminl Ill ilum 11 illliiitiiaMlllWWIiiill ill 'I ril" NiiwffihVlliii i qrw BiirrmirnTniym-mir-iTinn-rnB-n-frrwrtrwmi'wwiiirt PEOPLE, TOO Pests Aren't Only Prey of Pesticides BY RUTH M. IIARMEK In a prankish mood one day in the 20's, H.L. Mencken wrote an article to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the invention of the bathtub. In an equally prankish mood, his newspaper editor ran the article, and it was sent out on the news wire report to other papers.

Readers, ignoring the historical and architectural evidence of a couple of thousand years, took the joke seriously. Thousands of speakers and writers solemnly referred to it as proof positive of America's technological and inventive genius. A public health official in New York cited the "fact" in a scientific journal; a reputable encyclopedia incorporated the "fact" in its pages. His predictions about "booboisie" gullibility confirmed, a chastened Mencken decided he had gone too far. He wrote another piece, revealing the first had been a hoax.

However, few would believe him. By that time the "invention" of the bathtub had become so cherished an American myth that he was vilified for attacking it a clear lack of patriotism on the part of that upstart. Science Tastes Good The anecdote is relevant since it demonstrates that the myths of our literate society are often harder to refute than primitive folk myths. The printed word has a special magica magic that is enhanced by our readiness to believe anything associated with scientific and technological advancement: the marvelous ingredient. Currently, one of the myths hardest to refute is that foods laced with chemicals are better than foods without.

They are more scientific, literate folklore has it, and science tastes good and is good for you. Some progress has been made happily during recent 'years, for which we owe a real debt to the organic food advocates. They have helped to make us aware that man must work with nature rather than war against it. To do otherwise is to incur severe penalties. Poison Stories The stand of the organic gardeners has required courage intellectual, moral, and otherwise.

We have been so indoctrinated to a contrary view that we have accepted the chemically oriented opinion that to oppose artificial fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, growth regulators, and other synthetic stuff is to be an "eco-kook" or an "eekological freak." Organic gardeners are, of course, far from being the social and intellectual misfits of popular mythology: one of the most dedicated I know, a neighbor of ours, is an executive of a major oil company. Yet organic food advocates have accepted the abuse and have frequently endured ha-rassment by those government agencies we pay to protect us from the poisoners and polluters because they believe in an idea the idea that it is safer, it is cheaper, it is wiser to maintain natural balance than to destroy it. Now that the consequences of chemical warfare are becoming more fully known the damage done the planet, its people, and every living thing we are beginning to listen to them. It is late in the game for that. Please Turn to Page 7, Col.

3 Dispelling Some Myths About Health Foods Stores, Products LAMBSON important than all the other rules. Quality of food is more important than quantity. It makes nutritional sense to eat a variety of foods but the portions certainly need not be large. Don't be afraid to follow your whims on specific foods. If you pre-' fer not to eat certain foods generally regarded as beneficial to health, simply compensate through the use of foods which will provide the same nutrients.

Take a good vitamin-mineral supplement for insurance. However, remember that foods come first. Don't expect your supplements to take the place of a carefully planned diet. Don't be bogged down by differences of opinion. Follow the estab- lished facts about the various nutrients.

In addition to these general guidelines, the following "special helps" have proven beneficial to those who are learning about foods. Take Time Avoid highly processed convenience foods. Take time to prepare wholesome foods. Do not use refined white flour and sugar. Substitute whole grains and honey.

Avoid, foods containing chemical additives. Read the labels and take this hint from one prominent nutritionist: If you can't pronounce it, don't buy it. Use one to two tablespoons of cojd-pressed oil iri your daily diet or the equivalent in. foods Containing unsaturated fats. Use at least three vegetables daily, organically grown whenever possible.

Use fresh fruit "instead of canned. If not organic, it is better to peel the fruits than eat the sprays. Use yogurt, acidophilus or keii'er often. Eat as much raw food as possible. Make cooked desserts a special treat only.

If your family is not fully converted, serve the dessert on Sundays and fresh fruit the other six days. Use wheat germ arid nutritional yeast as diet insurance. Please Turn to Page 3, Col. 3 tar products. The synthetic vitamins are then presumably identical to the natural crystalline vitamins which they imitate.

They have the same molecular formations and the same chemical reactions, according to chemists who insist that no one can tell the difference. Vitamins are synthesized for the simple reason that synthetic vitamins are cheaper to produce than natural vitamins. However, though the isolated factor may appear identical, there is one undisputed difference between a natural and a synthetic product. Natural vitamins are derived or condensed from natural foods. In these natural foods many factors occur together: vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes, which help the body utilize absorbable nutrients.

Researchers are learning that all of these factors work as a team. Please Turn to Page 8, Col. 3 Environment Run Deep SPENCER of the country's public water supply was unfit for human consumption. In the same year, the magazine warned of drastic future problems in the big cities because of the uncontrolled dumping of sewage into the rivers and smoke into the air. In 1933 also came the first mention of the problems posed by food preservatives and additives in an article titled "People Being Used as Guinea Pigs." Throughout the 1930s, when of pesticides was really beginning (their wholesale use didn't come about until after World War II), stories detailed potential dangers to man.

Please Turn Page 4, Col. 3 Natural, Synthetic Vitamins: Just What's the Difference? i 5 W. BASSETT advertising slogans and who are seriously questioning the conventional food habits of our generation. Then, there is the idea that health food stores specialize -in the weird and exotic and mostly tasteless -r-' products developed to suit the passing fancies of "faddists" or "nuts" or religious cultists. The fact is that many staples of the present American diet some of the healthiest staples, we might add had their origins in health food They include yogurt (as one distributor said, "Up until 10 years ago, you couldn't place a jar of yogurt in a supermarket to save your stone ground flours and stone-ground breads, wheat germ and instant breakfasts or protein supplements.

Also, almost all vegetable juices, most fruit juices (especially those of the more exotic variety such as papaya, mango, etc), soy and safflower products, meat substitutes such as imitation bacon bits, brewers yeast, Please Turn to Page 5, Col. 3 changeover in the family diet. They became avid consumers of organically grown produce, whole wheat products and various vitamins and supplements. He and his wife, Beth, even planted an organic garden on the hillside behind their home. is impressed with the caliber of the average health food store patron, calling him "much more knowledgeable, much more selective and much more sophisticated than the average supermarket customer." This fact, he said, places obvious additional demands on the retailer.

"Not only must the store owner have a full knowledge of nutrition and the nutritive values of food, but. so must any employe who deals with the public." Despite that, he said he has found his new. role in an industry devoted to better health for all "an immensely rewarding experience." ucts in Southern plant. Hain is vegetable oils, BY LINDA CLARK BY NORMAN Now that it's become an accepted fact that the health food industry is a major and viable factor in this nation, it's time we dispelled some of the myths surrounding it. First, it is not a passing fad.

The growth over the past 30 years and especially in the past 10 has been a steady growth with all available evidence showing that the overwhelming majority of those who join the movement stay with it. Secondly, the growth has not received its major impetus from the. so-called hip generation even though that portion of our popula-. tion has adopted a "back to philosophy. While the average age of the health food store patron has indeed dropped considerably, the majority of these new customers reflect the growing awareness and sophistication of consumers from all areas of society young mothers concerned about their children, men and women of all ages who -don't buy the idea that foods must contain preservatives or that produce must be sprayed with poisons, who don't buy 'Organic' A Magic but Misused Word BY BETTY LEE MORALES Organic is the magic word, more than anything else, which is bringing thousands of new customers into health food stores from coast to coast.

Many of them have never before set foot inside such an establishment. But now the scare of ordinary foods has overcome former prejudices, and flushed consumers, of all ages and descriptions, into an open quest for something better. While health food stores of all sizes, shapes and descriptions are opening up all over the world, Southern California is still the cradle of the entire health food industry and particularly the organically produced fresh fruits and vegetables so much in demand. It was here in Los Angeles that certified organically produced foods were first offered to local consumers, then by 1957 shipped via refrigerated truck and by air freight to most of the 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Incredibly Misused Term This miracle of merchandising was possible only because a small group of dedicated farmers formed what amounted to a voluntary co-op and marketed their produce under a common label, Sun Circle Ranches.

In order to qualify for use of the common label a farmer is required to furnish the history of his land for the past five years; to give a complete history of his growing methods, including everything used for any purpose. He also is required to sign a legal guarantee, which is a continuing guarantee until rescinded in writing. Acceptance af any farmer also gives the Sun Circle Ranches team of inspectors the right to come on the premises at any time, without notice, and to take samples for testing: Unfortunately, the word organic has become an incredibly misused one and newcomers to the health movement are often fooled. By applying the rule of common sense any aware consumer knows that when he sees the word organic blazing on the label of jams, jellies, juices or vitamins, for instance, he'd better read the small print. Unless every item included in the formula had been produced according to natural law only no synthetic substances such as super-phosphate Please Turn to Page 6, Col.

3 ENGINEERING BACKGROUND Enters Health Food Business Is there really a difference between natural and synthetic vitamins and minerals? Some supplement companies produce products from natural sources exclusively. Others make them from synthetics only. Still others combine both. Are all products the same in effect? Most scientists claim that natural and synthetic vitamins and minerals are identical. The method of synthesis, generally speaking, is this: A single vitamin factor, called a crystalline substance, is separated from its natural source, such as rice polishings, brewer's yeast, liver, citrus fruits, etc.

It then becomes an isolated factor. Once it is isolated, its molecular formation or pattern is determined; then it is duplicated in the chemical laboratory by assembling component parts from chemicals already available. Some of these chemicals are coal- Natural Health, Movement Ties By MIKE The dove-tailing of the health food and environmental protection movements goes back to at least the early 1930s and is clearly reflected in the natural health publications of the era. The only surviving magazine is Let's LIVE, then called California Health News, and its pages throughout the 30s were filled with warnings on air and water pollution, on the wanton killing of animals for fashion, on the dangers of insecticides and on the use of chemical preservatives in food. In February of 1933, for instance, it carried an article not unlike one which appeared in the nation's press earlier this year charging that much 'New Breed' James Peterson is a young Glen-dale man with an engineering degree from Iowa State University, a full partnership in a successful industrial engineering consulting firm and who, until recently, was a divisional vice president of one of the nation's largest conglomerates.

He is also a prime example of the "new breed" of businessman entering the health food field following his purchase of Health Town, a longtime successful retail store in Arcadia. What brings a person of his background into this industry? "My appetite was first whetted when our consulting firm (Beck-Peterson) did some work for one of the top health food distributors. We also later handled some matters for Hain and for Plus Products (makers of Tigers Milk). "I confess that I was intrigued first by the tremendous growth potential of the industry," he said, "but that interest developed into a deeper, more personal one as I read and learned more about the various products sold through health food stores." He said he was won over by the logic presented in a number of books on nutrition and in the care that health food manufacturers take to keep all the essential nutrients in food without the use of chemicals and artificial preservatives. "We were expecting our first baby and were worried about some of the things we had been reading about commercial baby foods.

We were also frankly a little frightened by the almost daily reports in the media of increasing adverse medical findings on such things as DDT and mercury in fish and additives in other foods." Their involvement, then, began as a personal one with a near-complete.