FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Orthomolecular Medicine News Service, May 18, 2016

Salad May Cause Autism?
If Johns Hopkins Says So, It MUST be True

Commentary by Andrew W. Saul, Editor

(OMNS, May 18, 2016) If you believe the media (and golly, doesn't everybody?), pregnant women should not eat leafy green vegetables. Well, that is the gist of Johns Hopkins' May 11 report that "Too Much Folate in Pregnant Women Increases Risk for Autism" (http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2016/too-much-folate-in-pregnant-women-increases-risk-for-autism-study-suggests.html ).

Okay, the study actually targets supplements, but let's take a reality check.

Folate is an essential B-vitamin. You cannot make it, so you have to eat it. The name is derived from "folium," Latin for "leaf." Think "foliage" and you've got it. And healthy plant-eating animals get a whole lot of it. Folate is super abundant in the diet of all herbivores, from rabbits to rhinos. Large vegetarian animals eat mind-boggling quantities of plants. They eat hundreds of pounds of greens daily, consuming a huge amount of folate.

Where are all the autistic elephants?

I happen to be a former dairyman. We had no autism among our calves even though I witnessed copious amounts of folate-laden grasses being eaten by their pregnant mothers.

And how about those gigantic plant-eating dinosaurs? No wonder they are all extinct. It wasn't an asteroid and it wasn't climate change after all: it was too much folate in their diet.

As for rabbits, I have watched them give birth. Well, almost. I was observing a very pregnant female and I left to go to the bathroom. When I got back, she had delivered nine young.

Nice little bunnies. None ever developed autism.

An equal-opportunity offender, the Johns Hopkins study is also apparently trying to discourage use of vitamin B12. Interesting, that. Vitamin B12 is famously abundant in seafood and meat. Does Johns Hopkins want pregnant women to be neither herbivorous nor carnivorous? I mean, what's left?

My guess might be this: eating fat, sugar and additives must be the way to birth a really healthy baby. But then, I could be wrong. After all, I am a guy.

And, I eat like a rabbit and that means lots of salad. Cabbage. Kale. Broccoli. Spinach. Romaine lettuce. Greens. Lots of fresh and raw greens. I also take B12 supplements (methylcobalamin 5,000 micrograms sublingually, twice weekly).

Should you think my attitude about autism to be a bit flippant, let me assure you that it is not. Back in 1999, I spoke at the same conference as did Dr. Andrew Wakefield. Then and now, learning from him has strengthened my conviction that autism is caused by vaccination, not vitamins.

Now there's a story the media isn't telling.

(OMNS founder and editor Andrew W. Saul has no financial connection whatsoever with any supplement manufacturer or any other part of the health products industry. He is author or coauthor of a dozen books, and is featured in the documentaries FoodMatters and That Vitamin Movie.)

Nutritional Medicine is Orthomolecular Medicine

Orthomolecular medicine uses safe, effective nutritional therapy to fight illness. For more information: http://www.orthomolecular.org

Find a Doctor

To locate an orthomolecular physician near you: http://orthomolecular.org/resources/omns/v06n09.shtml

The peer-reviewed Orthomolecular Medicine News Service is a non-profit and non-commercial informational resource.

Editorial Review Board:

Ian Brighthope, M.D. (Australia)
Ralph K. Campbell, M.D. (USA)
Carolyn Dean, M.D., N.D. (USA)
Damien Downing, M.D. (United Kingdom)
Michael Ellis, M.D. (Australia)
Martin P. Gallagher, M.D., D.C. (USA)
Michael J. Gonzalez, N.M.D., D.Sc., Ph.D. (Puerto Rico)
William B. Grant, Ph.D. (USA)
Ron Hunninghake, M.D. (USA)
Michael Janson, M.D. (USA)
Robert E. Jenkins, D.C. (USA)
Bo H. Jonsson, M.D., Ph.D. (Sweden)
Peter H. Lauda, M.D. (Austria)
Thomas Levy, M.D., J.D. (USA)
Stuart Lindsey, Pharm.D. (USA)
Joseph Mercola, D.O. (USA)
Jorge R. Miranda-Massari, Pharm.D. (Puerto Rico)
Karin Munsterhjelm-Ahumada, M.D. (Finland)
W. Todd Penberthy, Ph.D. (USA)
Jeffrey A. Ruterbusch, D.O. (USA)
Gert E. Schuitemaker, Ph.D. (Netherlands)
Jagan Nathan Vamanan, M.D. (India)
Ken Walker, M.D. (Canada)
Atsuo Yanagisawa, M.D., Ph.D. (Japan)

Robert G. Smith, Ph.D. (USA), Assistant Editor
Helen Saul Case, M.S. (USA), Assistant Editor
Michael S. Stewart, B.Sc.C.S. (USA), Technology Editor

Andrew W. Saul, Ph.D. (USA), Editor and contact person. Email: drsaul@doctoryourself.com This is a comments-only address; OMNS is unable to respond to individual reader emails. However, readers are encouraged to write in with their viewpoints. Reader comments become the property of OMNS and may or may not be used for publication.

To Subscribe at no charge: http://www.orthomolecular.org/subscribe.html

To Unsubscribe from this list: http://www.orthomolecular.org/unsubscribe.html