health & wellness
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Healthy
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New book shares nutrition tips for
feeding your baby for optimal health.
Suzanne Chessler
Contributing Writer
A
s a very young child, Katherine
Erlich did not eat cholent or
schmaltz with gribenes, but as
a holistic pediatrician, she recommends
both for children even under 2 years old.
Erlich, who practices in West
Bloomfield, is convinced that the very
young need a diet filled with animal
products, most particularly from ani-
mals raised in a natural environment
free of chemicals, antibiotics and geneti-
cally modified seeds.
The doctor's suggestions, the studies
that formed the basis for her conclu-
sions and resources for parents are pre-
sented in a new book, Super Nutrition for
Babies: The Right Way to Feed Your Baby
for Optimal Health (Fair Winds; $16.99).
Erlich met her co-writer, Kelly
Genzlinger, as the two tried to bring
what they deemed healthier food choices
into the Birmingham Public Schools
attended by their own children.
"The book provides information
for everyone although the focus is on
babies:' explains Erlich, 42, who graduat-
ed from the College of Human Medicine
at Michigan State University, did her
residency at Beaumont Hospital and has
been in private practice for 13 years.
"I want people to be aware of potential
harm from exposure to food chain toxins
present because of pesticides and other
chemicals, and I want readers to realize
that they are not getting some essential
nutrients when using products from ani-
mals raised indoors on factory farms:'
Specifically addressing infant nutri-
tion, Erlich defines many high-quality
foods, such as liver, eggs and butter. She
explains her evaluation of the benefits
derived from them according to age and
provides recipes for their use.
"Our grandparents knew to make
broth with bones, but somehow that
information hasn't been passed along,"
says Erlich, at odds with the way the
food pyramid for children has been
92
June
2 012
redesigned with an empha-
sis on grains.
"Our grandparents
didn't see fat as a dietary
evil, and there's a reason for
that. Children need certain
fats (from grass-fed animals,
olive oil and coconut oil) for
the development and function of every
ried to emergency physi-
cian Andrew Erlich and the
Erlich, who has worked three summers mother of Emily, 13, and Charles, 9.
"I always fed them eggs and butter as
as a doctor at Tamarack Camps, came to
my mother, Joan Simon, fed me, but I
focus on the different nutritional needs
didn't buy as many organic products for
of babies as she worked in a traditional
my daughter.
pediatric practice and did independent
"While I shopped
research to help her
in stores with organic
young patients.
products, I started
As she acquired
looking for farms
information, Erlich
where animals are
moved off on her
raised in pastures.
own as a consultant,
"I brought selec-
generally recom-
tions from those farms
mending diets that
into our home, and I
return to eating hab
found mail-order sup-
its of earlier genera-
pliers referenced in
tions.
the book:'
Erlich found
Erlich and
agreement with
Genzlinger, who start-
Genzlinger, a
ed their text by estab-
University of
lishing an outline and
Michigan busi-
going back and forth
ness graduate who
Katherine Erlich
in the writing, strong-
focused on analysis
ly urge the avoidance
and gained nutri-
of sugar.
tional knowledge
"The section on raw
through independent
milk is probably the
reading assigned
most controversial
by the American
part of the book," says
Association
Erlich, who contends
of Nutritional
that pasteurization
Consultants.
damages the milk,
Erlich believes
making it less nutri-
food choices popu-
tious and more irritat-
lar in the past help
— Katherine Erlich ing to the body.
combat some of the
"I drink it, and
problems now being
my family drinks it.
seen with more fre-
My son, who had a problem with dairy
quency, such as autism, asthma, autoim-
products, drinks it twice daily without
mune conditions, type 2 diabetes and
any adverse effects.
many more.
"Those really uncomfortable about
"My knowledge came after my own
drinking raw milk (although prepared
children were babies," says Erlich, mar-
"Our grandparents
didn't see fat as a
dietary evil, and
there's a reason for
that."
Super
Nutrition for
Babies: The
Right Way to
Feed Your Baby
for Optimal Health
under sanitary conditions) can retain a
large portion of nutrients by choosing
milk processed at a lower temperature
through vat pasteurization."
The most alarming research finding
for Erlich had to do with iron needs.
"If babies do not have enough iron
when they are about 9 months old, they
actually can experience permanent dam-
age that affects the brain," she says.
"That's why it's important that babies
are fed meat and not simply reliant on
fortified cereals as a source of iron. It's
much harder for babies to digest the iron
from vegetable and grain sources:'
Since writing the book, Erlich has
learned about vitamin K2.
"When we drink milk and eat butter
from grass-fed cows, we get more of that
vitamin," she says. "Vitamin K2 takes
calcium from our arteries and puts it in
our bones and teeth to strengthen them.
"Our world is focused on calcium,
but what we need to do is maximize our
Vitamin D and Vitamin K2 intake. If we
don't have enough of these vitamins, we
can't absorb the calcium:'
Erlich, who graduated from Groves
High School and now is a member of
Temple Israel, says she acts as an addi-
tional resource to what primary care
pediatricians do.
"I think we are missing an integral
part of medicine if we neglect nutrition,"
she says. "I want parents to focus on
nourishment of the body and what that
means to disease prevention.
"The whole idea of the book was to
give patients' families and others the
knowledge I have gained?' 7