I met Dr. Marco Kappenberger when both of us were American Field Service (AFS) exchange high school students. He was a foreign exchange student to the United States from Europe and I was a foreign exchange student sent to Chile, South America. Little did I know at that time that significant events would transpire years later which would affect world nutrition from our brief meeting.
After World War II, the United Nations was established. One of their first actions was to establish the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). The purpose of the FAO was to devise ways to improve the nutritional status of the world’s population by helping to alleviate the alarming problem of malnutrition and starvation that was so prevalent in developing countries after World War II. The United Nations felt that lasting peace was impossible under malnutrition and starvation because people became irritable and frequently committed aggressive acts to alleviate their suffering.
Dr. Kappenberger was a Swiss representative to the United Nations working with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Rome, Italy after completing his education. The FAO has helped focus public awareness on world hunger but unable to solve world nutritional problems until Dr. Kappenberger met with my brother and with me.
He had heard about the work my father and brother were doing with Amino Acid Chelated Minerals. He traveled to Utah to meet with them and investigate their work. He casually mentioned to my brother if he knew a lady by the name of Janeel Ashmead. DeWayne said “yes I was his younger sister”. Marco requested if it would be possible to see me? A meeting was arranged and Marco and I had a fabulous reunion discussing our AFS experiences. I shared with Marco the need for infant and young children to have Amino Acid Chelated Minerals. From previous travel in the Middle East, Europe and Israel, I had witnessed young babies crawling in sewage and garbage looking for food, and young toddlers searching for cigarette butts to lessen their hunger pains.
I shared my personal experience about the Amino Acid Chelated minerals regarding my son who was prematurely born. My father put together a concoction that was a terrible, smelly thick paste that I put in his mouth to soften and melt. Due to his premature birth complications, he was not growing, and it was suspected that he had a hearing problem and possibly other complications. After receiving the nutritional concoction, my son began to take notice of his surroundings, and miracles happened! He began to grow and did not manifest any complications.
I shared with Dr. Kappenberger the need for baby and infant nutrition that worked. At my son’s birth there were no nutritional products available except one prescription product that was a liquid that contained iron, and two B vitamins. The formula made my son vomit it up so it was basically not helpful for him and was very expensive.
DeWayne and Dr. Kappenberger returned to DeWayne’s office and continued their meeting. Dr. Kappenberger’s emphasis was on malnutrition but DeWayne reminded him about my experience and what I saw in other countries. He counter malnutrition with undernutrition and began to explain the difference in both the United States and in other countries. Children who survive malnutrition and don’t die before age 5, will have their physical growth affected, weaken their resistance to disease, and impair their mental development.
This problem is overlooked in affluent countries. The children don’t look malnourished so there is not the attention or care given to them. Learning occurs when a child is at an optimum health level. If sick, undernourished or malnourished, his limited energy must be channeled solely to maintenance of bodily function to stay alive. Little learning can take place; motivation drops, interest is lost in pursuing academic tasks or goal setting. Infant nutrition begins in pregnancy. An infant deprived of proper nutrition is hindered in developing his or her full mental capacity. They may not receive adequate protein, vitamins or minerals, and carbohydrates may be excessive. A major consequence of this is in brain development.
Dr. Dobbins’s research research shows that without necessary flow of nutrients to the brain it is unable to create the complex structure of cell wiring and circuits that fuse them together to form the functioning human mind. If deprived of its needed nutrition, the brain’s genetic potential may not be reached. Deprivation of the correct balance of nutrients that are bioavailable to the brain may result in children suffering from starved brains and the risk of permanent damage.1
Dr. Ruth Widdowson’s clinical research in hospital findings was presented to the March of Dimes. She shared her findings on fetal undernutrition from unavailable or inadequate nutrients curtailed both placental and fetal growth by retarding the rate of cellular division and reducing the physical size of the body cells. Her research also showed children developed in this type of intrauterine environment carried these cellular defects the rest of their lives and passed it down to future generations.2
Most nutritionists and clinicians feel that the real potential from improved diet is preventative. The diet may modify the development of a disease state so that a clinical condition does not develop. Inadequate nutrition causes the body to be more susceptible to diseases that have the potential to kill us. It isn't malnutrition that kills us; but the condition malnutrition and undernutrition cause, that leave the body more vulnerable to diseases. Lack of bioavailable minerals is a major factor.
Minerals are involved in almost every physiological function necessary to sustain life. Growth and development can’t occur without minerals. Body processes cannot be regulated without minerals. Extracting energy from food we eat does not happen without minerals. The body can manufacture some of the vitamins that we need but they can’t make any of the minerals. Outside adequate sources need to be accessed for mineral supplies. Food, supplements, inhalation and absorption through the skin are some resources. But if we don’t get enough essential minerals from these sources the body is placed in jeopardy. Minerals are involved in more body functions than other basic nutrients we consume, including protein, vitamin, fats, carbohydrates and water. All of these nutrients are essential to our health and well-being. Without them we would be dead. Minerals are the spark of life. Any one mineral deficiency can seriously jeopardize our entire body by making other nutrients less valuable and unuseable.
It was these sequence of events in my life that triggered the intense desire to correct all of the problems and suffering I had witnessed and anguish I had felt over the suffering and problems arising from misguided diets, undernutrition, and resulting consequences that led to the United Nations statement:
“ Humanity will profit everywhere from the research done by Albion Laboratories. Intelligence and health is directly related to nutrition. In the past, research has completely ignored the need for minerals, without which the human body cannot exist.
With Albion’s program, we could be looking at the birth of a new era in agriculture and nutrition which could affect mankind’s attitude towards world peace.”
UNITED NATIONS
JULY 12, 1977
My father was the World Authority on Amino Acid Chelated Minerals and considered the Father of Chelation for plant, animal, and human nutrition. The official scientific definition of an amino acid chelated mineral was requested by AAFCO in 1967. It was adopted in 1970 and was written by my father and adopted by the entire world. He was the only one who had all the research, proof, and documentation of a true amino acid chelated mineral that duplicated the body’s natural mineral chelation process, animal amino acid chelation and plant amino acid chelation that could provide the scientific, official definition.
Dr. Janeel Henderson
- Dobbing, J., ed., Early Nutrition and Later Achievement (London: Academic Press), 1987
- Widdowson, R., “Malnutrition during pregnancy and early neonatal life,” presented at a symposium on fetal malnutrition, New York, 1970