Price's Dietary Wisdom

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http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/features/price.html

 

by Michael Babcock

2003 Michael Babcock

Please feel free to reproduce with an acknowledgment.

 

I recently read an extraordinary and thought-provoking book,

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS. In the

1930's Price, a dentist from Cleveland, Ohio, became interested in the

deteriorating dental and general health of his patients and of modern

Americans. He noticed that each new generation seemed to have more

cavities and more dental problems such as crowded teeth and narrow

bridge formation, accompanied by an increase in other health problems,

such as allergies, fatigue, behavioral problems and asthma. Suspecting

that the cause of this worsening dental and overall health might be

nutritional and suspecting the many processed foods in his patient's

diets, Price decided to travel the world to examine firsthand cultures

still eating their traditional diets, devoid of modern, processed

foods.

 

He eventually studied fourteen different cultures, including a

remote island in Scotland, tribes in Africa, Eskimos in Alaska,

Polynesian islands, and a village high in the Alps of Switzerland.

 

Cultures with Radiant Health

 

He found that, despite widely differing diets, all of the people

he studied experienced radiant health with a nearly complete absence

of dental problems. In some groups less than 1% of the permanent teeth

were decayed – in other words, he needed to examine three or four

people to find one cavity. There was a nearly complete lack of

degenerative illness. He was amazed to find cultures where no one had

ever had tuberculosis (one of the major killers of his time) or

cancer.

 

Let me repeat this: the widely diversified cultures he studied all

enjoyed radiant health, free from cavities, other dental problems, and

degenerative illnesses. What is more, the people all seemed happy and

there were no prisons or jails – because there was no need for

them.

However – and this is a big however – within one generation

of the

introduction of modern foods, usually white flour, sugar, jam, canned

foods and the like, these people began to suffer from the same health

problems that plagued modern (1930's) civilization.

 

While eating traditional foods there were virtually no dental

problems that in modern culture would require orthodontics –

narrow

bridges, crowded teeth, overbites. Yet when the parents (not the

children) began eating processed foods, these problems appeared in the

next children born. One generation is all it took to destroy radiant

health and replace it with orthodontic defects, rampant tooth decay

and degenerative illness. In many instances Price was able to compare

the native peoples on their traditional diets with white settlers who

were eating modern, processed foods: the contrast of native health

with the settler's health problems is most striking.

 

The book conveys its message with both words and a meticulous

photographic record that is absolutely convincing. The contrast

between the faces of peoples before and after the inclusion of modern

foods is quite startling. Viewing these pictures and reading the

catalog of problems that developed after modern foods arrived

absolutely shows that eating modern processed foods leads invariably

to dental and orthodontic health problems accompanied by degenerative

illness. Among the other problems that he noticed was an increase in

tuberculosis, an increase in cancer and a decrease in mental capacity.

All this in just one generation.

 

Food was important to these people. In many countries it took a

great deal of time and effort to obtain needed foods, in contrast with

our modern world where we expect our food to be readily available,

easy to prepare and dirt cheap. We settle for fast foods and

convenience foods without a thought about the long-term consequences

to our health or our children's health. One long-term consequence is

that we will eventually pay out many times more on disease-care than

if we paid more attention to our food. Rather than having a food

industry that focuses on providing us maximum nutrition, we have one

that focuses on maximizing profits and shelf-life.

 

It is telling that dental problems never existed in isolation: the

existence of cavities and defective dental structure was accompanied

by physical illness and problems. When the people were healthy, they

had very few cavities – despite the fact that they did nothing to

clean their teeth! The teeth of many of the Swiss he visited were

covered with green slime but they had no cavities.

 

So why in the United States does dental care consist entirely of

telling us to clean our teeth? Despite all the flossing, brushing and

the fluoridation of our water we still have rampant dental caries and

orthodontic problems. The solution, in clear photographic and verbal

form, has been available since Price's travels: cavities come from

eating processed foods. Yet we focus entirely on the external teeth

while ignoring the fundamental cause and treat dental health as

unrelated to overall health. A prospective buyer always checks the

teeth of an animal as an indicator of overall health: why do we treat

humans differently?

 

Ask yourself: if this information has been available since the

1930's why are we not told! I have never had a dentist tell me that if

I want an absence of dental problems I should avoid all processed

foods and white sugar. I have never been told what foods I should be

eating. It is as if a termite inspector told me to wash the walls that

were crumbling behind the paint.

 

What is Radiant Health?

 

It bears mentioning that most of us don't even have a concept of

what it is like to have a high degree of health. We accept as normal

any number of symptoms such as dental caries, headaches, generalized

achiness or a " weak " back. We assume that a natural part of aging is

to slowly lose our capacity to do physical activity and that

degenerative illnesses such as arthritis are inevitable.

 

I, personally, can mostly only imagine what it must be like to

wake up every day feeling an energetic well-being that I could count

on lasting throughout the day. What would it be like to be radiantly

healthy? To be alert, energetic, active and pain-free all day every

day. To not have to worry about " catching a cold " or exhausting myself

by doing normal, every day activities.

 

The people Weston A. Price observed had an incredibly high level

of health. When I look at animals in nature, I see a energetic

capability, a vital life-force that is palpable. Price's work shows

that a sense of physical well-being is our birth-right – that we

are

genetically programmed to have radiant health – and that it was

available to the people he studied largely because of the way they

ate.

 

Observations about Diet

 

So what should we be eating? Although the diets of the many groups

varied there were certain common factors:

 

* All foods consumed were raised in a manner which we would

label " organic " – no pesticides and no commercial fertilizers.

* All foods were what we would call " whole foods. "

* All diets included a healthy source of saturated fat from

animal sources.

* None of these cultures consumed polyunsaturated oils.

* There was usually a source of fermented food, such as yogurt

or fermented cabbage (sauerkraut).

* Meat eaters always consumed the entire animal – the

organ

meat was considered the most nutritious and some meat was consumed

raw.

* Grains were always soaked, fermented or soured (to

neutralize the phytates in whole grains: phytates inhibit the

absorption of minerals).

 

Perhaps the most important point is that these cultures ate only

complete, nutrient-dense food. There was no " junk food. " There was no

" processed food. " There was no " fractionated food. " Just real, whole

food direct from nature.

 

Why are whole foods so important? Recently in the news we have

been introduced to the " miracle " of folic acid – said to help

prevent

miscarriages, atherosclerosis caused by homocysteine, and possibly

Alzheimer's Disease. For years Americans received too little of this

nutrient because they were eating white, processed flour, from which

the folic acid was removed. So now the food manufacturers remove the

folic acid in milling and then put it back as a synthetic vitamin. (At

the International Health News Database, see " Folic Acid: Summaries of

the latest research concerning folic acid. " ) So why take it out in the

first place?

 

But what else has been removed from the flour that we don't yet

know about? What will be the next " miracle " nutrient to be discovered?

It might even be pantothenic acid or choline – other B vitamins

that

we now strip out of our food. How can we be so stupid!

 

Price estimated that the people he studied all received ten times

as much of vitamins A & D as Americans of his time. Ten times!! Price

believed that these fat-soluble vitamins were the key to their health.

And where did they come from? In many instances the much-maligned

saturated fats. None of the diets he studied had any heart disease

despite eating, in some cases, large quantities of saturated fat.

Price also estimated they received about four times as much of other

minerals.

 

No wonder they were so healthy! We have replaced nutrient-dense

foods with processed flours and sugars – not only don't they

provide

us with any nutrition, they rob vitamins and minerals from other

bodily functions so we can process the denatured food through our

system. They dangerously give us energy without substance – energy

that allows us to keep going without rebuilding our reserves. I have

read estimates that 16% up to 25% of the calories of Americans come

from sugars or desserts – about 1/4 of our diet. These people ate

none. None! They were radiantly healthy. We are not. Are we really

unable to perceive the obvious?

 

And can we overestimate the importance of not having so many

chemicals and additives in the diet? Each non-natural substance we add

to a food is something else that our body has to deal with. Again,

contrast these people, who were exposed to virtually no chemicals and

additives and were radiantly healthy, to modern people, who are

exposed to thousands of different chemicals and additives, and whose

health is terrible. This shouldn't be very difficult to understand.

 

Price even included a chapter on soil health which points out how

quickly the dense nutrients created in top soil over the millennia are

used up and are no longer available to the food. It is so self-evident

that the nutrients in the plant are dependant on the nutrient in the

soil: studies are finding that organic food does have higher mineral

and vitamin content as well as phytonutrients – plant compounds

that

can fight cancer. (See " Organics for Health " by the Institute of

Science in Society.) What else are we taking out of the soil that

could help us achieve radiant health?

 

There are a few things that Price did not find:

 

* There were no vegetarians and there were no low-fat diets.

* Certain of the populations (Swiss, African, Eskimo,

Scottish) did not consume many vegetables yet remained healthy.

* The diet of some populations – the Masai of Africa, for

example – consisted exclusively of meat (or blood) and full fat

milk

and yet there was an absence of the degenerative illnesses that modern

medicine tells us will result from consuming such items.

* Nearly every culture consumed some foods, often in large

quantities, that are now considered unhealthy with no detriment to

health: this included raw milk and cheese by the Swiss; red meat by

the Masai; large amounts of fat eaten by the Eskimos; shellfish and

coconut oil eaten by the Polynesians.

 

Conclusions

 

Since the 1930s there has been knowledge about how to be healthy

that has been basically ignored. Weston Price teaches us is that the

only criteria for the food we eat ought that it be healthy, natural,

and nutrient dense. The people he studied ate 100 percent whole,

nutrient-dense, nourishing food. There were no cheats. Everything

contributed, not detracted from, nutrition and health.

 

Basically what he studied were people eating the foods that human

beings evolved through millennia to eat. Every time we eat a processed

or created new food, we are eating someone's attempt to improve upon

nature and evolution: not necessarily a good idea, as the current

epidemics of type II diabetes, cancer, heart disease and obesity in

America shows us!

 

Something very refreshing about the people he studied was that

they were real people eating real foods. Too many diet or medical

studies are of people eating someone else's modern idea about what

constitutes nutrition. There is a reason that degenerative illnesses

are considered diseases of civilization: Price confirmed that people

eating the natural diets that we evolved to eat did not suffer from

these illnesses.

 

The first question that arose for me even while reading the book

was why the information in this book was not common knowledge. It is

so exciting to find out that there have been many people who did not

suffer from the ill-health and degenerative illnesses that we simply

take for granted. Why on earth is this book not the best-known book

anywhere on health? The book makes it so obvious – when previously

healthy people begin eating processed foods such as sugar and white

flour, they lose their health. So simple. Why is this not widely

known? Why is this knowledge ignored?!!?

 

The most important question that arises for me after reading this

book is: how much do I want to gamble with my health? I ask you as

well: how much do you want to gamble with your health and with the

health of your children?

 

How much sugar is too much? How much processed food can I eat

without compromising my immune system? Do I feel as healthy as I would

like? If these people were radiantly healthy without eating sugar and

I do not have that level of health, do I want to continue feeling

sub-par? Is eating sugar and processed food really worth remaining

more unhealthy than I want?

 

Do I really want to replace living, healthy foods that provide

health-giving substances that we haven't begun to discover with

manufactured crap that " tastes " good but provides only processed,

devitalized nutrients? I can imagine what it is like to be radiantly

healthy every day of my life: why would I want to eat in a way that

decreases the possibility of having that degree of well-being? If

these people were getting so many more vitamins and minerals from

whole foods, shouldn't I start eating as many nutrient-dense foods as

possible immediately? What am I waiting for?

 

If you can honestly say that you have as much health as you would

like, that you can't conceive of feeling better, than go ahead and

ignore what Price found: eat all the processed foods and sugar you

would like. But if you can conceive of feeling better, why on earth

are you willing to take the chance of not improving your health? If

you don't believe me I challenge you to read the book.

 

Yes, but . . .

 

One common reaction I get when I tell people that these 14

populations on natural diets had no degenerative illnesses is: " But

they exercised more and they had no stress in their life. " People

figure they don't need to change their diet because it was the

exercise and the stress. But couldn't it work the other way? Maybe

they had the energy to work hard and were more stress free because of

their diet? And if that diet is part of the equation, doesn't it make

sense to adopt it in some form or other? And what is our excuse for

not dealing with the stress and the lack of exercise? Do we really

want to argue about why we can't get healthy? Wouldn't it be better to

start creating health instead?

 

Another reaction dismisses everything Price found as " genetics. "

T. L. Cleave, writing in The Saccharine Disease,(John Wright & Sons

Limited, 1974), makes the point that among wild animals, hereditary

defects are rare. Although in civilized humans they are somewhat

higher, true " hereditary defects " rarely exceed 4 or 5 individuals per

1,000 live births (for such things as club foot, cleft palate, or

congenital malformations of the heart). He argues that when the

frequency of occurrence is higher than this, that hereditary defect as

a cause is " highly improbable. " The question, he says, is " whether the

body is built wrongly or is being used wrongly. "

 

If we are designed to eat nutrient-dense, whole foods and we are

instead eating processed foods that are antithetical to good health,

we have used our body wrongly – we have not given it the nutrition

that it is designed for. It becomes absurd to talk about someone being

genetically more prone to a heart-attack when the foods being consumed

are modern processed foods. All too often people use the reason of

" genetics " to excuse the fact that they are using their body wrongly.

Certainly, genetics plays a role in the various strengths and

weaknesses of our body: but it is the height of stupidity to blame

genetics for an illness when we are consuming foods not suited for our

body. What we are essentially saying is that certain people are more

genetically pre-disposed not to get as sick on diet of unhealthy

foods.

 

Often people refer to something they read in a newspaper, such as

an article saying saturated fats are bad or one about the necessity of

avoiding eggs. Any one who has followed nutritional advice through

conventional media can only be amazed at the level of ignorance

displayed in print and on television. Remember that the same people

who for years told you to eat margarine (now known to be extremely

unhealthy because of the presence of trans fatty acids) are still

giving you dietary advice. If you doubt that much of the dietary

advice we are given is profit-driven by food manufacturers with a

direct financial stake in what you eat, I recommend the article " The

Oiling of America, " which shows how the conventional dietary

recommendations on fat are largely driven by vegetable oil

manufacturers. Contrast this with the dietary advice from Weston A.

Price, which was time-tested by millennia. The people he studied ate

foods discovered over time to build radiant health in themselves and

their children. These people did not work for nor were they funded by

someone with direct financial outcome in what they ate.

 

Specific Steps

 

And, as they say, the proof is in the eating. These peoples were

healthy and happy. They must have been doing something right. If we

look around at the general level of health of our society and the

culture in which we live, we might well ask what me have to lose by

trying something different and time-tested. The health in our culture

is pathetic: how can we ignore the wisdom in this book?

 

One saving grace is that a diet based on Price's work is anything

but painful to adopt. What this book says and what it shows us in

words and images is that old-fashioned, good-tasting whole food is

healthy. Perhaps the hardest thing to overcome is the decades of

brain-washing we have been through about what constitutes good

nutrition.

 

There are several specific steps anyone can take right now to

improve their health. If you can't do everything all at once, do what

you can.

 

1. Eliminate sugar, white flour and other processed foods from

your diet.

2. Start eating natural, whole, unprocessed foods.

3. As much as possible purchase organic vegetables and meat

from animals raised as naturally as possible (without the use of

growth hormones and antibiotics).

4. Educate yourself as to truly healthy ways to prepare food

and to eat (see below).

 

Where to go From Here

 

I can not recommend strongly enough that you read Price's book

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. It is an incredible and inspiring

motivator for change. " Nasty, Brutish & Short? " by Sally Fallon & Mary

Enig is a shorter summary of the book. The website of The Weston A.

Price Foundation is a great place to read about Price's discoveries

and the dietary implications.

 

The best modern re-telling and updating of Price's work is

Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon (New Trends Publishing, Revised

and Updated Second Edition, 1999. Order direct from New Trends

Publishing. The first chapter provides an excellent and very

convincing overview of nutrition and the recipes will get you moving

in the right direction.