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The Right Price
Interpreting the Work of Dr. Weston A. Price
By Sally Fallon
"I am deeply interested not only in your health individually but
in the efficiency and welfare of your families. It is particularly important
in these times of industrial and financial stress, that children shall
not suffer defects which may mark and handicap them for their entire
life." So wrote Dr. Weston A. Price, author of Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration, the classic work on the relation of diet
to disease, to his nieces and nephews in the year 1934, signing the
letter, "Lovingly, Uncle Weston."
"Fortunately, an adequately defensive nutritional program can
be provided without much expense and indeed often more cheaply than
the currently selected foods. There will be no necessity for any child
of yours to develop dental caries or tooth decay if the simple procedures
that I am outlining shall be adequately carried out. . .
"There are two ways in which I could make suggestions relative
to the mineral and vitamin problem in the selection of food, the one
on the basis of detailing a special menu for each day, which is very
unsatisfactory, and the other would be in the form of general principles
which should control and guide you in selectng the foods which will
meet the body's daily needs. I would suggest the latter and the
following is an outline of the principles involved."1
This letter, which resides in the archives of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition
Foundation, provides us with a look at the principles that motivated
Dr. Price and neatly summarizes his philosophy. His motivation was quite
simply the unselfish desire for all peoples to obtain their natural
birthright of good health; and the principle that guided him throughout
his career--a principle most people have difficulty comprehending, even
today--was that only a good diet, one that supplied the body with an
abundance of nutrients, can confer good health, epitomized by broad
facial development during the growing years and freedom from dental
decay throughout life. What Price provided was the general principles
of a healthy diet and a list of the richest sources of fat-soluble vitamins,
rather than special menus and elaborate plans. The practical application--
menus, plans, sources and how-to's--was a task left to those who
followed in his footsteps.
NUTRIENT DENSE FOOD
"We have a sense of hunger which expresses itself as appetite
and we eat until this is satisfied, but this only applies to that part
of our food which produces power and heat. We have almost no sense of
hunger for the minerals and other chemicals
and vitamins that are needed for building new and repairing old tissues."2
Price may not have been able to pinpoint the exact nutrients needed
for various individual health conditions, nor all the nutrients contained
in various foods, but he understood this fundamental law of nutrition,
that without provision of the nutrients we need, no body can be built
strong and resistant and no lasting healing can take place.
Instead of nourishing food, modern medicine gives drugs, the chief
modus operandi of which is to sequester nutrients from one part of the
body and carry them to the part that is diseased or injured. This is
akin to robbing Peter to pay Paul, rather than simply making sure that
Paul has all the nutritional wealth he requires. A perfect example is
synthetic adrenal cortex extract, such as Prednisone, which can provide
what seems like miraculous relief--immediate "healing"--of
conditions as diverse as sports injuries, colitis and psoriasis. Drugs
like prednisone work by stimulating cells throughout the body to give
up cholesterol and other nutrients, and then carrying them to the site
of injury. The problem is that you can only rob Peter for so long before
he becomes bankrupt; then either the injury returns or a new problem
breaks out somewhere else. And once the cells have become depleted,
drugs like Prednisone no longer work. Continuing medication is akin
to whipping a dead horse.
Price explained the situation in clear scientific terms: "Most
people need from 2000 to 3000 calories a day, according to the nature
of their physical activities. Similarly, we need two grams of phosphorus
and one and one-half grams of calcium a day in our food in order to
keep up the body's daily requirements. Our problem, then, is to
get enough of the minerals
and vitamins without exceeding our limit in calories. . .
"It is not wise to fill the limited space with foods that are
not doing our bodies any particular good. You would be interested to
know that while you would have to eat 7 1/2 pounds of potatoes or 11
pounds of beets or 9 1/2 pounds of carrots to get the daily phosphorus
requirement, all of which would provide too high a number of calories,
you would obtain as much phosphorus from 1 pound of lentils. This would
also provide the calcium. You would also supply the entire day's
requirement of minerals from 0.8 pounds of fish or 0.6 pounds of cheese.
. . .3
"There is a misapprehension regarding the value of fruits as food.
Of course fruits are desireable as an adjunct, but most of them are
very low in minerals. You would for example, have to eat 37 pounds of
apples a day or 26 pounds of oranges to get your two grams phosphorus
and when these fruits are sweetened into jams or jellies, you would
have to eat 32 pounds of orange marmalade a day, which would provide
33,000 calories; few of us could take care of more than 3000 calories.
. . it would take three large loaves of white bread a day to provide
our requirements for phosphorus, but this would give us 10,000 calories,
an amount which it would be physically
impossible to utilize. Eating this with skimmed milk would be one of
the surest way to produce dental caries and in some cases might even
produce convulsions."4
REMEMBER THE ACTIVATORS!
Thus, as Price perceived so clearly, the only way for humans, with
their limited ability to take in food, to properly nourish themselves
is to eat mostly nutrient-dense foods; and the emerging science of biochemistry
confirmed the dietary habits of primitive peoples by revealing just
which foods best meet these requirements--all of them animal foods,
and not necessarily steak or chicken but seafood, and milk products
and organ meats from animals raised on mineral-rich soil. These were
the very foods valued so highly by the peoples Price studied.
While noting that the diets of primitive peoples differed in their
particulars--from the mostly animal diet of the Alaskan Eskimos to the
tropical diets of South Sea Islanders--Price took pains to point out
the common underlying characteristics of these diets, namely the high
level of minerals and the very high level of fat-soluble activators.
By activators, he was referring to vitamins A and D, and what he called
Activator X (now believed
to be Vitamin K2), found only in certain sea foods such
as shellfish, fish livers and fish eggs, in butterfat and organ meats
from animals eating rapidly growing green grass, and in lesser amounts
in eggs from pastured chickens and the fat of certain animals such as
the guinea pig.
SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT DR. WESTON
A. PRICE (1870-1948)
- Weston Andrew Valleau Price, the ninth child in a family
of 12, grew up on a farm in Newburg, Canada. This backwoods
Canadian family produced an inventor, a medical doctor, two
dentists, a Methodist minister and a resourceful farmer son.5
- The Price family lineage goes back through a long line of
Celtic princes, traced as far as 230 AD. The name derives from
ap Rees or ap Rice, a family centered around the town of Brecon
in Wales.
- Price's nephew, Willard DeMille Price (son of Albert,
his inventor brother), was a famous writer, explorer and traveler
whose reports were often featured in the National Geographic
magazine.
- Price became interested in diet as a prime factor in dental
decay after he was stricken with typhoid fever in 1893. At the
time he was practicing dentistry in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
His older brother Albert nursed him back to health, but during
his illness Weston's teeth had decayed alarmingly. He
went back to the family farm to convalesce where not only his
health improved, but his dental deterioration was arrested.
The following spring, he and his uncle William Delmage camped
for an extended period in the back country of Canada, living
on salmon, small game and berries. Delmage was a man of great
intuitive wisdom who understood the role of natural food sources
for refurbishing and sustaining the body. The backwoods diet
worked wonders for Weston Price.
- Weston shared an interest in electricity with his brother
Albert. He taught "applied electricity and electro-therapeutics"
at Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University)
from 1897 to 1904. After he left the faculty in 1904, his subject
matter was dropped from the curriculum.6
- In 1899, Weston Price and his wife Florence built the Bon
Echo Inn on the shores of Mazinaw Lake in southeast Ontario.
Florence suggested the name Bon Echo because of the marvelous
echo that rebounded from the face of the granite cliff on the
opposite shore. The remote site presented an incredible challenge
and building the 28-room inn was "a feat which never could
have been accomplished without the indomitable presistence of
Dr. Price and his sublime indifference to the almost incredible
difficulties that beset him at every turn," according to
Merrill Denison, a later owner of the Inn. Dr. Price and his
wife operated the Inn during the summers until they sold it
in 1910. The site later became Bon Echo Provincial Park.7
- Dr. Price and his wife lost their only son Donald to complications
from an infected root canal, which Price himself had put in.
Price went on to write a 1000-page tome on the problems of systemic
dental infections from root canals.
- After selling the Inn, Price established a dental practice
in a house at 8926 Euclid Avenue in Cleveland, Ohio. (He lived
several blocks away on Lamont Street.) At the height of his
career, the practice included several dentists on the first
floor and a laboratory on the second floor where Mr. Howdy,
a chemist of German origin, performed analyses for fat-soluble
activators in hundreds of samples of butter and other foods
sent to Dr. Price from all over the world.
- Dr. Price was a devout Methodist who taught Sunday school
at his neighborhood church. However, later in life he expressed
dismay over the fact that Christian missionaries were so often
the vector for the introduction of modernized foods into native
populations.8
|
"An essential characteristic of the successful dietary programs
of primitive races has been found to relate to a liberal source of the
fat-soluble activator group,"9 wrote Price. He used
the term activator because these fat-soluble nutrients act as catalysts
for mineral absorption. "A question arises as to the efficiency
of the human body in removing all of the minerals from the ingested
foods. Extensive laboratory determinations have shown that most people
cannot absorb more than half of the calcium and phosphorus from the
foods eaten. The amounts utilized depend directly on the presence of
other substances, particularly fat-soluble vitamins.
"It is at this point probably that the greatest breakdown in our
modern diet takes place, namely, in the ingestion and utilization of
adequate amount of the special activating substances, including the
vitamins needed for rendering the minerals in the food available to
the human system.
"It is possible to starve for minerals that are abundant in the
foods eaten because they cannot be utilized without an adequate quantity
of the fat-soluble activators."10 This is the crux of
Dr. Price's teachings--that good health is impossible without
the activators found in a small list of carefully selected animal foods.
Many health writers and practitioners use his name, but few understand
this basic principle.
ACTIVATOR X (Vitamin K2)
After Weston Price retired, he added an additional chapter to
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration in which he described
"a new, vitamin-like activator," which he termed Activator
X, also sometimes called the Price Factor. According to Price:
- it plays an essential role in the maximum utilization of
bodybuilding minerals and tissue components;
- its presence can be demonstrated readily in the butterfat
of milk of mammals, the eggs of fishes and the organs and fats
of animals;
- it has been found in highest concentration in the milk of
several species, varying with the nutrition of the animal;
- it is synthesized by the mammary glands and plays an important
role in infant growth and also in reproduction.11
Price found the X Factor in butter from cows eating rapidly growing
green grass, fish eggs, some (but not all) samples of cod liver
oil and certain animal fats and organ meats. The presence of X
Factor in some sea foods can be explained by the fact that fish
consume plankton, the basic rapidly growing and dividing unicellular
food of the sea. It seems that animals form the X Factor from
a substance uniquely present in young, rapidly growing plants
and store it in certain fatty tissues.
Deep yellow color in butter is a clue to the presence of the
X Factor. Price found it in organ meats, fish eggs, and some samples
of cod liver oil. Seal oil was also found to be a potent source,
as was reindeer meat. Price was able to concentrate the X Factor
in high-vitamin butter oil, produced by a low-temperature centrifugal
process applied to yellow butter from cows eating rapidly growing
green grass.
Price first became aware of the presence of the activator while
performing a chemical test called the Yoder test for determining
vitamin D values. This suggests that Activator X is similar to
vitamin
D, though the nature of this similarity is unclear. We can only
conclude that the substance probably contains a ring structure
and has
hormone-like activity.
After Price's death, a number of researchers commented
on the X Factor and put forth theories as to what it actually
is, some of which widely miss the mark. For example, Jeffrey Bland
proposed that the X Factor was the omega-3 fatty acid EPA, but
this cannot be the case, first because EPA does not have a ring-like
structure, and second because EPA is present
in all cod liver oil, whereas Price found the X Factor only in
some samples of cod liver oil. A company called Zenith Advanced
Health Systems once sold a formula that combined cod liver oil
and flaxseed oil, claiming that the X Factor was an unsaturated
fatty acid (sometimes called vitamin F) found in flaxseed oil.
A letter from the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation archives
suggests that Activator X is similar to or derived from "a
special kind of oxygen-containing heterocyclic ring" called
6-methoxybenzoaxazolinone which "acts as a sex-stimulant
in voles."
Other researchers have suggested that the X factor is similar
to or derived from vitamin K, a nutrient involved in bone formation.
Very preliminary work referring to "Unidentified Growth Factors
in Grass" or the "grass juice factor" may yield
clues to the precursors of the X Factor. Japanese researchers
have identified a new vitamin called Pyrrolo Quinoline Quinon
(PQQ), similar to co-enzyme Q10, as an important nutrient present
in green plants and fermented food.
Green Pasture Dairy, producers of high-vitamin butter oil, is
currently testing samples of butter oil, cod liver oil and seal
oil using Price's chemical test. The X Factor shows up in
these foods, but we have yet to identify its chemical formula.
We'll keep you posted as new findings emerge. |
THE VEGETARIANS
One of the purposes of Price's expedition to the South Seas was
to find, if possible "plants or fruits which together, without
the use of animal products, were capable of providing all of the requirements
of the body for growth and for maintenance of good health and a high
state of physical efficiency." 12 What he found was
a population that put great value on animal foods--wild pig and seafood--even
groups living inland on some of the larger islands. Even the agricultural
tribes in Africa consumed insects and small fish--and these groups were
not as robust as the tribes that hunted, fished or kept herds.
"It is significant," said Price, "that I have as yet
found no group that was building and maintaining good bodies exclusively
on plant foods. A number of groups are endeavoring to do so with marked
evidence of failure."13
Yet, proponents of vegetarianism do not hesitate to invoke the name
of Weston Price. One of the earliest was Alex Jack, a prolific writer
on the virtues of macrobiotics. In Let Food Be Thy Medicine,
Jack cites Weston Price in support of a diet that omits "beef,
whole milk and eggs" in favor of lowfat, high-fiber vegetarian
foods.14 In his description of Price's work, he makes
no mention of the emphasis that Price puts on animal foods.
Katherine Alexander describes Price's work in her book Get
a Life --Detoxification Made Easy but then goes on to recommend
a lowfat "detoxification" diet based on plant-source protein
and skimmed milk, along with a great amount of green juices--something
never recommended by Price. She makes no mention of the fat-soluble
activators, so necessary for mineral metabolism and for the function
of the family of detoxification enzymes.15
Paul Saul, editor of the Doctor Yourself Newsletter claims
that "researchers such as. . . . Dr. Weston Price. . . have repeatedly
shown that ‘primitive' peoples or laboratory animals eating
a natural, nearly vegetarian diet simply do not have serious diseases."16
Dr. Saul cites Cornell University's China study for this claim,
while at the same time providing a link to the Weston A. Price Foundation's
website.
Alive Publishing in Canada, in what is otherwise a fairly accurate
description of Price's research, states that Weston Price "found
that the ancient cultures that displayed remarkable longevity ate predominately
vegetable-source foods."17
POLITICALLY CORRECT
Many commentators have attempted to weld Price's work to political
correctness. An example is The Appetites of Man: An Invitation to
Better Nutrition from Nine Healthier Societies, published 1978.18
The authors describe the diets of nine traditional peoples, naming foods
like raw camel, cow and goat milk products, coconut and organ meats.
But then they caution against saturated fat from coconut oil and state
that the healthiest fats come from nuts, seeds and vegetable oils. According
to the authors, primitives ate "lean game" but preferred fish
with its "lower fat and more complete protein than meat."
WESTON PRICE ON COD LIVER OIL
Weston Price prescribed cod liver oil to his patients but he
also warned against giving too much. "There are two great
sources of fat soluble food activators, namely the pastures of
the sea and those of the land. Many people have the opinion
that fish oil, particularly cod liver oil, would be a complete
substitute for the fat soluble vitamins of land plant origin [that
is, of land animals that eat plants]. In my clinical and technical
investigations of the activators for inducing mineral metabolism,
I have continually found evidence indicating that cod liver oil
contains products that are very seriously toxic to humans and
other land animals and can do much harm when given in large doses,
even only as large as frequently advocated."20
Price gave cod liver oil along with grass-fed butter, or high-vitamin
butter oil, in the context of an improved diet, usually
one that included calcium-rich whole milk. He cites a study in
which cod liver oil given by itself to pregnant mothers caused
slight calcification of the placenta and slight fontanelle closure
(slight in comparison with the calcifying effects of synthetic
vitamin D) whereas cod liver oil given with calcium had no detrimental
effects. Cod liver oil is a wonderful source of vitamins A and
D but cannot be expected to provide much benefit when given in
the context of a diet of processed, devitalized foods. It is also
important to note that Price gave high-vitamin cod liver
oil, which provided liberal amounts of A and D without an overdose
of unsaturated fatty acids. |
QUACKWATCH ON DR. PRICE
Stephen Barrett of Quackwatch.com, the self-appointed arbiter
of correctness in the fields of medicine and nutrition, describes
Weston Price as "a dentist who maintained that sugar causes
not only tooth decay but physical, mental, moral, and social decay
as well." He dismisses Price's monumental research
project as "a whirlwind tour of primitive areas" in
which he "examined the natives superficially, and jumped
to simplistic conclusions. While extolling their health, he ignored
their short life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality,
endemic diseases, and malnutrition. While praising their diets
for not producing cavities, he ignored the fact that malnourished
people don't usually get many cavities."
He then puts his own politically correct spin on Price's
findings: "Price knew that when primitive people were exposed
to ‘modern' civilization they developed dental trouble
and higher rates of various diseases, but he failed to realize
why. Most were used to ‘feast or famine' eating. When
large amounts of sweets were suddenly made available, they overindulged.
Ignorant of the value of balancing their diets, they also ingested
too much fatty and salty food. Their problems were not caused
by eating ‘civilized' food but by abusing it. In addition
to dietary excesses, the increased disease rates were due to:
(a) exposure to unfamiliar germs, to which they were not resistant;
(b) the drastic change in their way of life as they gave up strenuous
physical activities such as hunting; and (c) alcohol abuse."
Aside from contradicting himself--implying that Price was wrong
to blame sugar for the tooth decay he observed in modernized populations
but then stating that "indulging" in sweets suddenly
made available was a contributor to caries-- Barrett makes several
statements that don't stand up to the facts:
- "Whirlwind tour" and "superficial examination."
Price spent considerable time in each place he visited and carefully
examined thousands of mouths, noting the presence of cavities
and dental deformities. This part of his research was extremely
precise and scientific, and it was published in many peer reviewed
journals of his day. His research project took him over 10 years
to complete.
- "Jumped to simplistic conclusions." Price's
conclusions were based on his research. He demonstrated the
relationship between the decline in nutrients in primitive diets
and the increase in disease. He clinched his argument with case
studies showing the reversal of tooth decay and degenerative
disease using a diet rich in nutrients. He also quoted from
numerous scientific studies that supported his findings and
conclusions.
- "While extolling their health, he ignored their short
life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality, endemic
diseases, and malnutrition." Price extolled the health
of those groups who were healthy, and described the high rates
of infant mortality, endemic diseases and malnutrition in the
groups that were not healthy. Much of the value of his research
comes from the fact that he was able to observe healthy and
unhealthy groups of the same racial stock side by side, and
thereby demonstrate the correlation between diet and disease.
Although we will never be able to ascertain the life expectancy
of the primitive peoples he studied, Price noted great longevity
among certain groups, such as the Eskimos and the South Sea
Islanders.
- "Malnourished people don't usually get many cavities."
Reference, please? In fact, malnourished people do get cavities.
Price proved that cavities are a sign of malnutrition.
- Once modernized, the tribal peoples "ingested too much
fatty and salty food." Price showed that the primitive,
protective diets were in fact rich in fatty foods, and also
included some salt. Has any scientist yet claimed that salt
causes tooth decay?
- The health decline that Price observed was due to "exposure
to unfamiliar germs, to which they were not resistant."
Price was amazed to find that the primitive African tribes he
studied were resistant to the infectious diseases associated
with Africa. By contrast, the whites on their devitalized diet
suffered greatly from these diseases. Even though exposed to
TB, Swiss villagers and Gaelic seafaring peoples were completely
immune as long as they consumed their native diet. Infectious
disease did indeed cause much suffering among nonindustrialized
peoples as soon as they abandoned their traditional diets; the
same dearth of nutrients that made them susceptible to these
diseases also made them susceptible to tooth decay and a change
in skeletal structure in the next generation.
- The health decline that Price observed was due to "the
drastic change in their way of life as they gave up strenuous
physical activities such as hunting." Lack of exercise
can in no way explain the great increase in degenerative disease,
including tooth decay, that modernized tribal peoples experienced
when they changed their way of life.
- The health decline was due to "alcohol abuse."
Alcoholism became a huge problem in these communities after
contact with the West. But the introduction of strong alcoholic
beverages (many primitive peoples consumed mildly alcoholic
beverages) occurred simultaneously with the change in diet,
and the drastic lowering of food quality created deficiencies
that can lead to alcoholism. Note Barrett's moralistic
tone in the word "abuse," just as he moralizes about
"overindulgence" in sugar. Apparently the blame lies
not with the West for introducing these substances, but with
the once-primitive peoples who "abused" and "overindulged"
because they are "ignorant." For Barrett, the frailty
of people unlike himself is congenital, not, as Dr. Price suggested,
the inevitable consequence of processed foods.
|
METABOLIC TYPING
An egregious example of getting Price wrong can be found in The
Metabolic Typing Diet by William Wolcott and Trish Fahey.19
From the foreword by Etienne Callebout, MD, we learn: "Then in
the mid-1980s I heard about a group of scientists and clinicians in
the United Sates who had, over a period of years, evolved a unique way
of addressing this problem, with a system they called metabolic typing.
Researchers such as William Kelley, George Atson, and Roger Williams
had built upon the work of scientists and clinicians of an earlier era:
men like Weston Price, Francis Pottenger, and Royal Lee. What they
all shared was a profound interest in a concept that Williams described
as "biochemical individuality," or the idea that no two individuals
are alike on a biochemical or physiological level [emphasis added]."
The fact is that Weston Price did not express particular interest in
biochemical individuality; rather, he consistently stressed the fact
that, in spite of the differences in actual foods eaten by primitive
peoples, the intake of nutrients was remarkably similar, from northern
climates to the tropics.
To continue: "As far back as the 1930s, Weston Price embarked
on extraordinary anthropological expeditions to remote corners of the
globe and uncovered the link between modern eating habits and the incidence
of chronic degenerative illness. He also discovered that there is no
such thing as a standard ‘healthy diet.' Due to tremendous
variations in climate, indigenous food supplies, environmental conditions
and the principles of evolution, adpatation, and heredity, different
cultural and ethnic groups, over a period of many centuries, developed
distinctly different kinds of dietary requirements . . ."
Note how the observed differences in foods eaten has morphed into "distinctly
different kinds of dietary requirements," which is a complete contradiction
of Price's message.
Then from the preface by the author: "There is no such thing as
a healthy diet, and there never has been. There's nothing intrinsically
healthy or unhealthy about any given food." This statement completely
turns the work of Weston Price on its head. Price took great pains to
point out the fact that the difference between healthy and unhealthy
food is one of nutrient
density.
In Chapter 1 the authors continue their fraudulent summation: "The
most noteworthy observer of the declining health of primitive cultures
was Dr. Weston Price, a remarkable medical reseacher who began his career
as a dentist in Ohio in the early part of the twentieth century [is].
. . . The Myth of the Universal Diet" This statement is accompanied
by a page of photographs from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
To continue: "For example, many people who currently inhabit tropical
or equatorial regions have a strong hereditary need for diets high in
carbohydrates such as vegetables and fruits and grains and legumes.
These foods provide the kind of body fuel that is most compatible with
the unique body chemistry of people who are genetically programed to
lead active lifestyles in warm and humid regions of the world. Their
systems are simply not designed to process or utilize large quantities
of animal protein and fat." No mention here of coconut and pork,
fatty components of South Sea diets specifically mentioned by Dr. Price.
" . . . Of course, it's entirely possible that your native
dietary needs are both clearly defined and not too hard to fulfill.
For instance, maybe both your parents come from a purebred Greek lineage,
in which case you'd have little trouble accessing fish, pasta,
garlic, olive oil, salads, beans, and wine--roughly the kinds of
foods that kept your ancestors healthy and fit. Similarly, if you're
of Asian extraction, you'd likely do well with rice and sea vegetables
and soy [emphasis added]."
What follows is a recommendation of one of three different diets depending
on what a short self-administered quiz reveals to be your metabolic
type. All of the diets are woefully low in fat--the high-carb diet diet
allows 15 percent (presumably of calories) fat, the mixed diet allows
20 percent fat and the protein diet allows 30 percent fat. The diet
that comes closest to that of Price's primitives is the protein
diet, which emphasizes organ meats, fish eggs, shell fish and fatty
fish. Yet the primitives who ate this type of diet also consumed very
high levels of fat--often up to 80 percent of calories. The authors
give passing reference to the fat-soluble vitamins but insist--without
any references--that vitamin A is bad for certain types and vitamin
D is bad for other types.
Price's research demonstrated that the nutritional requirements
needed for good health are remarkably consistent--just much higher than
admitted by most commentators. The universal need for high levels of
nutrients means that in fact, our dietary requirements can be very difficult
to fulfill, and that great wisdom and care is needed in the production
and choice of our food--from the farm to the kitchen table. These high
requirements are very unlikely to be fulfilled with any of diets as
described in The Metabolic Typing Diet.
WHAT ABOUT SYNTHETIC A AND D?
Synthetic vitamin D or vitamin D2, produced by irradiating
ergosterol (a plant-based sterol) from yeasts with ultra-violet
light, was available in Dr. Price's day and often given
as drops in a preparation called viosterol. In expressing his
concerns about the use of this synthetic preparation, Price refers
to a study by Dr. Wayne Brehm published in the Ohio State
Medical Journal.21 Brehm studied the effect of
various courses of vitamin D treatment on 540 obstetrical cases
in two Columbus, Ohio hospitals. During pregnancy, Group 1 received
calcium and synthetic vitamin D, Group 2 received calcium alone;
Group 3 received synthetic vitamin D alone, Group 4 received calcium
and cod liver oil, Group 5 received cod liver oil alone and Group
6 had no supplementation. Those receiving synthetic vitamin D
alone had moderate to marked placental calcification and moderate
closure of the fontanelle (a sign of abnormal calcification).
Those receiving synthetic vitamin D plus calcium had extensive
calcification in the placenta, marked closure of the fontanelle
and marked calcification in the kidneys. In other words, the synthetic
vitamin D had the opposite effect of natural vitamin D, causing
calcification of the soft tissues rather than the bones.
Vitamin D3 is said to be "natural" vitamin
D because it is manufactured by the irradiation of cholesterol
(an animal-based sterol) with ultra-violet light. Unlike D2,
D3 is not toxic, but it is not the same as vitamin
D from food either. Price cites a study published in the Journal
of the American Medical Association, 1938, which describes
eight distinct factors in vitamin D and refers to information
indicating the presence of at least twelve.22 "Clearly,"
he writes, "it is not possible to undertake to provide an
adequate nutrition simply by reinforcing the diet with a few synthetic
products which are known to represent certain of these nutritional
factors."23
As for vitamin A, although Price did not refer to the synthetic
form, called retinol, we know that as with vitamin D, vitamin
A exists in food as a combination of isomers. Use of retinol,
which is added to many processed foods, is associated with birth
defects, and possibly also with bone problems, while use of natural
vitamin A in cod liver oil is associated with protection against
birth defects and strong, healthy bones.
|
THE ACID-ALKALINE THEORY
Price was dismissive of certain dietary theories that had become popular
in his day. One concerned the use of mostly alkaline foods (fruits and
vegetables) instead of acid foods (meat and whole grains) as a way to
prevent dental caries. This theory was suggested by a Dr. Martha Jones
in a paper entitled " Our Changing Concept of an Adequate Diet
in Relation to Dental Disease," and has appeared in many forms
thereafter, even raising its hoary head in health books today.
Said Price: "An important source of misapprehension is the literature
and teachings of faddists. Such, for example, is the misapprehension
of many people that they must use only alkaline producing foods and
that a great danger is associated with the use of acid producing foods.
In the primitive races I have found practically no difference between
the acid balance meat diet of the isolated Eskimos of the far north
and the less acid vegetable and milk diet of other groups as efficient
factors in the control of caries. . . our bodies have a mechanism for
maintaining proper acid and alkali balance in the blood and this varies
through only a very narrow limit whether the balance of the total food
eaten is acid or alkaline."24 What is important for
the prevention of tooth decay--and Price stresses this point over and
over again--is adequate minerals and fat-soluble vitamins, whether from
animal foods, seafood or dairy products, and the absence of refined
foods, especialy white flour and sweeteners.
Price actually published a paper on this subject, "Acid-Base Balance
of Diets Which Produce Immunity to Dental Caries Among the South Sea
Islanders and Other Primitive Races,"25 in which he
compares the amount of acid ash and alkaline ash minerals in the diets
of primitive Swiss, Gaellics,
Eskimos, native Americans and South Sea Islanders. In all but the South
Sea diet, acid ash foods predominated. But the important point is that
the overall mineral content in every primitive diet was at least four
times, and sometimes more than ten times, higher than the mineral
content in the modernized diet.
Price made it clear that the aklaline diet idea had caused much suffering:
"It is my belief that much harm has been done through the misconception
that acidity and alkalinity were something apart from minerals and other
elements. . . An illustration of this is the following case: A girl
was brought for assistance and study who still had her childhood face
at sixteen years of age. There had been marked delay in physical develoment
and function other than this growth factor. I was advised that the nutrition
of this child had been very largely guided by the literature of the
Defensive Diet League which, as one of its principal premises, has urged
the keeping down of the acid-producing foods."26
Having analyzed the diets of the various groups, Price noted, "It
is of particular significance that when all of the foods of these various
primitive groups are reduced to their chemical and activator content
they are found to be relatively equivalent. This strongly indicates
the direction in which the dental profession can profitably move in
the matter of the prevention of decay."27 Unfortunately,
the majority of the dental profession today has no inkling of this fundamental
principle.
FOOD COMBINING
Another misconception becoming popular in Price's day was the
theory of food combining, namely, that proteins and carbohydrates should
never be eaten together. An early advocate was Henry Ford; more recently
the notion was popularized in the best-selling Fit for Life,
by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. Said Price: "I have seldom found
anywhere in the world such a high percentage of physical excellence
with high immunity to our modern degenerative disease as among these
people of the South Sea Islands. Their diet practically every day consisted
of eating the proteins from the animal life of the sea with the carbohydrates
of their land vegetables, many of which were very rich in starch. This
was equally true of the Gallics in the Outer Hebrides, living almost
entirely on oats and sea foods."28
LOW-CARB?
Another common misconception about the diet Price recommended is that
it was a low-carb diet. Price frequently warned against high-carbohydrate
refined foods such as sugar and white flour, but he did not advise his
patients to avoid high-carb foods like fruits, whole grains or root
vegetables. These he considered an important adjunct to the diet. He
was particularly enamored of poi, the fermented taro preparation of
the South Sea Islanders.
"There is no objection to having the children fill up on bulky
foods such as potatoes and vegetables, if the daily mineral and vitamin
requirements have been satisfied first,"29 he advised
his nieces and nephews.
Nevertheless, it is probably easier for westerners to obtain high levels
of nutrients from a diet in which carbs are minimized. But that does
not mean one should overdo on protein. Price did not advocate a high-protein
diet. "The protein requirement can be provided each day in one
egg or a piece of meat equivalent to the bulk of one egg a day,"30
was his Depression-era advice. The best protein foods, according to
Price, are nutrient-dense organ meats, shellfish and small oily fish
such as anchovies or sardines, eaten with the bones. In addition, he
recommended one quart of whole milk per day for children, to ensure
adequate minerals and fat-soluble activators.
DENTAL DEFORMITIES
One of the most interesting aspects of Weston Price's
studies is the light he sheds on the causes of dental deformities--
narrow jaws, crowded teeth, overbites and underbites--a condition
he referred to as the "underdevelopment of the middle third
of the face." Price convincingly argued that this lack of
development was nutritional in origin, akin to building a house
with substandard building materials. Without proper nutrients
in the form of minerals and fat-soluble activators--the bricks
and mortar of human biochemistry--the facial bones cannot be built
strongly enough to support broad facial structure. His findings
have yet to be accepted in the mainstream. Most orthodontists
tell their patients that crowded teeth are "just genetic"
or due to thumbsucking.
The theory prevalent in Price's day to explain the sudden
appearance of crooked teeth in populations exposed to western
influence was race mixing, resulting in a "degenerated"
type of facial structure. Price premptorily--and bravely, considering
the attitudes of his day--dismisses this notion. "The blending
of different racial stocks produces typical characteristics
of either or both ancestral patterns. When, however, marked divergences
appear without mixing of racial stocks, the result is not due
to heredity, but occurs in spite of heredity."32
He then follows with numerous examples of facial narrowing
in offspring of parents of the same race, and excellent facial
structure in offsping of parents of different races who maintained
a traditional diet.
Another theory, popular with many pioneers in orthodontics in
the early 1900s and resurrected by R. Corrucinni of the University
of Illinois at Chicago, is called the "Disuse" theory,
namely that malocclusions are due to changes in chewing
habits.33 Professor Carl Johnson, DDS, PhD, attributes
this theory to Weston Price: "Price attributed both to dietary
change and to changes in chewing habits." This statement
is, of course, incorrect, as anyone who has read his entire book
would know. Price attributed the change in facial structure entirely
to dietary changes. According to Johnson, the attribution of tooth
decay to lack of trace elements in the diet "is no longer
mainstream" but the Disuse theory is"good science because
it can be tested." He then cites several studies in which
malocclusions increased in children after processed food was introduced
to a community. The refined carbohydrate foods caused deformities,
he asserts, not because they were lacking in nutrients, but because
they were "soft" and "sticky," resulting in
underuse of the lower jaw.
Primitive peoples certainly had strong jaws, which allowed them
to eat hard and grisly food, but to attribute this strength simply
to greater exercise ignores much contradictory evidence. Facial
narrowing can be detected in babies at birth, before they have
ever chewed anything. And, as Price pointed out, facial narrowing
always accompanies narrowing of other structures, such as the
pelvic opening, which no tortured logic can associate with chewing
habits. It's not even clear that native diets are more difficult
to chew. The South Sea Islanders consumed mostly seafood and poi--a
quintessentially soft and sticky high-carbohydrate food.
|
THE RAW FOODISTS
The all-raw folks also claim Dr. Price. Yet, Price never advocated
an all-raw diet. He described the use of cooked foods in every culture
he visited and specifically recommended that grains and most vegetables
be cooked. His advice to his nieces and nephews: "The cooked vegetables
are better since raw vegetables are usually too bulky to allow very
much mineral to be obtained from them."31 He never recommended
raw vegetable juices, and most certainly not as a major part of the
diet.
It is logical to deduce from Price's writings that the decision
of whether or not to cook a certain food should be made on the basis
of whether or not heat treatment liberates nutrients or inhibits their
availability. Pasteurization greatly reduces the mineral availabilty
of milk, so milk and milk products should be consumed raw. Cooking destroys
vitamin C in many fruits, so these are best eaten raw.
On the other hand, cooking makes the minerals in most vegetables more
available, so they should be cooked--and then eaten with a source of
activators, such as butter or cream. Bones yield their minerals by cooking
into broth. And studies carried out subsequent to Dr. Price's
research reveal that grains and legumes must be soaked or sour leavened
to neutralize mineral-blocking phytic acid.
A SMALL PRICE
In the face of so many misinterpretations, getting Price right is a
first step of utmost importance for those who wish to regain and maintain
their health. And for parents, effort expended in the application of
his principles to the diets of their children is a small price to pay
for the incalculable benefits in physical health and mental outlook
they will bequeath to their offspring.
As for the host of degenerative diseases that now plague the "civilized"
world, diseases for which countless remedies both conventional and holistic
have been proposed, Price's findings point to only one lasting
solution: nutrient-dense food.
As Price saw so clearly, chronic disease manifests not so much as a
collection of symptoms, but is itself a symptom of malnutrition's
inexorable conclusion--death to the organism and die out of the species.
"The accumulating evidence suggests the consideration of disease
being, in many cases, more correctly speaking, a symptom and that individuals
often, instead of dying because they contract disease, primarily develop
disease because they are dying."34
REFERENCES
- Weston A. Price. Letter to his Nieces and Nephews, 1934.
PPNF archives.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Donald Delmage Fawcett, "Weston A. V. Price, Truly a ‘Great'
Uncle," PPNF Journal.
- Frederick Clayton Waite, AM, PhD, History of the School of Dentisty
or Western Reserve University, 1940.
- Bon Echo Provincial Park newsletter, 2002, page 10.
- Personal Communication, Donald Delmage Fawcett, nephew of Weston
A. Price
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 259.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 269.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 438.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 109.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 282.
- Alex Jack, Let Food Be Thy Medicine, One Peaceful World
Press, 1999.
- Katherine Alexander, Get a Life - Detoxification Made Easy
- doctoryourself.com,
Vol 3, No 16. July 5, 2003.
- http://alivepublishing.com,
October 10, 2005
- Sally DeVore and Thelma White, The Appetites of Man, Anchor
Books, 1978.
- Wolcott, William and Trish Fahey, The Metabolic Typing Diet,
NY: Random House, 2000.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 300.
- Brehm W. Ohio State Medical Journal 1937:33;990.
- Bills, CE. Journal of the American Medical Association,
1937:108;12.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 257.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 299.
- Weston A. Price, Dental Cosmos, September 1935.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Weston A. Price. Letter to his Nieces and Nephews, 1934.
PPNF archives.
- Ibid.
- Ibid.
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 302.
- http://www.uic.edu/classes/osci/osci590/7_1Anthropology.
htm, October 10, 2005.
- Weston A. Price, American Journal of Health, June 1931,
XXI(6):613.
- AC Jacobson, Genius (Some Revaluations), New York, Greenburg,
1926
- Weston A. Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,
PPNF, p 395.
NUTRITION AND MORAL CHARACTER
Many commentators have criticized Price for attributing "decline
in moral character" to malnutrition. But it is important
to realize that the subject of "moral character" was
very much on the minds of commentators of his day. As with changes
in facial structure, observers in the first half of the 20th century
blamed "badness" in people to race mixing, or to genetic
defects. Price quotes A.C. Jacobson, author of a 1926 publication
entitled Genius (Some Revaluations),35 who
stated that "The Jekyll-Hydes of our common life are ethnic
hybrids." Said Jacobson, "Aside from the effects of
environment, it may safely be assumed that when two strains of
blood will not mix well a kind of ‘molecular insult'
occurs which the biologists may some day be able to detect beforehand,
just as blood is now tested and matched for transfusion."
The implied conclusion
to this assertion is that "degenerates" can be identified
through genetic testing and "weeded out" by sterilizing
the unfit--something that was imposed on many women during the
period and endorsed by powerful individuals, including Oliver
Wendell Holmes.
It is greatly to Price's credit that he objected to this
arrogant point of view: "Most current interpretations are
fatalistic and leave practically no escape from our succession
of modern physical, mental and moral cripples. . . If our modern
degeneration were largely the result of incompatible racial stocks
as indicated by these premises, the outlook would be gloomy in
the extreme."36 Price argued that nutritional
deficiencies affecting the physical structure of the body can
also affect the brain and nervous system; and that while "bad"
character may be the result of many influences--poverty, upbringing,
displacement, etc.--good nutrition also plays a role in creating
a society of cheerful, compassionate individuals.36
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Response to Some Common Objections
to the Work of Dr. Weston Price
Weston A. Price is actually a dentist who traveled around
the world and looked at the diets of primitive cultures who spend
most of their day doing manual labor, but also eat a diet rich
in animal foods.
A: Actually not all of the groups Price studied
ate diets rich in animal foods. All of the ones who were healthy,
however, did eat at least some animal products. Many of these
subsisted largely on animal products while some subsisted largely
on plant products. Among those who were healthy and ate a small
percentage of their calories as animal products, they selected
very nutrient-dense products such as whole insects and frogs,
shellfish, and so on.
To give you an example of the difference between a small amount
of very nutrient-dense animal foods and no animal foods at all,
consider vitamin B12:
64% of vegans, 43% of lacto-ovo-vegetarians and 16% of the elderly
in one study were found to have stage III (relatively advanced
and becoming serious) vitamin B12 deficiency. (Herrmann et al.
Usefulness of holotranscobalamin in predicting vitamin B12 status
in different clinical settings. Curr Drug Metab. 2005; 6(1): 47-59.
One could satisfy the B12 requirement with a serving of meat per
day, on the one hand, or with a serving of clams per month.
This is not the only important nutrient from animal foods but
just an example of how even small amounts of animal foods can
make a diet fundamentally different from one that is free of animal
foods if they are the right ones.
Dr. Price recommends a diet that is high in fat (especially
saturated fat), cholesterol, and protein and is low in carbohydrates.
This diet is similar to the Atkins Diet, and we do not recommend
these types of diets because of the many health risks associated
with consuming high amounts of protein and fat and low amounts
of carbohydrates and fiber.
A: The diet Price used with his patients
included whole milk, whole wheat, stews made from bone broths,
meats and organ meats, fruits and vegetables. It was not devoid
of plant foods or very low in carbohydrates. The Weston A Price
Foundation and Sally Fallon's book _Nourishing Traditions_ do
not recommend specific carbohydrate and fat guidelines. _Nourishing
Traditions_ recommends limiting protein intake to 15-20% of calories
and experimenting to find the right balance of carbohydrates and
fats that will be determined by ancestry, circumstance and other
factors.
Weston A. Price's scientific stances are not based
on solid clinical research. Most of Dr. Price's positions
are based on observations made while studying other cultures,
not on clinical trials.
A: Price followed the scientific method from
start to finish. He began by making observations, and where possible,
he made observations that could control for the different variables
he was looking at. From these observations, he formulated a hypothesis
that tooth decay was a specific manifestation of general physical
degeneration and that its cause was nutritional deficiencies,
and its solution the provision of nutrients through whole foods
grown on rich soils. He tested his theory in several experiments
with lab animals and humans and developed quite a following because
of the clinical success with his patients. Within his book, Nutrition
and Physical Degeneration, he provides X-ray photos of cavities
refilling by secondary growth of the dentin on his dietary protocol
that allowed the caries to heal without the need for oral surgery.
He also performed an extensive analysis of over 20,000 samples
of dairy products sent to him at two-week or four-week intervals
from all over the world and created charts of the seasonal fluctuation
of the amounts of fat-soluble vitamins in the butter and found
that in each district, the government records for pneumonia and
heart disease showed a pattern inversely associated with the fat-soluble
vitamin content, which was one of many pieces of evidence supporting
his theory that tooth decay and other degenerative diseases shared
a common nutritional cause.
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About the Author
 Sally
Fallon is the author of
Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct
Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats (with Mary G. Enig, PhD), a well-researched,
thought-provoking guide to traditional foods with a startling message: Animal
fats and cholesterol are not villains but vital factors in the diet, necessary
for normal growth, proper function of the brain and nervous system, protection
from disease and optimum energy levels. She joined forces with Enig again to
write Eat Fat, Lose Fat, and has authored numerous articles on the
subject of diet and health. The President of the Weston A. Price Foundation
and founder of A Campaign for Real Milk,
Sally is also a journalist, chef, nutrition researcher, homemaker, and community
activist. Her four healthy children were raised on whole foods including butter,
cream, eggs and meat.
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