A Life of Weston Price by Anne Wellman

A Life of Weston Price: The Darwin of Nutrition
By Anne Wellman
Independently Published

Those of us with dog-eared copies of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration and Nourishing Traditions might wonder what another book can add to our knowledge of Dr. Weston A. Price. Well, wonder no more. Anne Wellman’s 2025 biography brings fresh context to who Dr. Price was, what drove him to conduct in-person research on the diets of traditional peoples, and the impact of his work on the world.

Wellman divides her book into three parts: The Evolution, The Odyssey and The Book. In “The Evolution,” she focuses on Dr. Price’s life prior to his explorations to learn from “primitive people.” (He did not use this term pejoratively—it was the terminology of the time.) Wellman describes the health challenge Price himself confronted when he had typhoid as a young man and includes details about his faith and marriage, where he and his wife Flo honeymooned (Lake Massanoga in Canada), and even about his ambitious project of building a hotel in that remote area. She also suggests that the passing of Price’s only son Donald at age sixteen may have motivated him to explore how the body resists disease and sickness. This section highlights, in addition, Price’s research and interest in making dentistry more effective and less painful. (He urged colleagues to use early iterations of x-rays and to become aware of the dangers of root canals and infections.)

In “The Odyssey,” Wellman details Price’s preparations for and experiences among the various groups he visited, from Switzerland to Kenya and beyond. Although the lion’s share of this section will likely be familiar to most WAPFers, Wellman adds tidbits that may pique the reader’s interest. For example, between 1921 and 1938, another explorer-dentist (coincidentally also Ontario-born) named Leuman Waugh traveled to Alaska to study the health of indigenous people. Waugh came to a similar conclusion as Dr. Price—that the introduction of sweets and “white man’s food” was leading to tooth decay and compromised health. (As far as we know, the two intrepid dentists never met.) Another interesting tidbit is that, early on, Price apparently was convinced that cereals, milk and seafood were “the best possible basic foods for obtaining the body’s daily requirements of vitamins and minerals.” Over time, he replaced the recommendation of cereals as a foundational food with organ meats.

In “The Book,” Wellman assesses reactions to Dr. Price’s book. Journalists of the time took issue with the fact that he never offered a “precise or concise definition” for the term “physical degeneration.” Others mocked his work: “If parents wanted their babies to have perfect teeth and to be safeguarded from tuberculosis and facial deformity, then feed them seal oil, fish heart, fish eggs, caribou, milk made from moose marrow, bone extract of wild game and milk made from the stomach walls of the denizens of the frozen north.”

Today, Price’s work and that of the Foundation established in his name are still targets of criticism and ridicule, but the truths he uncovered have withstood the test of time. As a case in point, Dr. Price said: “It is doubtful if any sadder commentary will ever be written concerning our misguided craze for foods that are highly satisfying because they are high in energy and easily eaten. We have thought because they satisfy our hunger they were adequate. How strange that in our ignorance we have not before inquired the way from these experienced primitive people.” How prescient! In 2026, we remain just as enamored by pseudo foods that promise much and deliver little.

To Wellman’s credit, she does not gloss over inconsistencies or parts of Price’s life that cast him in a poor light. She explains, for example, how early editions of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration included a forward by eugenicist Earnest Albert Hooton. She also points out that in some countries, Price overlooked principal contributors to indigenous diets like potatoes and even sweet foods. Was this an intentional omission because aspects of certain diets didn’t align with his developing paradigm, or was it simply an oversight? The answer remains unclear. What is clear is that Dr. Price’s work fundamentally shifted the understanding of what it takes to support physical, mental and spiritual health. As Wellman notes, “The best thing he had to suggest was to eat plenty of butter.” If you agree that butter is better and want to spread the message around, along with the work of Dr. Price himself, get this book. I give it a thumbs up.

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