by Carol Bridges, Secretary, Bloomingfoods Board of Directors
Back in 1932, a dentist named Weston A. Price embarked on a journey to find isolated groups of people still living entirely on indigenous foods. He traveled to remote Swiss villages, islands in the South Seas, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and anywhere he could find a population untouched by processed food. He found fourteen tribal populations on diets that, although radically different, provided almost complete immunity to tooth decay and resistance to illness. His intensive studies are documented in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Dr. Price found several basic commonalities in the diets of these exceptionally healthy people. They ate no white sugar, white flour, canned foods, skimmed milk or refined, hydrogenated vegetable oils. All the diets contained either meat, fish or dairy products, lacto-fermented foods and fat-soluble vitamin activators such as butterfat, fish oils, organ meats, coconut oil or eggs.
The people who existed on these wholesome diets were more than just cavity free. They appeared exceptionally happy, their villages crime free, and they were particularly skilled in their local vocations. His studies further revealed severe degeneration in the health of just one generation once they began to consume the new modern industrialized foods, including an increase in dental caries up to thirty-fold. The photos in this book display the results clearly.
“The history of the rise and fall of many civilizations has recorded a progressive accumulated nutrition in the topsoil, forest, shrubbery and grass, followed by a progressive decline, while the same civilizations were reaping the results of these essential ultimate sources of life. Their cycle of rise and degeneration are strikingly duplicated in our present American culture.” – Weston A. Price, DDS.
What does this mean for us? According to a New York City Department of Public Health report, cancer increased 90% from 1907 to 1936. The current list of illnesses we are subject to now is long indeed. Dr. Price noticed an association between facial and dental arch deformities and deformed pelvis, resulting in difficult childbirth. The most serious disturbances in reproduction and childbirth were beginning to occur in the most civilized parts of the world. We may have fooled ourselves about the results of our food choices due to the advances in medical science to replace our broken parts and our intense focus on postponing the worst effects of modern diseases as long as possible. We have come to view degeneration and the need for correction as the normal ageing process. This book informs us that that is entirely incorrect.
Basic whole foods from healthy soils supply body building and body repairing materials. Dentists were unknown and unneeded in the cultures studied. Little, if any, medical care was required. Though some people now consider “health food” to be too expensive, when the cost of your medical repairs from industrial processed food are considered, the savings from a nutritionally dense diet are astronomical.
We are fortunate to have our co-op grocery stores providing whole, healthy foods for us every day with labels like “free range,” “organic,” and “pesticide-free” gracing the aisles. Healthy soil, animals raised on fertile green pastures, fresh whole foods and a physically active lifestyle: these are the necessities for a life without need of medical interventions. But, don’t take my word for it. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, at over 500 pages, is for those who like to go to the source for proof. Other excellent books based on Dr. Price’s work include Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, filled with recipes and important facts, and Eat Fat, Lose Fat by Dr. Mary Enig and Sally Fallon. See also The Fourfold Path of Healing by Thomas M. Cowan, MD. I recommend them all.
Learn more about the Weston A. Price Foundation at www.westonaprice.org
A Bloomington chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation was formed by Larry and Tina Howard, members of the Local Growers Guild://wapf.betterlocalfood.org |
