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2003/04/06, 05:15 PM
This is part of a larger article that you can read here: http://www.prfit.com/Articles/nutritionalstate.htm if you'd like. I was just wondering what you all think of this. It makes sense to me for the most part.
My attitude fortunately changed over the years and I ended up tracking down the work of Dr. Weston A. Price. Price was a Dentist/Researcher who back in the
1930s was troubled by the extent of dental decay in the youth of America. He believed that the mouth and its condition was a window reflecting the overall general
condition of an individual. If the teeth were bad and in decay, so Price believed was the rest of the body. The investigative attributes of this man lead him to spend
the better part of the 1930s traveling the world to study the dental and other physical characteristics of some of the most Isolated primitive tribes in existence at that
time.
Price's travels brought him all around the world studying the remote villages of Switzerland, Gaelic communities in the Scottish Hebrides, Eskimos, North and South
American Indians, the Polynesians, Melanesians, Australian Aborigines, the Maori of New Zealand, along with a number of African tribes. The 1930s was a fairly
unique time in history since it not only allowed Price to find and study these tribes in their primitive isolated state, but to also observe them as they mixed with nearby
modern civilization.
No matter where Price went, the results were the same. All of these tribes when viewed in their isolated environment showed amazing physical and emotional
health. Big beautiful smiles complete with straight non-crowded teeth free from decay. These people where not only physically impressive, but of high noble
character. There were no hospitals, jails, or insane asylums because there was no need for them. The young men of the Swiss valleys were so physically impressive
that the Vatican would often approach and recruit them to be part of the Vatican guard. The children demonstrated incredible health, free from the plagues of
sickness that are all too familiar to children of today.
So, what was there secret? No secret. These people simply ate whole natural nutrient dense foods that were indigenous to them. What was quite revealing to Dr.
Price was the drastic change in mental and physical condition of the tribes' people when they mixed with civilization and adopted our way of eating. The whole
nutrient dense foods that they were so accustomed to were replace with refined sugar, flour, canned fruits and meats, along with pasteurized milk. Not only did they
become subject to modern degenerative diseases, but their very next generation of children showed the same facial deformities with crowded teeth that Price was all
to familiar with. Their superior edge seemed to disappear with the dietary changes.
This was so obvious to Price that he set out to analyze the foods that were consumed by these people for perhaps thousands of years . The foods varied from tribe
to tribe. For example, the Swiss thrived mostly on a diet dominated by raw dairy, whole rye, small amounts of meat and berries. The Gaelic communities consumed
their own special oatmeal along with fish and fish organs. The Eskimo ate primarily seafood and caribou with very small amounts of seasonal berries. Meat and
organs were staples with many of the Indian tribes. Obviously the South Sea Polynesians and Melanesians fed mostly on seafood and indigenous fruits and
vegetables. Some of the African tribes lived on meat, milk and blood only.
Price did not find any true full vegetarian tribes. The tribes that were close to vegetarian were not as physically impressive and were usually dominated by a nearby
meat eating tribe. I guess my earlier fears as a vegetarian that kept me from reading Price's work were substantiated. This was not a man out to sell or market a fad
diet. He simply sought an explanation to the degenerative state he was witnessing in the mouths of America's children.
Price found that these whole natural foods contained many times the amounts of water and fat-soluble vitamins and minerals than the processed food of his day.
And guess what else they contained in abundance? FAT & CHOLESTEROL! That's right, tons of fat and cholesterol! Why weren't they all dropping dead of
heart attacks, strokes and all other nasty artery stiffening diseases? The young athletes of the Swiss valleys would routinely slurp down glasses full of pure raw
cream. There was no heart disease amongst these people. Why? Milk is full of saturated fat and cholesterol.
These natives were not just healthy by luck. They had great nutritional insight. They knew what to eat and when. Many of the tribes were adamant over dietary
practices before, during, and after pregnancy. They knew the importance of good nutrition for the proper development and health of the new born. Special nutrient
dense foods were used for both parents, but especially for the mother to prepare her body. They even knew to space children at an interval of at least 3 years of
each other in order to allow the mother to recover to premier health.
We call these people primitive! If they are primitive, then what does that make us? Basically it makes us a bunch of nutritional morons. That statement is not
extreme. We really are way off the beaten path when it comes to what we put in our mouths and call it food. How did we get like this? Why do all governing
nutritional bodies, government or private, and all medical fields tell us to avoid all the foods that were proven to be very beneficial to these native tribes all around the
world?
Weston A. Price spent the remainder of his life studying and monitoring the food supply in America and abroad. Price and others knew the importance of the cattle
and dairy industry and the significance of healthy pastures for the animals to feed on. Price knew it was critical for our food to remain as close to it's natural state as
possible. Pasteurizing and other processing would drastically alter dairy basically making it not only less efficient, but potentially harmful.
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2003/04/06, 08:01 PM
I agree - obesity, diabetes, heart disease, cancer. All of these rose in proportion to the amount of refined and processed foods in people's diets.
It is sad to see now how countries that used to be looked to for their good health, related to their diets of unrefined veggies, rice, meat, are now seeing the number of children with diabetes skyrocket, obesity is on the rise.. and why? Because Mcd's and KFC and all have made it to Asia and all of the other previously healthier countries.
i think the worst part of it all is that people really do know that what they eat is making them fat/sick. I can't recall anyone during a personal training consultation who didn't start out with "i know I eat the wrong things..".
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Challenge + Consistency = Results
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2003/04/09, 04:52 PM
It's funny how stuff like this gets pushed out to corners of the web and media. You'll never see this type of article highlighted in the New York Times. I could go into a long dissertation on corporate interests, but I won't. The bottom line: those 'primitive cultures ate how they ate millenia before. They eat how humans evolved to eat. Humans and their immediate predecessors have been around for nearly two and a half million years. Only 10,000 of those have had the benefit of agriculture. Since then, nutritionists have decided that a high-carb, low fat diet is the proper way to eat. Why would it be? That's not how humans were MEANT to eat. If you started feeding a polar bear wheat bread, would he be more healthy? Humans are supposed to subsist on a diet of meat, fruits and vegetables, whatever they can hunt and gather. This is why the Atkins diet makes *a little* sense. Our bodies have yet to properly evolve to grains and probably dairy as well (though dairy is probably a little less of a stretch). However, nutritionists have told us to make up the bulk of our diet with grains. Now why would they do that?
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"Don't follow leaders and watch your parking meters!"
-- Bob Dylan
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