Food, Glorious Food: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is a phenomenal book by Dr. Weston Price. Since reading it, I have made significant modifications to the way I eat.

Every time I think about teeth, Dr. Price's astonishing pictures come to mind. In the 1930's, he traveled to isolated places around the world to study people who had not been exposed to modern processed foods. He found communities where people had virtually no dental decay or physical degeneration. Once regular consumption of processed foods began, immunity to tooth decay was lost, and children born to parents who ate these foods had significant dental and facial deformities.

It is distressing that the state of our food supply is now very much worse than when Dr. Price conducted these studies, with comparable impacts on people's physical and non-physical health. Reading this book, you truly understand why our society has so many problems with physical and mental illness, infertility, and crime. And of course, dental decay and deformities.

For example, he describes a time when heart disease was essentially non-existant. There used to be no such thing as a 'heart attack'. Now, American Heart Association statistics (for 2004) show coronary heart disease is the single leading cause of death in America, accounting for one of every 5 deaths. There are 1,200,000 new and recurrent coronary attacks per year, and about 38% of people who experience a coronary attack in a given year die from it. (2004)

Heart disease is a nutritional issue! Malnutrition!

Of the societies that Dr. Price studied, those that followed their 'traditional' diets (free from modern packaged and processed foods) had no heart disease. They were also free from diseases like tuberculosis, which was rampant in many areas of the world in the 1930's when he did these studies. They was no mental illness and no crime.

People in these societies took special care to provide special foods, called 'sacred foods' by Dr. Price, for women and men of childbearing years, for pregnant and lactating women, and for young children. These foods provided very important nutrients that were necessary to support the birth and growth of healthy children. The readily available modern diets that are recommended to us are sadly lacking in these vital nutrients. So now we have problems with infertility, miscarriages, and difficulties in childbirth. Mental deficiencies and physical deformities in babies and children are becoming increasingly common.

These are all occurring because we have had multiple generations of insufficient nutrition.

Change the Way You Eat

Fortunately, it is possible to make a difference in your own health and in the health of your children, now and in the future.

As a result of reading this book, I eat significantly better, and I can feel the difference. In particular, it is worthwhile to acquire raw cheese, and if possible, butter and raw milk from livestock that have been fed on green pasture. (I will definitely write more about raw milk in another post to this blog.)

For about ten years, I was a vegetarian. But vegetarian diets lack nutrients that are required to maintain optimal health. I now eat a significant amount of meat, and actively seek out meat from grass fed livestock, when it is available.

Dr. Price hoped to find a society of people who was optimally healthy on a vegetarian diet. He was disappointed, because he was not able to find such a vegetarian society. Since learning this, I have heard of person after person who experienced health challenges and chose to abandon their long-term vegetarian lifestyle.

Eating Better Today Makes a Difference

It's never too late to improve the quality of your diet.

In his book, Dr. Price has pictures showing three children from one family. The oldest has perfect physical form and wonderful health. That child was born before modern foods were available to the parents. The second child, born after the parents began eating modern foods, has significant dental and facial deformities. (These types of deformities were the first that Dr. Price observed to occur in the children of parents eating modern foods.) Prior to conceiving the the third child, the parents returned to eating their traditional diet, free from modern foods. And the third child is once again perfectly formed, free from deformities.

I think everyone should read Dr. Price's book, particularly if they have or want to have children. The pictures will astound you. And you can really only understand the implications of the images when you read the text. Get the book from the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. It is also available from sites such as Amazon.

An excellent source of information is the Weston A. Price Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for people's right and ability to get nutritious whole foods.

Based on the work of Dr. Price, people around the world have adopted a way of eating and food preparation called the Nourishing Traditions diet, so named after Sally Fallon's excellent book by that title. Sally Fallon and the Weston A. Price Foundation provide voluminous information about how people in our modern societies can eat in a way that provides the nutrients that are necessary to support optimal health. Personally, I do not strictly adhere to this diet, but I have definitely incorporated numerous aspects of it, and I continue to make modifications.

Every little positive change to your diet helps. Even one meal makes a difference, if it provides nutrients that your body has been missing.

Educate yourself and take action accordingly.

Eat Well for Health.

Sandra

Sandra Lynn Lee
Certified Healing Codes Practitioner
Miracle Inspirations
www.MiracleInspirations.com
sandra@MiracleInspirations.com

Everything in this newsletter is the opinion of the author and is provided for informational and educational purposes only. When information is drawn from outside sources, both credit and access to the source are given, when available.