Weston A. Price, “Charles Darwin of Nutrition”

Dr. Weston A. Price is considered by many to be the “Charles Darwin” of the nutrition field but chances are you likely have never heard of him. Dr. Price created a legacy of ground-breaking research that for years went largely unnoticed, but could very well be beneficial to your health and well-being today.

Who was this great doctor? He was actually a dentist from Cleveland, Ohio and lived from 1870 to 1948. He began a quest to uncover the causes for dental disease and decay that he saw in his patients. That quest ultimately led him to various expeditions around the world as he studied indigenous people living in often remote areas. The original results of his extensive research were documented by Dr. Price in a book entitled “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.”

Dr. Price’s travels took him to vastly different areas of the globe, including Africa, Australia, the South Pacific, Alaska, and even remote villages of Switzerland and the Outer Hebrides among others. He took numerous photographs of the indigenous people and their teeth, and also recorded detailed information about their physical appearance, anatomy, and diet. As you might expect, each of the individual regions he visited often had very distinctive diets. For example, the Eskimos in Alaska ate diets that are rich in fresh fish and large amounts of animal fats, with very little vegetables while the tribes in Africa like the Masai ate no plant foods at all.

Despite the seemingly dissimilar diets in the people and regions he studied, with no variation, those individuals who kept to their native diets had very little tooth decay and high resistance to physical degeneration due to illness. Also of interest, when Dr. Price studied other individuals in the same geographical locations who had succumbed to the more modern diet of white sugar, refined flours, and processed foods, without fail there was a substantial increase in both tooth decay as well as a reduction in the ability to thwart off disease.

Much of Dr. Price’s contributions to dental exploration and the causes of tooth decay were largely overlooked for years. It seems that now, his research is getting a fresh audience as more individuals and dentists are finding his earlier works helpful. In fact, there is a current controversy regarding whether Dr. Price’s research into tooth decay can pose an argument against root canals. For more information on this topic, please refer to http://educate-yourself.org/cn/rootcanalcoverup02apr04.shtml.

Today, we are told by various sources, that brushing our teeth will prevent gum disease and cavities. Dr. Price asserted that it is the foods we eat that really determine whether we will be healthy or not. In fact there are stories from Dr. Price’s expeditions that discuss his discovery of individuals whose teeth were actually covered in a green slime, but upon more closely inspecting the teeth, Dr. Price found them to be perfectly healthy and intact. Those individuals were the people who were adhering to the native diets of their ancestors rather than those who had begun eating more processed foods. It’s hard for us to imagine such a discovery in these days of media coverage of stark white teeth from bleaching. In fact, it seems that our perspectives have begun to shift to believe that white teeth equal healthy teeth.

Dr. Price’s research, however, went far beyond just the study of teeth. His premise was really that good nutrition that includes minerals, as well as water and fat soluble vitamins from whole, natural foods is what contributes to not only our dental health, but our overall health and physiques. Without exception, the incidence of disease and degeneration, both physical and dental, massively increased in the people who had begun to eat the more modernized diets of processed foods.

One interesting story involved two brothers, one of whom had continued to eat the traditional Gaelic diet of largely oatmeal, oatcake and sea foods combined with very small amounts of dairy products. The other brother had begun to consume the more modern diet of white bread, jams and sweets. Not surprisingly, the first boy had excellent teeth and health while the other brother did not.

Dr. Price’s research also showed a marked increase in the incidence of disease and a narrowing of the face for those indigenous people who had begun to ingest a more modern diet. These individuals had teeth that were crooked and decaying. Because the facial features had narrowed there was not ample space in the mouth cavity for all of the descending teeth. The research Dr. Price compiled is quite staggering when the physical changes are combined with the dramatic decrease in overall health in the individuals who had begun to eat the more modern diet.

Specifically, Dr. Price brought back samples of the native foods to his lab in Cleveland. There, he substantiated that the diet samples “contained at least four times the minerals and water soluble vitamins – vitamin C and B complex” as well as “at least ten times more vitamin A and vitamin D than the American diet of his day.” This ground-breaking information is in large part what the Weston A. Price Foundation focuses on today.

Nutrient-rich, healthy fat is a large topic of Dr. Price’s research. He found that the animal fats found in most of the indigenous diets actually armed the body to be resistant to physical degeneration and tooth decay. Through his studies, he shows photo after photo wherein the individuals who consumed high amounts of these fats were nearly immune to dental decay and had nearly perfect formation of facial features, including ample space in the mouth for straight and sturdy teeth. He also showed that these individuals were extremely healthy and had no or very low incidences of disease of any kind. Although his research originally focused on dental decay, the impact of his findings regarding the benefit of nutrient-rich fats has a substantial impact on the possibilities for regaining health for our future generations.

There are some similarities in the foods that the indigenous peoples ate, even though each group’s diets were each often very different.

• All consumed fat-soluble vitamins and minerals from either butter, sea food, animal organs (with fat), or cod liver oil.
• The foods were all grown in nutrient rich soils that did not contain pesticides or chemicals.
• Even natural sweets were rarely eaten.
• All of the lifestyles were such that physical activity was a large part whether through recreation or work.
• The foods eaten were eaten in their natural season.
• When storage of foods was necessary, the foods were stored in a way that did not alter, or minimally altered, the nutrient content of the foods.
• All children were breast-fed and older children (both girls and boys) were fed special diets in preparation of child-bearing years.
• All individuals had access to sunlight and fresh air.
• All of the diets contained whole foods, most of which were eaten raw or only minimally cooked.

The Weston A. Price Foundation, headquartered in Washington D.C. is a non-profit organization that carries on the activities of educating based on the research Dr. Price performed. Sally Fallon, the president of the foundation, has posted a wealth of information regarding their recommendations for a healthy diet based on Dr. Price’s work both for general nutrition as well as prenatal nutrition. Sally Fallon has also written an excellent article entitled “The Pioneering Research of Dr. Weston A. Price: The Whole, Natural Food Diet.” For additional information on Dr. Price’s research and foundation, please visit http://www.ppnf.org. The foundation’s website is full of nutrition information, and includes recommendations on which fats are beneficial and which may be detrimental.