Nutritional Anthropologist
Current health statistics can be somewhat disconcerting. Figures show that 50% of the Western population suffers from some form of chronic illness. Diseases such as Alzheimer’s, arthritis, cancer, diabetes, heart disease and osteoporosis are steadily on the increase. Once rare conditions are rapidly becoming commonplace. Most depressing is the onset of many degenerative conditions in children. Yet the warning against this epidemic rise in avoidable illness had already been eloquently recorded as far back as the 1930’s. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Dr Weston A. Price recounts the progression of ill health in relation to diet. It has been described by the well-known physician, Dr Jonathan V. Wright as: “An absolutely basic book on nutrition and disease prevention, as relevant today as when first published, decades ahead of its time.” The book is a thoroughly researched account of global health decline as linked to indigenous dietary changes. Pity then, that its message seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as far as the Western medical establishment is concerned.
Dr Weston A. Price worked as a dentist in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930’s. Early on in his practice he began to observe increasing cases of dental decay. These were often coupled with serious degenerative illnesses. With each new generation of patients Price also began to notice an alarming number of people born with poor dentition and facial deformities. Disturbed by these observations, he became interested in the disease patterns of other cultures. He was curious to see if these problems were a growing global concern. Price had heard stories of so-called primitive societies where disease was practically non-existent. In a bid to discover if indeed such societies existed, he embarked on what became a 10-year journey around the world. During this time he and his wife traveled to many isolated regions whose natives had had no contact with modern society. What he discovered was to earn him recognition as one of the pioneering nutritionists of his time.
Price’s travels took him to some of the remotest areas of the globe. Many of the isolated groups he visited lived entirely on an indigenous diet. As a dentist he was keen to compare the rate of dental decay with that of patients he had routinely examined in the States. What he discovered was truly astonishing. In the most isolated tribes he found a rate of less than 1 per cent of tooth decay. Also, despite being radically different in content, he found that fourteen of these tribal diets appeared to offer almost total immunity to dental decay, coupled with a high resistance to illness. From the tribes of the windswept Scottish islands to the Eskimos in Alaska; from American Indians to the Australian Aborigines; from African tribes to the Polynesians of the Pacific Islands; the results were pretty consistent. Wherever indigenous diets were consumed, good health prevailed. Price was able to record these remarkable findings in a unique collection of photographs.
What is most surprising in Price’s findings is the diversity of the indigenous diets that he explored. Some diets contained little or no plant foods, whilst others were rich in vegetables, fruits, legumes and grains. Some tribes ate mainly seafood, whilst others lived mostly on animal flesh. Price began his investigations in the villages of Switzerland where the inhabitants lived mainly on rich dairy produce; foods generally considered highly detrimental in the average Western diet. However this type of dairy was completely fresh, raw and free from any chemical additives. It was an entirely different food to the heat-treated, nutrient-depleted product found in the average modern supermarket. In an era when tuberculosis was rife in the States, Price was unable to find one case in all the Swiss villages he visited. Further to this, the children seemed incredibly resistant to the cold weather. Childhood illness was virtually non-existent.
Interestingly, the prevalence of good health did not end with this first remote global encounter. Physical strength was a key feature of the hunter-gatherer tribes studied by Price. These particular tribes of Africa, the Amazon, Australia, Canada, and the Everglades lived primarily on a diet of organ meats, bone marrow and the glands of game, as well as some vegetables, fruits and a variety of grains. Price observed the stark contrast between the African Masai who were a cattle-keeping tribe consuming only meat, blood and milk, to the African Bantu tribe who lived mainly on vegetarian fare. His travels to New Zealand and the South Seas exposed an indigenous diet including a wide range of seafood such as shark and sea worms. These people also ate pork meat, fat and coconut – foods rich in saturated fats which are generally avoided for health reasons in today’s Western diet.
Despite the extreme diversity of these diets, there remained one unifying factor. They were comprised entirely of unrefined, unadulterated, ‘whole foods’. On average, these diets contained up to four times the vitamin and mineral content of the American diet of the 1930s. Price’s research concluded that whole foods yielded greater health benefits overall. However these discoveries were being made at a time when ‘civilisation’ was beginning to touch many remote areas of the globe. During his travels Price encountered a number of societies who were establishing contacts with the modern world. With modernization came the introduction of modern ‘foods’. These included sugar, white flour, condensed milk and canned food. Refined and processed goods began to worm their way into the diets of many native cultures. The replacement of indigenous foods with these items was already beginning to have an impact on the health of the people. With the introduction of refined foods came a rise in the incidence of tooth decay. Diseases, some of which had been previously unheard of amongst many tribes, began to appear. Coupled with this, Price began to record the somewhat sinister physical changes taking place in the generations reared on the new, modern diet.
Price’s photographic records comparing the faces of healthy ancestors to their offspring, show narrow faces replacing the characteristic wider, well-formed features of older generations. Price also noticed an increase in deformed and narrow dental arches. Children were being born with teeth crowding and pinched features. There was a marked increase in birth defects and susceptibility to illness was also on the rise. In comparison to the indigenous foods the newly-introduced modern refined foods were severely lacking in nutrients. A nutrient-depleted diet was the obvious cause for these physical complaints never before experienced by members of these tribes. Significantly Price noticed a decline in dental decay and illness in those natives who reverted to their traditional diets.
Price’s observations paint a grim picture of what happens when people choose to reject natural whole food dietary habits in favour of modern, refined foods. As the world becomes increasingly urbanised, many of the more remote cultures are being exposed to the Western way of life. The fundamentals of good nutrition are being swept under the carpet with the abandonment of tribal wisdom which kept generation after generation in perfect health. The message is simple. If we are to survive we must look to the diets maintained by our ancestors. Most importantly we need to adopt a whole food principle. This includes the avoidance of manufactured, refined and chemically-laden produce.
It is my opinion that a large proportion of supermarket foods are nutritionally redundant. In fact, a large number of goods sold as ‘foods’ are highly likely to have a detrimental effect on health. Stabilisers, artificial preservatives, flavour-enhancers, colourings: these are just a few unnecessary additives never before found in any indigenous diet. How far removed we have become from our natural birthright to health. The implication of Price’s research is profound. If we want to avoid a lifetime of suffering and progressive ill health, we must act now. We owe it to future generations to make the necessary dietary choices. As individuals we have the power to help restore humanity from a position of physical frailty to the good health enjoyed by our ancestors. Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration remains a classic for those researching on the effects of nutrition and the implications on human health. It is a clarion call for a return to a simpler, healthier way of life.
Bibliography
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration – Weston A. Price – Keats Publishing, Inc. – ISBN: 0879838187
Published in the May 2004 edition of Coffee’N’Carrots