Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

This book distills the research of Weston A. Price, a dentist and independent nutrition researcher. In a decade of travel around the world, Price and his wife studied the health, dietary habits, and chemical composition of food of dozens of traditional peoples of various racial backgrounds. His research was done at a time when many such groups still lived free of the influence of Western civilization and what he called "foods of commerce," i.e. heavily refined and denatured foods. One could question whether 60 plus year old research is relevant today, but I found his work powerful and persuasive for a very simple reason. Health problems sent me on a quest to find the best dietary information, but I soon found myself mired in contradictory claims, opposing research and special interest groups, as well as outright deceit. First I would read about how one vitamin or mineral was good for this. Then I would read that the very same item was bad for that. You shouldn't combine X with Y, or needed to add tons of Z or W, except on Sundays when the moon was almost 3/4 full. I became very disillusioned with the incredible complexity of nutrition. As I read more and more deeply, I also became annoyed at all the disinformation and profiteering behind much of the so-called research. I reached this bottom line: While we understand proteins, carbs, and fats reasonably well, and have a pretty good handle on most vitamins and about a dozen minerals, there is simply an immense amount we just don't know. We are researching minerals at about 5 per decade (around 50 to go - a hundred more years at our current rate). There are around 5000 enzymes in bee pollen alone, and few of them have been researched. There are an unknown number of phytochemicals and other things we have yet to discover that have been constituents of our food for perhaps millions of years. Science moves very slowly, and it could easily be several hundred or 1000 years before we get it all sorted out. And that doesn't take into consideration the power groups who insist on muddying the waters for profit's sake. Modern science is quite obviously incapable of giving us complete answers to our nutritional questions. It just plain doesn't have them to give, nor will it for a long, long time. Then I found Price's work. Basically, he was the Tony Robbins of diet - he sought out the healthiest people on Earth and studied what they had done for hundreds and thousands of years to stay healthy. He looked at their Traditional diets as well as what happened when they adopted Western diets. The results are in this book, and it is well worth your taking the time to read. While others have followed his work, the changing nature of the world now make it impossible to duplicate his research today. His work stands as a pivotal piece in science and health as well as in history. This represents the cumulative knowledge of millions of people over thousands of years in a laboratory that includes the entire world. Definitely non-trivial. There are also books by Ronald Schmid and Sally Fallon that introduce and give overviews of Price's work. I recommend them also. Today, when we must all become advocates for our own health, arming yourself with the best information is vital. update December 2008 A recent article published by the Weston A. Price Organization not only validates Price's X-Factor research, it also clearly illustrates the point I make above about modern scientific method and nutritional research failing to provide adequate information. Vitamin K2 has been identified as the X-Factor, and recent research into K2 shows that it is an extremely essential nutrient, not the throw-away that it has long been considered. It is a vital factor in bone and tooth health, heart health, nerve health, and so on. It turns out to be a critical part of so many body processes that physiology texts will have to be rewritten in major ways. Here is a vitamin discovered nearly 100 years ago, and yet science is just beginning to understand how terribly important it is. The main reasons for this serious error are; a lack of understanding of the chemical tests involved, lack of reading research in other countries, and a lack of interest on the part of researchers. (No money in vitamin research, you can't patent vitamins.) The article is available from the Weston A. Price Organization and is a very interesting read. UPDATE August 2009: The figure of 5000 enzymes has been bothering me, as the source of that info was not well cited. I have been looking around for a hard figure on the number of enzymes, and guess what? There is no such hard number. All the sources I have found vary widely (1,000 to 80,000), and do not cite references. Some sources say that there are 5,000 named enzymes, and up to 20,000 possible. This is yet another reason why current nutritional research is such a poor source of decision making data - they just don't have enough hard data to trust.

Perhaps one of the greatest books of the 20th century. Though it was written in the 1930s, it is nonetheless eerily prophetic of the ominous trends that punctuate modern technology, namely the changing nature of how humans and animals eat. There is a "Twilight Zone" sense of foreboding as Dr. Price's research and findings unfold, chapter after chapter. What this book amounts to is a convincing, virtual warning on what is happening to the planet, and the humans and animals that inhabit it. The information contained within is so compelling, riveting, meticulously documented, and palpably thorough in its research, I have no reservations about saying that this may be the most crucial piece of work on nutrition to ever have been written. But it's more than a book on nutrition. It deals with the cultural, technological, global, and (latently) political ramifications of manufactured food. There are so many angles - such as soil depletion, corruptive changes in the human form and the catastrophic physical decline of the species - and complications stemming from the changes wrought in the way humans and animals eat, one needs to read the book. There is no guesswork here. Price, like a true scientist, made acutely sure to back up his assertions with chemical analyses, tests and rigorous collection of data. Price's findings are amply illustrated with an astonishing collection of photos. The people that pass for humans is plainly frightening. The "before and after" aspect of the hundreds of photos leave the reader in abject shock. There is a real sense of horror, chapter after chapter, of seeing the after-effects of modern foods on various peoples. After reading this book, one may surmise that several factors have fallen into place. That is, the realization of why, despite "advanced" technology, medical care and knowledge, the nation and the world continue to be plagued with disease, degeneration, obesity and ill health. As Dr. Price puts it, the majority of plagues, and infectious diseases have been largely dealt with, but now in its place are degenerative ailments, and the The most chilling realization of all is the very real possibility that pre-natal "germ plasm disruptions," coming from parents who lack the proper means of health through nutrition to create ideal offspring, may be taking place in epidemic numbers. What this is tantamount to is the actual de-evolution of a degenerated human race. Price's main observation on the healthy primitive peoples is how they respect the laws of nature. What modern technology does not recognize is that many primitive societies have knowledge that have been passed on from millenia in which to base their vital health. What Price does here is to show the effects of "modern foods of commerce" (as he calls it) on these primitive societies. You see, in mind-boggling photos, how healthy, disease-free primitives look; the ones who have been subsisting on their own diets for millenia have beautifully formed faces, palates, jaws and teeth that are totally devoid of caries. Then, there are, among these same peoples where white man and their modern foods have taken over. Children (and the adults they become) with birth defects, deformed palates, rotted, missing teeth and ill-health. Even more scary is the possibilty that "pre-natal disruptions" could cause impaired brain health. Dr. Price very meticulously documents all his findings, which include, specifically, what kinds of foods cause the best health, and, conversely, the worst. He backs up his findings with x-rays, photos and all kinds of data that can't easily be refuted. The common sense and logic which prevails throughout can't be shaken off; these details are disturbing and unsettling. We see proof of how nature is being corrupted by an unnatural means of eating. It all falls into place. The untainted foods of God are what we're meant for. The moral is clear: take the foods of God, alter it, chemically process it, and feed it to people, and witness the catastophic destruction of what nature intended. If this continues, we're done for. The other real, sobering possibility is that information like this will be constantly scuppered by prevailing dietary trends, and misinformation. Fortunately there is an active society, based on the author's work, which can be found at [...] - this organization is promoting wholesome eating, good health and vitality through the foundations of good nutrition, which Dr. Price endorsed. Eventually, with any luck and perseverance, the truth will prevail, and the one vestige out of Pandora's Box - hope - can morph into a tangible reality. One can get a head start, armed with this knowledge, through several important books: number one, and the most crucial, Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions," Mary G. Enig's "Know Your Fats," Enig and Fallon's book "Eat Fat, Lose Fat," Bruce Fife's "The Coconut Oil Miracle," Kaayla Daniel's "The Truth About Soy," and Jordan Rubin's "The Maker's Diet." This book is a spectacular read. Though it does deal primarily with Dr. Price's research, findings and discoveries on nutrition and physical degeneration, there are so many rewards otherwise. This is a first-rate travelogue, superb cultural anthropological study, and an astonishingly thorough analysis of human behaviors. Moreover, Price is a wonderful writer, matter-of-factly genteel, dispassionate and duly concerned all at once. There are no words adequate to convey the the impact, importance and timeliness of this book.

This book quite simply is a revelation! This is one of those books that comes to you as a recommendation and often arrives as you travel on your own health journey. Reading it I had that eureka moment where the blinkers came away from my eyes and I realised the answer to our own health is not a confusing concept after all. Dr Price wrote this in the 1930s which in itself is notable but the depth of knowledge and visual proof of the dental health of traditional cultures at that time is unquestionable. He asked the oh so simple question!! Why were certain traditional cultures healthy and robust? While we get confused in the mire of ill health he found the answer decades ago!!! It is not surprising his work is not taught to dentists training now as the pharma industry control our ill health. However thankfully the Weston Price Foundation and the Price Pottenger Foundation are keeping this book at the forefront of our minds. I cannot recommend this book highly enough and I now fully understand how many folk have said this book changed their lives. I am joining the queue also!

A great buy for anyone wanting detailed nutrition on tribes people pricey in hard back but worth the cost as read other reviews and some found that certain parts of the original book were not included in other copies.

Top seller. A+++. Thanks Pi

Delivery was late, but everything else great.

The book is not in very good condition.