Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Oct 15, 2007 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ideas, cooking, health

This book changed my life but each case study in the book said the same thing (and was tedious to read) thus four stars, but worth skipping to the end and here's what I learned...

The average human needs 2000-2500 calories per day. Sugar is a concentrated form of energy (carbohydrates) and can quickly fill up the body's caloric needs without providing any body-building minerals. Body-building minerals include calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. These minerals may be present in food yet unus...more This book changed my life but each case study in the book said the same thing (and was tedious to read) thus four stars, but worth skipping to the end and here's what I learned...

The average human needs 2000-2500 calories per day. Sugar is a concentrated form of energy (carbohydrates) and can quickly fill up the body's caloric needs without providing any body-building minerals. Body-building minerals include calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. These minerals may be present in food yet unusuable by the body. They must be accompanied by fat-soluable and water-soluable vitamins such as Vitamins A and E.

The modern diet is made of products that ship easily to many different areas. Canned goods, sugar, rice, jam and vegetable oils are most commonly used. Bakeries provide many white-flour products. While these products still have calories and are sufficient to produce heat and energy in a human body, the minerals originally found in them have been either destroyed or removed. “In the production of white flour approximately eighty per cent or four-fifths of the phosphorus and calcium content are usually removed, together with the vitamins and minerals provided in the embryo or germ” of the grain. (p 285) “If we are to provide nutrition that will include an adequate excess as a factor of safety for overloads, and for such periods as those of rapid growth (for children), pregnancy, lactation and sickness, we must provide the excess to the extent of about twice the requirements of normal adults. (requirements stated in his book = .68g Calcium, 1.32g phosphorus .015g iron thus doubling them would mean 1.35g calcium, 2.64 phosphorus, .03g iron)” p 275 “Extensive laboratory determinations have shown that most people cannot absorb more than half of the calcium and phosphorus from the foods eaten. The amounts utilized depend directly on the presence of other substances, particularly fat-soluable vitamins.” p.269 “It will therefore be necessary for an adequate nutrition to contain approximately four times the minimum requirements of the average adult if all stress periods are to be passed safely.

The diets of the native Eskimos contained as much as 5.4 times as much calcium as the modern diet 5 times as much phosphorus, 1.5 times as much iron, 7.9 times as much magnesium, 1.8 times as much copper, 49 times as much iodine, and at least ten times that number of fat-soluable vitamins. The diets of the native americans of Canada, the native Swiss, Gaelics in the Outer Hebrides, the Aborigines of Australia and the native New Zealand Maori was similar. (see p 275-276) Not a single primitive racial stock was found living entirely on plant foods (i.e. vegetarian). p 279

Vitamin D which is not synthesized in the human body, is not available in plants. It is only available in animal products specifically egg yolks, butter, cream, liver and fish. Primitive peoples got this vitamin in four different ways. The Swiss, Arabs and Asiatic races got it from dairy products such as milk from cattle, camels or sheep. The native americans and Andean tribes got it from the organs of animals and the eggs of birds. The pacific islanders and coastal natives got it from seafood and the Australian Aborigines and African tribes got it from small animals and insects. (p 282-3)

The problem is manifested in the oral hygiene of those on inefficient diets. The natives had no problems with tooth decay. They got enough nutrition in their foods that the saliva composition protected their teeth without brushing or modern methods of cleaning teeth. When the proper chemical content of the saliva is reinstituted, bacterial growth is stopped and the tooth will harden in the area of the cavity. (p 286) The proper chemical content of saliva is directly related the the minerals absorbed by following a proper diet. Even in natives where the tooth was worn down to the gum line, the body was protected from bacterial infection by new layer of dentine where the pulp was exposed. “Available data indicate that the blood and saliva normally carry defensive factors which when present control the growth of the acid producing organisms (bacteria) and the local reactions at tooth surfaces. When these defensive factors are not present the acid producing organisms multiply and produce an acid which dissolves tooth structure. The origin of this protective factor is provided in nutrition and is directly related to the mineral content of the foods and to known and unknown vitamins particularly the fat-soluable.” p 301

As an example, the nutrition for children living in a poor district in Cleveland, OH was improved for one meal per day. Many of the children had vary large cavities which had decalcified the tooth to the pulp chamber. After the nutrition was improved, the tissues of the pulp built in a secodary dentine thus reincasing itself and the decay was inhibited. (p288) “The nutrition provided in this one meal included the following foods. About four ounces of tomato juice or orange juice and a teaspoonful of a mixture of equal parts of a very high vitamin natural cod liver oil (Vitamin A) and an especially high vitamin butter was given at the beginning of the meal. They then received a bowl containing approximately a pint of very rich vegetable and meat stew, made largely from bone marrow and fine cuts of tender meat: the meat was usually broiled separately to retain its juice and then chopped very fine and added to the bone marrow meat soup which always contained finely chopped vegetables and plenty of very yellow carrots; for the next course they had cooked fruit, with very little sweetening, and rolls made from freshly ground wheat, which were spread with the high-vitamin butter....Each child was also given two glasses of fresh whole milk. The menu was varied from day to day by substituting for the meat stew, fish chowder or organs of animals....These meals provided approximately 1.48 g calcium and 1.32 g phosphorus.” p 290 Also of note is that “two different teachers came to me to inquire what had been done to make a particular child change from one of the poorest in the class in capacity to learn to one of the best. Dental caries is only one of the many expressions of our modern deficient nutritions.” (p 290-291)

Whole wheat breads from a bakery is not comparable to Nature's foods “because of the factors that have been removed from the wheat either mechanically or by oxidation.” p 299

Nutrient content in foods varies depending on the nutrient content of the soil and foods eaten by cattle. If cattle are in gestation too often and fed foods low in chlorophyl the nutritional value of their milk is depleted.

Summary:
Reduce intake of white flour, sugar, and over processed foods.
Increase intake of whole grains, freshly ground wheat, dairy products, fruits and vegetables. Make particular efforts to get double to quadruple the minimum daily amounts of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron along with natural Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E.

Proper nutrition will reduce the number of cavities, reduce risk of disease, make childbirth easier and reduce risk of mental and physical deformities in infants and adults. An example of a mental deformity in infants that is related to nutrition is the increased risk of downs syndrome for children born to parents over forty years of age. See book for an extensive look at the effects of nutrition on downs syndrome children.(less)

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Mar 01, 2008 Stephan rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is the most important book ever written on nutrition and health.

Weston Price had a very simple idea in the 1920s. He would travel around the world, find the healthiest people he could, and see what they were eating. He was a dentist, so his focus was mostly on dental and facial health and development, but he also made many observations that apply to general health and development.

What he found was shocking. At the time, there were many cultures throughout the world that were far healthier t...more

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Feb 08, 2013 Valerie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-that-changed-my-life

This book changed my perspective on food and dental care. Cavities can be healed (easier while young than old), teeth can be remineralized, and what we eat has a direct effect on our health (I already knew that part of course, but never read it this way before).

This book is a fascinating story of a dentist in early last century who traveled to pockets of people still eating their age-old ancestral diet. He found that their traditional diet, widely different in content depending on the area, equ...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Roslyn Ross rated it 5 of 5 stars

Required reading, especially for people thinking about having kids. So shocking to see such strong evidence that all orthodontic needs are NOT genetic but actually evidences of nutritional deficiencies IN UTERO. Fascinating how much effort he has to go to prove what is really common sense and yet people still don't know this stuff. Why didn't I learn about this until now? I am so angry about what a useless waste of time public education is. Why don't we learn anything useful at all?!!!! ARGH!!!!...more

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Apr 13, 2013 David Carver rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nonfiction

This book is quite simply the best and most succinct argument for a natural, non-synthetic diet. Chapter after chapter of detailed surveys, statistics, and citation establishes that diet directly influences not only the superficial problems of tooth decay, but much more serious issues of prenatal development, degenerative disease, and mental acuity. One would expect a work on dental health in primitive cultures to be dry going, but Weston Price has an eye for the beauty in Nature, especially the...more This book is quite simply the best and most succinct argument for a natural, non-synthetic diet. Chapter after chapter of detailed surveys, statistics, and citation establishes that diet directly influences not only the superficial problems of tooth decay, but much more serious issues of prenatal development, degenerative disease, and mental acuity. One would expect a work on dental health in primitive cultures to be dry going, but Weston Price has an eye for the beauty in Nature, especially the beauty of the unmarred and healthy physical form, and therefore he regularly interrupts the scientific narrative to discuss weird or colorful items in his journey across the world. The results of that journey, photographed regularly and precisely, can leave little doubt: the modern diet kills. Only the vitamins and minerals present in non-synthetic primitive diets can ward off such modern ills as heart disease, dental crowding, and infant deformities. In fact, it is remarkable how much of the human experience relates to this basic idea of good nutrition, a fact that appears irrefutable from the thousands of cases documented by Price.

While the claims of this book touching only on dental hygiene would make it fascinating reading in itself, other conclusions are particularly relevant to contemporary culture:
1) Vitamins do their best work when ingested as much as possible from their natural source. This means that capsules and pills are secondarily useful - much better to eat freshly-ground wheat or fish eyes.
2) Childbearing in primitive cultures is prepared for months in advance; the result is that it is often a quick and simple event, contrasted to the arduous, lengthy experience of many women in Western societies.
3) Mental disease in infants can be traced in a high percentage of cases to a lack of over-nutrition in the mother (since sufficient nutrition only takes care of her own health). And finally,
4) A good diet derives from satisfactorily answering two questions: what is my food? and where does it come from? Modern diets have tended to focus exclusively on the former, which means that the vegans are right, in a way - meat does present serious risks when it comes from the feedlot system, but a diet that contains no animal products whatsoever not only cannot deliver vitamins and minerals efficiently, but has been rejected by the primitive cultures of the world, who have not suffered tooth decay, degenerative disease, or mental retardation in the process.

I can't think of a book I'd be more likely to recommend in the near future than this one. A necessary read.(less)

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Nov 09, 2012 Hong rated it 3 of 5 stars

If you are looking for a book for improving your diet, or learn about food science, look elsewhere.

Information is presented inefficiently. Often, a page could be condensed into a table. Soon after reading the book you will realize the content is rather repetitive. Written in a modern way, the book can be condensed into 100 pages.

I find this book dated. I have to look up the internet to learn about our updated knowledge on various matters. The utility of certain vitamins and minerals were not wel...more

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Sep 23, 2011 Principle Based Learning marked it as to-read

Shelves: health-and-nutrition-book-list

(recommended by Karin)
Price was a Dentist/Researcher in the 1930s who traveled the world and studied people on indigenous diets, finding that when processed foods (back then that consisted of white flour, pasteurized dairy, sugar, etc.) were introduced into the diet, facial bone structure in subsequent children changed so much that teeth became crooked, bacteria in the mouth developed so that cavities were rampant (where almost none existed before, despite the absence of tooth brushes), and TB b...more

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Feb 10, 2009 Karen rated it 4 of 5 stars

So very interesting. Dr. Price (actually a DENTIST...not an MD) wrote this in 1939 after studying the effects of various diets on isolated, primitive peoples. He describes is great detail (with insightful pictures) how our diet effects our health. Although not all arguments were entirely substantiated, the overall picture shows the potential harm our Western diet can inflict. I am the exact type of person who SHOULD be a health-nut...unfortunately, I read as many cookbooks as other books and lov...more

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Jun 04, 2007 trevor rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: nutrition

This is the best book I've ever read. The amount of research, depth of knowledge, and pictures that capture more than words can describe makes a very though provoking read. Forget everything you have head about nutrition from so called experts over the last 60 years. This is the only book you need.

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Feb 03, 2012 Kara rated it 4 of 5 stars

I have read this one before, but I'm re-reading it with an online book. this is an amazing book that, along with Nourishing Traditions, has definitely changed my life and how I look at, and prepare food. This book contains some very unbiased research and although is full of very similar data in each chapter, that is sort of the nature of the beast of this kind of book. it can be a struggle to get through the neverending data from each place Dr. Price visits, but this book is written so that even...more

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Feb 28, 2010 Melisa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

Since high school I have been interested in learning more & more about nutrition. In college as a Nutrition and Food Sciences major I learned how theoretical our knowledge is about nutrition and I changed my major because it seemed that my degree would be outdated as soon as I earned it. I continue to read and learn about how the food we eat impacts and influences our health. This book was another eye-opener in that regard. It speaks to the importance of quality animal fat (among other thing...more

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Feb 15, 2011 Christopher rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: digital-books

A sometimes racist, often subjective, occasionally factual, outdated, repetitive scientific read. This is what you get, I guess, reading 1st person biological science from the 1930s. Nevertheless, this book is fantastic in 3 ways: [1] It shows us what science used to think was correct; [2] excellent descriptions of "primitive" diets (the delight of most readers of this book); [3] Can also be read as an anecdote-filled nutritional travelogue.

Found myself skimming entire sections. Overall, an over...more

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May 10, 2009 Daniela rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a really long book, very dense...it'll take a while to get through.

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Jun 06, 2012 Meridith rated it 5 of 5 stars

There are times, when I read a book, that I take a moment to think about what I just read; this book slapped me in the face and made me stop to catch my breath. Unlike most medical researchers, he was looking for what made people healthy instead of what made them sick. In a study that would be impossible today, he examined native populations eating their traditional diet and compared them to those who had started eating a western diet. The results are fascinating and heartbreaking. This book has...more

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Jul 04, 2011 Marisa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a really great book, it reads like a textbook so is hard to get through all of it and I had to skim through parts of it. Basically in the 1930's Weston Price and his wife scoured the earth for the most remote and primitive populations. Ones that weren't tainted by a modern diet. The people were healthy in every way, bones and teeth were well formed and there was little disease. As modern diet encroached on their traditional diets their health and vigor decreased with each generation. All...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Rogers George rated it 5 of 5 stars

Dr. Price presents a very persuasive though anecdotal (okay, epidemiological) case against refined foods. He and his wife traveled the world visiting "primitive" cultures, examining their teeth and diets. It doesn't take long to become convinced that a diet of "Western food," particularly refined flour and sugar, leads to cavities and stunted jaw development (leading to crooked teeth), whereas consuming the local, primitive diet leads to healthy teeth and jaws. The book is easy to read even thou...more

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Feb 12, 2013 Ngaire rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: health-and-wellness

This book should be required reading for all nutrition students the world over. Heck, it should required reading for all medical students too, I think. Weston A. Price was an American dentist who studied modern dental diseases intensively in the early part of the twentieth century. In order to understand why American children, in particular, had such poor dental health, he decided to travel to the parts of the world where people still lived a traditional life and ate a traditional diet. Basicall...more This book should be required reading for all nutrition students the world over. Heck, it should required reading for all medical students too, I think. Weston A. Price was an American dentist who studied modern dental diseases intensively in the early part of the twentieth century. In order to understand why American children, in particular, had such poor dental health, he decided to travel to the parts of the world where people still lived a traditional life and ate a traditional diet. Basically, he wanted a control group to see what variables in the American diet and lifestyle caused dental caries (cavities) and other diseases. Because he couldn't find such a group in the modern US population, he had to go overseas to parts of Europe, Africa, Asia, Polynesia, South America, and to remote parts of Canada and Alaska.

What he found was pretty much the same wherever he went - people who ate traditional foods and abstained from Western foods such as sugar, white flour, vegetable oils, margarine, powdered milk, and canned fruit and vegetables, had good teeth, few cavities, wide, bright smiles, and were generally resistant to diseases such as tuberculosis. Foods varied depending on where in the world he went - in remote, high altitude parts of Switzerland, people ate mostly meat, bone broth, milk and cheese, with some cereal grains, while in British Columbia, the Indians and Inuit lived mostly on fish, whale and seal meat and fat, elk and caribou meat, and berries. In the Outer Hebrides Islands off the coast of Scotland, the locals ate mostly fish, fish broth, and oats. In New Zealand, traditional Maori ate large quantities of kai moana (seafood), freshwater eels, pork, and local greens like puha. I found it quite funny and a bit tragic that Price mentioned in the New Zealand section that modern, white New Zealanders were universally regarded to have the worst diet in the world! It doesn't surprise me though - hearing my parents talk about growing up in NZ in the 50s and 60s, the food sounded horrible - lots of white bread, cream buns, and overcooked vegetables. Thankfully, with the influx of wonderful Asian and Indian food, and the global rise of interest in cuisine, it has gotten a lot better.

Price found that those from traditional villages or towns who moved to the cities or trading posts and began eating Western food had wide-spread cavities and other dental diseases and were also prone to the ravages of tuberculosis (the photos of this are pretty grim - many of the children, in particular, had such severe TB that it was eating through their glands and could be seen on their necks). By the second generation, the pernicious effects of this nutrient-poor, sugar- and vegetable oil-rich diet could be seen in the children, who often had crowded teeth, underdeveloped jaws, narrow nasal passages, and host of other physical ailments such as club feet. Price met one doctor in British Columbia who, when one of his native patients got sick with TB, would send them to live with their relatives in the bush to eat a traditional diet. It apparently often cured them.

To be honest, this book was kind of a slog to get through - it's pretty repetitive, for one thing, and you have to deal with the author's sometimes offensive racial attitudes (not as offensive as you'd think though - he was incredibly impressed by the hunting prowess and knowledge of the Australian Aborigines he interviewed and spent time with, and I got the impression that he would have moved to Peru if he'd had the chance because he loved the local culture and people so much - the Peruvian section is by far the longest in the book). But it's worth looking at because it really upends so many entrenched ideas about role of nutrition in health, both physical and mental. A group of Aborigines that Price met who had been forcibly moved to a kind of reservation and had no access to their traditional foods and lifestyle were sick, had bad teeth, and many had literally lost the will to live. Far from bringing enlightenment and education, Europeans often brought substandard food, diseases, and the destruction of traditional foodways that had served these people well for thousands of years. (less)

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Jun 14, 2012 Ronald rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: top-shelf-read

This book changed my life but each case study in the book said the same thing (and was tedious to read) thus four stars, but worth skipping to the end and here's what I learned...

The average human needs 2000-2500 calories per day. Sugar is a concentrated form of energy (carbohydrates) and can quickly fill up the body's caloric needs without providing any body-building minerals. Body-building minerals include calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. These minerals may be present in food yet unus...more This book changed my life but each case study in the book said the same thing (and was tedious to read) thus four stars, but worth skipping to the end and here's what I learned...

The average human needs 2000-2500 calories per day. Sugar is a concentrated form of energy (carbohydrates) and can quickly fill up the body's caloric needs without providing any body-building minerals. Body-building minerals include calcium, phosphorus, iron and magnesium. These minerals may be present in food yet unusuable by the body. They must be accompanied by fat-soluable and water-soluable vitamins such as Vitamins A and E.

The modern diet is made of products that ship easily to many different areas. Canned goods, sugar, rice, jam and vegetable oils are most commonly used. Bakeries provide many white-flour products. While these products still have calories and are sufficient to produce heat and energy in a human body, the minerals originally found in them have been either destroyed or removed. “In the production of white flour approximately eighty per cent or four-fifths of the phosphorus and calcium content are usually removed, together with the vitamins and minerals provided in the embryo or germ” of the grain. (p 285) “If we are to provide nutrition that will include an adequate excess as a factor of safety for overloads, and for such periods as those of rapid growth (for children), pregnancy, lactation and sickness, we must provide the excess to the extent of about twice the requirements of normal adults. (requirements stated in his book = .68g Calcium, 1.32g phosphorus .015g iron thus doubling them would mean 1.35g calcium, 2.64 phosphorus, .03g iron)” p 275 “Extensive laboratory determinations have shown that most people cannot absorb more than half of the calcium and phosphorus from the foods eaten. The amounts utilized depend directly on the presence of other substances, particularly fat-soluable vitamins.” p.269 “It will therefore be necessary for an adequate nutrition to contain approximately four times the minimum requirements of the average adult if all stress periods are to be passed safely.

The diets of the native Eskimos contained as much as 5.4 times as much calcium as the modern diet 5 times as much phosphorus, 1.5 times as much iron, 7.9 times as much magnesium, 1.8 times as much copper, 49 times as much iodine, and at least ten times that number of fat-soluable vitamins. The diets of the native americans of Canada, the native Swiss, Gaelics in the Outer Hebrides, the Aborigines of Australia and the native New Zealand Maori was similar. (see p 275-276) Not a single primitive racial stock was found living entirely on plant foods (i.e. vegetarian). p 279

Vitamin D which is not synthesized in the human body, is not available in plants. It is only available in animal products specifically egg yolks, butter, cream, liver and fish. Primitive peoples got this vitamin in four different ways. The Swiss, Arabs and Asiatic races got it from dairy products such as milk from cattle, camels or sheep. The native americans and Andean tribes got it from the organs of animals and the eggs of birds. The pacific islanders and coastal natives got it from seafood and the Australian Aborigines and African tribes got it from small animals and insects. (p 282-3)

The problem is manifested in the oral hygiene of those on inefficient diets. The natives had no problems with tooth decay. They got enough nutrition in their foods that the saliva composition protected their teeth without brushing or modern methods of cleaning teeth. When the proper chemical content of the saliva is reinstituted, bacterial growth is stopped and the tooth will harden in the area of the cavity. (p 286) The proper chemical content of saliva is directly related the the minerals absorbed by following a proper diet. Even in natives where the tooth was worn down to the gum line, the body was protected from bacterial infection by new layer of dentine where the pulp was exposed. “Available data indicate that the blood and saliva normally carry defensive factors which when present control the growth of the acid producing organisms (bacteria) and the local reactions at tooth surfaces. When these defensive factors are not present the acid producing organisms multiply and produce an acid which dissolves tooth structure. The origin of this protective factor is provided in nutrition and is directly related to the mineral content of the foods and to known and unknown vitamins particularly the fat-soluable.” p 301

As an example, the nutrition for children living in a poor district in Cleveland, OH was improved for one meal per day. Many of the children had vary large cavities which had decalcified the tooth to the pulp chamber. After the nutrition was improved, the tissues of the pulp built in a secodary dentine thus reincasing itself and the decay was inhibited. (p288) “The nutrition provided in this one meal included the following foods. About four ounces of tomato juice or orange juice and a teaspoonful of a mixture of equal parts of a very high vitamin natural cod liver oil (Vitamin A) and an especially high vitamin butter was given at the beginning of the meal. They then received a bowl containing approximately a pint of very rich vegetable and meat stew, made largely from bone marrow and fine cuts of tender meat: the meat was usually broiled separately to retain its juice and then chopped very fine and added to the bone marrow meat soup which always contained finely chopped vegetables and plenty of very yellow carrots; for the next course they had cooked fruit, with very little sweetening, and rolls made from freshly ground wheat, which were spread with the high-vitamin butter....Each child was also given two glasses of fresh whole milk. The menu was varied from day to day by substituting for the meat stew, fish chowder or organs of animals....These meals provided approximately 1.48 g calcium and 1.32 g phosphorus.” p 290 Also of note is that “two different teachers came to me to inquire what had been done to make a particular child change from one of the poorest in the class in capacity to learn to one of the best. Dental caries is only one of the many expressions of our modern deficient nutritions.” (p 290-291)

Whole wheat breads from a bakery is not comparable to Nature's foods “because of the factors that have been removed from the wheat either mechanically or by oxidation.” p 299

Nutrient content in foods varies depending on the nutrient content of the soil and foods eaten by cattle. If cattle are in gestation too often and fed foods low in chlorophyl the nutritional value of their milk is depleted.

Summary:
Reduce intake of white flour, sugar, and over processed foods.
Increase intake of properly prepared grains, organic/raw dairy products, fruits and vegetables. Make particular efforts to get double to quadruple the minimum daily amounts of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, and iron along with natural Vitamins A, B, C, D, and E.

Proper nutrition will reduce the number of cavities, reduce risk of disease, make childbirth easier and reduce risk of mental and physical deformities in infants and adults. An example of a mental deformity in infants that is related to nutrition is the increased risk of downs syndrome for children born to parents over forty years of age. See book for an extensive look at the effects of nutrition on downs syndrome children(less)

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Aug 06, 2011 Jesse Barnes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Very cool book. A cross between adventure dentistry, cultural anthropology and nutritional science. Some of the material he discovered is common knowledge now: the importance of vitamins, the role of sugar and refined flour in tooth decay. But the really interesting stuff was his data on physical development in people who had gone from traditional (aka "primitive") diets to modern diets and then back again. Children born under the primitive diets were healthier, stronger, and had resistance to c...more

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Nov 24, 2012 Valerie LeComte marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: health

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (Unknown)
- Highlight on Page 23 | Loc. 351-53 | Added on Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 05:45 PM

The origin of personality and character appear in the light of the newer data to be biologic products and to a much less degree than usually considered pure hereditary traits.
==========
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (Unknown)
- Highlight on Page 27 | Loc. 401-2 | Added on Wednesday, July 20, 2011, 06:25 PM

The writer is fully aware that his message is not orthodox;...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Rachel rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read most of this book online: http://journeytoforever.org/farm_libr.... This book is the main source material for most people who say that white flour and refined sugar is bad for us. Looking at the photos and the statistics Price provides, it's hard to argue. It makes me want to cut out more white flour from my diet and replace it with barley, oats, and wheat.

The study is extensive, and somewhat repetitious.

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Oct 24, 2009 Nate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Have you ever wondered why we experience tooth decay? How about why we are so vulnerable to diseases? This book, written in the 1930s, is an amazing study about nutrition. It is hard not to believe every word in this book -- Dr. Price visits isolated communities throughout the world and learns why they are free from all the degenerative diseases that were prevalent in the 1930s and even more so today.

Just read it.

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Dec 14, 2008 anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Weston A. Price is a master scientist. He traveled the world with his wife, Indiana Jones style, but instead of ancient relics, he searched for ancient foods. He found the key to ending chronic disease!... but no one listens because if we were to practice what he found, food lobbyists and manufacturers, ad companies, commercial farmers, and most importantly Monsanto & Big Pharm would be out of business.

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Feb 16, 2013 Kim added it · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone interested in their health

Shelves: health

Loved it!
Got the library to order it, and now I want to buy it.
Made me understand, that much more, how food impacts our health directly, and indirectly, through future generations. Also gave me hope that genetic anomalies need not be passed on to the next generation; they can be circumvented through better nutrition. And that is NOT the Food Guide. The complete opposite in fact.

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Sep 01, 2012 Caitelen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I was happy to finally get my hands on a copy of this to read....well, more like skim through, as I was borrowing it for only a couple of weeks. Still, skimming through gave me the glimpse I wanted into the research of Dr. Price, whose influence on me over the last 3 years (via Sally Fallon and Mary Enig) has changed the way I eat for the better!

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Feb 28, 2011 Dustin Palmer rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: anyone who cares about health, nutrition, or disease

Fascinating and eye-opening. Dr. Price's research certainly wasn't modern perfection--like double blinded control group variety--but he did a great job of revealing what we should be looking for, such as a focus on foods (not nutrients) and the importance of processing (or the lack thereof). The most revealing fact for many of us is that many different groups were extremely healthy on a broad range of diets, but they all had a few things in commone -- such as the lack of processing, the consumpt...more

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May 11, 2013 Christine rated it 3 of 5 stars

A relatively monotonous, repetitive read at times, but an interesting overview of the impact of the modern, Westernized diet on our health (immunity and dental health) - with fascinating insights into primitive cultures nutrition & health regimes. The author makes some comments and observations about the role nutrition plays in our mental health, but no convincing arguments - new research though has helped us being to understand the gut-brain connection (and the influence of nutrition on our...more

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Apr 13, 2010 Emmaj rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

This was a brilliant, ahead-of-its-time book (it was written in the '30s) that most current nutrition books refer back to (check the bibliographies).
But, it does get a little repetitive.

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Jul 21, 2012 Glen rated it 5 of 5 stars

You don't even have to read this book, just look at the pictures of people eating their traditional diet and compare them to the people in the same area eating flour and sugar.

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Jul 14, 2012 Alta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Enormous wealth of health information! And an enormous book, lol. I haven't read it all but wow! what I did read blew me away! I hope to finish it one day.

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/544354.Nutrition_and_Physical_Degeneration?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1175662025l/544354.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/544354.Nutrition_and_Physical_Degeneration?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston Andrew Price[/url]

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

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