The Link Between Nutrition and Native Immunity

I have long believed that native peoples — in the Americas, in Africa and in the South Seas — began to suffer from infectious disease as soon as they came in contact with European colonists. In fact, many have asked me how such healthy people could succumb to disease so quickly.

My answer — and not a very good one — was that in traditional cultures that had not had contact with infectious disease, the people did not need to build a strong immune system during growth, so that the nutrient-dense d...