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PROTECTIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF PRIMAL NUTRITION
Dr. Weston Price’s time in history was unique. The cultures he observed were still truly indigenous, with groups of people living entirely on the local foods. Photographic emulsion was commonly available for the first time, as was world travel. With one step in the old world and one step in the new, Price recorded his groundbreaking findings. A primary discovery was that the diets of native groups that were immune to dental and degenerative disease had several characteristics in common (these people hereafter will be referred to as “immune groups”).
COMMON FEATURES OF NATIVE GROUPS STUDIED
Nearly all foods that were consumed by the native groups that Price studied were whole and unrefined. Many whole foods were concentrated, for example, butter and cheese in the Loetschental Valley of Switzerland, seal oil and other concentrated animal and fish-liver oils by Eskimos, lard by groups that utilized pigs and beef fat in the making of pemmican by Native Americans—all of which served to include more saturated fats in the diet!
The foods of each immune group had been used by the group for centuries or longer, were prepared in special ways, and were indigenous to the group’s region. No imported foods were used. Customs dictated the importance of eating certain foods at specified times in life. Specific foods were known to prevent specific problems. Certain special foods believed to ensure the birth of normal, healthy offspring were particularly valued and were included in the preconception diet of both parents.
Most of the diets did not contain large amounts of fruit, which was used when available, but generally in limited quantities. Even where large quantities of fruit were available—for example bananas in the Amazon and in parts of Africa—fish and shellfish, animals, and vegetables were preferred.
Immune groups used none of the many foods commonly consumed today. The obvious ones include sugar, white flour, canned goods, and other supermarket standards. Less obvious are vegetable oils and fruit juices, both commonly used by health-conscious people. Nor were significant amounts of honey utilized by the immune groups, even though it often was the only sweetener available. Alcohol was consumed moderately if at all, in raw fermented beverages rich in enzymes and minerals. No vitamin pills were consumed.
Fish and shellfish were used in quantity by immune groups near the sea, supplemented by sea mammals, land animals, or both. Freshwater fish, animals, and sometimes milk and cheese were the most important protein foods for inland groups. Seaweed was consumed by every immune group living near the sea. Inland groups traded for it or, in the case of certain African tribes, special iodine-rich freshwater plants were used. In many groups, green vegetables and plants, gathered wild, were staples for all. Most cultures consumed at least some fruit. The organs of animals or fish or both were considered vital.
Given these common characteristics, we will now turn our discussion to specific fat-soluble nutrients, minerals, and raw-food proteins and enzymes. These biochemical and structural elements, abundant in primitive diets and lacking in modern ones, help to explain why the foods of traditional people largely protected them from disease.
FAT-SOLUBLE NUTRIENTS IN FOODS OF ANIMAL ORIGIN
Foods rich in fat-soluble vitamins and fatty acids formed substantial parts of traditional diets. These foods fall into three categories:
Vitamin D is richly supplied in these foods. Vitamin D is a complex of several vitamins. One, vitamin D3, is produced in humans by the action of ultraviolet light on the skin. Vitamin D3 helps regulate the absorption and utilization of calcium and other minerals. Other members of the vitamin D complex appear to play similar but complementary roles.
Sunlight does not appear to stimulate production of these other members of the D complex; they are supplied in the above-listed foods. This may be a reason that these foods proved to be essential in building immunity to dental and degenerative disease, for these other members of the D complex may play a role in maintaining health. Indeed, why would they be present in animals’ bodies if each did not serve a function?
Weston Price found that when patients with active decay eliminated refined foods and ate sufficient protective foods, the decay process often ceased. This was the case in young people of the Loetschental Valley who experienced decay only while outside of the valley. The decay ceased without the need for the teeth to be filled with fillings—photographs in Price’s book detail this. Present-day dentists occasionally observe cavities that have ceased to be active, by and large without realizing that this relates to specific dietary changes. The fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K2 are the keys to this. (Their interactions are complex, thus to articulate all of them in their entirety is beyond the scope of this book.)
Price’s chemical analyses of dairy products from all over Europe and America showed the fat-soluble vitamin content was much higher in those dairy products that had been made from butterfat derived from animals fed fresh green pasturage. This fat-soluble vitamin content was highest when grass was growing most rapidly. Dairy products from animals not eating fresh grass did not contain significant amounts of fat-soluble vitamins. (As we will see in chapter 5, in Francis M. Pottenger, Jr.’s experiments, milk from cows fed fresh greens had significantly healthier effects on animals than milk from cows fed hay. This was due to an unidentified nutrient Price called activator X, now thought to be Vitamin K2.)
Fish fats are rich in the omega-3 fatty acid, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Wild grazing animals have small but significant amounts, yet domestic beef fattened on grains contains almost undetectable amounts. But all animal fats contain arachadonic acid, which is needed to balance EPA.
Desirable prostaglandins are formed from EPA; some are responsible for keeping arteries optimally dilated and platelets from clotting abnormally (platelets are small particles in the blood that aid in clotting). Other prostaglandins made from EPA seem to enhance the functioning of the immune system. Many other effects of EPA are currently being studied by medical researchers. Evidence indicates significant EPA consumption is one reason that Eskimos and other native people (consumers of large amounts of fish and wild game) rarely suffer from heart disease and other chronic and acute diseases. But again, balancing the level of EPA with a proper balance of arachadonic acid is critical, given that excess EPA can be harmful.
Analysis of wild African grazing animals found significant amounts of EPA, and we may assume milk from such animals contains EPA. Analysis of domestic beef found almost no EPA; such animals are fattened on grains and fed little or no fresh grass the last few months of life, explaining the lack of EPA in their fat.
Seafood, organ meats, or raw dairy products of the proper quality are, in my experience, essential for full recovery from chronic disease and the maintenance of optimal health. Experiences of traditional cultures when these foods were displaced by refined foods indicate they are essential to also ensure normal development, birth, and growth of the unborn child and child. Considerations of the proportions and kinds of these foods best suited for individual tastes and needs will be discussed in later chapters.
MINERALS
Minerals originate and reside in the soil or the sea. In a forest, minerals leave the soil as vegetation and are returned by animal droppings, carcasses, and decaying vegetation.
Modern agricultural practices break that cycle. A few elements, without which the land would not produce crops, are replaced—nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous. Others, however, including trace minerals, are not. Since life first emerged from the sea and gained a foothold on the barren masses of the primitive continents, a delicate balance of natural forces has worked in harmony to evolve its rich diversity. Chemical agriculture ignores that equilibrium.
These natural forces provided foods required for optimal health and strength. Modern commercially produced foods cannot. Evidence about the role of trace-mineral deficiencies in the development of disease has emerged in recent years. Such deficiencies may be directly traced to modern agricultural methods, which produce food for people along with the feed for animals that provide meat and dairy products. Modern agricultural practices simply do not return to the soil what is taken out. Refining processes further strip grains of minerals and other nutrients.
Price analyzed foods of immune groups for mineral and vitamin content. In every case, the foods supplied at least four times modern consumption levels for each nutrient tested. Calcium intake ranged up to seven times as much; phosphorous intake, from five to eight times as much. Magnesium intake for several groups was more than twenty times as much; iron and iodine intake was up to fifty times as much. Intake of both fat-soluble and water-soluble vitamins was in every case at least ten times the minimum daily requirement. Mineral supplements benefit many people; often health problems are accompanied by deficiencies of calcium and magnesium and of trace minerals. But excesses occur if overdoses are taken, and increased intakes of some minerals can cause deficiencies of others. Supplementary zinc, for example, can drive down body levels of copper.
Natural foods have been assembled in nature’s laboratory over the course of evolution. The best way to get minerals is from foods; the full balance of accompanying nutrients is then supplied simultaneously. Special foods and supplements may be helpful in ensuring adequate intake or in correcting deficiencies.
Research and clinical experience indicate that a deficiency of minerals in modern diets contributes to health problems. The high incidence of osteoporosis among the elderly is an example; it is due in part to calcium deficiency. Liberal amounts of minerals in the foods of immune groups resulted from environments in which ecological balances were respectfully allowed to maintain and replenish themselves. Perhaps because humans took little, they were given a great deal.
We have since taken a great deal from forests, plains, and seas. Only a fraction of our wilderness and wildlife heritage remains. Unless we live with the land, rather than on it, and maintain it rather than rape it, whatever capacity the planet has left to supply traditional foods will be lost. The ability to resist disease, and much of the biological strength human beings have evolved over thousands of years, will be lost along with it.
RAW-FOOD PROTEINS AND ENZYMES
Food-industry products are rarely raw foods—the industry has scant interest in researching the benefits of raw foods. Thus, the value of raw foods is little understood by either the public or food scientists. This pertains to enzymes, which are found in raw foods. Enzymes are catalysts made of protein that initiate and speed up the biochemical processes of life. The protein they are made of consists of chains of amino acids linked by chemical bonds. The body can make many of the amino acids it requires; the eight it cannot produce are called essential and must be consumed.
Textbooks of physiology and biochemistry state that dietary proteins are broken down in the small intestine into constituent amino acids that are absorbed into the bloodstream. (Enzymes in the body are also broken down or destroyed if the body’s temperature exceeds approximately 107 to 108 degrees.) Scientists and medical students are taught that enzymes in foods have no nutritional value beyond that of their constituent amino acids. Since all proteins (and thus all enzymes) supposedly are broken down and reach the bloodstream as amino acids, standard teaching holds that enzymes in raw foods have no unique or special effects. The possibility that enzymes and other proteins in foods may be absorbed intact, or in large fragments having significant biological effects, has long been dismissed as the province of faddists seeing mystical properties in raw foods.
But evidence was published in the 1970s by W. A. Hemmings of the University College of North Wales and other researchers indicating that a significant portion of dietary protein is absorbed intact, in large fragments of many linked amino acids. Studies were done by feeding radioisotope-labeled animal protein to rats and measuring the radioactivity levels in different parts of the animal’s body. The researchers found that about half of the ingested protein freely passed as intact protein and large identifiable fragments into the bloodstream. These proteins went to tissues throughout an animal’s body and were broken down over a period of days or weeks. The researchers believe a similar process occurs in humans, indicating that different raw foods each have unique and potentially significant biological effects.
Such evidence supports the experience of healers who for thousands of years have stressed that raw foods are essential to the healing process and the maintenance of health.
As we will see in chapter 5, more than fifty years ago Francis Pottenger, Jr. proved that raw foods were required to maintain the health of cats. He applied elements of this knowledge to the care of his patients with tuberculosis and other chronic diseases, with excellent and well-documented results. Unfortunately, while his work was initially well received by the medical profession, in the ensuing years it has been largely ignored.
Every native culture Weston Price studied ate many foods raw; tradition often dictated which. The milk, cheese, and butter of Swiss villagers and African herdsmen were seldom heated. Organs in every traditional culture were often eaten raw or lightly cooked. Eskimos of Arctic regions, where no plants were available much of the year, ate some fish raw. This practice prevented scurvy; the vitamin C in meat and fish is destroyed by cooking. Much meat was eaten raw, lightly cooked, or smoked. Salmon eggs were important for coastal people; uncooked eggs were dried in fall for use in winter.
In the South Pacific, islanders and coastal Australian Aborigines ate much fish and shellfish raw. When shellfish were cooked, native people arranged them circularly about a small fire, with the animals’ valve ends toward the flames. Just enough heat was used to open the valves, saving much work.
Dried raw seaweed was used by coastal people everywhere. Many vegetables and other plant foods were used raw, especially young greens. Fruits were nearly always eaten raw. Perhaps most importantly, fermented foods, an incredibly rich source of enzymes, were used universally.
PROTECTIVE NUTRIENTS AND HIGH-QUALITY FOODS
When protective nutrients are lost from the diet, health problems are bound to ensue. Consuming enough of these nutrients is a step toward building strength and resistance to disease. Certain foods are more appropriate than others, depending on one’s ancestry and tastes. The point in detailing traditional use of specific parts of animals, often raw, is not to suggest that one emulate this, though one might. Rather, the concern is finding adequate sources of nutrients that native wisdom teaches are important.
Raw and lightly cooked foods may be eaten in quantity if enjoyed; they should not be forced. A reasonable approach might utilize raw or lightly cooked egg yolks from free-range chickens (some of the B vitamin biotin is lost by binding with the protein avidin in raw eggs, and raw egg whites are difficult to digest and highly allergenic), raw milk, rare beef, and raw fish (sushi and sashimi). In some states, raw butter is available. In years past, millions of people safely used certified raw dairy products. The safety of raw beef, fish, and dairy products depends largely on the health of the source animals. In my opinion, the danger resulting from a lack of essential nutrients found in raw foods is far greater than that associated with eating the foods raw if they are derived from healthy animals.
If animal foods are used raw or lightly cooked, sources ideally should be similar in quality to animal foods of native cultures. More and more, such sources are now available.
Vegetables, especially salad greens such as lettuce and sprouts, are best raw, although cooked vegetables add variety and, in colder weather, warmth. Raw-food vegetarians may enjoy quite good health, particularly if the diet includes raw dairy products. The quantities of raw vegetables needed for caloric needs supply large amounts of enzymes. Those individuals eating no animal foods typically develop problems involving mineral metabolism, vitamin B12 deficiencies, and inadequate amounts of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, and K2. But until then many strict vegetarians may feel quite well. Such exclusively vegetarian diets may initially help people suffering from chronic diseases, but inevitably lead to serious problems if followed for any extended period of time.
Another consideration relates to the high quality of foods used in traditional native cultures. These animal and dairy foods were healthy and free of pesticide residues, antibiotics, and added hormones—as was seafood. Vegetables, grains, and fruits grew on living soils rich in elements natural to the soil and free of pesticides. Suffice it to say that health can be dramatically improved without eating organic foods, but optimal health requires them.
Foods of the highest quality are more expensive and may be difficult to find, however. Be that as it may, the financial rewards of consuming high-quality foods are considerable, especially if one succeeds in improving one’s health to the point where visits to a physician are no longer a regular affair. This is a reasonable goal. Intangible rewards are even greater, for nothing equals the feeling of a smoothly functioning body.
In the next chapter we will look at the effect of diet on longevity by assessing the communities of different indigenous populations in three far-flung corners of the world.