Nutritional Therapy, learning from native cultures

Current statistics show 50% of the Western population as suffering from some form of chronic illness. Diseases such as Alzheimer's, arthritis, diabetes and osteoporosis are steadily on the increase. Conditions which were once rare in distant cultures are now becoming commonplace. Most depressing is the onset of many degenerative conditions in children. Yet despite current government reports, the warning against this epidemic rise in illness had already been thoroughly chronicled as far back as the 1930's. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, written by Dr Weston Price, is described by a prominent medical doctor as "An absolutely basic book on nutrition and disease prevention, as relevant today as when first published, decades ahead of its time."  Pity then that its message seems to have fallen on deaf ears as far as the Western medical community is concerned.

Weston Price worked as a dentist in Cleveland, Ohio in the 1930's. In his early practice he began to observe numerous cases of dental decay. These were often coupled with serious degenerative disease and illness. Further to this, he began to see increasing cases of the new generation being born with poor dentition and facial deformities. Alarmed by the high incidence of both, he became interested in the disease patterns of other cultures. He was curious to see if these problems were a growing global concern. He had heard stories of so-called primitive societies where disease was practically non-existent. Interested to see how such societies lived, he embarked on what became a 10-year journey around the world. During this time he and his wife travelled 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 most important nutritionists of our time.

Price's travels took him to many remote areas of the globe. Many of the isolated groups he visited were living entirely on indigenous diets. As a dentist he was keen to compare the rate of decay to those patients he 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. Despite being radically different in content, he found that fourteen different tribal diets appeared to offer almost total immunity to decay. This was always coupled with a high resistance to illness. From the tribes of the windswept Scottish islands to Eskimos in Alaska; from American Indians to Australian Aborigines; from African tribes to the Polynesians of the Pacific Islands; the results were pretty consistent. Where indigenous diets were consumed, good health prevailed. Price was able to record these remarkable findings in a unique collection of photographs.

What people find most surprising in Price's findings is the diversity of the indigenous diets consumed. 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 the flesh of animals. Price began his investigations in the villages of Switzerland. The inhabitants lived mainly on rich dairy produce, foods generally considered highly detrimental in the average Western diet. However the dairy consumed was completely fresh, un-pasteurised and free from any chemical additives ingested by the cow. In an era where 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 on a diet of organ meats, bone marrow and the glands of game, as well as vegetables, fruits and a variety of grains. In New Zealand and in the South Seas the indigenous people consumed a wide range of seafood including shark and sea worms. They also ate pork meat, fat and coconut - foods rich in saturated fats, which are also considered highly detrimental in today's Western diet. The African Masai were a cattle-keeping tribe who only consumed meat, blood and milk, whilst the Bantu tribe lived on mainly vegetarian fare.

Despite the extreme diversity of these diets there remained one unifying factor. They were comprised entirely of unrefined, unadulterated, whole foods. On average, Price found these diets to contain four times the vitamin and mineral content of the American diet of his day. He was even more surprised to find ten times the amount of fat-soluble vitamins in the form of vitamin A and D. However Price's discoveries were being made at a time when 'civilisation' was beginning to make inroads into many of the more remote areas of the globe. He came across 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 foods. Refined and processed goods were slowly making their way into the diets of many native cultures. The replacement of indigenous foods was already beginning to have an impact on the health of the people. There was a palpable rise in the incidence of tooth decay. Diseases, some of which had been previously unheard of amongst many tribes, were beginning to creep in. Coupled with this, Price began to record the somewhat sinister physical changes in the generations being born into the new, modern dietary habits. Photographic records compare the faces of healthy ancestors to their offspring. Narrow faces were replacing the characteristic wider, well-formed features of older generations. Price 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. A lack of sufficient dietary nutrients was responsible for the onset of physical complaints never before experienced in many of these tribes-people. Significantly Price noticed a decline in dental decay and illness in those natives who chose to return to their traditional diets.

Price's observations paint a grim picture of what happens when people choose to ignore their natural 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, which includes the avoidance of manufactured, refined and chemically laden produce. It is my opinion that around 90% of supermarket foods are nutritionally redundant. In fact, many of the 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 good health. The implication of Price's research is profound. Humanity must make the necessary dietary changes to avoid a lifetime of suffering and progressive ill health. Price's Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is a clarion call for a return to a simpler, healthier way of life.

Samantha Flower is a Nutritional Therapist and Iridologist living and practising in the North London area. She takes clinics in Camden and Crouch End and is also a Kevala Centre course tutor  

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