Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

This is an updated edition of Price's seminal work. Below is my review of that earlier book: 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.

In 2005, I read a book that changed everything I thought I knew about nutrition - for all time; it is THE book of causative factors. This past week, 9 years later, I decided, prompted by some discussions online and here, to re-read it: "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," by Weston A. Price. It's even more timely and prescient than ever. I was just as compelled then as now - more so, perhaps, after 10 years of reading and research of my own. I easily read 500 pages in 4 nights. Price was a dentist who graduated from the University of Michigan dental school in 1893. As he got into the first two decades of his practice in the 20th century, he became increasingly alarmed at people with bad teeth, poorly formed palates, cavities, and deformations of the jaw - and with that, serious health problems. He and his wife, beginning in 1929-30, traveled around the world to 14 different countries to find how the health, elsewhere, corresponded with mainly modern Americans. He visited isolated and respectively more modernized cultures in a Swiss village, Gaelics in the Islands of the Outer Hebrides, Eskimos, North American Indians, Melanesians, Polynesians, numerous African tribes, Australian Aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders, New Zealand Maori, and the Peruvian Indians. As well as studying the kept skulls of ancient Peruvians - nearly perfect palates and teeth. Bottom line: he investigated these peoples, who subsisted of their native "wild" foods - variably, meat, blood, butter, organ meats, milk, fish, rye, oats, some vegetables - and observed in them perfect dental arches, very rare tooth decay and cavities, and most of all, immunity to tuberculosis; their health, as well as their physiques, was found to be outstanding. However, in those groups, where certain segments obtained "modern foods of commerce" - white flour, sugar, jams, vegetable fats, canned goods - their health suffered, tuberculosis became rampant, as well as serious birth defects, cavities, deformed jaws, crooked teeth, and a host of other degenerative conditions. There are hundreds of photos throughout, and the difference between those who ate their native foods, and those who had manufactured foods, is truly, jaw-dropping shocking. Price documented his findings rigorously, thoroughly, with percentages and averages noted throughout. He also conducted numerous tests, curing several people of their health problems just by a change in food. The tests on vitamin A, D, butter, and minerals reveal some crucial findings and results. Animals with no vitamin A were born blind, or disfigured. There are several X-rays and photos that show the outcome of his tests. He notes conditions of soils, contents and values of whole grains, grasses and how they affect the final outcome - results of the consumption of the food in humans and animals. What it all boils down to is chemistry. The closer a food is to its natural origins and source, the better the health. The further away from its origins it is, processing, poor nutrients in growth cycles, denaturing, the worse the effect. In some of these cultures, no two young people were allowed to procreate unless they had undergone 6 months of concentrated nutrition to maximize the health of the conceived child. Price makes constant note of the "native wisdom" that had been passed down from generation to generation. He presents not just a few token cases but hundreds of them, across several thousands of miles - and it is startling how consistent the findings are from place to place. 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, to its food in all forms, and the humans and animals that inhabit it. I have no reservations about saying that this may be the most crucial piece of work on nutrition to ever have been written. This book is a spectacular read; I can't even begin to cover the astonishing breadth and scope of it. It is also controversial: a lot of quacks and grain and vegetarian fanatics have attacked this book, but, as it turns out, every one of Price's early findings are increasingly gaining merit as a lot of myths are being refuted. 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 impressively thorough analysis of human behaviors. Moreover, Price is a wonderful writer, matter-of-factly genteel, dispassionate and duly concerned all at once. There is a compassionate, keen kindness in his own being, and the generosity of spirit in wanting to do for the common good is evident throughout.

This is an astounding book. Doubly so since it was written three quarters of a century ago. Triply so since we seem to ignore the conclusions and implications. Price uses superb deductive reasoning and great energy and persistence to explore numerous "primitive" cultures on every inhabited continent where the traditional ways of life existed and were just being touched by modernity. Thus he was able to compare the before and after of lifestyle and of physical health. Basically humans have become less physically active, are out of the sun most of the time, eat food designed to be "efficient" to grow and transport and produced on ever more depleted land. We appear to have lost the ability that exists in animals and "primitive" people to sense specific foods which are needed for proper nourishment at different phases of our lives. It appears that most disease is a result and may even include antisocial and criminal behavior propensities. I have read "Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Miracle" which lead me to read this book. I have communicated the information from both books to friends and family and we have had some interactions with medical doctors and other professionals and find it common that they have never heard of vitamin K2. I personally had open heart surgery for defective aortic valve replacement and artery blockages were discovered at that time. I was an avid ( 6-day-a-week) cyclist at that time and I began a strict low fat vegan diet. After 5 years I was found to have an advancement of the artery blockages. That is when I decided the medical advice on prevention of heart disease is absolutely worthless. After recent readings I have concluded that the positions of the medical community are exactly opposite to the proper course for heart health. While they search for something "bad" as the cause of disease, the real cause is lack of some things "good". It appears that sunlight penetrates the body and converts cholesterol into vitamin 'D', magnesium in the body makes calcium soluble and Vitamin K2 directs the calcium to the proper locations --- bones and teeth. Any one of the chain missing means calcium goes to arteries, kidney stones, bone spurs. With all elements in place the calcium deposits in the bones and teeth. It would appear that research on heart disease and cancer should be shifted to research on diet and health, hopefully before another 75 years elapses. Jim Benefiel I had read most of the book when I wrote this review and am now completing the end sections. Weston Price was a genius on the order of Charles Darwin. I read his thoughts and realize the time he wrote constituted a period before much of modern genetics was developed. Dr. Price makes no inaccurate statements that I can detect since he employees his perceptive deductive reasoning. I remain astounded that most of what he has written seems to have been ignored. I recently read "The Miraculous Results of Extremely High Doses of Vitamin D3" in which the author describes the effective use of 100,000 IU of D3 to improve his health. He disavows being a conspiracy theorist yet expresses suspicion of the reasons the mainstream medical profession warns against more than very low dosages of D3. I too am adverse to conspiracy theories and yet find it strange that such a tepid embrace of vitamin and mineral supplements is made my the medical profession. It appears that any of the major vitamin and mineral nutritional supplements have virtually no adverse risks at levels of 10 or 20 times the "official" RDA. Perhaps it is just that there is no money behind advocacy of proper nutrition and supplements and huge finances behind the sale of drugs. Jim B.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating! Either Dr. Price was right, or he wasn't, but every person can test his recommendations out for themselves - on themselves. Dr. Price studied many populations throughout the world on a search for the root cause of good health. He found it. The Weston A Price Foundation (WAPF) was founded upon his principles of eating for health; not for convenience, not for the cheapest meal a person could find, but for something that truly matters - one's own health. If you have health issues, particularly chronic disease which is the result of chronic inflammation, it can often be reversed by eating according to Dr. Price's observations and recommendations. If you don't have time to read this book, check out the Weston A Price (dot org) Foundation site - just google it, it will be at the top of the first search page. There is an article which is a mini-version of this book titled: Principles of Healthy Diets - just type it into the search bar on the right of the main page. Then read all 28 pages! I warn you, it’s crazy simple, and it’s not a diet. Here are the one page guidelines, called Dietary Guidelines, from the westonaprice site, my comments are in [brackets]. 1. Eat whole, natural foods. 2. Eat only foods that will spoil, but eat them before they do. 3. Eat naturally-raised meat including fish, seafood, poultry, beef, lamb, game, organ meats and eggs. 4. Eat whole, naturally-produced milk products from pasture-fed cows, preferably raw and/or fermented, such as whole yogurt, cultured butter, whole cheeses and fresh and sour cream. 5. Use only traditional fats and oils including butter and other animal fats [lard, tallow, goose, chicken], extra virgin olive oil, expeller expressed sesame and flax oil and the tropical oils—coconut and palm. 6. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables, preferably organic, in salads and soups, or lightly steamed. 7. Use whole grains and nuts that have been prepared by soaking, sprouting or sour leavening to neutralize phytic acid and other anti-nutrients. 8. Include enzyme-enhanced lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages and condiments in your diet on a regular basis. 9. Prepare homemade meat stocks from the bones of chicken, beef, lamb or fish and use liberally in soups and sauces. 10. Use herb teas and coffee substitutes in moderation. 11. Use filtered water for cooking and drinking. 12. Use unrefined Celtic sea salt and a variety of herbs and spices for food interest and appetite stimulation. 13. Make your own salad dressing using either fresh lemon juice or raw vinegar, and extra virgin olive oil or sesame oil or a mix of the two. [Do not use flax oil, after a 15 month study I found all to be at some degree of rancidity. Grind the seeds and eat within 15min as they start to become rancid (oxidized) at that time limit.] 14. Use natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw honey, maple syrup, molasses, dehydrated cane sugar juice [rapadura, sucanat (sugar cane natural) date sugar (ground dates)] and stevia powder. 15. Use only unpasteurized wine or beer in strict moderation with meals. [Pasteurization kills all the probiotics!] 16. Cook only in stainless steel, cast iron, glass or good quality enamel. [No non-stick.] 17. Use only natural supplements. 18. Get plenty of sleep, exercise and natural light. 19. Think positive thoughts and minimize stress. [prayer, meditation, yoga, EFT] 20. Practice forgiveness. Here, too, are the WAPF Dietary Dangers: 1. Don't eat commercially processed foods such as cookies, cakes, crackers, TV dinners, soft drinks, packaged sauce mixes, etc. 2. Avoid all refined sweeteners such as sugar, dextrose, glucose and high fructose corn syrup. 3. Avoid white flour, white flour products and white rice. 4. Avoid all hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils. 5. Avoid all vegetable oils made from soy, corn, safflower, canola or cottonseed. 6. Do not use polyunsaturated oils for cooking, sauteing or baking. 7. Avoid fried foods. 8. Do not practice veganism; animal products provide vital nutrients not found in plant foods. 9. Avoid products containing protein powders. 10. Avoid pasteurized milk; do not consume lowfat milk, skim milk, powdered milk or imitation milk products. 11. Avoid battery-produced eggs and factory-farmed meats. 12. Avoid highly processed luncheon meats and sausage containing MSG and other additives. 13. Avoid rancid and improperly prepared seeds, nuts and grains found in granolas, quick rise breads and extruded breakfast cereals, as they block mineral absorption and cause intestinal distress. 14. Avoid canned, sprayed, waxed, bioengineered or irradiated fruits and vegetables. [Eat organic!] 15. Avoid artificial food additives, especially MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and aspartame, which are neurotoxins. Most soups, sauce and broth mixes and commercial condiments contain MSG, even if not so labeled. [make your own nutrient dense broth.] 16. Avoid caffeine-containing beverages such as coffee, tea and soft drinks. Avoid chocolate. [Decaf your own tea by first steeping loose tea in a mug of boiled water for 10-30 seconds and tossing that steep out, then re-steep as usual. For teabags, only 5-10 seconds is necessary.] 17. Avoid aluminum-containing foods such as commercial salt, baking powder and antacids. Do not use aluminum cookware or aluminum-containing deodorants. 18. Do not drink fluoridated water. 19. Avoid synthetic vitamins and foods containing them. 20. Do not drink distilled liquors. 21. Do not use a microwave oven. [It changes food in ways that slow cooking does not.] The research and rationale for eating for health are in this book, but the guidelines are simple and easy. You very likely don’t need a doctor or a therapist, you just need to eat real food, and ignore the fake foods and fad diets of the day. It is our processed, sugar laden, non-nutritive, chemically loaded modern diet that is at the root of much of our modern diseases. It can be reversed and you can do it yourself. Read this book, save your own health and life. I did, my husbands heart disease reversed, it works. Blessings to all!

If I could recommend only one book on health, this would be it. Weston Price commenced his work in the nick of time, but was so far ahead of his time that I believe this book will become more popular in the 21st Century than it was in the 20th. During the Great Depression era, Dr. Price and his wife traveled to many remote parts of the world to locate people undisturbed by "modern" encroachment, and to compare their lifestyles, eating habits, and general and dental health, to that of people of the same ethnicity who had been displaced and/or induced to change their lifestyles and diet. Although reading twelve chapters reporting the results of his studies became a little monotonous, the constant repetition of the results complies with scientific principles. Dr. Price went on to explore the nutritional content of traditional diets, and found that despite the wide variation of food available in different locales, traditional people consumed many times the vitamins and minerals of those eating "modern." He then compared the health and facial development of his "controls" (those eating traditional diets) and the "moderns" in text and photographs. He proposed that nutrient-deficient "modern" diets led to dental caries and further to incomplete development of facial structure in children so fed, leading to misaligned and crowded teeth and generally narrower faces. The book also delves into mineral depletion of soils (already a big concern in the 1930s), general information on the pluses and minuses of flourine, and Dr. Price's discovery of "a new vitamin-like activator," which Christopher Masterjohn convincingly revealed as vitamin K-2 in 2008. At the end some of Dr. Price's correspondence is published, and of particular interest to me were letters between Weston A. Price and Jerome I. Rodale of the Rodale Press in 1939. Every human endeavor has faults, and the main faults with this book are a couple of captions on photographs which I found extremely racist and offensive. While these attitudes were quite common in 1930s America, Dr. Price in his writing seems one of the least racist people of the time, and these captions leave one to wonder whether they were his words or those of an editor or the original publisher. The 8th Edition, 22nd Printing, in my possession is a faithful reproduction of the original text, including these "faults." In closing, I have read two other books that I would recommend as complements to this text: CANCER: DISEASE OF CIVILIZATION?, by Vilhjalmur Stefansson, and YOUR FEET ARE KILLING YOU, by Simon J. Wikler. All three look at ways our modern lifestyle may cause many of our health issues, and suggest more holistic methods to address them. (The two books mentioned here are rather rare, but can be obtained through inter-library loan.)

This book is a classic work and deserves a place in the library of every health conscious reader. Worthwhile to read from cover-to-cover but it is also worth keeping permanently as a reference. My doctor recommends that all his patients get and read this book and is so committed that he will lend out his personal copy to people who don't want to buy it. This is the basic foundation for the Traditional Foods Movement and also the Paleo Movement. Weston Price is the father of solid, broad-spectrum nutrition and along with Adele Davis deserves attention from everyone who cares about good, functional health and longevity. However, I do not think this is the kind of book that should have been published in paperback format. It is good quality, but something this long and heavy is better off in a stitched in hardback as it needs to last a lifetime. I received this book and it came out of the box with a crumpled up cover and so there was damage from the start. I sent it back and sprung for the hardback. It was well worth the price to get a copy that will last as long as I live. So, three stars for the paperback version and 5 stars for the content. If you check out my review of this same book in the hardbound version, you will note that it is a 5 star winner!

In this book you will find the exact formula that Dr Price used for children to reverse their cavities and improve performance at school. Lots of mention on foods consumed pre conception and during pregnancy that resulted in beautifully shaped children (absolutely no woo woo stuff, it really works like that).

You ought to give yourself a good reason to buy and read this book. I bought this book in the Year 2012. I had Arthritis and Overweight. This book is not any quick weight loss program. Dr. Price is not selling any fad diet program. This book is boring for readers that seek thrill and excitement. Do you know the Secret To Health? Dr. Weston Price traveled to 14 different countries in his search to find healthy people. Excellent reference, and it changed my way of eating. I am not a Doctor, Food Nutritionist or Health Expert, but I feed and treat my Body Well After Three Years In Vain. I read books on Arthritis, diet, and nutrition books. I tried natural, and organic health supplements. Did it work? Not as I expected. Have you wondered what works well with health? Knowing the simple truth behind what you eat and combining foods you take, works well with health. You only need one idea that you can take away from this book to improve your health. Not that mumbo-jumbo quick-fix health scheme over the world wide web- Information Overload. Would you instead take naturally grown foods? Or risk your health with processed food supplements, frozen foods, and processed foods? If you have Arthritis or weight problem like me before, this book will give insights. Share your takeaways from this book to your family and friends in search of true health, not a quick fix to health. Chapter 25 wrote it well, “HOW MOTHER NATURE MADE US.” Hope you find Your Secret To Health. Enjoy reading.

Firstly. Thanks to the reviewer of the other edition of this book, which is cheaper but has about 5 missing chapters, which influenced me to buy this more expensive but fuller edition. It is written in a really easy to read non-scientific style, which is good for me. It has a chapter devoted to each of the 14 primitive people groups, comparing the health of those on the primitive diet to those on the western style diet. Followed by chapters on general dietary principles (5 of which are missing in the other edition). I already hold to the theory he puts forth, through reading more modern alternative diet books, so he has nothing to sell me there but I am glad I finally got round to getting this great grandady of such research. It is invaluable because the world of such people living purely on their primitive diet has all but vanished and the will to pursue such studies is distinctly non PC. The China Study, for example, did not include native groups living on traditional diets. They would have skewed the data too much, I guess. This is a bit dated as you will see when you see young Africans with nutritionally caused, facial abnormalities compared to chimpanzees and a picture of 2 children running round on all fours like monkeys. There is no malice however. Merely an observation. Obviously it's not completely scientific, but when you see every group living off traditional high fat/protein/cholesteral food with less than 1% tooth decay and low related physical degeneration (of which tooth decay is merely an outward indicator) and the same people and surrounding people living on typical western high sugar/refined carbs diet having around 30% tooth decay and high related physical degeneration; it should make at least some of the china study devotees think. People have been moving further from Weston Prices ideal, on the advice of the medical industry and food manufacturers and getting less healthy. Perhaps it's time for a return to the basic old fashioned traditional nutrition set forth in this book. God blessee. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.

Weston Price travelled to remote regions of the globe to investigate the health of civilizations with no connections to modern society. What he found, meticulously tracked and photographed in this book, was that in the absence of "foods of commerce" he time and time found populations free from oral disease (ie. No cavities and no crooked teeth). Dr. Price identifies the elements of the modern diet that lead to "physical degeneration" and the elements of the "primitive" diets that avoid it, with compelling mechanistic accounts supported by studies. You will never look at food the same way again. Absolutely essential for anybody who seeks health.

Great and informative book. Constantly referencing it.

Ce livre exceptionnel fait partie de ceux qui ouvrent les yeux de son lecteur sur une idée fondamentale et jusqu'alors invisible. Il a été écrit dans les années 1930 par un scientifique américain, dentiste de profession mais aussi nutritionniste. Il voulait comprendre pourquoi ses contemporains avaient des dents en si mauvais état (entre 30% et 60% de dents cariées selon les États) tandis que des peuples que l'on appelait alors primitifs avaient une excellente dentition. À l'époque, on trouvait encore des populations vivant à la manière de leurs ancêtres, très proche de la nature. En outre, on trouvait également des populations de même souche qui avaient adopté la technologie occidentale depuis quelques années seulement, ce qui permettait une comparaison. L'auteur est allé à la rencontre de ces populations en de nombreux points du globe: Canada (Indiens), Groenland (Eskimos), Australie (Aborigènes), Polynésie, Mélanésie, Nouvelle Zélande (Maoris), Hébrides, Suisse (dans une vallée isolée), Pérou, Afrique (Massaï notamment)... La première partie de l'ouvrage présente les voyages du Dr Price. La lecture en est aisée, dépaysante, et agréable grâce aux centaines de photos qui illustrent ces pages. Il a observé que les populations qui vivaient comme leurs ancêtres avaient bien une dentition quasi parfaite: moins d'une dent sur cent cariée (et même moins d'une sur mille chez certains peuples) et aucune malformation de l'arc dentaire (dents qui sortent, etc.). En outre, leurs physiques étaient splendides, ils avaient très peu de maladies, étaient doués d'une grande force et possédaient un caractère doux. A contrario, les populations de même souche qui avaient adopté la technologie occidentale avaient des dents épouvantablement cariées, c'est-à-dire autant qu'en Amérique mais sans dentiste accessible. Ces gens avaient aussi une santé bien plus fragile qu'avant leur occidentalisation, des déformations physiques (notamment faciales) étaient apparues chez leurs enfants, et ils ne résistaient plus aux virus comme leurs voisins « primitifs » (la tuberculose y faisait des ravages). On constate dès lors que les caries ne sont qu'un signe, un symptôme d'un mal plus profond. Chez les « primitifs », non seulement très peu de caries apparaissaient, mais en outre tout carie déclarée était auto-réparée, via la salive, avec le dépôt d'une nouvelle couche de dentine. L'analyse de terrain a montré que la seule différence pertinente entre les deux groupes (primitifs et occidentalisés) résidait dans l'alimentation. Celle des occidentalisés faisait partout grand usage de farine blanche et de conserves. Celle des traditionnalistes n'était pas partout la même, car elle était adaptée à chaque lieu: vivre comme ses ancêtres, c'est bénéficier de la sagesse accumulée par des dizaines de générations. La deuxième partie du livre, plus technique, fournit une analyse critique des données recueillies. Quand on pense à l'achat d'aliments, on pense au goût, à la consistance, à l'apparence, au prix, aux calories, aux risques sanitaires, à la rapidité de préparation et aux vitamines. Des analyses chimiques d'innombrables échantillons ont permis à Price d'identifier que ce qui rend l'alimentation des « primitifs » -- qui s'avèrent être les plus « sages » -- tellement supérieure réside dans sa teneur exceptionnellement élevée en minéraux (phosphore, calcium, etc.) et en vitamines (qui sont des précuseurs d'enzymes, c'est-à-dire de catalyseurs biologiques). Les doses que nous absorbons aujourd'hui comme hier en Occident sont tout à fait insuffisantes. Par exemple, la farine blanche fournit principalement au corps de l'amidon, qui sera absorbé par l'organisme sous forme de glucose (sucre), ainsi que quelques protéines. La farine blanche est donc utile pour nous donner de l'énergie. Mais sa teneur en minéraux est très faible (c'est l'enveloppe de la graine qui les contenait) et les vitamines sont quasi absentes. La farine blanche ne fournit pas les matériaux de construction dont le corps a besoin. À l'inverse, certains aliments sont particulièrement riches en ces matériaux, comme les foies, les oeufs de poisson, les crabes, les oeufs de poule, le sang... Certaines des populations visitées par le Dr Price, notamment en Afrique, imposaient aux femmes un délai d'au moins trois ans entre deux naissances (pour laisser le temps à leur corps de reconstituer des réserves de minéraux) et leur fournissaient des aliments spécialement riches quelques mois avant leur grossesse. Ce qui a mis le Dr Price sur la piste suivante, corroborée par d'autres observations: l'alimentation des (deux) parents avant la conception de leur enfant a une influence sur la santé de ce dernier, et ceci de manière permanente car d'éventuels défauts perdureront tout au long de sa vie. (Serait-ce lié à l'épigénétique ?) Aujourd'hui, que faire pour tenter d'améliorer notre nutrition ? On ne peut pas vraiment absorber les minéraux et les vitamines par des compléments alimentaires car ils sont faiblement métabolisés, c'est-à-dire qu'ils passent à travers le tube digestif sans entrer, ou presque, dans l'organisme. On ne peut guère séparer non plus les minéraux et les vitamines, qui doivent figurer ensemble dans le bol alimentaire, notamment parce que certaines vitamines sont indispensables pour que l'organisme utilise les minéraux en cours de digestion. Par exemple, dans le lait, c'est la partie maigre (le lait écrémé) qui contient tout le calcium, mais celui-ci n'est pas absorbé par l'organisme sans le concours de vitamines (lipo-solubles) qui ne sont présentes que dans la partie grasse du lait. L'aliment forme un tout dans son état naturel. Acheter de la farine complète n'est pas intéressant du point de vue des vitamines car celles-ci s'oxydent et perdent leurs propriétés en quelques jours (Price suggère un jour ou deux). En revanche, c'est utile pour les minéraux, s'ils peuvent être métabolisés. Pour parvenir à une alimentation qui tienne compte des besoins massifs en minéraux et en vitamines, il faut privilégier les aliments qui en sont riches et en faire le coeur des repas. Le surdosage de minéraux et de vitamines n'est pas possible s'ils ne proviennent que d'aliments non transformés, le danger n'existe qu'avec les aliments raffinés. La manière de préparer les aliments influe également sur la biodisponibilité des minéraux et des vitamines. Lorsqu'il n'est pas possible de se nourrir de manière vraiment saine, le Dr Price recommande de compléter les repas avec de l'huile de foie de morue à raison de 5 mL par jour pour un adulte. Il évoque également le beurre produit en juin avec le lait de vaches paissant dans des prés en altitude, mais l'industrialisation complète de la chaîne laitière ne nous permet plus d'isoler les beurres de ce type...

Weston Price dans un premier temps établit le lien entre les caries dentaires et les maladies, puis il part en voyage pendant 12 ans pour observer le lien entre l'alimentation moderne et les caries. Ce voyage le conduira en Europe, au nord de l'Amérique, en Mélanésie, au Fiji, à Tahiti, au Samoa, à Hawaii, en Afrique, chez les aborigenes d'Australie, en Nouvelle Zélande … bref sur la planète entière en comparant les populations s'alimentant avec des produits traditionnels et celles qui ont adopté une alimentation moderne et raffinée, il démontre que cette alimentation moderne perturbe la croissance des enfants, entraine des caries et plus tard des maladies. Cette étude était possible au début du XX° siècle, époque de Weston Price. Ce livre est donc fondamental pour premièrement comprendre l'impact des dents (surtout des dents dévitalisées) sur la santé et deuxièmement établir l'impact entre alimentation et santé.