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Last words spoken by Dr. Price to Alfreda Rooke, first Curator of
Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation
January 23, 1948
Dr. Weston A. Price DDS
Dr. Price was a Cleveland dentist, who has been called the “Charles Darwin” of Nutrition. Searching for the causes of dental decay and physical degeneration he observed daily in his dental practice, he turned from test tubes and microscopes to study “people with fine teeth” – the isolated “primitives”.
Traveling worldwide, Dr. Price found that beautiful, straight teeth, freedom from decay, stalwart bodies, resistance to disease, and fine characters were typical of primitives on their traditional diets.
These primitives stand forth in sharp contrast to those subsisting on the “impoverished foods of civilization” – sugar, white flour, pasteurized milk, and convenience foods filled with extenders and additives.
His worldwide findings clearly showed that dental caries and deformed dental arches, resulting in crowded, crooked teeth and unattractive appearance, were merely a sign of physical degeneration, resulting from what he had suspected – nutritional deficiencies.
Dr. Price’s classic volume, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, is published by and available from the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation (Click Here to purchase). *Its photographs illustrate in an unforgettable way the physical degeneration that occurs when human groups abandon nourishing traditional diets in favor of modern convenience foods.
Price travelled the world over in order to study isolated human groups, including sequestered villages in Switzerland, Gaelic communities in the Outer Hebrides, Eskimos and Indians of North America, Melanesian and Polynesian South Sea Islanders, African tribes, Australian Aborigines, New Zealand Maori and the Indians of South America. Wherever he went, Dr. Price found that beautiful straight teeth, freedom from decay, stalwart bodies, resistance to disease and fine characters were typical of primitives on their traditional diets, rich in essential food factors.
When Dr. Price analyzed the foods used by isolated primitive peoples he found that they provided at least four times the calcium and other minerals, and at least TEN times the fat-soluble vitamins from animal foods such as butter, fish eggs, shellfish and organ meats.
The importance of good nutrition for mothers during pregnancy has long been recognized, but Dr. Price's investigation showed that primitives understood and practiced preconception nutritional programs for both parents. Many tribes required a period of premarital nutrition, and children were spaced to permit the mother to maintain her full health and strength, thus assuring subsequent offspring of physical excellence. Special foods were often given to pregnant and lactating women, as well as to the maturing boys and girls in preparation for future parenthood. Dr. Price found these foods to be very rich in fat soluble vitamins A and D nutrients found only in animal fats.
These primitives with their fine bodies, homogeneous reproduction, emotional stability and freedom from degenerative ills stand forth in sharp contrast to those subsisting on the impoverished foods of civilization-sugar, white flour, pasteurized milk and convenience foods filled with extenders and additives.
The photographs of Dr. Weston Price illustrate the difference in facial structure between those on native diets and those whose parents had adopted the "civilized" diets of devitalized processed foods.
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The discoveries and conclusion of Dr. Price are presented in his classic volume Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. The book contains striking photographs of handsome, healthy primitives and illustrates in an unforgettable way the physical degeneration that occurs when human groups abandon nourishing traditional diets in favor of modern convenience foods.
In addition to his work on nutrition, Dr. Price conducted extensive research into the destructive effects of root canals, detailed in his two-volume work Dental Infections Oral & Systemic and Dental Infections & the Degenerative Diseases. His conclusions, ignored by the orthodox dental establishment for over 50 years, are gaining renewed acceptance as holistic practitioners are discovering that the first step to recovery from degenerative disease often involves removal of all root canals in the patient's mouth.
The principles of holistic dentistry, based on the research of Weston A. Price, DDS are as follows:
- Eat nutrient-dense whole foods, properly grown and prepared.
- Avoid root canals. If you have root canals that you suspect are causing disease, have them removed by a knowledgable dentist.
- Avoid mercury (amalgam) fillings. If you have amalgam fillings, have them removed by a holistic dentist who specializes in mercury filling replacement.
- Orthodontics should include measures to widen the palate.
- Extract teeth only when necessary, and then in such a way as to avoid leaving the jaw bone with cavitations, which can be focal points of infection.
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A Comparison of the Diets
(Compiled from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS)
A comparison of primitive groups which have shown a high immunity to dental caries and freedom from degenerative processes with the diets of modernized groups who have forsaken their native diets for the foods of commerce consisting largely of white flour products, sugar, polished rice, jams, canned goods and vegetable fats resulting in loss of this immunity to dental caries and in loss of freedom from degenerative processes. (Figures give the number of times the amount of minerals and vitamins which are found in primitive diets compared with modernized diets.)
| Group | Minerals1 | Vitamins2 | ||||||
| Ca | P | Fe | Mg | Cu | I | Fat Soluble | Water Soluble | |
Native Eskimos |
5.4 | 5.0 | 1.5 | 7.9 | 1.8 | 49.0 | 10 plus | large increase |
| Indians-far North of Canada | 5.8 | 5.8 | 2.7 | 4.3 | 1.5 | 8.8 | 10 plus | large increase |
| Swiss | 3.7 | 2.2 | 3.1 | 2.5 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Gaelic- Outer Hebrides | 2.1 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.3 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Aborigines of Australia | 4.6 | 6.2 | 50.6 | 17.0 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| New Zealand Maori | 6.2 | 6.9 | 58.3 | 23.4 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Melanesians | 5.7 | 6.4 | 22.4 | 26.4 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Polynesians | 5.6 | 7.2 | 18.6 | 28.5 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Coastal Indians of Peru | 6.6 | 5.5 | 5.1 | 13.6 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Andean Mountain Indians of Peru | 5.0 | 5.5 | 29.3 | 13.3 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Cattle Tribes of Interior Africa | 7.5 | 8.2 | 16.6 | 19.1 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
| Agricultural Tribes of Central Africa | 3.5 | 4.1 | 16.6 | 5.4 | * | * | 10 plus | large increase |
*Not given
1. Minerals: Ca=Calcium, P=Phosphorus , Fe=Iron, Mg=Magnesium, Cu=Copper, I=Iodine
2. Fat soluble vitamins include A,D,E,K. Water soluble vitamins include the B vitamins (folate, pantothenic acid, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, B6, B12) and vitamin C
Percentages of Teeth Attacked By Dental Caries in Primitive and Modernized Groups
| Group | Primitive | Modern |
| Swiss | 4.60 | 29.8 |
| Gaelics | 1.20 | 30.0 |
| Eskimos | 0.09 | 13.0 |
| Northern Indians | 0.16 | 21.5 |
| Seminole Indians | 4.00 | 40.0 |
| Melanesians | 0.38 | 29.0 |
| Polynesians | 0.32 | 21.9 |
* Note: All photos by Weston A. Price, DDS are copyrighted by the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Permission to use any of Dr. Price's photos or research must be obtained by contacting The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.
Why are These People so Happy and Healthy?
"Stories have long been told of the superb health of the people living in the Islands of the Outer Hebrides, (Coast of Scotland)."
Nutrition of Isolated Gaelics:
"The basic foods of these islanders are fish and oat products with a little barley. Oat grain is the one cereal which develops fairly readily, and it provides the porridge and oat cakes which in many homes are eaten in some form regularly with each meal. The fishing about the Outer Hebrides is especially favorable, and small sea foods, including lobsters, crabs, oysters and clams, are abundant. An important and highly relished article of diet has been baked cod's head stuffed with chopped cod's liver and oatmeal. Their nutrition is provided by their oat products and fish, and by a very limited amount of vegetable foods. Lobsters and flat fish are a very important part of their foods. Fruits are practically unknown. Yet the physiques of these people are remarkably fine." Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.
Immunity to Tooth Decay:
Isle of Lewis, only 1.3 teeth out of every hundred examined had even been attacked by dental caries. (1.3%)
Isle of Harris, 1.0%
Isle of Skye, Those living on primitive foods had only 0.7 carious teeth per hundred. (0.7%)
Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Indigenous People in the Outer Hebrides:
| Calories | Food | Fat-Soluble Activators | Calcium | Phosphorus | Iron |
| 500 500 |
Oatmeal Oatcake |
Low | 0.17 | 0.99 | 0.01 |
| 100 | Barley | Low | 0.00 | 0.31 | 0.00 |
| 800 | Fish with Livers | Very High | 1.54 | 1.62 | 0.06 |
| 100 | Eggs | Medium | 0.05 | 0.12 | 0.00 |
| 2000 | Very High | 1.76 | 3.04 | 0.07 |
Modernized Gaelic's in the Outer Hebrides Compared with Isolated Gaelic's
"One of the sad stories of the Isle of Lewis has to do with the recent rapid progress of the white plague. The younger generation of the modernized part of the Isle of Lewis is not showing the same resistance to tuberculosis as their ancestors." Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.
"[The brother on the left had] excellent teeth and [on the right] rampant caries. These boys were brothers eating at the same table. The older boy, with excellent teeth, was still enjoying primitive food of oatmeal and oatcake and sea foods with some limited dairy products. The younger boy, seen to the left, had extensive tooth decay. Many teeth were missing including two in the front. He insisted on having white bread, jam, highly sweetened coffee and also sweet chocolates. His father told me with deep concern how difficult it was for this boy to get up in the morning and go to work." Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS
Top Row: Normal Development
"An examination of the growing boys and girls disclosed the fact that only one tooth out of every hundred examined had ever been attacked by tooth decay. The general physical development of these children was excellent, as may be seen in the upper half of [this figure]. Note their broad faces."
Bottom Row: Checked Development
"This is in striking contrast with the children of the hamlet of Tarbert which is the only shipping port on the Isle of Harris.. These Tarbert children had an incidence of 32.4 carious teeth out of every hundred teeth examined. The distance between these two points is not over ten miles.. [They have] access to modern foods, since it supports a white bread bakery store with modern jams, marmalades, and other kinds of canned foods."
The Health and Nutrition Analysis for Modernized Gaelics:
Nutrition of Modernized Gaelics
"In Stornoway, one could purchase angel food cake, white bread, as snow white as that to be found in any community in the world, many other white-flour products; also, canned marmalades, canned vegetables, sweetened fruit juices, jams, confections of every type filled the store windows and counters."
Read more in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.
Immunity to Tooth Decay:
Isle of Lewis, In a count of one hundred individuals appearing to be between the ages of twenty and forty, twenty-five were already wearing artificial teeth.
Isle of Harris, 32.4%
Isle of Skye, 16.3% or twenty-three times as many teeth as the isolated Gaelics had been attacked with dental caries.
Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Modernized Gaelics
| Calories | Food | Fat-Soluble Activators | Calcium | Phosphorus | Iron |
| 1000 | White Bread | Low | 0.11 | 0.35 | 0.04 |
| 400 | Jam, Sugar, Syrup | Low | 0.05 | 0.08 | 0.02 |
| 100 | Chocolate and Coffee | Low | 0.01 | 0.07 | 0.00 |
| 300 | Fish Without Livers | High | 0.57 | 0.60 | 0.02 |
| 100 | Canned Vegetables | Low | 0.06 | 0.08 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Eggs | Medium | 0.04 | 0.12 | 0.00 |
| 2000 |
|
Low | 0.84 | 1.30 | 0.07 |
Diet Comparison Primitive vs. Modern
| Gaelics | Calories | Fat-Soluble Activators | Calcium | Phosphorus | Iron |
| Isolated | 2000 | Very High | 1.76 | 3.04 | 0.07 |
| Modern | 2000 | Low | 0.84 | 1.30 | 0.07 |
| The Differences | 10x or more | 2.1x | 2.3x | 1.0x |
Isolated Swiss had some of the finest physiques
in all of Europe!
In 1932 when Dr. Price visited the people of the Loetschental Valley in Switzerland, he found that no deaths had occurred from tuberculosis in the history of the valley. They had neither physician nor dentist, no policeman nor jail because they had no need for them.
It had been the achievement of the isolated people to build some of the finest physiques in all Europe.
Normal design of face and dental arches when adequate nutrition is provided for both the parents and the children. Note the well developed nostrils and lack of tooth decay.
"The isolated Swiss children, were remarkably healthy. The sturdiness of the child life permits children to play and frolic bareheaded and barefooted even in water running down from the glacier in the late evening's chilly breezes, in weather that made us wear our overcoats and gloves and button our collars. They ate whole rye bread, summer cheese (about as large as the slice of bread), which are eaten with fresh milk of goats or cows. Meat is eaten once a week." A delightful photo of the children barefoot on the side of the mountain can be found on the cover of The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation's Health and Healing Wisdom Journal, Winter 2006. Back issues are available. Become a PPNF member, support the work, and receive your own journals.
This is the beautiful Loetschental Valley about a mile above sea level. About two thousand Swiss lived here at the time of Dr. Price's visit in the 1930s.
Dr. Price writes in his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, “While the cows spend the warm summer on the verdant knolls and wooded slopes near the glaciers and fields of perpetual snow, they have a period of high and rich productivity of milk. The cheese contains the natural butter fat and minerals of the splendid milk and is a virtual storehouse of life for the coming winter."
Tooth Decay becomes Rampant on Modernized Food:
In the 1930's, Dental Caries were a major problem for school children in modern parts of Switzerland, with 85-100 percent of the population affected.
"In the modernized districts of Switzerland tooth decay is rampant. The girl, upper left, is sixteen and the one to the right is younger. They use white bread and sweets liberally. The two children below have very badly formed dental arches with crowding of the teeth. this deformity is not due to heredity." To learn more, read Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price, DDS.
Health & Nutrition Analysis of the Isolated, Indigenous Swiss
The nutritional foods of the people of the Loetschental Valley:
Whole Rye Bread, Summer Cheese (about as large as the slice of bread), which are eaten with fresh milk of goats or cows. Meat is eaten once a week.
Immunity to Tooth Decay
In a study of 4,280 teeth of the children of these high valleys, only 3.4% were found to have been attacked by tooth decay. In the Loetschental Valley 0.3% of all teeth where affected with tooth decay.
Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Indigenous People in the Swiss Alps:
| Calories | Food | Fat-Soluble Activators | Calcium (grams) | Phosphorus (grams) |
Iron (grams) |
| 800 | Rye Bread | Low | 0.07 | 0.46 | 0.00 |
| 400 | Milk | High | 0.68 | 0.53 | 0.00 |
| 400 | Cheese | Very High | 0.84 | 0.62 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Butter | Very High | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Barely | Low | 0.00 | 0.03 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Vegetables | Low | 0.06 | 0.08 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Meat | Medium | 0.00 | 0.12 | 0.00 |
| 2000 | Very High | 1.76 | 3.04 | 0.01 |
Price, W. A., Dental Digest, 1933 July;pg. 278. (Some figures have been rounded up for simplicity)
Health and Nutrition Analysis for Modernized Swiss:
The Foods of Modernized Swiss
"...white-flour products, marmalades, jams, canned vegetables, confections, and fruits--all of which are transported to the district. Only a limited supply of vegetables is grown locally." Weston A. Price, DDS, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
"We studied some children here whose parents retained their primitive methods of food selection, and without exception those who were immune to dental caries were eating a distinctly different food from those with high susceptibility to dental caries." Weston A. Price, DDS, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Immunity to Tooth Decay
In of the 2,065 teeth 25.5% where attacked, many teeth had abscessed. Price, W. A. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 6th Ed., page 38.
Nutrient Analysis of an Average Diet for Modernized Swiss
| Calories | Food | Fat-Soluble Activators | Calcium | Phosphorus | Iron |
| 1000 | White Bread | Low | 0.11 | 0.35 | 0.00 |
| 400 | Jam, Honey, Sugar, Syrup | Low | 0.05 | 0.08 | 0.02 |
| 100 | Chocolate and Coffee | Low | 0.02 | 0.07 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Milk | High | 0.17 | 0.13 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Canned Vegetables | Low | 0.08 | 0.08 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Meat | Medium | 0.01 | 0.11 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Vegetable Fat | Low | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 100 | Butter (dairy) | High | 0.00 | 0.00 | 0.00 |
| 2000 | Low | 0.44 | 0.82 | 0.026 |
Price, W. A., Dental Digest, 1933 July; 278. Some figures have been rounded up for simplicity)
Compare these figures to the Isolated Swiss:
| Swiss | Calories | Fat-Soluble Activators | Calcium | Phosphorus | Iron |
| Isolated | 2000 | Very High | 1.76 | 3.04 | 0.01 |
| Modernized | 2000 | Low | 0.44 | 0.82 | 0.026 |
| Native/Isolated Diets provided several times more nutrients than their displacing/Modernized diets | at least 10x more Activators | 4x more Calcium | 3.7x more Phosphorus | -2x less Iron |
In summary, the isolated primitive people in the Swiss Alps and in the Islands off the Coast of Scotland maintained a high degree of health and a freedom from tooth decay. Dr. Price found this to be true in all 14 countries he visited over a 10 year period during the 1930s.
His worldwide findings clearly showed that dental caries and deformed dental arches, resulting in crowded, crooked teeth and unattractive appearance, were merely a sign of physical degeneration, resulting from what he had suspected - nutritional deficiencies.
Dr. Price's classic volume Nutrition and Physical Degeneration is available through the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation. Its photographs illustrate in an unforgettable way the physical degeneration that occurs when human groups abandon nourishing traditional diets in favor of modern convenience foods.
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