Nutrition and Physical Degeneration - Book Review

Wow!  This book is simply amazing.  The more I read about nutrition, the more I am fascinated by the way that God made our bodies.  The amazing ability to heal and recover, the amazing process of reproduction, the amazing nutrients He gave us for our use.  We as a society have strongly abused these blessings, thinking that we know "better" and will improve the process.  Not true.

This book is by Dr. Weston Price, a dentist back in the 1930's.  His own son died from a dental abscess, and he was astounded.  He couldn't figure out why he couldn't save him.  This led him and his wife on a 10 year journey around the world to 40+ different primitive societies to find out what they were doing right.  Instead of focusing on what America was doing wrong, he took the approach of finding out societies that had healthy bodies and teeth (directly related) and summed up what he could learn from them.

The pictures he took are astounding.  Even if you never read this book, go to your library and look through the pictures.  It tells the whole story.  Here's that story: (proved in every single society he visited)

Primitive food = superb health and dental

White man's food (refined flour, sugars, oils) = poor health, poor mouths (shape, teeth, state of health)

It didn't matter if they were Eskimo (still the term in that day) or Aborigine or Welsh (on secluded island) or Peruvian or Swiss (in secluded valleys), the same held true.  Some villages had no doctors or dentists as everyone was so healthy that they never needed them.  The main thing he wanted to know was how we can learn from them and apply it to our American lifestyle.  Here's what he learned:

-no one survived on plants only, animal products are a must (vegans die out within 2 generations due to infertility from lack of nutrients)

-everyone ate lots of vitamins A & D (severely lacking in our culture, as these come from animal organs, insects, guinea pigs (yes, in Peru that's their main source of vitamin D), sea creatures.

-almost everyone ate/drank raw milk products with the live enzymes (camel, goat, cow, yak, etc)

-almost everyone ate fermented products due to lack of refrigeration (which also helps with digestion)

-fertility and healthy babies/children are directly related to the health of the parents (all societies held fertility in high esteem and had a special diet for newly married couples)  It only took one generation of "white man's food" for the dental state of the children to be poor (and I mean poor- crooked teeth, too small of jaws, cavities rampant) and if the parents went back to their primitive diet, the next generation was healthy as could be again.  Even if parents improved their diet right away, the children born following would be healthy (less defects, health issues and genetic problems).  Children born during famines or droughts were often sickly their whole lives.

The Weston A. Price Foundation gives a lot more information and is a wealth of information in this area.  They have started many of the "real food" movements and encourage getting back to this way of eating, as it fits our life today.  Here's a more comprehensive list of what he found:

Principles of a Healthy Diet

If there is just one thing to add to your diet (for nutrient absorption and dental health), it would be a high vitamin (A & D) cod liver oil.  Even doing that will have immense effects on your health.

Some more good information for us today:

Ancient Dietary Wisdom for Tomorrow's Children

Because this book was written pre- copyright laws, you can view it online here. (to see the pictures and read what you want for yourself)
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration e-book

Like mother, like daughter

Recently we've been faced with a little girl who wants to only wear dresses, and also refuses to wear tights/leggings although it's cold and wintry outside.  She claims that she gets too hot, even though they are comfortable. breathable cotton tights (in fun colors and designs).  If she doesn't wear them, then she's cold.  So, I thought the answer would be some knee high socks, since she only had short little ones.

Since moms like me try to shop where they can, I ended up at Big Lots for some other things and figured we could look for some there to save another trip elsewhere.  We found some splendid Minnie Mouse ones there (no plain colors) but then she lost them while we were still in the store.  So, back we went to the sock section and found some Dora ones that would fit the bill.  We bought them and went on our way.

These worked fine until it was time to go to church and those fantastic socks clashed with every dress she owned.  I was fine with her wearing them at home, but try to have her look a little more decent while out and about.  While we were at Target another day, I decided to look for some plain colored ones that would match more outfits.  While we were there, I was asking Elise what ones she preferred (white or navy).  She moaned, "But they're sooo borr-rring!  I want those ice cream cone ones over there." (pointing, as she said it in her sorta-Australian accent/lisp) I decided that likely it would be a fight that wasn't worth fighting every time we went out for her to have to wear the "boring" ones, so we didn't buy any.

The next day was Sunday, and she proceeded to pull on her Dora socks (pictured below on left) with her pale pink dress.  I kind of groaned at the clashing colors, but knew it was going to have to be okay.  Then Greg reminded me, "Well, she is her mother's own daughter!"  Yes, yes she is...

A sampling of my socks, the more colorful, the better! With the famed Dora ones on left