by Lawrence Wilson, MD

THE WESTON PRICE DIETARY PROGRAM

by Dr. Lawrence Wilson

Weston Price, DDS (1870-1948), was a brilliant dentist who lived over 100 years ago. He toured the world searching for the healthiest human populations.

He was a careful researcher, and was fascinated by the varied diets and lifestyles of the tribes he heard about and sought out around the world. He studied their dental health, their diets, their child-rearing practices, and more to find out what made them so healthy. He also studied less healthy tribes, and modernized tribes, and was able to compare their diets and lifestyles.

For example, he was amazed that he found no vegetarian groups that were extremely healthy. All the healthiest tribes used animal products. Dr. Price’s main book, Nutrition And Physical Degeneration, as well as his other writings, stand today as classic nutrition and epidemiological research.

This article is not intended to diminish in any way the work of Dr. Weston Price. We believe he would approve of this article. We also appreciate the efforts of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation and the Weston A. Price Foundation to educate the public about raw dairy products and popularize the work of Dr. Weston Price.

THE WESTON PRICE DIET TODAY

Today, two foundations promote Dr. Price’s work. The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation (PPNF) makes sure his book is always in print. The Weston A. Price Foundation publishes a journal and has over 500 local chapters to promote Dr. Price’s work.

Unfortunately, in our view, the latter foundation has gone off track. They promote nutritional ideas that Dr. Price never advocated, and which are harmful. Among these are:

Eating a lot of fermented foods. Dr. Price never recommended this. He observed that groups ate fermented foods, but of course they had no refrigeration, so they had little choice in the matter. There is nothing wrong with some sauerkraut or yogurt, but the Weston Price Foundation goes far beyond this. This is discussed in more detail later in this article.

Eating a high-fat diet. Dr. Price observed that some groups at a lot of fat, such as the Eskimos, but certainly not all groups. The Eskimos, of course, have little else to eat other than animal carcasses.

We believe that a high-fat diet, in most cases, contributes to cancer. How much fat we suggest is discussed later in this article.

Eating lots of raw food. We do not recall Dr. Price advocating eating a lot of raw food. However, some at the Weston Price Foundation recommend this.

Consuming fermented cod liver oil. There are serious problems with this food supplement, which was not even in existence when Weston A. Price was alive.

For details about this and the results of the Weston Price diet, read http://www.davidgumpert.com/those-ticking-time-bombs-going-off-are-wapf-people-dying-too-young

OUR SUGGESTIONS

1. Avoid fermented cod liver oil and high vitamin butter oil. These are not needed and not helpful, especially any fermented product. We do not agree with the hype about these products and we consider the fermented cod liver oil to be dangerous at this time (January 2019).

2. Avoid wheat. In our clinical experience, wheat has been so hybridized that it is no longer healthful. Most wheat is much higher in glutamine today, and lower in protein, for example, among other changes. For many people, it is an irritating and allergy-causing food. This is equally true of organically grown whole wheat and even most spelt, a grain that is very similar to wheat.

Until we can return to heirloom seeds from at least 100 years ago, it is best to avoid wheat in all foods and in all forms. This includes avoiding sprouted wheat breads, for example, and avoiding all spelt products as well, which can be a little better than wheat, but are often similar. While some people can still tolerate wheat, overall we find it best to avoid.

3. Do not eat much beef except some organic ground beef, 3-4 ounces 2 or 3 times per week. Beef cattle are a very hybridized species today, even the grass-fed raised beef cattle. While efforts are underway to bring back heirloom varieties of cattle, one is rarely sure what cows are being raised. Even if you can get heirloom beef, eat some lamb as well as an alternate red meat.

Other excellent animal proteins include dark meat chicken, wild game (but not bison and buffalo), turkey and good quality eggs and some raw dairy products.

4. 70% of your diet at each meal should be cooked vegetables. The need for so many cooked vegetables is an empirical finding. Vegetables offer literally hundreds of phytonutrients that offset pollution and provide protection from cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and many other ailments. They alone have the ability to rebuild the body better than any other food. They provide healthful fiber and a wide range of vitamins and minerals that are hard to obtain in any other way, including pills and drinks.

Eating 70% cooked vegetables with every meal requires some practice and work, at first. However, it pays wonderful dividends for your health. For details, read Food For Daily Use.

5. Avoid most fermented or cultured foods. However, we allow a small amount of miso, cheese, yogurt, kefir, and sauerkraut. Most others are not healthful. For details, read Fermented Foods.

6. Cook all foods, except for raw dairy products, which should be eaten in their natural raw state, if possible. Meat and eggs should only be lightly cooked, however, as longer cooking will denature the proteins too much and damage the delicate fats. For more about this important topic, read Raw Foods on this website.

7. Avoid most or all fruit and all fruit juices.

1. Fruit is a very yin food, and the bodies are already too yin today,

2. Most fruits are hybrids and are less nutritious than in the past.

3. The sugars in fruit seem to upset the blood sugar and feed yeast in the intestines of almost everyone who eats it. This was not a problem as much 100 years ago at all.

4. Many so-called organic fruits are still sprayed with somewhat toxic chemicals because otherwise they will not grow well in Northern climates

5. The mineral balance of the fruit seems to be improper for today’s bodies. In particular, a potassium compound in fruits is toxic. I know this because when people begin a nutritional balancing program, especially babies and children, they soon expel a form of potassium that seem to be associated with having eaten a lot of fruit, or their mothers ate fruit while pregnant. This is a shame, but it is my experience.

6. Many people seem unable to neutralize the acids found naturally in fruits. As a result, the fruit actually has an acidic reaction in the body. Its high sugar content contributes to this as well.

For more on this important and sad situation, read Fruit-Eating on this website.

8. Avoid all shellfish and most fish, except very small ones such as sardines, are not healthful foods today. One hundred year ago fish and some shellfish were less contaminated. This problem is much worse today. We observe elevated levels of toxic metals in anyone who eats any fish or worse, shellfish. This includes wild caught salmon and other wild-caught fish.

The only exception is very small fish like sardines we find is an excellent food – up to 4 cans per week. For details, read Fish-Eating.

9. Avoid all pig products, most of which contain parasite eggs. This is another shame, but we find that all pork, ham, bacon, lard, sausage made with pig intestines and other products from the pig often contains parasite larva or eggs, such as tapeworm, trichina worms or others. It does not matter if the pig products are well-cooked. Also, be careful to avoid egg rolls and other places that pig products are hidden.

Safe pig product we have encountered are porcine pancreas used in supplementary digestive aids such as GB-3. Porcine thyroid glandular is also okay.

10. Regular cod liver oil does not provide enough vitamin D or omega-3 fatty acids today. Dr. Price recommended high vitamin cod liver oil, but we prefer eating 3 or 4 cans of sardines each week or take a supplement with about 800-900 mg of omega-e fatty acids (a combination of EPA and DHA) and about 4000-5000 iu of vitamin D daily. This seems to be roughly what the bodies require today.

11. Do not eat coconut products. Some Weston Price followers embrace coconut products because they are rich in lauric acid and other nutrients, and are stable for cooking purposes, especially.

The problem is that coconut is a sub-tropical fruit that is yin and somewhat toxic in our experience.

12. Stay away from all sugars and sweets, even natural sweets such as raw, uncooked honey, natural maple syrup, natural agave nectar, rice bran syrup, almond milk, soy milks, rice milks and other sweets. These are all extremely yin and will unbalance body chemistry badly. The less one eats of any of them, the better.

13. Limit raw milk and all dairy consumption to about 4 ounces daily for an adult, and about the same amount or less for children. While raw milk is a wonderful food, it is quite sweet and yin. Too much is not healthful today for this sole reason.

14. Do not eat whole nuts or seeds. They are difficult to digest. For adults, we recommend 2 tablespoons of toasted almond butter daily and 1 tablespoon of sesame tahini. These are important, while eating other nuts and seeds are not needed for development at this time.

15. We do not suggest avoiding all grain foods. If one tolerates them, we suggest about 1-2 medium-sized bags of blue corn chips per week. (bag size is about 7 ounces). This particular food is helpful for development.

16. Everyone needs certain food supplements. Dr. Price did not recommend food supplements other than cod liver oil (not fermented cod liver oil). However, at the time he lived, the nutrient content of our food was much better, the average person’s digestion was much better than today, and much less was known about nutritional biochemistry.

We wish supplements were not needed, but so far they are always needed by everyone today. They include a digestive aid, kelp for iodine and minerals, and supplemental calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium. Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D supplements are needed unless one eats 3-4 cans of sardines weekly. For details, read Why Take Supplements?

17. Exercise caution with the recommendations found in older books. Our food supply has changed drastically in the past 100 years or so, and even more so in the past 25 years. Older recommendations don’t work as well. This is discussed in the Addendum below.

THE WESTON PRICE SYNDROME

This is a curious phenomenon that we are still researching. It consists of a person going into a Four Lows hair analysis pattern and staying there when one follows the WAPF diet. For more, please read The Weston Price Syndrome.

ADDENDUM

CHANGES IN AGRICULTURE, THE ENVIRONMENT AND IN DIETARY SCIENCE REQUIRES CHANGES IN DR. PRICE’S RECOMMENDATIONS

Dr. Price’s excellent research was completed over 100 years ago. The purpose of this article is to examine the teachings of Weston Price in light of much newer research using hair mineral analysis. We find that a number of Dr. Price’s recommendations just do not work well today, and need to be modified due to shifts in agriculture and in society that have taken place over the past 100 years. These important alterations include:

1. Development of the atomic bomb and atomic energy. This has increased the exposure of all people on earth to much higher dosages of ionizing radiation. Sources include A-bomb tests, low level emissions from nuclear power plants, and much greater use of medical and dental x-rays. The main effect is to make the bodies much weaker and more yin in Chinese medical terminology. Cooking more of your food helps offset this more yin condition, although it does not solve the problem completely.

2. Widespread use of superphosphate fertilizers, hybrid seeds and modern pesticides and insecticides to grow and raise most of our food. Superphosphate fertilizers definitely have a stimulating effect on plants, which is not all bad. Superphosphates, plus the use of hybrid seeds and pesticides, have allowed much higher crop yields that feed many more people. However, the food is far lower in minerals, vitamins, protein and other nutrients in most cases. This is well-documented in the records from 50 and even 100 years ago of the US Department of Agriculture.

3. Much greater use of processed foods. This has also contributed to far worse nutrition in almost everyone.

4. The widespread use of corn and perhaps other grains instead of hay and pasturing to feed chickens, cows, sheep and other livestock. This has been helpful in some ways, but it has contributed to much lower levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the meat, eggs, and dairy products, even if they are unpasteurized and unhomogenized.

5. Far higher levels of toxic metals and toxic chemicals in the food, air, water and on products we touch or have other direct contact with. This has caused much worse toxic metal and toxic chemical poisoning in the entire population, compared to 100 years ago. It also makes the bodies much more yin.

6. A much faster-paced lifestyle in most people thanks to electrification, modern communications.

7. Much more electromagnetic stress on the bodies due to the use of flat-screen televisions, computers, cell phones and other devices that emit microwaves and other electromagnetic fields. These also make the bodies more yin in Chinese terminology.

8. New ways to preserve food that are fabulous, but can allow pathogens to grow. This, plus the transportation of food long distances, makes eating raw meats, eggs and even vegetables and fruits much less healthful today.

These total effect of the changes above are:

1. A much slower oxidation rate in most people

2. Much worse digestion in most people, even children.

3. A reduced ability to resist many types of diseases, allowing epidemics of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, ADD and other serious conditions that were either non-existent or were practically unknown 100 years ago.

In light of this, let us now discuss several of the Weston Price Foundation recommendations, with some changes I suggest.

NUTRITION VERSUS DEVELOPMENT

This website promotes development. This is a precise but largely unknown science of the growth of the Energy Centers and the Merkabah. A side effect of development is much better health and longevity.

Development, today, involves a lot of nutrition, but it is not the same as nutritional healing systems such as the Weston Price approach. Improved nutrition is just part of development. It is needed, today, because the food supply is mineral-depleted, and the bodies are all starving for minerals, as a result. Without the nutritional aspect, development does not occur today.

This was not the case in the past. For example, living the teachings in the Bible is an older developmental path. It contains relatively little about nutrition because the food was of much better quality several thousand years ago. For details about development, read Introduction To Development and other articles about this subject on this site.

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