Dr. Weston Price was a dentist in the 1930's that decided to research the health of cultures world wide. He traveled all over the world interviewing, examining and photographing, and since he was a dentist, he also was interested in their teeth. What he found was profound and undisputed even today. Here's what he learned.
In native cultures that were thriving with good health, what he found these things in common:
- they ate natural foods that were not processed, without any additives like sugar
- the foods were organically grown locally and eaten seasonally
- they ate fermented foods and some ate unpasteurized dairy foods
- apparently they ate animal foods, including animal fat
[The one area that I digress from Dr. Weston's findings is consuming animals foods. The research I have reviewed (and my personal experience) is that especially with the way animals are raised today (they were raised differently in the early 1900's, without the factory farming, drugs and automation of today's farming business), there are more risks than rewards in eating animal foods.]
He also found that in these thriving cultures, their teeth were healthy and strong - no cavities. He thought of the mouth as the window to the body and the health of your teeth normally indicated the health of your body.
In the cultures where health was declining, including poor dental health with rotting and missing teeth he noticed that they all had one major thing in common - the introduction of processed foods into their diet. He noted that it was plain to see that shortly after a culture was introduced to processed foods, their health progressively declined.
Dr. Preston's finding are documented in his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.
Another doctor, Francis Pottenger is famous for his 10 year nutritional study on the effects of cooking food. He studied hundreds of cats and fed them different ratios of cooked vs. raw foods. What he found was that those cats on a primarily cooked food diet didn't make it past the third generation. Their health deteriorated and they could no longer reproduce. Those cats fed a 100% raw food diet thrived. You couldn't tell the difference between one generation and the other, they were all in great health.
Both doctors research hasn't been refuted and if you reflect on their findings, you'll notice the same affects of the diet on our population today. More and more women are unable to conceive and fertility clinics are everywhere using drugs to stimulate what nature can't. Obesity and related diseases are growing daily. What also has increased is the amount of processed, modified and denatured foods that we eat every day. Children are being introduced to fake, processed foods and grow up believing that is normal and then continue by passing it on to their children. It's a never ending circle that will continue forever and lead to a very sick society, or worse.
Actually, we're already there as America is last among developed countries in health with more disease and health problems than any other. Obesity alone is responsible for over $100 billion dollars a year in health care spending. And America is mainly responsible for introducing and exporting most of the processed foods overseas. The statistics show that when fast food was introduced in foreign countries, their health progressively declined, and continues today. Do we want to pass this on to our children?
Let's think about it this way for a minute.
If you agree that your body is natural (you weren't created by a machine or some un-natural method) , why would eating something un-natural, processed, modified, created in a laboratory or grown/filled with chemicals or additives be good for your body (most food packaged or served in a restaurant is processed)? Why would you want to eat something that isn't natural knowing this?
Here's something that may also shed some light on this. Did you know that your body automatically rejects anything that it doesn't recognize as natural? One way we found this out is by researchers looking through the waste from portable toilets. In sifting out the waste, they found thousands of almost whole vitamins and pills (among other things) that were passed almost whole through the digestive system without being absorbed. In analyzing these tablets they found them all to have been created (in a laboratory - most vitamins are made this way) and not a whole food vitamin (whole natural foods condensed into a tablet).
Only you can change this declining trend by realizing that the only way to gain optimal health in all areas of your life is by eating fresh, unprocessed, organically grown foods. Eating primarily a diet of foods that are raw and a small percentage dried, steamed or lightly cooked.
The video goes into more detail and is inspiring.
To your best health!
Mark
If you're looking for a way to add whole foods to your diet, learn about the convenient, delicious and healthy foods available to you, without leaving your home. And read about the life altering changes others have experienced.
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