Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Dr. Weston Price

445 Pages·2010·5.59 MB·English

Nutrition and
Physical Degeneration
A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets
and Their Effects
BY
Weston A. Price, MS., D.D.S., F.A.G.D.
Member Research Commission, American Dental Association
Member American Association of Physical Anthropologists
Author, "Dental Infections, Oral and Systemic"
Foreword by
Earnest Albert Hooton
Professor of Anthropology,
Harvard University
With 134 figures
Paul B. Hoeber, Inc
Medical Book Department of Harper & Brothers
New York London
Copyright, 1939, by Paul B. Hoeber, Inc.
All rights reserved. This book or any
part thereof must not be reproduced
in any form without permission of the
publishers. Printed in the United
States of America.
To that kindred soul
My Wife
who has assisted me so greatly
on these difficult expeditions,
this book is lovingly dedicated.
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Foreword by Earnest A. Hooton
Introduction
1. Why Seek Wisdom from Primitive Races
2. The Progressive Decline of Modern Civilization
3. Isolated and Modernized Swiss
4. Isolated and Modernized Gaelics
5. Isolated and Modernized Eskimos
6. Primitive and Modernized North American Indians
7. Isolated and Modernized Melanesians
8. Isolated and Modernized Polynesians
9. Isolated and Modernized African Tribes
10. Isolated and Modernized Australian Aborigines
11.Isolated and Modernized Torres Strait Islanders
12. Isolated and Modernized New Zealand Maori
13. Ancient Civilizations of Peru
14. Isolated and Modernized Peruvian Indians
15. Characteristics of Primitive and Modernized Dietaries
16. Primitive Control of Dental Caries
17. One Origin of Physical Deformities
18. Prenatal Nutritional Deformities and Disease Types
19. Physical, Mental and Moral Deterioration
20. Soil Depletion and Plant and Animal Deterioration
21. Practical Applications of Primitive Wisdom
List of illustrations
1. Loetschental Valley in Switzerland
2. Hand-mill used by natives in Loetschental Valley
3. Natives of modern Swiss valley showing normal design of face and
dental arches when adequate nutrition is provided
4. Natives of Loetschental Valley showing tooth decay and deformed
dental arches typical of those living on modern foods
5. A typical "black-house" on the Isle of Lewis. Natives of the Isle of
Lewis
6. Tooth decay in native of Isle of Harris living on modern foods and
excellent teeth of natives living on primitive foods
7. Gaelic children living on native foods
8. Variations in growth of oats fertilized with varying quantities of
smoke-thatch
9. Primitive Alaskan Eskimos showing excellent facial and dental arch
formation
10. Primitive Alaskan mothers
11.Alaskan Eskimos showing effect on teeth of modern foods
12. Defective teeth and dental arches in Eskimo children living on
modern foods
13. Dried eggs of salmon are an important item of nutrition
14. Facial and dental arch deformity in white boy born in Alaska
and living on modern foods
15. Family of forest Indians of northern Canada
16. Modernized Indian children with tuberculosis
17. Indian women and girls typical of those living on primitive
foods
18. Indian women typical of those living on modern foods
19. Deformed facial formation in children of first generation after
adoption of modern foods by parents
20. Primitive Indians of central Canada: parents developed on
native foods, children on modern foods
21. Typical crippled children found among Indians living on
modern foods
22. Skulls of primitive Indians showing superb dental arches
23. Skulls of primitive Indians showing excellent bone formation
24. Seminole Indians, typical of those living on native foods
25. Dental caries in Seminole Indians living on modern foods
26. Seminole Indian children showing changes in facial and dental
arch form which result from modern foods
27. Skulls of pre-Columbian Indians of Florida
28. Melanesians typical of those living under native conditions
29. Facial bone formation in Melanesians living on native foods
30. Fiji council house and hereditary Fiji monarch
31. Tooth decay in natives of Fiji Islands living on imported food
32. Tooth decay and changes in arch formation in first generation
after adoption of modern foods
33. Perfect dental arches of Polynesians living under native
conditions
34. Tahitians showing dental caries due to imported foods
35. Changes in teeth and in dental arch formation of Polynesians
living on modern foods
36. Samoans typical of excellent facial and dental arch formation
when living on native foods. Children with formation typical of
those born of under-nourished parents
37. Hawaiian family showing changes in facial form in younger
children of same family
38. Tooth decay and tuberculosis as a result of under-nutrition in a
Polynesian girl
39. Members of Masai tribe illustrating excellent results of diet of
meat, milk and blood
40. Method by which blood is drawn from steer
41. Facial and dental arch development in African tribes living on
native foods
42. Facial and dental arch development in members of Belgian
Congo tribe living on native foods
43. Pygmies of Belgian Congo
44. Dental caries in Africans who have adopted modern foods
45. Changes in facial and dental arch development in children of
first generation after adoption by parents of modern foods
46. Africans showing facial deformities due to diet of modern foods
47. Africans showing facial deformities in first generation after
adoption by parents of modern foods
48. African children showing a marked depression of middle third
of face due to malnutrition of parents
49. Camels' milk is an important item of nutrition in Asia and
Africa
50. Facial deformities found in boys and girls living in Cairo under
modern conditions
51. African children walking on "all fours"
52. Typical Aborigines of Australia
53. Magnificent dental arches and teeth found in Aborigines
54. Dental caries in Aborigines living on modern foods
55. Changes in teeth and arch formation in modernized Aborigines
56. Disturbance in facial growth in modernized Aborigines
57. Deformity patterns produced in Aborigines by modern food
58. Effects of malnutrition in Australian Aborigines living on a
reservation
59. Typical Aborigine mothers with their children
60. Comparison of skull of typical Aborigine with that of Peking
Man
61. Inhabitants of islands north of Australia have splendidly built
bodies with fine facial and dental arch form
62. Comparison of facial and dental arch formation in native and in
white children on Thursday Island
63. Good physical development of natives of Hammond Island
64. Dental arches in natives on the islands of the Great Barrier Reef
65. Contrast in facial and dental arch form between primitive and
modernized natives
66. Deformed dental arches in white children on Thursday Island
67. Tooth decay in white children in Torres Strait islands
68. Dental clinic maintained by New Zealand Government
69. The Maori had the reputation of having the finest teeth and
bodies of any race in the world
70. Tooth decay is found in modernized Maori
71. The whites living in New Zealand have poor teeth
72. Facial deformities in Maori born after adoption of modern foods
73. Maori skulls showing fine physical development
74. Maori demonstrating some of the accessory essentials obtained
from the sea
75. Trephined skulls of ancient peoples of Peru
76. Trephined skulls with gold plates in position
77. Pottery jar depicting ancient Peruvian surgery. Bone showing
healing of fracture
78. Skulls of fishermen of Chimu culture
79. Ancient aqueduct of Peru
80. Descendants of ancient Chimus showing flattening of back of
head
81. Some descendants of the ancient Chimus are still living in a few
fishing villages in the north of Peru
82. Stone fortress built by primitive people of Andean Sierra
83. Typical skulls of High Sierra Indians
84. Descendants of the Tauhuanocan Indians of Peru
85. The Quichua Indians living in the High Andes are descendants
of the Incas
86. Indians of the High Andes have magnificent physiques
87. Indians of the High Andes have superb facial and dental arch
development
88. Introduction of modern foods to Sierra Indians produced
wreckage of physiques
89. Jungle Indians of the Amazon Basin
90. Facial and dental arch development of the jungle Indians is
superb
91. Excellence of skeletal development of jungle Indians as
expressed in faces and dental arches
92. A marked change in facial form with crowding of teeth occurs
in jungle Indians born after adoption of modern foods
93. Rapid healing of fractured femur in boy suffering from
malnutrition, after institution of proper nutrition
94. Improvement accomplished by proper nutrition in boy suffering
from inflammatory rheumatism
95. Effect of different wheat products on rats
96. Teeth showing permeability of decayed dentin to silver nitrate
97. Three cases illustrating how nature can close an exposure of
pulp due to dental caries
98. Four Melanesians born on four different islands look like
brothers but are not blood relations
99. Four Polynesian girls living on different islands are not related
though they look like sisters
100. Disturbed heredity: two Peruvian Indian fathers with good
physical development and their sons who show defects
101. Disturbed heredity illustrated by father and son of Wakamba
tribe of Central Africa
102. Disturbed heredity in Quicha Indians
103. Disturbed heredity in Australian Aborigines
104. Two Maori sisters, and two white sisters in Peru, showing facial
changes that may occur in same generation with change from
primitive to modern diet by parents
105. Six brothers showing facial changes in same generation due to
change from primitive to modern foods by parents
106. Change in facial form in two younger brothers, corresponding
to change in diet by parents
107. Natives from islands north of Australia showing progressive
facial change in same family due to change in foods
108. White girls in New Zealand illustrate progressive lengthening
and narrowing of face and hips
109. New Zealand Maori illustrating progressive change in facial
form of two younger boys
110. New Zealand Maori illustrating marked undersize and
deformity of feet in second child in family
111. Modernized Peruvian Indian boy showing disturbed
development of face and foot
112. Modernized coastal Indian of Ecuador showing serious physical
deformities
113. Eskimo children ill in tuberculosis ward of the government
hospital at Juneau
114. Patients in the Maori hospital in New Zealand showing marked
facial under-development
115. Girls in tuberculosis ward of New Zealand hospital for Maori
show marked facial and dental arch disturbances
116. Native Hawaiian children with tuberculosis, showing marked
disturbances of facial form and dental arch development
117. Deformities of pig due to lack of Vitamin A in mothers diet
118. Deformities due to lack of adequate Vitamin A in mothers diet
119. Many young of modern domestic animals are born with
deformities
120. Puppies born with physical defects due to deficiency of Vitamin
A in father
121. Typical deformities in domestic animals
122. Criminals. Were their unsocial traits related to incomplete brain
organization associated with prenatal injury
123. Marked lack of normal facial development in notorious young
criminals
124. Typical Mongoloid defective
125. Physical changes in Mongoloid type due to movement of
maxillary bones to stimulate pituitary gland in base of brain
126. X-ray pictures showing position of teeth before and during
operation to move maxillary bones
127. Twin boys with same deformity of dental arch
128. Boys typical of group in special school for backward children
129. Fiji woman who has gone long distance to gather special food
needed for production of healthy children
130. African woman who has come down the mountains to gather
special plants of which the ashes prevent goiter
131. X-rays of teeth of three children in one family show progressive
injury in younger children
132. X-rays illustrating progressive injury in two younger children in
family
133. X-rays comparing deformities of facial form in child born after
long labor with better facial form in sister born after short labor
134. Girl showing relationship between lack of pelvic development
and deformity of face
Maps
Canada
South Sea Islands
Africa
Australia
New Zealand
Peru
Preface
T
HE gracious reception given to my several reports of field studies
among primitive racial groups and the many requests for copies of those
brief reports and for further data, together with the need for providing
interpretations and applications of the data, have induced me to
consolidate my investigations. There have also been many requests from
my patients and from members of the medical and dental professions for
concise statements as to what I have found that would be useful as
preventive procedures. In addition I have been conscious of an
opportunity for helpfulness to the members of the various primitive races
that I have studied and who are so rapidly declining in health and
numbers at their point of contact with our modern civilization. Since
they have so much accumulated wisdom that is passing with them, it has
seemed important that the elements in the modern contacts that are so
destructive to them should be discovered and removed.
There has been a deep sense of obligation to the officials of many
countries for the great kindness and assistance that they have so
cheerfully given by providing the opportunity for these investigations.
The list of these individuals is much too long to mention them all by
name. One of the joys of my work has been the privilege of knowing the
magnificent characters that are at the outposts earnestly striving to better
the welfare of the natives whom they are ministering to, but who are
distraught with the recognition that under the modernization program the
natives decline in health and become afflicted by our modern types of
degenerative diseases. It would be fortunate if each of these field
workers could be provided with a copy of this report which they have
helped to make possible.
In order to make this information available to as wide a group as
possible, I have avoided technical language and will ask the indulgence
of professional readers.
There are some individuals whose assistance I must acknowledge
specifically: Reverend Father John Siegen and Doctor Alfred Gysi of
Switzerland; Mrs. Lulu Herron and Doctor J. Romig of Alaska; the
Indian Department at Ottawa; the Department of Indian Affairs at
Washington, D. C.; the officials of the eight archipelagos studied in the
Pacific; Colonel J. L. Saunders of New Zealand; the Minister of Health,
New Zealand; Dr. W. Stewart Ziele of Sydney, Australia; Sir Herbert
Gepp of Melbourne, Australia; Doctor William M. Hughes, Minister of
Health, Canberra; Dr. Cummiston, Director-General of Health,
Australian Commonwealth, Canberra; Doctor Rapael Cilento of
Queensland, Australia; Mr. E. W. Saranealis, Thursday Island; the
Department of Health of Kenya, Africa; the Department of Health for
Belgian Congo, Brussells; the Department of National Parks, Belgian
Congo; Minister of the Interior, Peru; Doctor Albert Giesecke and Esther
Giesecke of Peru; the Directors of Museums in Sydney and Canberra,
Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; Vancouver, and Toronto, Canada;
Washington, New York and Chicago, the United States; Juneau, Alaska;
Rome, Italy; and Cairo, Egypt; the publishers of the Ohio State Medical
Journal, the Journal of the American Dental Association, the Dental
Digest and the Dental Items of Interest; my faithful secretary, Mrs. Ruth
MacMaster; Professor W. G. Garnett who so kindly provided the critical
reading of the manuscript, and the publishers who furnished constructive