Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration

Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price is probably the most important book on nutrition published in the last century. I will first summarize the content of the book and then summarize a couple of my favorite anecdotes...

The first section of the book discusses specific indigenous cultures that Dr. Price studied. The cultures are:
1) Swiss
2) Gaelics
3) Eskimo
4) North American Indians
5) Melanesians
6) Polynesians
7) African Tribes
8) Australian Aborigines
9) Torres Straight Islanders
10) New Zealand Maori
11) Ancient Peruvians
12) Isolated Modern Peruvians

In the second part of the book Dr. Price analyzes the traditional peoples and their diets and describes studies which he carried out. He also writes about modern society and the reasons for its poor state of health.

I found the book fascinating. It took me a while to read (it is 500 pages of small print), but it was definitely worth the time spent. My favorite part was the first section where Dr. Price discusses his interactions with primitive cultures. Many of the anecdotes were hard to believe. I learned about

1) an Eskimo woman who had 16 children with no complications,
2) a miner lost in Alaska whose life was saved by the nutritional wisdom of some Eskimos who found him,
3) the Masai tribe in Africa who were tremendous physical specimens (many of their women were close to 7 feet tall),
4) a pacific islander who swam in the ocean for something like 30 hours straight while helping rescue people from a sinking ship

If you know about the diet that Dr. Weston Price advocates, this book will explain why Dr. Price broke so sharply with modern scientific thought. It will also allow you to open your mind and challenge many strongly held beliefs you may have about nutrition.

I have barely scratched the surface of the wisdom contained in this book. For further information about Dr. Weston Price’s ideas look at the Weston A Price Foundation.