The Weston A. Price Foundation--on the nutritional fringe

Whenever I want to delve a little deeper into research about nutrition, I often read articles from The Weston A. Price Foundation. Sometimes, I'm so challenged, that I have to put it down for a while, let it sink in, process the new information over a period of days or weeks or months, then go back and read it again. Oftentimes, things that initially challenge me will eventually become the things that resonate with me. In a nutshell, their motto is "Eat only what your great-grandparents would have eaten."

Here are The Weston A. Price Foundation "Principles of Healthy Diets":

Dietary Guidelines
1. Eat whole, unprocessed foods.
2. Eat beef, lamb, game, organ meats, poultry and eggs from pasture-fed animals.
3. Eat wild fish (not farm-raised) and shellfish from unpolluted waters.
4. Eat full-fat milk products from pasture-fed cows, preferably raw and/or fermented, such as raw milk, whole yogurt, kefir, cultured butter, whole raw cheeses and fresh and sour cream. (Imported cheeses that say "milk" or "fresh milk" on the label are raw.)
5. Use animal fats, especially butter, liberally.
6. Use traditional vegetable oils only--extra virgin olive oil, expeller-expressed sesame oil, small amounts of expeller-expressed flax oil, and the tropical oils--coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil.
7. Take cod liver oil regularly to provide at least 10,000 IU vitamin A and 1,000 IU vitamin D per day.
8. Eat fresh fruits and vegetables--preferably organic--in salads and soups, or lightly steamed with butter.
9. Use whole grains, legumes and nuts that have been prepared by soaking, sprouting or sour leavening to neutralize phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors and other anti-nutrients.
10. Include enzyme-enhanced lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages and condiments in your diet on a regular basis.
11. Prepare homemade meat stocks from the bones of chicken, beef, lamb and fish and use liberally in soups, stews, gravies and sauces.
12. Use filtered water for cooking and drinking.
13. Use unrefined salt and a variety of herbs and spices for food interest and appetite stimulation.
14. Make your own salad dressing using raw vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and a small amount of expeller-expressed flax oil.
15. Use natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw honey, maple syrup, maple sugar, date sugar, dehydrated cane sugar juice (sold as Rapadura) and stevia powder.
16. Use only unpasteurized wine or beer in strict moderation with meals.
17. Cook only in stainless steel, cast iron, glass or good quality enamel.
18. Use only natural, food-based supplements.
19. Get plenty of sleep, exercise and natural light.
20. Think positive thoughts and practice forgiveness.

Dietary Dangers
1. Do not eat commercially processed foods such as cookies, cakes, crackers, TV dinners, soft drinks, packaged sauce mixes, etc. Read labels!
2. Avoid all refined sweeteners such as sugar, dextrose, glucose, high fructose corn syrup and fruit juices.
3. Avoid white flour, white flour products and white rice.
4. Avoid all hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated fats and oils.
5. Avoid all refined liquid vegetable oils made from soy, corn, safflower, canola or cottonseed.
6. Do not use polyunsaturated oils for cooking, sautéing or baking.
7. Avoid foods fried in polyunsaturated oils or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils.
8. Do not practice veganism. Animal products provide vital nutrients not found in plant foods.
9. Avoid products containing protein powders as they usually contain carcinogens formed during processing; and consumption of protein without the cofactors occurring in nature can lead to deficiencies, especially of vitamin A.
10. Avoid processed, pasteurized milk; do not consume ultrapasteurized milk products, lowfat milk, skim milk, powdered milk or imitation milk products.
11. Avoid factory-farmed eggs, meats and fish.
12. Avoid highly processed luncheon meats and sausage.
13. Avoid rancid and improperly prepared seeds, nuts and grains found in granolas, quick rise breads and extruded breakfast cereals, as they block mineral absorption and cause intestinal distress.
14. Avoid canned, sprayed, waxed and irradiated fruits and vegetables. Avoid genetically modified foods (found in most soy, canola and corn products).
15. Avoid artificial food additives, especially MSG, hydrolyzed vegetable protein and aspartame, which are neurotoxins. Most soups, sauce and broth mixes and most commercial condiments contain MSG, even if not indicated on the label.
16. Individuals sensitive to caffeine and related substances should avoid coffee, tea and chocolate.
17. Avoid aluminum-containing foods such as commercial salt, baking powder and antacids. Do not use aluminum cookware or deodorants containing aluminum.
18. Do not drink fluoridated water.
19. Avoid synthetic vitamins and foods containing them. [Note from Lori: this includes anything that says it's "enriched."]
20. Avoid distilled liquors.
21. Do not use a microwave oven.

See what I mean? There's so much counter-cultural information here. At some point in my life, I have consumed everything in their list of dietary dangers. Everything. The only thing I haven't done in this list is practice veganism, which is a strict form of vegetarianism that eliminates all animal products from the diet--no eggs, milk, cheese, etc. My midwife and her husband are Seventh-Day Adventist and vegan. They're both the picture of health. So I think it's possible to be vegan or a raw-foodist and be healthy--if you're whole-heartedly devoted to the matter and feel led by God to do so, but I don't think the average American can sustain either lifestyle for long or do it in a healthy way.

Some friends of ours decided to go 100% raw a few years ago. Recently, they both started losing their teeth. These beautiful, healthy, radiant women both said that in the first year, they felt amazing. In the second year, they started feeling some of the negative effects of consuming only raw foods. A few years into it, their teeth started falling out, and they reconsidered. Now they're pretty much following the guidelines outlined by the Weston A. Price foundation; however, they avoid pork, knowing that we're no longer under the law, but understanding that God, in his infinite wisdom, set up guidelines (including those related to food) to benefit and prosper his people.

When I read this stuff, I come to terms with the fact that I eat a lot of crap. At the same time, I'm constantly incorporating more and more whole, unprocessed foods. Avoiding the highly processed stuff has become a lot easier over time. When I can make a connection in my mind about how I'll feel if I eat junk, consuming it becomes less of a temptation.

Are you ready for more counter-cultural information? These paragraphs were taken from the article "Ancient Dietary Wisdom for Tomorrow's Children" by Sally Fallon, President of The Weston A. Price Foundation.

"When polyunsaturated oils are hardened to make margarine and shortening by a process called hydrogenation, they deliver a double whammy of increased cancer, reproductive problems, learning disabilities and growth problems in children.

"The vital research of Weston Price remains largely forgotten because the importance of his findings, if recognized by the general populace, would bring down America's largest industry--food processing and its three supporting pillars--refined sweeteners, white flour and vegetable oils. Representatives of this industry have worked behind the scenes to erect the huge edifice of the "lipid hypothesis"--the untenable theory that saturated fats and cholesterol cause heart disease and cancer. All one has to do is look at the statistics to know that it isn't true. Butter consumption at the turn of the century was eighteen pounds per person per year, and the use of vegetable oils almost nonexistent, yet cancer and heart disease were rare. Today butter consumption hovers just above four pounds per person per year while vegetable oil consumption has soared--and cancer and heart disease are endemic.

"What the research really shows is that both refined carbohydrates and vegetable oils cause imbalances in the blood and at the cellular level that lead to an increased tendency to form blood clots, leading to myocardial infarction. This kind of heart disease was virtually unknown in America in 1900. Today it has reached epidemic levels. Atherosclerosis, or the buildup of hardened plague in the artery walls, cannot be blamed on saturated fats or cholesterol. Very little of the material in this plaque is cholesterol, and a 1994 study appearing in the Lancet showed that almost three quarters of the fat in artery clogs is unsaturated. The "artery clogging" fats are not animal fats but vegetable oils.

"Built into the whole cloth of the lipid hypothesis is the postulate that the traditional foods of our ancestors--the butter, cream, eggs, liver, meat and fish eggs that Price recognized were necessary to produce "splendid physical development"--are bad for us. A number of stratagems have served to imbed this notion in the consciousness of the people, not the least of which was the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), during which your tax dollars paid for a packet of "information" on cholesterol and heart disease to be sent to every physician in America. As the American Pharmaceutical Association served on the coordinating committee of this massive program, it is not surprising that the packet instructed physicians on ways to test serum cholesterol levels, and what drugs to prescribe for patients whose cholesterol levels put them in the "at risk" category--defined arbitrarily as anyone over 200 mg/dl, the vast majority of the adult population. Physicians received instruction on the "prudent diet," low in saturated fat and cholesterol, for "at risk" Americans, even though studies indicated that such diets did not offer any significant protection against heart disease. They did, however, increase the risk of death from cancer, intestinal diseases, accidents, suicide and stroke. A specific recommendation contained in the NCEP information packet was the replacement of butter with margarine . . .

"For a future of healthy children--for any future at all--we must turn our backs on the dietary advice of sophisticated medical orthodoxy and return to the food wisdom of our so-called primitive ancestors, choosing traditional whole foods that are organically grown, humanely raised, minimally processed and above all not shorn of their vital lipid component."

The Weston A. Price Foundation was co-founded in 1999 by Sally Fallon and Mary G Enig, PhD. What I like about Enig is that she is the same age as my grandmother, her organization doesn't accept monetary donations from the dairy or meat industries, she has been researching trans fats since 1977, and she's "an expert of international renown in the field of lipid biochemistry." Click HERE to read an interview with her about the dangers of trans fats. The continuation of her interview is HERE.

Here is the summary of their lengthy paper entitled "The Skinny on Fats":

"In summary, our choice of fats and oils is one of extreme importance. Most people, especially infants and growing children, benefit from more fat in the diet rather than less. But the fats we eat must be chosen with care. Avoid all processed foods containing newfangled hydrogenated fats and polyunsaturated oils. Instead, use traditional vegetable oils like extra virgin olive oil and small amounts of unrefined flax seed oil. Acquaint yourself with the merits of coconut oil for baking and with animal fats for occasional frying. Eat egg yolks and other animal fats with the proteins to which they are attached. And, finally, use as much good quality butter as you like, with the happy assurance that it is a wholesome—indeed, an essential—food for you and your whole family.

"Organic butter, extra virgin olive oil, and expeller-expressed flax oil in opaque containers are available in health food stores and gourmet markets. Edible coconut oil can be found in Indian or Caribbean markets."

I don't know what my kids would do without real butter and homemade bread (Judah asks for "butter with bread" not "bread with butter"). James has said for years that real butter is a gift from God. I can remember tasting it for the first time on popcorn (after eating margarine for years). I never wanted to eat the fake stuff again. We're butter lovers around here. And omnivores. And we love to eat!