The Connection Between the Modern Diet and Unhealthy Pregnancies
Weston Price dedicated his research to not only studying and documenting the physical disease and poor health experienced by indigenous groups who abandoned their native diets; he also studied and documented why this poor health occurred. Dr. Price’s research centered on both the ancient and modern diets of the indigenous populations he visited. He found that the modern diet of the “white man,” which is the diet most of us eat regularly, does not provide the same amounts of vitamins or minerals as the traditional diets. This is a problem for modern people, of course, because everyone knows that we need vitamins and minerals to be healthy!
(image via on Flickr)
On average, indigenous diets producing healthy people had 4 times more (400% more) water soluble vitamins and minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin B, and 10 times more (1000% more) fat-soluble vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, and K). Bound to the fat-soluble vitamins are hormones or hormone-like factors that provide activating chemicals to trigger healthy growth. Many of these substances are not clearly identified. With these crucial vitamins and activating hormones missing or deficient in our modern diet, our bodies fail and break down. This breakdown has been illustrated in Chapters 2, 3, and 4. It is much like building a house out of stone, a solid substance, and building another house out of paper. When the winds blow, the stone house will keep you protected while the paper house will collapse. Eating modern food is like living in a paper house and expecting it to protect you from the elements: it simply doesn’t work.
The Modern Deficient Pregnancy Diet
| Modernized Diets |
Calories |
Fat-Soluble |
Calcium |
Phosphorus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Averages of United States | 2,047 | Low | 0.76 | 1.3 |
| Eskimo and Canadian Indian | 3,000 | Low | 0.39 | 1.14 |
| Swiss Alps | 2,000 | Low | 0.44 | 0.82 |
| Outer Hebrides | 2,000 | Low | 0.84 | 1.30 |
Modernized, Low Nutrient Diets (all figures for calcium and phosphorus are given in grams)
The first chart contains figures taken from several of Dr. Price’s field studies, along with some typical figures from the average U.S. diet. Do you remember the photos of the unhealthy Eskimo adults and children? Note the low nutrient value of their diet. Do you recall the two brothers and the grandfather and granddaughter? Their diet is that of the Outer Hebrides. Recall also the lost harmony of the high Alpine Swiss villagers. As you can see, the average U.S. diet (the figures are probably similar for Canada and England) is about the same as the diets that caused disease, death and suffering in native groups.
Health-Sustaining Indigenous Pregnancy Diet
| Indigenous Diets |
Calories |
Fat-Soluble Vitamins |
Calcium | Phosphorus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canadian Indians | 3,000 | High | 2.30 | 6.61 |
| Eskimos | 3,000 | High | 2.14 | 5.70 |
| Swiss Alps | 2,000 | High | 1.66 | 1.84 |
| Outer Hebrides | 2,000 | Very High | 1.76 | 3.04 |
| Averages | – | High | 1.97 | 4.30 |
This chart displays the nutrient break down of a typical pregnancy diet that produced robust health and freedom from disease. I am not presenting this information to impel you to follow them as guidelines, but to illustrate the striking and profound differences in the two diets. The health-building diet is extremely high in fat-soluble vitamins and offers an abundance of essential minerals like calcium and phosphorus.
The Synergy of Vitamins for Pregnancy
Our bodies are designed to utilize nutrients in very particular ways. Our ability to utilize water soluble vitamins and minerals like calcium and phosphorus depends on the presence of fat-soluble vitamins in our diet. This means that if you are eating a modern displacing diet, even if you have an adequate source of minerals, your body won’t absorb or utilize them properly without the fat-soluble vitamins. This is where a dangerous breakdown occurs in our modern diet: the lack or near total absence of fat-soluble vitamins and related hormones. (We’ll soon learn where to get those!) Our modern diet contains very few vitamins and minerals, and those that we do consume are not absorbed as well as they should be due to the absence of fat-soluble vitamins. The indigenous diet is so nourishing because it is high in both fat-soluble vitamins and in minerals. Our white bread society produces children made out of white bread whose bodies are going to be highly susceptible to disease.
Sources for Healthy Pregnancy On Indigenous Diets
Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 6 th Ed, 269.
Price, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, 6 th Ed: 275.
Chart of Nutrient Intake Comparison, http://www.ers.usda.gov/briefing
/dietandhealth/data/nutrients/tables.xls
Estimate done without clinical evidence
Micronutrient Information Center: Phosphorus, Linus Palding Institute, Oregon State University,.http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/i
nfocenter/minerals/phosphorus/. Footnote from Dietary Reference Intakes: Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Vitamin D, and Fluoride, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicin:. Phosphorus Washington D.C., National Academy Press; 1997:146-189, (Averaged male and female intakes)
Price, W. A., “Why Dental Caries With Modern Civilizations? XI. New Light on Loss of Immunity to Some Degenerative Processes Including Dental Caries,” Dental Digest, (July, 1934): 243.
Price, W. A., “Why Dental Caries With Modern Civilizations? V. An Interpretation of Field Studies Previously Reported,” Dental Digest, (July 1933): 278.
Ibid., 278
Price, “Why Dental Caries With Modern Civilizations? “XI. New Light on Loss of Immunity to Some Degenerative Processes Including Dental Caries,” 243.
Ibid.
Price, “Why Dental Caries With Modern Civilizations? “V. An Interpretation of Field Studies Previously Reported,” 278.
Ibid.
