Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/898909
One common reaction I get when I tell people that these 14 populations on natural diets had no degenerative illnesses is: "But they exercised more and they had no stress in their life." People figure they don't need to change their diet because it was the exercise and the stress. But couldn't it work the other way? Maybe they had the energy to work hard and were more stress free because of their diet? And if that diet is part of the equation, doesn't it make sense to adopt it in some form or other? And what is our excuse for not dealing with the stress and the lack of exercise? Do we really want to argue about why we can't get healthy? Wouldn't it be better to start creating health instead? Another reaction dismisses everything Price found as "genetics." T. L. Cleave, writing in The Saccharine Disease, (John Wright & Sons Limited, 1974), makes the point that among wild animals, hereditary defects are rare. Although in civilized humans they are somewhat higher, true "hereditary defects" rarely exceed 4 or 5 individuals per 1,000 live births (for such things as club foot, cleft palate, or congenital malformations of the heart). He argues that when the frequency of occurrence is higher than this, that hereditary defect as a cause is "highly improbable." The question, he says, is "whether the body is built wrongly or is being used wrongly." If we are designed to eat nutrient-dense, whole foods and we are instead eating processed foods that are antithetical to good health, we have used our body wrongly -- we have not given it the nutrition that it is designed for. It becomes absurd to talk about someone being genetically more prone to a heart-attack when the foods being consumed are modern processed foods. All too often people use the reason of "genetics" to excuse the fact that they are using their body wrongly. Certainly, genetics plays a role in the various strengths and weaknesses of our body: but it is the height of stupidity to blame genetics for an illness when we are consuming foods not suited for our body. What we are essentially saying is that certain people are more genetically pre- disposed not to get as sick on diet of unhealthy foods. Often people refer to something they read in a newspaper, such as an article saying saturated fats are bad or one about the necessity of avoiding eggs. Any one who has followed nutritional advice through conventional media can only be amazed at the level of ignorance displayed in print and on television. Remember that the same people who for years told you to eat margarine (now known to be extremely unhealthy because of the presence of trans fatty acids) are still giving you dietary advice. If you doubt that much of the dietary advice we are given is profit-driven by food manufacturers with a direct financial stake in what you eat, I recommend the article "The Oiling of America" (http://www.westonaprice. org/know_your_fats/oiling.html), which shows how the conventional dietary recommendations on fat are largely driven by vegetable oil manufacturers. Contrast this with the dietary advice from Weston A. Price, which was time-tested by millennia. The people he studied ate foods discovered over time to build radiant health in themselves and their children. These people did not work for nor were they funded by someone with direct financial outcome in what they ate. Specific Steps And, as they say, the proof is in the eating. These peoples were healthy and happy. They must have been doing something right. If we look around at the general level of health of our society and the culture in which we live, we might as well ask what do we have to lose by trying something different and time-tested. The health in our culture is pathetic: how can we ignore the wisdom in this book? One saving grace is that a diet based on Price's work is anything but painful to adopt. What this book says and what it shows us in words and images is that old-fashioned, good tasting whole food is healthy. Perhaps the hardest thing to overcome is the decades of brainwashing we have been through about what constitutes good nutrition. Page 26 | Abby's Magazine - www.AbbysHealthAndNutrition.com Abby's Magazine - Volume 5 Issue 6 | Page 33