 Would you believe that in certain remote regions of the world there are old and indigenous cultures in which our modern epidemics----obesity, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, colitis, hypertension, arthritis, and the like----are virtually unknown? For many years scientists have observed isolated cultures in which people maintain levels of health and fitness that are vastly superior to the health status of those of us who live in modern societies.Yet these remarkably strong people live in primitive environments very far removed from the industrial mainstream, where there are none of the vast resources so widely available in “advanced” civilization----no high-tech medicine, no scientists or clinicians or academic institutions, no multibillion-dollar research programs, no health officials or government advisory boards, no vitamin industry, fitness clubs, health spas, weight loss clinics, or health-oriented media.Oddly enough, the native diets of these old and indigenous cultures are far from what you and I might consider healthful. Imagine: Traditional Alaskan Eskimos with excellent immunity and cardiovascular health thriving on large quantities of fat and several pounds of meat a day. Daily diets centered around caribou, kelp, salmon, moose, seal, and whale blubber.Today there are Aboriginal people in remote regions of the Australian Outback with the strength and fitness levels of Olympic athletes. They still live as their ancestors did, on diets comprised of insects, beetles, grubs, berries, and meat from the kangaroo and wallaby.Consider this: Swiss people with superior constitutions and longevity living in isolated mountain villages, eating primitive diets of whole rye bread and large quantities of high-fat cheese and cream and raw goat’s milk, supplemented by wine and small amounts of meat. Villagers of all ages enjoying robust health despite rustic living conditions and the challenges of glacial winters.Similarly: African Masai tribes, renowned for extraordinary physical and mental development, still living as they have for centuries, primarily on meat and milk and blood that is carefully extracted in small doses from live cattle at regular intervals.And in other isolated places----high in the Andes Mountains, deep in the Amazon rain forest, in remote villages of the South Pacific islands----native people who consume the primitive diets of their ancestors consistently demonstrate the same kind of remarkable strength, stamina, and resistance to disease, often living well past one hundred. Researchers have discovered that people who live in primitive cultures consistently display an astonishing range of physical attributes rarely seen in modern cultures: virtually no birth defects or physical deformities or weight problems. Exceptionally well-shaped bones and skeletal frames. Wide and symmetrical faces with expansive, highly functional nasal and respiratory passages. Strong jaws with perfect dental alignment and flawless teeth and gums that rarely it ever succumb to decay and disease.But when these same people are exposed to the foods and dietary customs of modern civilization, their health rapidly deteriorates and they fall victim to the very same diseases that have long permeated industrialized societies.The most noteworthy observer of the declining health of primitive cultures was Dr. Weston Price, a remarkable medical researcher who began his career as a dentist in Ohio in the early part of the twentieth century. Price first became interested in malnutrition in an attempt to understand why so many Americans suffered with extensive tooth decay and gum disease, along with severe structural deficiencies such as small dental palates crowded with poorly developed and crooked teeth.Dr. Price knew that people in undeveloped regions of the world had no such problems----no need of orthodontia, metal fillings, gum surgeries, root canals, or elaborate restorative work. He wanted to find out why.So in 1934 he began a series of investigative expeditions to remote corners of the world. He visited indigenous cultures and closely examined the diets and health status of native populations in Africa, northern Europe, Canada, Alaska, Australia, and the South Pacific.Time and again Price found indigenous cultures to be free of the chronic disease and physical disabilities that were very much the norm in the United States and other “advanced” societies. He also observed that whenever primitive cultures abandoned their native diets and adopted modern eating habits, they would rapidly develop the kinds of health problems prevalent in the advanced cultures to which they’d been exposed.In 1938 Dr. Price documented his findings in the classic Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. This book includes a wealth of dramatic photographs that clearly illustrate the rapid physical deterioration of many indigenous cultures throughout the world.The Myth of the Universal Diet
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