A Father's Guilt : How Dr. Weston Price's Son's Death Drove His Exploration of the Ideal Diet
The Original Liver King
Eating liver meat is popular again! Vendors at farmers markets are selling out each week because they can’t meet demand.
Online personalities like the Liver King and Dr. Paul Saladino have helped the world to understand the benefits in adding organ meat to a healthy diet.
The interest is growing daily!
But let’s not forget the original Liver King. The wonderful Dr. Weston Price from from the 1930s.
Who is Dr. Weston Price?
A dentist, Dr. Price practiced in Cleveland, Ohio. And played an active role in the medical community. His contributions revolutionized the dental industry and had a lasting impact on the field.
Did you know he:
1. He founded the National Dental Association, which is now the research center for the American Dental Association.
2. Helped invented and improved the process to manufacture dental porcelain inlays.
3. Researched X-rays and it’s effect on cancer.
4. Pioneered new radiological techniques
Family Tragedy
Unfortunately, he tragically lost his beloved son, Donald, due to complications from an infected root canal. Adding to the heartbreak, he was the one who performed the procedure.
He believed mouth health and diet goes hand in hand. After his son’s passing, his focus on nutrition and its impact on dental and general health intensified significantly.
His World Tour
The tragic death of his son served as a catalyst for him and his wife to embark on a global journey in search of the ideal diet. Which he first believed would be plant based.
This worldwide tour became a quest to uncover the perfect way to live a long and healthy life as a dedication to his son.
His visited various indigenous tribes in the 1930s. A special time when old and new worlds were coming together.
It allowed him to see how a western diet affected these groups and still able to study people who kept to the old ways. The western diet at that time were processed foods, refined flours and sugar. Pretty much the same diet of today’s society.
The groups he visited:
1. Native Eskimos
2. North Canadian Indians
3. Swiss
4. Gaelics / Scottish
5. Aborigines
6. New Zealand’s Maori
7. Polynesians
8. Peruvians Indians
9. African Tribes
His Findings
He discovered people who stuck with the traditional diet had cavity rates under 3%. And a few groups were close to 0% - unheard of at the time!
Unfortunately, the ones who adopted a western diet of processed foods and sugar had cavity rates in the 30% - 40% range. And most could not afford a dentist unlike people living in the modern world.
In today’s modern world, 25% of Americans have at least 1 cavity.
Different Locations. Same Diet.
Despite being geographically different. These groups were similar that their diets were more nutrient dense than the recommended mineral and vitamin intake by Western standards.
His research showed traditional diets has 4x more calcium and 10x more fat soluble vitamins (Vitamins A, E, K and D).
Could it be that our Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) is only enough to be just living but not really enough to LIVE?
Time To Get Dirty
Dr. Price strongly believed soil is the lifeblood that allows crops to be more nutrient dense.
In the U.S., he conducted a nationwide research by having farmers ship their butter monthly to analyzed the butter’s nutrient levels such as Vitamin A and D.
He saw a pattern where poor nutrient levels in soil and cattle feed (grain or grass) showed lower vitamin levels in the butter.
If you want a more in depth analysis about how soil and animal food affects our nutrients, check out the bellow articles:
We must understand that growing food isn’t just about how much we produce. It's a complex system where each step affects our well-being. The type of water, soil quality and air all make a difference in food nutrients.
That’s why you can go on the USDA website and compare raw liver from the USA with New Zealand raw liver.
New Zealand is well known for raising its cattle on pastures, its vitamin content in liver ranges from 40% - 500% more than USA raw liver.
That’s why I would pick pasture raised meat over organic meat. Give me a grass fed cow over organic grain fed one anytime!
Dr. Price’s Ideal Diet
There isn’t a real ideal diet based on Weston Price’s global travels. It’s more about what they didn’t eat which was refined sugars and flours, canned goods (processed foods), vegetable fats and polished rice.
Most native meals kept away from seeds. Vegetables and plants were part of the diet, but wasn’t the main dish for many groups.
The main foods were animal meats and organs, raw milk, seafood, sea vegetables and whole grains and oats. Organ meats were preferred over muscle meats.
Remember: Whole grains back then were grains with the wheat germ intact and most breads were fermented such as sourdough versus “whole grains” breads of today. They are not the same.
Dr. Weston’s Life Work In a Book - Nutritional And Physical Degeneration
Not without its critics, Dr. Weston Price wrote a book called “Nutritional and Physical Degeneration” which talks about his travels, observations and post travel experiments.
It’s a fun read. I read it twice! And was the main reason why I started this company and focused on organ meats.
