Healthy Traditional Diets Offer Keys to Good Nutrition and to Eating Healthy

I would like to introduce you to The Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts.

This foundation was founded by a nutritionist forerunner who discovered many secrets to health and nutrition by studying the lives and traditional diets of primitive peoples outside of the industrialized nations of the world.

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a great resource for anything to do with nutrition and health. I encourage you to visit their website:

Click here: The Weston A. Price Foundation

The following article from this website focuses on the common characteristics of healthy traditional diets. These characteristics are very significant and are keys to good nutrition and to eating healthy.

Characteristics of Traditional Diets

1. The diets of healthy primitive and non-industrialized peoples contain no refined or denatured foods such as refined sugar or corn syrup; white flour; canned foods; pasteurized, homogenized, skim or low-fat milk; refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils; protein powders; artificial vitamins or toxic additives and colorings.
   
   
2. All traditional cultures consume some sort of animal protein and fat from fish and other seafood; water and land fowl; land animals; eggs; milk and milk products; reptiles; and insects.
   
   
3. Primitive diets contain at least four times the calcium and other minerals and TEN times the fat soluble vitamins from animal fats (vitamin A, vitamin D and the Price Factor) as the average American diet.
   
   
4. In all traditional cultures, some animal products are eaten raw.
   
   
5. Primitive and traditional diets have a high food-enzyme content from raw dairy products, raw meat and fish; raw honey; tropical fruits; cold-pressed oils; wine and unpasteurized beer; and naturally preserved, lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages, meats and condiments.
   
   
6. Seeds, grains and nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened in order to neutralize naturally occuring antinutrients in these foods, such as phytic acid, enzyme inhibitors, tannins and complex carbohydrates.
   
   
7. Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30% to 80% but only about 4% of calories come from polyunsaturated oils naturally occurring in grains, pulses, nuts, fish, animal fats and vegetables. The balance of fat calories is in the form of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.
   
   
8. Traditional diets contain nearly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids.
   
   
9. All primitive diets contain some salt.
   
   
10. Tradtional cultures consume animal bones, usually in the form of gelatin-rich bone broths.
    
    
11. Traditional cultures make provisions for the health of future generations by providing special nutrient-rich foods for parents-to-be, pregnant women and growing children; by proper spacing of children; and by teaching the principles of right diet to the young.

As you look at the above characteristics, what sticks out to you the most?

The biggest thing that caught my attention was the fact that these healthy primitive people don't eat any refined or denatured foods such as refined sugar, flour, or corn syrup, and they don't eat any canned foods, pasteurized or homogenized milk, refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils, or any artificial food additives. Of course they wouldn't because they live in primitive cultures outside of the influence of the industrialized world. In one way this makes me jealous because they have much purer food choices than we do. They don't have to cut these unhealthy things out of their diet or avoid them because they just aren't available to them as they are to us.

Another thing that caught my attention is that these healthy people groups consume animal protein and fat from a variety of different animals, and in doing so they end up consuming ten times the fat soluble vitamins from animal fats as the average American does.

I wasn't surprised that they eat many of their foods raw such as raw dairy products, raw honey, raw fruits, raw cold-pressed oils, etc. It was also interesting to note that they do eat naturally preserved, lacto-fermented vegetables, fruits, beverages, meats, and condiments.

I hope this short list encourages you to take another look at your diet and compare it with the traditional diets of these healthy non-industrialized primitive people groups. These are the cultures that have the best health, the best teeth, and that do not have the myriad of modern sicknesses and healthy problems, including the Big-"C," that are so prevalent among modern, industrialized, western nations. To me it is obvious that there is a direct relationship between people's diets and their health problems or lack thereof.

The "standard American diet" (SAD) is literally poisoning our people to death and causing so many modern sicknesses and illnesses that are destroying the lives of millions of Americans. It's time to put an end to this insanity by going back to our roots and the healthy diets of our forefathers. It's time to reject the standard American diet with all of its toxic additives, genetically modified and engineered "foods," and all of the poisons that are sprayed on our food while it is growing. It's time to stop eating processed and denatured foods that are killing our families and destroying the health of our nation.