In the early part of the 20Th century Dr Weston Price, who was dentist, became interested in the relationship between human nutrition and tooth decay. Dr Price also made some other observations besides tooth decayed, there were deformities in the facial bones which left those affected with malformed dental arches and crowding of the teeth. Moreover, this deformities were correlated with lower IQ’s with personality disturbances and with a dramatically higher incidence of degenerative diseases such as tuberculious.
In 1939, he published "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration", a book that details a series of ethnographic nutritional studies performed by Price across diverse cultures.
Some of the cultures studied include the inhabitants of the Lotschental in Switzerland, the inhabitants of the Isles of Lewis and Harris in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, the Gaeltacht areas on the western islands of Ireland, the Eskimos of Alaska and Canada, the Native Americans, among the inhabitants of New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, the Marquesas Islands, Tahiti, Rarotonga, Nuku'alofa, Hawaii, the Masai, Kikuyu, Wakamba and Jalou tribes of Kenya, the Muhima of Uganda, the Baitu and Watusi of Rwanda, the Pygmies, and Wanande in the Congo, the Terrakeka, Dinka and Neurs of Sudan, the Aborigines of Australia, the inhabitants of the Torres Strait, the Maori of New Zealand, the Tauhuanocans, Quechua, "Andes Indians", "Sierra Indians" and "Jungle Indians" of Peru.
In his studies he claimed to have found that plagues of modern civilization (headaches, general muscle fatigue, dental caries or cavities, impacted molars, tooth crowding, allergies, heart disease, asthma, and degenerative diseases such as tuberculosis and cancer) were not present in those cultures sustained by indigenous diets. However, within a single generation these same cultures experienced all the above listed ailments with the inclusion of Western foods in their diet: refined sugars, refined flours, canned goods, etc.
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