I wonder if any of my readers are fans of the Weston. A. Price foundation ? I'm not sure I agree with all of their ideas, some advice I sure wouldn't follow (like drinking raw milk when pregnant or eating brains as it appears dangerous to me), yet I had a personal experience which somewhat supports their statements. When a year ago I switched to eating less animal fat and dairy, my teeth fillings started falling out.
One tooth in particular was giving me a lot of trouble but became considerably better when I went back to my previous diet, without any professional assistance, I must say. I have also started taking cod liver oil recently, though not as concentrated as they suggest. I did pay attention to vitamin A - vitamin D balance, just as stated on their webpage. As a result, my winter blues became considerably better and I don't suffer as much from colds as last year.
I find their stories about traditional diets interesting, and I'm tired of "politically correct" nutrition and demonisation of normal foods like butter and eggs. I've tried to do some research as to find support for their claims by asking (old) people I know about their parents and grandparents and what they ate. Some of my husband's relatives lived practically to 100 and their dietary staple was brown beans with fatty bacon.
My Granny became 92 and she ate lots of bacon as well. They all also ate liver and organ meats, and took cod liver oil 8 months a year (all months with an "R" in them) and they and their kids all turned out fine. Didn't go to the doctor, either. (hey, may be, that's the real reason behind their longevity?)
So if you have any experience with following Weston A. Price nutrition guidelines or have a story to tell, feel free to comment!
I don't know if I have already recommended the blog gdonna.com to you or not but read through her many posts. She and her husband have many health problems and since eating like we used to their health problems have gotten much better and they have lost lost a considerable amount of weight in the process. Her advice on homemaking, diet and such is her own but so basic and informative. They study and pray as they change up things. Please go and explore her sight. She is a lovely women. She does not have comments but you can write her directly if you want to talk to her. They are depleting some things from their diet hoping to find what causes some of their health problems and have. But they do believe in eating like we used to when we were growing up. I think overall you will truly enjoy her blog. Sarah
ReplyDeleteYes , i have some experiece with this. I have two books about this subject. Nourishing Traditions and Nourishing Broth. These books where written by Sally Fallon and they are about traditional food our ancestors ate. Like raw butter , organ meats , animal fats and also fermented foods. A Weston Price is mentioned many times in these books. I have been sick for a long time and changing my diet worked for me. I don´t use any medication since i started it.This was two years ago. I have an auto-imune illness which requires a lot of medication. Our western diet and lifestyle is so distant from God and nature,that it is not suprising that people get sick. And bacon is always nice to eat!
ReplyDeleteSarah, thanks for the recommendation, I'll surely visit this website. I'm interested in nutrition.
ReplyDeleteAnon, first, pick up a handle per blog rules. Second, yet, people used to eat a lot of soup and fermented foods, too. My Granny ate soup every day and lots of sauerkraut which she always made herself. They say sauerkraut helps against breast cancer. Well, she never had any problems in this department.
Brains are very traditional food in Italy and France, for example. But I must admit that I don't eat insides myself. Well, I can eat heart or tongue but that's it.
ReplyDeleteNutrition has been one of my special interest (I have Aspergers, if you remember, so I tend to obsess with things) and I have come to the conclusion that the official nutritional guidelines are 180 degree wrong. :)
Weston A. Price gives good guidelines, especially if person is not healthy. Obviously if one is healthy one can have "longer leash". What I like in Price is that he "allows" starchy foods like potatoes.
Jan Kwasniewski from Poland has also had success in healing patients with high animal fat diet and he also allows starch. He is also very big fan of eating organs...
This is interesting video about sugar and fructose:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
dr. Georgia Ede is also very interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.diagnosisdiet.com/
This is also interesting video from her:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdRBFiBWQZQ
Housewife, thanks for the links! Yes, I know brains are traditional, but what about mad cow disease and prions or how the heck it's called? While I don't like veganism, I'm not sure I agree with keto diets, either, aren't they like too high in protein? What I appreciate about Weston A. Price folks, they don't exclude any food groups, like grains or dairy, just encourage people to prepare them in more traditional ways. I do think we tend to eat too much sugar, that's for sure! BTW< I found real LARD in our local supermarket, and they sell tallow, too! Apparently beef tallow can prevent cancer cells from growing.
ReplyDeleteCows get mad cow disease only if they are fed meat-bone-powder from other cows. :) If they are fed mostly grass as they should be and live in relatively small farms there should be no problems with eating brains. And here in Finland in every slaughterhouse there is a vet that checks every killed animal and "stamps" it if it is healthy. That's why we have no salmonella in our chickens, for example.
ReplyDeleteI am not a big fan of keto diets either. They can be very helpful in some diseases, though. If done properly, they are not too high in protein, one should replace carbs with fat, not with protein. Eating too much protein (which seems to be fashionable nowadays) is not good.
Are you familiar with Michael Pollan? He has wrote couple of books about "real food". His idea is to eat only stuff your grandma would recognize as food. :)
Housewife, I've never seen brains sold here, I chiefly agree with what you say but still doubt I'd eat them even if I could buy them. Eating liver it's about as adventurous as I go:) Never heard about Michael Pollan, I'll check him, thanks for the tip!
ReplyDeleteI think carbs are necessary, too, just not the refined variety folks are chiefly eating nowadays. Bread has been a food staple for millenia, now suddenly it gets a bad rep because people overindulge on cake? I don't believe it...
P.S., I should add that I don't like food puritanism as in avoiding animal products, either, when you look into it, this movement was started by religious sects who wanted to curb "sinful desires". I like that Weston A Price association offers a rather balanced approach to the subject.
ReplyDeleteSanne and Housewife, thank you very much for such interesting links. I hadn't heard of Weston A. Price, but as I browsed the foundation's website I couldn't help but think that maybe there's the reason why every other teenager is wearing braces.
ReplyDeleteMiriam, you are welcome! Yes, their articles about dental problems are very thought-provoking! But now I've learned something else which is very interesting: apparently, you can naturally heal cavities. Have anyone had experience with that?
ReplyDeleteI haven't experienced that, but I think human mind is a powerful tool. If anything can be healed (according to Martin Brofman), why not cavities?
ReplyDeletehttps://draxe.com/naturally-reverse-cavities-heal-tooth-decay/
ReplyDeleteI know you don't like him tho:)
Still interesting.
Thanks Sanne, it was a really interesting read!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry, but his way of selling health was too much for me back then :-)
You are welcome, if you google, you'll probably come across a blog by a lady who describes how she healed her own cavities by eating more paleo, a step I'm not ready to take at this point or probably ever:) However, getting rid of refined carbs in your diet is more or less doable, I guess.
ReplyDeleteTraditional Dutch food in classic still life paintings looks healthy and delicious. Sure there's no harm in following that. The guys on the website are fanatics though. Putting primitive people as examples of good health without accounting for infant mortality (the unhealthy ones didn't survive long enough to meet Dr. Price)? Louis Pasteur and some government advice nobody cares about are the source of all evil? Come on. People with narrow faces appeared recently because of diet changes? Lots of counterevidence in medieval and Renaissance portraits - of rich people who could afford both commissioning portraits and regularly eating meat!
ReplyDeleteWell, in diet debates there are fanatics on all sides. It's probably helpful not to take everything one reads literally but look at the principles and try to figure out what works and what doesn't. Modern people have amazing medical care but are they really healthy? I'm not sure. What happens when antibiotics stop working which they probably will one day. Sometimes old ways are worth researching.
ReplyDeleteI do oil pulling for my teeth every now and then. It does remove stains.
ReplyDeleteWhat exactly is oil pulling and how do you do it?
ReplyDeleteHi Sanne, in response to your question about oil pulling, it is an Ayurvedic thing. You basically swish coconut oil (or other oils) around in your mouth for a few minutes, sometimes adding essential oils for more benefits. Then, you spit the oil out into the wastebasket. This is said to remove impurities from the body and improve teeth and gum health.
ReplyDeleteI've looked into Weston A. Price as well as Sally Fallon's work (Nourishing Traditions). They both seem to make a lot of sense, although I myself do not implement all of their suggestions. Having been a vegan for much of my life, I don't think I could ever stomach liver, for example!
Since adopting a higher fat and animal product diet, I've noticed very positive changes. For example, although I did get my annual Christmas cold, it wasn't nearly as severe as in years past. I should also add that I have been on a sugar-free diet this past year. That helps tremendously!
If ever you would like to know of a balanced, biblically based approach to eating which combines a lot of the principles found in Weston A. Price's work, then I highly recommend Serene and Pearl's book, Trim Healthy Mama. They teach you how to eat for health and weight management. It is an excellent program! They do not exclude any of the food groups.
Jane, thank you for the recommendation, I'll look into it! I started using cod liver oil this year and my colds subsided, plus no winter blues. Mine isn't as concentrated as the sort they recommend on Weston Price site, but it's not refined and has a good balance of vitamins D and A.
ReplyDelete