Cereal Grasses Juice

[Persej]

A most interesting incident occurred in connection with the cows whose blood we have just been studying with regard to loin disease in the coastal counties of Texas. According to Dr. Schmidt, within about a week, nearly all of the cows affected “went off bone meal.” In other words, they suddenly lost their bone craving. This occurred with the rapid growth of the young grass and lasted for about six weeks, when a remarkable incident occurred. Within about four or five days, practically all of the animals again acquired the craving for bones. The usual method for testing for this condition (though often it will be immediately observable by the fact that the cows will eat pieces of wood, cloth or even dirt when bones are not available) is to place two grades of bones before the cattle to be tested and to note the percentage that try to eat them. Usually, two kinds of bone are used: some that are clean and white, free from all objectionable odors, and some putrid bones.

A very marked craving is shown by the fact that they will eat not only the clean bones, but also the putrid bones. Why did the cattle acquire the craving so suddenly? Dr. Theiler, working in South Africa, where there has been a great deal of trouble with this affection, has presented data from which I have made the graph shown in Figure 8. By following the results outlined by Dr. Theiler as shown in the graph, which I have developed from his data to more easily visualize them, it will be seen at once that the intensity of the hunger is not related directly to either sunshine or rain alone, or even the two together. A note of caution is probably justified, in that individuals living in a particular latitude in either the northern or southern hemisphere will be in danger of thinking of seasons in terms of their expression in their geographic and physical location, whereas quite different factors will obtain with regard to the period of growth as related to sunshine, maximum heat and cold periods, seasonal rainfall, etc. The latitude in which Dr. Theiler’s work was done was approximately 40 south. During the period commencing with the beginning of the winter season, which is not a cold season in that latitude, and progressing through May to August (our November to February), there was a continual increase in bone chewing. Note that, at this point, 80 per cent of all the cattle ate rotten bones. From August 5 to October 27, there was a continual diminution of the curve, at which time it had fallen to 40 per cent. Note that during this period Dr. Theiler states: “The weather had been continuously dry, but as it grew warmer, the spring vegetation began to appear, and this is regarded as responsible for the diminution in pica (bone chewing).” At this time, rains began, lasting for a fortnight, with the result that “the young vegetation became almost luxuriant, and by the middle of November, the craving had rapidly fallen to 6 per cent.” We see, then, an association so far with the rapidly growing grass. A number of important factors are recorded after a fortnight of rainless weather: the young grass wilted, and although the craving remained at the low level of 6 per cent for two weeks, in the next three weeks it increased to the high level of 82 per cent, the highest recorded, around which figure it oscillated for the next two months of summer drought. Clearly, something had happened to the grass so that, in its current state, it could not supply to the animals that which they needed so acutely to prevent the abnormal craving. As Dr. Theiler has emphasized, we have the record that the craving increased while the cattle were eating the old dry grass of the preceding year, prior to the beginning of the growth of new grass in August (their midwinter, equivalent to our February), and that again, during the period of dry weather when the grass was wilted in their summer, December and January (our June and July), the craving was acute. In the middle of January, “The drought broke, the pasture recovered, and it was naturally thought that the craving would again disappear. The unexpected happened, however, and notwithstanding the ample supply of good green grass and the absence of wilting, the craving did not fall to the previous 6 per cent, but only to 50 per cent.” He states further that “by the end of March (our September, the end of their summer), the craving again stood at 80 per cent.” It is of particular interest that Dr. Theiler relates these phenomena to the phosphorus content of the growing vegetation.

It is very evident, from many sources of information, that the utilization of minerals in foods is often directly dependent not only on a sufficient quantity of the particular minerals in available form, but also an adequate quantity of certain activators, some of which are the known vitamins. For the cow, these must be available in the grass which she eats. If she can obtain sufficient of both the minerals and the activators for the needs of her own body, she will, without depletion of her skeleton, provide them for either lactation or gestation. Nature has provided that, in case of shortage, the mother’s body will be depleted. This depletion may be offset and, under normal condition, the restoration is completely accomplished during the period of rest after stress. The nature of the activators, whether the known vitamins, including both the water-soluble and fat-soluble, or those regarding which little is known, would seem to be almost dependent on several factors; namely, the character of the plant, the soil on which it grows, the available moisture and temperature and the radiant energy, with regard to both the kind and quantity which nourishes and develops it.

In the extensive studies that I have been conducting for several years on the vitamin content of dairy products as produced in different places at the same time and the same places at different times, studies which now include about 700 samples per month of cream, butter and cheese, we are finding that there is not only a yearly cycle that tends to present in each individual district, but that the time of high vitamins corresponds with the period of rapid growth in young grass and that it is not readily produced by dry feeds and rations such as grain concentrates. I have studied a large number of grasses and cattle feeds in order to relate their chemical content, both mineral and organic, including vitamins, to their ability to produce a high vitamin milk product, and evidence is rapidly accumulating in large quantity indicating that the mineral and vitamin content of the foods constitute controlling factors for those of health with which we are directly concerned. Butter samples coming from districts that are characteristically high or low provide, by comparison, means for studying the controlling factors for vitamin levels.

The butter samples that have been received from a particular district in northwestern Pennsylvania were conspicuous, as I have indicated, by their high vitamin content, and I, accordingly, made trips to the district personally to study the water supply and other contributing factors and to obtain samples of the soil and glasses. I have already discussed only two of the grasses from this area; namely, knoll grass and iron weed. The physical characteristics of this district include a river valley about a mile in width, with sloping country on each side, the river being about 200 feet below the level of the surrounding country. The lowland is about from 6 to 12 feet above the summer level of the river, and the river bed is from 100 to 300 feet wide with a gravel bottom and only an occasional coarse boulder. This is shown in Figure 9 under river bottom land, the soil of which is loam and silt over gravel. The country opposite the river basin has a sandstone base and this is shown at the left in Figure 10. The hillside land is chiefly gravel and loam and this is at the right in this chart. The upland grass growing over the sandstone base of which specimens were taken is called poverty grass. From the river bottom land, I selected two grasses that the grazing cattle were not eating and a group of grasses and a plant that they were eating. On the hillside land samples of red clover were taken. The soil immediately under each type of grass was also taken for analysis, and the minerals available as plant food in the soil are shown in this chart in the broken lines, and the mineral content of the grasses growing upon these soils, in the solid lines. It is of interest that the cattle were wandering over the area apparently in search of the iron weed, which is shown by the graph to have a calcium level many times that of the first three grasses. The calcium was very high in the soil beneath the knoll grass, which had very short roots. It was also high under the iron weed. I am advised that the iron weed got its name from the size and strength of its roots, which penetrated very deeply into the gravel and therefore reached food sources at much greater depth than the surface grasses, which probably accounted for its high calcium level. I obtained additional samples of this plant in the early part of this season for comparison with. the product of last season. The chemical analysis of this younger growth shows the calcium to be even higher than that tested last season. The calcium of the dried leaves of the plants which the cows were eating as obtained last year constituted 1.55 per cent of the total plant dry weight. That obtained this year from younger plants constituted 1.89 per cent, which is very high. The phosphorus in the mature leaves of last year was 0.3 per cent, and in the more rapidly growing younger leaves of this year, 1.8 per cent, or six times as great. We see at once one of the characteristics of the rapidly growing young plant life, which is able to produce not only minerals for the cow, but the activators, including the vitamins, with which she will provide life-giving qualities for her offspring or her adopted wards. It is of interest to note that the phosphorus of this iron weed is 450 times that of the No. A1 grass in the Texas loin disease district. It is said that the roots of the iron weed have been known to penetrate four feet into the gravel, which would enable it to bring up from that depth minerals that would be completely out of reach of ordinary plants. It is also of interest to note that the potassium of this plant is nine times the quantity of that found in the Texas grass. We see at once the need to test the possibility of growing this iron weed plant on the Texas soil in order that it may, by the great penetrating power of its roots, bring up from the subsoil supplies of, each, calcium, phosphorus and potassium, so badly needed for the grazing stock of that district.

Something interesting happened with my father's sheep this year. For some reason, they refused to graze the grass in their meadow. And at the same time, they started eating the clay bricks like crazy and licking wood ash. Perhaps the grass became too depleted from minerals or too saturated with manure after several years of grazing, and it became unpalatable to them. And because of that, they became starved for minerals, just like those cows in Texas. This winter was unusual because there was almost no snow, so perhaps that played a role in the conditions of the pasture.

About importance of iron in the soil:

The quantity of available iron in the soil has an important influence in determining the amount of other metals that a given plant may take up. This is true of several minerals which, by the presence or absence of even a minute quantity to act as a catalyst, will greatly change plant growth. The influence of iron as a catalyst is well illustrated in Figure 18, in which will be seen two beets planted about the middle of May. About a month later, in accordance with my directions, there was placed in the surface of the ground and worked into the surface only a small quantity, about 1 ounce per square foot, of ferric ammonium citrate, one part of the row only being treated and the other part left without treatment. The difference in the growth of the two beets on the two different soils will be seen at once in this figure. When I photographed it, one would get the impression that there had been two different plantings, one later than the other. The gardener pulled some of both kinds to make a fair sample, and the largest beet in each group was selected for photographing and for making chemical analysis. The control, which is the smaller one, weighed 125 gm., beet and top, and the one from the treated soil 454 gm., an increase of 360 per cent. It is exceedingly interesting and significant that this enormous increase occurred without increasing the percentage concentration of calcium, phosphorus and potassium in the dry beet structure. The iron acting as a catalyst made it possible for this beet plant to build more vital structure without any increase in the amount of the other minerals in the soil. The amount of ferric ammonium citrate added was directed to be a tablespoonful for each square foot of surface without putting it close to the plant. This amount is about 1 part to 1,000 parts of the soil. This was done twice; first, at about five weeks after planting and again, ten days later, the same small quantity was added. There was, therefore, only three weeks’ influence to produce the difference that obtained in the two parts of the row.

New Light on The Control of Dental Caries and the Degenerative Diseases | Price-Pottenger

In man’s universal struggle for life, the emphasis has been rapidly passing from the role of the invading organism to the factors which determine the capacity of the host to maintain defense against

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And since we know that comets can be rich in iron, what effect would they have on life on earth? Are they, at the same time, both destroyers and catalysts for life?

 

[Persej]

This winter was unusual because there was almost no snow, so perhaps that played a role in the conditions of the pasture.

Yes, this could explain why the sheep were not eating grass. The microbes didn't have a proper conditions to dissolve the manure and other organic stuff, so there were lower amounts of minerals in the grass.

The dairy products were produced by pasturage and hay grown in the clear atmosphere of the high ultra-violet watered by melted snows which themselves brought down nitrogen from the atmosphere for fertilizing the fields with the result that the vitamin level of the butter-fat was much higher than that produced at lower levels, particularly on depleted soils.

For the people in the high valleys of Switzerland, the cows sought the pasturage near the glacier to get the rapidly growing grass at that point that had been recently watered by the melting snows and glacier. This irrigation water proved by experiment to be very much more efficient in plant growth than the use of distilled water because of its higher content of nitrogen.

Our Dependence Upon Vitamin Rich Products and Their Source | Price-Pottenger

The combined responsibility and opportunity of the persons associated with the dairy industry is probably not excelled by that of any other groups of society, because the key to modern degeneration or race

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And the modern science tells us how that works:

Many Arctic regions currently experience an increase in winter snowfall as a result of climate change. Deepened snow can enhance thermal insulation of the underlying soil during winter, resulting in warmer soil temperatures that promote soil microbial nitrogen (N)-cycle processes and the availability of N and other nutrients.

The deepened snow treatment across all sites had a significant effect of the potential soil capacity of accelerating N cycling rates in late winter, including quadrupled gross nitrification, tripled NO3−-N immobilization, and doubled denitrification as well as significantly enhanced late summer gross N mineralization, denitrification (two-fold) and NH4+-N availability.

Snow cover can thermally insulate the soil from the extremely cold winter air temperatures in the Arctic, hence dampening soil temperature fluctuations, and moderating the severity, depth and extent of winter soil freezing (Sharratt et al., 1992), and facilitating warming of underlying permafrost (Biskaborn et al., 2019). For instance, experimental snowfences that increased snow depth from 30 to 150 cm, led to an increase in soil surface temperature of 6 °C during late winter in the two common tundra types in high Arctic Svalbard (Morgner et al., 2010). This may enhance microbial decomposition of soil organic matter and N mineralization rates during winter (Schimel et al., 2004; Borner et al., 2008; Semenchuk et al., 2019). The consequent increase in N availability due to higher N mineralization may in turn alleviate N-limitation on plant growth in the subsequent growing season (Larsen et al., 2012; Semenchuk et al., 2015), promoting assimilation of CO2 from the atmosphere (Hobbie and Chapin, 1996). Nevertheless, deepened snow cover will delay snowmelt in spring and lead to colder and wetter soils in early growing season, thus negatively affecting the growth and reproductive success of early-growing plants (Morgner et al., 2010; Cooper et al., 2011).

Along with soil temperature limitation, the presence of liquid water has been identified as both a prerequisite for biological activity and the primary control on soil C and nutrient cycles in winter (Öquist et al., 2009). As soil freezes, water availability is reduced to micro-films, inhibiting diffusion and mass transport of substrates, enzymes and microorganisms, and thus limiting microbial activities (Ostroumov and Siegert, 1996; Schimel and Mikan, 2005). Furthermore, the reduction in liquid water content may be accompanied by a decrease in air-filled pore space due to expansion of H2O during freezing, resulting in reduced diffusion of oxygen and to microbial depletion of the remnant oxygen within those pore spaces, together and thus inhibition of aerobic respiration (Tucker, 2014).

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0038071721002297

 

[Persej]

A few more quotes from WP in this post and I'm done. I've gone through all of his articles, and while most of them ended up in his book, some interesting things didn't, which I think that they should have. I like his work, although some things are obviously problematical, such as that he himself was against the practice that dairy animals should eat grains but at the same time he was advocating that humans should eat grains.

I am not sure what do other people take from his work, because I think that he wasn't explicit enough about what made the refined food so much lacking in healthy nutrients. I think that a lot of people will probably miss many interesting things that he said, and that is why I wanted to post them on the forum.

A lot of people call him a pioneer and that his work was unique, but neither of those things are true. There were people before him that talked about the same things that he talked about, and many other people around his time went even deeper into this phenomenon. I talked about some of them already, and some I will mention in the future posts. There are a lot of interesting studies from this period of time, which are unfortunately buried by statements that these people discovered vitamins. Well, some of them certainly did, but it seems that there are also things that these people discovered which cannot be explained by any of the known vitamins.

Anyway, WP said that the most important thing in the grain is in the germ and is heat (and oxygen) labile:

Carotene was reinforced by adding to the vegetable soup finely ground small carrots of deep yellow color. These and the wheat germ were added to the vegetable soup after it was removed from the stove, but still hot, to avoid the high temperature and long cooking, which would injure the activator content.

An arrangement was made for providing freshly ground whole wheat and a freshly prepared wheat germ for all the patients of the Other Cities and Office Clinic groups. Instructions were given for the preparation of this cereal by cooking the crushed wheat in a double boiler from two to four hours and, before removing from the fire, adding an amount of wheat germ, according to the percentage of embryo contained, sufficient to provide ten per cent pure embryo, which gets only the cooking of the cooling-down process.

The Experimental Basis for a New Theory of Dental Caries, with Chemical Procedures for Determining Immunity and Susceptibility | Price-Pottenger

Introduction The control of dental caries has been one of the most difficult of the major health problems of the past half century. This has been due primarily to absence of knowledge as

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A few years ago, my father had an infestation of bugs which were eating corn. But what is interesting, they were not eating the entire corn, but they were drilling little holes and only eating the germ of the corn. It's like those little creatures knew exactly where the most important part of the corn is. And bats loved to eat those flying bugs. We had hundreds of bats that year. It was a feast for them.

UV light is activator of activators:

We have previously reported an important phase of this problem which deals with the behavior of calcium and phosphorus in solution in various media, including biologic fluids, when these fluids are exposed to direct irradiation or placed in contact with certain substances like butter and cod-liver oil; also these when they have been exposed to irradiation. These studies have indicated that the diffusibility of calcium can be greatly modified by this procedure, there being a very marked release of the calcium from its organic bond. These phenomena also affect the phosphorus, though not to so great an extent, there being often a marked increase in the organic phosphorus in the case of blood, saliva or milk. These effects were produced by many procedures, for example, to a limited extent by direct irradiation of the animal’s or individual’s body, by the irradiation of some foods and by taking into the stomach even small doses of irradiated cod-liver oil or butter, and also to a very marked degree by rubbing these substances on the surface of the body, with the result that the phosphorus and calcium content of the blood serum has been raised by rubbing the material onto the human body or the body of experimental animals. The serum calcium of chicks with rickets was nearly doubled by rubbing the activated oil on their necks. This has developed a procedure for the management of ununited fractures and the management of arthritic processes which often produces most gratifying results.

We have shown that blood serum shaken with irradiated cod-liver oil not only greatly changes diffusibility of calcium, but was able to increase the inorganic phosphorus of the serum from 2.9 to 4.1 milligrams, which amounts to 41.3 per cent, where an irradiation of the blood serum increased it from 2.9 to 3.75. an increase of 29.3 per cent. I have demonstrated that similar effects are produced in saliva when shaken with high vitamin butter and high vitamin cod liver oil, or when these are ingested, this being one of the routine factors being estimated as a result of administration of activators in connection with control of dental caries.

This has been an essential phase of our successful treatment of large clinical groups of dental caries patients by the two procedures of adding more activators to the food and increasing the high phosphorus-carrying foods. We do not now administer internally the activated cod-liver oil. We are obtaining best results with a mixture of high vitamin butter and high vitamin cod-liver oil.

The Experimental Basis for a New Theory of Dental Caries, with Chemical Procedures for Determining Immunity and Susceptibility | Price-Pottenger

Introduction The control of dental caries has been one of the most difficult of the major health problems of the past half century. This has been due primarily to absence of knowledge as

price-pottenger.org

Another very important lesson that one gets from looking at this chart is to note the higher levels reached in the northern latitudes, although the rise occurs later than in the more southerly latitudes. If a rapidly growing grass is an important factor, it is of interest that the hours of sunshine are increasingly longer as we go northward in the spring and summer. Three months in northerly latitudes will have as many actual hours of sunshine as four months in more southerly latitudes.

Some Means of Improving Human Life by Increasing the Vitamin Content of Milk and Its Products | Price-Pottenger

Outline: Some Reasons Why Civilizations Have Been Built Around the Dairy Cow and Suffer From Her Feed, Climate and Other Limitations. Why Milk is the Only Complete Food. Evidence of a Need for

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[Persej]

Weston Price mentioned irradiation of foods for the improvement of mineral metabolism, and several other people were also investigating this phenomenon, and their results corresponded with what he was saying. One of them was Harry Steenbock. As you can see on the Wikipedia page about him, it is claimed that he discovered the formation of vitamin D by irradiating the food with ultraviolet light. However, it was never proved that the action of such food is by vitamin D production. And in many experiments, vitamin D couldn't do what these irradiated foods could do. Just like Weston Price claimed.

In his patent, Steenbock had an interesting theory about it:

While I do not rest the present invention, upon any theory, I give it as my belief that the effect of activating food materials is to cause the activated constituent to emit, in the body, rays which perhaps are of invisible character, and which, in some manner, cause the calcium depositing cells of the bone to function properly. In this respect, the activated material may emit rays somewhat analogous to the manner in which activated zinc sulphide emits, in the dark, rays which excite the retina, and thus are visible. It is, however, not excluded that the effect may be produced by a structural rearrangement in some compound or compounds contained in the food materials.

https://worldwide.espacenet.com/textdoc?DB=EPODOC&IDX=US1680818

Who knows, maybe there is some truth in this theory.

Here are two more articles on the same topic:

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3181/00379727-23-3189

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.3181/00379727-24-3662

 

[Persej]

And here is a completely opposite view of wheat germ:

The results detailed above indicate clearly that wheat grain contains a toxic material, and later work has shown that this is very prominent in the embryo of the seed. When wheat embryo is imposed on corn stover so as to bring into the ration seven to eight times the amount of embryo that would be introduced when feeding whole wheat, the result is likely to be an early abortion. The calf is now dropped at six to eight months; this demonstrates that the increased mass of the toxic material produces this disturbance at a somewhat more rapid rate. This result was particularly apt to occur where no other grain was used with the embryo.

An observation in our experimental work of interest to veterinarians was the low resistance to other diseases of the mothers fed the wheat ration. In an outbreak of anthrax in the university herd the only losses to occur from this disease in our experimental herd were among the wheat grain fed animals.

The principle laid down as to what factors must be present in a ration of natural origin in order that it becomes efficient for both growth and reproduction is well supported by these data. This principle postulates that there must be present efficient proteins, adequate energy, proper salt mixture, fat soluble A and water soluble B (vitamines) and an absence of toxicity or a toxicity of such mildness as to become inocuous in the presence of the other normal factors of nutrition. The presence of toxicity in the wheat kernel as the explanatory factor for these records rests not only upon the evidence secured with swine and rats but also on that presented here. It is not a deficiency phenomenon. A wheat grain, corn stover ration often failed, not only when used alone but when there was added to it the most likely limiting factor, fat soluble A, as butter fat.

When a few years ago the corn crop of Nebraska failed to mature because of drought, but early rains had produced a bumper wheat crop it left many farmers with little to feed their breeding stock but wheat grain and certain roughages. In many cases where this was done the calves were born either dead or weak, with great financial losses to many breeders. No one would have suspected that the ration was a factor in these disasters, but it undoubtedly was the direct cause of the trouble.

These experiments further show the limitations of the theory of a 'balanced' ration as now expressed and indicate the very great importance of other factors besides protein and energy in the successful diet. It was indeed surprising to find that the common wheat kernel had a low toxicity; but such factors as toxicity, growth promoting substances of unknown nature, proper balance of salts, indicate how complex the problems of animal nutrition really are and how necessary it is that these factors be clearly exposed in order that we may place the various feeds in their proper category. We have pointed out how a material of low toxicity, such as the wheat kernel, may be used with success. A good roughage like a legume hay was an admirable 'antidote.' Even corn meal and a poorer roughage like corn stover served to offset the detrimental effects of a large mass of wheat embryo. This also illustrates how an adjustment of the normal factors of nutrition may conceal the presence of the detrimental factors.

Physiological Effect on Growth and Reproduction of Rations Balanced from Restricted Sources

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Persej]

Weston Price had probably read studies like these to get an idea that wheat germ is beneficial. And apparently it is, for rats. Just like all grains are generally good for rats. And they are generally not good for cows. But for humans? It's hard to say from animal studies. Pigs would be probably best for such studies, but even then we wouldn't be sure.

There is definite evidence of a higher E content of milk when from cattle with access to fresh alfalfa pasturage. Cod liver oil, though high in vitamines A and D, is notably lacking in E. Throughout the life of animals, 9% by weight of the ration, may be constituted by cod liver oil, a single drop of which daily is adequate for A requirements and yet sterility result. In contrast with the paucity of E, even in its most abundant depots in animal tissues is its concentration in the organs of certain plants, especially in seeds and green leaves. It can be demonstrated to be unhurt after careful desiccation of such leaves (lettuce, alfalfa, pea, tea). Thus, in a series of experiments, one and one-half, one and finally one-fourth gram daily of the lettuce leaf powder proved efficacious in cures. E is. high in some cereals. We have found it in oats, corn and, especially, wheat, where it is low in the endosperm but concentrated in the embryo. The richness of wheat germ in E is extraordinary. We have found no other naturally desiccated substance comparable to it in value; 250 mg. daily evokes cures. In the case of both wheat germ and lettuce leaf, ether extraction of the carefully desiccated substance removes E quantitatively and secures for us oils which are efficacious in daily, single drop (25 mg.) administrations.

The Anti-Sterility Vitamine Fat Soluble E - PubMed

The Anti-Sterility Vitamine Fat Soluble E

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[Persej]

What Dr. Price’s Study of Primitives Tells Us

It is not unusual for people to be perplexed and confused by the tremendous scope of Weston Price’s travels. The logistics of planning and packing for journeys to so many faraway primitive places is more than most people can take, not to mention the extreme difficulties of traveling to such areas.

In order to bring all of Price’s expeditions into focus, a summary will help to clarify what he has accomplished. During the course of his travels he examined thousands of primitives in remote areas all over the world and took more than 18,000 photographs to document their health status. The natives and places studied were:

Polynesians and Melanesians on numerous islands of eight South Sea Archipelagos
Aborigines (13 tribes) in Australia
The Maori in 21 New Zealand districts
39 Canadian and Alaskan Indians and Eskimos
Gaelics in the Outer and Inner Hebrides
American Indians
Several South American Peruvian tribes. There were 1276 Peruvian skulls examined.
Amazon Jungle Indians
A number of isolated Swiss villagers
30 African tribes covering 6,000 miles in Africa

No one that views Weston Price’s pictures of these natives will ever forget their beautiful, vibrant, healthy, happy faces, nor the astounding collapse and degeneration that occurred to their health in but one generation.

The cause of this breakdown of health was easy to trace. When the boats stopped and trading posts were established, the items of trade involved but a few things: white flour, sugar, canned goods, jams and jellies, some trinkets and clothing. We have no trouble seeing that the use of sugar and white flour, representing 90% of the items traded, was the cause of the diseases that occurred. Why didn’t the primitives see the obvious?

It is fairly common knowledge now that sugar and white flour play the major role in the cause of most degenerative disease. The important question that remains is, what is it the primitives ate that accounted for their excellent health before their contact with our civilization?

Confusion takes place in reviewing this data because all of these 14 races of primitives didn’t follow one diet, but more than 14 different ones. Although duly reported and studied by Price, the many different dietaries make it difficult for us to keep in mind their importance.

There was, however, a common denominator. Herein lies the clue. All of the 14 races used diets that were high in protein, moderate in fat and relatively low in carbohydrates.

The beauty of the Price study is that the many different eating habits of the primitives show that we are not locked into any one diet…that we may choose a wide variety of ways to eat. However, it also shows that commitment to the principle involved in these various diets is necessary to maintain good human health. They had to follow eating habits that would enable them to stay healthy or their civilization would have died out.

Most anthropologists state that our ancestors for 3½ million years followed this same dietary principle, high protein, moderate fat, low carbohydrate. It is only in the last 10,000 years in the history of man that grains and vegetables have become a big part in the human diet. Doctors Harold Hawkins, Melvin Page and Francis Pottenger, each using very different research methods, found their studies agreed with those of Weston Price.

There may be other ways that could be successful, but it will be many, many years before adequate research will provide sufficient evidence to prove their efficacy. In the meantime, the public should feel comfortable following a high protein, moderate fat, low carbohydrate diet. The evidence to support this principle is overwhelming. It has stood the test of time.

What Dr. Price's Study of Primitives Tells Us | Price-Pottenger

It is not unusual for people to be perplexed and confused by the tremendous scope of Weston Price’s travels. The logistics of planning and packing for journeys to so many faraway primitive places

price-pottenger.org

I think that this article is a great example of how people still haven't figured out what is so special about the diet of people that Weston Price documented. High protein diet is certainly not the answer because WP clearly said that many people were eating meat once per week. That's not a high protein diet!

My father also confirmed that when I asked him about the diet of my ancestors. Meat was rarely eaten, much less than in modern time.

Anyway, I tried today to activate the cod liver oil with sunlight, and I think that the only thing that happens with that method is that vitamin D is produced. So I don't think that there is anything special about that. But the other thing that WP did might be much more interesting. I will experiment with that and report back.

 

[Persej]

Here is what I consider to be much better explanation of the main common factor of various diets that Weston Price documented:

From the point of view of the present paper the special feature of interest in this diet is its richness in " vitamins." It contains in high degree the energy-producing properties of those fresh, natural foods which are universally recognized to be the chief source of the "vitamins." Gerson claims that the secret of its value lies largely in its freshness and in the retention in the foodstuffs of their original vital property, the existence of which has not been sufficiently recognized and is not determinable by present methods of laboratory investigation. In the writer's opinion these " live " properties of the food are the products of the light energy of the sun. The majority of our common foodstuffs are devitalized by modern methods of preparation and preservation-familiar examples being pasteurized milk, white bread, chilled meats and tinned foods of various kinds which bulk so largely in the national dietary. There is good reason for thinking that the too-exclusive reliance on sophisticated foods from which the vital properties are still more effectively removed by faulty cooking methods-is largely responsible for many diseases and for the recognized C3 condition of national health.

(...)

The information available from existing knowledge of plant nutrition suggests the identity of the" vitamin" with the light energy and wave-lengths in particular areas in the electro-magnetic spectrum. In nature, vitamins are found only in the vegetable kingdom. Vitamins in animal tissues are derived from the vegetable foods consumed. The solar energy acts on the cells of the plants and initiates the chemical energy which promotes the healthy growth, maturity, and reproductive processes of the plant; healthy growth implies resistance to disease, e.g., freedom from infections. This energy, in accordance with the law of the conservation of energy, is passed on to the animal kingdom, when the vegetable food is consumed.

(...)

The surest and best source of vitamins is the use of "live" food; a large proportion of foods in common use are more or less dead (devitalized).

Radiation in Relation to Human and Animal Nutrition. With a Theory as to the Nature of Vitamins - PubMed

Radiation in Relation to Human and Animal Nutrition. With a Theory as to the Nature of Vitamins

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

I would just add that solar energy is one factor of the puzzle, the other one is minerals in the soil.

 

[Persej]

I couldn't find anyone else researching this blend of butter oil and cod liver oil, that WP claimed as superior compared to taking them separately. But I found something else, which I think I already reported on the forum in the topic of DHA. In this article, scientists also talk about that refined products, in this case fish oil, are not as efficient as raw products. But they say that they found a solution for it by mixing the refined fish oil with unrefined cold pressed olive oil:

Our studies suggest that by recombining refined marine oils, avoid of antioxidants and other contaminants, with extra virgin olive oils, we obtain a synergistic effect between the marine polyunsaturated fatty acids, particularly EPA and DHA, and the antioxidants and probably other components in the olive oil. This effect mimics the significant beneficial effect of cold pressed whale oil that appears to be largely lost during the refinement process. The unique effects of the combination of the refined marine oils and the olive oil are strongly dependent on the ratio between the marine oils and the olive oil in addition to the quality of the extra virgin olive oil.

Progress in Nutrition

The traditional extraction technique of marine oils from marine products involves heating or steam stripping of the raw material in order to release the lipids. In addition, marine oils are refined. Removal of molecules to improve sensory attributes or safety of the marine oil may destroy potent...

www.mattioli1885journals.com

Perhaps that is also the reason why the WP's blend of two oils was more efficient than when two oils were taken separately? Perhaps the vital force of butter (or olive oil) somehow activated what was devitalized in refined cod liver oil?

 

[Persej]

The group of scientists from the above post made several experiments with different marine oils in order to determine what is so special about Eskimo diet that makes them healthy, and in the end came up with this possible explanation:

During the last two decades it has been established that Greenland Eskimos living on their traditional diet, have a lower incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) than when living in Denmark on a western diet. These findings have been attributed to their diet, particularly the high amounts n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. The Eskimo diet consists mainly of meat and blubber of seal and whale and relatively small amounts of fish. Another aspect of the Eskimo diet, still not fully explored, is that the Eskimos consume the bulk of their food raw or dried, seldom boiled or exposed to excessive heat. The main task of modern processes is to make edible and stable products. Removal of molecules that cause off-flavours or taste to improve sensory attributes may, for instance, destroy potent antioxidants. Modern meal preparing techniques may also lower the content of biologically active components. The objective of our experiments has been, by mimicking in part the traditional Eskimo diet, to explore the beneficial effects of raw food items on parameters related to development of CHD. Reduced tendency of developing arteriosclerosis has been related to the lower reactivity of platelets and less production of proinflammatory products, e.g. cytokines, prostaglandins and leukotrienes. In our study, healthy volunteers ingested raw or heat processed marine materials (smoked versus heat processed salmon muscle, cold pressed versus refined marine oils).

Impact of processing on nutritional quality of marine food items - PubMed

During the last two decades it has been established that Greenland Eskimos living on their traditional diet, have a lower incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD) than when living in Denmark on a western diet. These findings have been attributed to their diet, particularly the high amounts n-3...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

And then they came up with a solution which is similar to what WP did, only with butter oil in his case and olive oil in this:

The combination of oils according to the invention combines the effect of omega-3 fatty acids and a synergistic component which gives an antioxidation effect both in vivo and in vitro. This combination has, according to the invention, given surprising advantageous properties in the form very good clinical effects, better functional properties and longer storage life. The inventors have shown that a particularly advantageous effect is obtained using a product that contains oil from marine mammals, preferably the seal, and cold-pressed virgin olive oil, both of these components being produced in a per se known way. The effect obtained may seem to be more pronounced than would be expected if each component were used alone.

CA2607029A1 - A combination of seal oil and cold-pressed virgin olive oil - Google Patents

A combination of oils as a supplement to, or component of, a regular diet, wherein it comprises marine oil, preferably seal oil, and cold-pressed virgin olive oil.

patents.google.com

 

[Persej]

Even the bees can recognize fresh food:

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) collect and store both honey and pollen in preserved forms. Pollen storage involves the addition of honey or nectar and oral secretions to pollen granules. It is controversial whether the duration of pollen storage alters the palatability or nutritive value of the pollen storage medium. We examined how bees utilize different-aged stored pollen during an extended pollen flow. The deposition of pollen into wax cells and subsequent consumption were monitored daily on 18 brood frames from 6 colonies over an 8d observation period. Despite a greater abundance of older stored pollen cells on brood frames, bees showed a marked preference for the consumption of freshly-stored pollen. Two to four day-old pollen cell contents were significantly more likely to be consumed, while pollen cell contents more than seven days old were eaten at much lower rates. Similar experiments that controlled for cell abundance and spatial effects using cage assays yielded the same result. One day-old stored pollen was consumed approximately three times more often than 10d-old stored pollen, and two times more often than 5d-old stored pollen. These consumption preferences for freshly-stored pollen occurred despite a lack of clear developmental advantages. Young adult workers reared for 7 days on 1d-, 5d-, or 10d-old stored pollen showed no difference in body mass, stored pollen consumption, hindgut fecal material accumulation, or hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) protein titers, suggesting that different-aged pollen stores did not vary in their nutritional value to adult bees. These findings are inconsistent with the hypothesis promoting a period of microbially-mediated, “beebread maturation” that results in greater palatability or nutritive value for aged pollen stores. Rather, stored pollen that is not eaten in the first few days accumulates as excess stores preserved in a less preferred, but nutritionally-similar state.

(...)

Largely unknown is how honey bees consume stored pollen as pollen stores accumulate and age in the colony. Numerous authors have speculated that stored pollen undergoes significant microbially-driven nutrient changes during the initial phases of storage [3,6,28–31]. According to this “beebread maturation” hypothesis, stored pollen is fermented by colony microbes into a more palatable, nutritionally-superior form either through biosynthesis of new nutrients (i.e. vitamins) or greater bioavailability of refractory nutrients (i.e. amino acids) [3,30]. Bees would be predicted to consume older stored pollen after a period of maturation to obtain maximal nutritional benefits. However, recent studies by Anderson and coworkers found that bees preferentially consume freshly-deposited stored pollen over older stored pollen [10]. This result, combined with the observation that microbial activity decreases significantly in stored pollen following five days of storage, questions the assumed roles of microbes in stored pollen [10].

(...)

The freshly-formed composite of pollen, nectar, and oral secretions is briefly more attractive than older stored pollen, yet retains its nutritive value to bees over moderate storage periods. This pattern is precisely the opposite pattern of consumption that would be expected if stored pollen needed to mature before consumption by workers. Our results clearly show that no latent period of beebread maturation is required to render stored pollen palatable or nutritious to bees. On the contrary, the consumption patterns observed here suggest that freshly-stored pollen is consumed within days of deposition. The older pollen stores that accumulate represent excess pollen cells that were not consumed before becoming less attractive. Rather than maturing to a palatable form, older stored pollen sources are only likely to be fully consumed once freshly-stored pollen sources are largely exhausted. Likewise, our performance trials do not support the concept of alteration by beneficial microbes resulting in a nutritionally superior product. Recently, Anderson and coworkers indicated that stored pollen lacks an active core bacterial community as predicted by the beebread maturation hypothesis [10]. In two recent studies, Anderson and coworkers [10] and Saviara and coworkers [40] noted considerable environmental variation in stored pollen bacterial community composition. Furthermore, both studies found little overlap between bacterial communities in stored pollen and honey bee guts. Critically, the absence of a viable stored pollen bacterial community militates against active functions for bacteria during beebread storage.

Honey bees preferentially consume freshly-stored pollen

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) collect and store both honey and pollen in preserved forms. Pollen storage involves the addition of honey or nectar and oral secretions to pollen granules. It is controversial whether the duration of pollen storage alters the palatability or nutritive value of the...

journals.plos.org