We live in one of the richest countries in the world. Our food supply is second to none when it comes to choice, convenience, and shelf life. But does today’s food have the same vitamin and mineral content as the food our parent’s ate or their parent’s ate? What effect will this vitamin and mineral content have on our children?
These questions aren’t easy to answer. But in 1945, Dr. Weston Price, D.D.S wrote a book called “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.†In this book he went around the world to document the effects of what he called, “the foods of commerce.†These foods were white bread, polished rice, marmalades, vegetable oils, canned meats and vegetables, confections and fruits.
He observed primitive people groups who ate their indigenous foods were in overall excellent health. However, when these people were introduced to modernized foods such as white flour, white sugar, refined vegetable oils, and canned goods, signs of physical degeneration became quite evident. Dr. Price discovered primitive people began to pass inferior genetic traits to the next generation of people. Dental caries, deformed jaw structures, crooked teeth, arthritis and a low immunity to tuberculosis became rampant amongst them.
Dr. Price did a careful chemical analysis of what primitive people had been eating and then looked at the chemical analysis of the “foods of commerce†to compare. He estimated the primitive diet had 4 to 10 times more vitamins and minerals than the “foods of commerce†diet.
So what does this mean to you and me?
Our diet of refined, processed and depleted foods has created a situation where we are not as strong genetically as our ancestors. Today’s obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer rates continue to climb despite our best efforts and billions of dollars of research. A study done in 1981 at the University of Florida reported in 1929 the American male sperm count was 100 million sperm cells per milliliter. By 1973 it was 60 million and by 1980 it had dropped to 20 million. In other words, the processed foods we consume continue to decrease our healthy ability to reproduce.
I know all this sounds like the sky is falling, but it doesn’t have to be. Dr. Jeffrey Bland, a noted scientist and expert in biochemistry and genetics, states only 30% of your health is controlled directly by your genes. Get this, the other 70% is controlled by lifestyle! This is great news. You can control your health and the health of the next generation. But we must remember vitamins and minerals are essential building blocks of health.
All of us can change the course of history one meal at a time. Eat high quality foods that aren’t processed. Take your whole food vitamin and mineral supplements to rebuild your body’s reserve and pass your knowledge and habits onto your children so they can do the same for their children. You will feel better and so will they.
