Weston A. Price (1870-1948') was a dentist who lived during a time when dental caries was becoming an epidemic in the developed world, in spite of the advent of tooth brushes and toothpaste. He decided to try to find groups of people who showed immunity to dental caries, in order to determine what factors were responsible for providing protection, but was unable to find any such group within developed areas. As a result, he turned to primitive peoples who lived in isolation and were not exposed to the western lifestyle. He found that indeed many isolated groups showed higher immunity to dental caries, had proper facial development, all their teeth came in straight and without problems (including wisdom teeth), and they also had resistance to tuberculosis, which was epidemic at the time. Analysis of the foods they ate versus members of the same groups which had access to western food revealed that the native diets contained over 5 times the vitamins (especially fat soluble; Vit A, D, E, K) and minerals of the western foods, which were mainly composed of white flour, white sugar and canned goods. Price's work became the standard for nutritionists until it was displaced in modern times by corporate interests, who bought out all of the public universities.
William Albrecht (1888-1974) was one of the first soil scientists, a movement which was prompted in the wake of the American dust bowls. Dr. Albrecht did many experiments and found a connection between soil mineral fertility, plant and animal health. He noted a connection between soil depletion and increases of disease, in agreement with what Dr. Price had observed, recognized the importance of topsoil for holding water and supporting plant growth, and was probably the first person to formally attribute soil microbes as having an active role in plant growth and development. Whereas farmers of the time (and to this day) only consider lime as a means to raise soil pH, Dr. Albrecht recognized the importance of calcium as a nutrient in its own right, along with a wide variety of minerals which were not well classified in his time. As with Dr. Price, Dr. Albrecht's work was quickly forgotten on behalf of the chemical fertilizer industry once the dust bowl problem subsided.
Resources:
Nutrition vs Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price (free pdf)
Soil Fertility and Animal Health by William A. Albrecht (free pdf)
The Weston A. Price Foundation: dedicated to continuing and educating people about the work of Dr. Price. Many articles from the related
Wise Traditions magazine are also available on the website.
Acres USA: Magazine dedicated to expanding on the work of Dr. Albrecht in developing advanced organic farming techniques to produce mineral-dense foods. Tons of awesome information and articles available for free.
Raw Food SOS: Blog focused on busting diet myths and bad science, related to Dr. Price's work and compares vegetarianism to omnivorous diets. Also includes advice for vegans on how to avoid health problems.
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