Weston A. Price

Weston A. Price was an American dentist who played a vital role in the field of nutrition during the early 20th century. His discoveries and theories on nutrition, particularly regarding the importance of food as an indicator of health, helped to shape the modern understanding of diet, nutrition, and health.

Weston A. Price was born in 1887 in Ohio. He pursued a career in dentistry, graduating in 1911 from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery. During his studies, he quickly became disenchanted with the theories of dental care of the time, which relied heavily on the use of mercury amalgams as fillings and extractions as treatment. He came to believe that diet and nutrition played a greater role in the health of an individual’s mouth than the dentist’s instruments.

In his subsequent travels, Price visited indigenous populations in Europe, Africa, and North America to study their diets, an endeavor that proved to be the foundation of his nutrition theories. He found that healthy traditional diets, rich in fresh and unprocessed foods, directly correlated with a decreased prevalence of dental deformities, disease, and other health issues. As he wrote in his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (1939), “I have come to believe that the departure from pure, natural foods is the major factor in the degeneration in dental structure”.

Price used his examination of traditional diets as well as laboratory tests to develop his taxonomy of the “Four Causes of Physical Degeneration”. These four causes were nutrient-poor diets, the excess consumption of processed foods, the presence of disease, and the lack of dentifrice. He likened these four causes to a “pyramid of destruction” in which each lower cause built upon the next. It wasn’t until much later that it became commonplace to associate processed foods and nutrient-poor diets with poor health and degenerative diseases.

In 1934, Price established the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, an organization dedicated to educating the public about the innate value of natural foods and the dangers of diets reliant on processed and junk foods. He would go on to become a renowned public speaker and lecturer, spreading the importance of diet and nutrition throughout the world.

Today, Weston A. Price is remembered for his contributions to the nutrition field. His work is considered to be a cornerstone of modern nutrition principles and has stood to benefit generations of people around the world. His theories and discoveries will continue to shape our understanding of diet and nutrition, and serve as a guide to a healthier lifestyle.