One of the things Dr. Weston Price noticed about healthy traditional cultures worldwide is their characteristically broad faces, broad dental arches and wide nostrils. Due to the breadth of their dental arches, they invariably had straight teeth and enough room for wisdom teeth. As soon as these same groups adopted white flour and sugar, the next generation to be born grew up with narrow faces, narrow dental arches, crowded teeth, pinched nostrils and a characteristic underdevelopment of the middle third of the face.Here's...
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Vitamin K2 and Cranial Development
Posted by Admin in: dental health diet fat-soluble vitamins
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Sunday, 25 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: The Final Word
Posted by Admin in: diet fats native diet Tokelau
Over the course of the last month, I've outlined some of the major findings of the Tokelau Island Migrant study. It's one of the most comprehensive studies I've found of a traditional culture transitioning to a modern diet and lifestyle. It traces the health of the inhabitants of the Pacific island Tokelau over time, as well as the health of Tokelauan migrants to New Zealand. Unfortunately, the study began after the introduction of modern foods. We will never know for sure what Tokelauan health was like when their diet...
Saturday, 24 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Gout
Posted by Admin in: diet disease gout Tokelau
Gout is a disorder in which uric acid crystals form in the joints, causing intense pain. The body forms uric acid as a by-product of purine metabolism. Purines are a building block of DNA, among other things. Uric acid is normally excreted into the urine, hence the name.On Tokelau between 1971 and 1982, gout prevalence fell slightly. In migrants to New Zealand, gout prevalence began at the same level as on Tokelau but increased rapidly...
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Asthma
Posted by Admin in: disease Tokelau
Asthma may be another "disease of civilization", uncommon in non-industrial cultures. Between 1980 and 2001, its prevalence more than doubled in American children 17 years and younger. The trend is showing no sign of slowing down (CDC NHANES surveys).The age-standardized asthma prevalence in Tokelauan migrants to New Zealand age 15 and older, was 2 - 6 times higher than in non-migrants from 1976 to 1982, depending on gender and year....
Monday, 19 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Diabetes
Posted by Admin in: diabetes disease diseases of civilization Tokelau
This post will be short and sweet. Diabetes is a disease of civilization. As Tokelauans adopted Western industrial foods, their diabetes prevalence increased. At any given time point, age-standardized diabetes prevalence was higher in migrants to New Zealand than those who remained on Tokelau:This is not a difference in diagnosis. Tokelauans were examined for diabetes by the same group of physicians, using the same criteria. It's...
Friday, 16 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Weight Gain
Posted by Admin in: diet exercise native diet overweight Tokelau
Between 1968 and 1982, Tokelauans in nearly all age groups gained weight, roughly 5 kilograms (11 pounds) on average. They also became slightly taller, but not enough to offset the gain in weight. By 1980-82, migrants to New Zealand had become especially heavy, with all age groups weighing more than non-migrants by about 5 kg (11 lb) on average, and 10 kg (22 lb) more than Tokelauans did in 1968. The body mass index (BMI) is a rough estimate...
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Cholesterol and Cardiovascular Health
Posted by Admin in: Cardiovascular disease diet disease fats hypertension native diet Tokelau
Let's get right to the meat of this study. It's relevant to the hypothesis that saturated fat is a cause of cardiovascular disease. Tokelauans traditionally obtained 40-50% of their calories from saturated fat, in the form of coconut meat. That's more than any other group I'm aware of.So are the Tokelauans dropping like flies of cardiovascular disease? I don't have access to the best data of all: actual heart attack incidence data. But we do have some telltale markers. In 1971-1982, researchers collected data...
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Dental Health
Posted by Admin in: dental health diet disease native diet Tokelau
I'm always on the lookout for studies that can confirm or deny the information in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Traveling around the world in the 1920s and 1930s, Dr. Weston Price found a number of non-industrial cultures that had excellent dental and overall health, including a high resistance to tooth decay, perfectly straight teeth, and wisdom teeth that erupted without impacting. These same cultures developed extreme dental...
Sunday, 4 January 2009
The Tokelau Island Migrant Study: Background and Overview
Posted by Admin in: diet fats native diet Tokelau
Tokelau's troubles began in 1765 with its 'discovery' by British commodore John Byron. Traditionally, residents of the three small coral atolls collectively called Tokelau (Nukunonu, Fakaofo and Atafu) lived an isolated subsistence lifestyle, relying almost exclusively on coconut, seafood, wild fowl and fruit for food. The first reliable account of the Tokelauan population, by an American expedition in 1841, found the people there healthy...
Thursday, 1 January 2009
More on Hydrogenated Fat
Posted by Admin in: Cardiovascular disease diet fats
I stumbled on an interesting history of hydrogenated vegetable oil on the website Soy Info Center. It turns out, margarine was made out of animal fat before 1915. Hydrogenated vegetable shortening (Crisco) was introduced in 1911. Before that our intake of trans fat was very low, coming chiefly from dairy and meat (not the same as synthetic trans fats). Here's an excerpt from the website:In 1909 Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati acquired the US rights to the Normann patent from Crosfield's and in 1911 they began marketing...
