Weston Price on the Acid/Alkaline Theory

[Guest guest]

<A

HREF= " http://www.price-pottenger.org/Articles/Acid_base_bal.htm " >Price-Pottenger

Nutrition Foundation</A>

Whenever the acid/alkaline discussion comes up, I always forget to draw

people's attention to this article. It's by Price himself and he basically says

the theory is crap and if it were true we could prevent cavities by just eating

baking soda, and he says some of the groups he studied who were immune to

decay had net acid diets.

Chris

p.s. just read it over before sending, and towards the end, he even throws

out a disparaging comment about... *drumroll*... food-combining! what a great

article!

Acid-Base Balance of Diets Which Produce Immunity to Dental Caries Among the

South Sea Islanders and Other Primite Races

by Weston A. Price, DDS, MS, FACD

> Read before the New York Dental Centennial Meeting, New York, N.Y.,

> December 4, 1934; reprinted from the Dental Cosmos for September 1935.

>

>

Among the many theories regarding the controlling factors for immunity to

dental caries, “potential alkalinity†has been stressed by many as playing

the

controlling role. This has been strongly emphasized in the paper by Dr. Martha

entitled “Our Changing Concept of an Adequate Diet in Relation to Dental

Disease.†She and her associates have emphasized this factor in several

previous communications. I do not find in her reports, however, the type of

quantitative data which seem to be needed for evaluating this problem. The fact

that

a given potentially basic diet has been found associated with immunity may

have little significance regarding the role of acid-base balance in establishing

immunity.

It is very clear that a satisfactory approach to this problem will require

the consideration of many diets which have been competent to establish and

maintain a very high immunity. No modern civilization provides such a control

group, since dental caries is active and in certain groups rampant among the

individuals of all of our modernized peoples. It is for this reason I have been

making expeditions during several years to reach the remnants of primitive

racial

stocks who, like their ancestors, are characterized by a very high immunity to

dental caries and who by their isolation make possible a critical study of

the variables at the point of contact with modern civilization where the high

immunity changes to a high susceptibility to tooth decay.

I have previously reported on my studies among the Swiss in the high Alps (1)

in isolated valleys. The people of the Outer Hebrides (2), the Eskimos of

Alaska (3) and the Indians of northern and central Canada (4) have also been

reported. In addition to these we now have very extended data obtained during

the

past summer from studies among the Melanesians and Polynesians on eight

archipelagos of the Pacific.

In this report we shall include a consideration of the acid-base balance of

the foods for both these racial stocks and for groups with high immunity to

dental caries and for those who have lost that high immunity.

  Figure 1: Dental Caries on Primitive and Modern Food

Peoples Primitive

Modern

Alps 46

298

Hebrides 11

300

Eskimos 0.9

130

Indians 1.6

215

South Sea Islanders 3.4

308

In order to make these data more readily understood when a comparison is made

of the potential acidity of the various diets that have been found capable of

producing and maintaining high immunity, it is important that we visualize,

first, the levels of incidence of tooth decay in these groups while they are

isolated and also the levels of those of the same racial stocks who had lost

their immunity at the point of contact with civilization. These are shown for

the

different groups in Figure 1. There are five groups. We are using all of the

people of the South Sea Islands in one group for convenience in this study. It

will be noted that the isolated Swiss of the high Alpine valleys had

forty-six teeth attacked by tooth decay out of each 1,000 teeth examined. The

modernized Swiss who were eating our modern foods had 298 teeth involved with

caries

for each 1,000 teeth examined. For the primitive Gallics in the Outer Hebrides

these figures were eleven teeth of each 1,000 teeth examined which had been

attacked by dental caries and for the modernized groups 300 teeth. For the

isolated Eskimos less than one tooth, 0.9, was attacked by caries in each 1,000

teeth examined and for those at the point of contact with our modern foods 130

teeth were involved. For the Indians of the far north and interior of Canada

living on their primitive native foods 1.6 teeth were attacked with dental

caries, while for the modernized Indians 215 teeth. For all of the groups in the

South Sea Islands living on their primitive native foods 3.4 teeth per 1,000

teeth examined had been attacked by dental caries, whereas among those eating

foods of modern civilization this was increased to 308 teeth. It is important

that

we keep these figures in mind as we observe the total acidity and total base

provided in the average daily diets of these various groups.

  Figure 2: Acid Base Content of Primitive and Modern Diets

Acid Base

Peoples Prim Modern Prim Modern

Alps 359 165 355 171

Hebrides 248 171 152 152

Eskimos 707 234 382 227

Indians 892 234 628 227

South Sea Islanders 322 203 399 244

The figures for acidity and base content are shown in Figure 2. We have in

this chart the same groups in the same relationship as in Figure 1. The method

of determining the acid and base content of a given food involved determining

the quantity of each of the basic elements -- calcium, magnesium, sodium and

potassium -- and the acid elements -- phosphorus, chlorine and sulphur. These

determinations have been made by using Sherman’s tables with special

determinations of special foods. These are expressed in terms of cc. of normal

acid and

normal base, using the method suggested by Salter, Fulton and Angier in the

Journal of Nutrition for May 1931. The excess of acid over base or base over

acid

is expressed as potential acidity or potential alkalinity. It is important to

note that in four of these five groups of primitive racial stocks, living on

entirely different native foods and in widely divergent climates and entirely

different living habits, the immunity-producing diets were found to be higher

in acid factors than in base factors. In some the divergence is quite small

and in others, quite large. It is also important that, in changing, from high

immunity to high susceptibility diets there was no increase in potential acidity

with increased susceptibility to tooth decay. This graph shows the quantity

of acid and base in each of the diets associated with immunity and also with

susceptibility to tooth decay, and it is of interest to note the very great

difference in total acid and total base contained in the nutritions of the

various

groups.

The clinical work that has been done by Dr. and her associates in the

Hawaiian Islands has been on a diet that is potentially alkaline, consisting,

as we have learned from her, of poi and milk. The poi is made from powdered

cooked taro to which water has been added and fermentation allowed to take place

for a definite period. We are primarily concerned with the inorganic acids in

evaluating the role of potential acidity, since the organic acids are largely,

if not completely, oxidized in the body. Fermenting the poi does not

therefore materially change the acid-base balance. The following are the figures

for

both acid and base factors for each of the primitive and modernized diets for

the five groups: for the primitive peoples in the Alps we have as cc.N. acid

359 and base 355; for the modernized groups we have acid 165 and base 171. For

the Gallics of the Outer Hebrides in the primitive groups we have acid 248 and

base 152, for the modernized groups, acid 171 and base 152. In the primitive

Eskimos diet the acid is 707 cc.N. and the base 382; for the modernized Eskimos

the acid is 234 cc.N. and the base 227. In the primitive groups of Indians

the acid content is 892 cc.N. and the base 628; for the modernized groups the

acid is 234 cc.N. and the base is 227. For the primitive South Sea Islanders’

diet the acid is 322 and the base 399, and for the modernized groups the acid

content is 203 and the base 244. My data, accordingly, do not support the theory

advocated by Dr. .

It is of particular interest that in my studies of the South Sea Island

groups taro was found to be one of the most universally and extensively used

articles of food. When used with adequate primitive diets of all the Island

groups

studied, except the Hawaiian Islands, which would include the Marquesas,

Society, Cook, Tonga, New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoan Islands, the taro, which

was

cooked by baking in ovens consisting of heated stones covered with leaves and

dirt, produced a very high level of immunity to dental caries in every instance

where the groups were isolated from contact with foods of modern civilization

and where they were using only their native vegetables and fruits and animal

life of the sea. The nutrition of these people will be discussed from a

chemical and activator basis in another communication, since space does not

permit

including it here.

It is very important that dependable data be accumulated as rapidly as

possible which bear upon this problem of acid-base balance of foods, since many

enthusiasts are advocating strongly the elimination or reduction of potentially

acid foods such as cereals, meats and fish. Indeed, a great deal of propaganda

is reaching the profession and laity which places great stress upon the

importance of keeping the diet potentially alkaline.

It is my personal belief, based on the extensive data that I am accumulating,

from a study of these various primitive groups and their breakdown at the

point of contact with civilization and its foods, that several constitutional

factors may be involved besides tooth decay, and which are very important. My

investigations are showing that primitive groups have practically complete

freedom from deformity of the dental arches and irregularities of the teeth in

the

arches and that various phases of these disturbances develop at the point of

contact with foods of modern civilization.

It is not my belief that this is related to potential acidity or potential

alkalinity of the food but to the mineral and activator content of the nutrition

during the developmental periods, namely, prenatal, postnatal and childhood

growth. It is important that the very foods that are potentially acid have as

an important part of the source of that acidity the phosphoric acid content,

and an effort to eliminate acidity often means seriously reducing the available

phosphorus, an indispensable soft and hard tissue component.

It is my belief that much harm has been done through the misconception that

acidity and alkalinity were something apart from minerals and other elements.

Many food faddists have undertaken to list foods on the basis of their acidity

and alkalinity without the apparent understanding of the disturbances that are

produced by, for example, condemning a food because it contains phosphoric

acid, not appreciating that phosphorus can only be acid until it is neutralized

by combining with a base.

An illustration of this is the following case: A girl was brought for

assistance and study who still had her childhood face at sixteen years of age.

There

had been marked delay in physical development and function other than this

growth factor. I was advised that the nutrition of this child had been very

largely guided by the literature of the Defensive Diet League which, as one of

its

principal premises, has urged the keeping down of the acid-producing foods.

This girl was so conscious of her underdevelopment that she disliked to go to

social events with those of her age. When brought to me for assistance and

correction of her facial deformity I did not deem it wise or feasible to

undertake

to change the position of the facial bones by use of orthodontic appliances. I

depended entirely on a reinforced nutrition. We supplied mineral and

activator carrying foods, with the hope that the growth factors might be in part

latent and still be capable of stimulation. There was a very marked improvement

in

the facial development. In one year she largely developed her adult face. She

is very conscious of this improvement and, instead of being reticent and

reserved, she has become the leader in her group.

It is very unfortunate that medical and dental science has not looked to the

primitive people earlier for standards of not only physical perfection but

also of nutrition.

Indeed, while I am dictating this text I have been interrupted by a nurse who

has come to inquire whether the teachings so strongly heralded by certain

groups should be followed, namely, that proteins and carbohydrates should never

be eaten together.

I have seldom found anywhere in the world such a high percentage of physical

excellence with high immunity to our modern degenerative diseases as among

these people of the South Sea Islands. Their diet practically every day

consisted

of eating the proteins from the animal life of the sea with the carbohydrates

of their land vegetables, many of which were very rich in starch. This was

equally true of the Gallics in the Outer Hebrides, living almost entirely on

oats and sea foods.

By studying primitive people who have exceedingly high immunity to dental

caries and those people at the point where they lost that high immunity, we were

able to reduce the total number of variables to a minimum. It was then

possible to study critically those factors of the nutrition which are found to

be

changed and the varying amounts which can be directly related to the changed

incidence of dental caries. This provides still another approach to the problem

since, by adding those factors to a deficient diet which are found to constitute

the difference between that diet and one that has been demonstrated by those

primitive peoples to be efficient, we have a means for checking and

determining whether these factors when added will change susceptibility to

immunity. It

is by this procedure that we can now control dental caries when active, or

completely prevent it from developing.

It is of particular significance that when all of the foods of these various

primitive groups are reduced to their chemical and activator content they are

found to be relatively equivalent. This strongly indicates the direction in

which the dental profession can profitably move in this matter of the prevention

of tooth decay. Since many other degenerative processes are found to develop

simultaneously, or nearly so, with the loss of immunity to dental caries, we

have strong evidence that these physical afflictions are, like dental caries,

symptoms rather than unit diseases. This clearly is the direction that modern

preventive medicine will take in order to establish high immunity to the

degenerative diseases.

In every instance in my studies of these primitive racial stocks where I

found that they had made contact with our modern civilization, with the result

that they had lost their immunity to dental caries, that contact included

displacing part of their native diet with imported white flour and sugar and

sweetened goods. These foods are exceedingly low in Nature’s building material

for

growth and repair. Refined sugar has practically no minerals or activators, and

white flour has had removed about four fifths of the minerals and nearly all of

the germ with its contained activators. Molasses, or sorghum, carries very

little phosphorus, though it does carry calcium, which is usually provided

easily in safer foods like milk and vegetables. It also carries potassium

liberally.

Concentrated sweets of all kinds are too high in caloric value to be safe in

liberal quantity. Our daily limit of two or three thousand calories, together

with our requirement of about two grams of phosphorus in the foods (in order

to obtain two-thirds of that amount for body building), means that to obtain

this amount we would have to eat enough molasses to supply about 13,300

calories, or about ten pounds. This, if possible, would probably do much harm.

To get

sufficient phosphorus from white flour products usually requires eating about

four and one-half pounds of white bread daily, which would provide about

10,000 calories.

In my clinical practice, in which I am endeavoring to put into practice the

lessons I am learning from the primitive people, I do not require that the

foods of the primitive races be adopted but that our modern foods be reinforced

in

body building materials to make them equivalent in mineral and activator

content to the efficient foods of the primitive people. This usually is

accomplished by displacing white-flour products with whole-wheat products,

together with

eliminating or reducing the high caloric foods such as sugars and other

sweets, and adding foods that are good providers of the fat-soluble activators,

such as the butter of milk as produced by cows that are eating liberally of

fresh

or cured rapidly growing green wheat or rye, together with the organs of

animals and the use of sea foods such as these primitive people have used so

successfully in providing not only high immunity to dental caries but excellent

bodies, with high defense for the degenerative diseases.

We are learning Nature’s methods and undertaking to utilize them. The

chemical content of all of these primitive foods is comparably high in minerals

and

activators, especially the fat-soluble activators, while being relatively low

in calories. In no instance have I found the change from a high immunity to

dental caries to a high susceptibility among these primitive racial stocks to be

associated with a change from a diet with a high potential alkalinity to a

high potential acidity, as would seem to have been the case had the high

alkalinity balance theory been the correct explanation. If the requisite is so

simple

as a potential alkalinity, why has not the addition of sodium bicarbonate to a

deficient diet controlled dental caries?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Price, Weston A.: “Why Dental Caries with Modern Civilization ?†Dental

Digest. 89:94, 147, March and April 1933.

Idem: Dental Digest 88:225, June 1933.

Idem: Dental Digest 40:210, June 1934.

Idem: Dental Digest, 40:130, April 1934.

[Guest guest]

Hi;,

Going thru some past posts. That article is incredibly interesting. Especially

the part about the neutralization of the acid with a base in the body. That

was something I hadn't considered. It appears that the immunity of dental

caries also carried thru to their health, although that wasn't considered in

this lecture.

Just sharing some thoughts.

Jafa

ChrisMasterjohn@... wrote:

<A

HREF= " http://www.price-pottenger.org/Articles/Acid_base_bal.htm " >Price-Pottenger

Nutrition Foundation</A>

Whenever the acid/alkaline discussion comes up, I always forget to draw

people's attention to this article. It's by Price himself and he basically says

the theory is crap and if it were true we could prevent cavities by just eating

baking soda, and he says some of the groups he studied who were immune to

decay had net acid diets.

Chris

p.s. just read it over before sending, and towards the end, he even throws

out a disparaging comment about... *drumroll*... food-combining! what a great

article!

Acid-Base Balance of Diets Which Produce Immunity to Dental Caries Among the

South Sea Islanders and Other Primite Races

by Weston A. Price, DDS, MS, FACD

> Read before the New York Dental Centennial Meeting, New York, N.Y.,

> December 4, 1934; reprinted from the Dental Cosmos for September 1935.

>

>

Among the many theories regarding the controlling factors for immunity to

dental caries, “potential alkalinity†has been stressed by many as playing

the

controlling role. This has been strongly emphasized in the paper by Dr. Martha

entitled “Our Changing Concept of an Adequate Diet in Relation to Dental

Disease.†She and her associates have emphasized this factor in several

previous communications. I do not find in her reports, however, the type of

quantitative data which seem to be needed for evaluating this problem. The fact

that

a given potentially basic diet has been found associated with immunity may

have little significance regarding the role of acid-base balance in establishing

immunity.

It is very clear that a satisfactory approach to this problem will require

the consideration of many diets which have been competent to establish and

maintain a very high immunity. No modern civilization provides such a control

group, since dental caries is active and in certain groups rampant among the

individuals of all of our modernized peoples. It is for this reason I have been

making expeditions during several years to reach the remnants of primitive

racial

stocks who, like their ancestors, are characterized by a very high immunity to

dental caries and who by their isolation make possible a critical study of

the variables at the point of contact with modern civilization where the high

immunity changes to a high susceptibility to tooth decay.

I have previously reported on my studies among the Swiss in the high Alps (1)

in isolated valleys. The people of the Outer Hebrides (2), the Eskimos of

Alaska (3) and the Indians of northern and central Canada (4) have also been

reported. In addition to these we now have very extended data obtained during

the

past summer from studies among the Melanesians and Polynesians on eight

archipelagos of the Pacific.

In this report we shall include a consideration of the acid-base balance of

the foods for both these racial stocks and for groups with high immunity to

dental caries and for those who have lost that high immunity.

 Figure 1: Dental Caries on Primitive and Modern Food

Peoples Primitive

Modern

Alps 46

298

Hebrides 11

300

Eskimos 0.9

130

Indians 1.6

215

South Sea Islanders 3.4

308

In order to make these data more readily understood when a comparison is made

of the potential acidity of the various diets that have been found capable of

producing and maintaining high immunity, it is important that we visualize,

first, the levels of incidence of tooth decay in these groups while they are

isolated and also the levels of those of the same racial stocks who had lost

their immunity at the point of contact with civilization. These are shown for

the

different groups in Figure 1. There are five groups. We are using all of the

people of the South Sea Islands in one group for convenience in this study. It

will be noted that the isolated Swiss of the high Alpine valleys had

forty-six teeth attacked by tooth decay out of each 1,000 teeth examined. The

modernized Swiss who were eating our modern foods had 298 teeth involved with

caries

for each 1,000 teeth examined. For the primitive Gallics in the Outer Hebrides

these figures were eleven teeth of each 1,000 teeth examined which had been

attacked by dental caries and for the modernized groups 300 teeth. For the

isolated Eskimos less than one tooth, 0.9, was attacked by caries in each 1,000

teeth examined and for those at the point of contact with our modern foods 130

teeth were involved. For the Indians of the far north and interior of Canada

living on their primitive native foods 1.6 teeth were attacked with dental

caries, while for the modernized Indians 215 teeth. For all of the groups in the

South Sea Islands living on their primitive native foods 3.4 teeth per 1,000

teeth examined had been attacked by dental caries, whereas among those eating

foods of modern civilization this was increased to 308 teeth. It is important

that

we keep these figures in mind as we observe the total acidity and total base

provided in the average daily diets of these various groups.

 Figure 2: Acid Base Content of Primitive and Modern Diets

Acid Base

Peoples Prim Modern Prim Modern

Alps 359 165 355 171

Hebrides 248 171 152 152

Eskimos 707 234 382 227

Indians 892 234 628 227

South Sea Islanders 322 203 399 244

The figures for acidity and base content are shown in Figure 2. We have in

this chart the same groups in the same relationship as in Figure 1. The method

of determining the acid and base content of a given food involved determining

the quantity of each of the basic elements -- calcium, magnesium, sodium and

potassium -- and the acid elements -- phosphorus, chlorine and sulphur. These

determinations have been made by using Sherman’s tables with special

determinations of special foods. These are expressed in terms of cc. of normal

acid and

normal base, using the method suggested by Salter, Fulton and Angier in the

Journal of Nutrition for May 1931. The excess of acid over base or base over

acid

is expressed as potential acidity or potential alkalinity. It is important to

note that in four of these five groups of primitive racial stocks, living on

entirely different native foods and in widely divergent climates and entirely

different living habits, the immunity-producing diets were found to be higher

in acid factors than in base factors. In some the divergence is quite small

and in others, quite large. It is also important that, in changing, from high

immunity to high susceptibility diets there was no increase in potential acidity

with increased susceptibility to tooth decay. This graph shows the quantity

of acid and base in each of the diets associated with immunity and also with

susceptibility to tooth decay, and it is of interest to note the very great

difference in total acid and total base contained in the nutritions of the

various

groups.

The clinical work that has been done by Dr. and her associates in the

Hawaiian Islands has been on a diet that is potentially alkaline, consisting,

as we have learned from her, of poi and milk. The poi is made from powdered

cooked taro to which water has been added and fermentation allowed to take place

for a definite period. We are primarily concerned with the inorganic acids in

evaluating the role of potential acidity, since the organic acids are largely,

if not completely, oxidized in the body. Fermenting the poi does not

therefore materially change the acid-base balance. The following are the figures

for

both acid and base factors for each of the primitive and modernized diets for

the five groups: for the primitive peoples in the Alps we have as cc.N. acid

359 and base 355; for the modernized groups we have acid 165 and base 171. For

the Gallics of the Outer Hebrides in the primitive groups we have acid 248 and

base 152, for the modernized groups, acid 171 and base 152. In the primitive

Eskimos diet the acid is 707 cc.N. and the base 382; for the modernized Eskimos

the acid is 234 cc.N. and the base 227. In the primitive groups of Indians

the acid content is 892 cc.N. and the base 628; for the modernized groups the

acid is 234 cc.N. and the base is 227. For the primitive South Sea Islanders’

diet the acid is 322 and the base 399, and for the modernized groups the acid

content is 203 and the base 244. My data, accordingly, do not support the theory

advocated by Dr. .

It is of particular interest that in my studies of the South Sea Island

groups taro was found to be one of the most universally and extensively used

articles of food. When used with adequate primitive diets of all the Island

groups

studied, except the Hawaiian Islands, which would include the Marquesas,

Society, Cook, Tonga, New Caledonia, Fiji and Samoan Islands, the taro, which

was

cooked by baking in ovens consisting of heated stones covered with leaves and

dirt, produced a very high level of immunity to dental caries in every instance

where the groups were isolated from contact with foods of modern civilization

and where they were using only their native vegetables and fruits and animal

life of the sea. The nutrition of these people will be discussed from a

chemical and activator basis in another communication, since space does not

permit

including it here.

It is very important that dependable data be accumulated as rapidly as

possible which bear upon this problem of acid-base balance of foods, since many

enthusiasts are advocating strongly the elimination or reduction of potentially

acid foods such as cereals, meats and fish. Indeed, a great deal of propaganda

is reaching the profession and laity which places great stress upon the

importance of keeping the diet potentially alkaline.

It is my personal belief, based on the extensive data that I am accumulating,

from a study of these various primitive groups and their breakdown at the

point of contact with civilization and its foods, that several constitutional

factors may be involved besides tooth decay, and which are very important. My

investigations are showing that primitive groups have practically complete

freedom from deformity of the dental arches and irregularities of the teeth in

the

arches and that various phases of these disturbances develop at the point of

contact with foods of modern civilization.

It is not my belief that this is related to potential acidity or potential

alkalinity of the food but to the mineral and activator content of the nutrition

during the developmental periods, namely, prenatal, postnatal and childhood

growth. It is important that the very foods that are potentially acid have as

an important part of the source of that acidity the phosphoric acid content,

and an effort to eliminate acidity often means seriously reducing the available

phosphorus, an indispensable soft and hard tissue component.

It is my belief that much harm has been done through the misconception that

acidity and alkalinity were something apart from minerals and other elements.

Many food faddists have undertaken to list foods on the basis of their acidity

and alkalinity without the apparent understanding of the disturbances that are

produced by, for example, condemning a food because it contains phosphoric

acid, not appreciating that phosphorus can only be acid until it is neutralized

by combining with a base.

An illustration of this is the following case: A girl was brought for

assistance and study who still had her childhood face at sixteen years of age.

There

had been marked delay in physical development and function other than this

growth factor. I was advised that the nutrition of this child had been very

largely guided by the literature of the Defensive Diet League which, as one of

its

principal premises, has urged the keeping down of the acid-producing foods.

This girl was so conscious of her underdevelopment that she disliked to go to

social events with those of her age. When brought to me for assistance and

correction of her facial deformity I did not deem it wise or feasible to

undertake

to change the position of the facial bones by use of orthodontic appliances. I

depended entirely on a reinforced nutrition. We supplied mineral and

activator carrying foods, with the hope that the growth factors might be in part

latent and still be capable of stimulation. There was a very marked improvement

in

the facial development. In one year she largely developed her adult face. She

is very conscious of this improvement and, instead of being reticent and

reserved, she has become the leader in her group.

It is very unfortunate that medical and dental science has not looked to the

primitive people earlier for standards of not only physical perfection but

also of nutrition.

Indeed, while I am dictating this text I have been interrupted by a nurse who

has come to inquire whether the teachings so strongly heralded by certain

groups should be followed, namely, that proteins and carbohydrates should never

be eaten together.

I have seldom found anywhere in the world such a high percentage of physical

excellence with high immunity to our modern degenerative diseases as among

these people of the South Sea Islands. Their diet practically every day

consisted

of eating the proteins from the animal life of the sea with the carbohydrates

of their land vegetables, many of which were very rich in starch. This was

equally true of the Gallics in the Outer Hebrides, living almost entirely on

oats and sea foods.

By studying primitive people who have exceedingly high immunity to dental

caries and those people at the point where they lost that high immunity, we were

able to reduce the total number of variables to a minimum. It was then

possible to study critically those factors of the nutrition which are found to

be

changed and the varying amounts which can be directly related to the changed

incidence of dental caries. This provides still another approach to the problem

since, by adding those factors to a deficient diet which are found to constitute

the difference between that diet and one that has been demonstrated by those

primitive peoples to be efficient, we have a means for checking and

determining whether these factors when added will change susceptibility to

immunity. It

is by this procedure that we can now control dental caries when active, or

completely prevent it from developing.

It is of particular significance that when all of the foods of these various

primitive groups are reduced to their chemical and activator content they are

found to be relatively equivalent. This strongly indicates the direction in

which the dental profession can profitably move in this matter of the prevention

of tooth decay. Since many other degenerative processes are found to develop

simultaneously, or nearly so, with the loss of immunity to dental caries, we

have strong evidence that these physical afflictions are, like dental caries,

symptoms rather than unit diseases. This clearly is the direction that modern

preventive medicine will take in order to establish high immunity to the

degenerative diseases.

In every instance in my studies of these primitive racial stocks where I

found that they had made contact with our modern civilization, with the result

that they had lost their immunity to dental caries, that contact included

displacing part of their native diet with imported white flour and sugar and

sweetened goods. These foods are exceedingly low in Nature’s building material

for

growth and repair. Refined sugar has practically no minerals or activators, and

white flour has had removed about four fifths of the minerals and nearly all of

the germ with its contained activators. Molasses, or sorghum, carries very

little phosphorus, though it does carry calcium, which is usually provided

easily in safer foods like milk and vegetables. It also carries potassium

liberally.

Concentrated sweets of all kinds are too high in caloric value to be safe in

liberal quantity. Our daily limit of two or three thousand calories, together

with our requirement of about two grams of phosphorus in the foods (in order

to obtain two-thirds of that amount for body building), means that to obtain

this amount we would have to eat enough molasses to supply about 13,300

calories, or about ten pounds. This, if possible, would probably do much harm.

To get

sufficient phosphorus from white flour products usually requires eating about

four and one-half pounds of white bread daily, which would provide about

10,000 calories.

In my clinical practice, in which I am endeavoring to put into practice the

lessons I am learning from the primitive people, I do not require that the

foods of the primitive races be adopted but that our modern foods be reinforced

in

body building materials to make them equivalent in mineral and activator

content to the efficient foods of the primitive people. This usually is

accomplished by displacing white-flour products with whole-wheat products,

together with

eliminating or reducing the high caloric foods such as sugars and other

sweets, and adding foods that are good providers of the fat-soluble activators,

such as the butter of milk as produced by cows that are eating liberally of

fresh

or cured rapidly growing green wheat or rye, together with the organs of

animals and the use of sea foods such as these primitive people have used so

successfully in providing not only high immunity to dental caries but excellent

bodies, with high defense for the degenerative diseases.

We are learning Nature’s methods and undertaking to utilize them. The

chemical content of all of these primitive foods is comparably high in minerals

and

activators, especially the fat-soluble activators, while being relatively low

in calories. In no instance have I found the change from a high immunity to

dental caries to a high susceptibility among these primitive racial stocks to be

associated with a change from a diet with a high potential alkalinity to a

high potential acidity, as would seem to have been the case had the high

alkalinity balance theory been the correct explanation. If the requisite is so

simple

as a potential alkalinity, why has not the addition of sodium bicarbonate to a

deficient diet controlled dental caries?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Price, Weston A.: “Why Dental Caries with Modern Civilization ?†Dental

Digest. 89:94, 147, March and April 1933.

Idem: Dental Digest 88:225, June 1933.

Idem: Dental Digest 40:210, June 1934.

Idem: Dental Digest, 40:130, April 1934.