Weston A. Price Principles

This diet eliminates all of the modern foods our bodies don’t tolerate well such as refined sugar, processed, and packaged foods.

Weston A. Price was a dentist who was very interested in nutrition and health. In the 1930s and 40s, at the start of globalization, he studied indigenous cultures around the world to see whether there was a connection between nutrition and health, using dental health as a window to overall wellness. He analyzed the diets of the traditional cultures that keep their people healthy to see what they had in common, and how that differed from industrialized cultures.

While there were cultures that ranged from mostly plant foods to exclusively animal foods, he did not find an exclusively plant eating (vegan) group. All cultures had learned that the more balanced diets, of some animal and some plant food, were the healthiest.

As Price lived in the time where food additives and processed foods were just coming into the food supply and before most indigenous cultures were influenced by “foods of modern commerce,” he was able to see the effects of modern diet versus traditional cultures’ diets.

It was an important observation that is not available today. We are very fortunate he studied and recorded this information. This time that he lived was also when farming and animal husbandry used natural, sustainable techniques – different than today’s commercial farming.

Many families, and small farms are promoting a return to this way of eating, farming, and living that supports the health of the animals, the people who eat them, the land, and our future.

In addition to producing food of the highest nutritional quality, the Weston A. Price Foundation, advocates the work of Dr. Price. Their nutrition recommendations focus on nutrient dense foods with an understanding that saturated fat, cholesterol, and fat-soluble vitamin-containing foods are good for health. These diet principles include:

• Animal foods and animal fats such as beef and other animal protein, eggs, butter, and dairy (pasture-raised or grass-fed)
• Unprocessed oils and saturated fats such as coconut oil and ghee
• Raw, unprocessed milk and dairy products
• Soaked and sprouted grains, beans and seeds (for increased digestibility and nutrient availability)
• Bone broths, stocks, and nutrient-dense foods
• Fermented foods such as traditional cultured vegetables
• Avoiding processed foods with additives, refined sugar, processed flours and oils, and soy foods (unless traditionally fermented)

This diet is rich in fats that are important to brain health and development in children and adults including omega-3s from fish, medium-chain triglycerides in coconut oil, even saturated fat and cholesterol (substances that are beneficial to a healthy brain).

Because the diet uses traditional methods to process their grains such as soaking and sprouting they are much better digested. While this diet does include grains and dairy products (that are less processed, more nutrient dense, and better tolerated), I still find my clients do not do gluten and dairy, even when these principles are followed. However, I find these methods very helpful with gluten-free grains. And the other principles of high quality pasture-raised animal foods and fermented foods to be wonderful principles for children and adults with ADHD, autism, and other neurological needs.

I teach parents and individuals in my Nourishing Hope for Healing Kids program and practitioners in my BioIndividual Nutrition Training how to successfully implement a healthy diet including Weston A. Price principles based on the unique needs of the individual.