Natural Health Articles

The Foundation
By Susanne Morrone, CNC

Perhaps it stems from many years in the health field, or just a natural result of training and experience. Whenever I’m asked a question, my mind goes at ‘semi-lightening speed’ through an exercise of peeling layers. It is a way of thinking that proves to be very beneficial for me to help others understand and achieve good results. Let me explain.

If you ask, for example, what I think of supplements, my mind focuses: supplements—holistic nutrition—cellular requirements—health. I have to create a mind picture of the foundation up through what I feel is the intent of the question being asked—Are supplements viable or important to health? I might then answer, “Quality supplements have a definite therapeutic value. We must recognize the importance of a holistic approach to nutrition, since the cells require optimum nutrients to perform at full capacity to maintain health. We don’t always get all we require from our food.” The next response might be: “But I thought a good diet gives us all we need!” My thoughts would immediately go back to publications from the 1930’s.

A letter was written to President Roosevelt in August 1936, with great concern over the Dust Bowl and soil erosion. North America experienced one of the most severe environmental crises from drought and wind erosion in the 20th Century. The crises lasted a decade. The U.S. Senate then commissioned a scientific study on the mineral content in our food. Mr. Fletcher presented the results to the Senate in 1936. The pioneers of nutrition from this era demonstrated that innumerable human ills emanate from the fact that impoverished soil in America no longer provided plant foods with the necessary mineral elements to maintain human nourishment and health. (Senate Document 264 74th Congress, 2nd Session 1936.)

A book published in 1939 entitled “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration: A Comparison of Primitive and Modern Diets and Their Effects” by Weston A. Price, MS., D.D.S., F.A.G.D., had much to say about this. As a dentist, Dr. Price researched various civilizations and saw the correlation between bad diet and poor teeth, which understanding he extended to health in general. He expressed the concept in these words: “The writer is fully aware that his message is not orthodox; but since our orthodox theories have not saved us we may have to readjust them to bring them into harmony with Nature's laws. Nature must be obeyed, not orthodoxy. Apparently many primitive races have understood her language better than have our modernized groups. Even the primitive races share our blights when they adopt our conception of nutrition. The supporting evidence for this statement is voluminous and as much of it as space permits is included in this volume.”

I appreciate the comment made in the Foreword of this book by Edward Hooten of Harvard University:  “Since we have known for a long time that savages have excellent teeth and that civilized men have terrible teeth, it seems to me that we have been extraordinarily stupid in concentrating all of our attention upon the task of finding out why our teeth are so poor, without ever bothering to learn why savage teeth are good. Dr. Weston Price seems to be the only person who possesses the scientific horse sense to supplement his knowledge of the probable causes of dental disease with a study of the dietary regimens which are associated with dental health. In other words, Dr. Price has accomplished one of those epochal pieces of research which make every other investigator desirous of kicking himself because he never thought of doing the same thing. This is an exemplification of the fact that really gifted scientists are those who can appreciate the obvious.”

In Chapter 2, “The Progressive Decline of Civilization”, the quotes of Dr. Alexis Carrel in his treatise, “Man the Unknown” are included:

“Medicine is far from having decreased human sufferings as much as it endeavors to make us believe. Indeed, the number of deaths from infectious diseases has greatly diminished. But we still must die in a much larger proportion from degenerative diseases. After reviewing the reduction in the epidemic infectious diseases he continues as follows: All diseases of bacterial origin have decreased in a striking manner. . . . Nevertheless, in spite of the triumphs of medical science, the problem of disease is far from solved. Modern man is delicate. Eleven hundred thousand persons have to attend the medical needs of 120,000,000 other persons. Every year, among this population of the United States, there are about 100,000,000 illnesses, serious or slight. In the hospitals, 700,000 beds are occupied every day of the year. . . . Medical care, under all its forms, costs about $3,500,000,000 yearly. . . . The organism seems to have become more susceptible to degenerative diseases.”

The Surgeon General of the United States Public Health Service at the time, Dr. Parran, made these observations:

“Every day one out of twenty people is too sick to go to school or work, or attend his customary activities.

Every man, woman and child (on the average) in the nation suffers ten days of incapacity annually.

The average youngster is sick in bed seven days of the year, the average oldster 35 days.

Two million five hundred thousand people (42 per cent of the 6,000,000 sick every day) suffer from chronic diseases-heart disease, hardening of the arteries, rheumatism, and nervous diseases.

Sixty-five thousand people are totally deaf; 75,000 more are deaf and dumb; 200,000 lack a hand, arm, foot or leg; 300,000 have permanent spinal injuries; 500,000 are blind; 1,000,000 more are permanent cripples.

Two persons on the Relief income level (less than $1,000 yearly income for the entire family) are disabled for one week or longer for every one person better off economically.

Only one in 250 family heads in the income group of more than $2,000 yearly cannot seek work because of chronic disability. In Relief families one in every 20 family heads is disabled.

Relief and low-income families are sick longer as well as more often than better-financed families. They call doctors less often. But the poor, especially in big cities, get to stay in hospitals longer than their better-off neighbors
Dr. Parran concluded: ‘It is apparent that inadequate diet, poor housing, the hazards of occupation and the instability of the labor market definitely create immediate health problems.’”

Inflation may have changed the figures, but the problems have not changed. The same chronic degenerative health problems still plague us.  The same day-to-day worries and stress are here from the hazards of occupation and unstable labor market. We’ve come to accept denatured, overly-processed, chemically preserved, artificially colored, genetically modified and irradiated food grown in sterilized, poisoned soil. “The Complete Book of Minerals for Health” by Rodale Press describes the problems resulting from man’s synthetic fertilizers.  They upset the delicate balance of minerals and organisms in humus rich soil by killing off the beneficial bacteria.  The naturally occurring minerals are lacking, and they are less available to plants. Chemical fertilizers can also saturate plant roots with too much of one nutrient, making it difficult for plants or crops to pick up and absorb the other minerals that they need.

Is this how the savages thrived? We must ask the same questions with the horse sense of a thinker and researcher like Dr. Weston Price.

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