3 ms·
I had to do some research to understand the downvotes. For anyone else, the Weston A. Price Foundation and Price's writing has a fair bit of criticism for its w
by Cpoll 7y ago
I had to do some research to understand the downvotes. For anyone else, the Weston A. Price Foundation and Price's writing has a fair bit of criticism for its weak science (see Quackwatch [1], Science Based Medicine [2], Rational Wiki [3] among others).
It's hard to navigate their website, but it seems they're, among other things, pro-homeopathy, critical of vaccines, anti-soy, pro 'natural' foods, and advocate some controversial and potentially dangerous diets.
[1] https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holisticdent.html https://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/holisticd...
[2] https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/sbm-weston-prices-appalling-legacy/ https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/sbm-weston-prices-appalling...
[3] https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Weston_A._Price_Foundation https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Weston_A._Price_Foundation
- chrisco255 7y agoDon't know about the foundation itself, it was founded almost half a century after his death (1999 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_A._Price_Foundation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_A._Price_Foundation). But his research itself is highly cited. As for "weak science" the book itself "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" is cited by 585 sources on Google Scholar, for example: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=11845151867522528599&as_sdt=5,44&sciodt=0,44&hl=en https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=1184515186752252859... It squares with the parent article that's posted, that diet affects jaw and dental development. It's well documented that diet and nutrition drastically affect health, and plenty of other sources besides Weston Price's book attest to that: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14972061 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14972061 The interesting thing about Price's book, is that he spent time traveling to every continent and met with aboriginal tribes and met with the modern (book was written in the 30's) tribes there. He took photos of their teeth. Keep in mind, this book was written in a time before television, before dental hygiene products were readily available in many countries, etc. The interesting thing about the book is the photo evidence itself. Maori, Chumu, Samoans, Melanesians, Gaelics, Aborigines, Inuit and many others are covered.
- Cpoll 7y agoI spent some time looking through your Google Scholar link. Some of the citations were blanket "nutritionists have studied diet (1-6)" where Price is 4, but I did like this citation: Nevertheless, since Price did not report his original measurements or statistical analyses, these observations need to be interpreted with some caution. Which is to say, citation count is not a proxy for quality.
- chrisco255 7y agoI've read the book and it's filled with cited sources, charts, photo evidence and logs. He was a published researcher and had over 150 publications on dentistry. Guy was one of the foundational figures in modern dentistry: https://books.google.com/books?id=pZnzxgEACAAJ&dq=weston+price&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwimu_jM4t3jAhU7XhUIHbZnAlwQ6AEIOzAD https://books.google.com/books?id=pZnzxgEACAAJ&dq=weston+pri... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1048636431870033 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104863643... He's also far from the only one to link nutrition with dental health (or health in general)...here's an article showing links between early carb consumers and dental caries: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3903197/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3903197/ And another study confirming Price's assertions, with 34 Paleolithic skulls being inspected for dental and oral health: https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.2536 https://www.nature.com/articles/ng.2536 (NPR interpretation here: https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/02/24/172688806/ancient-chompers-were-healthier-than-ours https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/02/24/1726888...) Another study confirming link between sugar intake and cavities: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/4/881S/4690063 https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/78/4/881S/4690063 (conclusion is that fluoride is a crutch for bad nutrition and doesn't fully solve the problem) Suffice to say, criticism of some aspects of Price's works or opinions over his many decades of work, I'm not here to defend all of that. But the links between nutrition and dental health and development are well founded. And that's exactly what the OP article suggested as well.