The Supplement Question

An Essay on Vitamins, Minerals, and the Business of Deficiency

Source: https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/the-supplement-question

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In the 1930s, a dentist named Weston A. Price traveled the world studying isolated populations still eating traditional diets. He found fourteen distinct groups—in Swiss Alpine villages, the Scottish Outer Hebrides, Alaska, the South Pacific, the African interior—with virtually no tooth decay, no chronic disease, and robust physical development. Their diets varied dramatically. Some ate primarily animal products, others relied heavily on plants, some consumed grains, others didn’t. But all shared certain characteristics: whole foods, traditional preparation methods, and complete absence of refined and processed products.

None of them took supplements.

The Inuit of the Arctic lived for months in complete darkness, with no sunlight exposure whatsoever. According to modern vitamin D theory, they should have been crippled by rickets. They weren’t. Swiss villagers in the Lötschental Valley had no tuberculosis during an era when TB was Switzerland’s leading cause of death—their fat-soluble vitamin intake was ten times higher than the American average, not from supplements, but from butter, cheese, and organ meats from animals grazing on mineral-rich alpine pastures. African tribesmen seemed immune to the diseases that devastated European visitors, despite going barefoot, drinking “unsanitary” water, and living in mosquito-infested areas. The Europeans required complete coverage and protective netting; the Africans did not.

The pattern was consistent across every population Price studied: robust health on traditional diets, regardless of macro-nutrient composition or environmental hardship; rapid deterioration when industrial foods were introduced. The first generation to eat processed foods showed narrowed facial structure, crowded teeth, and increased susceptibility to infection. Subsequent generations showed progressively worse deformity and disease.

These populations thrived for hundreds of thousands of years without knowing what vitamins were. They didn’t need to. So why do we assume we need them now?

 

You can read the full article here > https://unbekoming.substack.com/p/the-supplement-question

Very interesting indeed Red.

 

The study seems perfectly in line with the findings on another AN topic; where the people were averaging over 100 years old, and both girls and guys were sexually active up to 120 years old.

 

I've not yet read the essay although I surely will.

 

My own research of yesteryear informed me that the human body is capable to a wide range of adaptation. It adapts to prolonged local conditions and stimuli. These adaptations include body skeleton, muscle make up and internal physiology.

 

The key seems to be; community living, good mineral intake and eating local and seasonal foods.

 

And a love of nature of course.

Just read the essay. Enlightening, honest, and for those with eyes to see, ears to listen, and a functioning brain to think; uplifting.

 

For it encapsulate what many of us have been saying down the ages. In my case for 40+ years. As it happens, the two books mentioned in the essay, are both part of my health library.

 

I particularly liked the section on 'polio'. It just goes to show how the medical industry/system denies a voice to anything/anyone that might jeopardise its $$$ flow.

 

As far as supplements go; I personally take chlorophyl based Vit C in quite big doses nearly every day. Magnesium is the other I indulge in.that's i, but I do like a tea. Cinnamon, ginger, ginseng and a lovely reishi. Absolutely no medicine since November 2019. What does it all do for me? Well, I've not had a headache for 6 years. Upset belly; a rarity in that time. Sleep and other stuff all good. Anyone who reads my post, both on AN and TT, will be aware that I promote, among other things, sunshine and barefoot walking. Also I'm trialing magnetic therapy for the relief of hip discomfort. So far so good with that. The hip was hurt some 50 years ago when I was carrying a nice 50kg lady* up a ladder, at Uni halls of residence.

 

Thanks Red. Prosperous and healthy NY to all.

 

* I jest. It was a joist on a building site.