GOOD FAT STORIES

MORE EASYGOING WITH WHOLE MILK
At choir last night, one of the younger women, who has a son about 3-4 years old, said that she wanted to tell me something she’d noticed about my daughter Susan, who will be 6 in June. She said that Susan has recently become more easygoing than she used to be. That surprised me, because I did not think that Susan had exhibited less-than-easy-going behavior around her before. But as I think about it, I know that she has exhibited almost infantile separation anxiety anytime I had to leave her in the nursery. She never did that as an infant, but she had begun doing that in the last year or two. I guess that’s what she was referring to. And it’s true. My daughter no longer cries when I drop her off at the nursery. I told her about how we switched from 2% to whole milk in January, and I’d been using more eggs and making pot roast at least once a week. Until we started using whole milk, she cried a lot and was kind of “brittle.” And I have noticed that I don’t get as angry since we started drinking whole milk and my daughter hasn’t run off crying in ages, even though occasionally she is rebuked strongly. Also, I have actually lost weight and am able to wear clothes that 2-3 sizes smaller than I had been wearing. And I’m stronger and have more stamina. L.C.

A CHANGE IN DIET
I really wanted to write a letter to thank the Weston A. Price Foundation. I had been a vegetarian and then vegan from the time I was 16 years old, and was very careful to eat plenty of plant-based fats, plant-proteins and whole grains. I had developed a small hole in my heart after receiving a meningitis vaccination when I was almost 12 years old; since then I have been unable to go for a walk or compete in track and field sports without a lot of pain and difficulty. During my first pregnancy, the hole in my heart bothered me terribly and I had anemia. My midwife suggested I eat a little red meat to increase my hemoglobin levels or else I could not have a homebirth. I was so focused on having a homebirth that I sacrificed myself by eating a small amount of beef once or twice a week, but it was not organic or grass-fed. Nonetheless I was able to have a homebirth and then I returned to being vegan.
Everything went downhill from then on. Pregnancy and full-time nursing depleted me so badly that within several months the hole in my heart bothered me so much I couldn’t even walk upstairs without great chest pain; my muscles (particularly my leg muscles) were in so much pain and became weak that I could not walk much and they hurt when I moved them; and my legs were covered with spontaneous bruises. I was constipated with blood in my bowels, constantly tired and my eyes felt bruised to the touch and strained. I thought I was developing cancer. My exclusively nursed daughter was becoming tired and pale and was late in learning to crawl.
I had seen several doctors who could only offer medication and little hope of recovery. I felt I should be able to recover, that my body was doing this because something was wrong and I did not believe medications should be used routinely and regularly or that they would actually help my body get better. So I spent hours searching the internet for answers. I was a very, very strong vegan. I had found an article called The Ploy of Soy from your website.

I depended largely on soy products and was surprised to think that soy could be part of my problem. I searched more on the subject and decided to cut out soy and see what happened. My bowel problems improved greatly. That softened me to take a more thorough look at the Weston A. Price Foundation website and I began changing the way we eat, taking cod liver oil, taking a colloidal vitamin/mineral supplement to restore my depleted body and using raw milk from pasture-fed Jersey cows, raw butter and cream, raw cheese and yogurt very liberally. I also began soaking my grains, and using organic, grass-fed meats (beef, lamb and pork), stocks, pasture-fed eggs, some lacto-fermented drinks and at times condiments, wild salmon and cod when we can afford it, green vegetables daily, healthy desserts from time to time and other fruit and vegetables for variety and taste. I recovered well and then some! My daughter is now three years old and I have a six-month-old boy. My daughter is healthy, strong and energetic with rosy cheeks and good teeth. My son was born with a wide face, perfect facial and physical development and strong. He could lift his head at a day old, began creeping and sitting up at three and one-half months and is crawling at five and one-half months and beginning to walk at six months. My labor was fast and easy. I should say that the hole in my heart is completely healed (which was surprising, since it is not common in adults). I have more strength and stamina and have never ever felt so well. My daughter is also healthier than before, so is my husband. I never went through colic or late night crying spells with my son as I did with my daughter. I also no longer have problems with acne and very dry and cracked skin. I now love food and eating, when before it often made me feel worn out and tired. Thanks so much!
J.S.

A FABRICATION
The so-called Mediterranean Diet is an American fabrication for the simple reason that in Italy let alone in the entire Mediterranean area people eat in different ways. Yet there was historically such a thing as an Italian diet. Here is the story: at the end of the 19th century, Italy had just been unified into a brand new nation. At that time Pellegrino Artusi wrote a book of recipes entitled The Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well. It was a collection of traditional recipes from Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna (concerning food, Emilia is for Italy what Bourgogne is for France) and it became the second bestselling book in Italy (the first being the Bible). It is actually mentioned in a high school text book, History of Italian Literature, and for good reason as it was responsible for the spread of a common language in the middle class of the new nation. It remained the bible of Italian food for the middle class until the 70s-80s, when the lowfat craze kicked in. I remember that as the time when we really started eating pasta and bread.
The Artusi book is the antithesis of what today is called the Mediterranean diet: for instance one recipe for breakfast calls for eggs, butter, anchovies, capers and tuna. Artusi emphasizes the use of animal fat and meat; in fact, the book is a feast of animal food. The book actually starts with a rating of the nutritive power of different kinds of meat, with beef at the top of the list. There is a section about pasta in which Artusi warns children, elderly and pregnant or lactating women from consuming pasta because it would distract from the consumption of more nutrient-rich foods, as meat or fish. . . and cautions, people with tendency toward obesity to refrain from consuming it because every doctor knows that flour has no nutritive power and immediately turns into body fat.

The most famous Italian products are animal-based: 400 kinds of traditional cheese (most of which are required by state-enforced purity laws to be made from raw milk, like Parmigiano Reggiano) and hundreds of cold cuts (prosciutto crudo, prosciutto cotto, salame, coppa, pancetta, mortadella, to name a few).
During the 1950s (when Ancel Keys visited Italy and initiated the Mediterranean diet myths) a lot of people had a hard time affording meat, especially in the south. But that was certainly not considered something good. In fact most families that could not afford meat would still buy little pieces of it, at least once a week, to feed the kids. My grandpa, who fought in WWII, would tell me sometimes: Quit complaining about food. You can have meat twice a day, you don’t know how lucky you are. At your age I knew what famine was like. Elders who went through fascism, war, German occupation, and then saw their towns destroyed by Anglo-American bombings would commonly speak that way to the new generation.

Finally, in a local newspaper from the northern Italian town I’m from, there is a historical page sort of the way we were. A few months ago it published the following documents from its archive: at the beginning of the 1920s, the price of food was increasing. A group of
middle-class housewives wrote to the authorities asking for the creation of a committee to control the prices. They also wrote down a list of the essential goods whose price should be kept controlled, in order of importance. The most important was first choice butter. Then came the second choice butter. Then lard. Then olive oil. Then a list of meats and cold cuts. There is no mention of bread or pasta in the list. Very different from the so-called Mediterranean diet. C.N.

A NEW WIFE
We really enjoy your quarterly magazine. What you’re teaching us is what my father’s theory has been over the years, but some people thought he was a little goofy. My wife suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome for ten years. Thanks to what my father taught me, we didn’t accept the saying you have to learn to live with it,and kept searching and found various things that helped. But after the birth of our first child, my wife lost what she had gained. So then she tried the vegetarian diet. For the first two months, it seemed to work great but after that things started to head the wrong way. I’m an Amish farmer and milk cows and my wife tried to tell me how dairy products are not so good. I raise my cows organically without hormones so I thought that my milk is surely not so bad, but anyway this went on for eight months. She was losing weight and had no desire for sex and all those good things. Then we found out about your work. We’re Holstein folks so my wife begged me to get a Jersey and I did. Now we’re expecting our second child and people are asking, What are you doing for your health?
I mean, I have a completely different wife! H.S.

A TRADITIONAL DIET
I well remember my childhood as a very happy one. My grandparents were French, but in time they moved to London. When my sister and I went to stay with them, it was heaven. We had lots of bread and drippings. In those days, beef and pork needed to have plenty of fat on them. On a shelf on the way upstairs were glass jars full of cod liver oil, which I loved. Every morning, my grandmother used to break an egg into a glass and fill it with milk, stir it and drink it. My grandfather would fill a bucket with chats (small potatoes) and cook them on an open fire. We children helped ourselves when they were cooked. In today’s paper, I have just read that chicken soup makes people live to a ripe old age. When I lived in Glasgow, Scotland, I was taken ill with kidney and bladder trouble and all I got while in the hospital was chicken soup, so maybe there is something to it! I am 82 years old and still going strong!
M.H.

A WISE DIET
I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your work! I heard one of your representatives speak recently and changed my diet completely. My husband and I had been on a vegetarian diet with only olive oil and a bit of butter for me. My health was going downhill with a lot of pain in the joints, spine and hips. At times my lower back was so painful I had to stay in bed. Now, after five months on your wise diet, my pain is completely gone and I can work hard in my garden without any repercussions. And my depression is lifted like a dark veil! By the way, I had my lipid panel checked recently and had excellent results with a cholesterol of 183 and an HDL/LDL ratio of 2.2. Thank you so much for your good work! H. M. E.

BREAST CANCER IN MARIN
Thank you for the enlightening information you present on your website. It has done wonders for my physical and emotional health in the past couple of years! Dr. Price’s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration has been a true inspiration that weaves a strand of common sense through the otherwise confounding nutritional web into which most unfortunate people have become entangled.

Now that you’ve helped me to see nutrition in a new light, I keep my eyes open for potential nutritional crises that may be attributed by the mainstream medical profession to other causes. One that I find most interesting is the soaring rate of breast cancer among middle-aged white women in Marin County, California. Marin now has the highest rate of breast cancer in the US. The press cites numerous possible causes for this, including environmental toxins, usage of hormones, average age of the female population, etc., but totally neglects diet as a possible culprit. How could it be, given that Marin County residents consume one of the healthiest and most natural diets in the country low in fat (except for vegetable oils), vegetarian, high grain and high soy? Could it be that this very diet is getting them into trouble? Perhaps the people in Marin need to understand what a truly
natural diet is all about. B.S.

BUTTER AND TOOTH DECAY
I am writing this letter to lend you my support and assistance. I am a follower of Weston Price and his studies. As a dentist, I have seen the difference that butter makes when it is added to the diet of children. I have also witnessed first hand the devastating effects of a vegan diet thrust upon growing children. They end up with caries, failure to thrive or slow growth, no fingernails, poor immune integrity and poor health overall.
I try to educate my patients about the importance of butter and fats in general. I show them how butter hardens teeth and stops decay. I have seen butter work (stop caries) in 18 children now. I want to help you in the education of America for better nutrition and health. We must seek truth and not cling to lies! T.S.

CANCER AND MACROBIOTICS
I was diagnosed with breast cancer in October of 2000 while on a macrobiotic diet for three years, and also using a progesterone cream since 1998. After partial mastectomy surgery I became extremely ill from the general anesthetic and developed malabsorption and chronic diarrhea, losing weight rapidly over the next few weeks. I tried various macrobiotic remedies which stemmed the diarrhea but I did not begin to regain the lost weight until Christmas, when I abandoned the vegan stuff and attacked an organic, free-range turkey carcass and ate my fill. That night I slept well for the first time in months and my urinary pH, which had been very acid, was normal in the morning. So much for alkalinizing through macrobiotics.
I continue to focus on organic lightly cooked vegetables of all kinds and small amounts of whole grains, but I have added back butter, olive, sesame and coconut oils and organic, free-range, grass-fed or naturally raised meats and fowl, eggs and organic kefir with flax oil. It took over a year to regain the lost weight. I feel and look better, and my menopause symptoms which had been very severe are no longer troublesome, even without the progesterone cream (which now contains propylene glycol, propylparaben and methylparaben, apparently to appease the vegan constituents who objected to the keratin and hyaluronic acid from animal sources). As my digestion has improved I have been able to tolerate the occasional bit of wheat, spelt and kamut. A.T.

CURED WITH COD LIVER OIL
I have suffered from menorrhagia causing excessive menstrual bleeding for many years. As you suggested, I took four tablespoons of high vitamin cod liver oil (almost 60,000 IU vitamin A) for four days along with raw butter and 1200 mg vitex (chaste tree berry, a progesterone source). The bleeding cleared up completely! I am now continuing on two tablespoons per day of cod liver oil and 800 mg vitex, with no more problems. R.N.

GOOD BEEF DRIPPINGS
I have long noticed that people instinctively know what is good for them. In your articles on fat, you note that saturated fat such as beef fat helps protect the liver from damage. You may not be aware but the usual custom amongst the working class of the UK was to have a heavy night beer drinking followed by a good nosh of fish and chips cooked in fine beef dripping. This activity was curtailed by the introduction of vegetable oils and replaced by curry and chips cooked in vegetable oil. Perhaps this is a contributor to the rise in obesity, liver damage and other things.
I was raised in a poor family frequently having only dripping sandwiches to eat. I remember eating the white fat raw off the rind my mother cut off the bacon. Also, through all the scares about bad fats, I refused to bow the knee and continued to eat cheese, full cream milk and butter. It is nice to find my instincts vindicated by your thoughtful and in-depth research. R.G.

GOOD START
I talked with a bus driver on a recent trip. A 59-year-old African American from New York City, he grew up on a farm in Georgia where they grew all their own food. He had eight brothers and sisters and said that all were still alive and healthy. Growing up they all drank raw milk and made their own raw butter. When I inquired about lactose intolerance in African Americans, he said they didn’t have any problems.
His father said eating fat was good and sometimes he would eat mostly fat instead of meat. They used the fatback for cooking collards and other foods. He was a very calm and collected person. His description of driving buses for 16 years through city traffic, over long distances and dealing with bad drivers showed his calm, cheerful nature. He had a well developed wide jaw and wonderful smile. S.R.

HEALTHY AND ENJOYABLE
Thank you so much for your work, which has really changed our diet and our lives. We are very much into integrative medicine and healthy living. We have researched and tried lots of diets and this one that you recommend is not only the most enjoyable, but but the one that has made us feel the healthiest. My wife is a holistically oriented MD and we just did extensive blood tests. After about two years on your diet, eating as much butter, coconut, eggs, avocados and meat as we want, our cholesterol and hormones are fantastic! And we have not gained any weight. Seems like confirmation that eating a diet full of saturated fats and cholesterol does not negatively affect one’s health. It can be challenging to convince others of this because the propaganda against animal fats is so extensive. R.C.


LOWFAT AND CATARACTS
I followed the John McDougall and Dean Ornish diets for most of the 1990s because I have high blood pressure. I believe those diets were the cause of me developing cataracts at the age of 46. The reason I started to suspect the diet-cataract connection was the following: the medical group I was in had a nine-month waiting list for cataract surgery. When I did see the surgeon, he said to me: Ten years ago all my cataract patients were on Medicare. Now we are seeing more and more people in their 30s, 40s and 50s with cataracts.

During the 1990s, we had a big push for lowfat from McDougall, Ornish, the USDA Food Pyramid and the new nutrition labels with fat content. There was a huge increase in lowfat products, everything from lowfat potato chips to cookies and ice cream. There was a big increase in Type II diabetes. There seems to be an increase in cataracts but it is blamed on the hole in the ozone layer. But I do not have an outdoor job, I did not take steroids and I don’t have diabetes. I have given up my lowfat diet and my blood pressure is actually lower.
A.W.

NO LONGER VEGAN
I have enjoyed reading your articles on the website and found them to be very informative. I followed a lowfat diet for years in a vain attempt to lose weight, yet I was slowly gaining until I reached 200 pounds. (I’m 5’3.) I always felt tired and miserable on a diet of grains and vegetables, with little meat. A friend introduced me to the Atkins diet and I have successfully lost 65 pounds to date, going from a size 18 to a size 8. I buy beef, pork, lamb, chicken, trout and cheese directly from the farmer so everything is organic, mostly pasture-raised. I feel wonderful and would never, ever advocate a vegetarian diet.
I hope your site is able to help many to see how much we have been lied to. It makes me angry how I struggled with excess weight for years, thinking there was something wrong with me, suffering from self-hatred, when the information I was given was false.
Lucky for me, I was never able to consume processed foods, as many additives and preservatives make me ill, especially hydrogenated oils, MSG and hydrolyzed plant proteins. They give me unbearable migraines, violent vomiting, extreme thirst and excessive urination. It seems that my body is desperately trying to rid itself of this poison.

My mother-in-law is on medication for high blood pressure, high cholesterol and migraines and I know that she always feels awful. But I have been unable to convince her to stop following the nutritionist’s advice. She eats only chicken or fish, grains, vegetables and margarine (non-hydrogenated). L.C.

ORTHODONTICS
My father and mother, who grew up in farm country of New Mexico and California, both have straight lovely teeth and very good constitutions; all of their children have required extensive orthodontics and have had health problems of one sort or another. My mouth was so narrow that I had to have my wisdom teeth and four additional molars pulled before I got my braces at age sixteen. As a child, I suffered from ear infections, debilitating hay fever and asthma, having to be taken to the emergency room on several occasions because I had stopped breathing. My husband’s parents also have good strong straight teeth. His mother grew up in Switzerland and his father grew up on a farm in Utah. (My husband’s grandfather died at age 95 and still had most of his teeth and all of his wits.) However, my husband and his brothers grew up on a diet that included a lot of powdered skim milk and Kool Aid. (Fortunately, they also ate lots of raw milk cheese, raw meat and other Swiss delights that I think helped compensate for other processed food in their diet.) My husband has a very narrow face, bad vision and required extensive orthodontic work. He is the youngest of four boys and he needed the most dental work. My theory is that his mother’s body was progressively depleted with each pregnancy. She was not able to breastfeed, so all four also started out on formula.
When we got married, I assumed that our bad teeth came from genetics and that all our children would have the trouble we endured. Our oldest child was conceived and born before I had ever heard of your work and he has a long narrow face. As his permanent teeth grow in, I can see that he’ll probably be visiting the orthodontist as well. He is quite tall and lanky, just like his father. He has suffered with seasonal bouts of hay fever since he was small; these have improved, I believe, because his diet has improved. My second son and subsequent two girls were born after we adopted a diet based on the research of Dr. Price. They all have wider faces than their elder brother ever did at their ages and they seem to have plenty of room in their mouths. In addition they all are sturdier in build than the oldest. All the kids are allergy- and cavity-free. As for me, I have almost completely eliminated my own CFS and allergy symptoms. My husband was used to going to the dentist and discovering new cavities at each visit even though he has always practiced good dental hygiene. When he went to the dentist last week, after a three-year absence, he had not one new cavity. Teeth can even heal, strengthen and remineralize if fed properly. The work you are doing has had a powerful influence in our lives. L.P.

PROTEIN POWDERS NIXED
I am a weight-training specialist. For some time I have had great concerns regarding the overuse of whey, soy and various protein powders in the exercise industry. Many lifters and exercise enthusiasts these days almost exist on these powders. I am concerned about whey protein because it is produced from cooked milk which, according to the Pottenger’s Cats study, can only provide inferior protein, no matter how you market it! This same group of people has been trained to fear saturated animal fat, which I feel only makes the whole issue of high protein powder consumption worse.
In my lectures, I often tell people to simply look at what nature provides in natural meat sources in the form of fats, proteins, enzymes and other nutrients such as vitamins and trace minerals and compare that with what you get in
designer protein. I have calculated that the manufacturer produces such proteins for about $1-$3 per gallon container. That same gallon container will comfortably hold about $170 worth of organic free-range eye fillet of beef. How could one actually expect to find a protein source that can compete with $170 worth of nature’s best for $1-$3? P.C.

ROWS OF PEARLS
We could not delay in writing this letter to let your readers know how powerful the combination of cod liver oil and butter has been for our children’s growing teeth. Our adopted twins turned three recently and went for their first dental checkup this week. Naturally we were a little nervous since they had had a rough start on cheap formula in the orphanage and we’ve been a little late in getting them off bottles. Nevertheless, they had not a single cavity and their teeth are beautiful rows of perfectly formed pearls. What a blessing!
We know from experience that their diet made the difference because our first child had many cavities early on. During those years we were still deluded by the idea that cow’s milk is only for calves that some of our vegetarian mentors had promoted. Then we found out about the Weston A. Price Foundation and switched to animal fats, whole raw milk and plenty of butter and cod liver oil right around the right around the time we got our twins. Just in time to make a world of difference for these kids. Many thanks to everyone who has helped with the teaching of these important insights! J.U.

SKELETON IN THE CLOSET
I am writing to you because you have saved my life! I am a 43-year-old mother of three boys, happily married to a wonderful, understanding, supportive man. I know he couldn’t care less if I was thin or chubby. Professionally I am an RN who is completely disgusted with our modern medical system. I have spent over 15 years in self study of nutrion and natural health and my boys are very healthy. Generally speaking our diet has been void of processed, sugar-laden, chemicalized garbage food. We are a happy, healthy, well-adjusted close-knit family. We camp, fish, hike, bike ride, golf and share many other family-oriented activities. Everyone was doing well, except for me. . . I had been keeping a big, ugly skeleton in my closet for the past 30 years. Its name is bulimia. It started in high school. I still remember the moment a friend bragged how she could eat a whole half-gallon of ice cream and then throw up and not gain a pound. I thought, Wow, great idea!

What seemed like a great weight control answer turned into a very long nightmare. I am sure that part of my interest in health and nutrition was actually a search for an answer to my own secret, agonizing problem. I usually succumbed to 1-3 binge-purge episodes each day some days more often. Every once in a while I would look into the mirror and tell myself
that was the last time! I sometimes went without binge-purging for three or four days, but never any longer. What a failure! I read every book possible about my condition and possible treatment. None had a very good success rate. All included long-term, expensive counseling. Too much risk, too much money. It was easier to keep the monster under control rather than attempt to kill it. The turning point was my introduction to the teachings of the Weston A. Price Foundation. Up to that point I had a front row seat in the lowfat, high-complex-carb, semi-vegetarian camp. After more research, I dramatically changed my diet. I also put myself on the amino acid program directed at eating disorders, described in The Diet Cure by Julia Ross. What followed I consider nothing less than a miracle! I have not had one binge-purge episode since! I am so ecstatic about my new-found success that I do not mind the extra weight I have put on. My research tells me that over time my body should adjust to my ideal body composition while gradually getting rid of the extra fat. I’m still working on that and most days I am not obsessing about my extra weight. As I struggled with bulimia, I always thought that this problem was due to my lack of will power. Now I know that the problem was nutritional my body had cravings for things it was not getting in my lowfat diet. I pray that your work continues to reach people in need. You have a lifelong fan in me who will continue to advocate your work to all who will listen. E.L.

STORIES WE LIKE TO HEAR
After taking cod liver oil and smearing iodine on my arm for two weeks, I had a normal menstruation, having gone well over a year without. (I’m 52.) While this may be coincidence, I believe it is a sign of better health, having had amazing effects from taking evening primrose oil and salmon oil, also within short periods of beginning or increasing these products. I was celebrating menopause, yet, I also celebrate this change.I never missed butter when I gave up dairy foods nearly 10 years ago, so I’m amazed at the pleasure I derive from its flavor and texture, now that I trust its importance in my diet. I now realize how little butter I had growing up in a world of margarine. I only began using butter when I developed an enthusiastic interest in cooking, in my early thirties. Thanks for your fascinating and clearly helpful ideas.
T.M.

TREATS EVERY DAY
I thought you might like to hear about my experience in having switched over to full-fat dairy products. After I attended a Weston A. Price chapter workshop in April, I decided to no longer buy fat-free or lowfat dairy products. My ten-year-old daughter was over the moon with joy, as whole milk products have mostly been reserved for a treat. We both liked these foods much better than the lowfat versions, but I had been convinced through the current nutritional Zeitgeist that to buy anything with full fat was a treacherous act. My daughter, however, unexposed as she is to television, magazines and doctors had always maintained that it was the full-fat dairy that was the food we should eat. We have now been regularly consuming
treats for ten months. We relish the after-school yogurt snacks, creme fraiche in our soups, whole milk and butter on our morning porridge, whole milk in our tea and hot chocolate, the raw whole cheeses on fruits and bread, and the occasional ice cream. We have recently discovered how delicious whipped cream and (defrosted) berries can be, especially in a school lunch.
Interestingly, we have not gained weight during these ten months. My daughter experienced a two-inch growth spurt and yet her weight has not changed. She no longer comes home from school desperately hungry and wanting something intensely sweet. Even more importantly, I enjoy making and eating whole dairy products the texture, taste and appearance are so appealing. The extra bonus, as a mother, comes from knowing that I am enhancing my family’s health every day by having made the switch. Thank you for providing me with this vital information that has made such a difference in our lives. A.S.

VEGETARIAN NO MORE
I just had to let you know what a blessing your work has been to our family. We were vegetarians for about 7 years (my husband for over 25). I had no energy and was gaining weight despite the fact that we ate really well. My son came along and was happily breast-fed for 2 1/2 years. He changed overnight when I weaned him, becoming grumpy, argumentative and belligerent. Then one day we were at a church dinner and I was just about to tell the little old lady not to put chicken on his plate but it was too late. So I thought, we just won’t eat it. Well, Mr. 21/2 year old ate his, mine and one other person’s! And guess what, he wasn’t crabby anymore! I gave up the vegetarian cause and resolved to feed my family good-quality meat. Here we are four years later and boy, if this kiddo doesn’t have his fat and protein look out! We have learned our lesson, which brings me to the next lesson. Good meat! I have a farm near by that has pastured poultry. When we cook those birds, the whole house is alive with the most amazing aroma. We have gravy, lots of meat and soup after heaven. One night when I was working long hours I stopped and picked up some chicken from the grocery store yuck! No nice smell and no taste. The kids wouldn’t eat it.
So the long-and-short of this tale is that I have resigned my position at the university to stay home full-time. People think I am nuts because my kids are in school. But I am going to make bone broths all day, lacto-ferment veggies and beverages and make wonderful traditional food. It takes a lot of time to do all this. And I run to a near-by farm once a week to get raw milk, raw cheeses, the most amazing yogurt ever, eggs like no one has ever seen in their lives, meat and a chat with some incredible people. I feel blessed beyond belief. Money will be tight but we figured that rather than dump it into the stock market for their college education, they will be able to stand on their own two (strong) feet when it comes to college. What we lack in liquid assets, we will make up for in bone density and mental health. L.H.

VITAMIN A DEFICIENCY
I began having problems with rough and red skin on my face, and little bumps on my upper arms. My research pointed to a possible vitamin A deficiency so I tried 10,000 IU per day (in a blend with D, from fish oil) for a few weeks. I saw no improvement whatsoever, so I thought I’d hit a dead end. But something kept telling me to try more, so I read up on vitamin A toxicity and decided to give 20,000 IU per day a try. After discontinuing the vitamin A for a couple of weeks (to more clearly separate the results of one dosage from the other), I started on 20,000 IU per day. The results were immediate and dramatic! In three days, the skin on my face was back to a softness it hadn’t had in a long, long time. And not only that, numerous other complaints of long standing (one of 30 years!) began to fade. I never was a vegetarian I eat beef (very rare, with fat) and I eat egg yolks. I also eat lots of dark green leafy vegetables and yams, both with butter. So it seems strange that I could have become vitamin A deficient, but that is what happened. My experience demonstrates what Dr. Roger Williams called
biochemical individuality. I wonder how many folks are out there who are reluctant to consider that they could have a vitamin deficiency because of the implication by experts that the RDA amounts are enough for everyone. This experience has certainly made me look at those numbers in a whole new light! R. L.

NO LONGER CRABBY
Due to a metabolic problem (hypoglycaemic/pre-diabetic) I am using a protein-sparing, low-carb eating program (which includes butter, untreated milk products and hormone-free meat and eggs). It has been an awakening for me, literally. I have so much more energy and clarity. Consequently I now have the energy to stand up for myself if necessary instead of letting the world walk over me. I have no depressive days now (not bad for someone who was supposed to have inherited endogenous depression). And if I’m not sure about all this I can always wipe myself out again by eating normally (pasta, white bread, cake). High-glycemic index carbs sedate me by depleting my energy every time. Maybe this extra energy could be described as making me crabby. Another nice side effect of healthy eating: I’m less of a people pleaser! Please keep up your good work I love reading your site. Your dietary guidelines are about truth and sanity what a breath of fresh air. J.C.

COMPLETELY TURNED AROUND
For many years I have had problems with digestion(gas, upset stomach and diarrhea). I also had regular nosebleeds, sometimes twice a day. I have had cold hands and feet for as long as I can remember. I was diagnosed with Wilson’s syndrome. For about five years I could not sleep through the night. The last two years I have had pain under my right side rib cage (possible gallbladder). When my heart started to skip beats is when I finally went to the doctor. After many tests they determined I had premature atrial contractions with a low heart rate. My options were to go on high blood pressure medicine and wait but my doctor said that there was a possibility that my sinus node could stop working and I could get atrial fibrillations and the possibly blood clots that could cause a stroke!
I chose to look into alternative methods of solving my health problems. I spent the next month researching, reading, calling, and searching on the internet. I did a complete body and house clean-up with the help of a natropath, dentist, accupucturist and some self-help books. One of my clearest memory was going through my kitchen and clearing out all processed foods. I pretty much left my cupboards bare because everything had white sugar, white flour, process soy, polyunsaturated fats, and artificial additives. I quickly adopted the Weston Price Diet with lots of saturated fats, whole dairy products, animal protein and whole sprouted grains.
I can now report that within 6 month of adopting my new diet my health has completely turned around and the best part is that my children’s health improved dramatically. My son had suffered from anxiety, insomnia, depression. I am convinced that following a traditional diet from the Weston A. Price Foundation can help many people feel healthy. I have even started studying to be a nutritionist so I can help pass this important information on. L.C.