I came across the WAPF foundation early last year. This organization is full of info on food,farming, and the healing arts. Based on the astonishing work of Weston A Price, dentist and anthropologist who traveled the globe and studied traditional diets in 27 different tribes on 6 continents.
More than diet, this lifestyle shift completely changed my health over the past year and since layering these principles in my life I have put a medical condition I have been dealing with since I was a baby into full remission!
Gleaning from the wisdom of our ancestors is of utmost importance in reclaiming vitality in the face of so much confusion & dogma.
I’m simply sharing this info because for me, it was a breath of fresh air. Maybe, if it feels resonant to you, it can be a helpful springboard to dive into your own exploration!
I would have never guessed a year ago that we would be making our own kombucha, eating liver, and making plans for a garden today but here we are! Today, I wanted to just overview the principles, and provide you with resources to further delve in on your own time. Let’s get started!
Quick background:
Weston A. Price was a dentist from Cleveland, Ohio who in the 1930’s, asked a question. Why do people have cavities? He and his wife ended up traveling the world to find the answer to that question. He studied 27 different tribes that were still living like their ancestors did and found that practically all of them had perfect dental arches, no cavities, and more than that, were vibrantly healthy and happy. The tribes that were pictures of perfect health did not have general stores in their areas. They did not have access to the modern conveniences of sugar, processed food, and white flour. In stark contrast, the same groups of people in different areas with the general stores, began to show signs of tooth decay, fallen dental arches, and narrower faces, even in the span of one generation!
For further study:
Book: Nutrition & Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price
Website: www.westonaprice.org
Podcast: Wise Traditions Episode 155- “This Isaac Newton of Nutrition”
1. eat whole, real foods
I think this principle is pretty common across most dietary camps nowadays. Most people can delineate that eating food in its natural state is better than eating food that comes in a box. But what about “health foods” that are processed? Take this for example:
Seemingly a health food. I mean, it has the word “nature” in it and the packaging is green so it has to be healthy right? But even though oats, and honey might be healthy food when eaten in a more natural state, more things have to be added to the mix:
Since ingredients are listed by weight, the first things listed are the most prominent things. The first three things listed are Whole grain oats, Sugar, and Canola oil.
So if you want to avoid all of the garbage being put into packaged food to try and make the food sit on the shelf longer, and hyper-palliative, the best thing is to just eat real food.
The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to find farmers in the area and buy directly from them. Keeping your dollars local, and reducing the distance the food has to travel to get to you is also an important consideration if you are more environmentally minded. Here is a good source to find farmers in your area:
Farmer search: EatWild.com , Find a WAPF chapter leader
Books: Deep Nutrition by Dr. Cate Shanahan
Podcast: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 228: Just Eat Real Food
2. include animal products
When Weston Price set out on his journey, he was actually hoping to find groups that did not include animal products. What he found was quite the opposite. Tribes would actually go to great lengths to include animal products in their diets. Conversely, he did not find any groups that only ate animal products, and they would also go to great lengths to get plants in their diets as well. I find it admirable that he had enough humility to record what he was seeing instead of trying to get it to fit his hopeful hypothesis.
Interestingly, most groups didn’t just incorporate the muscle meats that we are used to eating. They put a special emphasis on organ meats. Organ meats are the true super food. Check out this excerpt from Wellness Mama on different organ meats and what nutrients they contain:
- Heart, for example, is a great food source of copper, an important mineral that is needed in healthy balance with selenium. Just 4 ounces of beef heart also contains more than 500% daily value of vitamin B12 and every essential amino acid.
- Kidney contains an incredible amount of lean protein, selenium, B2 (riboflavin), and B12.
- Liver provides more nutrients gram for gram than any other food, and is particularly rich in vitamins B12, folate, and vitamin A.
Traditional cultures incorporated true Nose to Tail eating. They honored the animal by not letting anything go to waste, from the organs, to the fat, to the bones!
Books: Sacred Cow by Robb Wolf & Diana Rodgers– I just read this book and it was full of nuanced thought, history, and tons of science. Would definitely recommend!!!!
Podcast: Wise Traditions Episode 267: Cow as scapegoat
Articles: Are organ meats healthy? from Wellness Mama
3. focus on vitamins A, D, and K2
Vitamins A, D, and K2 are super important fat soluble vitamins that we need from our diet. Weston Price found that traditional groups had at the least, 10 times the amounts of these vitamins in their nutrient rich foods they were eating compared to people living in the US. And that was in the 30’s, I suspect the gap has probably widened tremendously. Also, this info was not just observation. Along with the over 15,000 print photos Price collected, he also had 4,000 slides, thousands of dental records, saliva samples, food samples, films, and tons of notes.
Good fats:
- Butter
- Lard or tallow
- Bacon fat, duck fat, goose fat
- Coconut oil
- Olive oil
Fats to avoid:
- The hateful eight– any processed seed oils including canola, cottonseed, corn, soybean, sunflower, safflower, rice brain, and grapeseed oil
There are so many misconceptions about fat and cholesterol. A simple explanation of these misconceptions actually come down to profit. That is way too deep of a rabbit hole to dive into for this article, but it’s definitely an interesting one to learn about if you are up for it. Start looking at the resources below and also reading about Ancel Keys.
Generally speaking, every cell in your body needs fat to function. Every process in your body relies on fats to be successful. Having enough fat enables nutrients to be distributed in the correct places.
Articles: The Skinny on Fats , Sunlight and Vitamin D: They are not the same thing,
Podcasts: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 233: Vitamin A-mazing
Books: Nourishing Fats by Sally Fallon Morrell , The Obesity Code by Dr. Jason Fung , Deep Nutrition by Dr. Cate Shanahan, The Dental Diet by Dr. Steven Lin
4. eat some raw animal products, cook most plants
The idea behind this principle is bioavailability, and variability. Let’s start with animal foods.
Raw animal products have a different nutrient makeup than cooked animal products. For example, there is more bioavailable B6 in raw animal products. Lots of cultures would eat raw oysters, fish, raw meat, and raw egg yolks occasionally. But, there is more B12 that is bioavailable when the animal products are cooked. So, there is some nuance there, but the main point is, get a little of both!
Consuming raw, unpasteurized milk, cheese, and butter that are not treated with heat are really beneficial because you can get the benefits of the bacteria that actually make the food more digestible. Many people that are lactose intolerant can drink raw milk. Even though they might not have the enzyme to help break down the lactose from the milk in their bodies, raw milk that is not heated will still have naturally occurring enzymes. So you are consuming digestion helpers basically.
For plant foods, some have antinutrients, which basically mean they are unabsorbable when consumed raw. I have heard it put before, that the anti nutrients component is the plant’s defense system, they don’t have claws or teeth, so they have to have another mechanism to protect themselves! From phytates, to protease inhibitors, from saponins, to lectins and phytoestrogens, knowing how to eat these plants food in the best way possible, is going to help you get the most out of it!
Article: Plants Bite Back
Podcasts: Wise Traditions Podcast Episode 245: Raw vs. Cooked, Episode 151: Is raw milk safe?,
Book: The Carnivore Code by Paul Saladino
5. include lacto-fermented food for beneficial enzymes
This one is a fun one! The reason your digestion process works is because of the enzymes that your body creates to help you digest food.
enzyme [en´zīm]: any protein that acts as a catalyst, increasing the rate at which a chemical reaction occurs.
If you are eating food that already has enzymes in it, like sauerkraut, kimchi, kombucha, kefir, raw milk & cheese, and some raw plant foods, it will help carry the load for you, and digestion will be easier. Also, it makes the food more digestible too (see #4). You don’t have to eat that much either, I usually just have a little sauerkraut or kimchi with each meal. And, we have started making our own kombucha which tastes delicious, so it is easy to incorporate
Podcast: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 247: What’s So Good About Fermented Foods?
Website: https://www.kombuchakamp.com
6. prepare grains, nuts, and seeds by soaking, sprouting, or fermenting
The thing that I like about the WAPF principles, is that it isn’t exclusionary. It isn’t about what is on the “no” list for eating. It is about how to get the most out of what you are eating looking at the ways of our ancestors! So, properly prepared grains are totally fine to incorporate in your diet…unless you don’t want to or don’t tolerate them well, of course! But if you love your grains, this is a great principle to help them be even better!
I don’t really personally eat a lot of grains but the two things I have incorporated from this principle is 1. When we do buy bread, we make sure to buy homemade sourdough bread (or as close to homemade as possible). and 2. We soak oatmeal, rice, and even cornmeal before making stuff with it. Definitely more to learn in this area, but at least this may be a good start for you!
Podcast: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 250: Neutralize Anti-Nutrients
7. limit polyunsaturated fats, embrace saturated fats
Polyunsaturated fats (PUFA’s) are what makes up The hateful eight. PUFA’s are any processed seed oils including canola, cottonseed, corn, soybean, sunflower, safflower, rice brain, and grapeseed oil. Even though PUFA’s are naturally occurring in tiny amounts, we have really overdone it with the whole vegetable oil thing and are consuming way too much.
Switching out canola oil for butter, coconut oil, lard, or tallow is an easy way to get more saturated fats (and the fat soluble vitamins). Using butter liberally is also a delicious way to start as well.
Article: Basics on Fats and Oils (this one has a lot of resources)
Podcast: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 258: Fat Is Where It’s At,
8. balance omega-3 and omega-6
The idea of omega-3 fatty acids has been pretty accepted in the mainstream, but, like everything, there needs to be a balance…and the balance is found in eating real foods!
Because of people consuming so much of the hateful eight (they are literally in everything), instead of getting a good balance of like 2:1 omega-6 to omega-3, the Standard American Diet (SAD, how fitting), gets more like a 20:1 ratio.
No need to rush out and start buying supplements, which can get expensive and are hard to absorb sometimes if they are synthetic. Foods that have a good balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are liver, eggs, butter, wild caught fish!
Podcast: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 265: Optimize Your Ratio of Essential Fatty Acids
Article: Precious Yet Perilous, Tripping lightly down the Prostaglandin pathway, Are We Over-Dosing on Omega-3s? Or, Why We Need Fish LIVER Oil, Not Fish Oil
#9 use unrefined salt
As a child of the “low sodium” craze, I didn’t really grow up eating a lot of salt, or even owning a salt shaker to put salt on things. But actually salt consumption has very important roles in brain development, digestion, hormone function, sleep, and all things digestion.
Refined salt is what most people know of and is commercially available. Like the girl with the umbrella on the Morton Salt bottle. But actually refined salt is not really that good since it strips out all the other minerals. Also, they bleach it to make it white.
Unrefined salt, like Celtic sea salt, pink Himalayan salt, or, my fave, Redmond Real Salt have a lot more bang for your buck. They are not white because they have not been processed. Redmond Salt is taken from a mine in Utah, and actually has 60+ other naturally occurring minerals in it, including what you get from refined salt, Na and Cl.
Also, incorporating more unrefined salt can help your hydration levels. When you sweat, you aren’t just sweating out water. You are sweating out tons of other minerals, as well as salt. Your cells don’t want to be too saturated or diluted, so through sweating and peeing your body keeps the balance.
Your cells can actually explode from drinking too much water without salt. It’s called hyponatremia. If you are one of those people who feels the need to drink those gallon jugs a day, do yourself a favor, and just add some unrefined salt in your life. I like to add some to my water, or just shake it straight in my mouth. That way, you aren’t over hydrating your cells.
Books: The Salt Fix, Quench: beat fatigue, drop weight, and heal your body through the new science of optimum hydration
Podcasts: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 270: Why Being Salty Is A Good Thing
#10 enjoy gelatin rich bone broths
In stride with eating nose to tail, you can use the bones to make nourishing and delicious bone broth! Bone broth is full of collagen, gelatin, glycine, glutathione, methionine, and lots of other “-ines”. It is amazing for rebuilding tissue, since the body is made of fasciaand fascia is made up of collagen. It is the perfect recovery drink, especially after a long rehearsal or part of an injury recovery protocol.
Bone broth is also amazing for healing the gut. Ideally, our gut lining is in tact so the things we are eating are staying in our gut. When we have a dysfunctional gut, caused by overload of toxic chemical exposure from our food, air, and water, it creates holes in the gut lining. The gaps “leak” all of the things that are supposed to stay in our gut into our bloodstream which leads to autoimmune reactions. Gluten allergies are a good example of this, the gluten leaks out of the gut into the bloodstream, if the enterocytes were sealed, the gluten wouldn’t leak out and you wouldn’t necessarily have a reaction to it. Bone broth helps to seal the gut lining so you can actually absorb the nutrients better and digest the food that you are eating more efficiently.
If you can’t make your own bone broth (yet!), or between batches of home cooked bone broth, I love drinkingKettle and Fire bone broth! True bone broth has to be cooked for a long amount of time in order to get all of the nutrients out of the bones. Some companies try to flash cook their bone broth, cooking it really hot for a shorter amount of time, but truly nourishing bone broth is best when it is cooked low and slow like how Kettle and Fire does it!
Books: Nourishing Broth, Gut and Psychology Syndrome : Natural Treatment for Autism, Dyspraxia, A D D , Dyslexia, A. D. H. D. , Depression, Schizophrenia
Podcast: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 280: Rediscover Bone Broth, Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast with Kettle & Fire,
#11 prepare the body for pregnancy with special nutrients
The last principle that Weston Price discovered was that all traditional cultures had special ways to help prepare the body for pregnancy. They would feed both men & women in childbearing years the most nutrient dense food, for at least 6 months before they had a baby!
I obviously can’t speak to this principle personally, but if you are thinking of getting pregnant soon, definitely check this one out! One of my favorite things to look at and read about is the Healthy Baby Gallery, where people post pictures of their little adorable babies and share their experience incorporating the WAPF principles through their pregnancy.
I was surprised to read how people reported having little to no morning sickness, enjoyable labors (don’t hear that often), and just feeling way better during pregnancy, and babies being super healthy and happy, sleeping through the night and not being fussy at all.
Podcast: WISE TRADITIONS PODCAST EPISODE 284: How To Have A Healthy Pregnancy
Books: The Mama Natural Week-By-Week Guide to Pregnancy and Childbirth,
The end
I feel like this was an extremely long post, but I barely scratched the surface. There is so much to learn and so much out there. If you feel overwhelmed, I would encourage you to just pick one thing you feel resonates with you and dive deeper. Once you feel good about that, move on from there! Or, if you are not really interested in any of this, thank you for reading anyways!! This stuff personally excites me a lot. I look forward to learning more and reclaim the vibrant health that my ancestors enjoyed!