Weston A. Price Foundation

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Weston A. Price Foundation

Postby Early » Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:37 am

I've searched the archive and find mentions of the Weston A. Price Foundation with regard to soy but no general discussion of the foundation and their strongly anti-vegan/vegetarian views.

If the foundation has been discussed on the forum, please let me know where to find the thread.

If this is a new topic, here's the link that led me to join the forum and post:

http://www.westonaprice.org/tour/vegtourindex.html

Best to all,

Early
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Postby momof4 » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:01 am

Well, the people I know who a part of this organization have a totally different world view than I do. They think I'm brainwashed, and I think they are...so there's really no way to have a conversation.

I'm not really sure what good discussing them would do--it'd just go 'round and 'round, like with Atkins. I think it's one of those "agree to disagree" things.
Last edited by momof4 on Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Where to Start...

Postby f1jim » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:01 am

A quick perusal of the various pages at this site revealed so much misinformation and outright garbage science, it's almost not worth discussing. As an example, they feel that Laetril is a sure fire cancer cure. The real research on laetril shows it to be completely worthless as an anti-cancer treatment. Yet, partly because of websites like this, and the desperation of terminally ill people, the quakery lives on! Further reading brings up example after example of bogus dietary advice. It's another website that can be turned to when humor is in short supply!!!

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Postby Joe927 » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:49 am

It saddens me, because it can be so convincing. Maybe even convincing enough for people to feed their babies organ meat, raw milk, and egg yokes.

Sad...really sad.
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Postby AaranaKinsley » Mon Jun 30, 2008 11:56 am

Ah yes, the health benefits of meat, butter, cow's milk and eggs. I prefer to leave that crowd alone and let them continue indulging their taste for fiction in the manner they've chosen.
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Postby momof4 » Mon Jun 30, 2008 1:50 pm

AaranaKinsley wrote: I prefer to leave that crowd alone and let them continue indulging their taste for fiction in the manner they've chosen.


Yes, that's exactly what I mean about them having a different world view. For an example, they believe that high cholesterol has nothing to do with heart disease, therefore they see nothing wrong with having high cholesterol, eating foods that are high in saturated fats, etc. So they dismiss the benefits of a plant-based diet because they don't believe the science behind it, yet they'll believe the lies of their "leaders."

The fact that we do have science and board-certified doctors behind what we believe, makes no difference to them--in fact, since many of them view the medical world with distrust, the science that we can show them means nothing.

It sort of reminds me of something I learned in school a long time ago. Some organization went to Africa, I believe, and was trying to push a method of birth control. It failed miserably, because these people didn't believe that sxx had anything to do with making babies. So if you're trying to talk with people who don't believe high cholesterol, organ meats, raw meats, etc, are harmful, then obviously we really have very little in common. Showing them, for example, Dr Esselstyn's or Dr Ornish's proof that heart disease is reversed with a plant-based diet (you've all seen the photos and videos, I'm sure, of the before and after shots of the arteries) will mean nothing because they don't believe the build-up of crap in the arteries cause disease. I'm not exactly sure what they believe causes disease, other than the general belief that vegetarians are unhealthy.

I tend to have a "live and let live" attitude with people. If they want to eat that way, fine. They complain to me about their headaches, constipation, and lack of energy, and make no connection to our dietary differences--yet view my diet with disdain. It's really very sad.
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Postby bob2200 » Mon Jun 30, 2008 2:06 pm

T. Colin Campbell has a section on this group on the extended audio interview, available for download on the web ( http://www.nutramechanic.com/campbell.html ). It seems, acording to Professor Campbell, that Weston Price was a dentist who went around the world looking for peoples with healthy teeth. Not much relation to the present group, as I understand it. But then, supposedly John Birch didn't have much relationship to what the John Birch Society represents either.
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Postby Quiver0f10 » Mon Jun 30, 2008 3:49 pm

On another board I visit, a woman is anti-vegan and was going on @ Weston Price and all the info on how vegan/vegetarian diet is bad for you. I went to the Weston Price foundation site and found all the info they had on vegetarianism and looked up each and every reference sited at the bottom. Every reference sited was positive info for vegetarianism and I still can't figure out how they made the connection that its bad for you?
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What Jeff N. said...

Postby Clary » Mon Jun 30, 2008 4:18 pm

In a February 27, 2008 thread here on this board, in Jeff's Forum. (emphasis added):
JeffN wrote:
Don J. Brix wrote:Jeff, For the past several months, I've been reading lots about low-fat, plant-based nutrition (i.e., McDougall, Campbell, N. Barnard, etc.) Recently, I heard of the Weston Price group and their position. I decided to look into it and came across a critique of vegitarianism by Stephen Byrnes. It's remarkable in the extent to which he seems to diametrically oppose , not just McDougall/Campbell recomendations, but lots of the expert opinion that's been around for many years now. Here's an example, "it is usually claimed that a diet rich in plant foods like whole grains and legumes will reduce one's risks for cancer, but research going back to the last century demonstrates that carbohydrate-based diets are the prime dietary instigators of cancer, not diets based on minimally processed animal foods." Another, "...it is commonly believed that saturated fats and dietary cholesterol "clog arteries" and cause heart disease, such ideas have been show to be false by such scientists as LInus Pauling, Russell Smith, George Mann..." etc., etc.
Do you know anything about this guy? Does he have any credibility?
Incidentally, I've been enjoying your posts and, one other thing, what are the NAV's? Don


Hi Don,

Weston Price was a dentist who went around the world studying native diets and their effects on health. From it, he learned alot about the benefit of eating a whole food natural diet. His book, Nutrition and Physical Degenration, is a classic, for its time.

However, these days, Sally Fallon and Mary Enig have hijacked the name, and his work and have turned it into an org that promotes high saturated fat, high fat, high cholesterol diets. Butter is a health food , etc etc.

Dr Stephen Byrne, one of their medical leaders, died of a stroke at the age of 41.

I would recommend people to stay away from it. They misrepresent and twist data and information. There is no real evidence supporting their theories.


It is sad.

You can read another excellent critique of their organization here..

http://www.vegsource.com/articles2/fuhr ... _myths.htm

In Health
Jeff Novick, MS, RD
"LIFE always begins again." --Edmond Bordeaux Székely
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Postby Heretic » Tue Jul 01, 2008 12:32 pm

Hi everybody,

Re: Dr Stephen Byrne, one of their medical leaders, died of a stroke at the age of 41.

Stephen Byrne died of AIDS complications. He wrote about his disease in his last letter on his website posted just before he died.

Re: As an example, they feel that Laetril is a sure fire cancer cure. The real research on laetril shows it to be completely worthless as an anti-cancer treatment.

As far as I know there are no real research on lateril because neither laetril nor apricots kernels can be patented. If there is one please let me know, I am very interested. I am also looking for studies on vilcacora (Cats' Claw) and other herbal medicine. It is not easy to conduct cancer trials outside of the standard "slash-burn_and-poison" routine because of the masive legal liability. Anothger route is a dietary approach, for example this one:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articl ... id=1819381

Re: I tend to have a "live and let live" attitude with people. If they want to eat that way, fine. They complain to me about their headaches, constipation, and lack of energy, and make no connection to our dietary differences--yet view my diet with disdain. It's really very sad.

Hmm, I tend to eat quite a lot of animal fat dairy (150-200g of pure fat a day) and never complained. I never had any problem; in fact most of my health problems disappeared since I did that for the first time 9 years ago. Don't be so sad, it is quite possible that there are more "right" ways than "one" way.

Regards,
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Heretic

Postby f1jim » Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:17 pm

Want more information on Laetrile? Here you go. It's all readily available at your fingertips, but like solid information on nutrition you have to actually look for it. This is a good place to start. From there it's pretty easy.
Enjoy

http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRel ... trile.html

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Postby Heretic » Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:33 pm

Yes I have read it , it reads like a criminal chronicle of FDA hounding down a bunch of individuals and some went to jail. Putting opponents in jail does not however prove anything. If the FDA are so sure then where are those studies? If laetrile is not supposed to work (it may well not, I am not 100% sure at all) as the author of that quackwatch article claims, then why none of the references he gave at the bottom of the page, are scientific papers? It does seem strange, doesn't it?

Regards,
Stan (Heretic)
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Yes

Postby f1jim » Tue Jul 01, 2008 3:40 pm

And you forgot the black helicopters and the foil beanies. This wasn't a paper documenting research, it was a history of the use of laetrile. There are references to the research but you must do your own homework. Really, it's not that hard, unless you prefer not to. I think the article fairly portrays the slimy underbelly of laetrile treatment and those that undertake it(sic). Like "psychic surgery" in the Phillipines, it continues to bilk thousands of people out of their life savings at a time they are most vulnerable. A pox on their houses!!!!

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Agenda

Postby Early » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:43 pm

It's clear from reading the posts in reply to my original query and the links they included that the Weston Price people have an agenda, a bizarre agenda at that. But why? Does it have to do with their funding?

Best to all,

Early
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Re: Agenda

Postby Heretic » Tue Jul 01, 2008 4:59 pm

Early wrote:It's clear from reading the posts in reply to my original query and the links they included that the Weston Price people have an agenda, a bizarre agenda at that. But why? Does it have to do with their funding?

Best to all,

Early


I doubt it, they just have a different opinion about nutrition than yours.

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