There is a great deal of confusion about nutrition in modern America. High carb, low carb, no carb? Low fat, trans fat, good fats, bad fats? It can be discouraging, disorienting, and downright dangerous.

We humbly encourage people to consider the work of Weston A. Price and those who have followed in his footsteps as a possible answer to our collective culinary confusion. His work allows for a diversity of expressions around a core of shared health-promoting dietary traditions that span the globe and people groups all over the world.

We also encourage you to visit The Weston A. Price Foundation and The Price Pottenger Nutrition Foundation to see other summaries of Dr. Price's work and his photos, which in and of themselves are worth a lifetime of research and study.

1. All the food groups and food types are necessary. We have been given teeth to grind, teeth to gnaw, and teeth to gnash; therefore, various meats, fruits/vegetables, and grains are all a part of the ideal diet. Neither vegetarianism nor Atkins offers a long-term healthy diet; neither the SAD (Standard American Diet) nor the raw foods approach provides a proper balance.

2. Various traditional cuisines have the potential for promoting health. As Dr. Price and others have demonstrated, the principles of proper nutrition and food preparation are trans-cultural; Eskimos, Icelandics, the Swiss, and native American… almost any people who follow and have adequate access to their traditional foods and prepare them in traditional ways may enjoy superb health. Thus, we encourage you to eat widely, both in terms of the foods your family enjoys, and the ways in which they are prepared: Thai, Mexican, Asian - the possibilities are many for health promoting meals.

The only diet that is completely incompatible with the people's design for food and nutrition is the modern, industrialized, prepackaged, processed diet, also known as the SAD (Standard American Diet) otherwise known as the 'death diet.' This diet has brought disease, degeneration, and death to our own nation and is slowly eroding the foundations of traditional diets in other nations, bringing with it oppression and destruction to the ecosystems, communities, and people.

3. Both cooked, raw, and fermented foods/beverages are important. Every meal should seek to have a balance between these three food types. A 50-50 ratio (cooked to raw/fermented) works well for most people, and the more cooked a meal is, the greater the need for fermented foods, such as chutneys, fermented condiments, and fermented drinks, to aid and ensure proper digestion and utilization of the nutrients in our food. Note that some foods are meant to be eaten raw or lightly cooked (such as dairy products and some meats), while others are troublesome if left uncooked (such as many vegetables). This is opposite to how most Americans think; we cook the foods that our ancestors ate raw or rare and leave raw the foods that they usually cooked.

4. Water loving foods (hydrophilic) should become a larger part of our diet, as they have always been an important part of traditional diets around the world and have health benefits that are almost too numerable to list. Examples include properly prepared bone-stocks, soups made from bone stock, and 'wet' cooked breakfast cereals. Bone stocks are one of the most nutritious, delicious, and health promoting foods known to humanity and should form a regular and integral part of our cuisine. Learn to make bone stocks weekly so that your family may enjoy their benefits for decades and generations to come.

5. Water should not be consumed with meals and snacks; it severely compromises proper digestion by altering stomach pH, diluting stomachs juices, etc. Water as a drink in America is highly overrated; properly prepared bone stocks, real milks, and fermented drinks are great with meals or by themselves as thirst quenchers; these include such beverages as kombucha, small unpasteurized beers, raw milk, kefirs of various sorts, unpasteurized wines in moderation, etc. Purified, mineral rich water is a good drink between meals.

6. We need whole fats, especially saturated fats and certain forms of cholesterol (as opposed to skim, low, pasteurized, homogenized, trans, or any other types of fat). Every meal should include whole fats (whole unpasteurized milk, whole fat yogurt, grass fed butter, fresh flax seed oil, raw extra virgin olive oil, virgin coconut oil, whole, fresh eggs, etc.) since without fat the body is unable to assimilate and utilize the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals found in the food you eat.

FATS DO NOT NECESSARILY CAUSE FAT, that is to say, not traditional fats made from animals on their proper diets. Also, we should avoid all "new fangled" fats and foods - margarine, vegetable oils of all kinds (corn, canola, etc.), which are sold as health food, and other innovative monstrosities such as boxed, extrusion pressed breakfast cereals - since these actually do great damage to our bodies and to the environment.

7. Both what we eat and how it is prepared are equally important. Thus, microwaving fresh vegetables rather than steaming or sautéing does not yield the same product in terms of nutrition or health. Fresh produce from a local farm and the stuff off the shelf from Kroger and Walmart are not at all equal. Properly farmed natural/organic meat from grass fed animals and produce grown on mineral rich, revitalized soils are vastly different from antibiotic, irradiated, homogenized, pasteurized products.

We must strive to recover ways of cooking that enhance, rather than detract from, the nutritional value of our foods and from our bodies' ability to utilize what we eat. Methods such as culturing, fermentation, low temperature baking, raw milk/cheeses, stockpots and broths were standard a few decades ago, but with the breakdown of the home coupled with the modern emphasis on convenience and speed, have been turned into memory to our detriment.

Furthermore, we should avoid products that have been severely damaged by modern food processing and seek to not use these technologies in our own food preparation. Pasteurization, homogenization, irradiation, genetic modification, microwaves, high-temperature cooking (especially certain ways of barbecuing), antibiotics, steroids, pesticides and herbicides, and a host of other means and methods… these all do known and unknown damage to the plants, animals, and environment and, consequently, to the people who then eat these improperly raised and prepared foods.

8. All grains and sweeteners should be whole (as opposed to refined, and note that many sweeteners with whole sounding names, such as Sugar in the Raw, are actually very refined). Grains should be soaked or sprouted before eating or turning into other foods, such as breads, muffins, cereals, etc., except during a fast. Beans, nuts, and seeds should also be soaked or sprouted and then dried before consumption to neutralize enzyme inhibitors and other problematic compounds.

9. Animal foods (whole, unsalted raw or cultured butter, whole raw milk, raw milk cheese, beef, organ meats such as liver, etc…) are essential to good health. Vegetables cannot compare with the vitamin and nutrient content of muscle and organ meats, something our ancestors understood and made a consistent addition to their diet.

10. Organ meats for inlanders are essential to good health. They are by and far, next to high quality seafood, the most nutritious foods. They should always be from grass-fed, free-range animals which have been raised without hormones, antibiotics, etc.

11. Foods should be eaten seasonally; the created order is designed so that certain foods are available at certain times of the year for certain reasons. When we eat foods in season, they are at their most nutritious and protect us from those conditions/diseases that are most prevalent/common at that time of the year. (For example, water-laden cantaloupe and melon are in season in the hot summer, while carrots and potatoes are in season during the winter). Some foods are clearly trans-seasonal (such as properly made raw milk cheeses): they are able to be stored and eaten throughout the year as a gracious provision during leaner times of the year when other foods are not available. Eating seasonally also saves money and protects the very things that give us food – soil, land, water - since out of season foods costs more and often requires large expenditures of energy and chemicals for transportation and preservation, creating a great deal of poisons and pollution.

12. Foods should be eaten regionally; the created order is so organized that certain foods have been placed in certain climates/locations to provide the perfect foods for the people who live in those particular places/regions. Thus, the ideal diet in West Africa, while having the same core things cited above, may look very different in terms of individual components than the ideal diet in Alaska, but both have the potential to provide positive health.

Also note, some foods have always transcended regions (spices, certain tropical and other oils, properly dried fish, etc.) but these foods store easily and typically do not require refrigeration or other special care to transport. This indicates that these foods are good for all peoples regardless of nationality or geography. Also note that some foods grow in a super abundance (such as apples and blueberries in Michigan), and we should support the local economies of adjacent regions wisely.

13. All foods should be as natural/organic as possible. If possible, we should purchase our food directly from local farms/farmers who practice wise stewardship of their plants, animals, land, workers, and other natural resources.

14. Most Americans seek to cut costs and save as much as possible in the area of food, which then results in the need to spend large amounts of money in the area of healthcare (drugs, diseases, degenerative conditions, not to mention missed work and ministry, burden on families and church, etc.). Instead, we should spend slightly more on food, if needed, to save thousands in the area of healthcare. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (though in this area most Americans are somewhat shortsighted); biblical wisdom calls us to at least consider these possibilities and the ramifications of what we are eating on our ability to love the Lord our God and others.

Some items are worth their extra cost (such as raw milk and cultured butter, non-antibiotic and hormone laden eggs, beef, and poultry, along with better quality fruits and vegetables). Other items are vastly cheaper than what stores offer (such as real grain in 45 pound buckets) and require that we develop minimal skills to make them a part of our everyday diet (for example, making your own spelt cereal for breakfast rather than purchasing the boxed, body breaking processed cereals from off the shelf at the local store).

15. Where special revelation and general revelation agree, we should strive to put into practice what both teach. Thus, an avoidance of pork is recommended, along with a general following of other Old Testament dietary laws and health instructions; see the enlightening work of Dr. Howell in None of These Diseases. Note also, we need to notice the differences between where the OT food law is prescriptive and where it is descriptive to ensure that we do not fall into dietary traps (such as some of the views expressed in The Maker's Diet by Jordan Rubin, which on the whole is an excellent book that has helped many overcome numerous and varied serious illnesses).

16. By teaming up with others, we can eat a diet that is vastly healthier than the Standard American Diet and also at or below the amount most Americans spend on food. Many items at Whole Foods and Wild Oats are the same price or, occasionally, cheaper than those at Kroger and Walmart, yet represent the possibility of dramatic long-term savings through improved health and wellness. At the same time, many items at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and other "health food" stores, are little more than organic junk food, just as damaging as what you would find in any traditional grocery. We must grow in discernment and knowledge to know the difference and to be able to make and encourage good choices for our families, friends, churches, and communities.

17. Not only should we purchase proper food and prepare our food in beneficial ways, we should also protect our food from contamination by not utilizing certain storage devices that may adversely affect our food, and thus ourselves. Plastics (as opposed to glass, stoneware, ceramic, and enamel coated cast iron) are especially dangerous to cook in or to store liquid foods or foods that contain liquids in and should be vigorously avoided. By wisely purchasing a few good sets of glassware (such as Pyrex), cast iron, and stoneware, we can protect our food, ourselves, and do the environment a service since these will last far longer than the cheap, harmful plastics versions, and biodegrade, leaving no lasting harm once they have left our kitchens.