[Karen]

Dr. Price's book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration was written in the 1930's, copyright 1939.

Excerpts from chapter 16.
http://journeytoforever.org/farm_lib...e/price16.html
Primitive control of dental caries

"We may divide the primitive racial stocks into groups, classified according to the physical environment in which they are living and the manner in which the environment largely controls their available foods. It is significant that I have as yet found no group that was building and maintaining good bodies exclusively on plant foods. A number of groups are endeavoring to do so with marked evidence of failure. The variety of animal foods available has varied widely in some groups, and been limited among others. "

" Vitamin D is not found in plants, but must be sought in an animal food. The dietaries of the efficient primitive racial stocks may be divided into groups on this basis: in the first place those obtaining their fatsoluble activators, which include the known fat-soluble vitamins, from efficient dairy products. This includes the Swiss in the high Alps, the Arabs (using camel's milk), and the Asiatic races (using milk of sheep and musk ox). In the second place there are those using liberally the organs of animals, and the eggs of birds, wild and domesticated. These include the Indians of the far North, the buffalo hunting Plains Indians and the Andean tribes. In the third place there are those using liberally animal life of the sea. These include Pacific Islanders and coastal tribes throughout the world. In the fourth place there are those using small animals and insects. These include the Australian Aborigines in the interior, and the African tribes in the interior."

"Still another problem confronts us, i.e., the sources of fatsoluble activators indicated above, namely: dairy products, organs of animals and sea foods, may vary through a wide range in their content of the fat-soluble activators or vitamins, depending upon the nutrition available for the animals. Cows fed on third grade hay, too low in carotene, not only cannot produce strong calves but their milk will not keep healthy calves alive. (Chapter 18.)"

"Since 1927, I have been analyzing samples of dairy products, chiefly butter, from several parts of the world for their vitamin content. These samples are received every two to four weeks from the same places, usually for several years. They all show a seasonal rise and fall in vitamin content. The high level is always associated with the use of rapidly growing young plant food. This tide in plant life, fluctuating with the seasons, controlled the migration of the buffalo southward in the autumn and winter and northward in the spring. They moved at the rate of about twelve miles per day, travelling with the sun in order to provide the highest-vitamin milk for the young calves born in the south. No doubt these tides in nutrition control also the migration of birds. By far the most efficient plant food that I have found for producing the high-vitamin content in milk is rapidly growing young wheat and rye grass. Oat and barley grass are also excellent. In my clinical work small additions of this high-vitamin butter to otherwise satisfactory diets regularly checks tooth decay when active and at the same time improves vitality and general health."

"Similarly the value of eggs for providing fat-soluble vitamins depends directly upon the food eaten by the fowl. The fertility of the eggs also is a direct measure of the vitamin content, including vitamin E."

"Since the sea foods are, as a group, so valuable a source of the fatsoluble activators, they have been found to be efficient throughout the world not only for controlling tooth decay, but for producing a human stock of high vitality. Unfortunately the cost of transportation in the fresh state often constitutes a factor limiting distribution. Many of the primitive races preserved the food value, including vitamins, very efficiently by drying the fish. While our modern system of canning prevents decomposition, it does not efficiently preserve some of the fatsoluble activators, particularly vitamin A."