Modern Swiss Children Have Lost Their Health

Modern Swiss Children Have Lost Their Health

© Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, www.ppnf.org
In the modernized districts of Switzerland tooth decay is rampant. The girl, upper left, is sixteen and the one to the right is younger. They use white bread and sweets liberally. The two children below have very badly formed dental arches with crowding of the teeth. This deformity is not due to heredity.⁶ ( Original caption.)

It was neither good genes nor luck that kept these isolated Swiss in superb health. Dr. Price continues:

One immediately wonders if there is not something in the life-giving vitamins and minerals of the food that builds not only great physical structures within which their souls reside, but builds minds and hearts capable of a higher type of manhood in which the material values of life are made secondary to individual character.⁷

I want to offer you an opportunity to connect with this once healthy group of people. They are role models for us, for living in health and relative peace. It is this way of being that has become lost in the modern world of convenience and fast food. It is a result of our fall from grace. By sensing and revering the holy nature of food, ancient cultures enjoyed vibrant health. In exchange for their reverence of the life-giving vital force, especially that in the summer milk, the isolated Swiss received health, aliveness, vitality and peace. Unfortunately in today’s world, the once profoundly honored cow’s milk—unpasteurized and grassfed—which has brought health to people across the globe for thousands of years, is being attacked by our own state and federal governments. This healing food is attacked because as a whole, our culture is disconnected from the vital force of life, and so real food has lost its meaning and value. It even becomes an enemy to be destroyed. When you or your friends and family reconnect with real food, you reconnect with the goodness of life.

Nutrition of the People in the Loetschental Valley

The native Swiss diet consisted primarily of soured rye bread, summer cheese (consumed in a portion about as large as the slice of bread but not as thick), which was eaten with fresh milk of goats or cows. Meat was eaten once a week and smaller portions of butter, vegetables and barley were consumed regularly. Soup from animal bones was consumed regularly.

In a study of 4,280 teeth of the children in these high valleys, only 3.4% were found to have been attacked by tooth decay. In the Loetschental Valley 0.3% of all teeth were affected with tooth decay.^a

Modern Swiss were Losing Their Health

In the 1930s, tooth decay was a major problem for school children in the modern parts of Switzerland, with 85-100 percent of the population affected. The local health director advised sun tanning for the children as it was believed that the vitamins produced from the sunlight would prevent tooth decay. However, this tactic did not work. The modernized Swiss no longer ate their native diets of soured rye bread, summer cheese, summer butter and fresh goat or cow milk.

The Nutrition of Modern Swiss

Foods that the modern Swiss ate that promoted tooth decay included white-flour products, marmalades, jams, canned vegetables, confections, and fruits. All of these devitalized foods were transported to the area. Only limited supplies of vegetables were grown locally.

While there are several differences between the modern and isolated diets, there are two points of significant interest. When you compare these two tables, the key nutrient differences between the diets are not related to rye bread vs. white bread. Rather 500 calories of the modern diet comes from sweets and chocolate which are low in fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. These products replaced cheese and milk which where dense sources of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals.