Background about the Weston A. Price Foundation
The Weston A. Price Foundation promotes itself as a trustworthy source of nutrition advice, but two respected review organizations have questioned the group's credibility.
Who is the Weston A. Price Foundation?
The Weston A. Price Foundation (WPF) is a charity founded by Sally Fallon in 1999 to disseminate the research of Weston Price, a dentist. Dr. Price traveled the world observing the health status and diets of isolated non-industrialized peoples in the 1920s and 30s. Dr. Price sought the factors responsible for good dental health and straight teeth among these "isolated primitives." From these observations, he formulated a dietary theory that people who consume a primitive diet rich in animal foods have straighter teeth with less decay, stronger bodies and greater resistance to disease than those who adopt a more modern, Western diet. Spokespersons representing Weston A. Price include Mrs. Sally Fallon and Dr. Mary G. Enig, Ph.D.
What is the group's nutritional theory?
WPF advocated optimal health for babies, children and adults through a diet rich in animal foods such as butter, lard, cod liver oil, organ meats and whole, unpasteurized non-homogenized raw milk from healthy cows.
WPF discourages vegetarianism and recommends people avoid, among other foods, pasteurized milk, low fat milk, skim milk, fluoridated water, white rice, caffeine-containing foods and beverages, synthetic vitamins and soyfoods. A full list of prohibited foods can be found at http://www.westonaprice.org.
Is the group credible?
Two of the nation's most respected nutrition and health site review organizations have questioned WPF's credibility. Quack Watch (http://www.quackwatch.org) describes Dr. Price's research on "natives" as "poorly designed studies [that jump to] simplistic conclusions." The Tufts Nutrition Navigator (http://navigator.tufts.edu) gave the Weston Price Web site an "unacceptable" rating (10 out of 25 points), and gave its accuracy a rating of 1 (out of 10). In its review of the WPF Web site, Tufts stated "they appear to select obscure studies, take study results out of context and use undocumented 'facts' from their own publications to forward their agenda." Tufts goes on to note that the promotion of raw milk presents a food safety risk and that the practice of feeding whole cow's milk to babies, as promoted by WPF, is discouraged by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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