Journal of Health & Healing™
Vol. 47, No. 3 Fall 2023
Editor in Chief Edward Bennett
Managing Editor Roberta Louis
Contributing Writer Stephanie Welch
Proofreaders Rachel Ramsey Cathy Lombardi
The Journal of Health and Healing™ is published quarterly by The Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, Inc.
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Founded in 1952 and known early on as the Weston A. Price Memorial Foundation, the organization later became the PricePottenger Nutrition Foundation to honor the invaluable contributions made by Weston A. Price, DDS, and Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD, to our understanding of diet and disease. Price-Pottenger is the repository for their work and that of other prominent researchers in the health and nutrition field. The Foundation continues to publish Dr. Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration as well as Pottenger’s Cats: A Study in Nutrition, the book documenting Dr. Pottenger’s classic experiment.
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We hope the Fall season, traditionally a time to gather in community, finds you and your loved ones in good health. It is our goal to offer you, in this issue of the Journal, articles that will be useful in your quest to achieve and maintain a state of well-being, which all of us are entitled to.
The subject of hormone therapy has, for many years, been controversial. Our interview with Dr. Devaki Lindsey Berkson explains how that controversy arose, why she advocates the use of bioidentical hormones rather than synthetic forms, and how these can be of benefit for people of all ages, including both males and females. She discusses the multitude of health conditions that can be addressed with hormone therapy, as well as informing us how we can best protect ourselves from environmental toxins that promote rapid aging. Also in this issue, we present an article by Dr. Linda Isaacs on the use of glandular supplements. As she points out, the therapeutic use of glandular substances has a long history, and although they were relegated to obscurity for a time, there is currently a renewed interest in them. Her well-documented article explains in layperson’s terms what glandulars are and how they have been used historically as well as in contemporary medicine.
An interview with A-dae Romero-Briones, shared with us by Bioneers, provides an indigenous perspective on regenerative agriculture. A-dae points out that the American historical narrative on agriculture has typically left out the practices and contributions of native peoples. She explains how indigenous methods of farming promote healthy food systems, a healthy environment, and healthy people, and suggests ways we can better include indigenous voices in the regenerative agriculture conversation.
We also present another installment in our series of excerpts from Dr. Weston A. Price’s historic lectures. These timeless works represent much more than just a snapshot of an era whose parameters can never be duplicated. The robust health of those traditional people who maintained their native diets, contrasted with that of their neighbors who adopted modern foods, tells a story that is just as meaningful today as it was in the 1930s when Price gave these lectures. This leads us to an important announcement regarding the written works of Dr. Price, Dr. Pottenger, and the other nutrition pioneers included in our newly redesigned online research archives. The majority of these works have now been digitized and published as searchable web pages. The new design is easier to navigate and provides a highly improved user experience. Many of the historical articles in our research archives continue to be of great interest because of their relevance to the nutritional and dietary issues of today.
We again wish to extend our appreciation to you, our donors and members, who make our work possible. In this world of confusing and often contradictory information, Price-Pottenger ’s mission is to bring you teachings that are in harmony with Nature’s laws, for the betterment of all. We thank you for joining hands with us in this endeavor and, as always, look forward to your comments, which may be sent to editor@price-pottenger.org.
Yours in good health,
Edward Bennett Editor in ChiefPrice-Pottenger’s former executive director, Steven Schindler, met Dr. Berkson at HEALCon 2023, the 19th annual conference of the National Association of Nutrition Professionals (NANP), in Bellevue, WA. Her keynote presentation, “The Vindication of the Clinical Application and Power of Nutrients and Hormones,” and our previous knowledge of her pioneering work in the field of hormones made us want to learn more. In this interview, she provides vital information on the important role of hormones in helping us achieve our highest possible levels of health and vitality.
Steven Schindler: Would you share how your life experiences led you to the study of hormones?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: I had the good fortune of meeting my mentor, Dr. Jonathan Wright, the father of bioidentical hormones, when I was still in school. I did an integrative medicine rotation with him in 1977, and he taught me the importance of hormones and the gut. So, for most of my career, I’ve been focused on both hormones and the digestive system.
Most people get into functional medicine because they have been eating a typical American diet and end up with a frightening diagnosis. Then they start to clean up their diet, take nutraceuticals, and look at things a little bit differently. In contrast, I was always health oriented. I practiced yoga, ate organically, and did meditation and cleanses, but I kept getting cancer after cancer. I was doing everything right but getting wrong outcomes. None of my doctors could figure out why someone like me, who was eating well and living what we would now consider a mindful life, would lose a kidney, an adrenal gland, a breast, my female organs, my thyroid, and more.
Eventually, I began work on Hormone Deception, one of the 21 books I have written. It was to become one of the first breakthrough books published on endocrine-disrupting compounds in our environment. Within a very short period, three books came out on the subject—Our Stolen Future, Hormonal Chaos, and my book—and informed the public that our planet was somewhat under assault by endocrine disruptors. While writing this book, I learned that a lot of animals that had been exposed in the womb to a specific compound had developed similar cancers and other health issues as myself. Biologist Retha Newbold told me that the compound that had created all these health issues was diethylstilbestrol, or DES. I wrote away for my mother’s medical records, and they proved that she had been given DES by injection as well as orally when she was pregnant with me. It turned out that I was a victim of the very thing that I was writing a book on, although I hadn’t realized it.
DES, which was synthesized by Sir Charles Dobbs in 1938, was a synthetic estrogen 50 times more powerful than our natural hormone, and everybody thought it was the bees’ knees. They believed it would improve the outcome of normal pregnancies, so it was put in a large number of prenatal vitamins, apparently up to 365.
It was also given to livestock in feedlots from the 1950s through 1979, and everyone who ate meat during that period consumed some of it. In addition, if a woman experienced spotting during pregnancy, her doctor would give her injections of DES to ward off miscarriage. It is still used in some other countries today for this very reason. I had one American OB/GYN doctor call me and ask me what to say to a pregnant mom vacationing in Mexico who started
to spot, and got treated with this. What now to tell her?
My mom, when pregnant with me, began to spot, so she received these injections as well as took DES as a prenatal vitamin. Daughters born to women who took DES, depending on how much of it they had received, had cancers and various other health issues—the same issues as the animals in Retha Newbold’s lab. In one study, Syrian hamsters were exposed to DES and developed the exact kind of rare kidney tumor that had caused me to lose my kidney.
Researchers theorized that when mothers took this drug, it switched off the tumor suppressor genes in the next generation so that their ability to see a cancer cell and fight it off was thwarted. Based on that, I started sleuthing in the literature to find out what could reactivate those tumor suppressor genes, and this led me down a whole new pathway for treating myself. It turns out that there’s a specific metabolite of estrogen that helps reboot your tumor suppressor genes. I’ve been taking that in a bioidentical form for about 18 years, and have now shared this with hundreds of patients and their doctors.
I’ve been on hormone therapies for 27 years now and have not had any cancer in the last 20 years. I’m going to be 75 in a few months, and I’m healthier than most of the people I know who are my age. In fact, in a few days, I’m going kayaking with the dolphins in Charleston. Many people, once they hit their seventh decade, just aren’t the same anymore. Every decade has a different speed of aging, and the seventh decade can be pretty harsh. It can bring accelerated aging if you don’t know how to put the brakes on. Individualized hormonal therapies often can put the brake on aging.
Today, I teach CMEs on hormones to medical doctors and nurse practitioners and try and get the word out. People often tell me that their doctors say that they don’t believe in hormones or that hormones cause cancer—and, as we will discuss shortly, this isn’t what the science says much of the time. I say “much
of the time” because, in medicine, you can never say “always” or “never.”
Steven Schindler: What is the true scope of hormones’ impact on our health?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: Hormones rule your biologic real estate. They are the most powerful signaling molecules in your body. They are like physiologic e-mails that tell your cells and the genes within your cells what to do to keep you healthy. Nothing else can tell your genes what to do, except vitamin D, which is both a hormone and a vitamin. Wherever there is a receptor— which you can think of as a kind of satellite dish—waiting to get a signal from a hormone, the hormone affects that tissue.
You have receptors for hormones throughout your brain. That’s why sex steroid hormones help maintain our cognition, more than anything else that is available to us. Probably 80% or more of the people in neurodegenerative facilities wouldn’t be there if they were encouraged and allowed to have, and had available, hormone replacement. My last book was called Sexy Brain because sex steroid hormones basically rule and preserve the brain. And men and women all have the same hormones, just in different amounts.
Progesterone, which we often think of as a female hormone, is so neuroprotective that young brains make it in six places. Our levels
decrease as we get older, but by providing more progesterone therapies as we age, we can continue to protect the brain. When you age without hormone replacement, you’re aging at the regular physiological rate, which picks up speed every decade. But if you take hormones, they slow that aging process down.
Hormone replacement allows you to reduce the speed of aging in all the tissues that have satellite receptors. For example, the kidneys are filled with receptors, and as we hit 40 and our hormones really plummet, we start losing a percent of our filtering rate every year. With hormone replacement, you slow the loss of renal function.
You also have receptors for hormones throughout your lungs. Researchers at Mount Sinai noticed that women were getting COVID more than men but dying from it less, and men were getting COVID less but dying from it more. So, they tried to figure out how hormones protect women against severe COVID. One way is that progesterone helps lungs repair from injury and protects lung tissue. At Mount Sinai, they ran a study giving 100 mg intramuscularly twice a day to males in the ICU, and compared them to a matched cohort of males who did not get progesterone. They found that many of the males who received progesterone injections got out of the ICU with much less lung injury.
In addition, there are hormone receptors in the lining of your gastrointestinal tract, where most of your immune system resides. There are about 159 known autoimmune diseases, and men get all of them less, except for the kind that affects
the kidneys. Why? Because testosterone helps protect the gut wall against damage, which protects against autoimmunity. If we give patients with autoimmune disorders some testosterone, it often helps reduce the severity of their disease.
Multiple sclerosis, an autoimmune disease, is associated with brain lesions. In phase one and phase two studies, a mild form of estrogen along with estriol, testosterone, and progesterone was given to men and women with MS. This slowed the disease progression and caused the white lesions in the brain to shrink or go away.
Steven Schindler: Is hormone supplementation mainly important for older people?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: We’re now seeing hormone disruption in all age groups. Hormones love fat, and the egg and sperm are filled with fat. The placenta that the baby floats in is filled with fat. Mother’s milk is filled with fat. So, babies in the womb and at the breast are potentially exposed to a huge amount of chemicals that block their hormonal development, and we now have younger people with disrupted hormones. Kids today have less hormones than we used to have, and many of them need hormone supplementation for their brains, their bones— everything. The first symptoms of hormone insufficiency include anxiety and depression, which can lead to suicidal ideation, and this is what we’re seeing in our children.
Various studies have been done to test hormone levels in girls. About 30 of these studies have been published in psychiatric journals, the very first being from Harvard. Researchers there have been looking at girls whose periods are a little bit off and who are having issues such as body dysphoria and anxiety. They are seeing osteopenia, as would typically be found in 65-year-old women, and verbal acuity disruption. So they have been giving hormone replacement to 13- to 25-year-old females for a year and a half, just like you would do with an older woman, and finding that this preserves bone mass and verbal skills, and, in just a week or two, can help put anxiety and depression into remission.
I recently gave the very first CME talk on the depletion of hormones in young males
and females to a pharmaceutical convention in Houston, and the data I presented comes from around the world. Researchers in Brazil, Finland, and Denmark have all published studies showing that our young men have up to 50% less testosterone than their grandfathers had.
Very few people are aware that girls have less estrogen today. I’ve been in practice for 52 years in one way or another, and we didn’t see polycystic ovary syndrome—a condition caused by hormonal imbalance—in girls when I first got out of school. Early menopause is also becoming more prevalent. I saw one young woman who was going into menopause in her twenties.
In addition, endocrine disruptors are causing infertility, which is on the rise. Hormones rule our ability to procreate and keep Homo sapiens going. If our hormones are no longer working and fertility goes down, what’s going to happen to us? It’s a major threat to humanity that our hormones are under attack.
Steven Schindler: Would you tell us more about modern medicine’s approach to hormonal imbalance?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: Hormones were first used to treat aging in the 1950s in Britain, and the idea was that women could be “feminine forever.” Through hormone replacement, they could preserve a lot of the things—skin elasticity, muscle mass, etc.—that women tend to lose as they get older, especially the ability to be intimate and maintain vaginal lubrication. Hormones were huge for several decades, but this all came to a halt in the United States in 2002.
If you ask a physician today about hormones, you’re apt to get the wrong answer much of the time, especially if that physician is a gynecologist, urologist, or endocrinologist. That is because, in 2002, the first randomized trials to be done on hormones as part of the nationwide Women’s Health Initiative were prematurely stopped because it looked like hormones were causing the very issues—heart disease and cancer—that we thought they would protect against.
Until the Women’s Health Initiative, many American women had been on Prempro, a combination of Premarin, which is conjugated equine
(horse) estrogen, with a synthetic progestin, medroxyprogesterone acetate. After the trials, Wyeth, who made Prempro, was successfully sued by a number of women who had developed breast cancer. They didn’t realize that they probably had a much better outcome because they were on hormones. No one realized this at that time. After Wyeth was sued, that was it. Nobody wanted to write a script for hormones. In the United States, doctors stopped using them, and they stopped teaching menopausal medicine in most medical schools.
Within a few months, however, Dr. Leon Speroff, who is known as the father of gynecology, pointed out that the Women’s Health Initiative findings couldn’t be accurate because we’d seen for decades that women age better if they’re on hormones. He said that we shouldn’t believe two little randomized trials in the face of years of clinical benefit. Speroff wrote many papers on this, and I wrote my book Safe Hormones, Smart Women on this as well. Then, in 2018, Dr. H. N. Hodis published an article showing that the “methodology” of the Women’s Health Initiative had been flawed. It had not controlled for previous estrogen use in the placebo arm.
The following year, the original researchers who conducted the Women’s Health Initiative trials reanalyzed their data and found that hormones actually protect against breast cancer. If a woman has been on estrogen for five years, she has a 23% reduced risk of breast cancer— and if she does get breast cancer, she has a 44% decreased risk of death, compared with a woman who has never been on estrogen. Nothing else has ever been that protective against breast cancer.
They published their new findings in December 2019 and presented them at the San Antonio breast cancer convention that year, yet nobody seems to know about this reanalysis. In America, scary headlines sell—and these weren’t scary headlines. Even the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecologists website still only cites the initial findings of the Women’s Health Initiative from way back in 2002. They have not updated their website or shared this info with American OB/GYN doctors, who rely on them, to be in sync with the latest revision by the original authors.
So, when you ask a doctor about hormone replacement, they will generally say that hormones are unsafe, because they still only know about the faulty initial Women’s Health Initiative conclusion. One of my friends has two daughters who just graduated from osteopathic school, and they were taught never to write a script for hormones because hormones cause cancer. They were given no training in menopausal medicine. I lectured in Chicago a few weekends ago and there were 105 doctors in the audience, 20 of whom were OB/GYNs. Not one of them knew about the reanalysis of the first Women’s Health Initiative data.
Since then, multiple studies have come out clearly showing that women live longer if they’ve been on hormones. There’s the largest study ever run on hormone replacement, put together by the National Institutes of Health and the National Library of Medicine. They went into the bowels of 1.5 million Medicare women who were on estrogen therapy and women who weren’t on estrogen, and found that those on estrogen lived 20% longer. They looked at five types of cancer— breast, ovarian, uterine, lung, and colorectal—and found a statistically lower incidence of each if women were taking hormones (for an average of five years).
Steven Schindler: What are some of the issues pertaining to synthetic vs natural hormones?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and mild cognitive impairment is much lower in women who use hormone replacement—unless they take oral estrogen or a synthetic progestin. A few weeks ago, there was a study in the British Medical Journal concluding that hormones cause dementia. However, if you read the study, you find that the women studied had been prescribed oral estrogens and synthetic progestins. Those are the two unhealthy ways of taking hormones long-term: oral estrogens; synthetic progestins.
Progestins are synthetic versions of our own natural progesterone. The pharmaceutical companies alter the molecular structure of the hormone so they can get a patent on it. But when you futz with Mother Nature and change the
position of a methyl group, for example, you create a substance that the human body has never seen before. Consequently, some people’s bodies will be able to handle it, and some won’t. In Europe, on the other hand, they mainly use bioidentical hormones, which are molecules that the human body has seen. When you hear bad things about hormones, it’s frequently because their molecular structure was not identical to what our bodies make.
Functional physicians are trained to use bioidentical hormones, which are exact copies of our own hormones. I have heard some people say that because these are made in the laboratory, they aren’t bioidentical. That’s not true, and they don’t paralyze your receptors, as some have claimed. They dock into the receptors and successfully deliver the signal to the gene. Potentially adverse outcomes from hormones can also stem from taking a hormone orally. But functional physicians write scripts for hormones that are either delivered topically or through the mucosa, which could be in your vagina or the inside of your cheek (ideally not the latter, as some is still swallowed).
This leads us to the topic of birth control pills. I don’t understand why everybody’s so frightened of giving estrogen to older women, yet they’re promoting birth control pills made of oral estrogen and synthetic progestins, the very things we see causing issues nonstop. Birth control pills are causing stroke and hypercoagulable blood in girls, as well as high blood pressure, migraines, poor relationship decisions, and infertility. The longer you’re on birth control pills, the more questionable your fertility might be when you discontinue them. They are also definitively linked to a higher potential incidence of breast cancer later in life.
Steven Schindler: Who will benefit from having their hormone levels tested and what tests do you recommend?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: I think everyone should get their hormones tested at least once a decade, starting with kids as young as eight or nine years old, so that we will know later where their levels started out. Hormonal imbalances are
happening more and more to young people in their twenties and earlier. That means everybody has to get tested now. The problem is that most doctors don’t know how to test hormone levels, because this is no longer taught in medical schools.
With hormones, it’s definitely controversial as to which testing methods are best. The bottom line is that there are some things you have to test in the blood. You can get blood drawn to look at all your hormones, or you can combine blood testing with saliva tests, hair analysis, a 24-hour urine test, or a dried urine spot. But you usually need to also do blood labs.
The most important indicator, however, is how you feel. If you’re losing words or you can’t think clearly, there can be many causes for that. But hormones rule your hippocampus, the area in your brain that functions as the piggy bank for your memories. True anti-aging medicine includes maintaining your hippocampal volume. When the hippocampus has pathologically begun to lose volume, diseases of cognitive decline such as Alzheimer’s start to show up, but if you give hormone replacement to somebody in the early or moderate stages of dementia, the hippocampus can actually revolumize, which is extraordinary. This has been shown by multiple labs from multiple prestigious institutions by functional MRIs. Only hormones can do that.
Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass, also accelerates aging. Women in their fifties often tell me they are exercising more but losing muscle mass and gaining weight on their middle. That’s caused by hormone imbalance. The more you maintain your muscle mass, the younger you stay, and you can maintain healthy muscle mass to a much greater extent with hormone replacement.
In addition, hormones, especially progesterone, can help you to sleep again. As they age, most people lose their ability to sleep well, due to hormonal imbalance. When we give progesterone at night, we can improve the quality of sleep. Yet the pharmaceutical companies want to sell sleep medications, which have very poor safety
profiles. Most people aren’t aware of the fact that for every three years you take many sleep medications, you have about a 33% increased incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. (It shocks me that often by taking some patients off certain sleep and anti-histamine medications, let alone proton-pump inhibitors, they start to think much better again, and often rapidly.)
It’s a constant sadness in my heart that it’s so hard to obtain quality hormonal intervention. Nothing is going to protect you from mortality— we’re all going to die—but hormones can slow the progression of aging. We now have a neurologist who has written two bestselling books on Alzheimer’s and is reversing the disease in mild and moderate cases. He has trained doctors, and he’s been published in peer-reviewed journals. Hormones are part of Dr. Dale Bredesen’s protocol, but no one is listening to him because allopathic medicine is focused on pharmaceuticals, not on healthy lifestyles and natural answers. Bioidentical hormones are natural answers, but in order to get them, you have go to functionally trained doctors or naturopathic doctors who practice in this way.
Steven Schindler: Would you tell us about the role of nutrition in hormonal balance?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: When I was at the estrogen think tank at Tulane University, I had the honor of working with, and mainly learning
from, the scientists who discovered the first two hormone receptors. Dr. Elwood Jensen discovered the first, which is called estrogen receptor alpha or estrogen receptor #1, and Dr. Jan-Åke Gustafsson discovered the second, called estrogen receptor beta. They both found that if these receptors weren’t filled with nutrients, the hormones wouldn’t work properly. It isn’t enough to have a hormone in your bloodstream, it has to be able to seek out a receptor and signal it.
As an example, let’s talk about vocal cords. I lecture a great deal, and I want my vocal cords to be healthy. I know that women who take hormone replacement can speak longer and project better than those who aren’t taking hormones. I’ve got hormone receptors in my esophagus and vocal cords, but unless these receptors are filled with a cornucopia of nutrients—such as zinc, magnesium, iodine, and vitamins B6 and A—the estrogen won’t be able to signal the genes, even if my blood levels of the hormone are perfect. That’s why getting tested is not enough. Often, people will run their hormone levels and think that’s the end of the story, but they don’t know that hormones are not just about levels, but about “receptor functionality.”
The required nutrients have to be in the receptor in order for the hormone to park. Think of the receptor as a parking space. The hormone parks, and then it shimmies in space, and in the process, it delivers the message to the gene to tell your cell how to keep you healthy. It won’t do that unless there’s enough zinc, vitamin A, iodine, and more. Each of the nutrients performs a specific action, and you only can absorb these important nutrients from your food if your gut is working well.
In addition, the receptor has to be available for the hormone to dock into. If it’s a parking space, there can’t already be another car there. A growing public health issue with pollutants—phthalates in perfumes, plastics from food containers, volatile organic compounds such as formaldehyde from new laminate floors, chemicals that enter your home on the bottoms of your shoes—is that these chemicals can occupy that receptor. Even if you have enough estrogen, it can’t dock into a receptor that’s already occupied. Receptors can also become “occupied” if you’re chronically stressed
out. Cortisol is a bully hormone and can occupy the receptors of other hormones, making them unavailable.
So, first, a receptor has to be available. That’s where detox comes in to clear off your receptors. Then you need to have the cornucopia of nutrients to allow the signaling to take place. Hormonal balance involves a tapestry of events, and what you eat, how well you digest, and what you’re exposed to are important. Yet none of these things are taught in medical schools, crazy as that is.
Steven Schindler: What are some of the most important lifestyle choices we can make to improve our hormonal health?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: First of all, you want to reduce your exposure to competitors that can sit in your hormone receptors and prevent your hormones from parking. For example, you should take your shoes off at the front door to avoid tracking toxins into your home. The last third of my book Hormone Deception tells you how to reduce exposure in your home, office, and supermarket cart. It’s especially important to reduce exposure in the bathroom, because that’s where we encounter so many of the chemicals that paralyze our hormones. A Berkey shower filter can remove a lot of the endocrine-disrupting compounds in our water. You also want to buy green personal care products because many personal care products contain chemicals that make your hormones not work. Cleaning up your lifestyle and diet is important, but reducing potential exposures in your home is one of the biggest ways to get your hormones healthier. (You can go to my website, drlindseyberkson.com, and click on the Products We Love pull down and find a link to this water filter that’s been the same low price for over a decade.)
Reducing exposure does a lot to protect your brain. We know that people who are exposed to a lot more endocrine-disrupting compounds are more prone to dementia. If you want to have a better brain, you need to reduce exposure and choose a healthy diet so the receptors have plenty of nutrients.
Based on the works of Jensen and Gustafsson, I developed for Biotics Research two products
that together can make your hormones work better. One of these, Receptor Detox, clears off your receptors. The other is Hormone Balance and Protect, which is designed to support balanced and safe hormone levels. Both are available at drlindseyberkson.com/store.
You can start taking hormones at any age. It’s not true that there’s an estrogen window and you’ve missed out if you are 75 and have not yet started hormone replacement. I’ve started plenty of women in their late nineties on hormones and in a few years reversed osteoporosis and got them off many of their medications. We have made old age a terrible thing to be feared because many people are so decrepit and on so many medications. With hormone replacement, we can take off 10 to 15 years from their functional age, even if they are centenarians. We can make them feel a whole lot better and often change their lives quite extraordinarily.
Steven Schindler: How can people learn more about your work?
Devaki Lindsey Berkson: They can go to my website, DrLindseyBerkson.com, and subscribe to my Substack, which is called Agile Thinking. That can help them really keep up on nutrition and hormone information. I also have various courses and books that people can buy online.
At my website, I have a free ebook called The Vindication of Estrogen, which summarizes the science around estrogen therapies and even talks about hormone replacement for breast cancer patients. There were 26 studies that gave breast cancer patients hormones and compared them to matched cohorts, all before the Women’s Health Initiative. In many of those studies, women had ER (estrogen receptor) positive breast cancer, and in none of those studies did women fare worse for being on estrogen replacement.
I had breast cancer 30 years ago, and I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you like this and lecturing all over the country if I hadn’t been on hormones these past 20-plus years. I spend most of my weekends traveling around, trying to educate physicians and nurse practitioners. It’s all about showing the science, not just giving my personal opinion. But much of this science is not
being shown to our newer practitioners, and it’s no longer easy to find out what’s actual, factual science—and what isn’t.
When I tell people my age, they cannot believe how much energy I have. They say, tell me what to do and I’ll do it because I want to be like you.
I feel better than I’ve ever felt in my life. I have more energy, vitality, and peace. A lot of people strive for that, and that’s what I hope to help people achieve because, for much of my life, I also strove for it. Even though I had many well-intentioned doctors, it wasn’t until I got my hormones balanced that I felt this fantastic. When your hormones are healthy, it’s much easier for you to feel great, which is a gift. I wish that for all of you. &
Devaki Lindsey Berkson, DC, is considered a thought leader in functional medicine. She initiated the first functional nephrology unit at the Naples’ Center for Functional Medicine. Her other focuses are hormones, gastroenterology, nutrition, and the environment. Dr. Berkson is the author of 21 books, including Hormone Deception (McGraw-Hill, 2020), which is used as a textbook in many environmental science graduate courses; and Sexy Brain, one of the first books on the threat of environmental castration (Awakened Medicine Press, 2017).
Dr. Berkson was a hormone scholar at an estrogen think tank at Tulane University and has lectured for many decades in continuing medical education courses for medical doctors, pharmacists, NDs, DCs, and nutritionists. She has taught in the gastroenterology module at A4M for many years and has pioneered the relationship between hormones, especially oxytocin, and the gut. She is a regular guest professor at pharmacy symposia internationally. Her website is drlindseyberkson.com. Appointments can be made at the “consult” section of this website. Check out her memberships, mentorships, and Substacks. Dr. Berkson is offering our readers a one-time discount on the Berkson Hormone Biotics Research products at drlindseyberkson.com/store using the code TAKE10.
Maybe you’ve seen an advertisement for them. Maybe you’ve heard about them in a lecture. Maybe you’ve wondered—what on earth are glandulars?
Glandulars are nutritional supplements made by processing animal glands so that they will be stable in a tablet or capsule form. As the functions of the various endocrine glands were determined in the late 1800s and early 1900s, glandular extracts of various kinds became widely used in the medical community.1 Then, as pharmaceuticals exploded in the 1960s and beyond, their use was viewed as “unscientific” and gradually dwindled.
However, animal glands have been valued as food and as medicine for centuries. As an example, in the book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Dr. Weston A. Price described the diets of indigenous peoples that he observed during his travels around the world in the early 20th century.2 He reported:
For the Eskimos of Alaska the native diet consisted of a liberal use of organs and other special tissues of the large animal life of the sea, as well as of fish.… The bulk of their diet, however, was fish and large animal life of the sea from which they selected certain organs and tissues with great care and wisdom.…
For the Indians living inside the Rocky Mountain Range in the far North of Canada…I found the Indians putting great emphasis upon the eating of the organs of the animals, including the wall of parts of the digestive tract. Much of the muscle meat of the animals was fed to the dogs.3
Indigenous peoples believed that organ meats were valuable, and the photos in Dr. Price’s book certainly speak volumes about their health and the wisdom of their traditional ways of life. What modern support might there be for using glandulars? There are several possibilities, including the following, though there is room for much research to be done in this area.
Oral tolerance. If a person is allergic to something and takes small amounts by mouth, their immune reaction to that substance may decrease or resolve.4 Many health problems are caused by the development of immune reactions to the body’s own tissues (autoimmunity). Because animal glandular tissue is similar to its counterpart in the human body, an individual who has developed autoimmunity to a particular gland might find that taking an extract of the same gland from an animal would be helpful. Studies testing this theory have met with mixed success in the past, but subsequent researchers speculate that this may be due to issues with the gut microbiome.5 Trials of oral tolerance in people with food allergies have been more successful.
As an example of the problems autoimmunity can cause, in a 2021 study, patients with chronic fatigue syndrome were tested for anti-hypothalamus antibodies.6 The hypothalamus is a small part of the brain that manages many important functions: energy metabolism and expenditure, appetite and digestion, temperature control, fluid and electrolyte balance, and wake-sleep cycles. It communicates with all parts of the limbic system, the neuronal circuitry in the brain that controls emotional behavior and motivational drive.7 The researchers found that 33% of the chronic fatigue patients in the study had the anti-hypothalamus antibodies, and those with more antibodies had worse symptoms, along with depression of the stress hormones ACTH and cortisol.
MicroRNA and Exosomes. RNA and microRNA in cells regulate whether the various materials coded by the DNA in the chromosomes will actually be produced. A recent article reported that several microRNA segments in the tissues of cattle are the same as segments of human microRNA, and are stable to various cooking and processing methods.8 Exosomes are small packets
of material that go from cell to cell in the body, carrying proteins, RNA, or microRNA. They have been found in a wide variety of foods and can be absorbed from the intestinal tract.9
The studies described in the article would indicate that very small pieces of genetic material from plants and animals are, and always have been, a part of our diet. While this research is in its very early stages, theoretically these materials could be subtly adjusting the ways our bodies process the information in our own genetic code.
Now that we’ve talked about ways that ingesting glandular tissue might help, why not just eat them, as our ancestors did? That is the most cost-effective thing to do, but because most people choose not to eat animal glands, you are not likely to find them in the meat counter at your local store.
How do raw glands get turned into tablets or capsules you can easily swallow? They can be processed with solvents such as alcohol or with salt to get rid of the fat, and then dried. Alternatively, they can be freeze-dried and milled, leaving the fat inside the tissue intact. Each method has its theoretical pros and cons, mainly having to do with whether or not the fat is removed. Fat contains beneficial compounds but can also be a storehouse for toxins. Especially if the fat is left in, it is important that the animals are raised in an environment that is as clean as possible.
The thyroid, a small gland in the neck, makes and stores hormones that control how fast the body burns energy. Thousands of years ago, practitioners in China used thyroid tissue medicinally, dried, powdered, and mixed into wine or formed into pills.10
Myxedema is a medical condition caused by extremely low thyroid function; patients typically are lethargic or even comatose, with a low heart rate and thickened and swollen skin. Untreated, it can be fatal. It was described many years before the cause was determined, but it was thought to be related to the thyroid because, on autopsy, the thyroid glands of patients with myxedema were practically nonexistent.
Goiter is a swelling of the neck brought on by an enlarged thyroid. When the development of anesthesia made it possible for surgeons to remove goitrous thyroids in the 1800s, myxedema soon developed, confirming that malfunction of the thyroid caused it.11
In 1891, Murray treated a patient with myxedema with injections of thyroid extract, resulting in dramatic improvement.12 Soon after, reports came of patients successfully treated with oral thyroid, sometimes prepared as a sandwich with anchovy paste. Patients preferred thyroid in pill form, so the medicinal use of thyroid as food was short-lived. However, thyroid tissue occasionally contaminates ground meat, causing “hamburger thyrotoxicosis” from excessive amounts of thyroid hormone.13,14 Thyrotoxicosis has also been seen in dogs, especially smaller dogs, after thyroid tissue was accidentally included in dog food or treats.15
Merck’s 1905 Manual of the Materia Medica included a dried extract of sheep’s thyroid in tablets, with directions for dosing.16 One of the first patients to receive oral thyroid in the United States began treatment for severe hypothyroidism in 1892.17 She died in 1943 at age 91; her final years were marked by a balancing act between hypothyroid symptoms when her dose was
dropped and chest pain when it was raised. In that era, there were no blood tests to guide dosing, as there are today.
In the 1950s, synthetic thyroid hormones such as levothyroxine became available, and practitioners were encouraged to use them instead of prescribing thyroid extracts.18 By the 1970s, desiccated thyroid was considered “obsolete” by many endocrinologists.19 However, some patients insisted that they felt better on desiccated thyroid than on synthetic hormones, and its use has continued to this day.
A 2013 publication of the results of a study comparing desiccated thyroid extract to levothyroxine reported that nearly half the participants preferred the extract.20 Opponents of desiccated thyroid extract claim that the amount of hormone present is not as consistent as the synthetic hormone, making dosages harder to adjust. However, in two studies looking at desiccated thyroid extract and the tests used to monitor dosing, the blood tests were stable.21,22
Because underdosing or overdosing of thyroid hormone can have health consequences, it is best to use any type of thyroid preparation with the guidance of a health professional.
While the pancreas makes insulin and other hormones in specialized cells, the bulk of the pancreatic tissue manufactures digestive enzymes that are secreted into the small intestine to work on food. These enzymes include proteases such as trypsin that digest proteins, amylases that break down complex carbohydrates, and lipases that process fats.
The digestive functions of the pancreatic secretions were determined in the late 1800s. Pancreatic enzymes were initially called “ferments” because their effect on food was similar to that
of the well-known processes of fermentation. Despite primitive technology, 19th century scientists figured out that enzymes made by different parts of the gut had different functions.23,24 Fairchild’s Hand-Book of the Digestive Ferments, published in 1898, offered oral pepsin (a protease made by the stomach), trypsin, and amylase for digestive issues, as well as forms for injection into abscesses or necrotic tissue.25
Pancreatic extracts are mainly used to treat digestive problems. Trypsin is inactive in an acid environment and is destroyed by pepsin, so many products have enteric coatings to protect the enzymes during transit through the stomach.26 These coatings may dissolve at the wrong times and can cause their own side effects.27
Most pancreatic enzyme preparations are made by removing fat from minced pancreas with solvents.28 In the experiments about the stability of trypsin when exposed to acid and pepsin, purified enzymes and processed, defatted pancreatin were studied. However, different methods of preparing the product, such as freeze-drying, would leave the fat intact and might protect the enzymes, since fat suppresses pepsin and acid production.29
While no investigations have been done with freeze-dried pancreas, the closest study I found involved pancreatic enzyme preparations (including raw pancreas, and various products with enteric coatings) given to dogs with pancreatic insufficiency.30 Samples from their small intestines were collected and analyzed. Which product delivered the most enzyme activity to the small intestine? Raw pancreas. Dogs reportedly are quite enthusiastic about raw pancreas, but most humans would prefer a freeze-dried product.
Some studies report that pancreatic enzymes may be helpful for conditions such as arthritis and cancer.31-34 Others would say that this is impossible, since all proteases do is destroy proteins, and the molecules are too large to be absorbed from the gut. However, recent review articles describe how proteases can fine-tune many cellular reactions through protease-activated receptors in cell membranes.35 These receptors help regulate how permeable the intestine is, and proteases may interact with them to cause their own absorption.36
Once the value of oral thyroid extracts was established, there was an explosion of interest in the use of other glandulars.
While the role of the pancreas in blood sugar control was recognized as early as 1893, and there were a few reports of successful treatment of diabetics with oral pancreas in the 1920s, those reports were dismissed by the academics of the time.37,38 In my own clinical experience, I do not think that oral pancreas is helpful for overt diabetes.
Package inserts for pharmaceutical pancreatic enzyme preparations list side effects such as abdominal pain, gas, bloating, frequent or abnormal bowel movements, and sore throat. Most of these symptoms would be what the product was prescribed to address. High-dose prescription pancreatic enzyme therapy in children with cystic fibrosis has been associated with fibrosing colonopathy with strictures. However, prescription pancreatic enzymes have an enteric coating. A similar fibrosing colonopathy has been seen with other drugs using the same enteric coating, suggesting that the issue is the coating, not the enzymes.27
The adrenal glands are small organs located over the kidneys in the back of the abdomen. They have two parts with very different functions. The adrenal cortex, the outer part, synthesizes many hormones from cholesterol, and these are collectively called corticosteroids. The two most prominent are cortisol, which regulates glucose pathways and the immune system, and aldosterone, which manages water and salt metabolism. The central part of the adrenal gland, the medulla, makes adrenaline and other hormones that create the body’s sudden energy surge with stress. Adrenaline was purified from the adrenal medulla well before the hormones from the cortex were isolated, because adrenaline is stored while the hormones from the cortex are released shortly after they are made.39
In 1849, Addison described patients with increased skin pigmentation, low blood pressure, nausea and abdominal pain, and eventual death, with abnormal adrenal glands found on autopsy. 40 Experimentation with adrenal removal in animals confirmed that the adrenal glands are essential to health. Nearly a century later, the explanations were discovered: deficiencies of
cortisol and aldosterone cause the symptoms of Addison’s disease. The increased skin pigmentation is caused by overproduction of the hormone the brain makes to stimulate the adrenal gland, due to the low cortisol levels.
Once the value of oral thyroid extracts was established, there was an explosion of interest in the use of other glandulars, including the adrenal. The 1905 issue of Merck’s Manual of the Materia Medica included dried adrenal glands, used for the treatment of Addison’s disease, hay fever, and neurasthenia (a term used in that era for fatigue and irritability).16(p109) Clinicians used adrenal glandular material, raw or dried and formed into a tablet, to treat various conditions with some success. Here is an example from an article by Francis
M. Pottenger, Jr., MD:In August, 1932, we began feeding whole beef adrenal glands to a group of patients suffering from asthenia. These were administered within a few hours from the time they were removed from the animals. Our reason for this was because of the various reports connecting this condition with adrenal deficiency. The improvement in their energy and sense of well-being was very definite. In September, 1932, a child whom we were treating had been suffering from continuous asthma for several months and was completely exhausted. With the idea that we might at least relieve his exhaustion we gave him seven grams of whole raw beef adrenal gland, which was first ground and then mixed with peanut butter. That night the child became free from asthma and remained so for three days.41
In 1920, Muirhead, a pharmacology professor with Addison’s disease, treated himself with 1200 milligrams of dried whole gland orally per day, along with adrenaline injections. Muirhead was bedridden before starting his treatment plan, improved substantially for several months with clearing of his skin pigmentation, but then deteriorated and died.42 In a series of patients with Addison’s disease treated at the Mayo Clinic in the 1920s, half the patients benefited from Muirhead’s approach.43
Adrenaline (from the adrenal medulla) did not help Addison’s disease patients, and so it became clear that the key compound was made in the adrenal cortex. To try to concentrate the sub-
stance, extracts were made with various solvents, but they were expensive. One extract used in the early 1930s was effective, but to make one day’s dose for one patient took 600 grams of adrenal cortex (from roughly 20 cows).43
Why did it take so much adrenal cortex to make a useful extract? The concentration of cortisol in the adrenal gland is quite low, between 2 and 4 micrograms/gram.44 The product used in the Muirhead regimen, which generated clinical improvements and resolution of hyperpigmentation, could have had no more than 0.024 milligrams of cortisol.45 The extract made with 20 cows’ worth of adrenal cortex could have had at most 3 milligrams of cortisol, and probably less given inevitable losses in processing. In comparison, a typical dose of the pharmaceutical replacement for cortisol, hydrocortisone, for patients with Addison’s disease would be around 20 milligrams.
These astute academic clinicians in the early 1900s saw seriously ill patients improve with products that could not have contained a significant amount of cortisol. There may be something other than cortisol in the whole gland, whether raw, dried, or crudely extracted, that helps stimulate the adrenal to make the hormones needed for health.
The medical establishment stopped using oral adrenal glandular products when synthetic corticosteroids became available in the 1940s. Those powerful drugs came with serious side effects; as early as the 1960s, physicians were advised to be careful about their use.46 The orthodox medical world frowns upon a diagnosis of “adrenal fatigue,” which is not supported by testing they agree with, because corticosteroids should be reserved for those who unequivocally need them.
When patients take synthetic adrenal hormones, their own adrenal glands can become suppressed, in effect forgetting how to function properly. While some medical professionals worry about adrenal suppression when they hear a patient has been taking adrenal glandular, there isn’t enough corticosteroid to cause it. A 200 milligram capsule would require roughly 1 gram of raw material to produce and would contain only 4 to 5 micrograms of cortisol.
Adrenal glandulars can be helpful for patients with fatigue or salt craving, after proper medi-
cal evaluation. It should be noted that adrenal glandulars can cause nausea, headaches, or rapid heartbeat, especially if taken away from food, because of the small amount of adrenaline in the natural gland. They can also cause insomnia if taken too late in the day.
Millennia ago, anatomists described the structure and location of the thymus gland, and observed that it was large in young animals and gradually dwindled with age.47 They also reported that the thymus of calves and lambs was “very tasty”; glandular supplements may have value because they provide nutrients that were once obtained through eating organ meats in traditional diets.
The thymus was the last gland to have its function determined, because damage or removal of the thymus from adult animals had no ill effect. In 1961, Miller reported that removal of the thymus of mice shortly after birth resulted in lymphocyte depletion.48 Since lymphocytes are a type of white blood cell that is involved in the immune response, not surprisingly, these mice had immunological defects that made them susceptible to infection. When Miller began his research, immunologists generally believed that the thymus was a “useless organ,” at best a “graveyard for dying lymphocytes,” and so his findings were met with considerable skepticism.49 His later experiments led to the discovery of the origin and function of B-cells and T-cells, two types of white cells that regulate different aspects of the immune response. One critic “likened B and T cells to the first and last letters of the word ‘bullshit,’” showing that there is nothing new about violent disagreements in the sciences.
By that time, the medical community had almost entirely abandoned the use of glandular products. There had been excessive promotion of them in the early 1900s, with advocates recommending the simultaneous use of extracts of multiple glands, making it hard to determine which, if any, were beneficial.1 But in the case of thymus, once its function was discovered, researchers found that calf thymus extracts restored immune function in neonatal animals whose thymus had been removed.50 Manufacturers then began mak-
ing extracts of thymus tissue to treat disorders of the immune system.
One of these extracts, thymomodulin, improved immunologic function in the elderly and was beneficial for those with infections and allergies.51 In a double-blinded study of children with eczema and food allergies, 10 children received oral thymomodulin during an initial elimination of food triggers, while 9 children got placebo.52 Both groups had improvement of their skin during the elimination phase. When the food triggers were resumed, the placebo group got much worse, while the children receiving thymomodulin had less skin flare-up than the placebo group.
More recently, another thymus extract was tested in a mouse model of cancer. When the thymus extract was given orally prior to inoculation of can-
cer cells, treated mice had delay of cancer growth and less cancer incidence compared to controls.53 In another study, in elderly mice, thymus extract increased the number and activity of various immune cells, suggesting that the product could help reverse the decline in immune function seen in aging.54
Thymomodulin and the thymus extract mentioned above are acid-processed and partially purified products. Freeze-dried thymus glandular would theoretically include all of the many active peptides that the thymus makes.
Finally, one of the products mentioned, thymomodulin, was among the agents used in the successful treatment of a free-ranging hairy dwarf porcupine infected with Brazilian porcupine poxvirus.55
In the 1920s, Minot and Murphy reported success in treating a particular form of anemia with a diet of a half-pound of liver daily; since most patients did not want to eat that much liver, liver
extract was widely used instead.56 Investigations into the active component led to the discovery of vitamin B12.
A 2012 article described an increase in exercise tolerance in mice given Conclevan, an oral suspension of a liver hydrolysate.57 Orally administered, liver hydrolysates improved insulin resistance in a mouse model of diabetes.58 They have also been reported to lessen hepatic damage from ethanol in rats.59
Liver is widely recognized to be extremely nutrient dense, but many people do not want to eat it. Liver glandulars are a more palatable option.
Many different glandular materials have been used medicinally, such as brain, hypothalamus, spleen, aorta, intestine, and parathyroid. However, as pharmaceutical usage exploded in the mid-1900s, glandulars went out of fashion, and researchers were no longer interested in investigating their usefulness. Discussions of possible mechanisms of action can give some support to the clinical observations of practitioners who recommend them.
Since it is easier to collect the raw material from larger animals, most glandular products are made from the organs of cows. Therefore, it is critically important to use good quality materials to avoid the prions that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Various glandulars are made in Australia and New Zealand, which had strict restrictions on the importation of animals and animal products even before the advent of BSE.60 There have been no cases of BSE in either country.61
Glandular extracts were widely available and recommended by medical professionals at one time, but excessive promotion by manufacturers and the advent of pharmaceutical methods led them to be dismissed as not “scientific.” However, some practitioners advocate for their usefulness, especially for those with autoimmune disorders. Since laboratories are now able to measure markers of autoimmunity and inflammation, formal investigations into the value of
It is critically important to use good quality materials to avoid the prions that cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy.
glandular supplements might be fruitful. In the meantime, use of these products will continue by those who value returning to a more ancestral form of nutrition. &
Linda L. Isaacs, MD, received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Kentucky. After medical school at Vanderbilt University, she completed her residency in Internal Medicine, and she is certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. In her practice, she uses nutritional protocols to treat patients diagnosed with cancer and other serious degenerative illnesses. She has published articles in the peer-reviewed journals Nutrition and Cancer, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal, and Medical Hypotheses. Visit her website at www.drlindai.com.
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3. Price WA. Characteristics of primitive and modernized dietaries. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation; 2008(1938):p 232.
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20. Hoang TD, Olsen CH, Mai VQ, Clyde PW, Shakir MK. Desiccated thyroid extract compared with levothyroxine in the treatment of hypothyroidism: a randomized, double-blind, crossover study. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. May 2013; 98(5):1982-90. doi:10.1210/jc.2012-4107.
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45. Isaacs LL. Whole adrenal extract for Addison’s disease in the 1920s: Where is the cortisol? Med Hypotheses. Nov 9 2021; 158:110731. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2021.110731.
46. Benedek TG. History of the development of corticosteroid therapy. Clin Exp Rheumatol. Sep-Oct 2011; 29(5 Suppl 68): S-5-12.
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(Chef Christine Wokowsky)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil, or a mixture of both
1 pound turkey breast strips or tenders, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup mushrooms, preferably shiitakes
1 onion, cut in half and sliced
3-4 garlic cloves, sliced (after slicing, wait 5 minutes before using)
Instructions:
1-inch piece ginger, cut into rounds, then matchsticks
1 red bell pepper, sliced
⅛ cup Bragg liquid aminos or coconut aminos
⅛ teaspoon arrowroot powder and 1 tablespoon water, mixed together
½ cup cooked brown rice or quinoa
Salt and pepper
1. Season the turkey generously with sea salt and freshly ground black or white pepper. If you have any organic, gluten-free Asian seasonings, feel free to use these on the turkey as well. Of course, omit the sea salt if salt is present in the seasoning mix. In a wok or large frying pan, heat oil. Add the turkey and cook just until it no longer is opaque. Remove from the wok and set on a plate.
2. Add onions, garlic, and ginger followed by all the other vegetables. Cook until crisp-tender.
3. Add turkey and any collected juices.
4. Re-stir the arrowroot and water and add to pan. Add liquid aminos or coconut aminos. Turn up heat and stir until thickened.
5. Optionally, add 1-2 tablespoons of fermented vegetables. Serve with brown rice or quinoa.
(Tammera
Karr)1 head red cabbage
1 cup red sweet peppers, minced
3 cups apples, diced
¼ cup coconut sugar
2 tablespoons real maple syrup
1 lemon (juice)
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ cup organic or Kerrygold butter
⅛ teaspoon Celtic sea salt
1 pinch fresh ground black pepper
Topping
1 cup gluten-free oat bran
½ cup pecans, finely chopped
½ cup organic or Kerrygold butter
Instructions:
1. Shred cabbage, add minced sweet red peppers, season with salt and pepper, place in a greased casserole, and add dots or small chunks of butter. Add sugar, maple syrup, lemon juice, cinnamon, and cloves to apples, and place on top of the cabbage.
2. Blend topping ingredients together forming a crumb-type topping; cover cabbage and apples. Bake in 350° F oven for 25 minutes.
(Tammera
Karr)This pâté was developed for a critically ill Crohn’s patient after they returned home following four weeks in the hospital on parenteral nutrition (PN). Unable to hold down more than a few ounces of food at a time and anemic, the client started with 1 tablespoon. Within three days, they could eat ¼ cup and had significantly improved mental clarity, digestion, and physical energy. Each ingredient is high in iron and digestives.
1 pound organic chicken livers
1 pound chicken hearts
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ teaspoon cumin
2 tablespoons olive oil
Instructions:
1 fennel bulb, medium large, sliced; reserve the feathery top for later
2 large shallots
6 cloves garlic
½ teaspoon Celtic sea salt
2 cups water
1. Place liver, heart, garlic powder, spices, shallots, and fennel in a sauce pan with water and simmer until fennel is tender, about 15 minutes.
2. Place garlic cloves, olive oil, and ¼ cup of tender, feathery fennel tops in food processor with ¼ cup of broth from sauce pan; chop finely while blending. Gradually add the cooked liver, shallots, and fennel, adding reserved liquid from the meat until pâté is smooth and creamy in texture.
3. Use 1 teaspoon on gluten-free rice crackers or toast.
Ancient humans prized organ meat above all other forms of animal flesh. These foods were often consumed on site and raw or minimally heated. Modern nutritional analysis reveals that the origins of the historic reverence for the heart in part comes from the bioavailable nutrition, including vitamins, coenzyme Q10, essential minerals, and amino acids. Contrary to popular opinion, heart is very tender and flavorful. It can be ground and incorporated into many dishes.
1 heart from elk, venison, moose, caribou, or buffalo
1 cup wild rice, cooked
¼ cup wild mushrooms, sliced
¼ cup fresh huckleberries or cranberries
Instructions:
¼ cup wild onions, shallots, or onions, sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons oil
½ cup stock, divided
1. Using a sharp knife, carefully clean away the crown area and inner chamber of veins and valves to create an open area in the heart to stuff.
2. Sauté wild mushrooms, shallots or onions, berries, and garlic with tallow, duck fat, or olive oil. Add cooked wild rice and ¼ cup stock.
3. Stuff the heart with combined ingredients. Cover the crown opening with foil. Place in a Dutch oven and add ¼ cup stock to the interior and cover. Place in a hot oven.
4. Bake at 325° F for 45-60 minutes or until a meat thermometer indicates the interior temp is 130° F.
5. Make a gravy from any juices, and serve slices of stuffed heart with roasted root vegetables or crusty sourdough bread.
3 large purple onions or 2 large purple onions and one leek, white part only
¾ cup golden flaxseeds, ground
½ cup coconut aminos
Instructions:
1. Soak the flax seeds overnight. Rinse well.
1 tablespoon coconut vinegar (or any vinegar)
⅓ cup softened coconut oil
¼ cup nutritional yeast
2. Peel and chop the onions and leeks in a food processor using the slicing attachment. Place onions in a large mixing bowl.
3. Put the seeds in the food processor with the bottom blade inserted. Add all other ingredients except the onions. Process until smooth. Scoop this mixture into the large bowl with the onions and mix well. Spread batter on dehydrator trays lined with parchment paper. You can form it into small cracker sizes or large flatbread sizes, or a combination of the two for different eating options. The batter should be about ¼ inch in thickness.
4. Dehydrate at 105° F for approximately 10-12 hours. Flip the crackers or flatbreads over and continue dehydrating for another 1-2 hours until they are firm but slightly moist.
5. Store in a glass container in the refrigerator.
Crust
1 cup cashews, soaked for 3 hours, rinsed, and strained
1 tablespoon coconut oil or ghee
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup shredded coconut
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 400° F.
Filling
One packed cup pitted Medjool dates, soaked for 3 hours in 1 cup of water (save the soaking water)
¼ cup coconut oil or ghee
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ teaspoon pink salt
Fold-In
2 cups salted roasted pecans, plus more to garnish
2. Purée the cashews, oil, honey, and vanilla crust ingredients in a food processor fitted with the S-blade for about 1 minute. Add the shredded coconut and purée to form a ball. Using wet hands, press the crust into a greased 9-inch glass pie dish. Do not pre-bake the crust.
3. Add all of the filling ingredients, including the soaking water, to a blender and purée until smooth. Fold in the pecans, then add the filling to the unbaked crust. Garnish the pie with more pecans.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350° F and bake for 10 minutes more. Allow to cool on the counter, then refrigerate to set.
5. Serve with whipped coconut cream.
Reprinted from Our Journey with Food Cookery Book, 2nd ed., by Tammera J. Karr, PhD, BCHN®, CNW™, CGP, with Chef Benjamin Qualls and Chef Christine Wokowsky, CN, CGP (Summerland Publishing, 2022). Tammera is an author, educator, researcher, and clinician whose books are used in nutrition programs and natural health college programs, and by nursing professionals. For more info, visit yourwholenutrition.com.
A-dae Romero-Briones (Cochiti/Kiowa) is the Vice President of Research and Policy, Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative, for the First Nations Development Institute. A-dae was interviewed by Arty Mangan, Director of Restorative Food Systems for Bioneers, in 2020, and we are reprinting here the majority of that conversation. Her compelling perspective on regenerative agriculture well deserves repeating.—Editors ●
Arty: What are the differences between an indigenous perspective of agriculture and a non-indigenous perspective?
A-dae: That’s a loaded question because the whole idea of agriculture puts a contemporary spin on the conversation. Agriculture is usually the point in our American historical narrative where Indigenous People are separated from the rest of civilization. Agriculture is usually the delineating line where people talk about civilization and non-civilization or hunter-gatherers and yeoman farmers. Whenever I get questions about agriculture, I always get a little squirmy because I realize most people are coming from the perspective of the American historical narrative where Indigenous People are excluded.
There are stark differences between agricultural systems in indigenous communities and agricultural systems in contemporary communities. The first being the idea of collective resources. In an indigenous community, there are some things that just cannot be commodified—land, water, air, animals, even the health of the people, all of which are considered collective
resources. Collective resources require collective and community management. Contemporary agriculture doesn’t have the same base. In contemporary agriculture, there are individualized, commodified resources like land, you can buy water, and at one point in our history you could even buy somebody’s body and health.
With individualized, commodified resources, the whole dynamic of society changes. It requires different skill sets when you’re managing collective resources versus individualized land plots. There are a lot more specialized skills in the individual land plot scenario. In collective resources management, a variety of skills are needed because you’re not only dealing with people, but you’re also dealing with relationships and how to balance those relationships.
The biggest difference in contemporary agriculture versus indigenous agriculture is the idea of money. In an indigenous community, if you had a person who hunted, if you had a person who could plant a seed, if you had a person who knew how to gather, then you had access to food. In an American or contemporary agricultural system, the way to access those things is through money or some form of money. Sometimes it’s public benefit; sometimes it’s through actual cash economy transactions. There are a lot of transactions that limit the access that a person has to food.
It’s important to keep in mind that food is an indicator of the health of a society. In an indigenous community, food shortages mean something within that society is awry and has to be fixed. But because we have the extra barrier of food access through money, food no longer is that indicator. You have to replace that societal
indicator with something else. When that happens, people are disconnected from society and from the collective resources that go into making food.
Arty: What does it mean to decolonize agriculture and how does that pertain to regenerative agriculture?
A-dae: Agriculture, as we’re told in the American narrative, is the delineating line between civilization and the wild Indians. It was the system that separated and allowed for a lot of injustice that occurred with land theft, slavery, and indentured servitude. The conversation about decolonizing agriculture is about examining the agricultural system and concepts that allow for those injustices to happen. When we talk about decolonizing regenerative agriculture, we are looking at that initial definition. I’m asking people to stop and say, “Look at how we think about agriculture in America and think about whether it included Indigenous People.” The answer is it doesn’t. It doesn’t include Indigenous People because only colonizers and settlers are considered farmers in America. That means that when people are talking about correcting agriculture to a time when it was better, we’re going back to that definition of when settlers came to America and started agriculture. Before that, people weren’t considered agriculturalists. Before that, they were considered hunters and gatherers, which has its own connotations.
To decolonize regenerative agriculture, we have to go back and think about the times before European settlement and contact to the times when there was more of a balance in the ecological environments that we’re trying to correct now.
Arty: How would you define regenerative agriculture?
A-dae: At the heart of the concept regeneration is wanting to renew and correct some of the missteps that have taken us to the point of environmental damage and degradation. We want to create systems that are
rebirthing a healthy environment. In order to do that, we need to include Indigenous People. So, my definition of regenerative agriculture is one that includes a true history of land and the environment and people’s health that starts prior to contact.
Arty: In your writings and talks, you seem to challenge the idea of mimicking nature, which many people in the regenerative agriculture movement use as a guiding principle. Isn’t nature our best teacher?
A-dae: Yes. I think nature is our best teacher. But it’s a fallacy to think that we can imitate a system that has been in existence for hundreds of thousands if not millions of years. These are systems that have been perfected because of relationships with other living beings, plants, animals, the land and everything that surrounds it; those relationships take time. We are a very young society and nation. Scientific inquiry and the scientific field are fairly young compared to the natural systems that we’re trying to mimic.
We can probably shoot for mimicking nature, but the idea that we could actually achieve it is a fallacy to me. I think one of the most important lessons in indigenous epistemology is that natural systems have unknowns, and that man cannot know everything. We have to have reverence and respect for those unknowns. There are processes in the trees that grow, in the animals that migrate that we just will not know. We should
respect in reverence and allow those unknowns to happen. We can observe it knowing that we can probably aid in the health of it, knowing that there is something just beyond our reach, and knowing that there is something greater out there that we must respect.
Arty: The late Joseph Campbell, professor and author of books on mythology, said that Indigenous Peoples refer to the natural world and all in it as “thou,” as sacred. He said that Western culture views the natural world as an “it” that can be exploited and processed. Can you talk more about reverence versus exploitation?
A-dae: There is an assumption that man has command of everything around us, or we are on a higher plane than the living things around us. To me, again, that’s a fallacy. We are probably the youngest species on our planet and in our environments; the trees and the plants and the animals are much older. Understanding our place in the universe requires us to actually look at those time frames. When you look at the whole of time, it becomes overwhelming. Indigenous People have created the idea of the unknown and the sacred and reverence for where we are as the youngest entity in this place. There is so much that we have to learn. Rather than being burdened with that task, the idea that we respect the unknown helps people deal with it.
It leaves room at the table for processes to happen because if we knew everything and if we could mimic nature, there’s no imagination that’s needed, there’s no room for surprises, and there’s no room for some of the beauty that happens by
happenstance. Some of the greatest joys come from the understanding of reverence and the sacred.
This idea of exploitation puts us in the position that we have to manage everything with the right to commodify things that should never be commodified. We can’t sell everything. I think we learn that through our relationships with other humans that not everything is meant to be sold.
Arty: When Europeans came to North America they erected fences. How did fences disrupt indigenous food sheds in New Mexico and other places?
A-dae: I think we’re still dealing with the issue of fences today. When I was a little girl in second grade, we were asked to draw a picture of our house. My teacher pulled my paper because I had all the houses together like a pueblo, which I grew up in. She said, “No, what I mean is you need a pitched roof and a picket fence in front of the house. The idea of the picket fence fascinated me. I was like: “What is this? What is the purpose of this fence?” Because in the Pueblo, we don’t have fences. Rez dogs just wander in the community and people feed them. In our fields, there are no fences.
In the 1930s and again in the ’60s, the National Resource Conservation Service came in and put in elk- and deer-proof fences. They said you need to put fences around your fields so you can keep out all the animals that are going to eat your crops. My grandpa’s response was: “We’re farmers. When we plant corn, we don’t plant just for us, we plant for the environment around us too. If the deer are coming, it’s because they’re hungry. So, that means, I need to plant more.” We’re adjusting to our environment rather than trying to keep everything out. So, this idea of a fence is just antithetical to the way we view the world.
Recently the Pueblo of Jemez had a lawsuit against the forest service. The Caldera in the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico is surrounded by a fence; it’s in a National Preserve. The Pueblo of Jemez said that the Caldera has always been sacred to the Jemez people, and they have always had continuous access. But the federal agency said, “There’s a fence there, and it says no trespassing. Are you telling us that the Jemez
people have been going over this fence?” And the Jemez governor’s response was, “I thought that fence was to keep the elk in, not to keep the Indians out.”
Arty: Relationships in indigenous ways are central. For example, you talked about growing corn for the deer. How does indigenous farming develop relationships and nurture life?
A-dae: One of the things that comes to mind is food safety. I studied food safety law when I got my LLM [Master of Laws Degree]. I thought it was fascinating, the idea that you pretty much kill everything so that nothing living goes inside your body, as a preventative to making you sick. I just didn’t understand the concept of making the food supply so clean to prevent sickness.
It’s almost like the idea of wilderness being healthy if nobody’s in it. To me it’s weird because in indigenous epistemologies people are a part of the environment, and it’s the same with the microbiome. Indigenous communities embrace the environments that we’re in. We have to embrace the bacteria and the microbiome that make our community because that’s the only way our bodies adjust to our environment. That’s the only way we’re going to ensure that we are within the cycle of whatever natural systems we’re a part of. We don’t kill the natural systems in order to ensure that we survive, which is what food safety does.
When we farm, we’re thinking about natural cycles, and how do we become more embedded into those natural systems. We take the cues from the natural systems, whether that be deer, whether that be insects, whether it be water shortages. In order to be successful farmers, we have to learn how to adjust to those environmental changes from the beings in that natural environment.
But it is very much the opposite of what agricultural systems are today, which tries to kill everything except the plant that you want to grow. That is so hard for me to understand.
Arty: I’ve always felt like one of the big problems with agriculture is that it needs more biology, it needs more life, not less. And as you
describe, the thrust is to kill off the pests, kill off the weeds, destroy and kill and create the monocrop. But the real remedy is more diverse above-and-below ground living systems.
A-dae: Absolutely. That’s exactly how I see indigenous food systems. The indigenous universal connection is the idea that you absolutely need to be part of the natural cycles around you, whether they’re negative or positive. You need to adjust to them. You’re part of that system. You need to become embraced in that system in order to create not only a healthy food system, but also healthy people, a healthy environment, and a happy mental state. I don’t understand the other side. I’ve tried. I’ve studied it to death, and I’m still learning.
Arty: You wrote: “Indigenous People can look at a landscape and tell if the soil is healthy. They know how to see the health of the soil without needing a microscope.” Allan Savory, the founder of holistic livestock management, was criticized by scientists because initially he didn’t use scientific metrics to measure his success, but instead he used the overall improved health and biodiversity of the landscape. Is regenerative agriculture a place where traditional indigenous knowledge and science can complement each other?
A-dae: One of the major components I hear consistently in regenerative agriculture is this idea of carbon sequestration. The language of science is very minute, talking about atoms and nutrients and carbon. These are things we can’t see unless you have a microscope and unless you know what a carbon atom looks like. It leaves the common farmer and the common Indigenous person outside of understanding, and that’s a problem. We need people to understand why it’s important to have healthy soil and why it’s important that you have a healthy root system that sequesters water. We need people to understand that. But counting carbon and counting molecules are not going to help people understand.
In regenerative agriculture, the science needs to follow healthy systems. Indigenous people are stewarding healthy systems. Rather than trying to disprove or prove the functionality of these
systems, science needs to take their cues and use scientific methods to explain the importance and the positives of these stewarded lands. There are many reports that say carbon sequestration is happening in indigenous stewarded lands. In places like the Amazon or here in California where the Mono people are still doing traditional burns, or places along the rivers where Indigenous People are stewarding the salmon and the salmon burial grounds, those are some of the healthiest soils. Also, places that have been stewarded and kept by California indigenous basket weavers, those are the places where carbon is probably its most healthy. Science, rather than trying to count carbon, should work to explain to the Western scientific world why these stewarded places are so important and why these practices should be continued.
In historical terms, science has been used to dispossess a lot of Indigenous Peoples of land. So, this idea that science is objective is kind of a fallacy to me because I think science is very much subject to political whims more than anything else. I could go off on politics and science, but I’m just going to end there.
Arty: In the webinar you hosted as part of a First Nations Development Institute series on land stewardship, you said that agroecology is a non-indigenous term; it’s an interpretation of an indigenous way of farming, but not an interpretation by Indigenous People. How do Native voices become authentically included in the regenerative agriculture conversation?
A-dae: Invite them to the table. When I say agroecology is an interpretation, it’s because agroecology practices are practices without the people. Many of these other disciplines take practices of Indigenous People, but don’t include the people or don’t include their stories.
For instance, my grandpa would take me to the field and tell a story about the last time he saw conditions like this and what his grandparents did. Those stories are just as important as the practices or the hoe that I pick up. Those stories are the guideposts that need to be laid out before we even start digging into the soil. Indigenous People need room to tell those stories.
The same goes for traditional ecological knowledge. Really, what does that mean? It’s a very broad term. Cochiti people do things differently than Pomo people. Pomo people do different things than Navajo people. The Navajo people do different things than Kiowa people. It’s much more nuanced than these terms that are in vogue or not in vogue depending on the time and audience.
Each of these peoples have their own practices and stories that go along with these practices. They need that whole spectrum, the full body, the full room and the time to tell those stories along with their practices, which currently is hard to find in any of these multiple disciplines, whether it be agroecology, permaculture, or traditional ecological knowledge.
Arty: What needs to happen to make the regenerative agriculture community more inclusive?
A-dae: We need to challenge, as a community, the historical narrative of this country that begins with this idea that the farmer is the true American, and that agriculture is really how our continent was started. It started long before that event happened in our country, and regenerative agriculture needs to challenge that narrative that has led us astray thus far. &
Reprinted with permission of Collective Heritage Institute/Bioneers; bioneers.org.
A-dae Romero-Briones is a U.S. Fulbright Scholar with a law doctorate from Arizona State University and an LLM degree in food and agricultural law from the University of Arkansas. She currently serves as Vice President of Research and Policy, Native Agriculture and Food Systems Initiative, for the First Nations Development Institute, firstnations.org.
Arty Mangan joined Bioneers in 1998 and now serves as Director of the Restorative Food Systems program. His latest work focuses on how agriculture can be a climate solution.
Bioneers is an innovative nonprofit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and the planet. Founded in 1990 in Santa Fe, NM, by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, it acts as a fertile hub of social and scientific innovators with practical and visionary solutions for the world’s most pressing environmental and social challenges. For more information, see bioneers.org.
We continue here our excerpts from Dr. Price’s series of seven lectures, titled “Light from Primitive Races on Modern Degeneration,” whose text and slides have been preserved in Price-Pottenger’s archives. Like the excerpts in our last issue, the following are drawn from the first two lectures in his series, and illustrate the physical degeneration he observed, duing his travels in the 1930s, when human communities abandon nourishing traditional diets in favor of modern convenience foods. We reproduce Price’s words here without editing, although the images have been restored somewhat and are cropped for presentation purposes. Please see the editor’s note at the end of this article regarding language usage as it pertains to ethnic and cultural groups. —Editors
We will next consider an environment of a very different type, namely, that of the inhabitants of central Africa. The abundance of wildlife of many species has in the past provided them with a variety of animal food.
This illustrates the fine physiques of the women. They carry heavy loads on their heads with apparent ease. This jar with its water probably weighs over 40 pounds. One type of architecture of their dwellings is illustrated in the house in the background. (Lecture 1, Slide 35)
The various African tribes have developed great skill in living on the animal and plant life of their various locations. A few tribes are agricultural, others are chiefly hunters.
Here we see a herd of hippopotami basking on the shore of a river. Twenty-seven tribes were studied in eastern and central Africa, most of which showed excellent physical development. (Lecture 1, Slide 34)
Their teeth are very fine as illustrated in 42, so long as they live on the native foods. (Lecture 2, Slide 42)
Wherever they have changed from the native foods, however, to the white man’s foods of commerce, which always include white flour and sugar, tooth decay becomes rampant as shown in 43. (Lecture 2, Slide 43)
In many districts the native foods consist largely of an abundance of fresh water fish and animal life. In other districts wild and domestic animals are used.
The Masai tribe live largely on products of their cattle herd: milk, blood and meat.
North central Africa has many Arabs. Omdurman near Khartoum is the largest Arab city in the world.
They also used donkeys as beasts of burden as shown in 43. The camel’s milk and cereal grains, together with the native fruits, have built for them excellent physiques, even in the desert lands. (Lecture 1, Slide 43)
We see a typical Masai belle with her glistening teeth. This particular primitive tribe, wherever I studied them, used the organs of animals. During the drought periods there is very little vegetation, during which time they get their special vitamins from the blood of steers which they bleed once a month. They milk the cows daily.
(Lecture 2, Slide 45)
A typical Arab boy with his magnificent teeth is shown in 47. An important part of the food of the Arabs consists of camel’s milk. (Lecture 2, Slide 47)
The oldest race on earth is considered to be the Aborigines of Australia. Notwithstanding the fact that over half of Australia has less than ten inches of rain a year, these Aborigines have maintained excellent bodies with very little tooth decay. They have accomplished this by living largely on small and large animal life and wild plants. They are very skilled in catching animals. They have wonderful wisdom regarding the use of plants and wild seeds. They have depended on maintaining a balance between human population and animal life for food for the humans.
They are dressed for their sports. They are perhaps the greatest hunters the world has produced because of their skill in tracking animals and outwitting them. They use a long spear which is thrown with a throwing stick. They are able to penetrate an animal’s body at a considerable distance, so deadly is their aim and expert their skill. (Lecture 1, Slide 45)
They have lived in barren and often difficult environments because of the lack of rain. Not withstanding these difficulties, they have persisted through many thousands of years. (Lecture 1, Slide 44)
The primitive Aborigines living near the sea are very skillful in catching the dugong, which in northern climates is called the sea cow. A typical one is shown in 52. We found its meat delicious eating, tasting very much like lamb. (Lecture 2, Slide 52)
The Maori of New Zealand have been famous since their discovery. They were considered by scientists to have the finest bodies of any race in the world.
They have brought out of their distant past a type of architecture that is unique, and conveys the history of their race in public art. This bell tower is a typical illustration of their application of art to beautify the commonplace. (Lecture 1, Slide 48)
We see a sample daily ration of these primitive Maori. The father and child are holding different types of shellfish which are like our large oysters. The mother is holding a plate of seaweed that is very nutritious and provides many of the minerals and vitamins required for keeping the body well and strong. (Lecture 2, Slide 56)
The ancient Coastal Indians of Peru buried their dead in the dry sand of the desert between the Andes and the coast. Their skeletons are splendidly preserved. They show remarkable freedom from dental caries and wonderfully fine physical and dental arch development.
A typical Maori girl with beautiful teeth is shown in 53. (Lecture 2, Slide 53)
The primitive Maori have lived largely from the sea, gathering shellfish large and small and scale fish they use with various plants, fruits and seeds of the land. Fern root has provided for them a food very similar to our potato.
Descendants of the Chimu culture are still living in a few isolated fishing villages and have magnificent physical and dental development as illustrated in 57. They live largely upon an abundance of animal life of the sea eaten with plant foods that they have cultivated by irrigation in the valleys of the mountain streams. (Lecture 2, Slide 57)
The modernized Coastal Indians, except for a few limited villages, live on the imported foods of commerce. The boy in 58, who has so many of his teeth attacked by dental caries, illustrates this marked change. (Lecture 2, Slide 58)
These Indians are marvelous fishermen. Fiftynine shows the return from a night fishing trip. Note the magnificent physique of the man in the foreground. (Lecture 2, Slide 59)
The Indians of the high Andes of South America are descendants of the ancient Incas that built that magnificent culture and social organization long before the coming of the white man.
This is a typical weaver. The simplicity of their equipment, the strength and beauty of their cloth illustrate their skill. (Lecture 1, Slide 56)
Notice their method of building hanging gardens high up on the high mountains where a large number of our modern plants were originally developed. Peru is reported to have 50 mountain peaks over 18,000 feet high. (Lecture 1, Slide 53)
They have magnificent teeth and dental arches as shown in 62. They live on the native foods in the high altitudes where they tend their herds of llamas and alpacas (Lecture 2, Slide 62)
Here we see the modernized Andes Indian. Note the ravages of tooth decay where they are living on the modernized foods of commerce. (Lecture 2, Slide 64)
The Indians of the Amazon Jungle constitute a very unique racial stock.
Where they have met the white man and are using the foods of modern civilization, tooth decay has become rampant, as illustrated in 71. (Lecture 2, Slide 71)
The primitive Amazon Indians lived largely on the waterway. Freshwater fish from the fresh waters of the tributaries of the Amazon together with an abundance of wild plant food and land wildlife were efficient foods used by the primitives.
We see a typical woman of an Amazon jungle tribe. In a study of the chief and his colony of about thirty I did not find a single tooth that had been attacked by tooth decay. (Lecture 2, Slide 69)
The river craft are of very interesting native construction and many of them house the family, as shown in 72. (Lecture 2, Slide 72)
These are the various environments that provide the background and setting for the series of studies reported in the succeeding illustrated lectures. In the next of this series I will review how primitive races have prevented tooth decay, which is one of the outstanding expressions of degeneration of our modern civilizations. &
More excerpts from Dr. Price’s lecture series, including the lecture on tooth decay mentioned above, will appear in upcoming issues of this journal. Price-Pottenger houses in our physical archives a great many original manuscripts, photographs, and slides by Dr. Price, including the visual materials he used in this lecture series.
Editors’ note: Since the era in which these lectures were given, society’s understanding of respectful terminology when referring to ethnic and cultural groups has evolved, and some readers may be offended by references to “primitive” peoples and other out-of-date language. However, we have chosen to use Dr. Price’s exact words in the interest of authenticity. No disrespect to any ethnic or cultural group is intended.
The phasing out of older vaccines and their replacement with genetically engineered mRNA versions is presenting a challenge to the organic livestock industry in the U.S. Although genetically modified (GM) inputs are prohibited by the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, previously approved vaccines are becoming less commercially available. Reports suggest that the USDA and other organic certifiers may be turning a blind eye to those farmers resolving this deficit with GM versions.
The industry watchdog OrganicEye has called for the USDA to convene a public forum to address the issue, as an alternative to litigation. Recent developments suggest that the National Organic Standards Board is considering an updated rule that would permit the use of GM vaccines when no non-GM alternatives are commercially available, but this proposal has yet to be officially adopted. Moreover, there is uncertainty about how these vaccines are categorized, not to mention a lack of transparency for consumers. Experts recommend the establishment of standardized nomenclature for vaccine types and comprehensive testing for any persistent “foreign” DNA, RNA, or antibodies in foods.
Given the complexities and high stakes involved, it’s crucial for the regulatory agencies to clarify their positions to uphold the integrity of organic standards and consumer trust.
SOURCES: USDA challenged on illegal GMO use in organics. OrganicEye, July 31, 2023. organiceye.org/ usda-challenged-on-illegal-gmo-use-in-organics.
Briefing paper: The use of genetically engineered vaccines in organic livestock production. OrganicEye, June 2023. organiceye.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Vaccines-in-Organic-LivestockProduction-JUNE2023-V12.pdf.
The U.S. and Mexico are at an impasse over Mexico’s plan to phase out genetically modified (GM) corn and glyphosate. Initially set to ban the importation of all products containing GM corn by January 2024, Mexico conceded in February to lift the deadline on products intended for livestock feed and industrial use. After months of failed negotiations, the U.S. government has initiated a dispute settlement panel under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
According to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, the challenge aims to ensure market access for American farmers, on whose behalf the U.S. argues that Mexico’s policy is not science-based and violates USMCA commitments. Mexico insists its regulations are scientifically backed and aim to protect its food sovereignty and integrity. The Mexican government plans to defend its position before the international panel, asserting its policies align with treaty obligations and do not harm U.S. exporters. Both sides hold differing views on the impact of biotechnology on food safety and sovereignty. While the U.S. argues that biotech advances are key to addressing global challenges such as food insecurity and climate change, Mexican authorities and advocacy groups argue that these measures infringe upon Mexico’s right to determine its agricultural policies. The panel’s initial report is expected 150 days after its formation.
SOURCES: In ‘assault’ on Mexican food sovereignty, US ramps up fight over GM corn. Common Dreams, August 17, 2023. commondreams.org/news/mexico-gm-corn-ban.
United States establishes USMCA dispute panel on Mexico’s agricultural biotechnology measures. Office of the United States Trade Representative, August 17, 2023. ustr.gov/about-us/policyoffices/press-office/press-releases/2023/august.
A study from Purdue University offers insights into the greater bioavailability of essential amino acids (EAA) from animal-based versus plant-based protein sources. The research may have significant implications for public health nutrition guidelines, specifically challenging the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which equate different protein sources on an ounce-equivalent basis.
The study involved two investigator-blinded crossover trials with 30 young adults and 25 older adults. Participants consumed meals containing two-ounce equivalents of either animal-based proteins like pork and eggs or plant-based proteins such as black beans and almonds. Blood samples were taken at various intervals post-consumption to measure EAA bioavailability, blood sugar, and insulin levels. The results revealed that the same ounce-equivalent portions of animal-based proteins provided greater EAA bioavailability compared to their plant-based counterparts. Specifically, pork and eggs resulted in higher levels of EAA in the bloodstream than black beans and almonds in both young and older adults. These findings highlight the need for a nuanced approach to dietary guidelines that factors in the quality and bioavailability of different protein sources.
SOURCES: Meat consumption supports higher essential amino acid bioavailability than plant-based proteins, study finds. Nutrition Insight, August 16, 2023. nutritioninsight.com/news/meat-consumptionsupports-higher-essential-amino-acid-bioavailability-than-plant-based-proteins-study-finds.html.
Connolly G, Hudson JL, Bergia RE, et al. Effects of consuming ounce-equivalent portions of animal- vs. plant-based protein foods, as defined by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans on essential amino acids bioavailability in young and older adults: two cross-over randomized controlled trials. Nutrients. 2023 Jun 25; 15(13):2870. doi:10.3390/nu15132870.
Research from the University of Minnesota, published in the International Journal of Obesity, challenges conventional advice on artificial sweeteners. The researchers found a significant link between longterm intake of aspartame and saccharin and increased body fat—specifically in the abdomen and muscles. Sucralose, another commonly used artificial sweetener, was not associated with this outcome. The study involved 3,088 men and women from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) cohort, who were tracked over a 25-year period. Participants had their dietary intake assessed at baseline, year 7, and year 20 using validated diet history questionnaires. Visceral, intermuscular, and subcutaneous adipose tissue volumes were measured through computed tomography at year 25. Regression analyses were employed to determine the relationship between the intake of different artificial sweeteners and body fat measures.
This study echoes recent warnings about aspartame and calls into question recommendations by the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association, which advocate for replacing added sugars with artificial sweeteners. The research suggests that such substitutions may carry health risks and calls for alternative approaches.
SOURCES: University of Minnesota-led study links long-term artificial sweetener intake to increased body fat adipose tissue volume. University of Minnesota, August 2, 2023. med.umn.edu/news-events.
Steffen BT, Jacobs DR, Yi SY, et al. Long-term aspartame and saccharin intakes are related to greater volumes of visceral, intermuscular, and subcutaneous adipose tissue: the CARDIA study. Int J Obes (2023). doi.org/10.1038/s41366-023-01336-y.
Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD, was dedicated to the prevention of chronic illness. In his classic feeding experiments, more than 900 cats were studied over ten years. The changes he observed in those on deficient diets paralleled the degeneration that Weston A.Price, DDS, found in people who abandoned traditional foods.
123 pages, softcover, $9.95; member price, $8.95
To order: price-pottenger.org/store
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First published in 1939, this monumental and highly readable book is designed to preserve Dr. Price’s classic studies of nutrition among indigenous populations. His worldwide investigations expose the deleterious effects of processed foods and synthetic farming methods on human health and hold the promise of regeneration through sound nutrition.
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration contains guidelines for approaching optimum health and reproduction the way traditional peoples did. Dr. Price has been universally accepted as one of the foremost authorities on the role of natural foods in our overall health. His work chronicles the development of degenerative illnesses as a result of replacing whole foods with processed ones.
528 pages, includes 196 photos and 6 maps
Regular price: $29.95; member price: $26.95
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619-462-7600 • 800-366-3748 (in U.S.)
2023
OCT. 13-15
ADVANCED APPLICATIONS IN MEDICAL PRACTICE (AAMP) FALL CONFERENCE: Integrative Oncology
DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Paradise Valley, Scottsdale, AZ, and online aampconferences.com/aamp-fall-conference-2023
OCT. 13-16
34TH ANNUAL AMERICAN HERBALISTS GUILD SYMPOSIUM
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OCT. 20-22
WESTON A. PRICE FOUNDATION’S WISE TRADITIONS CONFERENCE
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NOV. 1-3
REGENERATE 2023: MICROBES * MARKETS * CLIMATE
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NOV. 3-4
NEW HAMPSHIRE ASSOCIATION OF NATUROPATHIC DOCTORS (NHAND) ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Double Tree by Hilton, Nashua, NH nhand.org/calendar/annual-conference
NOV. 3-4
A4M/MMI 31ST ANNUAL WORLD CONGRESS: LONGEVITY FEST 2023
Leveling Up Healthcare
Venetian and Palazzo Resort, Las Vegas, NV a4m.com/exhibit-vegas-2023.html
NOV. 8-12
NATIONAL BIODYNAMIC CONFERENCE
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DEC. 4-7
ACRES USA 2023 ECO-AG CONFERENCE AND TRADE SHOW
Northern Kentucky Convention Center, Covington, KY acresusa.com/eco-ag
2024
JAN. 12-14
SYMPOSIUM FOR METABOLIC HEALTH—BOCA
Boca Raton Marriott Hotel, Boca Raton, FL lowcarbusa.org/smhp-symposiums/boca-2024
JAN. 25-28
METABOLIC HEALTH SUMMIT
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INTEGRATIVE HEALTHCARE SYMPOSIUM
Hilton Midtown, New York, NY ihsymposium.com
We are only as healthy as our soil. From gut health and nutrition, to mental and behavioral health, regenerative healthcare explores the many ways our healthcare systems and food systems are interconnected.
Learn about our conferences and educational programming on the topic of Regenerative Healthcare at Rodaleinstitute.org/education/regenerative-healthcare
For millennia, communities have gathered to celebrate the bounty of the harvest. It’s a reminder of our connection to the land that sustains us.
We not only survive but thrive when we know where our food comes from, how it was produced, and what constitutes healthy choice.
For over 70 years, Price-Pottenger has committed to educating the public on nutrition as a primary contributor to health and well-being. Today, our commitment is more important than ever.
It is our privilege and responsibility to conserve and disseminate the invaluable legacies of Dr. Price and Dr. Pottenger to bring about a healthier world.
Please help us by making a tax-deductible contribution today. Donate online at Price-Pottenger.org or call 800-366-3748.