Beef Horn Broth

Fern the Highland cow

Fern's horns

Beef Horn Broth

So the other day I made a beef horn broth from a Highland cow named Fern. It's taken me a few days to get up the gumption to try it as I had never read or heard of anyone doing this before. I probably added a bit too much water for the amount of horn, so it didn't gel solidly, but nonetheless it gelled nicely. It smelled okay, so I heated up a little in a cup and added some salt. The result was actually very smooth. It wasn't what I was expecting (which was something I was prepared to spit out!). What to do with it now?

Chapter 15: Characteristics of Primitive & Modernized Dietaries

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

As I farm in a permaculture context I look to nature for the prime example of the way plants and animals grow. What this means is that I forget whatever the experts have said and look at what exists in as natural a form as I can find. This is my way of farming - observation. It was also Weston A. Price's way of doing science. Nowadays science has been largely relegated to observations that can be made in a lab, but the vast majority of what exists cannot be studied in a lab. So as Price travelled, he looked at peoples with good health and recorded a bit about what made them healthy. Here he notes a general concept that I have held for a long time:

As a further approach to our problem, it is important to keep in mind that, in general, the wild animal life has largely escaped many of the degenerative processes which affect modern white peoples. We ascribe this to animals instinct in the matter of food selection. It is possible that man has lost through disuse some of the normal faculty for consciously recognizing body requirements. In others words, the only hunger of which we now are conscious is a hunger for energy to keep us warm and to supply power. In general, we stop eating when an adequate amount of energy has been provided, whether or not the body building and repairing materials have been included in the food. p.230

There are many things which differentiate us from the lower animals, but it could be that we have tried to distance ourselves from their world, too much. We all have cravings at one time or another, but rarely do people pay attention to these cravings. A few years ago, Susan was craving salt... not just a little, now, but she was eating handfuls of salt. Unfortunately, we didn't think anything of it at the time and until it was almost too late. Uncontrollable salt cravings may indicate a diagnosis of Addison's disease. And so every craving has an underlying reason. That reason may be innocuous, serious, or even life-threatening, as in Susan's case.


The point here is that moderns are not very good at listening to what their body's tell them. And in some cases they ignore their bodies. I confess that I have often recognized that my body has been telling me that it is tired, but it translates into "hungry"... and I eat something sweet to keep me going on into the night. I should have just stopped what I was doing and gone to sleep. Most of those occasions happened at university while I was studying. The pressures and volume of study required is not good for the human body... so I am glad I gave up that life.

Here in Chapter 15 price gives a summary of all foods from the groups studied. There are things here that are not in the preceding chapters, so it is worth wading through the repetitive text. This is the goldmine of information that one could use to build their own diet. In fact, I'd say that a person could reasonable skip the whole of the previous chapters and pick up the book at chapter 15 and do pretty well. 

I was quite surprised to read that Price is complaining about vegetable oil being a big problem, since he published in 1939. I was under the impression that it came into widespread use in the 50s. So I did a little digging and found that cottonseed oil was common at the turn of the century and that Crisco vegetable shortening started selling in 1911. So it's a lot earlier than I had thought. I've been having to dismantle my timeline for processed foods lately and create a new one. I'm actually working on a processed foods timeline that I hope to share at some point. For now, I'll direct the reader here to a massive database of the history of food.

So what was the reason that vegetable oils, among others, were so commonplace by his time? It has to do with that phrase again: MODERN FOODS OF COMMERCE. And here the key ingredient in transportation. Price lists the foods that are good for transportation: 

• white flour
• sugar
• polished rice
• vegetable fats
• canned goods

Today, our transportation system is vastly quicker than it was in Price's time and we can get fresh salad greens all over the continent from southern California in a matter of days. If I wanted to, I could sell the organs from my pigs to someone who lived in Maine. And yet it seems we are left with the legacy of the development of our food system and even more boxed, bagged and canned food than ever.


He mentions it merely in passing, but it is clear to Price that vegetarian or vegan diets are not an option for those interested in optimal health:

As yet I have not found a single group of primitive racial stock which was building and maintaining excellent bodies by living entirely on plant foods. I have found in many parts of the world most devout representatives of modern ethical systems advocating the restriction of foods to the vegetable products. In every instance where the groups involved had been long under this teaching, I found evidence of degeneration in the form of dental caries, and in the new generation in the form of abnormal dental arches to an extent very much higher than in the primitive groups who were not under this influence. p.250

The last sentence of the chapter was inspiring at first:

The space of the entire book might be used for discussing the nutritional wisdom of the various primitive races. It is a pity that so much of their wisdom has been lost through lack of appreciation by the whites who early made contact with them. p.252

But then a sort of aggravation came over me. I got to thinking, "Why didn't you write that book, then?" Or why didn't somebody... And is it even possible to every get this knowledge back?


One of the most common complaints I hear about this kind of diet from people with whom I share these ideas is "It'll be so much work to even find these foods. If you can even find them." And I haven't had a ready answer for them, until now. Price writes that "The primitives have obtained, often with great difficulty, foods that are scarce but rich in certain elements." (p.231) So it is not unreasonable that we too should work hard to find foods to nourish our bodies? Humans cannot live in unmitigated convenience. So back to the farm work it is then...

A video that's helpful...

This here video is funny and close to how we think... we're not paleos, but much of the thinking is the same... one major difference is that dairy and grains are good for us, contrary to paleo diet - with the caveat that dairy must not be heat treated and grains must be fermented. Anyway... I thought the video was cute, so I wanted to share it...



I like the way Paelos think... at least they're trying to understand what humans were meant to eat. God provided all we need in relatively simple forms.

Chapter 14: Isolated and Modernized Peruvian Indians

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

Again, Price reminds the reader of the plight of the natives he is studying - and with clear disdain for the white perpetrators. Do these look like healthy people? I think the average contemporary North American would have no ability to discern. If we are to regain our health, we must be able to discern good health from poor health.

FIG. 88. The modernization of the Sierra Indians through the introduction of foods of modern commerce has produced a sad wreckage in physique and often character. The boy at the upper left is a mouth breather because his nostrils are too small to carry sufficient air. The girl at the upper right has a badly underdeveloped chin and pinched nostrils. Both boys below have badly narrowed arches with crowding teeth. (my underlining)

Of an Amazon tribe he writes, "In the entire group associated with this chief I did not find a single tooth that had been attacked by dental caries." (p.224) That would be 0%! I'm not one for sarcasm, but that seems to be all that comes to mind...

My, those poor, uncivilized, naive, backwards barbarians - perhaps we should go down and help them modernize so they too can enjoy all the benefits that we do!

The native foods of the Amazon Jungle Indians as Price records were: fish, animals, birds, water fowl, eggs, plants and fruits... nothing special listed here... and no details... but there's probably not much that modern folks would recognize as "food".


So I'm trying to get my head around what should be recognized as healthy and what should be recognized as food. When we look at the cupboard or fridge and declare: "There's nothing to eat!" what is going on? Why is it that at times like that it has to be instant snack food or it feels like we might die? Or is it that we're tired? Or overhungry? Or undernourished? 


At any rate, how do we get past those moments? Perhaps we should prepare some healthy snacks ahead of time? Or perhaps develop more will power? Or maybe it has something to do with eating proper meals on time each and every day?

Chapter 13: Ancient Civilizations of Peru

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

photo by alex.val

How did Weston A. Price's mind work? It seems he wasn't just an average fellow. When he looked at Maccu Piccu, he knew that it "probably represents the highest development of engineering, ancient and in some respects modern, on the American continent." (p.209) But he wasn't content with that observation - indeed, anyone might readily see this - but Price wanted to know what kind of people were capable of making this place. That is what drives him - he wants to know how great peoples are great, from a health standpoint. He wants to know what sort of human beings were strong enough and healthy enough to make Maccu Piccu.

Figure 83

Figure 83 (p.212) shows a perfect arch in an ancient skull. The 3rd molars (wisdom teeth) are formed perfectly and nothing is out of place. There's hardly a North American today that can say the same! Price asks the reader to look at the "broad sweep of the dental arches and freedom from tooth decay." (p.213)

I don't remember the history of my teeth and don't have a comprehensive record, but I do know that I have had many trips to dentists and many fillings. As for wisdom teeth, I must have had two pulled on the bottom, as I have 16 teeth on my top and only 14 on the bottom. Susan had all of her wisdom teeth pulled (surgically extracted). They just looked at the x-ray and told her parents that there was no room for them to come in - so they were pulled before they even broke through the gum line. The same for her friends.

my teeth

My dental arch is poorly formed and my teeth have always been crowded. As you can see from this photo, my 3rd teeth top & bottom, left & right are all sticking out and too long. When I was young, I had the nickname of "Dracula" because my canines stuck out even when my lips were closed. Also, you can see a gap between my upper and lower front teeth - even though my jaw is clenched shut. And this is after having had an appliance in for several months when I was about 12. Part of the problem has been my enlarged tongue, which continually pushes those teeth apart, but it is  clear that there were other problems in the development of my arches.

According to Price, the ancient Peruvians ate seafood, plant food, llama, alpaca, guinea pigs, potatoes, corn, beans and quinoa. Sounds pretty good to me!

Chapter 12: Isolated and Modernized New Zealand Maori

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...
The Maori are being described here as the most perfect people. We are told that a previous researcher found 1.2% of the population had dental caries, which Price calculated to be 0.05% of teeth. Wow.


"The breakdown of these people comes when the depart from their native foods to the foods of modern civilization, foods largely consisting of white flour, sweetened goods, syrup and canned goods. The effect is similar to that experienced by other races after using foods of modern civilization." (p.188) This quote could be from any of the previous chapters as well. It is such a pattern that has become apparent. As is the result produced from this change: "Particularly striking is the similarity between the deformities of the dental arches which occur in the Maori people who were born after their parents adopted the modern foods, and those of whites." (p.189)


As I looked at figure 72, I thought I could have been looking in the mirror. It started me thinking... just what foods did I eat when I was younger? How has what I've eaten changed over the years? For me, it is part of a larger question: Do I have a culture? I ask that question here because our food comes out of our culture... and if we don't identify with a culture, how do we identify with a food tradition? Or do we even have one?


In the last chapter, I noted the connection that Price had discovered between commerce and health. It seems it became a fundamental part of his thinking as he continues to use the term. In the caption to figure 74 he writes, "It is much easier for the moderns to exchange their labor for the palate-tickling devitalized foods of commerce than to obtain the native foods of land and sea." (p.190, my underlining) This is an observation so far removed from contemporary society that it is almost incomprehensible at best and wrong at worst. Most people don't think of trading their labor for anything, but in reality, that's what pay is. So what should we trade our labor for? What would it have been better for the Maori to trade for?

Chapter 11: Isolated and Modernized Torres Strait Islanders

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

MODERN FOODS OF COMMERCE

This headline is a phrase that stuck out for me in this chapter - more than a phrase it seems it has become a mantra... It might need a bit of work to fully understand it, though. By modern, it is meant that the traditional ways of the ancestors have been ignored in favor of processes developed for mass production. Food is an interesting label to apply to these items... they might better be referred to as poisons. And commerce, which we think we know... is so pervasive now that to the vast majority of people it seems to be the only way to exist. Commerce is the buying and selling of goods - it is not an exchange of goods of equal value, but an invention of the rich and powerful to make themselves richer and more powerful. Commerce is what the U.S. Congress regulates - and yet everywhere commerce has usurped individual rights and made many dependent upon handouts. In short, this phrase, "modern foods of commerce", has a deep, dark meaning that Weston A. Price discovered.

Throughout the book, the photographic evidence of the effects of these poisons is presented. What struck me in this chapter, was the captions that went with those proofs. Figure 65 has this caption:

The contrast between the primitive and modernized natives in facial and dental arch form is as striking here as elsewhere. These young natives were born to parents who had adopted our modern foods of commerce. Note the narrowed faces and dental arches with pinched nostrils and crowding of the teeth. Their magnificent heredity could not protect them. p.176 (my underlining)

And figure 62 shows a group of native school children contrasted with white school children on Thursday Island:

Note the beautifully proportioned faces of the natives, and the pinched nostrils and marked disturbance in proportions of the faces of the whites. The dental arches of the natives are broad, while many of the whites have very crowded teeth. The parents and children of the natives used native foods while the parents and children of the whites used the modern imported foods of commerce. p.171 (my underlining)

It seems to me that it is as if the captions for this chapter could have constituted the meaning of the whole chapter, apart from the statistics. The caption for figure 67 reads:

As everywhere these whites prefer the modernized foods and pay the penalty in rampant tooth decay. They are in pathetic contrast with the superb unspoiled natives. They are within reach of some of the best foods to be found anywhere in the world and yet do not use them; a typical characteristic of modern whites. p.178

It is as if there are no breaks between the chapters, such similar information, data, evidence, and conclusions are found. Chapter 11 aptly follows chapter 10, as Price continues his connection with modern foods and tooth decay: "The result of our examination indicates that dental caries on these islands shows an incidence which has an apparent direct relationship to the length of time government stores have been established there."(p.169) So why don't the natives just not buy food from these government stores? They were forced to buy food there.

Now it is true that they were not forced to eat the food they purchased at the government stores, but who buys food in order to let it go to waste? No, these people were forced by the government system to use their labor and resources to trade for credit at the government stores for the government supplied food - even though the people had all the food they needed around them. Modern governments are little more than complex businesses which seek to oppress their people under the guise of helping them. But it was always thus... rare indeed has been the leader who cared about the commoner. One of the differences in our day is that the commoners have little desire to be unenslaved. They are content with entertainment and chemical dependencies to see them through. It is true that most people have had a huge shift in their standard of living... but at what cost to their freedom?

In speaking of a particular island (Murray Island), Price writes that "the natives of this island are conscious of the superior food of their locality and wish that their people were not required to purchase food from the government store." (p.173) How many of us could look at our surroundings and be able to wish the same?

Chapter 10: Isolated and Modernized Australian Aborigines

Continuing my review of Nutrition and Physical Degeneration by Weston A. Price...

Weston A. Price began his world travels for this project in 1931, so I have gathered - the present chapter is his reflections from a trip he took to eastern Australia, Figi, Samoa and New Zealand in 1936. He compared inland populations to coastal populations and found that even though the foods they were consuming were different, the results were the same.

On the first page, Price describes needing to study children between 10 and 16 because "the deciduous dentition or first set of teeth may be in normal position in the arches with a correct relationship between the arches, and the permanent dentition show marked irregularity." (p.146) This was one of those "of course!" moments for me where something I've felt before has been put into words by someone else. Most babies look at least moderately healthy (of course many don't look healthy at all here in the U.S.), but almost all adults have poor teeth and are sick in some way. There's so much available to us at birth and in those first years of life that sustains us through even poor nutrition for a few years, but then later on, if it's not corrected, serious problems erupt.

It is always striking that the same patterns of deformity and degeneration manifest throughout the world, regardless of race or location:

One of the most important phases of our special quest was to get information that would throw light on the degeneration of the facial pattern that occurs so often in our modern civilization. This has its expression in the narrowing and lengthening of the face and the development of crooked teeth. It is most remarkable and should be one of the most challenging facts that can come to our modern civilization that such primitive races as the Aborigines of Australia, have reproduced for generation after generation through many centuries-no one knows for how many thousands of years-without the development of a conspicuous number of irregularities of the dental arches. Yet, in the next generation after these people adopt the foods of the white man, a large percentage of the children developed irregularities of the dental arches with conspicuous facial deformities. The deformity patterns are similar to those seen in white civilizations. p.155

It is difficult to believe that less than a hundred years ago white people thought it okay to put other races in small plots of land and limit what those people were allowed to eat. It happened in Canada and the United States with the first nations, and then later with the Japanese during World War II. It also happened in Australia:

One can scarcely visualize, without observing it, the distress of a group of primitive people situated as these people are, compelled to live in a very restricted area, forced to live on food provided by the government, while they are conscious that if they could return to their normal habits of life they would regain their health and again enjoy life. p.160

He continues with his assessment of their situation two pages later:

The rapid degeneration of the Australian Aborigines after the adoption of the government's modern foods provides a demonstration that should be infinitely more convincing than animal experimentation. It should be a matter not only of concern but deep alarm that human beings can degenerate physically so rapidly by the use of a certain type of nutrition, particularly the dietary products used so generally by modern civilization. p.162

It concerns me even now... or most especially now, as my reading of this book is to improve my family's health. I find myself to be unable to be fixed. That is to say, I have medical issues which are the result of poor prenatal nutrition and poor nutrition during my youngest years. In short, I cannot do anything about these problems because their cause prohibits a remedy. So we are starting to learn while our children may not end up being perfect, they will absolutely enjoy better health than their parents - because of better nutrition.

Price ends this chapter obviously deeply saddened by what he has seen happen to the Aborigines, writing "They demonstrate in a tragic way the inadequacy of the white man's dietary programs." (p.166)  I found my own diet to be inadequate and I still struggle with its inadequacy... constantly making corrections and finding that the old cravings are hard to deal with... One of the common threads between all the peoples Price studied is their isolation. What does that mean for my family in 2011?

한이 무엇인가?

내가 볼 때는...

한이 그리움

한이 행복

한이 섭섭함

한이 말하고 싶은데 말을 못함

한이 가고싶어도 못 감

한이 후회

한이 희망이며 기대

한이 아쉬움

한이 슬픔

한이 아름다움

한이 이런 것들 외에도 한이 있다.

잘 살펴보면 한이 인강의 처지다.

          위태산

"Grass Fed" is not sufficient

I have not found reference to this anywhere, so I want to post this for the world to know: grass is not enough for ruminant animals. These days we see reference to grass fed beef, grass fed pork... and so on. While that is definitely an improvement over feedlot or factory conditions, it is not sufficient to supply the full range of nutrition for animals. There needs to be a mixture of forest, swamp, meadow, and riparian areas to provide the full range of nutrition for cows, sheep, pigs, etc. Animals, like humans, are very resilient. Human beings can exist on Oreo cookies and pasteurized milk with some mac and cheese thrown in... likewise, animals can exist on crappy rations and artificial light and come out looking like meat - but the nutrition isn't there.

Have you ever heard or experienced that grass fed beef (or whatever) is lean and a bit tougher than feedlot beef? Well, that's not a good thing. It's because the animal didn't have the best nutrition.

I'm not saying that grass fed is a gimmick, but ultimately people desire good tasting, well developed, easy to chew meat. And generally speaking, grass fed cannot provide that. Ever had wild venison or elk? You'll know what I'm talking about.

Grass is not enough.