Fellow Nourisher, Chris Master-John, nutrition researcher and active chapter leader of the Weston A Price Foundation, recently responded to T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study. Campbell was rebutting Master-John’s criticism of the book and his conclusion that a vegan diet paves the road to vibrant health. Master-John’s point was that a diet should not be judged on whether it included animal products or not, but the quality of the animal foods it did include. He wrote:
Not all animal products are equal. Putting aside all differences in quality such as soil composition, pasture feeding and so on, there are certain animal products that are by their nature vastly richer than most others in important animal-based nutrients.
This is particularly true of shellfish. It would take just over a quarter pound of beef per day to fulfill the minimum requirement for zinc, yet a single serving of oysters per week fulfills the same requirement. One would have to eat two servings of salmon per week to meet the minimum requirement for vitamin B12, but would only have to eat clams once per month to meet the same requirement.
When Weston Price traveled to the Pacific island of Viti Levu, he encountered groups in the interior mountains of the island who subsisted largely on plant foods. He was disappointed to find that they considered it necessary to obtain animal foods from the sea at least once every three months:
“This was a matter of keen interest, and at the same time disappointment since one of the purposes of the expedition to the
South Seas was to find, if possible, plants or fruits which together, without the use of animal products, were capable of providing all of the requirements of the body for growth and for maintenance of good health and a high state of physical efficiency.”
The natives of this island had such a deep respect for the health-promoting value of shellfish that even during times of bitter warfare between those dwelling on the coast and those dwelling on the interior, the latter would bring plant foods down in the middle of the night and store them in caches bordering the zone of warfare, and would return the following day to collect shellfish that the coast dwellers had deposited for them.
To read more, visit, Master-John’s website, Cholesterol-And-Health.com, and read the rest of the article.
About the Author...
Joanne Hay, Editor of Nourished Magazine, Chief Nourisher and Mother of three is very grateful to live in Byron Bay and be able to share all she has learned about Nourishment. She has trained as an Acupuncturist (unfinished), Kinesiologist (finished) and parent (never finished). She serves the Weston A Price Foundation as a chapter leader. She loves sauerkraut, kangaroo tail stew, home made ice cream, her husband Wes and her kids Isaiah, Brynn and Ronin (in no particular order…well maybe ice cream first).
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