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Which Are Girls and Which Are Boys
The American Academy of Applied Nutrition, Vol.1, September 1948.
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An explanation is in order. Experimental work with animals shows a loss of secondary sexual characteristics after two or three generations on impoverished diets. Males lose their heavy masculine frame, their make up begins to resemble the female. Females also tend to lose their distinguishing build so that both sexes approach a state of physical neutrality. The male no longer has the strength of body that normally makes him the breadwinner and dominant personality. The female no longer has the pelvic capacity required for easy child bearing. Other undesirable changes go along with these among individuals of either sex.
1
2
3
4
Numbers 1 and 4 are boys, numbers 2 and 3 are girls. Ages are between 15 and 17.
Observation among our young people shows that humans become subject to the same deficiencies as a consequence of depleted foods, used since the roller flour mill was invented right after the Civil War. Canning, pasteurizing, storage, and refinements of many kinds contribute to the hereditary breakdown.
These pictures were shown at one of the American Medical Association Conventions. Physicians, nurses, and educators had their guesses tabulated roughly as follows: M.D.’s 20% named all four correctly, Nurses 30% correct, Educators 50%. Average for all was 30%.
Someone stated a long time ago that if children are to expect to be healthy and vigorous they should pick healthy grandparents. This axiom gives impetus to a further line of thought involving our field of applied nutrition. In this field we are actually interested in helping the development of a good crop of future grandparents.
“Neither heredity or environment could go far without the other. If for example, the tiny concentrated centers of chemical organization known as genes –the basic unit of heredity, had no living organism provided by food and growth on which and in which to express their directive powers, they would be incapable of description, measurement or identification.”
“Even heredity with all its complicated nature, while in a sense immortal, is itself purely physical and composed of units of proteins, minerals and vitamins and in the transfer from one generation to the next, must be rebuilt by the special sex cells of the parents, and only by complete rebuilding can perfect hereditary traits, physical and physiological, be expressed as personality and character.” –from “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Weston A. Price, D.D.S.
“Thousands of experiments with animals show that the health of the parents prior to conception is an important factor in determining the strength and wellbeing of the young. Studies indicate that if your diet is consistently adequate both before your child is conceived and afterward, the chances are not only that you will produce a superior infant but that you will avoid the illnesses so common during pregnancy… The best diet, however, cannot overcome the harm done by years of living on cokes, coffee, cigarettes, and products made from white flour and refined sugar.”
More than any other person, the late Dr. Weston A. Price showed that abnormal bone structure could not be inherited. Dr. Price studied primitive peoples throughout the world and the effect of their diets upon their dental and bone structure. He found that when they ate their native diets, which were amazingly adequate because no refined foods could be obtained, certain characteristics were evident: their facial bones were broad, their eyes widely spaced, and their cheekbones well developed; the lower third of their faces was wide, and the jawbones were sufficiently large to permit the teeth to be even and straight without crowding; their chins were strong and broad and in no case receding… Dr. Price also found people of the same races who had adopted the worst features of a white man’s diet, chiefly foods which can be shipped without spoiling; white-flour products, refined sugar, canned foods, and coffee. Children raised on such a diet were different from their parents who had lived on native foods. Almost every type of skeletal malformation could be found: narrow “shallow” faces; thin elongated foreheads; eyes crowded together; almost a hollowness under the eyes and through the cheekbones… The abnormalities of bone structure similar to those found by Dr. Price exist in America in millions of faces. Unfortunately most of us need to look no farther than into a mirror to see them… Such abnormalities, though congenital, should not be considered hereditary even when a parent has similar faulty bone structure. Hundreds of other children, perfect at birth, are growing up with poor skeletal development because they are receiving inadequate diets; both groups would become beautiful children if the value of nutrition were more fully appreciated.” –from “Let’s Have Healthy Children” by Adelle Davis.
“The conclusion is reached easily that the diets of our children have improved in many ways over those of the past. It is clear also that they have not yet improved sufficiently even in those economic levels at which the cost of food is relatively unimportant… Despite improvement in nutrition over the years, much evidence exists that current diets are often unsatisfactory… Dietary surveys in families show an unequal distribution of food and nutritional essentials… At least three nutritional essentials deserve special emphasis in childhood, namely, vitamin D, protein, and calcium.” –from “Handbook of Nutrition” by A.M.A
Editor’s note: Since the era in which this article was written, society’s understanding of respectful terminology when referring to societal and cultural groups has evolved, and some readers may be offended by references to “primitive” people and other out-of-date terminology. However, this article has been archived as a historical document, and so we have chosen to use Pottenger’s exact words in the interest of authenticity. No disrespect to any group is intended.