Weston A. Price

An icebreaker

A dentist traveled the world in the 1930s photographing teeth of people eating traditional diets, arguing that departure from those diets explained the decay and disease he saw follow. Later researchers say his comparisons missed too many other differences to prove that alone.

Ask one of these · tap to take it

Can a smile really tell you about someone's whole diet?
What else changes when a community adopts new foods?
How do you compare health across very different cultures fairly?
Why do old photographs of teeth still get cited today?

copy the questions

Worth knowing · 1 of 5

Who was he and what did he do?

A Cleveland dentist who had led national dental research for over a decade, he spent years in the 1930s traveling to isolated communities worldwide, photographing dental arches and health, and comparing them to people eating imported, processed foods.

Worth knowing · 2 of 5

What did he conclude?

In his 1939 book, he argued that communities eating their traditional, unprocessed diets showed far less tooth decay and fewer dental-arch problems than the same populations after adopting white flour, sugar, and canned goods.

Worth knowing · 3 of 5

What does the dental observation itself hold up as?

The pattern he photographed, more decay and crowding after a shift to refined foods, has broadly held up and is consistent with later nutrition research linking sugar and refined carbohydrates to tooth decay.

Worth knowing · 4 of 5

What's the main methodological criticism?

Critics note he compared communities that also differed in sanitation, infection rates, and life expectancy, and didn't separate diet from those other factors, so his sweeping claims about traditional diets preventing broader disease go beyond what his comparisons show.

Worth knowing · 5 of 5

What about the foundation that carries his name today?

A nonprofit using his name promotes raw milk and other foods with health claims that public-health agencies dispute. The FDA warns that raw milk carries a real risk of serious foodborne illness.

Words to know

Dental archThe curved shape formed by a full set of teeth, which Price photographed and compared across diets.

Confounding variableA factor other than the one studied that could explain an observed difference, such as sanitation or infection rates.

Nutrition and Physical DegenerationPrice's 1939 book presenting his photographs and comparisons across dozens of traditional communities.

More words

Refined carbohydratesProcessed foods like white flour and sugar, which Price and later research both link to tooth decay.

A voice · 1 of 4

Weston A. Price · Dentist who conducted the original research

In his 1939 book, he argued that communities eating traditional, unprocessed diets showed markedly less tooth decay and narrower facial and dental problems than the same populations after they adopted refined, imported foods.

A voice · 2 of 4

Joel Fuhrman · Physician who reviewed his methodology

Assessing Price's comparisons, he argued Price overlooked differences in life expectancy, infant mortality, and infection rates between the groups he studied, and did not adequately separate diet from these other factors before drawing his conclusions.

A voice · 3 of 4

Sally Fallon Morell · President of a foundation carrying his name

Through the foundation and her own cookbooks, she has promoted raw, unpasteurized milk as safe and beneficial for a wide range of conditions, presenting it as central to the traditional diets Price's photographs first documented.

A voice · 4 of 4

Harriet Hall · Physician who reviewed the foundation's claims

Writing for a science-based medicine publication, she argued the foundation's promotion of raw milk as safe and health-restoring ignores the documented risk of foodborne illness from unpasteurized dairy.

A line to leave them with

The teeth in the photographs are real. What caused them is a longer argument.