The Changing Incidence & Mortality of Infectious Disease in Relation to Trends in Nutrition
By W. J. McCormick, MD
Summary: A Canadian medical doctor reviews the downward trend of infectious diseases from the late 1800s through 1945 to determine whether advances in medicine were responsible, as commonly believed, for the great drop-offs in illnesses such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, typhoid, diphtheria, whooping cough, and scarlet fever. His conclusion? No. The declines of all the illnesses started before the introduction of widespread medical measures such as drug therapy or immunization and continued at about the same pace after these methods came into play. Instead, he proposes, the declines coincide with the introduction and widespread availability of foods rich in vitamin C, the "anti-infection" vitamin. Thus, modern transportation and refrigeration—making foods such as oranges, grapefruits, tomatoes, etc., readily accessible for the first time—were the reason for better public health, Dr. McCormick argues, not medical care and pharmaceuticals. From the journal The Medical Record. Reprint 5A, 1947.
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Clinical Nutrition: Food vs. Drugs
By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Dr. Lee outlines the efforts of organized medicine in the mid twentieth century to suppress awareness of the effectiveness of clinical nutrition. "This pernicious and corrupt misuse of the facilities of medical education," Lee writes, "has been [totally] effective in creating the idea that nutritional therapy is futile and leans toward quackery." Lee goes on to show how medicine became focused solely on therapies involving pharmaceutical drugs and that it marginalized drugless healing professions through laws preventing the dissemination of information and knowledge. Reprint 25A, 1948.
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Concept of Totality
By Joe Nichols, MD
Summary: Pioneering holistic medical doctor Joe Nichols writes about the "six chief causes of disease": (1) emotions, (2) malnutrition, (3) poisons, (4) infections, (5) accidents, and (6) inheritance. The worst, he says, are the emotions. "Worry, fear, anxiety, hate, envy, jealousy—these are the great killers," he explains, recommending the three As (acceptance, approval and adoration of others) as a remedy. A second great killer, Dr. Nichols says, is malnutrition, which starts with soils that have been exhausted of minerals through irresponsible farming practices utilizing artificial fertilizers. "The end result of chemical farming is always disease, first in the land itself, then in the plant, then in the animal, and finally in us. Everywhere in the world where chemical farming is practiced the people are sick. The use of synthetic chemicals does not make land rich. It makes it poorer than before." Dr. Nichols founded the Natural Foods Associates and edited its magazine, Natural Food and Farming, 1954.
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Correctable Systemic Disorders Indicated by Presence of Salivary Calculus
By John E. Waters, DDS
Summary: An excellent nutritional piece positing dental plaque as a precursor to cancer. "Both the medical and dental professions in general consider pyorrhea alveolaris [gum inflammation and loosening of teeth] as a disease per se and treat it primarily from the local disease angle. That is wrong. Pyorrhoea is but a single symptom of a systemic disease caused by glandular abnormalities. Local treatment but reduces the obvious symptoms; it does not affect the basic systemic disease. That which follows is based on observations during over forty years of general dental practice, and on over thirty years of special attention paid to certain aspects rarely if ever commented on in connection with dental calculus [tartar]." Special Reprint 1-64, 1964.
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Dietary Regimen in the Treatment of Renal Calculi (excerpted pages)
By Charles C. Higgins, MD
Summary: Selected pages from a journal review of studies investigating the connection between vitamin A deficiency and renal calculi, or kidney stones. This is one of the earliest tracts showing the critical role of vitamin A in the health of the kidneys. Although pH is discussed, the main thrust of the report concerns studies—conducted in the U.S., Africa, China, and other parts of Asia—all reaching the conclusion that vitamin A deficiency leads to renal calculi and lesions. From The Journal-Lancet, 1938.
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Let Food Be Your Medicine
By Doris Grant
Summary: Doris Grant was one of England's greatest proponents of the natural-foods movement. An avid supporter of the Lee Foundation, she wrote many books and lectured widely to teach the British people how to live healthier lives, particularly through their food choices. Strong and active until the end of her life, Grant died in 2003 at the age of 98. This document includes a brief account of her life. From the Cambridge University Medical School Society Magazine. Reprint 123, 1958.
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Medical Testament of the Doctors of Cheshire, England
By the Local Medical and Panel Committee of Cheshire, England
Summary: One of the great documents in the histories of both nutrition and medicine. The Local Medical Committee of Cheshire, England—representing the 600 doctors of the county—reviews the doctors' experience over the previous 25 years under the National Health Insurance Act. They concede that they've been unable to make inroads in preventing disease and state why explicitly: "This illness results from a life-time of wrong nutrition!" Citing the soil and farming work of Sir Albert Howard (An Agricultural Testament), they emphasize that good nutrition starts with the health of the soil that plants are grown in. They also review the nutritional research of Sir Robert McCarrison (Studies in Deficiency Disease), whose famous studies in India revealed the critical importance of whole foods, particularly "milk, butter, and fresh vegetables," in preventing disease. The doctors present cases of the deterioration of health in their patients as these individuals consumed the modern English diet, and they point out that the nation's dental and physical health have suffered severely as practices such as the pasteurization of milk, the refining of whole grains, and the consumption of refined sugar have increased. How, they ask, can they carry out their medical mission when the misery they've tried to alleviate will continue as long as the food supply is adulterated? "We conceive it to be our duty in the present state of knowledge to point out that much, perhaps most, of [England's] sickness is preventable and would be prevented by the right feeding of our people." In 1957, the Medical Testament was reprinted in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, signed by an additional 400 dentists and physicians. 1939.
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The National Malnutrition
By D. T. Quigley, MD
Summary: The complete book published by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research. A well-known cancer specialist from Omaha writes about the disgraceful nutritional status of the American people and makes the case that it is malnutrition more than anything that is responsible for the the amazing rate of cancer in the United States. Decades ahead of his time, Dr. Quigley warns Americans about corn syrup and refined sugar, explaining that cancer cells thrive on such artificial and refined sweeteners. 1943.
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The Neglect of Natural Principles in Current Medical Practice
By Surgeon Captain T. L. Cleave, MD
Summary: In 1974, Dr. Cleave wrote the brilliant but virtually ignored book The Sacharrine Disease: Conditions Caused by the Taking of Refined Carbohydrates Such as Sugar and White Flour. Well before that, however, he wrote this 30-page article urging the medical profession to reconnect with the natural laws of health from which humankind evolved, specifically by promoting the consumption of whole, natural foods over the processed and overcooked products of commercial food manufacturing. Citing the work of Weston A. Price as an example of understanding natural law, Captain Cleave argues that industrialized food production caused abundant and cheap carbohydrates to predominate in the modern diet, resulting in disastrous consequences for human health. From the Journal of the Royal Naval Medical Service, 1956.
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Nutrition and Health
By Sir Robert McCarrison, MD
Summary: Dr. McCarrison, the famed nutritional researcher knighted for his work in India (which culminated in the classic reference Studies in Deficiency Disease, available in these archives), gives a lecture to London schoolchildren about diet and nutrition. He recounts his famous rat-feeding studies mimicking the diets of differing populations in India and, based on the results of his studies, gives his prescription for a basic healthful diet: freshly milled grains, raw milk and milk products, legumes, fresh vegetables, fruit, eggs, and meat. Reprint 43, 1937.
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Nutrition in Everyday Practice (excerpts)
By E. C. Robertson and F. F. Tisdall and by Dr. E. V. McCollum
Summary: Excerpts from two chapters of a 1939 compilation by the Canadian Medical Association, which admits that "the practical application of facts concerning nutrition has not kept pace with our increasing knowledge" and warns Canadian physicians that they "must increase their interest in this problem of normal nutrition, otherwise the public will seek information on this subject elsewhere." (Advice that was, tragically, almost wholly ignored.) In the chapter "Nutrition and Resistance to Disease,” Roberston and Tisdall explain that while clinical evidence regarding nutrient deficiencies in humans can be difficult to obtain because of experimental limitations, this is not the case for animal studies, which show quite clearly the effects of even "comparatively slight" shortages in vitamins. The authors present studies showing drastic differences in resistance to disease in animals fed a diet sufficient in nutrients and those fed diets deficient in, respectively, vitamins A, B, and D; minerals; and animal protein. “These studies furnish clear-cut evidence that improper nutrition lowers the resistance of the animal to infection," the authors state, "and also that the nutritional deficiency does not have to be so severe as to produce outstanding evidence of disease." In the second chapter, “Better Nutrition as a Health Measure," Dr. McCollum discusses the specific roles of vitamins A, C, and D in the body and in dental health in particular. Reprint 115, 1939.
Nutritional Approach to the Prevention of Disease
By J. F. Wischhusen and N. O. Gunderson, MD
Summary: "Scientists have been almost entirely preoccupied by the concept that bacteria cause disease, rather than by a much more important concept that adequate nutrition causes good health and relative freedom from disease." This basic principle, stated so eloquently by the authors of this essay from The Science Counselor, aptly defines the divide between the fields of nutrition and medicine. Were we to stop consuming substandard foods such as pasteurized milk and foods grown on soils deficient in trace minerals, the authors explain, then we would not need medical treatments for degenerative diseases such as rheumatism, arthritis, gastro-intestinal disorders, nervous and mental diseases, and cancer because they would be largely non-existent (as they are in pre-industrial societies that stick to their traditional diets). "Remove the true underlying cause of disease, malnutrition," the authors add, "and it will usually be found that the disease germs cannot exist or propagate in an animal body that is healthy." Reprint 48, 1950.
Practical Methods in Preparing Health-Building Foods
By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Dr. Lee cooks! Here he describes nutrient-conserving methods of preparing meats, vegetables, grains, and fruits. He strongly urges using only organically grown foods and reminds readers to eat acidifying and alkalizing foods in relatively equal amounts. "Cereals [and] grains are all acid. Root and leaf vegetables are all alkalline. Meat and fish are acid. Fruits may be either—apple and grape are most neutral." Publication date unknown.
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The Prevention of Recurrence in Peptic Ulcer
By D. T. Quigley, MD
Summary: Dr. Quigley, the famed cancer expert and author from Omaha, declares peptic ulcer a nutritional deficiency disease reflecting a high intake of refined carbohydrates. Deficiency diseases in general, he adds, should always be treated as broad-based deficiencies rather than as isolated, single-nutrient deficiencies. "In real life no scurvy is ever cured by ascorbic acid, no pellegra [sic] is ever cured by nicotinicamide [sic], no anemia is ever cured with iron and no beriberi is ever cured with thiamine. With these remedies the outstanding and most distressing symptoms are alleviated but the basic disease still exists." Thirteen case histories are presented. From The Nebraska State Medical Journal. Reprint 17, 1954.
The Significance of Nutrition for Preventive Medicine
By Karl Kottschau, MD
Summary: Translated by the Lee Foundation from the German original. In this powerful essay, Dr. Kottschau spells out the principles of whole-food nutrition and calls on German authorities to put the country's public health before its commercial interests when it comes to the food supply. "From a standpoint of preventive medicine," he writes, "it must be demanded without the shadow of doubt that the matter of nutrition is discussed in full view of the public and uninfluenced by commercial considerations." Kottschau then proposes criteria and priorities necessary for the production of truly nutritious food capable of sustaining human health, as opposed to the deficient processed foods responsible for so much of modern illness. "Everybody knows that among civilized peoples nutrition is not what it should be [and] nutrition plays a decisive part in people becoming ill," he says. Yet "although we know this, and thus it would be our duty to pay maximum attention to this fact, nothing of importance is being done in order to enlighten the masses about the dangers of present-day-civilization diets and to reduce such dangers." Sadly, Dr. Kottschau's lament still rings true today. From Research and Science. Reprint 83, 1953.
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The Special Nutritional Qualities of Natural Foods
By Dr. Royal Lee and Jerome S. Stolzoff
Summary: In this famous report, Lee and Stolzoff contrast the characteristics of real food with those of their crude artificial imitations. “Because of the denaturation of foods by refining and processing, we are overeating the fattening and energy-producing components in foods and literally starving for the vital vitamin and mineral factors, which have become far scarcer and more difficult to obtain than at any time in the history of the human race.” Still ahead of the times, this report is as important now as it was in its day. Includes a referenced chart of 147 diseases associated with various vitamin defeciences. 1942.
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Studies in Deficiency Disease
By Sir Robert McCarrison, MD
Summary: The complete classic of 1921, as republished by the Lee Foundation for Nutritional Research in 1945. Dr. McCarrison was knighted in England for his groundbreaking research while serving as a British army surgeon in India during the first two decades of the twentieth century. His landmark investigations into the connection between the diets of various populations in India and their patterns of disease and health gave new insight into the cause and effect of nutrition on health and introduced the world to the amazingly healthy and long-lived Hunza people of the Himalayas. McCarrison set up laboratories in which he studied the effect of various local diets on animals, reproducing nearly the same health and disease patterns in the animals as displayed in the particular populations. Diet, he concluded, was the determining factor in the specific health patterns of each population. McCarrison was also the first researcher to inform the medical world that the endocrine system is the first system in the body to succumb to the effects of malnutrition, carefully demonstrating the lesions in the endocrine glands caused by specific adulterated foods. His work inspired the likes of Royal Lee, Weston A. Price, Francis Pottenger, Jr., and J. I. Rodale. Still remarkably relevant today, this book should be part of the corpus of all colleges of the healing arts. Originally published by Oxford Medical Publications, 1921.
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Studies of Vitamin Deficiency
By M. K. Horwitt et al.
Summary: Report of a controlled study conducted in a state hospital testing the effects of diets deficient in thiamine and riboflavin. Of course this kind of test could never be conducted under today's ethical standards; nevertheless, as expected, those who were starved of various vitamins suffered noticeable effects and recovered when they were restored to a proper diet. From Science. Reprint 26, 1946.
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Trophopathic Disease or Systemic Nutritional Disturbances as Reflected in the Mouth
By Grant H. Laing, MD
Summary: An excellent ten-page review of the signs of malnutrition that dentists routinely and literally overlook. The early nutrition pioneers, many of them dentists, knew full well that malnutrition creates specific lesions in the oral cavity. This article from the Fortnightly Review of the Chicago Dental Society is one of the earliest papers presented on the subject. The editor's note, written by an MD, still applies today: "At first glance this article...appears to be completely foreign to dentistry. However, we assure our readers that if they will but read it, they will be fascinated by it." Note: Trophopathic means "due to derangement of nutrition," a term we should hear more often given that malnutrition is the primary cause of most degenerative disease. Reprint 51, 1949.
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Vitamins and Their Clinical Applications
By Dr. W. Stepp, Dr. Kuhnau, and Dr. H. Schroeder
Summary: An extremely rare, comprehensive book on vitamin therapy that Dr. Royal Lee had translated from German and published in the United States. The authors, German research physicians, recognized the therapeutic aspects of vitamins beyond treating the frank deficiency diseases (e.g., scurvy, rickets, etc.) associated with them. "In view of the newly acquired knowledge of the frequency of hypovitaminoses [vitamin deficiencies] and of the susceptibility of patients with avitaminoses to all sorts of diseases [beyond frank deficiencies], the importance of a sufficient vitamin supply must not be underestimated in our patients." This book is an indispensable collection of gems containing some of the lost knowledge of vitamin therapy learned in the years of the twentieth century before World War II, when vitamin research was independent, vigorous, and fresh with the insights of recent discovery. Includes numerous charts, graphs, references, and appendices. 1938.
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Vitamins and Their Relation to Deficiency Disease of the GI Tract
By Edward A. Johnston, MD
Summary: This excellent report, a reprint from The Journal of the American College of Proctology, starts with a clear description of the all-important connection between vitamin complexes (as they are found in whole foods) and the endocrine system. "When we consider that vitamins in the food are the substances with which the endocrines are able to secrete their active principles, it is apparent that a glandular insufficiency may take place in the absence of vitamins....All of the ductless glands, the thyroid, para-thyroid, thymus, pineal body, pituitary, adrenals, gonads, pancreas, islets of Langerhans, and spleen must have one or more of the vitamins in order to secrete their vital fluids, and, if deprived of the vitamins, will atrophy and cease to function." Such events, Dr. Johnston says, are obviously bound to weaken the body and make it more susceptible to disease. "Stomach ulcers are probably the best instance of bacterial invasion primarily due to a lowered resistance resulting from a vitamin deficiency. Other instances of vitamin A deficiency, and often found in conjunction with infections of the intestinal tract, are infections of the eyes, tonsils, sinuses, lungs, buccal and lingual mucosa, and the skin." This is the Royal Lee Philosophy writ large. Reprint 2, circa 1940.
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