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.
View PDF: Medical Testament of the Doctors of Cheshire, England
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