Fourfold Path to Healing, Day 2

As I snack on potato chips fried in lard, I come to share with you the treasures I learned today at the Fourfold Path to Healing Conference!  (Read on to the end for a special treat!)

The morning session was with Jaimen McMillan regarding spacial dynamics.  While I'm not really into this part of the conference, I do want to share with you his website, Spacial Dynamics Institute, if you'd like to do further research.

After the session with Jaimen we moved into individual "tracks" with the different speakers.  My interest is definitely nutrition, so I chose to sit in the lectures with Sally Fallon Morell.  We kicked off the session talking about what a healthy diet is and segued into the works of Dr. Weston A. Price.  By the way, his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, should be in everyone's home library!  We examined the different tribes and countries he visited and the information he learned from looking at the native peoples' teeth and facial structure and how it correlated with their diets.

We then talked about the 11 underlying characteristics of these traditional diets.  Here they are:

1. No refined or denatured foods
2. Every diet contained animal products
3. Dr. Price's key findings: Primitive Diets contain 4 times the calcium and other minerals, and 10 times the fat-soluble vitamins as the modern American diet.
4. All cultures cooked some or most of their food…but they always ate some of their animal foods raw.
5. Contained high levels of enzymes and beneficial bacteria
6. Seeds, grains, legumes & nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened
7. Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30% to 80% of calories, but only about 4% of calories come from polyunsaturated fatty acids.
8. Nearly equal amounts of Omega-6 and Omega-3 Fatty Acids
9. All diets contained some salt
10. All traditional cultures made use of bones, usually as bone broth
11. Traditional cultures made provisions for future generations

What an energizing list!  The thing I found most fascinating was how everything worked together in the primitive diet.  You received the nutrients you needed from the food you ate, no need for a pill case full of supplements, just some fermented cod liver oil!  Tomorrow we'll be diving into soy, raw dairy and grains/legumes.

We also broke for lunch which was a lovely spread of Nourishing Traditions food.  We had fermented gingered carrots and sauerkraut, hunks of sourdough bread with butter and ghee, brown rice, salmon, bone broth made with chicken feet and heads, and maple apple crisp for dessert!  I bet your salivating by now!  The recipes can be found in Sally Fallon's book, Nourishing Traditions.

In between the individual lectures with Sally Fallon, we had a group lecture with Dr. Tom Cowan.  He gave a discussion on cancer and Alzheimer's, their history and lack of presence in primitive cultures.  Some information on the ketogenic diet and cocount oil was given with the possibility of those alleviating some of the cancer and Alzheimer's symptoms.  Last was a discussion was regarding grains and their origins in our diet.  I'm sure I'm not summarizing his speech the best, but it was very enlightening, especially in dealing with cancer in my family.

So you're dying for the treat, aren't you?  How would you like to view all the Powerpoint slides for Sally Fallon Morell's discussion with her notes?  All three segments can be found at the New Trends Publishing website.  You definitely need to download these and work your way through them...enjoy!

Have a good night!