Recently, I had the privilege of reading the book, “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”, by Dr Weston Price, a dentist from North America, who wrote it in 1939. Price and his wife travelled to 14 countries across all continents in search of healthy populations, and his findings were remarkable.
Consistently, he observed perfect health, bone structure, dental health, immunity, and more among indigenous people who maintained their traditional diets.
I also had the privilege of reading the ground-breaking book, “The China Study”, by T. Colin Campbell. In this book, Campbell unequivocally states that rural folk who consumed their native meals were healthier than those who migrated to urban areas and often transitioned to Western-style nutrition, especially high animal protein foods.
During my specialty training in internal medicine at Johns Hopkins University, I had professors who had travelled extensively, including to Africa, South America, and Asia. I recall Professor Greenough, who often asked me what we used in Nigeria for various ailments. He advised repeatedly that there is knowledge in those ancient cultures and encouraged me to go back and retrieve it.
He travelled to Senegal and the Far East, including Indonesia and the Philippines. He noted some similarities in how indigenous people treated diarrhoea in children, such as preparing rice water with added salt. Despite being geographically distant, these cultures had similar practices. He consistently encouraged me to explore the wisdom of these ancient cultures and retrieve that knowledge.
Little did I realise he was planting the seed for me to awaken others and myself who would listen. There is tremendous health in ancestral knowledge and nutrition. He praised the wisdom that existed among ancient people.
Several years ago, I travelled to Indonesia. At a nice upscale restaurant, I observed something strange yet familiar. Next to the sink where patrons washed their hands before meals was a huge clay pot, similar to the kind I had seen at my grandmother’s home. In my childhood, during visits to the village, I saw my great-grandma and grandma drink from such pots. This large clay pot had a tap and spout built into it to allow water to flow out.
National Geographic published a study in the early 2000s that examined cultures around the world to identify those with the least health problems and longest lifespans. These communities and geographic areas, now known as Blue Zones, maintain traditional agricultural and nutritional practices. For instance, they consume only original heirloom wheat cultivated traditionally, without chemicals or GMOs. They also follow natural rhythms, such as aligning sleep cycles with the moon and sun.
All these different sources of exposure and knowledge consistently tell us that if we want to be healthy, we should adhere to natural, organic, ancestral, or traditional agricultural and nutritional practices. These sources, including the books mentioned, observed that people who abandoned these practices and adopted the Western diet and modern agricultural and nutritional processing practices experienced more health problems. They became sicker, less healthy, and even had shorter lifespans.
The evidence is clear: the more we follow the so-called Western modern conventional practices in agriculture and nutrition, the sicker we become and the shorter our longevity. A word to the wise: say no to GMOs, as they are part of these destructive Western agricultural and nutritional practices. They pollute the soil and are detrimental to our health, the environment, bees, and soil microbes.
Your health was excellent before the mediocrity of the modern Western onslaught into our agriculture and nutrition. Reclaim your health and wellness. Reclaim your health and longevity through ancestral practices—natural, organic, chemical-free, and GMO-free agriculture and nutrition.
Dr Patrick Ijewere; B.Sc. Chem, B.Pharm, MD, MBA
