Weston A. Price Foundation

The Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF), co-founded in 1999 by Sally Fallon (Morell) and nutritionist Mary G. Enig, is a U.S. 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to "restoring nutrient-dense foods to the American diet through education, research and activism."[2]

Weston A. Price Foundation
Founded1999 (1999)
FounderSally Fallon
Mary G. Enig, PhD
Typenon profit
Focusnutrition education
Location
  • Washington, D.C.
Members
c. 13,000
Revenue (2015)
$1,555,781[1]
Expenses (2015)$1,707,156[1]
Websitewestonaprice.org

The foundation has been criticized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its advocacy of drinking raw milk[3] and by various nutritionists, including Joel Fuhrman, for its advocacy of the health benefits of animal-based fats.

Weston Price
Main article: Weston Price

Price was a dentist from Cleveland, Ohio, whose 1939 book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,[4] describes the fieldwork he did in the 1920s and 1930s among various world cultures, with the original goal of recording and studying the dental health and development of pre-industrial populations .[4]

Organization

The President of the foundation is Sally Fallon Morell. According to the WAPF, she received a B.A. in English from Stanford University and an M.A. in English from UCLA.[5]

The foundation has seven board members and numerous honorary board members, most of whom have medical or nutritional qualifications.[5][6] In 2010, its membership numbered 13,000 and was growing at an annual rate of 10%, according to The Washington Post.[7]

Its main sources of support are the dues and contributions of its members. It does not receive funding from the government or the food processing and agribusiness industries. It does accept sponsorships, exhibitors and advertising from small companies by invitation, whose products are in line with its principles.[8][9] The sponsors include grass-fed meat and wild fish producers, as well as health product companies.

A 2004 report published by the foundation stated that it is dedicated to "restoring nutrient-dense foods to the American diet through education, research and activism", and "supports a number of movements that contribute to this objective including accurate nutrition instruction, organic and biodynamic farming, pasture feeding of livestock, community-supported farms, honest and informative labeling, prepared parenting and nurturing therapies."[10]

Specific goals include establishment of universal access to certified raw milk and a ban on the use of soy in infant formulas. The organization actively lobbies in Washington DC on issues such as government dietary guidelines definition and composition of school lunch programs.

Publications

The WAPF publishes a quarterly journal called Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts, and an annual shopping guide which lists products made from organic, non-GMO ingredients and prepared using traditional and artisan methods.

Dietary recommendations

The foundation's recommendations include the consumption of unprocessed or minimally processed foods including: traditional fats (animal fats, dairy fats, olive oil, and cod liver oil, among others), organic fruits and vegetables, raw dairy products, soured or lacto-fermented dairy and vegetables (such as sauerkraut), whole grains (soaked or soured to neutralize their phytic acid), and bone stocks.[11] The foundation is known for its positive stance towards the consumption of saturated fats and cholesterol from traditional foods,[12] its support of local food and farms, and its opposition to veganism and some aspects of vegetarianism.

Activism
Further information: United States raw milk debate

The Weston A. Price Foundation is a lobbying group that seeks to ban infant soy formula, and advocates a nutrient-dense diet of whole foods, including animal fats. Board of Directors member Kaayla Daniel has released a book titled: The Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food.[13]

The Foundation is an advocate for the consumption of unpasteurized milk, or raw milk. One of its goals is to remove health regulations requiring pasteurization of milk products, so that raw milk can be legally purchased in all states. Supporters of this campaign believe pasteurization removes or destroys beneficial parts of raw milk, leading to a less healthy product that is associated with numerous diseases.[14]

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Food and Drug Administration disagree with this, noting that the pasteurization process "does not significantly change the nutritional value of milk" and that consumption of raw milk poses a "severe health risk". They point out that prior to the widespread use of pasteurization, many diseases were commonly transmitted by raw milk, while by 2005 they made up less than 1% of food and water contamination disease outbreaks.[15][16] The director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Division of Plant- and Dairy-Food Safety, John Sheehan, called the organization's claims on the health benefits and safety of raw milk "false, devoid of scientific support, and misleading to consumers"[3]

Established with the help of the Foundation in July 2007, the Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund aims to protect the rights of farmers to provide meat, eggs, raw dairy products, vegetables and other foods directly to consumers. This includes protecting consumers' "freedom of choice to consume raw milk," according to Pete Kennedy, president of the Fund. In the first year of its operation, it raised over $350,000 and receives around three requests for assistance per week from farmers in the United States facing legal or bureaucratic challenges in relation to sales of raw milk.[17]

Criticism

John Robbins has written a critique in which he reviews the history of the Weston Price Foundation and provides evidence that Weston Price had recommended a vegetarian and dairy diet to his own family members as the healthiest diet.[18] The foundation has cited Price to the effect that he did not recommend a vegetarian diet.[19] The anti-vegetarian and anti-soy views of the foundation have also been criticized as "myths" in several publications.[20][21][22]

Joel Fuhrman has written a series of articles entitled "The truth about the Weston Price Foundation" in which he argues the Foundation is a purveyor of "nutritional myths", largely because they have failed to update their recommendations in light of contradictory evidence.[23]

Quackwatch describes the Foundation as promoting "questionable dietary strategies" and Price's core assumptions as contrary to contemporary medical understanding.[24]

Science-Based Medicine evaluated the medical and nutritional claims of the Weston Price Foundation and concludes the website is "one of the worst on the internet" [25] due to misleading and false information.

gollark: Exciting news: I am adding debug symbols to potatOS.
gollark: But anyway, there are no bugs, only unintended features.
gollark: And still is due to environment accursedness.
gollark: It was at the time.
gollark: PotatOS doesn't have one.

See also

References
  1. "The Weston A. Price Foundation" (PDF). Foundation Center. Retrieved 7 July 2017.
  2. Fallon, Sally; Mary Enig; Bill Sanda (January 16, 2004). "Comments to the 2005 U.S. Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee" (PDF).
  3. "A Clash Over Unpasteurized Milk Gets Raw", Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2010
  4. Weston A. Price; David Barold; Earnest A. Hooten; William A. Albrecht; Granville F. Knight (January 2008). Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. ISBN 978-0-916764-20-3.
  5. "Board of Directors". The Weston A. Price Foundation.
  6. Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts, Vol.9 No.2 (Summer 2008), p. 2.
  7. Black, Jane (2008-08-06) The Great Divide: Who Says Good Nutrition Means Animal Fats? Weston A. Price., Washington Post
  8. "WAPF Funding". The Weston A. Price Foundation.
  9. "2007 Conference Sponsorships". The Weston A. Price Foundation. Archived from the original on April 26, 2007.
  10. Fallon, Sally; Enig, Mary; Sanda, Bill (September 27, 2004). "Comments on the Report of the 2005 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee" (PDF). westonaprice.org. p. 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on January 3, 2007.
  11. "WAPF: Dietary Guidelines". Archived from the original on July 15, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  12. "WAPF: Know Your Fats Introduction". Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  13. "About The Foundation". westonaprice.org. Archived from the original on June 1, 2010. Retrieved June 17, 2010.
  14. "What is Real Milk?". The Weston A. Price Foundation. January 2000. Retrieved October 18, 2019.
  15. Lejeune JT, Rajala-Schultz PJ (January 2009). "Food safety: unpasteurized milk: a continued public health threat". Clin. Infect. Dis. 48 (1): 93–100. doi:10.1086/595007. PMID 19053805.
  16. "Raw Milk - Food Safety". Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2017-06-08.
  17. Mary B. Worthington (July 8, 2008). "Fighting For A New Freedom Of Choice". The Bulletin. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
  18. Robbins, John. "Reflections on the Weston A. Price Foundation".
  19. "The Right Price". The Weston A. Price Foundation.
  20. Butler, Justine (July 1, 2010). "Ignore the anti-soya scaremongers". The Guardian. London.
  21. Oser, Marie. "Soy of Cooking". Retrieved July 25, 2009.
  22. See also: John Robbins' The Truth About Soy
  23. Fuhrman, Joel. "The Truth About the Weston Price Foundation".
  24. Stephen Barrett, M.D. "Stay Away from 'Holistic Dentistry'". Quackwatch. Retrieved February 11, 2007.
  25. Hall, Harriet (October 13, 2015). "Weston Price's Appalling Legacy". Science-Based Medicine.
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