The Traditional Practice of Eating Nutrient-Rich Foods to Prepare for Conception

One of Dr. Weston Price’s most interesting discoveries in his studies of non-industrialized peoples was the practice of consuming special nutrient-dense foods in preparation for pregnancy. As Price reported in his book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,” these foods were often considered sacred and were consumed by both men and women for about six months before conception, and then by expectant mothers during pregnancy and lactation. Parents also fed these foods to their children during the period of growth. These cultures recognized that extra nutrition was required while children’s bodies were being formed and developed. What were these sacred foods? As described by Price in Chapter 3 of his book (“Isolated and Modernized Swiss”), in Switzerland, engaged couples and expectant mothers made a point of consuming the deep yellow butter from cows when they first went to pasture during the spring. So sacred did they consider this butter that their pastors placed a bowl of spring butter on the altar in a chapel of their church—they lit a wick in the butter to honor the life-giving force it contained. In other chapters, Price points out that many cultures prized liver as a sacred food—either liver from cattle, sheep, goats, and game, or liver from fish. The sacred food in the Outer Hebrides was cod’s head, stuffed with oats and chopped cod’s liver—which children ate for breakfast to ensure they would grow up healthy and strong! African tribes transported liver on the tips of their spears, considering it too sacred to touch. In the South Seas, the men went to great risks to hunt sharks, mainly to have the livers for healthy reproduction. They often placed the livers inside the muscle of the shark stomach then hung them in trees. What dripped out was a kind of fermented shark liver oil, considered very important for having healthy babies. Other important foods included eggs and fish eggs. I have had several conversations with Asian parents who tell me that their grandparents believed that eggs and fish eggs would make their children smart. What do you notice about these foods? They are all high in fat and high in cholesterol—the very foods we are told not to eat were the foods traditional cultures prized the most for good health—especially the health of their children. The practice of preparing for pregnancy by consuming nutrient-dense foods accords very well with what science tells us. Let’s take vitamin A, for example. No food is richer in vitamin A than liver—while butter, egg yolks, and fish eggs are also good sources. In a landmark paper, published in 2010, researchers at Michigan State University, summarized research on the role of vitamin A in fetal development. They reported that the vitamin A requirement begins as early as week two or three from conception—when the specialization of heart cells and brain cells occurs—often even before knowing one is pregnant—the heart and brain of the fetus are being formed! Without vitamin A, these organs form with defects and miscarriage is likely. When conception takes place and the embryo begins to grow, it contains undifferentiated stem cells. After three weeks, these cells begin to differentiate into specialized cells that will develop into the heart, spinal cord, lungs, and nervous system. The stem cells differentiate into specialized cells when they get a signal—and that signal is vitamin A. Each organ system begins development during a specific window of time. Vitamin A regulates the differentiation of the primitive cells into cells specific to each organ system—in essence, signaling to the genes their marching orders so they “know” where to locate themselves and what kind of tissues to become—that’s why I like to call vitamin A the “concertmaster of fetal development.” If vitamin A is lacking during any of these windows, the organs develop abnormally or not at all. Throughout pregnancy, vitamin A continues to help direct the formation of the central nervous system, the circulatory, urogenital, and respiratory systems, and the development of the skull, skeleton, and limbs. Vitamin A deficiencies during the period when any of these systems begin specialization can result in abnormalities and defects. Vitamin A is especially important for the development of the eyes, ears, craniofacial area, and the thymus, thyroid, and parathyroid glands. During mid-gestation, vitamin A is required for fetal lung and kidney development. After the formation of all the organ systems, vitamin A supports their growth. Chronic vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy compromises the liver, heart, and kidney, and impairs lung growth and development during the last weeks of gestation. Thus, we can see the innate wisdom of traditional peoples in building up their vitamin A stores before conception and maintaining them with vitamin A-rich foods throughout pregnancy—this practice provides a stark contrast to the lack of care with which Westerners bring children into the world.

The Traditional Practice of Eating Nutrient-Rich Foods to Prepare for Conception

One of Dr. Weston Price’s most interesting discoveries in his studies of non-industrialized peoples was the practice of consuming special nutrient-dense foods in preparation for pregnancy. As Price reported in his book “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration,” these foods were often considered sacred and were consumed by both men and women for about six months before conception, and then by expectant mothers during pregnancy and lactation.

Parents also fed these foods to their children during the period of growth. These cultures recognized that extra nutrition was required while children’s bodies were being formed and developed.

What were these sacred foods? As described by Price in Chapter 3 of his book (“Isolated and Modernized Swiss”), in Switzerland, engaged couples and expectant mothers made a point of consuming the deep yellow butter from cows when they first went to pasture during the spring.

So sacred did they consider this butter that their pastors placed a bowl of spring butter on the altar in a chapel of their church—they lit a wick in the butter to honor the life-giving force it contained.

In other chapters, Price points out that many cultures prized liver as a sacred food—either liver from cattle, sheep, goats, and game, or liver from fish. The sacred food in the Outer Hebrides was cod’s head, stuffed with oats and chopped cod’s liver—which children ate for breakfast to ensure they would grow up healthy and strong!

African tribes transported liver on the tips of their spears, considering it too sacred to touch. In the South Seas, the men went to great risks to hunt sharks, mainly to have the livers for healthy reproduction. They often placed the livers inside the muscle of the shark stomach then hung them in trees. What dripped out was a kind of fermented shark liver oil, considered very important for having healthy babies.

Other important foods included eggs and fish eggs. I have had several conversations with Asian parents who tell me that their grandparents believed that eggs and fish eggs would make their children smart.

What do you notice about these foods? They are all high in fat and high in cholesterol—the very foods we are told not to eat were the foods traditional cultures prized the most for good health—especially the health of their children.

The practice of preparing for pregnancy by consuming nutrient-dense foods accords very well with what science tells us. Let’s take vitamin A, for example. No food is richer in vitamin A than liver—while butter, egg yolks, and fish eggs are also good sources.

In a landmark paper, published in 2010, researchers at Michigan State University, summarized research on the role of vitamin A in fetal development. They reported that the vitamin A requirement begins as early as week two or three from conception—when the specialization of heart cells and brain cells occurs—often even before knowing one is pregnant—the heart and brain of the fetus are being formed! Without vitamin A, these organs form with defects and miscarriage is likely.

When conception takes place and the embryo begins to grow, it contains undifferentiated stem cells. After three weeks, these cells begin to differentiate into specialized cells that will develop into the heart, spinal cord, lungs, and nervous system. The stem cells differentiate into specialized cells when they get a signal—and that signal is vitamin A.

Each organ system begins development during a specific window of time. Vitamin A regulates the differentiation of the primitive cells into cells specific to each organ system—in essence, signaling to the genes their marching orders so they “know” where to locate themselves and what kind of tissues to become—that’s why I like to call vitamin A the “concertmaster of fetal development.” If vitamin A is lacking during any of these windows, the organs develop abnormally or not at all.

Throughout pregnancy, vitamin A continues to help direct the formation of the central nervous system, the circulatory, urogenital, and respiratory systems, and the development of the skull, skeleton, and limbs. Vitamin A deficiencies during the period when any of these systems begin specialization can result in abnormalities and defects.

Vitamin A is especially important for the development of the eyes, ears, craniofacial area, and the thymus, thyroid, and parathyroid glands. During mid-gestation, vitamin A is required for fetal lung and kidney development.

After the formation of all the organ systems, vitamin A supports their growth. Chronic vitamin A deficiency during pregnancy compromises the liver, heart, and kidney, and impairs lung growth and development during the last weeks of gestation.

Thus, we can see the innate wisdom of traditional peoples in building up their vitamin A stores before conception and maintaining them with vitamin A-rich foods throughout pregnancy—this practice provides a stark contrast to the lack of care with which Westerners bring children into the world.

How to prepare for having healthy children is exactly what should be taught in sex education classes—but it is not. Instead, young people are encouraged to consume a plant-based diet that is lacking in the nutrients needed for having healthy children.

In addition to vitamin A, the traditional sacred foods provide many other nutrients needed for the optimal development of the fetus in the womb: vitamins D and K2, vitamin E, omega-3 fatty acids, biotin, and folate. One amino acid needed for growth and development is glycine, available by eating the skin of an animal (no skinless chicken breasts please!) and from bone broth.

These nutrients are necessary throughout the growing years for optimal growth and development. So Mom and Dad, please feed your kids right!

Back to vitamin A for a moment: These days, the National Institutes of Health and other government agencies do not recommend supplementation of vitamin A for pregnant women, even though as recently as 2005, the FDA recommended 8000 international units (IU) of vitamin A during pregnancy.

The study usually cited in support of avoiding vitamin A during pregnancy was published in 1995. Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine asked over 20,000 women to respond to questionnaires about what they ate and the supplements they took before and during pregnancy.

The data indicated that cranial-neural crest defects increased with increased dosages of vitamin A—but neural tube defects decreased with increased vitamin A consumption. For other types of defects, no correlations could be found.

This study is a poor excuse to warn pregnant women from eating liver and taking cod liver oil as it contained many flaws. For example, researchers did not distinguish between synthetic vitamin A obtained from multivitamins and processed food like margarine, and natural vitamin A from food—and they did not determine vitamin A status by taking blood samples. Another flaw was the fact that their conclusions were based on food recall surveys, which can be notoriously inaccurate.

But the main problem with basing anti-vitamin A policy on the 1995 study is that it conflicts with previous research, which found that high levels of vitamin A did not increase the risk of birth defects. A 1998 study from Switzerland found that a dose of 30,000 IU per day for pregnant women yielded blood levels that had no association with birth defects.

A 1999 study carried out in Rome, Italy did not find any congenital malformations among infants whose mothers consumed an average of 50,000 IU of vitamin A per day—that’s a lot of vitamin A! Some participants took in up to 300,000 IU of vitamin A daily during pregnancy with no birth defects in the offspring.

What does the Weston Price Foundation’s preconception and pregnancy diet look like? It contains butter and eggs from pastured animals, liver about twice a week (think delicious pate or liverwurst), high-quality dairy products like whole raw milk and cheese, red meat, fish and shellfish, and homemade bone broth. We also recommend a supplement of natural cod liver oil for vitamins A and D. This diet will supply the amount of vitamin A consistent with the Rome and Swiss studies, along with vitamins D and K2.

At the Weston A. Price Foundation, we love getting reports of beautiful, healthy babies whose parents had the wisdom to adopt a nutrient-dense preconceptual and pregnancy diet. In an age when so many children suffer from major health problems, these babies are proof that we can do a better job for our kids.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times. Epoch Health welcomes professional discussion and friendly debate. To submit an opinion piece, please follow these guidelines and submit through our form here.