All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them."
- Galileo Galilei
From Tibet to Tunisia, Peru to Papua New Guinea and Australia to the Amazon our goal was to observe the eating patterns of people throughout the world. We wanted to discover how different nutritional philosophies affected their health and use that information to rethink how we eat in America and around the world to achieve optimal health. We invite you to come and explore all that we have discovered.
The Calton Project
Introduction:
"The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are."
-Samuel Johnson
Have you ever longed to travel around the world? Where would you go? Would you travel to the worlds most glamorous cities, take camels through the Sahara desert, or perhaps set sail on a ship around the world? In 2005, we decided to start just such a journey. Newly married we said goodbye to our families and friends and set off on a 6-year around the world expedition with one particular goal in mind, to observe cultures around the globe, both urban and remote, to discover, for ourselves, how different nutritional philosophies affect overall health. We called our expedition "The Calton Project." We were no longer satisfied simply reading studies performed at acclaimed institutions and universities concerning the relationship between dietary patterns and health. Instead, we wanted to sit with, eat with, and ask questions to people from diverse cultures in an attempt to relearn what modern man had forgotten. We would follow in the tradition of Weston A. Price who explored the diets and health of native peoples back in the 1930's. For us, the knowledge would be in the discovery and we would use that knowledge to rethink how we eat in America and around the world to achieve optimal health. We invite you to experience the journey!
"Travel is glamorous only in retrospect."
- Paul Theroux
Our small plane took a dive just over the mountain ridge and landed on the narrow field of green. The capable pilot pulled back on the gear and brought the 10-seater in just before it hit the large, worn tire embedded in the earth. It seems that the tire would have been the only thing to save us had the landing gear not worked....
"Illusion is needed to disguise the emptiness within." - Arthur Erickson
Their happy voices rang out in song. The beautiful children had prepared a presentation for our visit, none of which was performed in English, but their sentiment was apparent. The children of the Quichua tribe welcomed our visit to their little schoolhouse. We had spent the previous day at the home of our host Hugo with his wife and their three young boys. We dined with them on a feast of maggots prepared in three different traditional ways...
"The insidious, creeping pandemic of obesity is now engulfing the entire world."
-Professor Paul Zimmet, Chair, 10th International Congress on Obesity
Returning to Delhi was a shock to our senses. The solitude of the Dera sand dunes in Rajasthan, India was now behind us. Camel treks to visit remote communities, full of warm and friendly faces, nestled between peaceful fields of golden wheat, were replaced by overcrowded city streets filled with bustling bodies, clattering sounds, and traffic jams...
A RAFFLE WORTH OVER $100 IN DELICIOUS RICH FOODS.
"Every disease is directly linked to a nutrient deficiency."
-Commonly attributed to Dr. Linus Pauling PhD, two-time Nobel Prize winner
After six years of conducting the Calton Project, in over 100 countries we feel confident in concluding that we agree with Linus Pauling's famous statement. Obesity is just one of the many micronutrient deficiency conditions plaguing the billions of people around the world who have moved away from a natural indigenous diet and have become one of the globalized masses, mindlessly gobbling down micronutrient poor "food-like stuff" day in and day out. Within a decade of eating this kind of food, the body can suffer any number of health conditions, and once it starts we have never heard of it stopping.
The Calton Project has given us a global perspective on nutrition. What we have discovered on our journey has forever changed our approach to health and nutrition. While we ourselves enjoy many aspects of modernization and progress, we must ask: progress at what cost? Our observations during the Calton Project have lead us to believe, as science has verified, that micronutrient deficiency is linked to most of the modern health conditions and diseases, including obesity, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, and many others. It is not simply random chance or genetic predisposition that is causing places like India and China to literally explode with diabetes or Papua New Guineans to suddenly develop cancer. These people have known hardship and hunger before, and never have these modern diseases affected them. The human body is an amazing thing; it adapts to its circumstances and makes due with what it has to keep us alive and well. However, while our bodies can fight off violent bacterial infection, and can defend us from ruthless viral attack, it does not seem to be able to protect us from ourselves. In the end, we believe that there is one cause at the root of most of today's modern diseases, micronutrient deficiency, and that this one cause has but one cure, micronutrient sufficiency Whether we believe in following a vegan, Mediterranean, vegetarian, low carbohydrate, low fat, Paleo, or low calorie diet, micronutrient deficiency is a very real concern. In the end, we cannot morally afford to continue to disregard this catalyst of disease that has become so widespread. We must all stand and face the reality of the micronutrient deficiency pandemic together. Only together can we make a difference.
Learn more about making a difference by becoming a nutrivore- click here.
Testimonials
"The Caltons have updated the classic work of Weston Price, DDS by traveling around the globe to document the state of humanity's nutrition. The result is practical, eye-opening, and helpful. I highly recommend this book."
- Christiane Northrup, M.D., ob/gyn physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers: Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause.
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