The SHN #36: Weston A. Price, Mushrooms, and the Insane Voice in Your Head

Welcome back to The Synergetic Health Newsletter! 

In this edition, I’ll introduce you to Weston A. Price.

After that, a look into macrodosing magic mushrooms.

Then comes a brief discussion on if we’re focusing on the wrong things when it comes to our health.

Plus, you are NOT the insane voice talking to itself in your head.

Joe Burt

👨🏻‍⚕️ Weston A. Price (1870–1948) was a dentist, nutritionist, and researcher known for his studies on the relationship between diet, dental health, and overall well-being. In the 1930s, Price conducted extensive research, traveling to various parts of the world to study the dietary habits and health of traditional indigenous peoples.

Spurring his travels was his observation of dramatic tooth decay in the patients of his Cleveland dental clinic. He suspected it had to be connected with the increased sugar and ultra-processed foods in their diets.

Price discovered that no matter what indigenous tribes he visited, they all had one thing in common— beautiful, healthy teeth.

Even the elderly in these populations had full, healthy white teeth, without brushing them as soon as waking up or right before bed.

Moreover, Dr. Price discovered that none of the individuals he studied exhibited prevalent diseases commonly encountered in the modern Western world, including type 2 diabetes, obesity, type 1 diabetes, autoimmune conditions, cancer, Alzheimer's, or metabolic disorders.

His landmark book, "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration," published in 1939, documented his findings.

Price observed that those following traditional diets had excellent dental and overall health, while those who adopted modern, processed foods experienced a decline in health, including dental issues and degenerative diseases.

Price emphasized the importance of nutrient-dense, whole foods and traditional dietary practices, and his work has influenced the modern holistic health and nutrition movements.

Here Are the Weston A. Price 11 Principals of Optimum Nutrition:

1. The diets of healthy, industrialized peoples contain no refined or denatured foods or ingredients, such as refined sugar or high fructose corn syrup; white flour; canned foods; pasteurized; refined or hydrogenated vegetable oils; protein powders; synthetic vitamins; or toxic additives and artificial colorings.

2. All traditional cultures consume some sort of animal food, such as fish and shellfish; land and water fowl; land and sea mammals; eggs; milk and milk products; reptiles; and insects. The whole animal is consumed — muscle meat, organs, bones and fat, with the organ meats and fats preferred.

3. The diets of healthy, industrialized peoples contain at least four times the minerals and water-soluble vitamins, and TEN times the fat-soluble vitamins found in animal fats (vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin K2) as the average American diet.

4. All traditional cultures cooked some of their food but all consumed a portion of their animal foods raw.

5. Primitive and traditional diets have a high content of food enzymes and beneficial bacteria from lactofermented vegetables, fruits, beverages, dairy products, meats and condiments.

6. Seeds, grains and nuts are soaked, sprouted, fermented or naturally leavened to neutralize naturally occurring anti-nutrients such as enzyme inhibitors, tannins and phytic acid.

7. Total fat content of traditional diets varies from 30 percent to 80 percent of calories but only about 4 percent of calories come from polyunsaturated oils naturally occurring in grains, legumes, nuts, fish, animal fats and vegetables. The balance of fat calories is in the form of saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids.

8. Traditional diets contain nearly equal amounts of omega-6 and omega-3 essential fatty acids.

9. All traditional diets contain some salt.

10. All traditional cultures make use of animal bones, usually in the form of gelatin-rich bone broths.

11. Traditional cultures make provisions for the health of future generations by providing special nutrient-rich animal foods for parents-to-be, pregnant women and growing children; by proper spacing of children; and by teaching the principles of right diet to the young.

Price came up with all of these principals way back in 1939. Many of them have been popularized anew with more modern dietary approaches like the Paleo and Ancestral diets.

What I found most interesting about Price’s research was his observations that indigenous tribes lived a life without mental illness. He observed these populations to be happy as well as healthy.

This jives with my understanding that the emotional and psychological state of an individual has as much to do with their health as their diet.

There are some concerns with the dietary guidelines, including that it is too cost-prohibitive and time-consuming.

Moreover, there is this wide critique of his findings: "Price made a whirlwind tour of primitive areas, examined the natives superficially, and jumped to simplistic conclusions. While extolling their health, he ignored their short life expectancy and high rates of infant mortality, endemic diseases, and malnutrition. While praising their diets for not producing cavities, he ignored the fact that malnourished people don't usually get many cavities."

For me, I applaud Dr. Price for seeking confirmation of his hypothesis, namely that processed foods are causing tooth decay. It seems that avoiding processed foods remains the only dietary advice that is shared by all the food gurus out there.

To learn more about the Weston A. Price diet, including a bunch of recipes, check out this PDF.

🍄 I agree with this.

My first eyes-closed, 5g mushroom trip changed my life.

While having a guide may be the better option for some, I decided to do it on my own and am very happy with that decision.

After eating 5g of dried mushrooms, I put on my eye mask and played the Johns Hopkins Psilocybin Playlist on my noise-cancelling headphones.

The next 3-4 hours were indescribably beautiful. I don’t want to write a full trip report, but let’s just say that there was ample amounts of full belly laughter, tears of joy, a re-birthing experience, crazy energetics, and a full third-eye opening.

I don’t expect everyone to have a similar experience and making the decision to do this is a personal choice.

While psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, is generally regarded as safe, it can be dangerous for some.

However, the potential benefits are profound.

Instead of going on addictive psychiatric medications and having endless talk therapy sessions, you can have one or a few psychedelic sessions and heal from treatment-resistant depression, anxiety, anorexia, OCD, substance abuse, cluster headaches, and more.

I know a lot of my readers have done mushrooms in various contexts but few have committed to taking them in this sort of environment. Consider this my reminder 🙂 

How To Take a Heroic Dose of Mushrooms

🤔 Are We Focusing on the Wrong Things in Health?

I know I just wrote about a famous diet researcher, but hear me out…..

For almost 20 years I’ve had a passion for all things health and wellness.

About 95% of all questions I get related to this field are about diet and exercise.

Rarely am I asked about how to reduce stress, if staring at your phone before bed is bad, how to sleep eight hours a night, what is the best way to be present, why do I have constant anxiety in my chest, and so on.

People want to know if this or that food is bad, if this exercise will give them a six-pack, or how quickly they need to drink a protein shake after exercise.

Optimal health is SO much more than diet and exercise.

It’s the reason I started this newsletter, to be able to share with as many people as possible all the other factors involved in being “healthy".

So, if anyone has a health question unrelated to diet and exercise, reply to this email!

🗣️ You Are Not The Insane Voice Talking to Itself

That voice in your head that just won’t keep quiet.

Is NOT you.

We all identify with that voice. The one that is judging ourself and others. The one that fills our experience with negative self-talk. The one that is constantly seeking the next pleasure or thinking about a past mistake.

But this voice is NOT who you are.

What you truly are is simply aware of this insane voice talking to itself in your head.

You are aware that the insane voice wants a drink.
You are aware that the insane voice is having depressive thoughts.
You are aware that the insane voice is angry at Susan.
You are aware that the insane voice is still upset you made that investment.
You are aware that the insane voice is desiring just five more minutes on IG.

All along, this awareness is there. Unchanged. Unbothered.

Those thoughts drummed up by the insane voice in your head seem to give it a realness, a substance that you give authority to.

But where to do those negative thoughts go? Surely if they are really who you are they would always be there?

The insane voice is happy to drop one thought, which was all-consuming at one moment, for another, which becomes all-consuming.

Are YOU actually this insane voice?

Or are you the awareness that remains unchanged, unbothered and present, no matter what thoughts arise?

This awareness is your true self. The one that is unaffected by the constant chatter in your mind. The one that remains steady and observant, regardless of the thoughts that come and go.

By recognizing and acknowledging this awareness, you can begin to shift your perspective and find peace amidst the chaos of your thoughts.

You are NOT the insane voice talking to itself.

You are the awareness that remains, unchanged and ever-present, no matter what thoughts arise.

𝕏 Thread of the Week

👩‍👦 55-Year-Old Single Mom Reverses Aging Without Spending Millions: The craze to live forever is now a $26 billion business with no slowdown in sight. Julie Clark is a single mom, making less than $100,000 a year, who is participating in the global online longevity game, the Rejuvenation Olympics.

She is currently beating out Bryan Johnson, who spends $2 million/year on reversing aging, and Peter Diamandis, who also spends liberally on his personal longevity practices. This article talks about the basic, cheap practices that Clark utilizes to age more slowly.

🍊 I Was Wrong About Orange Juice Most of My Life: I used to think it was just sugar water, but now I drink almost about a liter every day. Why? OJ decreases diastolic blood pressure, reduces inflammation, and lowers fasting insulin. Studies are showing that OJ doesn’t spike blood sugar in healthy individuals and reduces cardiovascular risk factors. It’s also incredibly hydrating.

Need more convincing? This article discusses how OJ increases your metabolism, reduces bloating, prevents sugar cravings, supports your adrenals, reduces stress hormones, helps detox ethyl alcohol if consumed with adult beverages, inhibits estrogen, improves collagen assimilation, is a key source of potassium and Vitamin C, and is easy to prepare.

I will add the disclaimer that not all OJ is created equal. Fresh squeezed is definitely the best and I’m not quite sure how the health benefits decrease the more you get away from that.

💊 “Most Supplements Don’t Work”: This article in Outside magazine isn’t afraid to go after everybody’s favorite health influencer, Dr. Andrew Huberman. A main point in the article is that the majority of performance hacks, including supplements, have a marginal impact and often instead distract the individual from the essential aspects such as training, recovery, nutrition, and sleep.

It also talks about the wide variability in how certain people react to supplements. When considering the variability of daily life, the placebo effect, and the cost associated, it makes way more sense to stop majoring in the minors and instead focus on the foundations of proper health.

💥 Disrupt the Medical Institutions: Calley Means, author of “Good Energy: The Surprising Connection Between Metabolism and Limitless Health” and co-founder of TrueMed Payments with Justin Mares, is an outspoken critic of the medical system as it currently is constructed:

“The truth: we should consider listening to the medical system if we have an acute issue like a life-threatening infection or broken bone. But when it comes to the chronic conditions that plague our lives, we should distrust almost every institution giving the advice. The answers are much more simple and under our control.”

And in unsurprising news, Means recently outed the pharma industry, saying how it is an open secret that big pharma buys TV spots not to convince people to ask for specific drugs from their physicians, but to subvert the news business: “The news ad spending from pharma is a public relations lobbying tactic, essentially to buy off the news.“

🔗 One Hitters

💸 Currency Arbitrage: Feeling Rich by Traveling Abroad (Article)

🤔 “Deep thinking burns up life energy in the body.” (Tweet and Podcast)

🧴 Is Sunscreen the New Margarine? (Article)

💬 "A discovery must be, by definition, at variance with existing knowledge” Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

🏒 How do the Boston Bruins warmup for training or games? (Video)

☀️ Why is sunlight beneficial for improving sleep? (Tweet)

💬 “Any man who can obviously afford a car but genuinely prefers travels or a good library will in the end be much more respected than if he behaved exactly like everyone else.” -Bertrand Russell

🤙 Radical self-responsibility = Health (Tweet)

💬 “Preservation of the sick life of medically dependent people in an unhealthy environment became the principle business of the medical profession.” -Ivan Illich (1973)

☯ “The only thing missing is the feeling that nothing is missing.” (Tweet)

📅 My Scheduling Page: Go here to book a 15-minute free call to chat.

✔️ That will do it for this time! Hopefully you got some value out of it. If you have any questions/comments/things you’d like to learn more about please don’t hesitate to reach out.

🔗 If you know anyone who loves learning about these types of topics, send them this link!

📰 To read all past newsletters, go here.