With Three Generations of Vegetarian Hygienists
Interview with Dr. Cursio for Shelton's Hygienic Review
by Dr. Stanley S. Bass
"Dr. Cursio: ... I'm speaking now how these changes took place – especially in the care of children - so that we have here problems that came up in the children when I followed the strict fruit program with nuts, and minimal amounts, compared to what I use now, of green stuff (salads). These children, the skeletal development wasn't right, the dental arches were not well-formed, teeth came in crowded because of it. I noticed a great deal of boys that were born who were herniated – who had what we call hydroceles. So, with the noticing of these conditions and other miscellaneous...
Dr. Bass: Can you state specifically what diet they were on?
Dr. Cursio: Their diet would be predominantly fruit, nut proteins, and a relatively small amount of salad compared to what they get now – they used to get one salad a day. They'd have a fruit meal in the morning, a fruit meal at noon, and a salad at night. In the morning, they'd have just fruit; at noon they'd have the fruit and nuts, and at night they'd have the salad, sometimes with nuts and sometimes with vegetables – but on this kind of a setup, I've been noticing the inadequacies in these children. Then I made the drastic changes! First I noticed the hydroceles, nearsightedness, the skeletal development. And the musculature was not developed in these children. But, at any rate, I started to think. In line with this of course were other things that I noticed with other individuals – people who had been living this way and living, I know, 100%. One of them – I don't think he's [Dr. Shelton] going to publish this – with Miss Natural Hygiene. There were two Miss Natural Hygienes. One of them came to me with multiple sclerosis. And gum recessions, dental caries I noticed. But a great deal of gum recession and marginal erosion of the gum line of the teeth. Now, at first I ascribed this to the citrus fruit, so I cut it down. I cut down on the amount of fruit, without making any relative increase in the green stuff (salads). Then, I finally found that though there were slight improvements, they were not sufficient. So then I figured there's got to be an additional factor here. There's got to be, what, I had talked to Weston Price about it – he was one of the men I spoke to. And, I said this is an X-factor that's missing – I don't know what it was. Later on, you know this work done on B 12 , I came to the conclusion that this perhaps was one of the factors that could lead to this kind of pathology.
Dr. Bass: Deficiency in B 12?
Dr. Cursio: Yes! It was only after adding green stuff that I started to see in the pregnancies that followed, and also in the children that were grown, that came from these pregnancies, the difference. Round heads instead of pear-shaped heads, better-formed teeth. And all the aberrations I had noticed – the near-sightedness, the hernias, the hydroceles, and the musculature that was weak – that all disappeared. There was never another case after this. I was also able to witness an increase, for example, in the blood chemistries, the improvements in the mothers and in the adults, who were put on this kind of a setup."