Dr. Price observed in great detail what these people ate and found that each group of people had diets distinct from the other. The Swiss mountain villagers subsisted primarily on unpasteurized and cultured dairy products, especially butter, cheese, whey and yogurt. Rye was an integral part of their diet. They occasionally ate beef from their aging cows. Bone broths, vegetables and berries were commonly consumed. Due to the high altitude, they ate what few vegetables they could grow in the short summer months, fermenting any surplus for winter consumption. The main foods, however, were cheese, butter and rye bread.

Gaelic folks of the Outer Hebrides ate no dairy products, but primarily codfish and other seafood, especially shellfish. Due to low soil fertility, their only grain was oat but it was a major part of the diet. An important dish for growing children and expectant mothers was the head of a cod stuffed with oats and mashed fish liver. Fruits and vegetables grew sparsely.

The Inuit (Eskimo) ate a diet of almost 100% animal products with hefty amounts of fish, walrus, seal and other marine mammals, usually fermented. The blubber (fat) was consumed with homemade relish. They buried their meat and allowed it to slightly putrefy, creating a very nutritious “high meat.” They consumed some portions of sea animals raw. (The word “eskimo” translates as “to eat it raw.”) The Inuit gathered nuts, berries and some grasses during the short summer months, but those represented a small portion of their diet. They also ate partially digested grasses by cutting open caribou stomachs and intestines, which provided beneficial probiotic bacteria and premanufactured Vitamin K and other nutrients.

The Maori of New Zealand, along with other south sea islanders, consumed all sorts of seafood including fish, shark, octopus, sea worms and shellfish. They also consumed fatty pork and a wide variety of vegetables and fruits, including entire coconuts.

African cattle-keeping tribes like the Masai consumed mainly beef, raw milk, organ meats, blood (mainly during times of drought) and virtually no plant foods at all. The Dinkas of the Sudan, whom Dr. Price claimed were the healthiest of all the African tribes he studied, ate a combination of fermented whole grains with fish, along with smaller amounts of red meat, vegetables and fruit. The Bantu tribe (the least hardy of the African tribes studied, yet with no cases of disease or chronic illness) were primarily agriculturists eating mostly beans, squash, corn, millet, vegetables and fruits, with small amounts of milk and meat.

All of these peoples except the Inuit consumed insects — ants, ant eggs, bees, wasps, dragonflies, beetles, crickets, cicadas, moths, termites — and their larvae, especially in more tropical areas. They found that consuming wood eating insects, referred to as grubs, could restore the vitality of platelets and the blood.