As I mentioned in the follow-up sequence in the director’s cut of Fat Head, my girls have never had a single cavity. To encourage them to keep that streak going, I made a deal with them a couple of years ago: if you get to age 16 without a cavity, Daddy will contribute $1,000 to your “I want my own car” fund. (Then Daddy will endure some sleepless nights when they start driving.)
Sadly, cavity-free kids seem to be increasingly rare. Both of my daughters told me they have classmates who’ve already had several cavities. Alana has a classmate who has already had 10 of them – at age 7. I wondered if kids are developing more cavities these days, or if I’m just paying more attention now because I’m a dad.
Turns out kids really are developing more cavities, according to an online article with the headline Pediatric Cavities Reach An All-Time High:
In a swift-stepping society, more meals are being consumed on the move, quick bites taken on the run and fruits eaten on the fly. That translates to fast food, snack food and inordinate amounts of sugar intake, resulting in an increase in pediatric cavities that is at an all-time high, according to the N.C. Dental Society.
The research is confirmed by dentist Dr. Jerry Laws, who has practiced in Lexington since 1977.
“We are seeing that more than we used to. There are several causes, and it is preventable.”
In a press release, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that 28 percent of preschoolers in the U.S. experience decay in primary or “baby teeth.” And for the first time in four decades the number is increasing. Currently, among children 2 to 5 years old, one in five has untreated cavities.
“There are several causes (of rapid tooth decay),” Laws says, and points out that most relate to contemporary diets. “Also, children are going to bed with sippy cups. Another thing is bottled water, which doesn’t have fluoride. Children should at least have some water from the tap, which is fluoridated.”
The economy also plays a role in tooth decay, Laws said. “A lack of insurance is a reason. Some people are out of work and without insurance, and some have to put off visits to the dentist … something that can’t be helped.”
A lack of insurance would explain why some kids end up with untreated cavities. It doesn’t explain why they’re developing those cavities in the first place. Our Paleolithic ancestors apparently had good teeth (more on that shortly), and they rarely purchased dental insurance.
By pure coincidence, I had a conversation with a co-worker today who speculated that he had a lot of cavities as a kid because his family’s water supply (a well) wasn’t fluoridated. Okay, yes, that may figure into it. But again, our Paleolithic ancestors didn’t put fluoride in their streams and springs. Fluoride is, if anything, protection against dental decay that shouldn’t develop in the first place.
I agree with the writer of the article that sugar intake is the likely culprit for the rise in pediatric cavities over the last few decades, but I know from personal experience that it’s possible to develop cavities on a sugar-free diet. During my vegetarian days, I didn’t consume sugar – I was, after all, a health-conscious vegetarian, and I knew sugar was bad news. Nonetheless, I continued to develop the occasional cavity and ended up experiencing the joys of a gum graft (ouch) when my gums receded.
I didn’t eat sugar, but I did eat plenty of hearthealthywholegrains, which, according to a recent study, are probably a big part of the reason humans began developing cavities in the first place:
Mesolithic hunter-gatherers living on a meat-dominated, grain-free diet had much healthier mouths that we have today, with almost no cavities and gum disease-associated bacteria, a genetic study of ancient dental plaque has revealed.
The researchers extracted DNA from dental plaque from 34 prehistoric northern European human skeletons, and traced the changes in the nature of oral bacteria from the last hunter-gatherers to Neolithic and medieval farmers and modern individuals.
“Dental plaque represents the only easily accessible source of preserved human bacteria,” says lead author Dr Christina Adler, now associate lecturer in dentistry at the University of Sydney.
The researchers found the composition of bacteria changed with the introduction of farming and again 150 years ago during the Industrial Revolution.
In contrast to the hunter-gatherer and early agriculturist diet, a modern diet full of refined carbohydrates and sugars has given us mouths dominated by cavity-causing bacteria.
Setting aside the desire for a photogenic smile, poor dental health is often a reflection of poor health in general. (It was a decline in dental health among his patients over the years that inspired Dr. Weston A. Price to travel the world and compare the health effects of traditional diets vs. modern diets.) It’s a bit silly to believe that hearthealthywholegrains are protecting our cardiovascular systems even as they’re ruining our teeth. Yet that’s what the experts have been telling us for decades.
The results will no doubt be good news for advocates of the so-called ‘paleolithic diet’ – high in meat, low in grains.
Yup, we’re smiling at the news. I haven’t had a cavity in years now. I also haven’t had a cold sore, canker sore, or any other kind of mouth sore. Same goes for Chareva and the girls. The girls also seem to be developing nice, wide jaws. They may avoid needing braces, even though Chareva and I both had them.
I’m looking forward to forking over those $1,000 contributions.
Look, Ma, no cavities!
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“The anti-fat hysteria has probably caused more health problems than we can count.”
That’s the thing of it. People tend not to notice a problem until there are very serious issues, like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.But what about all the innumerable minor problems that tend to get overlooked?
A case in point recently, my friend’s boyfriend has been suffering constant migraines since he was little, and yes, he does eat, low-fat, high carb “hearthealthywholegrains”. However his problem is so bad now that he spends hundreds of dollars a month on medical marijuana.
Now if only I could get them listen and try low-carb or full proper Paleo…
And of course how many people here have recounted the GERD, acid reflux, and IBS they’ve suffered while on the modern diet? Or the constant tendency to sunburn, or the strange rashes, etc?
It’s the little stuff that gets you, not necessarily the Big Bads that people tend to think of.
Has he ever tried going grain-free? I’ve heard from quite a few people whose migraines went away when they dumped the grains.
Hi Tom!
As wonderful as it is that your girls don’t have cavities, it’s at least equally important that their “bites” are broad and roomy. Please don’t let a dentist (a.k.a. businessman in a white suit) convince you their wisdom teeth must be removed! If there is room for them all, et them be — Your daughters will have continued good health throughout their lives due to having all their teeth. (Think of the meridians in Eastern medicine — they go through the teeth as well as the rest of the body!)
Also, braces aren’t a guarantee that your bite will remain good throughout your life (I speak from my experience of having braces in youth and then undergoing bite correction years later). But growing up that way (the healthy mouth from Nature) probably is!
If their wisdom teeth don’t cause problems, there’s no reason to make them endure surgery. I still have one that never poked above the jawbone. The dentist who showed me that x-ray said if it doesn’t bother me, there’s no point in digging it out.
i think phytic acid in soy may contribute to cavities too.
my friend who drank a double latte w/ soy creamer every morning for breakfast for like 7 years got 10 cavities. & she is not a big sugar addict & her diet is far from SAD.
if it is discovered that grains contribute it, i think they may just try GMO or find a new drug tho. duh.
regards,
Some soy “milk” brands are high in sugar, so it could be that too.
My turn! Neither of my kids have ever had cavities. We did have their molars sealed, but I think it has more to do with inheriting their father’s teeth. He had really crooked teeth due to needing wisdom teeth removed (and that not happening), but he hardly ever needed his teeth cleaned. I think he might have a couple of fillings.
Me? I had my first cavity in my first adult molar (it’s now got a crown) at age 6 or 7, and have had 2 root canals, an extraction, and am positive I need more work done. Lots of cavities. My teeth would be one solid tartar/plaque if they didn’t get cleaned. And I brush and floss. Guess I inherited my parents’ bad teeth.
My ex and I had similar diets growing up (we’re 57). I know I had plenty of sugar despite my mother’s balanced meals. My kids had a much worse diet than we did, and no cavities. What’s up with that??
Lucky genes in that case.
Tom, you’re obviously familiar with Dr Weston Price’s work, but I don’t recall if you’ve ever said whether you’ve read his book – Nutrition and Physical Degeneration – or not. If not, I highly recommend it, it’s just a fascinating read.
Price – and Francis Pottenger – demonstrated that dental caries can be remineralized (i.e. cured) primarily through the use of cod liver oil and high-vitamin butter oil (in addition to a nutrient rich diet). Price said there was an “X Factor” in the butter oil that was critical. This has since been determined to be vitamin K2. As explained by Chris Masterjohn: http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/x-factor-is-vitamin-k2
As former vegetarians, my youngest daughters cavities and my reading of Dr. Price’s book were two big factors in getting us headed down the path to a primal diet.
I haven’t read it yet. Chareva read it cover to cover. Her degree is in anthropology, so she found the descriptions of traditional societies and their diets especially interesting.
i think phytic acid in soy may contribute to cavities too.
my friend who drank a double latte w/ soy creamer every morning for breakfast for like 7 years got 10 cavities. & she is not a big sugar addict & her diet is far from SAD.
if it is discovered that grains contribute it, i think they may just try GMO or find a new drug tho. duh.
regards,
Some soy “milk” brands are high in sugar, so it could be that too.
There’s a heckuva lotta research showing that fluoridated water is pretty nasty stuff that can cause a whole host of problems. More info here:
http://www.fluoridealert.org/
Jimmy Moore or Sean Croxton (can’t remember which at the moment) had a show not too long ago about paleo dentistry. The main gist is that your teeth absolutely can heal themselves (makes sound biological sense if you think about it) as long as you cut out the sugars and especially grains and get plenty of fat-soluble vitamins.
My turn! Neither of my kids have ever had cavities. We did have their molars sealed, but I think it has more to do with inheriting their father’s teeth. He had really crooked teeth due to needing wisdom teeth removed (and that not happening), but he hardly ever needed his teeth cleaned. I think he might have a couple of fillings.
Me? I had my first cavity in my first adult molar (it’s now got a crown) at age 6 or 7, and have had 2 root canals, an extraction, and am positive I need more work done. Lots of cavities. My teeth would be one solid tartar/plaque if they didn’t get cleaned. And I brush and floss. Guess I inherited my parents’ bad teeth.
My ex and I had similar diets growing up (we’re 57). I know I had plenty of sugar despite my mother’s balanced meals. My kids had a much worse diet than we did, and no cavities. What’s up with that??
Lucky genes in that case.
Tom, you’re obviously familiar with Dr Weston Price’s work, but I don’t recall if you’ve ever said whether you’ve read his book – Nutrition and Physical Degeneration – or not. If not, I highly recommend it, it’s just a fascinating read.
Price – and Francis Pottenger – demonstrated that dental caries can be remineralized (i.e. cured) primarily through the use of cod liver oil and high-vitamin butter oil (in addition to a nutrient rich diet). Price said there was an “X Factor” in the butter oil that was critical. This has since been determined to be vitamin K2. As explained by Chris Masterjohn: http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/x-factor-is-vitamin-k2
As former vegetarians, my youngest daughters cavities and my reading of Dr. Price’s book were two big factors in getting us headed down the path to a primal diet.
I haven’t read it yet. Chareva read it cover to cover. Her degree is in anthropology, so she found the descriptions of traditional societies and their diets especially interesting.
There’s a heckuva lotta research showing that fluoridated water is pretty nasty stuff that can cause a whole host of problems. More info here:
http://www.fluoridealert.org/
Jimmy Moore or Sean Croxton (can’t remember which at the moment) had a show not too long ago about paleo dentistry. The main gist is that your teeth absolutely can heal themselves (makes sound biological sense if you think about it) as long as you cut out the sugars and especially grains and get plenty of fat-soluble vitamins.
I lost my dental insurance when I was 18 and didn’t go to the dentist again until last year when I was 25. The majority of that time was spent eating a high carb, high sugar college student diet, even though I brushed twice a day, flossed religiously and rinsed with both Listerine AND fluoride every single day. Finally got some dental insurance and went and I have no idea how many cavities I had (many of my teeth had them on multiple surfaces). I didn’t need any root canals, thankfully, but I spent four consecutive days over my spring break last year sitting in the dentist’s chair doing one quadrant of my mouth at a time and ended up with a bill of over $2000 AFTER insurance (which, again thankfully, I knew was coming and had been saving up for). I think I have more composite filling than tooth in my mouth right now, and I’m probably going to have to have those replaced several times over the course of my life even if I never get another cavity (which is my hope now that I’m eating right). 26 years old and my mouth is already destroyed for life despite spending a good half hour every night brushing, flossing, and rinsing. It’s sad.
Normally I let small misunderstandings slide, I know people cannot be experts in every field. However I feel it is important to clarify a few things about fluorine.
Firstly, most bottled waters do contain fluorine. Secondly, most natural water sources contain fluorine. In many places the natural fluorine levels are higher than government regulations require. There are even places where fluorine is removed from water because the levels are deemed too high. Many vegetables will also have healthy amounts of fluorine in them.
So don’t discount fluorine because our “paleo ancestors” didn’t add it, because they will most likely have gotten a healthy dose naturally.
Interesting, but if most natural water sources contain fluorine, why is fluoride added? Where I grew up, the city water supply was a lake.
Fluorine levels vary in different water sources. Usually mountainous regions will contain hire levels of fluorine as the rocks in those areas are more likely to contain the element. In the last century dentists noticed that certain population points had less tooth decay than others. It was later linked to the fluorine levels in the water. Too much fluorine however can cause teeth to discolor and pit. For dental health this condition is not actually a bad thing, as the strength of the teeth is even better, but visually it can be unappealing. So a safe range was developed, a minimum to ensure healthy teeth, and a maximum to limit cosmetic problems. The range for added levels are .7ppm-1.2ppm. and the maximum allowed from natural sources is 4ppm. If a water source contains more than that, the municipal is required remove fluorine. The EPA recommends a maximum of 2ppm, so some localities will lower it down to that level.
Another reason for adding fluorine in city water supplies has to do with pollution. The same process used for making water potable unfortunately strips out essential minerals. So it could be that while fluorine is added, that the levels are similar to untreated water.
My Dentist always raves about my teeth and then follows that up with how my mouth is bad for her business. After switching to LCHF diet years ago, all of my hygienists ask me if I whiten my teeth and they always praise my dental hygiene. This was not always the case.
I find it odd that the “experts” blame child obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, ect. on their poor diets. From what I’ve seen the child obesity problem is higher in urban, poorer areas. If you look at the diets of these children you’ll see that most of them are getting 2 out of their 3 daily meals from their school, breakfast and lunch. The only meal that is supplied by their parents is dinner.
Even if their parents took their child to McDonalds every day for dinner and bought them a happy meal the calories from dinner wouldn’t amount to much.
Since two thirds of the children’s diet is being supplied by the government one would think the “experts” would look there for a possible cause of child obesity.
As an “expert” they may also want to take a look at what effect that two thirds of the child’s diet has on tooth decay as well as other common diseases.
But then again, what do I know, I’m not an expert, I have common sense.
I lost my dental insurance when I was 18 and didn’t go to the dentist again until last year when I was 25. The majority of that time was spent eating a high carb, high sugar college student diet, even though I brushed twice a day, flossed religiously and rinsed with both Listerine AND fluoride every single day. Finally got some dental insurance and went and I have no idea how many cavities I had (many of my teeth had them on multiple surfaces). I didn’t need any root canals, thankfully, but I spent four consecutive days over my spring break last year sitting in the dentist’s chair doing one quadrant of my mouth at a time and ended up with a bill of over $2000 AFTER insurance (which, again thankfully, I knew was coming and had been saving up for). I think I have more composite filling than tooth in my mouth right now, and I’m probably going to have to have those replaced several times over the course of my life even if I never get another cavity (which is my hope now that I’m eating right). 26 years old and my mouth is already destroyed for life despite spending a good half hour every night brushing, flossing, and rinsing. It’s sad.
Normally I let small misunderstandings slide, I know people cannot be experts in every field. However I feel it is important to clarify a few things about fluorine.
Firstly, most bottled waters do contain fluorine. Secondly, most natural water sources contain fluorine. In many places the natural fluorine levels are higher than government regulations require. There are even places where fluorine is removed from water because the levels are deemed too high. Many vegetables will also have healthy amounts of fluorine in them.
So don’t discount fluorine because our “paleo ancestors” didn’t add it, because they will most likely have gotten a healthy dose naturally.
Interesting, but if most natural water sources contain fluorine, why is fluoride added? Where I grew up, the city water supply was a lake.
Fluorine levels vary in different water sources. Usually mountainous regions will contain hire levels of fluorine as the rocks in those areas are more likely to contain the element. In the last century dentists noticed that certain population points had less tooth decay than others. It was later linked to the fluorine levels in the water. Too much fluorine however can cause teeth to discolor and pit. For dental health this condition is not actually a bad thing, as the strength of the teeth is even better, but visually it can be unappealing. So a safe range was developed, a minimum to ensure healthy teeth, and a maximum to limit cosmetic problems. The range for added levels are .7ppm-1.2ppm. and the maximum allowed from natural sources is 4ppm. If a water source contains more than that, the municipal is required remove fluorine. The EPA recommends a maximum of 2ppm, so some localities will lower it down to that level.
Another reason for adding fluorine in city water supplies has to do with pollution. The same process used for making water potable unfortunately strips out essential minerals. So it could be that while fluorine is added, that the levels are similar to untreated water.
Sorry if this gets long but this is vitally important information that people need to know because once again, as usual, no one is being educated, informed and told the truth about this.
I stumbled on this information back in October while following links on Wikipedia and found an article about a researcher named John Leonora and then branched my research out to the web to confirm and found that this science is well established and there are many resources.
I a nutshell, dental decay is primarily caused by carbohydrate sugars which interrupt Parotid-Hypothalamic control and regulation of the body’s Dentinal Fluid Transport system and which suppress and even reverses the normally one-way positive internal pressure flow of dentinal fluid from the inside of the tooth outward into the mouth via the blood vessels that supply nutrients to the root and internal structures of the tooth.
Here are a few select excerpts to give the overview:
“John Leonora (January 30, 1928 – February 17, 2006), is notable for his research into the critical role of hypothalamic “factors” for indirectly controlling the metabolism of such avascular tissues as the dental enamel, the dentin, and the Islands of Langerhans (pancreas). Most of his research was carried out during his 45 years as a faculty member at Loma Linda University and instructor at the university’s predecessor, the College of Medical Evangelists.
Dentinal Fluid Transport. One day he received a telephone call from Dr. Ralph R. Steinman, a dental colleague, who had been studying the flow of dentinal fluid in rats from the odontoblasts in the dental pulp through the dentin using an intraperitoneal injection of the fluorescent dye, acriflavine hydrochloride. He found that in the teeth of rats fed a cariogenic diet the flow of dentinal fluid was markedly reduced. He wondered if some systemic mechanism was involved in this impairment and so decided to contact Dr. John Leonora, as an endocrinologist.
Parotid Hormone. Assuming that the hypothalamic factor was mediated through one of the major salivary glands, they found that this factor was biologically active when administered to rats with intact parotid glands but was wholly ineffective in rats that had the parotid glands removed. There was no involvement of the other salivary glands. They concluded that the direct regulation of DFT was therefore secreted by the parotid glands and this endocrine function was controlled by the hypothalamus.
Suppressive Effect of Sucrose. Then the research focused on the mechanism by which dietary sucrose suppressed the DFT. Initial studies suggested that the sucrose suppressed the secretion of the parotid hormone. Further studies, however, showed that the sucrose effect occurred indirectly by inhibiting secretion of the hypothalamic parotid hormone releasing factor. Then it was found that the sucrose effect could be effectively reversed by the infusion of the compound carbamyl phosphate through the internal carotid artery. This confirmed that the site of action was within the central nervous system—namely the hypothalamus.
Neural Stimuli of the Hypothalamus. The next question was, what physiological factors normally stimulate the secretion of the parotid hormone? Feeding pigs a standard pig chow proved to effectively stimulate parotid hormone secretion along with the copious secretion of saliva. Surprisingly, pigs fed non nutritive substances and exposed to auditory, olfactory and visual cues salivated profusely but these cues did not change the fasting level of the parotid hormone. This demonstrated that, although the endocrine and exocrine functions of the parotid glands occur concurrently, they must be controlled by different mechanisms. The nutritive composition thus proved to be critical for the secretion of the parotid hormone. Apparently nutritive substrates (foods) activate neural stimuli going to the hypothalamus, which in turn activates the hypothalamic-parotid gland endocrine axis that then stimulates the dentinal fluid transport mechanism.
Formation of dentin. At this critical juncture a group of investigators at the University of Oulu Dental School, Oulu, Finland (Tjaderhane, L. et al., (1994) discovered that the parotid hormone not only regulates the flow of dentinal fluid but also is involved in the formation of dentin—dentinogenesis. They also found that a high sucrose diet in young rats suppressed primary dentinogenesis. The injection of carbamyl phosphate significantly reversed the effect of sucrose—but only in intact rats. Furthermore, carbamyl phosphate prevented the atrophy of the parotid glands associated with the ingestion of sucrose.
Regulation of Insulin Secretion. Finally, preliminary research suggested the parotid hormone not only regulates dental structures but also influences insulin secretion by the pancreas.” http://goo.gl/RKSZ9
That last bit is **extremely** interesting and is a focus of my current research.
Finally, here’s a link to a great resource with pictures of dental microtubules: http://goo.gl/2i6Og and more info re the Dentinal Fluid Transport mechanism: http://goo.gl/pc0QH
My Dentist always raves about my teeth and then follows that up with how my mouth is bad for her business. After switching to LCHF diet years ago, all of my hygienists ask me if I whiten my teeth and they always praise my dental hygiene. This was not always the case.
Great post! It’s amazing how many myths there are about dental health- thanks for busting some of them.
My dad was self-employed and I grew without dental insurance in the 60s-70s, but I’m pretty sure my mom went without some nice things to make sure that my sisters and I had twice yearly dental checkups. Tooth brushing was always encouraged with fluoridated toothpaste, and we had regular fluoride applications during dental visits. My dad had a Rodale-style” organic garden long before “organic” was in common use and my mom prepared a lot of our food from scratch and limited our sugar, candy, and junk food consumption to special occasions. My parents even started requiring us to pay for our own fillings when we began making money in our teens, as an incentive to actively take good care of our teeth. Despite doing “everything right” per the advice of the health authorities (we were also always served skim milk, margarine instead of butter, hearthealthywholegrains before it was common, and occasional meat-less meals), we all finished childhood with a mouth full of fillings in our molars. Now in middle age we even some crown restorations, just like our parents.
My 14 yo son, on the other hand, has not yet had even one cavity, despite having some of the laziest oral hygiene habits I’ve ever witnessed (not for lack of encouragement and modeling on my part – I’m sure he’ll clean up his act when he becomes interested in a romantic relationship). Our son’s clean-cavity record isn’t genetic, either. His father also has a mouth full of dental work, as does the rest of his family and the previous generation on both sides.
About 7 years ago against our dentist’s advice, I halted all our fluoride exposures when I learned that fluoride is implicated in thyroid disease (I am hypothyroid). So my son’s permanent teeth are not cavity resistant due to fluoride, either. He does receive two or even three times a year checkups and cleanings (due to his lazy brushing habits, he does develop a lot of tartar, but no gingivitis or cavities).
How can this kid with such a legacy of dental decay on both sides of the family, lazy dental hygiene, and lack of fluoride have such cavity resistant teeth? About 10 years ago I also learned of Dr. Weston A. Price’s research and began to read voraciously about nutrition, traditional foods, and biochemistry (pestering my research biochemist husband for explanations about the science). I paid a lot more attention to our diet (which was already probably better than average), replacing pasteurized whole milk and butter with raw and traditionally processed dairy foods, reduced wheat and other grains (later we went gluten-free), drastically reduced our sugar consumption, and switched from industrial seed oils to traditional fats. I joined a CSA, sourcing most of our produce from a local farm, and drastically reduced our consumption of out-of-season produce. I also began a transition from CAFO meats, poultry, eggs, and poultry to sustainably pastured. I reduced my use of prepared convenience foods, prepared my own bone broths, and now mostly buy bone-in cuts of meat. In a word, I think tooth decay is primarily environmental and related more to what has been removed or replaced from our diets as the food supply increasingly industrialized – natural animal fats which carry critical fat soluble vitamins, enhancing mineral absorption and processes that keep our bones and teeth strong from within.
I agree. I used to just assume our caveman ancestors ended up toothless since they didn’t brush and floss, but that’s obviously not the case.
I find it odd that the “experts” blame child obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, ect. on their poor diets. From what I’ve seen the child obesity problem is higher in urban, poorer areas. If you look at the diets of these children you’ll see that most of them are getting 2 out of their 3 daily meals from their school, breakfast and lunch. The only meal that is supplied by their parents is dinner.
Even if their parents took their child to McDonalds every day for dinner and bought them a happy meal the calories from dinner wouldn’t amount to much.
Since two thirds of the children’s diet is being supplied by the government one would think the “experts” would look there for a possible cause of child obesity.
As an “expert” they may also want to take a look at what effect that two thirds of the child’s diet has on tooth decay as well as other common diseases.
But then again, what do I know, I’m not an expert, I have common sense.
Fluoride is EVIL. I had acne for years, up until a month ago – when I found out it was caused by excessive fluoride! Since then I have avoided fluoridated water and foods that contain fluoride (mostly non-organic pesticide-laden vegetables and teas) and I haven’t had any new acne since! I’m almost 50. Think of the years I suffered unnecessarily! Makes me angry.
On another note, just read a couple posts by people on two different sites whose teeth plaque actually dissolved from their teeth after taking K2 supplements (the MK-4 kind). Also heard many people’s claims that coQ10 reversed their periodontal disease. So maybe intake and absorption of these nutrients especially hold the key.
Sorry if this gets long but this is vitally important information that people need to know because once again, as usual, no one is being educated, informed and told the truth about this.
I stumbled on this information back in October while following links on Wikipedia and found an article about a researcher named John Leonora and then branched my research out to the web to confirm and found that this science is well established and there are many resources.
I a nutshell, dental decay is primarily caused by carbohydrate sugars which interrupt Parotid-Hypothalamic control and regulation of the body’s Dentinal Fluid Transport system and which suppress and even reverses the normally one-way positive internal pressure flow of dentinal fluid from the inside of the tooth outward into the mouth via the blood vessels that supply nutrients to the root and internal structures of the tooth.
Here are a few select excerpts to give the overview:
“John Leonora (January 30, 1928 – February 17, 2006), is notable for his research into the critical role of hypothalamic “factors” for indirectly controlling the metabolism of such avascular tissues as the dental enamel, the dentin, and the Islands of Langerhans (pancreas). Most of his research was carried out during his 45 years as a faculty member at Loma Linda University and instructor at the university’s predecessor, the College of Medical Evangelists.
Dentinal Fluid Transport. One day he received a telephone call from Dr. Ralph R. Steinman, a dental colleague, who had been studying the flow of dentinal fluid in rats from the odontoblasts in the dental pulp through the dentin using an intraperitoneal injection of the fluorescent dye, acriflavine hydrochloride. He found that in the teeth of rats fed a cariogenic diet the flow of dentinal fluid was markedly reduced. He wondered if some systemic mechanism was involved in this impairment and so decided to contact Dr. John Leonora, as an endocrinologist.
Parotid Hormone. Assuming that the hypothalamic factor was mediated through one of the major salivary glands, they found that this factor was biologically active when administered to rats with intact parotid glands but was wholly ineffective in rats that had the parotid glands removed. There was no involvement of the other salivary glands. They concluded that the direct regulation of DFT was therefore secreted by the parotid glands and this endocrine function was controlled by the hypothalamus.
Suppressive Effect of Sucrose. Then the research focused on the mechanism by which dietary sucrose suppressed the DFT. Initial studies suggested that the sucrose suppressed the secretion of the parotid hormone. Further studies, however, showed that the sucrose effect occurred indirectly by inhibiting secretion of the hypothalamic parotid hormone releasing factor. Then it was found that the sucrose effect could be effectively reversed by the infusion of the compound carbamyl phosphate through the internal carotid artery. This confirmed that the site of action was within the central nervous system—namely the hypothalamus.
Neural Stimuli of the Hypothalamus. The next question was, what physiological factors normally stimulate the secretion of the parotid hormone? Feeding pigs a standard pig chow proved to effectively stimulate parotid hormone secretion along with the copious secretion of saliva. Surprisingly, pigs fed non nutritive substances and exposed to auditory, olfactory and visual cues salivated profusely but these cues did not change the fasting level of the parotid hormone. This demonstrated that, although the endocrine and exocrine functions of the parotid glands occur concurrently, they must be controlled by different mechanisms. The nutritive composition thus proved to be critical for the secretion of the parotid hormone. Apparently nutritive substrates (foods) activate neural stimuli going to the hypothalamus, which in turn activates the hypothalamic-parotid gland endocrine axis that then stimulates the dentinal fluid transport mechanism.
Formation of dentin. At this critical juncture a group of investigators at the University of Oulu Dental School, Oulu, Finland (Tjaderhane, L. et al., (1994) discovered that the parotid hormone not only regulates the flow of dentinal fluid but also is involved in the formation of dentin—dentinogenesis. They also found that a high sucrose diet in young rats suppressed primary dentinogenesis. The injection of carbamyl phosphate significantly reversed the effect of sucrose—but only in intact rats. Furthermore, carbamyl phosphate prevented the atrophy of the parotid glands associated with the ingestion of sucrose.
Regulation of Insulin Secretion. Finally, preliminary research suggested the parotid hormone not only regulates dental structures but also influences insulin secretion by the pancreas.” http://goo.gl/RKSZ9
That last bit is **extremely** interesting and is a focus of my current research.
Finally, here’s a link to a great resource with pictures of dental microtubules: http://goo.gl/2i6Og and more info re the Dentinal Fluid Transport mechanism: http://goo.gl/pc0QH
Great post! It’s amazing how many myths there are about dental health- thanks for busting some of them.
My dad was self-employed and I grew without dental insurance in the 60s-70s, but I’m pretty sure my mom went without some nice things to make sure that my sisters and I had twice yearly dental checkups. Tooth brushing was always encouraged with fluoridated toothpaste, and we had regular fluoride applications during dental visits. My dad had a Rodale-style” organic garden long before “organic” was in common use and my mom prepared a lot of our food from scratch and limited our sugar, candy, and junk food consumption to special occasions. My parents even started requiring us to pay for our own fillings when we began making money in our teens, as an incentive to actively take good care of our teeth. Despite doing “everything right” per the advice of the health authorities (we were also always served skim milk, margarine instead of butter, hearthealthywholegrains before it was common, and occasional meat-less meals), we all finished childhood with a mouth full of fillings in our molars. Now in middle age we even some crown restorations, just like our parents.
My 14 yo son, on the other hand, has not yet had even one cavity, despite having some of the laziest oral hygiene habits I’ve ever witnessed (not for lack of encouragement and modeling on my part – I’m sure he’ll clean up his act when he becomes interested in a romantic relationship). Our son’s clean-cavity record isn’t genetic, either. His father also has a mouth full of dental work, as does the rest of his family and the previous generation on both sides.
About 7 years ago against our dentist’s advice, I halted all our fluoride exposures when I learned that fluoride is implicated in thyroid disease (I am hypothyroid). So my son’s permanent teeth are not cavity resistant due to fluoride, either. He does receive two or even three times a year checkups and cleanings (due to his lazy brushing habits, he does develop a lot of tartar, but no gingivitis or cavities).
How can this kid with such a legacy of dental decay on both sides of the family, lazy dental hygiene, and lack of fluoride have such cavity resistant teeth? About 10 years ago I also learned of Dr. Weston A. Price’s research and began to read voraciously about nutrition, traditional foods, and biochemistry (pestering my research biochemist husband for explanations about the science). I paid a lot more attention to our diet (which was already probably better than average), replacing pasteurized whole milk and butter with raw and traditionally processed dairy foods, reduced wheat and other grains (later we went gluten-free), drastically reduced our sugar consumption, and switched from industrial seed oils to traditional fats. I joined a CSA, sourcing most of our produce from a local farm, and drastically reduced our consumption of out-of-season produce. I also began a transition from CAFO meats, poultry, eggs, and poultry to sustainably pastured. I reduced my use of prepared convenience foods, prepared my own bone broths, and now mostly buy bone-in cuts of meat. In a word, I think tooth decay is primarily environmental and related more to what has been removed or replaced from our diets as the food supply increasingly industrialized – natural animal fats which carry critical fat soluble vitamins, enhancing mineral absorption and processes that keep our bones and teeth strong from within.
I agree. I used to just assume our caveman ancestors ended up toothless since they didn’t brush and floss, but that’s obviously not the case.
Fluoride is EVIL. I had acne for years, up until a month ago – when I found out it was caused by excessive fluoride! Since then I have avoided fluoridated water and foods that contain fluoride (mostly non-organic pesticide-laden vegetables and teas) and I haven’t had any new acne since! I’m almost 50. Think of the years I suffered unnecessarily! Makes me angry.
On another note, just read a couple posts by people on two different sites whose teeth plaque actually dissolved from their teeth after taking K2 supplements (the MK-4 kind). Also heard many people’s claims that coQ10 reversed their periodontal disease. So maybe intake and absorption of these nutrients especially hold the key.
“Has he ever tried going grain-free?”
I suggested that he try that, but they both poo-pooed my advice, and as far as I know, they really have not bothered looking at the research material on the subject that I suggested. They also either cannot, or do not want to understand that I am not talking regular allergies.
It’s sad, but what can you do? I don’t want to see it happen, but I have to resign myself that I will have to watch people suffer, and probably prematurely die.
Wow. If I had migraines, I’d certainly be willing to try something as simple as giving up wheat as an experiment.
“Has he ever tried going grain-free?”
I suggested that he try that, but they both poo-pooed my advice, and as far as I know, they really have not bothered looking at the research material on the subject that I suggested. They also either cannot, or do not want to understand that I am not talking regular allergies.
It’s sad, but what can you do? I don’t want to see it happen, but I have to resign myself that I will have to watch people suffer, and probably prematurely die.
Wow. If I had migraines, I’d certainly be willing to try something as simple as giving up wheat as an experiment.
If fluoride in the drinking supply is the solution, than why are kids still getting cavities? Especially since tap water is still what’s used to create a lot of food/drink products!
My herbal book said plain old tea is a wonderful source of natural fluorine — trace element that’s not the same form as what’s in the drinking supply. The first best defense is to not be deficient in the various minerals related to bone health (magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, + trace elements like boron and who knows what else) which should encourage the body to dump that excess fluoride. Kind of like taking iodine prevents absorbing the radioactive form…plenty of magnesium prevents the body from up-taking aluminum to use as a co-factor.
Also Jimmy Moore interviewed Ramiel Nagel of “Cure tooth decay naturally” a few years ago — that manual/book is why I take and give cold pressed lemon flavored cod liver oil to my girls and buy yellow butter and started making bone broths. It was also what turned me on to the Weston Price group. The main point of the book is that teeth rot from the inside out as the body robs from Peter to pay Paul. I think Dr. Davis touched on this point in Wheat Belly too? I forget. The theory is that the byproduct of metabolizing sugar & grain is acidic, and the body robs minerals to alkalize the body.
If fluoride does provide some protection, we can (obviously) still overwhelm the protective effects with a bad diet.
By the way, I found out about flouride causing my acne through another Fat Head fan, in a post on the Fat Head Facebook group, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/57440891958/permalink/10151680810656959/?comment_id=10151684922036959&offset=0&total_comments=12
Couldn’t be more thankful!
As to regards to nearsightedness and diet my guess it has more to lack of exposure to sunlight. A real paleo life style would fix that. Here is a link to an observational study that shows the coloration.
http://archopht.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=420394
Love your blog and your movie and intend to order the new cut soon. Hope you ship to Singapore. My wife and I have be on a high fat low carb diet for 1 ½ years and lost our extra weight in no time, kept it of, and feel great. We have also cut back on our 4 young children’s sugar intake a lowered their carbs. Will have to wait and see if any cavities but so far so good.
We ship anywhere with a postal service.
If fluoride in the drinking supply is the solution, than why are kids still getting cavities? Especially since tap water is still what’s used to create a lot of food/drink products!
My herbal book said plain old tea is a wonderful source of natural fluorine — trace element that’s not the same form as what’s in the drinking supply. The first best defense is to not be deficient in the various minerals related to bone health (magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, + trace elements like boron and who knows what else) which should encourage the body to dump that excess fluoride. Kind of like taking iodine prevents absorbing the radioactive form…plenty of magnesium prevents the body from up-taking aluminum to use as a co-factor.
Also Jimmy Moore interviewed Ramiel Nagel of “Cure tooth decay naturally” a few years ago — that manual/book is why I take and give cold pressed lemon flavored cod liver oil to my girls and buy yellow butter and started making bone broths. It was also what turned me on to the Weston Price group. The main point of the book is that teeth rot from the inside out as the body robs from Peter to pay Paul. I think Dr. Davis touched on this point in Wheat Belly too? I forget. The theory is that the byproduct of metabolizing sugar & grain is acidic, and the body robs minerals to alkalize the body.
If fluoride does provide some protection, we can (obviously) still overwhelm the protective effects with a bad diet.
By the way, I found out about flouride causing my acne through another Fat Head fan, in a post on the Fat Head Facebook group, here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/57440891958/permalink/10151680810656959/?comment_id=10151684922036959&offset=0&total_comments=12
Couldn’t be more thankful!
“Wow. If I had migraines, I’d certainly be willing to try something as simple as giving up wheat as an experiment.”
Unfortunately, that’s not how some people think. Sometimes it’s because they listen to a guy in a white lab coat who tells them they need to eat their “hearthhealthywholegrains”, and sometimes it’s just because that person simply does not want to give up the addiction to their bread, cakes, and candies. They might also have to give up processed vegetable oil and soy based products as well. And frankly, that scares people who’ve been told that’s what they should be eating. It’s hard to break that lifetime of habit, so they’ll take a pill or smoke medical pot, rather than give that up.
Migraines are tricky . In my case even very low carbohydrate diet didn’t eliminate it, but improved my condition. However, I would prefer one migraine almost but not always every month to much more frequent migraines, the duration also improved from 3-4 days with vomiting and an obligatory bed rest to 1-2 days with rare vomiting and being able to do something else, not confined in a bed.
@Tom, sorry if I have lead the conversation astray. Your original point that good diet protects teeth is extremely accurate and important.
@Ailu, I am sorry to hear you have had issues with fluorine, I myself an allergic to shellfish, and dearly miss oysters. Here are a few other foods you should consider avoiding, as they contain fluorine. Fish, Shellfish, Chicken, Pork, Beef, Apples, Peas, Corn, Peanuts, Squash, Grapes, Milk, Butter, Eggs, Carrots.
That was probably a bit rude of me. I should have just said, everything digestible by humans contains fluorine. I would like to put forth an alternative hypothesis. Your restricted intake might have lowered intake of some other elements, such as chlorine, arsenic, or gold. All three can cause the same acne symptoms. and at least in the case of water, all three are removed through the same distillation process.
@Oly, Actually our paleo ancestors probably consumed more Fluorine than we do today, many natural springs and rivers contain fluorine levels of up to 13ppm. or 11 times the maximum added in the usa. The dentists that first discovered the effects were working with water containing 3.5ppm or about 3 times the maximum added. Also all three foods you mention “bone broth, Cod liver oil, and yellow butter” are rich in fluorine.
Our carbsneedto have added fluoride, or at least sugar needs to.
These conspiracy theories I now believe in are adding up! Sugar, wholegrains, saturated fats, sunshine, fluoride. Makes you wonder about climate change too.
Don’t get me started.
Thank you CameronH for your comments. Our extended family is very happy to live in areas with flouridated water and have children/grandchildren who have never had cavities, unlike the horrible teeth we’ve been dealing with since our childhoods. Problems we developed while eating far less processed food that most kids each today. Evening within siblings, the dental issues from oldest to youngest a striking.
As a side note, I do wonder if there has been an uptick in thyroid issues because of the mainstream horror over the use of salt. I grew up in an area (most of Wisconsin & parts of Michigan) that has no natural iodine in the soil. So goiters were a serious problem. When I was in grade school, we were all given “goiter pills” once a week with our milk and small square of graham cracker. Once iodized salt became available the pills went away. Now that sea salt or no salt or fake salt are encouraged, I really hope goiters don’t again become the norm. Though I could tell a funny story about the time my mother had to take radioactive iodine to destroy her goiter and I had to stay home from school to take care of my baby brother. Not many high school seniors have radioactive mothers!
Even though I ate lots of grains and starches for years and limited sugar (because everyone knows sugar is bad), I actually never once had a cavity surprisingly from both baby teeth and permanent. Only had sensitive gums from years of asthma medicine until going low carb.
Thank you CameronH for your comments. Our extended family is very happy to live in areas with flouridated water and have children/grandchildren who have never had cavities, unlike the horrible teeth we’ve been dealing with since our childhoods. Problems we developed while eating far less processed food that most kids each today. Evening within siblings, the dental issues from oldest to youngest a striking.
As a side note, I do wonder if there has been an uptick in thyroid issues because of the mainstream horror over the use of salt. I grew up in an area (most of Wisconsin & parts of Michigan) that has no natural iodine in the soil. So goiters were a serious problem. When I was in grade school, we were all given “goiter pills” once a week with our milk and small square of graham cracker. Once iodized salt became available the pills went away. Now that sea salt or no salt or fake salt are encouraged, I really hope goiters don’t again become the norm. Though I could tell a funny story about the time my mother had to take radioactive iodine to destroy her goiter and I had to stay home from school to take care of my baby brother. Not many high school seniors have radioactive mothers!
I don’t fiddle with making bone broths. Most of the meats I cook — pork or beef steaks, lamb chops, chicken and turkey legs — have some bone in. I usually braise them — brown them in the oven uncovered for an hour or so, then add a couple of tablespoons of butter or olive oil — even to fatty cuts of meat, a small amount of water and some onion or garlic. I then cover the baking dish and let the meat cook for a couple more hours. I might not get all the minerals out of the bone that I would by boiling it for hours, but enough minerals cook out to give the meat a nice flavor, and since I do this almost daily, I think we probably get what we need.
I don’t fiddle with making bone broths. Most of the meats I cook — pork or beef steaks, lamb chops, chicken and turkey legs — have some bone in. I usually braise them — brown them in the oven uncovered for an hour or so, then add a couple of tablespoons of butter or olive oil — even to fatty cuts of meat, a small amount of water and some onion or garlic. I then cover the baking dish and let the meat cook for a couple more hours. I might not get all the minerals out of the bone that I would by boiling it for hours, but enough minerals cook out to give the meat a nice flavor, and since I do this almost daily, I think we probably get what we need.
The fact that this way of eating is good for teeth is no news to me. My son aged eight has great teeth, and as for his eyes, they were better (ie 20/20 vision) than his previous exam the year before when he showed early signs of myopia. His friend, vegetarian like his mother, has several fillings at the same age. Our Dentist tells me that Anthony’s teeth are very clean too, despite me having trouble getting him to brush them. Preaching to the choir here…….
No worries. We’ll sing along.
@SueD. I think the major issue with sea salt is, as you mentioned, that people are so salt-phobic that they aren’t eating enough of it. Natural sea salt does have iodine plus a lot of other minerals. I think my multivitamin also has iodine. If there’s a problem of deficiency, it’s probably because — as in the case of fat — people have been given bogus information about what is healthful.
“By pure coincidence, I had a conversation with a co-worker today who speculated that he had a lot of cavities as a kid because his family’s water supply (a well) wasn’t fluoridated. Okay, yes, that may figure into it. But again, our Paleolithic ancestors didn’t put fluoride in their streams and springs. Fluoride is, if anything, protection against dental decay that shouldn’t develop in the first place.”
I was literally thinking about this JUST this morning.
I think a big thing besides just the amounts of refined sugars in the diet is A) the amount of calcium in the diet, and 2) our body’s ability to absorb and use that calcium where it’s needed, which depends on proper vitamins, which is a lot of the basis for the whole WAP approach I believe.
Agreed.
The fact that this way of eating is good for teeth is no news to me. My son aged eight has great teeth, and as for his eyes, they were better (ie 20/20 vision) than his previous exam the year before when he showed early signs of myopia. His friend, vegetarian like his mother, has several fillings at the same age. Our Dentist tells me that Anthony’s teeth are very clean too, despite me having trouble getting him to brush them. Preaching to the choir here…….
No worries. We’ll sing along.
My oldest daughter (10) is the only one of my children to develop those tooth eating buggers thus far. She had exactly two. Both directly under the anchors for her braces on her back teeth, which was absolutely not a shock to her orthodontist.
On the braces note, my two older girls (who had to suffer the ill-effects of my SAD days while in utero) have very narrow jaws – that sleek, delicate jawline that while popular in Hollywood is also popular with braces. Their baby teeth were always quite crowded. My younger two children – who got the benefit of my switch to Paleo – have nice wide jaws and “gappy” baby teeth. Coincidence? Possibly, but I think there’s a least a dash of causation in there.
I think so too. I ended up with teeth behind other teeth, both top and bottom. The orthodontist pulled four teeth before installing the braces. So far Sara and Alana both have little gaps between their teeth.
“By pure coincidence, I had a conversation with a co-worker today who speculated that he had a lot of cavities as a kid because his family’s water supply (a well) wasn’t fluoridated. Okay, yes, that may figure into it. But again, our Paleolithic ancestors didn’t put fluoride in their streams and springs. Fluoride is, if anything, protection against dental decay that shouldn’t develop in the first place.”
I was literally thinking about this JUST this morning.
I think a big thing besides just the amounts of refined sugars in the diet is A) the amount of calcium in the diet, and 2) our body’s ability to absorb and use that calcium where it’s needed, which depends on proper vitamins, which is a lot of the basis for the whole WAP approach I believe.
Agreed.
My oldest daughter (10) is the only one of my children to develop those tooth eating buggers thus far. She had exactly two. Both directly under the anchors for her braces on her back teeth, which was absolutely not a shock to her orthodontist.
On the braces note, my two older girls (who had to suffer the ill-effects of my SAD days while in utero) have very narrow jaws – that sleek, delicate jawline that while popular in Hollywood is also popular with braces. Their baby teeth were always quite crowded. My younger two children – who got the benefit of my switch to Paleo – have nice wide jaws and “gappy” baby teeth. Coincidence? Possibly, but I think there’s a least a dash of causation in there.
I think so too. I ended up with teeth behind other teeth, both top and bottom. The orthodontist pulled four teeth before installing the braces. So far Sara and Alana both have little gaps between their teeth.