How safe is fluoride really?

You've all heard about fluoride, I'm sure? If I asked you what it was for, you'd probably tell me it's something that's good for teeth. How do you know that though? Based on the fact that it's in your toothpaste? Something your dentist said? What if I told you that fluoride is such a toxic substance that it can only be handled with protective gloves and clothing? Would you think it's nonsense? Hype? It must be good for us if it's been approved to be used in drinking water in numerous countries? The same as processed foods are good for us? The same as toxic substances in our beauty products are good for us?

Have you noticed that a tube of Sensodyne comes with a warning: "Keep this and all medication out of the reach of children. If accidentally swallowed, seek professional assistance or contact a Poison Control Centre immediately."

That disturbs me a bit... This is something that your are putting in your mouth on a daily basis which is, pretty much, the doorway to your body. It's pretty likely you are going to swallow SOME, especially if it's a child. And it comes with a poison warning? So what's the deal there? Well, this video below says it all and it's definitely worth a watch.

Click here to watch the video. I couldn't embed it because it was huge and messed with my page margins!

I sent an email to Rand Water because their website is a bit unclear about whether or not our water is fluoridated. This was the response:

"NO, Rand Water is not adding any Fluoride during purification and supply of Drinking water.
The legislation to add Fluoride in the drinking water supply never passed, the fluoride in our drinking water is a natural one from the natural source, we only analyse to monitor compliance to SANS 241 limit of Fluoride <1 mg/l which our water never failed to comply with.

For further information or queries regarding this legislation, contact the National Dept. of Health."

I can't speak for any other province, but that's really good news for Johannesburg! That's a huge way to avoid fluoride, in excess, on a daily basis. If it WAS in our water, we'd find it almost impossible to get rid of because only EXTREMELY expensive filtering systems actually get rid of fluoride. Boiling water doesn't do it either and, if you thought you'd just stick to bottled water, think again. They add fluoride to bottled water. So, it's up to us to make sure we avoid inviting it into our lives in any way. Most of us still do it on a daily basis with the toothpastes and mouthwashes we use but what else can fluoride be found in?

• Baby formula 
• Foods cooked in fluoridated water 
• Canned soup, or soup in restaurants 
• Mechanically deboned chicken (i.e. chicken nuggets) 
• Food cooked in Teflon cookware (which means all your non-stick pots and pans) 
• Fizzy drinks and other soft drinks 
• Fruit juice (unless it is fresh-squeezed at home) 
• Beer and wine (unless they are South African, European or from other areas that don’t
  fluoridate the water) 
• Coffee and tea (if made with fluoridated water) 
• Packaged and processed foods 
• Anesthetics 
• Fluoridated salt 
• Cigarettes 

In case you were worried about how not using fluoridated toothpaste would affect your teeth, fluoride doesn't actually prevent tooth decay. It may soothe sensitive teeth in the short term, but, in the longterm, it's actually rotting them from the inside out. Fluoride is poison. It literally is toxic waste, which you'll learn in the video when you watch it. It kills off brain cells so, in short, it makes us stupid. It causes, among other things, cancer, arthritis, brain damage, fertility issues, it brings on early puberty, it negatively impacts thyroid function (how many of us suffer with under active thyroids these days. Every second person is on Eltroxin. GLM was on it permanently until she changed her diet and sent herself to a homeopath), it damages bones and increases risk of osteoporosis.

Do you really want this stuff in your life? A conventional dentist will tell you you need it. Just like a conventional nutritionist will tell you that you need bread and pasta in your diet and that processed foods are ok. Just because someone studies something, doesn't mean they have all the answers. It means they have learnt all their notes, but they haven't really asked any questions about it. I'm not a person to take things at face value. I want to know the hows and wheres and whys and so, despite being told one thing by my lecturers, I still want to get as many different opinions as possible, do my own research, and draw my own conclusions. I'll learn the notes, because that way I'll pass, ironically. But I'll form my own opinions at the same time. We are learning new things on a daily basis and things we once thought were true, we now know, aren't at all.

Unfortunately there are so many people who DON'T do that and that is why conventional dentists won't warn you against fluoride. A holistic or homeopathic dentist will. I'd really recommend finding one in your area and paying them a visit. They look at the body as a whole, rather than just the teeth. Your diet directly affects your teeth, which means that, simply plugging a hole in a tooth won't be the end of it. The nutrients in your diet will determine if that is the last hole or the first of many. I don't just mean avoiding acidic drinks and sugar, I mean by eating an organic, chemical-free, nutrient-dense diet, you can literally rebuild and strengthen your teeth which will mean you won't even need fluoride because you won't have sensitive teeth anymore.

We've suffered with sensitive teeth for a long time. But when I learnt just how bad fluoride was for us, I went in search of a toothpaste that would soothe our teeth and gums without slowly poisoning us. I found one at Dischem:

It contains only natural ingredients and it really does work. It's also the cheapest natural toothpaste
you'll find in South Africa. R23 a tube is a small price to pay for getting fluoride out of our lives. It tastes good, and it works. Remember, herbal toothpastes won't foam like conventional toothpastes because they don't contain sodium lauryl sulphate. But that's a really good thing!!

As far as drinking tap water goes, while our water may not contain fluoride, it contains a whole host of stuff that you don't really want in your body and I'll talk more about that in my next post and ways to circumvent it. In the meantime, watch the video when you have a moment, and share it.

This is something important that we need to let people know about.

Until tomorrow!