Wellness Wednesday - Eating your way to good dental health

Today I decided to chat about teeth! Most of us have them, in various stages of health, and we all take them a little for granted until they start to give us grief. Then we pop a hundred pills to avoid having to go to the dreaded dentist because, who actually LIKES the dentist!?

I've always been irrationally terrified of dentists. I think a lot of people are. The thought of that sharp metal tool scraping away at my teeth has my teeth curling! It's like nails down a chalkboard which also sets my teeth on edge.

We've all always been told we need to go to the dentist at least every 6 months for kids, and once a year for adults. And let's not forget the dental hygienist, which needs to happen every 6 months as well. My wife is one of those people who sticks to her appointments. She prefers to leave the health up to someone else because her time is precious to her and she doesn't have time to brush each individual tooth for 5 seconds;) (she DOES brush her teeth! But she does it the normal way) I have to admit, when I learnt that the best way to brush my teeth was to hold my electric toothbrush over each tooth (front and back) for 5 seconds and let the toothbrush do the work, I had no idea how long that would actually take! It takes looooong...

I've never been one to back down in the face of a challenge so I do it, every day and every night, despite how time consuming it is. On the days that I honestly just don't have the time, I make sure I only brush "down", and I move gently, so that I don't mess up my gums. That's really the motivation behind the 5 second rule with electric toothbrushes. Most people brush their teeth sideways, back and forth, pressing hard, while the toothbrush head is also swivelling around. That's how you expose nerves and get receding gums and eventually this...

... a very horsey smile! I try to avoid looking like a horse;)

The upside to the 5 second rule is that it basically achieves what a dental hygienist would achieve because it focuses very specifically on each tooth. I find that my teeth ALWAYS feel smooth and clean since I started doing it. No plaque in sight:)

I'll tell you a secret... I don't believe in going to dentists or dental hygienists. I used to think it was a necessary part of life but, in my quest for knowledge about health and nutrition, I have come to realise that, like any other part of your body, if you look after it the way it should be looked after, not only will it will be with you for a long, long time, but it won't need tune ups now and then either! You don't need to go for regular stomach tune ups do you? Well, why should your teeth be any different? Some of you are saying, "Well, it's best to avoid a tooth problem by going for regular check ups, isn't it?" Again I'll say, do you do the same with your stomach?

I will agree with regular dentist visits IF you are eating a nutritionally deficient diet and not looking after your teeth properly. Your health is directly determined by the fuel you are putting into your body. If the fuel is low grade, then ALL the parts are slowly but surely going to start giving out, and it often starts with the teeth. In fact, if your teeth are suffering it's a very sure sign that your nutritional intake needs to be addressed and I would also start checking other body parts because something else is going to start giving out soon! The sad thing is that MOST people are eating a nutritionally deficient diet and they don't even know it.

I've spoken before about how to prepare grains properly. It's so important that you really pay attention to that post because grains are LARGELY to blame for the world's dental problems. How can that be, you ask?! All the magazines and books and experts tell us to eat whole grains, in excess. Surely they can't all be wrong? Sadly, they are. There has been a shift in thinking over the last couple of years. It is a slow shift, but it's there, and, one by one, people are waking up to the fact that there is something to all of this and that we need to cut down on grains and eat protein and fats instead. The banting diet has been a huge help in this area.

We ALL eat a lot of bread. If not bread, then other wheat-based foods like pasta, cereals, rice, wraps, cakes etc. And if you thought that going with whole grain, as opposed to refined grains, was better for you, I have bad news. In a weird way, it's actually worse! Which is a disaster because nutritionists EVERYWHERE keep telling us to eat as many whole grains as possible! Let me run through a quick explanation about phytic acid and phosphorus in case you haven't read that blog post yet.

When we consume whole grains we are consuming the bran and the germ part of the plant. The bran is the part of the grain that contains all the good nutrition, BUT it also contains phytic acid. Phytic acid is found in most plants. It is their built in self-defence mechanism and it protects them from germinating until conditions are optimal. Phytic acid is bad for us because it binds with all those important minerals found in the bran and makes it impossible for our bodies to absorb them. Most importantly, phytic acid binds with phosphorous and makes it nutritionally unavailable for our bodies to use. Phosphorous is one of the most important minerals in our diet as far as dental health is concerned. It's actually even more important than calcium when it comes to bone growth and the health of your teeth.

The only way for us to be able to absorb the phosphorous and other minerals from the bran in whole grains, is to properly prepare them by soaking, sprouting, or fermenting them. It breaks them down and makes the nutrients bio-available to our bodies. The problem is, phytic acid is not only limited to wheat. ALL grains contain it and so ALL grains need to be prepared properly. That means oats, rice, quinoa, millet, rye etc. If you want to know how to prepare them properly, here's that link again.

Personally, I think that one of the best ways to avoid this problem is simply to cut down on grains significantly unless you prepare them properly. Humans weren't designed to eat so many grains. The scary thing is that it's pretty much the biggest part of everyone's diet and it's the real reason that dentists are in such great demand these days.

I'm not going to tell you the foods to avoid to prevent tooth decay because it goes without saying that sugary, processed foods are a no-no, for everyone, but ESPECIALLY for kids. So, what can you do, nutritionally, to make your teeth healthier?

• If you aren't soaking, sprouting or fermenting your grains, start now. If you can't properly prepare them, don't eat them. In the longterm, they will make a mess of your digestive system and ultimately deprive you of much needed nutrients and ruin your teeth. This especially applies to your kids because the teeth they start out with will be the teeth they are stuck with for life. Give them a good start.
• Eat bone broth - Bone broth is so good for your teeth because it's rich in minerals. These days, our bodies are extremely starved for minerals because of our excessive intake of whole grains, our depleted soils and our use of chemicals with agriculture. When you make your bone broth, always include marrow bones from pasture-fed animals. If you find a marrow bone in your lamb stew, scoop out the marrow and eat it. It's very rich in minerals and an excellent source of healthy fat. 
• Raw Milk - Raw milk and other raw dairy products are an excellent source of calcium and phosphorus which are crucial to dental health. Raw dairy has many health benefits, one of which is that it contains more bio-available calcium than pasteurised dairy products, which actually contain little to none. Find a farmer near you who sells it. You will often find it at farmer's markets. Not only is it delicious, but it's a superfood of note.
• Organ Meats - Organ meats are some of the most nutrient-dense parts of an animal. Traditional cultures always highly prized the organ meats of the animals they hunted and it was the first thing they ate from it. They are so important for dental health because of their high vitamin and mineral content, which includes the all-important phosphorous. It is, however, essential that you get your organ meats from pasture-fed, free range animals because the liver is the organ that processes toxins in the body. You don't want to be eating toxins! If you don't like liver, try and make yourself like it! It's actually quite easy! I used to hate liver. I couldn't bear the texture and taste. It literally made me gag. But I'm one of those people that, if I know something is exceptionally good for me, I'll force myself to eat it until it becomes the norm for me . It's a true story that if you give yourself 10 days with anything, your mind and body can adjust to it. Now, I actually LOVE liver. Go figure! But I'm glad because it's incredibly good for me. Now if I could just get GLM to try that... ;)
• Butter - It took me a while to get my head around the fact that butter was actually GOOD. I truly struggled because of years of conditioning telling me that saturated fats were bad. I'm not ashamed to admit I was wrong. But it MUST be butter from grass-fed cows. Our bodies need the fat from things like butter in order to assimilate the fat-soluble vitamins A,D,E, and K. Grass-fed butter is an excellent source of vitamin K and something called the “Wulzen factor”. The “Wulzen factor” is a hormone-like substance that can only be found in raw butter and cream and basically assists the body in getting calcium to the bones instead of the joints. It’s also called the “anti stiffness factor” because of its ability to help prevent arthritis.

So, that's what you can eat to help your teeth stay strong and healthy. Needless to say, it will also keep your body strong and healthy because all of the above foods are superfoods in terms of nutrients. You want to be eating all of them, all of the time.

Something else that has helped my teeth and my health immensely is oil-pulling. Since I already wrote a whole blog post on it, I won't go into all the details again, but read the post and give it a try! One by one my friends and family are getting into it which I'm really impressed with;) It's done WONDERS for my teeth. Once a day is all it takes. You CAN do it;)

Needless to say, the toothpaste you are using is likely NOT doing you any favours. Toothpaste is full of nasties, the worst one being flouride. And just because a toothpaste says its for kids, doesn't mean it's good for them. Kids and adults should be able to use the same toothpaste. Read my blog post and please consider moving over to a natural toothpaste. If you are eating right, and you are oil-pulling, you really don't need anything fancy. Even without those things, your teeth are actually just fine without fluoride. You could brush them with bicarbonate of soda and it would actually be good enough as long as you are doing all of the above to look after them.

Try only going to the dentist if it's really necessary and then, if you do go, go to a holistic dentist. Google to find one near you. The chemicals that conventional dentists use are horribly bad for you. In case you wonder why you feel a bit ill or out of sorts for a few days after a visit to a dental hygienist or dentist, chances are it's because of all the chemicals they have put in your mouth. That machine doesn't suck out everything! You usually need a few days to detox after a visit to one of them. Don't subject your body to them if it's not necessary. Oh, and if you have mercury fillings, consider visiting a holistic dentist and GET THEM OUT!!! I will blog on this next week. They are slowly poisoning your body and need to be removed, CAREFULLY.

That's my two-cents worth on dental health. It's actually easy to look after your teeth and it's definitely worth it!