I bet that at least once in your life you’ve had a plant, which you neglected. You forgot to water and soil it, and you probably noticed how its leaves curls and its colors faded. You witnessed how the beauty and life were robbed out of the plant due to not taking proper care and not “feeding” it. Conversely, if you’ve been persistent and were able to bring it back to life, you realized how proper care can have a dramatic restorative effect. The same result will take place when taking proper care of your body. You must maintain it and this is where the power of nutrition comes into play.
The reality is that our bodies are intelligent, and we must learn to treat it as such. Our lifestyle choices influence how our body responds. In choosing between healthy or unhealthy foods and habits, we are programming our bodies for either wellness or sickness. I love saying that the quality of our health depends on the quality of our food.
People underestimate the power of nutrition. I am a firm believer that through proper food choices, you can help your body recover and get it back to functioning at its best. I’ve seen it happen many times in others and in my own life. You see, I used to somehow survive on junk food and now I eat real, healthy food, and have become both healthy and very fit!
I also used to be one of those people who believed that genetics caused all of my physical flaws. For example, I’ve always had problem teeth and I’ve always blamed it on my parents bad teeth (Actually they have beautiful smiles, but they have problem teeth.) I always had somebody to blame until I found out that my health is in my own hands and that we all have access to the most powerful tool to healing the body – nutrition.
If you have problem teeth, read what I have to share with you and reconsider if genetics is the culprit or, in reality, the enemy is you! Your teeth can heal naturally because they were never designed to decay. Our teeth are designed by nature to be strong and healthy for as long as we live, just as our whole body. With every food choice we make, we either nurture our bodies, or we cause harm, and the types of foods we consume daily either strengthen or weaken our teeth.
Today I will share with you how to support the health and longevity of your teeth just by consuming the right foods. The modern theory of tooth decay states that: Tooth decay occurs when foods containing carbohydrates (sugars and starches) such as milk, pop, raisins, cakes or candy are frequently left on the teeth. Bacteria that live in the mouth thrive on these foods, producing acids as a result. Over a period of time, these acids destroy tooth enamel, resulting in tooth decay.
In reality, something completely different is the main reason for our problematic teeth. Tooth decay is a physiological process, which is triggered by our bodies as a response to our diet.
Drs. Leonora and Steinman found that the hypothalamus communicates with glands in our jaws called the parotid glands via parotid hormone releasing factor. When this gland is stimulated by the hypothalamus it releases parotid hormone, which in turn triggers mineral-rich dental lymph through microscopic channels in our teeth. (1 ) It is precisely this mineral-rich fluid, which keeps our teeth healthy. It is what cleans our teeth and remineralizes them. With our modern diet of processed foods, especially foods rich in carbohydrates, we sabotage the proper flow of this mineral- rich fluid. Such a “modern diet” causes the hypothalamus to stop signaling the parotid gland to release the hormone that triggers the movement of the remineralizing fluid. Over the long term, this results in tooth decay and, ultimately, tooth destruction.
When your food intake is based on too many processed foods, especially sugar and flour products, this damages your body’s ability to function properly and send adequate signals to your glands. When there are blood sugar spikes, minerals like calcium are pulled from our bones. According to Dr. Page (2 ), when there is a disturbance in the ratio of calcium to phosphorus in the blood ( the exact proportion for tooth health is 2.5 parts calcium to one part phosphorus), minerals are withdrawn from the tooth or other tissues, which in the long term results in tooth decay.
I am a big follower of Weston Price and his work, and as he states, “Lack of nutrition is the cause of physical degeneration.” Thus, if we learn how to use food correctly, we can stop the degeneration process of our bodies, which can be observed everywhere in modern society, and turn food to our advantage, not our curse. One of the premises for good health is the presence of fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamins A,D,E and K, and it’s not surprising that they are found in fat. Fat- soluble vitamins are essential for our health, not just because of the nutrients they provide, but because they have a key role in activating substances that help our bodies utilize the minerals that are present in our diets.
For example, phosphorus, calcium, and our hormones as well need fat-soluble vitamin D. It is essential to the proper ratio of calcium and phosphorus, and as stated above, this proper ratio is the key element to healthy teeth, and it plays a key role in the prevention of tooth decay.
In addition, another element that is responsible for the deposition of calcium and phosphorus into our bones is the protein osteocalcin. Its production in the cells is highly dependent on the presence of fat- soluble vitamins A and D. An interesting fact is that vitamin A lowers blood serum calcium, which, in turn, indicates that vitamin A aids our bodies in the utilization of calcium. Vitamin A increases growth factors, which stimulate bones and teeth to grow and repair. As you may already know, cholesterol is vital for the production of hormones in our bodies. As I mentioned above, the immune system, minerals, and hormones interact with the tooth and related structures, which means that hormones have the power to control the process of tooth decay.
By now, you would probably asking what is their role?
Actually tooth decay is initiated by a glandular mechanism. Our pituitary gland has two sections based on the hormones each section produces. The sections are the anterior and the posterior pituitary. To understand it further, you should know what the role of each section is. The posterior pituitary gland works together with the pancreas to control blood sugar levels. As mentioned above, chronic imbalances in blood sugar often lead to tooth decay and other health problems. When the posterior pituitary fails to regulate the blood sugar level, a biochemical imbalance occurs; this, in turn, causes phosphorus to be pulled from our bones. In case you’re wondering, the main culprit for posterior pituitary deficiency is sugar.
On the other hand, the anterior pituitary gland regulates the thyroid gland. You are probably aware that a properly functioning thyroid gland is critical in order for us to enjoy good health and balanced hormones. In fact, a malfunctioning thyroid plays a role in the tooth decay process because the thyroid is responsible for the maintenance of blood calcium levels.
Let’s return to the hormones and cholesterol connection. In order for our hormones to properly perform their job and send the correct signals, we need cholesterol. Yes, cholesterol, which has been demonized by a huge part of the fitness industry. When you don’t maintain a healthy diet, your body’s ability to repair and keep your teeth healthy is compromised. The result is the demineralization of your teeth and a severe process of tooth decay. This, in turn, leads to more health complications because without healthy teeth, we fail to digest food properly, and this leads to more health complications, which inevitably leads to a total breakdown in our bodies. Thus disease can be traced to poor food selection!
If you’ve read “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration” by Weston Price, you probably know about his research and analysis of primitive tribes and populations with healthy teeth as compared to those with decayed teeth. To sum it up, his research concluded that poor dietary choices are the cause of physical degeneration. As stated in his book: “…real food has lost its meaning and value. Rather, 500 calories of the modern diet comes from sweets and chocolate which are low in fat-soluble vitamins and minerals. These products replaced cheese and milk which where dense sources of fat-soluble vitamins and minerals.”
Another change in our diets, which probably led to the decaying process, is the preponderance of grains in our daily diet. If you’ve read “Wheat Belly”, you are probably aware that modern grains have nothing to do with grains from fifty years ago. Modern grains are full of anti-nutrients- starting from phytic acid (the phosphorus storing form of plants), lectins, gluten and so forth. These anti-nutrients lead to either intestinal irritation, inflammation or bind with minerals, which are essential for our health and thus rob our body from food.
Dentist Ralph Steinman discovered that our teeth’s ability to remineralize is based upon the regulating action of the largest salivary glands, the parotid glands. Located near the inside of our jaw bone, the parotid glands regulate the activity of the nutrient-rich dentinal fluid. The signal to the parotid glands comes from the regulating center of the brain, the hypothalamus. When the tooth fluid flow is reversed due to a signal from the parotid glands (as a result of a poor diet or otherwise), food debris, saliva and other matter are pulled into the tooth through the dentinal tubules. When this happens over time, the pulp becomes inflamed and tooth decay spreads to the enamel. Dr. Steinman identified the loss of certain key minerals in this process of tooth decay. These are magnesium, copper, iron and manganese, all of which are active in cellular metabolism and necessary for the energy-production that allows the cleansing flow of the fluid through dentin tubules.
So what is the main point in this discussion? Phytic acid, the anti-nutrient in grains, beans and nuts has the potential to block the absorption of each one of these vital tooth building minerals. It turns out that food is way more important than you thought and that your daily choices either treat disease or feed it. Our modern diet lacks fat-soluble vitamins and foods that are rich in the nutrients needed for our body to function properly; instead, these foods are substituted with processed foods, heavy carbohydrates and grains, which have a negative consequence on our body’s ability to repair and sustain health.
If you want to restore your health, you can certainly do it through persistence and better food choices. Our society needs to ditch the crappy foods bought from the supermarket and start eating real food. All the nutrients needed for our health can be found in organ meats, mineral rich bone broths and stocks prepared from fish and shellfish. We need to start consuming more butter, eggs, and homemade dairy products from grass fed animal sources.
Unfortunately, our modern society has given up nutrient rich foods – and has thus voluntarily given up its health – and replaced these nutritious foods with crappy, processed alternatives. The result is that we have compromised our health with a variety of diseases that rob us from the opportunity to enjoy what nature has given us – a healthy, strong and athletic body, capable of enduring great physical feats.
Our food is a potentially powerful tool that can restore and maintain the most valuable thing in life – our health, yet we’ve voluntarily given up our health by adhering to useless fads and poor choices.
Rethink your food and I promise you that you will rethink your life!
Resources:
1. Roggenkamp, Clyde L., and John Leonora. “Foreward.” Dentinal Fluid Transport : Publications of Drs. Ralph Steinman and John Leonora. Loma Linda, CA: Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, 2004. XIV. Print.”
2. Page, M. Abrams, L. Your Body is Your Best Doctor. New Canaan: Keats Publishing Inc.;1972:
3.Wheat Belly, William Davis
4.Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food, Catherine Shanahan
5. Cure Tooth Decay, Ramiel Nagel
6. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Weston Price
