Nutrition and Dental Health

Most of us are born with a perfect genetic blueprint. If we give the right nutrients during our lifetime to our body, then the genetic expression will be perfect. If our food is deficient in nutrients, then our body will try to adapt to a poor diet, we still survive, but develop chronic diseases. The genetic expression depends on the building material we provide to our body. As we age, genetics play less and less role in the development of chronic diseases, meanwhile nutrition and lifestyle become more and more important.

Sacred foods:
All populations around the world had one or more sacred foods. Weston Price describes in detail the dietary habits of isolated populations in his book: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. The common characteristic of these sacred foods was that they were all fatty foods from animals. No isolated populations chose to be vegetarian for health reasons (in India, vegetarianism developed for religious reasons). Native populations knew that for optimal health, human beings especially children and pregnant and lactating women, need very special foods with extra nutrients. These foods were mainly organ meat rather than muscle meat.

A few example of sacred foods in traditional diets:
In the 1930s, Dr Price visited the Gaelics living on the small islands of the Outer Hebrides (Scotland). These were windswept islands, so no trees were growing there (they've never seen an apple!) and they were completely isolated from the "foods of commerce". They consumed oat, almost the only plant food growing in their environment, completed with a lot of fish and seafood. Their most nutritious food was "baked cod's head stuffed with chopped cod's liver and oatmeal". They were very healthy, without dental deformities or cavities.

Among the isolated Swiss, the sacred food was a special type of butter, almost orange in color (it is a sign of a high vitamin A content). This butter was obtained from animals grazing on the first grass in the spring.

Among the Alaskan people, Dr Price found a high degree of physical perfection, broad facial structure, sturdy, children were curious and alert. Seal oil, wild game and sea mammals were the main source of calories, they never ate lean meat. Their treasured food was salmon roe, very rich in cholesterol and vitamins.

The South Sea Islanders when living in isolation, Dr Price noted that they all looked like brothers and sisters, even if they were not related, they all had an optimal expression of their genes. Their most nutritious food was shark liver and shark oil, very important for fertility and growth.

What our teeth tell us about overall health:
When the teeth are straight, facial structures broad (result of good nutrition), there is plenty of room for the brain, the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus to develop to their full size. The hypothalamus is the center of impulse control. With a narrow facial structure, the different parts of the brain could not develop fully. This is why today, there are more and more children who have no impulse control. Insulin secretion is also regulated by the hypothalamus. If the hypothalamus is suppressed by too little room in the skull, insulin secretion will be compromised, this in turn may results in childhood obesity among other health problems.

When the teeth are healthy, it is also a sign of good skeletal development, round pelvic opening resulting in easy childbirth. More and more women today, have very narrow pelvic opening, they are not be able to deliver their babies without Caesarean Section.

Healthy teeth also mean optimal function of all organs (eyes, ears, lungs etc.). Healthy people have keen eyesight and hearing. Today, more than half of us need glasses, we would not be able to survive in nature with our poor eyesight.

Dental health means optimistic outlook and easy learning. Healthy children are curious and happy, they seldom cry.

The first generation, after the parents switched to modern food, had more narrow faces and dental pallets which resulted in dental deformities (crowded teeth) and greater susceptibility to disease. Tooth decay usually followed, with signs of depression and modern health problems.

Below, you can see the difference between a "modern face" (left) and a normal facial development (right), although these children are from the same genetic stock. On the left, the jaws are narrow, leaving little space for the teeth to grow straight. On the right, we can see a perfect expression of the genes.

Wild animals do not need braces and dentists to correct their dental problems, they do not develop dental problems when they live on the diet they are adapted to. We are the same, as long as we eat the food designed for Homo Sapiens.