Aren't you glad that I have the habit of obsessively researching something before I bring you my conclusions?
I'M SO EXCITED TO BRING YOU THIS BLOGPOST!!!!
So, if you have read my previous posts then you know I've been spending the last three months of my life trying to learn everything I could about oral health and homeostasis (perfect balance in the human body). Since my daughter's first few teeth erupted and showed translucency, I knew something about our diet/lifestyle was insufficient at supplying the minerals necessary for strong, hard teeth.
Since then I've been working on giving my family healthy bodies (including myself) through diet. Essentially PREVENTING illness of all sorts by making our bodies strong in the first place.
SO, first things first, how does one find homeostasis? The most important part of achieving homeostasis is pH. A body's perfect pH is 7.45, slightly more alkaline than acid on the 0-14pH scale. Two easy ways to figure out what kind of body you have are either to pH test your saliva first thing in the morning (the test strips are fairly cheap on Amazon). OR, review your oral health. If you have the kind of mouth that contains teeth that are sensitive, have thin enamel, get cavities/caries fairly easily, or EVER contains bad breath or candida/thrush, you have an acid body. If you have the kind of mouth that rarely-if-ever has bad breath, rarely gets cavities or only the deep-crevice cavities, not surface ones, and gets tartar buildup frequently, you have an alkaline body. Neither of these are ideal (of course. We're trying to reach homeostasis, remember?). It's easy to see what kind of body I have. My teeth are sensitive, my cavities/caries are always surface, not deep-crevice, and I've battled one form or another of fungal infections (yeast infections, thrush, candida) all of my life. A high-acid body. Simple enough.
This is the most thorough list of alkalizing/acidifying foods I've ever seen. It's easy to use to change your diet to balance your body.
http://www.healingcancernaturally.com/acid-alkaline-food-table.html
Okay, here are my other tips for tooth remineralization and oral health, I 100% GUARANTEE these simple tips will improve your overall oral health. I know they will because I have experienced PERSONALLY the improvement. I realize I promised the photo evidence of said change, but I can't load photos with my iPad, which is what I'm writing this with, so that will be a separate post. Thanks for your patience.
These tips will not only help with oral health and remineralization, but help reach homeostasis in other ways too, like losing weight, and removing toxins from the body.
First, a fantastic website, read every article! You'll love it!
www.healingteethnaturally.com
1) ALWAYS, no never, no ALWAYS rinse out your mouth after eating or drinking ANYTHING that isn't water. Leaving food residue in your mouth feeds bacteria, which produces acid as a by-product. Acid weakens your enamel and causes caries. Sea salt water is best (1tsp sea salt dissolved in 1c water) is best, but plain ol' water is fine too. And along this same line of thought, only brush your teeth once a day! This is especially important if you have thin enamel. If it's too gross and you can't stand it, the second time you brush use plain water, NO TOOTHPASTE! Besides, you shouldn't be using toothpaste anyway. WHAT?! No toothpaste?! Yeah, I use Vicco tooth powder. It's from India. I FREAKING LOVE IT!!!! It completely takes away the sensitivity.
2) End every single meal with a HARD, high-fiber vegitable or fruit. Carrots, celery, or apples are great. We generally use carrots. The exercise of chewing these hard vegitables strengthen your teeth, gums and jaws, much like walking exercises your body and strengthens your bones. In addition, these vegitables help to alkalize the body, and get your saliva flowing, another important element in oral health.
3) Start your day drinking one full glass of water, and sip more water throughout the day, ESPECIALLY if you have a dry mouth. Saliva is absolutely ESSENTIAL to remineralization, it is the solution that carries minerals to your teeth on the outside (as opposed to your blood, which carries minerals to your teeth on the inside through the pulp). And if you are a mouth breathing type sleeper, invest in some dork-strips so you can sleep with your mouth closed, it will make a HUGE difference in your oral health.
4) Create for yourself a diet that encourages remineralization. You can do this by making sure that your total GRAIN consumption of ANY sort is 10% OR LESS of your diet. Each and every person's body is different, and use grains differently. Each person's body is sensitive to grains at different levels. If you are the type of person that has symptoms of hypoglycemia, or deals frequently with fungal infections of any sort, you are probably more sensitive and should eat even fewer grains than 10%. You'll know pretty quickly after the grain-reduction if that's how you are, because you'll start feeling better within a week or so. There are so many reasons why this tip will help you!!! Not only does your body break down most grains, turning them into sugar and acidifying your body, but they all (or most) contain phytic acid, a chelating element that steals your minerals, especially iron, calcium and phosphorus. Please notice, here that I said GRAINS, and not CARBOHYDRATES. The problem with a diet like the Adkin's diet is that your body absolutely NEEDS sugar and complex carbohydrates for fuel! Some examples of good complex carbohydrates are TUBERS! Which is to say, potatoes. Potatoes of every sort, the more colorful the better, are so good! And there are so many varieties available to us these days. Dark purple, red, yellow, and sweet potatoes are all fabulous.
5) Don't consume pre-processed foods! This is a big one, I know, because who has time these days to cook everything from scratch?? Let me tell ya though, if you believe the B vitamins in whole grain bread are necessary to your body (and they are), but you don't want that ol' phytic acid to steal away your minerals, the easiest way achieve both is baking your own bread. Here is the recipe I use, only I always use bread flour crossed with buckwheat flour.
http://simplysogood.blogspot.in/2010/03/crusty-bread.html
The long proofing time causes the phytic acid to break up, but retains the vitamins. All grains benefit from overnight proofing or soaking. Oatmeals that you soak overnight before or instead of cooking are healthier than oatmeals you just cook. Breads/rolls/tortillas that you proof overnight (or the longer the better) will be healthier than ones you use more yeast in, but don't proof as long.
6) Take a high vitamin butter oil/cod liver oil supplement. Fermented is better. They contain lots of vitamin D (of several varieties) in addition to vitamin K2, a vitamin ESSENTIAL for proper absorption of calcium. Another good indicator of poor calcium absorption is unexplained TIREDNESS. If you aren't anemic, and have been getting enough water and sleep, but still find yourself more tired than not, you might have a calcium problem. Calcium is essential for your body to get oxygen to your cells. Which brings me to #7.
7) ALWAYS make sure you take in your calcium with meals! Never just chug a glass of milk or just take a calcium supplement with water. Your stomach acid must be active to break it down, absorb it from your food and get it into your body. And part two of this calcium intake tip is keep your dairy products RAW or FERMENTED. Raw milk, goats milk, buttermilk, kefir and yogurt are good examples.
8) Eat organic, non-GMO or home-grown foods. Why? Because these unaltered foods contain more vitamins and minerals, straight up. And that's besides them just plain tasting better.
9) EAT GOOD FATS!!! This low-fat high-grain diet America has been encouraging is killing us all. Anybody ever wonder why, if that stupid diet advice were sound, America is fatter, and more sick than its ever been? I don't buy that it's because things are better diagnosed than a hundred years ago. I'm sure things are easier to diagnose, medicine has changed significantly since a hundred years ago, but I certainly don't think that's the whole story. Our health is poorer, even if we are living longer, thanks to those great changes in medicine. I really could go on and on about that and offend lots of people, but I'll just leave that dead dog lyin' there.
10) And last of all, though certainly not least important, take a trace mineral supplement. Because most of our foods these days have been altered in some way, usually to make them more disease resistant, or richer in color, or to enhance a certain taste, or they're cooked beyond all recognition, they don't contain as many vitamins and minerals as they used to. EVERYTHING we eat is... Weaker. Less nourishing. So we either need more of it, which, less face it, I'm pretty sure America doesn't need to consume MORE food, or we need to replace what we're missing out on.
Oh man! I hope this is helpful to you all! I wish you each GOOD HEALTH!!
Here's my reading list on the subject. Hahaha, they're all over the place as far as PURPOSE, but the information is good!
Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, by Weston A. Price.
Eat fat, lose weight: the right fats can make you thin for life! By Ann Louise Gittleman.
Cure Tooth Decay, by Ramiel Nagel.
The Maker's Diet, by Jordan S. Rubin.
