Eternal Cheesecake

Why don’t dentists tell the truth about how teeth will heal themselves? If you know exactly why teeth get cavities (it’s not sugar), and you know how to support the remineralization of the tooth structure, then you get to keep your teeth forever. So why, why, why? aren’t they telling us? I think it’s because they don’t want to know. Or it’s too empowering for their clients.

Anyway, this thought stream came out of a short conversation with a friend. She said, ”well, my cavity didn’t heal itself.” And yeah, from what I’m learning, cavities won’t heal themselves if the conditions that created them are still present.

The truth is…. what?

It’s just germs that cause cavities, not sugar, and the specific germs are called Streptococcus mutans and Lactobacillus acidophilus.

If a dentist doesn’t help you to understand the root issue, help you to minimize the germ colonies, help you to understand how to remineralize the tooth, then yeah, cavities will grow and the dentist will take the easy, expedient way out and fill the cavity. They also make a nice profit from it, so why would they want to change their mental model when doing so would be more work for them? Not to mention have to swim upstream against the common “wisdom” of dentistry?

The truth is is that teeth are living, evolving material and cavities and other bone issues can heal themselves completely if you know how to do it. It’s not hard to learn. Just different.

I want my teeth, dammit!

It’s too bad my young friend had to go through the ordeal of having a cavity filled. I’ve had enough cavities filled and now I’m saying, “enough” and educating myself. But that’s just where I’m at.

I’m learning all this from the life’s work of a forward-looking doctor named Dr. Nara and an e-book I bought at http://mizar5.com/. More people need to find this stuff. It’s clear and conscious and backed by years of research. The website may look like ass, but don’t let that turn you off; the e-books are solid.

My favorite grocery store, Capers in Kitsilano, recently did something that made me take notice: they posted big signs that listed the nutrient density of various foods. So for example, you could see what foods would give you the most powerhouse bang for the buck. The amazing thing is that those foods don’t have the highest profit margins. How odd.

Turns out they took the list from one of my more respected health people, Dr. Fuhrman. You can find that list on this page.

A few things are interesting to me about what’s on it. First is that kale is at the absolute top in terms of nutrients. It ranks at 1,000 out of 1,000 points. This doesn’t surprise me as I’ve intuitively felt to include kale in my daily diet as the main greens in my salads; I just feel good eating them.

The other thing is that the list doesn’t care about arbitrary distinctions like veganism or not–just the nutrient scores. So I can know that eggs are at 27 on a scale of 1,000 points. I was surprised that nuts and beans scored relatively low, like walnuts at 34 out of 1,000. But that’s still double than Swiss Cheese at 15.

The only thing that I’m curious about is what score hemp hearts are because they’re so packed with proteins, essential fatty acids, carbs and fiber.

Well, check out Dr. Fuhrman’s nutrient score list; it’s fascinating!