Tooth Decay In Early Childhood – Nutritional Deficiency?

Our modern diet, devoid of almost all life giving nutrients, contributes greatly to a variety of modern ills, including Early Childhood Tooth Decay. Using a nutritional treatment based on the wisdom of our ancestors I was able to greatly slow my young daughter’s tooth decay. This nutritional treatment benefits not only the child’s teeth, but their entire being.

Dr. Weston Price was a dentist who traveled around the world in the 1930’s studying the diets of primitive peoples isolated from the modern world. Isolated primitive people never ate modern food and rarely got tooth decay. Dr. Price particularly noted the “magnificent dental arches and beautiful teeth”1 of the Australian Aborigines. “Wherever the primitive Aborigines have been placed in reservations and fed on the white mans foods of commerce dental caries has become rampant. This destroys their beauty, prevents mastication, and provides infection for seriously injuring their bodies.”2 The disparity of the near perfect teeth from the Aborigines eating their natural fair, and the severely decayed teeth from Aborigines eating the white man’s food is due largely to a deficiency in nutrients. Dr. Price found that primitive people on average enjoyed four to ten times more nutrients in their foods than what the United States government recommends its citizens to eat.3 In eating sub-standard foods, a vast majority of the American population is far below the inferior US recommended daily allowance (RDA) for nutrients.4 Here is an example: On average, women between ages 19-50 are 90% below the RDA for Vitamin E. In observing the effects of our modern diet on various groups of people Dr. Price commented, “The rapid degeneration of the Australian Aborigines after the adoption of the government’s modern foods provides a demonstration that should be infinitely more convincing than animal experimentation. It should be a matter not only of concern but deep alarm that human beings can degenerate physically so rapidly by the use of a certain type of nutrition, particularly the dietary products used so generally by modern civilization.”5

Meanwhile in the West, we ignore the dire warning of Dr. Price, and instead emphasize eating for pleasure, or comfort, rather than for nutrition. The result is usually a diet high in processed foods, high in refined white sugar, and flours. The diet is equally low in animal fat, and low in important nutrient factors that men and women need to be healthy. Oddly, the way the West deals with this nutritional deficiency is to ignore it, or to prescribe medications or even surgery to treat people. The common belief system is to deny the nutritional factors during pregnancy by claiming problems passed down from mother to child are uncontrollable genetic inheritance. Corporations create their food to make a profit, so they rarely consider the health concerns of the consumers. The fact that the foods these corporations produce may be causing illness, or contributing towards ill health, is rarely discussed because the large corporations have their fingers on the means of communicating information towards the public. A corporation wants you to think and believe that their product will promote health or increase your well being, regardless of whether it is true or not. Meanwhile consumers tend to consume and buy food which is overly processed, and tainted with chemicals and additives unthinking of the real and tangible health consequences of consuming those foods.

The nutritional approach to health places the responsibility for health and well being of the mother and child on the parents. Many Western practitioners do not know, and are not taught that miscarriage, morning sickness and countless other pregnancy related problems are generally caused by too many toxins in the mother’s body. These toxics accumulate from the intake of modern adulterated foods, an unhealthy lifestyle6,7, and unfelt emotions like fear which can be dormant in the body’s nervous system. We do not hear that birth defects can be largely prevented through adequate nutrition. It is not profitable to those offering infertility products and treatments to share that infertility and hormonal imbalances are many times caused by a nutrient deficiency,. .

Childhood tooth decay is usually curable and naturally treatable as it results from a mismanagement of the environment. The current false disease mythology about tooth decay states: there is no cure to tooth decay, and that tooth decay is genetic or caused by malignant(bad) bacteria which feed off sugars and starches in people’s mouths. Other than cleaning teeth through brushing the only treatments for young children are dangerous chemicals like fluoride or costly and dangerous dental surgery. These treatments sometimes help, and it is also common that after these treatments for the tooth decay to return. The reason this happens is because conventional treatments address the symptoms of decay while ignoring the cause. Allowing such medical and dental procedures to be performed on young and vulnerable children, without first offering the knowledge of a safe, natural and harmless approach is wrong and unfounded. Many times bacteria’s are not the cause of tooth decay, but rather proliferate when the internal ecosystem of the body is not well.

Deficiency and Toxic Build up:

Toxins in the body can decrease the body’s ability to absorb nutrients by up to 90%.8 Cleansing, can increase the bodies ability to absorb food. During pregnancy nature must cleanse the mother’s body of toxins to make the womb a healthy environment for the child. Accumulated toxins from an imbalanced lifestyle is often the cause of morning sickness. A woman can fast before pregnancy in an effort to cleanse her intestines and her glandular system which includes the liver, adrenal glands, and ovaries. For a mother who is currently breastfeeding or pregnant, fasting can be unhealthy. Another approach is to gradually cleanse the body of toxins through a natural and clean diet. Large amounts of vegetable soup called Bieler’s Broth is especially helpful to aide this process. You can make a soup, consisting of organic dark leafy green vegetables, zucchini, string beans, celery and carrots. Of vital importance in aiding the cleansing and rebalancing of the body functions is to consume food and beverages that are fermented or lacto-fermented, several times per day. Such fermented foods include: carrots, cabbage (sauerkraut), potatoes, and radishes. It is also important to consume fermented beverages such as rejuvelac (made from fermented wheat), kombucha, and beet kvass. Through years of consuming modern foods, our livers begin to dysfunction. Most of us have a large and negative accumulation of plaque in our colons, and stagnant bile in our livers. Furthermore many childhood diseases, like colic, can be caused either in the womb or after birth, from a lack of nutrients, or too many toxins in the babies system “inherited” from the mother’s blood stream.

How tooth Decay Happens

Pregnant and breastfeeding mothers have nutrient requirements, which far exceed the needs of a normal adult. During the crucial early years of life, when faced with a lack of nutrients, the growing child’s body, in its wisdom must cannibalize itself to provide vital organs with essential nutrients.. The body begins this process by sacrificing the least vital part first – the teeth.

Tooth decay is caused by a deficiency of nutrients needed to build healthy teeth. “Daily, the calcium and phosphate of the enamel is migrating out of the teeth to the bones, heart, brain and other places where it is needed. Dentists call this demineralisation.”9 Sugar, which has been processed in some manner, encourages calcium to be pulled away from the bones, and therefore it is not a direct cause of tooth decay10. Rather it causes an increased amount of nutrient deficiency which the body then tries to correct through pulling nutrient reserves out of the teeth.

“Nearly all tooth decay comes from the blood stream, saliva, and the inside of the teeth, not only from the external surface.”11 Conversely, teeth will remineralise when the blood stream, saliva, and internal tooth structures regain their health. This happens when nutrients are available and when toxins have been eliminated. “I feel perfectly confident that both inside the tooth and outside on the surface new construction is occurring constantly, even if at a slow rate.”12

Tooth Decay begins as a deficiency in the mother and father before the child is conceived. Deficiency begins many generations back, each successive generation becoming weaker and weaker through an improper diet.13 The child’s first teeth are formed in the womb of the mother. The father’s sperm are also a vital contributor to the overall health of the child.

The importance of breastfeeding has been greatly under stated in the West. During breastfeeding the mother passes vital nutrients to her child. Breastfeeding is also a source of warmth and physical and emotional contact for the child. Breastfeeding should be carried on as long as the child desires. The actual length of time for breastfeeding differs for each child. What is important is for the mother to honor, allow and receive the instinctual needs of the child with the intention that the child feels complete in the bonding with the mother through breastfeeding. Breastfeeding is one of the main cures to childhood infant caries. Breast feeding DOES NOT CAUSE infant tooth decay – day or night..14 Millions of years of evolution designed the mother’s breast milk and the child’s teeth to be compatible. The idea that nursing or nighttime nursing causes tooth decay is based on the incorrect theory that teeth decay primary from the foods that contact the baby’s teeth. From the perspective of nutrition , breastfeeding is a vital source of nutrients, health, vitality, warmth, nurturance and contact. A child who breastfeeds may still have decayed teeth however due to a weak digestion that hinders nutrition absorption or inadequate nutrients in the mothers milk.. These nutrients can be replenished gradually through a proper diet. The cure to tooth decay begins with breastfeeding. If a child has tooth decay, then a review of the mother’s diet will likely reveal a deficiency of nutrients. Mothers breast milk is the easiest form of nutrients for a child to absorb. The first step towards healing tooth decay is to modify the Mothers diet to increase the amount of nutrients in her body. In doing so, breast milk becomes the most important vitamin and antidote to support the health and happiness of your child.

As revealed in “Nourishing Tradition’s” many modern foods actually rob the body of the vital nutrients, instead of fulfilling the bodies nutrient needs. Even many organically labeled foods are unhealthy because even these foods do not contain highly absorbable nutrients. Whilst it is beneficial to purchase organic products whenever you can, it is important not to assume that they are giving you all the nutrients that you need. Many organic foods, have been processed and do not have some of nature’s delicate nutrients intact. Particular food hazards to avoid are pasteurised milk including organic, and all processed grain products such as cereals, buscuits, crackers. Meanwhile, grass fed raw milk, and grains that have been freshly ground at home and soaked or fermented in an acidic medium are extremely life giving and contain vital nutrients.

Sub-Standard Foods To Avoid which deplete the Mother and Child of nutrients include:

White Sugar, evaporated Cane Juice, Corn Syrup, and Organic Cane Sugar

Dr. Melvin Page, a Florida dentist demonstrated in numerous studies that sugar consumption causes calcium in the blood to rise because the calcium is pulled from the teeth and bones. “Thus, sugar consumption causes tooth decay not because it promotes bacterial growth in the mouth, as most dentist believe, but because it alters the internal body chemistry.” 15 White Sugar has had all its main nutrients removed.16

White Flour and Flour products including Organic Whole Wheat Flour-.
“[I]n the production of refined white flour approximately eighty percent or four-fifths of the phosphorous and calcium content are usually removed, together with the vitamins and minerals provided in the embryo or germ. The evidence indicates that a very important factor in the lowering of the reproductive efficiency of womanhood is directly related to the removal of vitamin E in the processing of wheat.”17

Non-Pasture Fed Meat & Eggs –
The meat, milk, and eggs in our supermarkets are highly contaminated and vastly inferior in nutritional quality to grass fed, pastured meat and eggs. A renowned cancer specialist showed that many of these animal products are cancerous, and that the cancer can be transmissible to humans. 18

Low cost Vegetable Oils such as soy, corn, cottonseed, canola, safflower
Of all substances ingested by the body, it is polyunsaturated oils that are rendered most dangerous by food processing, especially unstable omega-3 linolenic acid.19 “High temperature processing causes the weak carbon bonds of unsaturated fatty acids, especially triple unsaturated linolenic acid, to break apart, thereby creating dangerous free radicals.”20

Hydrogenated Oils such as Margarine–
“Most of these man-made trans fats are toxins to the body, but unfortunately your digestive system does not recognize them as such. Instead of eliminating them, your body incorporates trans fats into the cell membranes as though they were cis fats – your cells actually become partially hydrogenated! Once in place, trans fatty acids wreak havoc with cell metabolism…”21

Iodized Salt

Normal table salt is highly refined and is the product of a chemical and high temperature industrial process.22 This turns it into a poison to our bodies.

Pasteurised Milk including Organic& Powdered Milk
The milk sold in the supermarket is bad for everybody. The modern milk cow is a mutant cow selectively bred to produce three to four times as much milk as a standard cow. Some studies link pasteurised milk consumption with cancer.23

Soy Milk, Soy Meat, Soy Protein, Soy Formula and Tofu
Soy protein powder is high in mineral-blocking phytates, thyroid depressing phytoestrogens and potent enzyme inhibitors that depress growth and cause cancer. Phytates are substances that block the absorption of minerals in the body. 24

Unsoaked Grains and Nuts, including Cereal, Granola, Peanut Butter, Bread, and Pasta, Cracker’s and Buscuits
Phosphorus in the bran of whole grains is tied up in a substance called phytic acid. Phytic acid combines with iron, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc in the intestinal tract, blocking their absorption. Breakfast cereals can have adverse effects on blood sugar because they have been processed at high temperatures and pressures to make their shapes. 25

Also avoid
Dried fruit, fruit juice, store bought baby food (even organic) and the consumption of caffeine. Make baby food fresh at home. It is also important to cleanse the mouth by drinking water after eating acidic foods like lemon’s. “The thing most people don’t know is that [acids] also dissolve the teeth and bones.”26

The Cure that works!

In addition to avoiding toxic foods, mother and child should consume only whole unadulterated foods, properly prepared, without exception! When both the breastfeeding mother and the young child consume high nutrient foods, a powerful force is created to stop decaying teeth.

The key foods which supported a higher level of nutrition for my wife and daughter are: Organic dark leafy green vegetables, like Kale consumed up to three times per day (steamed/boiled, then blended with the liquid ingested as well), naturally dehydrated Kombu (and other seaweeds) high in trace minerals, ½ tsp Activator X High Vitamin Butter Oil27 mixed with ½ tsp High Vitamin Cod Liver Oil 28 (Use less for a child below 8 months of age). It is important to consult your health care provider as to the appropriate amounts of Butter Oil and Cod Liver oil for your child. Too much of these substances can be dangerous as they have very high levels of fat soluble vitamins. Extra care should be used with children under two years of age.

Mother’s and pregnant women also need to eat foods high in Activator X which is a special vitamin like substance. Dr. Price discovered that this vitamin promotes nutrient absorption, creates well formed bones, and prevents tooth decay. High Activator X foods needs to be consumed daily before pregnancy, during pregnancy, and during breastfeeding. Activator X is a key nutrient which gave health to our primitive ancestors, which prevents and stops teeth from decaying, and helps nature create well formed bones. When children begin to eat they can be fed high Activator X foods. Foods high in Activator X also are foods that have a high fat content. Because of the physical demands of pregnancy and breastfeeding it is essential for mother’s to eat a diet high in fat provided that the fat comes from pasture raised happy animals who eat grass. Advice to eat a low fat diet and avoid cholesterol, for most people is not only scientifically unfounded, it is a guideline for, “converting healthy people into patients.”29

High Activator X foods:

• Raw Butter (about 4 tablespoons daily), Milk, Cream and Cheese from cows or goats grazing on grass, especially good during the Spring and Autumn when the grass is fast growing
• Organ meats and bone marrow from pasture fed animals including liver, kidney, and heart
• Farm raised eggs, especially the yolks
• Oily fish or lard daily, like salmon, sardines, herring, mackerel and anchovies

Fish eggs; high quality fish liver oils, fish organs; shellfish, and wild crab

Additional foods that replenish nutrients are:
Organic and raw yogurt, and kefir, lacto-fermented foods and beverages to enhance digestion and assimilation, bone broths such as fish or chicken soup broth, fresh or cooked fruits, soaked, and sprouted nuts finely ground, extra virgin coconut oil, raw honey (children must be over one year), sprouted/ fermented grains, freshly ground at home, especially quinoa (for mother’s only as young children do not absorb grains well), and herbs including horsetail, lemon grass, red raspberry leaf, nettle’s, lemon balm, rose hips, and cinnamon.

A sample Dinner Dr. Price recommends would be beef stew made from bone marrow bones, tender cuts of meat and lots of organic veggies including carrots. Biscuits, from freshly ground grains soaked overnight in buttermilk, lathered with raw butter, and two cups of raw milk. A sample breakfast may include pasture raised uncured bacon (no nitrates), two eggs, a small serving of fresh beef liver and homemade buttermilk pancakes with freshly ground and soaked flour lathered with butter, and one cup of raw milk. Eat meals like that two to three times daily, and a gentle calmness of satisfaction will flower over you. If you have severe mood swings, then it could be a nutrient deficiency, the solution, more raw milk, more raw butter, more natural pork.

Proper care of teeth

As a secondary measure to diet, brush the child’s teeth often as soon as they erupt. Brushing teeth seems to aid in the process of the body creating a healthy ecosystem in the mouth. Do not use fluoride, drink fluoridated water or give your child fluoride treatments. While fluoride may have some short term benefits, fluoride changes the chemical structure of the tooth making it extra brittle and destroys the body’s organs, including the liver. Fluoride is highly poisonous and most tubes of fluoride toothpaste contain a lethal dose of fluoride. Fluoridated water has been linked to cancer.30 Instead of toothpaste use tooth powder, tooth herbs, or sea salt with natural baking soda. Or you can use a combination of all three to brush your child’s teeth. Avoid the use of regular tooth paste as it contains glycerin which coats the teeth and can prevent the teeth from remineralising. Herbal mouthwashes or herbal gum treatments can be helpful, provided they are not swallowed.

Conclusion

Contrary to the common belief systems, which avoid knowing the cause of tooth decay, the cause and cure of tooth decay are environmental. The conventional treatment of childhood tooth decay and dental surgery does not cure decayed teeth, but merely treats a symptom of a nutrient deficiency. A mother who avoids toxic foods and eats a diet of nutrient dense high fat and whole foods during pregnancy, can expect significant health benefits; prevention of tooth decay, a higher chance for a healthy birth and a lower chance for birth defects.31 Continue this diet forth religiously, and your child may never need to see a dentist, and his teeth should come in straight. His face will be well proportioned, his body vibrantly energised and he will have a high resistance to disease. When both a breastfeeding mother, and a young child eat foods rich in absorbable nutrients, the tooth decay will most likely slow down or even stop. Rebuilding bones can take up to one year, so do not expect immediate results from increased nutrients other than a more fulfilled, happier, and a more peaceful child that has a good temperament and a high level of intelligence. 32