Raederle’s Teeth Remineralizing Masterclass — DIY Cavity Repair!
Do you prefer to learn from videos or from text? If you prefer video, click here for the video version of this masterclass. Refer back to this page for relevant links. Note that the video version breaks this page into seven lessons, and you need all of these for the best results. Teeth remineralization is complex!
This masterclass is filled with many people’s real life stories of how they healed their teeth, including my own story. If you’re ready to take control of your dental health and become empowered with the knowledge required to heal your teeth, you’re in the right place. This masterclass includes advice for omnivores, vegetarians and vegans. You don’t have to subscribe to any of these dietary choices specifically to succeed, but you will require more discipline as a vegan to get results because you will need to eat a lot of vegetables and cut out most seeds (especially grains, grain-like cereals such as quinoa, most nuts, and corn).
Dietary Adjustments,Supplementation & DosagesFor Healing Cavities
The following bullet points are what you need daily for surefire, fast, bone regeneration.
Hygiene Adjustments For Healing Cavities
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Lesson 1Lesson 2Lesson 3Lesson 4Lesson 5Lesson 6Lesson 7 |
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Seasonal Changes |
Humans are not meant to sustain a single diet all year round, year after year. Fruits and vegetables come in and out of season. Animals produce more vitamin-rich dairy and more volume in the summertime. Seeds are mostly available in the autumn. In a nomadic culture we would not only be shifting our diets with the season, but with the locations we traveled through.
Our dietary choices are meant to shift, and these shifts are meant to be driven both by environmental changes and internal changes. Our cravings are meant to shift as our needs shift. Our minds are designed to reinterpret foods as “tasting great” when we need them desperately and as “tasting bland” when we don’t need them.
I’m not going to explain how far we are from our intuitive ancestors and why at this time. If you want a great read on how we got here, read Ishmael, or watch my video Returning Humanity to Sanity: Evolution versus Change which discusses the concepts in Ishmael and how these same concepts show up in several other incredible books.
We’re going to talk about healing cavities by remineralizing your teeth. But before we get any further into that, I just wanted you to know that the outlined dietary protocols in this masterclass are for healing your cavities. Once your cavities are healed, you shouldn’t feel stuck following all these protocols for life. If you’re struggling with cancer, obesity, flora imbalance or digestive issues, then some of these suggestions will not be optimal for you.
Here are a few examples:
If you’re battling cancer, I recommend a raw vegan diet made up primarily of vegetable juice with a tiny bit of added flax oil to assist nutrient uptake.
If you’re struggling with a flora imbalance (such as candida), I recommend doing my Flora Flush cleanse before embarking on the outlined diet for healing your cavities. You can find the details of the Flora Flush cleanse in my book, Appliance-Free, 5-Minute Revitalizing Recipes.
If you have serious digestive issues, start by reading this article, or listening to my podcast called, Stopping Acid Reflux & Healing Your Digestive System.
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Salivary Glands |
Salivary glands are critical to dental health because they are responsible for bringing mineral-rich lymph fluid into your teeth.
If you have any soreness beneath the gumline or near the ears, then you likely have inflammatory activity in your salivary (parotid) glands. This area becomes clogged, inflamed, and sore when you have a virus, cold, abscessed tooth, gum infection, sore throat, thyroid dysfunction, or acute tension in the neck muscles. Buildup in this area due to one thing (such as a gum infection) can lead to other things on the same list (such as a sore throat or acute neck tension). Another sign of lymphatic buildup in the region is acne along the jawline, especially persistent acne that recurs over months or years.
Getting large doses of retinol (which is known as “preformed vitamin A” in science) and vitamin D daily, combined with enough iodine, selenium, and zinc will help your salivary glands, but for most people this won't be enough to clear the blockages in the area.
The following protocol is especially for you if your salivary glands are regularly sore, or if you get a sore throat easily and frequently.
- 1 grapefruit daily (either as wedges or eaten with a grapefruit spoon; not as juice)
- External application to the area (your jaw, throat and around your ears) of lemon juice, apple cider vinegar and/or castor oil daily
- 1 drop oregano oil in your coconut oil when oil-pulling once or twice per week
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Retinol — Pre-Formed Vitamin A |
“Vitamin A keeps us from getting sick; it keeps our immune system from overreacting; it is necessary for growth and reproduction. We need vitamin A for building bones and teeth, and for the actions of our hormones. These are major roles, ones we’ve known about for a very long time, but there are others.“How does vitamin A do so much? It regulates the action of over five hundred genes in the body, which makes it a major regulator of all of our cells and how they function. Starting at conception vitamin A orchestrates the proper division and differentiation of every cell in the body. When cells differentiate properly, they are doing what they are supposed to do. You might say that vitamin A keeps our cells ‘behaving.’“How does vitamin A influence our genes? It works through something called nuclear hormone receptors — more precisely, retinoic acid receptors and retinoid X receptors. These receptors travel in the nucleus of the cell, binding and forming combinations with each other and with other compounds, like vitamin D and thyroid hormones. These receptors act to influence the action of our genes, which then influence which proteins are made, and ultimately, our whole metabolism.“By the way, every time we use a vitamin D molecule in the body, we use a vitamin A molecule also. That is why we must always think of these two nutrients together.”— Pamela Schoenfeld, RD, LDN
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Retinol Sources For Your Bone Health |
- Cod liver oil
- High vitamin butter oil (from A2-casein animals that have grazed on green grass for at least 26 days)
- Raw* dairy products from A2-casein sources. (*Never heated above 120ºF.)
If you’re vegan and do not wish to compromise your vegan path, you will be relying on your body’s ability to convert beta-carotene and other carotenoids into retinol. The average person converts about one twelfth of their beta-carotene into retinol. Depending on your genetics and overall health, you may be converting as little as one twenty-fifth. High sources include leafy greens, carrot juice, sweet potatoes, goji berries and colorful bell peppers. For a full chart about vegan sources of beta-carotene, check out my book: The Ultimate Nutrition Reference.
If you’re a vegan and you’re working on healing your cavities and/or salivary glands, you should consume at least two items on the following list each day with one to two tablespoons of cold-pressed flax oil or ice-pressed olive oil to flood your blood with carotenoids. High-quality fat is essential for the uptake of beta-carotene and its conversion to retinol. Add this oil directly to your salad or juice. If you have digestive problems, I recommend leaving out the sweet potatoes and goji berries. Instead, go for the juice and salad. You can also add other orange and red fruits and vegetables to your diet, as all of them will have some carotenoids. Just go easy on the nightshades (tomatoes, peppers, goji berries, potatoes and eggplants) as these foods contain lectins that commonly contribute to causing leaky gut.
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Carotene Protocol for Vegans – Consume two of the following daily |
- 1 quart carrot juice (180,000 IU beta-carotene = 15,000 IU for good converters, or 7,200 IU for poor converters)
- ½ cup dried goji berries or goji berry juice (12,000 IU beta-carotene = 1,000 IU for good converters, or 480 IU for poor converters)
- 2 cups cooked, mashed, bright orange sweet potatoes (103,000 IU beta-carotene = 8,500 IU for good converters, or 4,120 IU for poor converters)
- A large salad containing at least 2 cups of shredded kale or dandelions and 4 cups shredded lettuce or spinach (20,000 IU beta-carotene = 1,600 IU for good converters, or 800 IU for poor converters)
You can not overdose on carotenoids (unless you have some rare condition I’ve never heard of). It doesn’t matter if you plug in all the carrot juice you've been drinking into your nutrition software and it says you've had 150,000 IU of vitamin A, because you actually haven't; you've only consumed carotenoids, which your body will convert as it needs (if your body's ability to convert is not compromised).
If you're consuming animal products it is important to balance your vitamin A intake with your intake of vitamin D, C, E, iodine and selenium. If you do not have enough of these other vitamins, or you're not sure that you have enough, then stay under 10,000 IU on average, and generally stay under 50,000 IU in a single day. Aim for a minimum of 3,000 IU of retinol (preformed vitamin A) per day.
While working to start balancing my own diet for optimal teeth regeneration, I developed some joint pain which is a common symptom of retinol “overdose” (or more accurately, retinol imbalance). I had consumed around 12,000 IU in a single day. Overdose symptoms are usually a sign that you're not getting enough vitamin D. To illustrate how much overconsumption is not an issue when consuming these nutrients in balance, let me quote a man who wrote: “At 80,000 IU of vitamin A per day, my gum conditions cleared and have stayed clear. I haven't been to a dentist in twenty-one years or flossed my teeth in fifteen.”
I recommend getting at least 1,000 IU of vitamin D for every 4,000 IU of vitamin A. So if you're getting 20,000 IU of vitamin A per day, aim for 5,000 IU or more vitamin D each day.
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Vitamin D for Healing Cavities |
Before delving into vitamin D, I’d like to talk briefly about the word “vitamin.”
The term “vitamin” originated in 1912. It was derived from Latin terms for life and amino acids. At the time it was thought that all vitamins would contain amino acids, but as more were discovered, this was not the case. Today, vitamin roughly translates into “vital substance.”
Different vitamins have very different properties.
- Vitamin C is water-soluble, whereas vitamin D is fat-soluble. Water-soluble vitamins can be absorbed even in the absence of fat, whereas fat-soluble vitamins require the presence of fat to be absorbed.
- Cobalt is the essential aspect of vitamin B12, yet cobalt itself is a mineral.
- The essential core of vitamin C is an enzyme.
- Many vitamins, including vitamins A and C are also antioxidants.
Vitamin D is actually a prohormone – a substance that your body converts into a hormone; it has a chemical structure similar to a steroid molecule.
Your body makes vitamin D in a chemical reaction that occurs when sunlight hits your skin. This reaction produces cholecalciferol, and the liver converts it to calcidiol. The kidneys then convert the substance to calcitriol, which is the active form of the hormone in the body.
Vitamin D is found in cholesterol and is similar to your adrenal and sex hormones. Vitamin D circulates in your blood and binds to receptors in order to evoke a variety of biologic actions.
Vitamin D causes calcium to be absorbed from your gut into your bloodstream. When vitamin D is not present, calcium is also not abundant and the hormones that stimulate bone production are not released.
Shary writes, “After suffering from low energy, musculoskeletal pain, poor balance, and depression, among other things, for a number of years, I began to feel better after taking large amounts of vitamin D. And I do mean significantly better, like the difference between night and day. Moreover it only took a few weeks of supplementation at 8,000 IU per day of D3.”
It is critical that you get enough vitamin D for the health of your bones. If you get hours of sunlight every day, then you probably will not need any vitamin D from your diet. Some doctors (such as Dr. Joseph Mercola) claim that just fifteen minutes of sun exposure each day is enough, but many people have found that this is not enough for them.
If you eat an omnivorous diet, that does not mean you are automatically getting enough vitamin D. It is critical that the animal foods you are eating come from healthy animals raised on an open pasture. Free-range eggs means “cage free” but the absence of cages usually means thousands of chickens crowded together in a barn, raised on a diet of GMO corn, GMO alfalfa, GMO soy and/or glyphosate-sprayed wheat. Eggs from these miserable chickens will not help your teeth or your overall health.
There has been an ongoing debate on exactly how much vitamin D is ideal for humans. Research has shown that people have very different uptake levels and few studies have done much to test out vitamin D and preformed vitamin A in concert together. However, it is known that vitamin A toxicity happens almost exclusively in the absence of other critical co-factors, particularly vitamin D. Another critical factor is vitamin K2. In general, if you're going to start megadoses of anything, then you must increase your uptake of everything else at the same time. This is why whole food supplements are safer than synthetic supplements – whole foods already come with a balance of vitamins, minerals, hormones, enzymes, probiotics, and trace minerals.
Studies and individual testimonials have shown time and time again that vitamin D and vitamin A must be balanced, but an ideal ratio has yet to be identified. At a minimum, you need at least 100 IU vitamin D for every 2,000 IU vitamin A. That's 20:1, A:D. But because vitamin A toxicity from lack of vitamin D is common, and vitamin D toxicity from lack of other needed co-factors is rare, I suggest getting at least 1,000 IU vitamin D for every 4,000 IU of vitamin A. That's 4:1, A:D.
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Vitamin D2 versus Vitamin D3 |
Vitamin D2, ergosterol, is found in rare plants such as particular forms of algae and mushrooms. Vitamin D3, cholecalciferol, is made in your body starting with sunlight hitting your skin. Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is found in animal fats that come from animals which have had adequate sunlight exposure and generally healthy lives. The pharmacokinetic properties of vitamins D2 and D3 differ, with more consistent and higher serum concentrations in blood after vitamin D3 supplementation. However, most vegans find that they are able to get enough vitamin D from D2 supplementation.
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EPA & DHA for Dental Health |
Our bodies need long-chain fatty acids called EPA and DHA (eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid). These are made from converting omega fatty acids from plant foods. Most people do not get enough omega-3 in their diet and many of the people who do are unable to make this conversion efficiently. If your body can, then consuming a couple tablespoons of very fresh, cold-pressed flax oil with your vegetable juice or salad will give you some EPA and DHA.
If you are not making this conversion efficiently, then you will need a source of the long-chain fatty acids directly. For omnivores, you can choose wild-caught, cold-water fish or a fish-oil supplement. For vegans and vegetarians, you can choose a supplement that gets its EPA and DHA from algae, such as Dr. Fuhrman's. Watch out for supplements containing carrageenan – a stabilizer and thickener which is known to cause immune responses and digestive issues. Also watch out for sorbitol and other sweeteners. The one I've linked does not contain any of these, but it does, unfortunately, have added synthetic vitamin E (“tocopherols”), which some people have adverse reactions to as well.
Long-chain fatty acids aren’t just vital for your bones. They’re also what make up your brain cell walls and your colon. If you’re seeking to heal from leaky gut or poor memory, DHA and EPA are a critical part of what you need.
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Oil Pulling |
Oil pulling is easy. Put a spoonful of coconut oil in your mouth and swish. You can do this while you're in the shower or while you’re making yourself breakfast. To get the maximum benefit I recommend swishing your mouth with salt water afterward. I didn’t do this when I first tried oil pulling and my gums swelled up around my back teeth so extremely that my teeth couldn’t touch! This is because the oil sucks impurities from your lymph system, sinus system, jaw, throat glands, and the skin around your mouth. All of that stuff is coming through your gums. Rinsing with salt water removes the remaining oil and toxins from your gums, preventing any foul reactions.
You can also boost the impact of this practice by adding some essential oils to your coconut oil. Cinnamon, oregano, clove, myrrh and mint all have benefits for your oral health. Clove kills common bacteria and is so widely accepted for its effectiveness that even western medicine uses it. Oregano kills some more rare bacteria that clove doesn’t kill. These additions are especially great if you have a toothache and want quick pain relief. Although, one word of caution on the cinnamon: if you’re prone to cankersores, avoid cinnamon essential oil, or even all cinnamon entirely. For more information about cankersores, read my article: Healing & Preventing Cankersores Holistically.
Questions? Please post your question as a comment here, beneath the video. This is the best way to reach me with any thoughts, ideas, or questions relevant to Raederle’s Teeth Remineralizing Masterclass.
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My Background & Why I’m Interested Dental Healing |
Between misdiagnosis and general lack of good results from doctors and dentists alike, I swore off both at the age of sixteen. At the age of twenty-six I developed an infection around a wisdom tooth and the adjoining tooth that was a painful life interruption. This led me to my own healing path and writing, Cure Pericoronitis & Periodontitis Naturally. However, later, at the age of twenty-eight I had pain in the same area again, but this time it was definitely tooth decay. So I hit the research again and began another lifestyle overhaul.
Late in my twenty-ninth year I saw a dentist for the first time in around thirteen years. She reported that all of my teeth were hard and none were in a state of decay. I had worried, because some of my teeth still had discoloration, but she told me those cavities looked very old, as if they had not been in a state of decay for a decade. I knew otherwise but didn’t mention it. While I was getting my teeth cleaned I asked the woman how long she thought it had been since I’d had a dental cleaning. Her answer pleased me so much that I have decided to include our exchange at the end of this masterclass.
Backing up a little further to explain more of who I am:
I worked for The Vegetarian Health Institute as their lead editor for five years in my early twenties. I was getting paid to edit twenty-page reports on subjects such as vitamin K2, vitamin D, and fluoride. I was paid to compile survey results from thousands of vegetarians and vegans, as well as write the exams for becoming a certified graduate of the institute. It was very educational. It also allowed me to travel while I worked remotely, leading to my book Living Big & Traveling Far on $8,000 a Year (or Less!).
I'm a self-made woman; I refuse to settle for anything less than an extraordinary life. Whether it comes to having a soul-mate connection in my marriage, or having a satisfying diet that keeps me healthy and energetic – I find it imperative to aim for the moon. Unfortunately, finding someone to apprentice to has not been a part of my path, and so:
- I taught myself HTML from reading the source code of websites when I was twelve.
- I taught myself digital painting and art in general over the course of my teenage years.
- I taught myself the secrets of ecstatic connection through heart-wrenching trial and error, treating my search for “the one” as a full time job for a full nine months when I was nineteen.
- At the age of sixteen I began teaching myself to heal from stomach ulcers – although due to my misdiagnosis, I had to start by simply finding out what was wrong with me.
I say all of this not to brag exactly, but to illustrate how naturally it came to be that I learned to heal my cavities in my late twenties.
I’ve read up on this subject before, but there wasn’t as much readily available on the web as there is today. Now, stories of cavity healing are abundant on the web. Let’s start with Katie’s story.
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Katie’s Story (from Wellness Mama) |
Excerpt from Katie on Wellness Mama:
In early 2010, my regular dental check-up revealed that I had some soft spots and a lot of plaque on my teeth. I also had one “official” cavity, though it wasn’t bad, and while they suggested getting it filled soon, it wasn’t a huge rush. They did warn me that I had the beginning stages of gingivitis in several places and had a lot of plaque. It took them about forty minutes to scrape and clean my teeth, which I thought was normal. They took x-rays, so I have picture evidence of my teeth at this time.
I did more research and read accounts of other people reversing dental damage, so I decided to give it a try. I took advice from all the research I had done and figured out a specific diet and supplement regimen that I was going to use to try to heal my teeth.
I followed the regimen for a few months, and noticed that my teeth were whiter and much less sensitive to cold. This was big news to me as I used to have such sensitive teeth that drinking too cold of a drink could literally bring me to tears.
It was fall of 2011 (over a year later) before I finally got around to making it back to the dentist. I didn’t mention a thing about the cavities and soft spots that needed to be fixed . . . and neither did the dentist!
It also only took them about five minutes to clean and scrape my teeth. The hygienist told me that my teeth and gums looked great, and asked if I had started using fluoride or fluoride toothpaste (my chart made it very clear that I was anti-fluoride). I told her no but that I had been trying to make sure I was taking better care of my teeth lately.
When the dentist checked my teeth, he didn’t mention any problem areas either and remarked that my gums looked great!
Here's Katie's recipe for success:
- Low phytic acid diet: “I already wasn’t eating grains or beans, but I also cut or limited nuts.”
- Limited sugars or starches. “I limited fruit and even starchy vegetables like sweet potatoes. I focused on mineral rich vegetables, bone broths, meats, and healthy fats.”
- Lots of healthy fats. “I added extra coconut oil and used only pastured, cultured butter. ... A couple tablespoons of coconut oil to a smoothie or melted in tea each day.”
- Bone broth. Katie made hers at home.
- Fermented Cod Liver Oil and Butter “Royal Blend” from Green Pastures.
- Vitamin D supplementation.
- Daily Magnesium, Gelatin and Vitamin C daily, “though these aren’t as vital to tooth healing,” says Katie.
- Homemade remineralizing toothpaste daily. “I swished with both calcium and magnesium powders dissolved in water daily to help provide minerals and to keep the mouth alkaline.”
- Wellness Brushing Blend daily.
- Activated charcoal every couple of days.
- Daily oil pulling.
Katie’s husband was inspired by her success, so he took up this same approach and successfully healed his cavities the same way!
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Vitamin C |
Katie mentions that vitamin C isn’t as critical for healing cavities, but getting enough as a baseline is critical, even if you don’t absolutely need megadoses of vitamin C to succeed. In 1922, dentist Percy Howe presented his research to the American Dental Association. He explained that he failed to reproduce dental decay by feeding and inoculating guinea pigs with various bacteria associated with gum disease and tooth decay. He wasn’t able to establish dental cavities in a single animal through the introduction of bacteria. However, Dr. Howe was able to rapidly create tooth decay in guinea pigs by removing vitamin C from their diet.
Besides Dr. Howe’s studies with guinea pigs, there are some people who cure their dental cavities with megadoses of natural vitamin C (not ascorbic acid) without any other change to their diet. My educated guess is that vitamin C improves function in so many areas of the body that it causes us to utilize even the most trace amounts of vitamin K2 and vitamin D. It is well known that stress causes many nutrients and hormones to be used up faster, such as B12. Vitamin C is particularly good at combating the results of stress. I also find it likely that vitamin C is a co-factor for converting beta-carotene into retinol – if not directly, then indirectly, by improving the health of the glands responsible for this conversion.
Dr. Thomas E. Levy, in his books, Primal Panacea and Death by Calcium explains that osteoporosis is a form of bone scurvy. Dr. Levy’s finding is that weak bones are at least in part, a vitamin C deficiency.
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Healing Tooth Decay As A Vegan |
Katie's method is obviously omnivorous. But not all success stories are from omnivorous people.
Kat of Break Wild healed her teeth using vegan supplements. She even includes before and after photos in her blog post about her story.
I hadn’t been to the dentist in over a year. This negligence didn’t alarm me. I brushed my teeth two to three times daily. I flossed. I ate what I perceived to be a healthy, whole foods centric diet. The thought of getting cavities or tooth decay rarely crossed my mind.
It appeared as several tiny black spots on the top of my lower back molars. I brushed those molars rigorously. I even used a steel dental pick to try to clean those babies up. To my dismay, the black spots remained.
I had heard of accounts where people had healed their cavities naturally. Maybe I could do this! If so, this would save me hundreds of dollars (since I didn’t have dental insurance).
I scoured the internet . . . I learned a LOT from this research . . . I found foods high in phytic acids (nuts, grains, seeds) to be strong offenders. As a plant-based vegan, I consume a lot of the these. I found that another cause of tooth decay was a lack of minerals (such as a calcium or magnesium deficiency) and a lack of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamins A, D, E and K2.
One resource I repeatedly kept seeing on how to heal tooth decay was the method by Weston Price, and the strategy involves adding fat soluble vitamins to your diet through fermented cod liver oil and butter oil. The experimenters claimed they were able to fully cure their signs of cavities within six weeks.
Houston, we have a problem! Attempting the Price method would involve abandoning my vegan path. It left me thinking, “There has to be another way.”
Kat's method:
- Cut back on processed sugars and foods rich in phytic acids.
- Increase intake of whole fruits and vegetables, particularly mineral-rich leafy greens such as kale.
- Algae-Sourced Omega 3.
- 5000 IU of Vitamin D3 from lichen daily.
- Omica Organics magnesium oil each night before bed.
- Daily oil pulling for twenty minutes. “This Ayurvedic practice is known for removing toxins and promoting healthy teeth and gums.”
- Brushing two to three times daily and flossing at least three times per week, if not daily.
Kat’s results:
At the four-week mark, one of the black 'cavity' spots on the bottom right molar had vanished. So I chose to continue the experiment, taking omega 3 and vitamin D3 supplements daily and oil pulling each morning.
Then by week six, two more of the black spots were fully gone. And finally, by week seven, my teeth were no longer showing any signs of cavities or tooth decay! But I had to be sure, so I called my dentist for the soonest available appointment. And right after the check up and my bi-annual cleaning, I walked out victoriously, cavity free!
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Calcium: Safe Supplements? |
At the beginning of this masterclass I outline a protocol including two grams of calcium per day. Few people manage to get two grams of calcium from their diet. To achieve this amount you may want to take a supplement. My favorite is Naturelo’s Bone Strength. This supplement is a fantastic blend of alkaline minerals which are not only good for your bones, but for every system in your body. I take extra around my period and it dramatically reduces menstrual cramps and bleeding. (To learn all about having an easier period, read my article: Eliminating Menstrual Cramps, PMS, Bloating & Excessive Bleeding – For Good!)
I discovered Naturelo’s Bone Strength while doing a massive investigation into supplements providing calcium and claiming to be good for bones. Whenever I encountered an unfamiliar ingredient, I researched it. Many of the ingredients in common calcium supplements are disturbing. I created a spreadsheet comparing over twenty-five of the leading bone health supplements to make it easier for me to see what each supplement was offering for the price. You can view it here: Bone Health Supplements Comparison. I was most pleased with the value offered by Naturelo’s Bone Strength, and I've also been pleased with the benefits of taking it.
That said, it is possible to get two grams of calcium each day from your diet. In fact, when I was creating custom, nutritionally-complete, raw, vegan meal plans for clients, I found that if I just started with aiming for two grams of calcium, almost every other nutrient would fall into place. That's because vegetables and leafy greens are the vegan food richest in calcium and they're also the food richest in vitamins and minerals overall.
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Calcium: Getting Enough From Diet? |
Here is a sample day's meal plan that achieves over two grams of calcium in 2,000 calories. This sample assumes an omnivorous, whole foods diet, but I can tell you from vast experience with making nutritionally complete meal plans that you can also achieve this as a vegan or a raw vegan.
A satisfying breakfast of chocolate milk with figs on the side:
- 2 cups raw goat milk
- 2½ Tbsp raw cacao powder
- 4 fresh figs
Brunch:
- 1 grapefruit
- 2 nori wraps filled with:
- 1 cup romaine
- 2 Tbsp tahini
- 2 dashes sea salt
- 3 oz raw cheddar cheese from a brown cow
A large salad for lunch or dinner:
- 3 cups chopped romaine
- 2 cups chopped kale
- 2 cups chopped spinach
- 3 Tbsp flax oil
- 1 Tbsp ground flaxseed
- 1 orange
- 1 large red bell pepper
- 2 dashes sea salt
Fish and steamed broccoli for lunch or dinner:
- 2 cups steamed broccoli with:
- 1 dash sea salt
- ½ fillet of wild-caught flounder (154 grams) with:
- 6 sprigs of parsley
- 1 dash sea salt
This sample is designed to give you an idea of what you could eat in a day to get two grams of calcium. It is also complete with regards to most other nutrition needs, but it only has 700 mg of vitamin C, and 400 IU of vitamin D.
For the vitamin C you could add kiwis, mangoes, more kale, cauliflower, or camu camu powder – one of the most concentrated sources in the world.
For vitamin D, I recommend taking a supplement as well as spending some time with your bare skin in the sun. To avoid wrinkling your beautiful face, try finding a place where you can sunbathe nude (or nearly nude) with your face covered. This is my little secret for an even skin tone from head to toe.
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Phosphorus |
Now that we’ve already discussed calcium, we can talk about phosphorus. You need phosphorus for a lot of important functions in your body, including the health of your teeth and bones. However, please don’t lift a finger to try to consume any extra phosphorus. As I explain in depth in my article, Calcium Phosphorus Ratio and its role in Osteoporosis & Arthritis, you want to consume as much calcium as phosphorus, and most people are already consuming eight to thirty times as much phosphorus as calcium.
Most foods in the “seed” category contain much more phosphorus than calcium – sometimes forty times as much. One notable exception to this is sesame, which is why I included tahini in the above sample meal plan.
For a detailed chart showing you the calcium to phosphorus ratio in over a hundred different foods, get my book The Ultimate Nutrition Reference.
Questions? Please post your question as a comment here, beneath the second video in the series. This is the best way to reach me with any thoughts, ideas, or questions relevant to Raederle’s Teeth Remineralizing Masterclass.
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My Rightful Fear of the Dentist |
Wild Kat hadn’t been to the dentist in over a year. Wellness Mama Katie hadn’t been to the dentist in close to two years. When I first began writing this masterclass in the summer of 2018 I had not been to a dentist in thirteen years. My dental decay began because of my orthodontist, ironically. (There are major reasons why I’ve completely fallen out of respect for western medical practices.) When I had braces installed, the orthopedist put too much cement on my molars and worse, when the braces were removed, some of the cement was left behind. At first I had this annoying cement on my molar. Less than a year later I had a brown spot there instead. All the while, this tooth was hurting, beginning the day they installed my braces.
My teeth were actually straight prior to getting braces. I opted for braces because I had been punched in the face by a girl a few years older than myself. Her punch left my front teeth literally dangling into my mouth. My mother grabbed my teeth and pushed them back into place. This was probably the most painful thing that I've ever experienced – but it saved my teeth.
Unfortunately, my teeth stayed wiggly and I was terrified they would fall out. I drank through a straw for a month, refusing to chew or brush. I got braces to ensure my teeth would stay in place. The orthodontist decided that one of my molars was “sideways” and therefore ought to be rotated. This process was painful and took months; it crowded all of my lower teeth which ultimately led to me having very crooked front teeth after the braces came off. Thanks for nothing, western methods. Too bad my mom didn’t know about the nutrition I needed to make my teeth latch on firmly on their own!
I asked my dentist about the sensitivity in my teeth and he told me to avoid cold beverages. (As if I couldn’t figure that out on my own at the age of thirteen. Seriously.) Later, when I was fourteen, that same tooth that had been bothering me when I’d had braces was now changing color. It had a large brown spot spreading across the top of it. I asked my dentist about the spot. He said it was “just a stain” and nothing to worry about.
I frowned and said to my dentist, “But that is the same tooth that hurts a lot.”
He said, “It can't be that tooth. It has healthy gums around it. Maybe the tooth behind it is bothering you.”
I couldn't believe it. He was telling me I couldn’t tell which one of my own teeth was bothering me! As if I had never looked in the mirror with my mouth wide open and touched that tooth and winced. I knew what I was talking about and told him as much. He reaffirmed that it was “just a stain” and I shouldn’t worry about it.
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My Tooth Decay |
That molar continued to hurt on-and-off. Mom suggested I take calcium supplements, which I did. It seemed to help a little with the sensitivity.
By the time I was sixteen this stain had become a dent in my tooth. When I was eighteen the tooth began to hurt a lot. I discovered clove essential oil, which I applied (without dilution) to the area with my fingertip. After applying the clove oil I would attempt not to move my tongue for as long as possible while the clove oil did its magic; it made the pain stop completely, which was a huge relief. Later I learned that clove oil is an essential item in a holistic medical kit for killing bacteria, especially oral bacteria.
My tooth continued to slowly disappear – in phases. Some years it didn’t seem to get worse at all, but other years I felt dismay as I looked at it and found the hole had widened. It may be useful to note that during these years I already was on an exceptionally good diet without any processed foods at all, and certainly no refined sugar. That’s right: you can get tooth decay even if you remove all the sugary foods from your diet.
Based on my extensive reading in early 2018, I concluded that the tooth was not dead, but that it was unlikely to “fill back in.” Holes in teeth can become hard, healthy, and immune to decay, but only pin-point cavities have shown themselves capable of filling back in. I’m still hopeful that I can one day become an exception to this rule, if for no other reason than I’d like to have impressive “before and after” photos to inspire others. (I took photos of my cavities a few times in my twenties.)
Since I started eating Green Pasture’s “Royal Blend” of fermented cod liver oil and butter oil consistently (turning away from my own vegan path), I have rarely had any sensitivity in my teeth. Also, my joint pain went away for years. (When my joint pain returned it was due to being overly sedentary and neglecting to eat salads. When I began doing yoga again and eating daily salads again, the joint pain was eliminated again.)
Since 2012, when I was twenty-three, I’ve been consuming raw milk – sometimes regularly, and sometimes returning to a fully vegan diet. But raw milk was not enough to heal my cavities on its own. (For more on my decision to move away from a raw vegan diet to an intuitive diet, read this article.) Some people, however, do find that raw milk from grass-fed animals is enough to heal their cavities, especially when the cavities are a recent development.
Besides the major cavity, careful examination found five teeth with some spots or decay. However, when I finally visited a dentist in the autumn of 2018, I was relieved to discover that all of my efforts had worked – none of those teeth were soft, sore or decaying. Even with money to earn by drilling my teeth, they were not able to tell me that any part of my mouth needed work. This was great peace of mind.
It isn’t surprising to discover how much tooth decay I had. It turns out that tooth decay isn’t just about sugars and acids on the teeth. It’s about spiking your blood sugar and how this changes your hormonal patterns. The gland responsible for telling your body to build more dentin and enamel stops giving you that signal when you spike your blood sugar. Because my most severe issues historically have been digestive, I learned to eat simple meals of just fruit (without anything else) to help heal my stomach.
It worked. I did recuperate my digestive system using a raw food diet where I ate nothing but fruit for the first half of the day. I figured I didn’t need to worry about spiking my blood sugar with fruit because I was eating only natural sugars, and because my overall hormonal balance should be very healthy considering how many leafy greens I ate and how well I managed my stress.
It is possible to create a hormonal imbalance that is virtually identical to spiking your blood sugar from stress alone. That’s right, you can develop insulin resistance from stress. In retrospect, I have wondered how much my “fruit only” breakfasts have contributed to tooth decay. And, in even further retrospect, I have wondered how much I was really keeping my stress levels down.
Starting in my early twenties, I supplemented with vitamin K2 and vitamin D2 sporadically. I did oil-pulling here and there. I wrote about taking care of teeth naturally, healing gum infections, and healing cankersores in much detail. Yet prior to April 2018, I had never done any of this consistently. I had never combined all these methods with avoiding blood-sugar spikes. And worst of all, in 2017 I began eating a lot of oats – often a whole cup of rolled oats every day.
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Oats and Tooth Decay |
Oats in particular, are one of the hardest seeds to remove phytic acid from. Soaking and cooking do little to remove the phytic acid. Oats are also terrifically difficult to remove lectins from, even with pressure cooking. Ancient peoples were known to ferment their oats for weeks. Perhaps they intuitively knew something that we didn't.
My entire life I’ve eaten a large amount of oats.
(Age 3 to 16) Growing up, I ate a lot of oatmeal, and also cold cereals that were based on oats.
(Age 16 to 19) In my late teens I became desperate to eat healthier and resolve my stomach pain. During that time I ate a lot of organic oat-based, honey-sweetened granola, and muesli with rice milk.
(Age 20 to 25) As a raw vegan I used rolled oats in making my famously delicious ginger cookie recipe. A simple spin in the food processor creates a sticky, delicious mixture of raisins, rolled oats, fresh ginger root, and cinnamon. I quickly discovered that this mixture hurt my stomach and I blamed the raisins.
Later I discovered that raw oats bothered my stomach, which was quite interesting when most foods bothered my stomach when cooked, but not when raw.
For example, pasteurized dairy hurts my stomach and makes my skin break out and makes my glands sore around my throat, but raw dairy consumed in the same moderation does not do this to me. (Although both forms of dairy make me sleepy for a period of time after consumption, and raw dairy in excess has been known to distress my lymphatic system.) I assumed this was entirely about raw versus cooked dairy, but I discovered another piece to the puzzle – lectins – which I write about in my article, My First Three Weeks on the Plant Paradox Program.
(Age 25 to 29) I found that having home-rolled, organic oats with boiling water, fresh ginger root and blueberries agreed with my stomach nicely and even contributed to keeping me regular. At times I practically lived on oats with berries. The berries probably have helped negate some of the impacts, as antioxidants are shown to help prevent bone loss even in the presence of a diet rich in phytic acid. However, it adds a bit of irony that blueberries can cause temporary dental sensitivity due to their acidity.
Dental health researcher Ramiel Nagel states that all of the worst cases of tooth decay he has seen happen in individuals who are “heavy oat eaters.”
Dental health researcher, Ramiel Nagel states that all of the worst cases of tooth decay he has seen happen in individuals who are “heavy oat eaters.”
My apologies for repeating myself, but that point really shocked me when I first encountered it, and if you’re a “heavy oat eater” I hope this will serve as a wake-up call for you.
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Seeds and Tooth Decay |
Let’s zoom out for a moment and now look at seeds in general. Oats are a seed, and possibly one of the worst for your teeth, but other seeds aren’t bone-building either.
I have a hunch that phytic acid is only a small part of the picture when it comes to the negative impact of seeds on teeth. As a nutrition expert and raw vegan for many years, I spent a lot of time conversing with other raw vegans and health experts.
I have been fond of learning from books as well as learning from people in person. I repeatedly found that the healthiest raw vegans ate a low-seed diet, especially low-nuts or no-nuts, which is what inspired my first recipe book: Nut Free Raw Recipes. My first recipe book, written when I was twenty, used a lot of coconut, which I now know to also be rich in phytic acid. And coconut, while perhaps not a nut, is still a seed. Many raw vegans have learned to blame fat, which will cause them to cut out coconuts, nuts, and most seeds as well. This fat-blaming works in a raw vegan diet because in the absence of fat you have to eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.
A fruitarian diet can work, but it does not entail eating 100% fruit. It entails eating around 80% fruit, 15% vegetables and 5% seeds. This diet is so successful because of its richness in antioxidants – including vitamin C. The more antioxidants in your diet, the more your body will efficiently eliminate toxins and utilize nutrients. A good friend of mine is an organizer of the Fruit & Sport events where people gather to eat a fruitarian diet for the length of the retreat and stay very physically active during this same time period. This friend of mine is a fruitarian herself, and in her late fifties she has rock-hard abs and incredible endurance. Her bones, however, are not in the best health.
Not all fruitarians or raw vegans are healthy, however. Some raw vegans are rather unhealthy in general – those who consume a lot of agave nectar, and a nut-rich diet. Some fruitarians are energetic, but have a lot of joint pains and/or poor skin and/or tooth decay. I’ve found that these fruitarians eat too many fruits that are high in sugar and relatively low (as fruits go) in antioxidants such as bananas, pears, and apples. A fruit-rich diet should emphasize fruits rich in antioxidants such as kiwis, berries, and mangoes, as well as fruits that are not sweet, such as avocados and olives.
No matter how you slice my observations, one fact has repeatedly surfaced: The healthier raw vegans are the ones who eat a low-seed or no-seed diet. And what’s incredible about this is that it matches up with the findings of Weston Price who advocated a diet rich in animal products. He also found that a diet rich in seeds led to poorer health and more dental cavities. Many people are going gluten-free and finding benefits from this. Many people are switching to a Paleo diet and finding benefit in eliminating most or all beans and nuts from their diet. This particular trend is not just something found in teeth-healing diets, or vegan diets, or omnivorous diets.
Originally, I began writing this masterclass four months before reading The Plant Paradox. This book confirmed my hunch that much more was going on with seeds than just phytic acid. It confirmed my hunch a thousand times over. One major reason to avoid seeds is to avoid plant-toxins called lectins. Gluten, by the way, is a lectin. I write about this subject in detail in my article: My First Three Weeks on the Plant Paradox Program.
Think about a whole plant; imagine a mulberry tree, a potato, a raspberry bush, a dandelion or a purslane plant. Imagine a plant that you know well, one where you can visualize its roots, stalks, flowers, fruits, and seeds. Plants vary dramatically, but even so, plants by volume look roughly like this:
- 20% to 40% root
- 10% to 40% stalk
- 20% to 70% leaves
- 1% to 20% fruit
- 1% to 10% seeds
Why would we eat a diet where half our calories come from seeds when proportionally seeds make up so much less of the plant? There is so much more edible food readily available all summer long – leaves being the most abundant. You may already know the answer. Seed consumption has been traditionally very high because it can be stored for the winter. Granaries held vast amounts of grain in ancient cultures to ward off famine. People were not concerned about thriving to their maximal health during the winter or during a drought – they were seeking enough calories to survive.
If you’re reading this masterclass then you have access to a computer with Internet access. You’re here because you want to thrive. You want a life without aches and pains. You want high levels of energy and you want to have hard, healthy teeth without cavities or sensitivity. This means you are not in the same situation as our ancestors who relied on seeds to make it through the winter. Even if you’re on a small income, you can afford an organic diet rich in fruits and vegetables. I know, because I lived on less than $8,000 per year for many years and consumed a completely organic diet. It wasn’t always the easiest choice, but I’m proud of my stalwart commitment to my greatest wealth – my health.
Preparing seeds in the way that healthy ancient cultures did is a lot of extra fuss. Soaking, sprouting, fermenting, and pressure-cooking are recommended, and even so, not all of the phytic acid is removed. This isn’t to say that seeds have no value and should be entirely eliminated for the rest of your life, but I decided to limit my seeds to one soaked Brazil nut per day for the first six weeks of my teeth-healing protocol.
In my early thirties I rarely ate more than two forms of seeds in a day. For example, I might have two tablespoons of ground flaxseed on my salad and one soaked Brazil nut. Now that I’m past the hurdles in healing my teeth I do occasionally eat a quarter cup of oats steeped in boiling water from my tea kettle. To give you an idea of reasonable seed moderation, here are the seeds I eat. Note that I always use small servings ranging from a couple tablespoons to a quarter cup:
- Sesame in the form of roasted, golden tahini
- Hemp seeds and ground flax seeds on my wraps and salads
- Almond flour in my lectin-free tortillas or crackers
- Cacao, in my myriad raw desserts
- Hazelnuts, as the primary ingredient in my raw brownies (which are just hazelnuts, raw cacao powder, and pitted dates blended in the food processor until creamy, thick and brownie-like)
- Lima beans, pressured-cooked with a little wakame
- Spice seeds such as cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, and black pepper
- White rice, pressure-cooked
- Rolled oats, gluten-free, thoroughly cooked/steeped
These are the seeds I find that I can eat (within reasonable moderation) without digestive distress, skin breakouts, dental pain, or other symptoms which were all very common for me back when I was eating lectin-heavy seeds such as cashews. We’ll talk more about lectins later, but I want to note that roasted tahini has both less lectin content and less phytic acid than raw tahini. Prior to trying roasted tahini I simply thought I couldn’t tolerate sesame seeds.
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Selenium |
Selenium is a necessary component of the enzymes involved in the activation of the “thyroid-stimulating hormone” (TSH) which is responsible for osteoblasts. Contrary to how it sounds, the osteoblasts are the ones involved in building your bones. I remember it by associating “blast” with “build.” In other words, without selenium, your body won’t get the message to build bones.
I recommend one soaked Brazil nut per day because there is no other whole-food source of selenium that is so efficient. A single Brazil nut provides more selenium than most people need in an entire day. And remember what I said about needing to increase all nutrients in tandem? If you’re consuming higher amounts of retinol (preformed vitamin A), calcium, vitamin D, etc, then it is wise to also up your intake of other key nutrients such as selenium.
Why soaked? Soaking seeds (including nuts, beans, and grains) reduces phytic acid, which we’ll be talking more about later in this masterclass.
If you don’t like the flavor of Brazil nuts, you can blend one up in a smoothie, or blend one into my hazelnut brownie recipe. Also, check for freshness. Brazil nuts often taste bad due to being old. Look for Brazil nuts that are lighter in color. They should be almost white on the inside, not brown.
If you’re allergic to nuts, other good sources of selenium include sesame seeds and goji berries.
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Zinc |
Earlier in this masterclass I outlined how you could get two grams of calcium from 2,000 calories of food. Because I made that menu omnivorous, I decided to give you a vegan example for zinc, especially since most web articles on zinc recommend meat, dairy, and eggs for your zinc.
The following vegan menu provides 15.5 milligrams of zinc in a little under 2,000 calories.
Chocolate Almond Milk:
- 5 Tbsp raw cacao powder — 2.7 mg zinc
- 1 cup almond milk — 0.2 mg zinc
Cucumber & Celery with Tahini
- 1 large, peeled cucumber — 0.5 mg zinc
- 3 medium ribs celery — 0.2 mg zinc
- 6 Tbsp tahini — 4.2 mg zinc
Chili Sweet Potato
- 1 baked sweet potato — 0.5 mg zinc
- 2 teaspoons chili powder — 0.2 mg zinc
Snacks
- 1 pomegranate — 1.0 mg zinc
- 1 Brazil nut (soaked and rinsed) — 0.2 mg zinc
- 1 cup blackberries — 0.8 mg zinc
Nori Wraps
- 2 sheets nori — 0.3 mg zinc
- 2 cups spinach — 0.3 mg zinc
- 3 Tbsps hemp seeds — 2.1 mg zinc
- 2 Tbsps ground flaxseed — 0.6 mg zinc
- 2 pinches sea salt
Broccoli Raab with Basil Pesto
- 1 cup steamed broccoli raab — 0.8 mg zinc
- 2 Tbsp pine nuts — 1.1 mg zinc
- 3 Tbsp basil — 0.1 mg zinc
The above plan is surprisingly nutritionally complete in most areas, although it “only” provides 1.5 grams of calcium rather than the 2 grams we’re seeking. More problematically, it hardly contains any vitamin C or D. That said, you could flesh out a meal plan like this with whole-food powders rich in vitamin C and supplements for vitamin D and vitamin B12. I always recommend supplementing to get enough of these two nutrients even if you eat an omnivorous diet; the supply in our food is not reliable enough for most people.
If you want to get well above 15 milligrams of zinc each day, you will need a supplement. Here are two options free of sweeteners, harmful preservatives and additives, that contain a complex of whole foods: Garden of Life’s Vitamin Code: Raw Zinc and Peak Performance’s Raw Whole Food: Zinc.
Questions? Please post your question as a comment here, beneath the third video in the series. This is the best way to reach me with any thoughts, ideas, or questions relevant to Raederle’s Teeth Remineralizing Masterclass.
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Joanie’s Teeth-Healing Story |
To fuel my inspiration (and to gather valuable information), I read a lot of success stories. Here is another:
From Joanie Blaxter, founder of Follow Your Gut:
Miracles Happen! I'm 60 years old . . . Keep reading to find out about the new life I've given birth to, which traditional doctors would say is impossible.
All my life dental hygienists have said things to me like, “You have the hardest tartar I've ever seen!” These comments are spoken with a cross between amazement and irritation, like somehow I planned it that way to make their job more difficult.
As a result of a lifelong history of extremely difficult-to-remove tartar, my gums have progressively and relentlessly receded over the years. Two years ago I finally found a holistic dentist I liked, so after way too long a hiatus from teeth cleanings, I scheduled a dental exam.
The report wasn’t pretty. The hygienist told me that there are three stages of gum deterioration; one being the mildest, and I was well into stage two, heading for three. Stage three is like “get all your teeth pulled” stage.
So, knowing the work HAD to be done, I agreed to the process of getting my teeth scaled, which basically means they get out the chisel and “big girl” tools to scrape up by the gum line to remove hidden plaque.
Somewhere in the middle of this grueling series of appointments, I attended a Weston A. Price national conference in Santa Clara, CA. I met Dr. Natasha, an international probiotics expert. She has written a book called The Gut & Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) in which she describes how an imbalance of gut microflora leads to “a river of toxicity from the gut into the bloodstream” that causes systemic inflammatory reactions all over the body, but most troublingly, the brain.
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Vitamin K2 |
Somewhat on a fluke, I asked Dr. Natasha if she knew anything about unusually hard tooth tartar and the sheer force of her immediate answer rocked me back!
“You have a vitamin K2 deficiency,” she announced authoritatively to the room.
She went on to explain that specific strains of microflora normally found in a healthy gut will make vitamin K2. When those strains are missing, and particularly when the diet does not also include enough vitamin-K2-rich animal fat, the body becomes deficient.
Vitamin K2 is the “calcium police,” meaning K2 directs the body to use calcium appropriately, which, for the most part, is to build sturdy bones and teeth.
When K2 is “missing at work,” the body starts putting calcium in all kinds of bizarre places it shouldn’t be like:
What most doctors are familiar with is actually K1, which is found primarily in plants and functions to clot the blood.
- Plaque in the arteries of the heart
- Bone spurs
- Kidney or liver stones
- Tartar in the teeth
What Dr. Natasha was referring to (and Dr. Price studied) was K2, which is found almost exclusively in animal food and is associated with strengthening bones.
Animals and bacteria can convert K1 to K2, and K1 is easy to get – just eat anything green and you’ll get loads. Unfortunately, human conversion tends to be low.
I first learned this when editing an article by Val Archer while working for The Vegetarian Health Institute back in 2013 or 2014. Val is a vegan, but she struggled with intense cheese cravings. She knew there was something in that cheese that she needed. What she needed was K2. She confirmed this when she began taking a K2 supplement and finally her cheese cravings went away and she could continue happily on her vegan path.
I started taking vitamin K2 supplements. But one thing that I learned from Joanie’s article is that a lot of K2 has lost its potency by the time it reaches the shelf. This may be why only one of the K2 supplements I’ve taken has noticeable, immediate effects, which is the Green Pasture’s Royal Blend which is mentioned in several places throughout this masterclass.
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How Does Vitamin K2 Work? |
Vitamin K2 activates osteocalcin, an enzyme that helps build bones by integrating calcium into the bone matrix.
Osteocalcin is also known as bone gamma-carboxyglutamic acid-containing protein. It is a protein hormone found in bone and dentin, first identified as a calcium-binding protein in chicken bone.
Yes, enzymes can be proteins. Just like vitamins can be antioxidants or hormones. Terminology can be confusing, huh? It has certainly confused me at times! Thankfully, I have an article that helps clarify the relationships between vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and hormones here.
Osteocalcin is secreted solely by osteoblasts – the cells responsible for bone building. While I won’t get into the details of it here, it is interesting to note that osteocalcin plays its bone building role in its carboxylated form, but in its uncarboxylated form, osteocalcin acts as a hormone in the body. As a hormone, osteocalcin can signal the release of insulin in our pancreas, as well as the release of another hormone, adiponectin, which increases sensitivity to insulin. Osteocalcin hormone is also involved in male fertility and energy levels.
One thing that Joanie is mistaken about is that our bodies “put” calcium in weird places due a lack of vitamin K2. On the contrary, calcium merely settles in places in the absence of K2 catalyzation (or other factors that move calcium, such as parathyroid hormone, which we will discuss later). One of the most common places calcium settles is in our arteries.
Here is Joanie Blaxter’s method:
- High potency K2 supplementation tested for stability
- Regular consumption of fermented food and probiotics, particularly from the bifido family.
- Cod liver oil
- Sonic toothbrush
- Vitamin D supplementation
Joanie Blaxter’s results:
And it’s official. I’ve had two checkups by the dentist where she has said the same thing each time: “You’re a dental anomaly!” According to my dental history, my dentist should see gum redness, swelling, bleeding, signs of infection and most likely, sore, loose teeth.
Instead, my gums are pink, strong and healthy, my teeth stable and pain-free. And here's the best part: I now produce virtually no dental plaque! Each visit there has been next-to-no plaque on my teeth, despite the fact that my previous visit was nine months ago and not the usual six (my dentist moved her office which delayed scheduling).
Unfortunately, my gums have not grown back . . . yet! My own practitioner, Theresa Vernon, told me that her receding gums did not start to grow back until she removed a copper toxicity from her system (very common for those with fatigued adrenals).
I fully expect my bones to strengthen with age, not weaken.
Like Joanie, I stopped developing plaque on my teeth when I delved into my teeth-rebuilding protocol seriously. Plaque is specifically a result of not getting enough K2. I always had a lot of plaque growing up. I recall it being scraped seemingly endlessly by dentists and how weird my teeth felt without the plaque after my dental visit. In my early twenties I scraped this plaque off myself with a dental pick. This process would easily take me an hour. But when I changed my diet and began following a teeth-remineralizing protocol consistently in my late twenties, the plaque just went away on its own without scraping! Now when I go to clean my teeth with a dental pick I can usually only find a little bit of plaque between my overlapping lower teeth. To read (or hear) more of my story and how conventional dental care actually caused my lower teeth to overlap, refer back to the third installment of this masterclass.
Joanie has a lot more to say beyond her story. She’s done great research. If you want more from her, click here to read her article. Another part of her article that is key is that vitamin A, D and K need to be increased in concert. Increasing one of these without the others, at best, will get you no results. At worst, it is a recipe for disaster. As usual, our synthetic isolated supplements get us in trouble! To learn about vitamins A and D, refer back to the first installment of this masterclass.
After reading stories like Joanie’s, I felt so inspired that I indulged a little bit crazily in my home-made wonder-treats. I’ve made my own teeth-remineralization recipe. I developed this recipe combining what I learned from years making raw, organic, gourmet chocolates, and what I learned about dental health. The following recipe is my own unique invention and it is incredibly good. If you like it, please show your support by following me on patreon. (You get a lot of exclusive perks by becoming a patron.)
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- Mix all ingredients thoroughly with a fork in a container that is easy to pour from (such as a glass or silicone measuring pitcher).
- Pour mixture into silicone molds and then pop into your freezer, keeping them level so that they won’t spill.
- Within thirty minutes they’ll solidify (in most freezers). Then pop them out and store them in a silicone bag in your freezer.
- Every day indulge in a one-ounce “chocolate” (“caroblet”) and savor your healing!
A one-ounce (by weight) serving (about two tablespoons) will have approximately:
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These “chocolates” are a nutritional powerhouse. In just one ounce you’ll get your full day supply of vitamins A, D, and K2. You’ll also get most of your day’s supply of omega-3 as well as a good supply of EPA and DHA – which are the vital fatty acids that omega-3 converts to.
For more about vitamins A and D, as well as more about EPA and DHA, refer back to the first lesson of this masterclass.
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Because the vitamin A being consumed here is from animal products, this vitamin A is in retinol form. This form can be overdosed on unless you’re balancing it with vitamin D, which is why many health experts recommend getting most or all of your vitamin A in the form of carotenoids such as beta-carotene. The conversion from beta-carotene to retinol happens inside animals, including humans. However, some people do not convert enough, even when they’re getting plenty of carotenoids, as I discuss throughout this masterclass.
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My Husband’s Tooth Infection |
Around the same time I began compiling the data that I am now presenting to you, one of my husbands – Greg – began experiencing a lot of pain around a molar. Coupled with this was a very foul smell on his breath that brushing didn’t resolve. His dentist confirmed that he had a tooth infection and said the only two options were a root canal or removal of the tooth. The dentist recommended simply pulling the tooth to ensure the infection was entirely eliminated.
Greg said he’d think about it and returned home to me. He told me about this and said he wanted to see another dentist for another opinion. He found a holistic dentistry practice that told him over the phone that they were willing to do a filling rather than a root canal. However, they were booked to the gills and wouldn’t be able to see him for months.
“You healed your teeth,” Greg said to me. “Can’t I just heal it?”
I sucked in a deep breath and let out a long sigh. “Yes, but I’m not sure if you’d be willing to make the changes necessary.”
“It’s worth a try, isn’t it?”
I chewed my lip. “Well, if you’re not strict about the protocols then the infection could persist at a low level and eat at your immune system the entire time. You prefer moderation, so I’m not sure you’re up to it.”
“There has to be a way to maintain healthy teeth with moderation.”
“Maintain, yes,” I said. “But you need to do a lot more than maintain. You have to do more than remineralize. You have to beat an infection and remineralize the cavity the infection is living within.”
“But it can be done?”
I smiled, “Absolutely.”
“My dentist didn’t think so.”
“Of course not,” I replied. “Even among holistic healers, few people know that it is possible to remineralize teeth. The western beliefs about teeth reign supreme despite all the contrary evidence.”
“I want to try it. What do I do?”
I outlined all the changes he would need to make. Greg began oil pulling, using an oral irrigator, and taking supplements. He wasn’t happy about giving up corn chips, but I kept him supplied with cassava chips instead. He wasn’t happy about giving up oats and oat-based muesli, but I taught him my “nutli” recipe which uses hazelnuts as a base.
“If I can have nutly everyday and still heal my teeth, this isn’t so bad,” he said.
I put my head into my hands and sighed. “It’s not healing food, it’s merely less problematic than oats.”
On Greg’s new routine, his pain was halved in just two days. Within the week he was pain-free. He was ecstatic by this success. “You’re a miracle-worker,” he said.
Inside, I still had my reservations. I knew Greg could do a strict protocol for a week. But healing a tooth infection was going to take rigidness I didn’t know Greg to possess. He’d need to be vigilant for at least a year, maybe several. A tooth infection is more than just remineralizing the hole: it’s uprooting a settled colony of bacteria from their home.
The first month was smooth sailing. Greg liked that the diet has other beneficial side effects. He had less muscular tension and he was losing excess fat too.
In the second month Greg asked, “Is it okay if I have a beer tonight?”
“I can’t vouch for your success if you do.”
“I’ve been pain-free for over a month, what’s one beer going to do?”
“I can’t say, but I don’t recommend it.”
Greg had the beer. Then it was a slice of bread. Then it was some other exception. His pain was back within the week. He was frustrated, but determined. He stopped making the exceptions and was pain-free again within a couple days.
Months later, Greg had his dental visit with the holistic dentist and they drilled the tooth and put in a ceramic composite filling. Greg was thrilled and sure he was now past the infection. I was dubious. I knew he wasn’t oil pulling daily anymore, and based on how bad the infection had been it seemed wise to continue daily oil pulling for at least six months.
Greg continued with the nutli, fish oil, oral irrigator, cassava chips, and other changes that he deemed “easy.” Adjustments which he had found inconvenient such as oil pulling and abstaining from beer, he reversed. To my surprise, his pain didn’t return for a full eight months after receiving the ceramic filling.
When the pain came back he already knew what to do and he knuckled down to do it. Once again, the pain was fully gone within a week.
“What do I need to do to keep it from coming back?” Greg asked.
“The most critical part is oil pulling followed by a salt water rinse each day. Remember, the infection is in a place that flossing, brushing and even the oral irrigator can’t reach. The only thing designed to get into your tooth is nutrition. Oil pulling will suck it out over time, particularly if you add oregano and clove to it. Also, it would help a lot if you were more consistent about taking the fish oil every day – the more nutrition deposited in your teeth, the more movement in and out of your teeth.”
Greg persisted with daily supplements and oil pulling for the better part of the next year and continued to moderate his consumption of alcohol and seeds. These habits slowly tapered off, but the pain didn’t come back for well over a year.
When the pain came back he didn’t even tell me about it at first. He adjusted his habits, but half-heartedly. The reality was the infection was too deep to reverse at this point, and when he did talk to me about it, I told him so. So, four years after the original pain, he had the tooth pulled.
While this isn’t an inspiring story of success, I include it in this masterclass because it demonstrates something important. Not everyone has the level of inhibitory control required to reverse a severe tooth infection. Thankfully, most people don’t have such severe infections, and thus, they can remineralize their teeth without being incredibly strict.
If you have a tooth infection you have to act fast, be consistent, and not relent. If you’re unwilling to do this, you’re better off having the tooth pulled immediately. However, even if you have the tooth pulled, this is still your wake-up call to change your diet and your habits so that you can keep the rest of your teeth.
The good news is that no matter how far your teeth have decayed, it is possible to stop all healthy teeth from ever getting a cavity or infection in the future. And many or all of your damaged teeth can be remineralized and saved, as all of mine were. The better news is that your diet doesn’t have to be bland, boring, or unpleasant. Give those remineralizing chocolates a try!
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Ramiel Nagel’s Cure Tooth Decay: The Good & The Bad |
As part of my research, I did read Ramiel Nagel’s book, Cure Tooth Decay. This book is full of valuable information from a variety of sources, including the popular Weston Price. However, Ramiel’s information is not complete. He isn't aware of stories like Kat's – vegans healing their dental cavities.
Weston Price never studied healthy vegetarians. He never visited India. The vegetarians he did encounter tended to be poor people who lived off of bread and pasta. These people had horribly imbalanced nutrient intake, and were very unhealthy as a result. Weston Price studied cultures that lived by ancient traditions, consuming raw dairy and organic meats, and found these people to be very healthy in contrast.
What Weston Price and Ramiel Nagel don’t understand is that a healthy vegetarian or vegan diet is based on eating a wide variety of raw fruits and leafy greens.
One thing I really appreciated about the book is Ramiel’s wisdom regarding intuition. Food is meant to taste good; your unique experience of flavor is designed to help you choose foods appropriate for your body’s needs. Of course – in our modern society – this intuition is repeatedly disrupted by processed foods that are not found in nature, but when you start eating a whole foods diet you begin regaining your original, inherent food wisdom.
If you don’t crave raw vegetables and dislike them, then your body is telling you something. Perhaps nightshades (potatoes, peppers, tomatoes, etc) or cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, broccoli, kale, etc) don’t agree with your body at this time in your life. In my case, most cruciferous vegetables upset my stomach, which from an Ayurvedic perspective isn’t surprising since my dominant dosha is vata.
If you’re holding onto notions that healthy eating means eating vegetables you hate, you can now release these notions. Instead, focus on the fruits and vegetables you do crave. Cravings are incredibly brilliant when your body is attuned to whole foods. For years I craved tomatoes in the summer and hated them in the winter. I began to notice I only really liked tomatoes when I was out in the sun for a long time. Then, finally one day I learned about lycopene – an antioxidant renowned for its ability to heal sun damage from the inside. And what’s the highest source of lycopene in the world? Tomatoes.
As a child I craved iceberg lettuce, the most mild of all raw vegetables. While often disregarded as a low-nutrient vegetable, iceberg lettuce is still a healthy vegetable with a lot of nutrition per calorie. You will never get fat or build up toxins eating organic ice-berg lettuce. It is rich in water and fiber, and if you eat 100 calories of iceberg lettuce, you will get similar nutrition to eating 100 calories of another vegetable – which is far, far greater than the nutrition you would get from 100 calories of seeds or animal products. This is illustrated in depth in my book, The Ultimate Nutrition Reference.
If you have digestive problems currently or in your history, you will find the advice in Ramiel’s book difficult to adhere to. His meal plans suggest fried eggs and/or meat in every meal, often combining these foods with dairy besides. This is not a good idea for a tired digestive system, and unfortunately, most people in first-world countries have very tired digestive systems. That said, healthy meat from grass-raised animals – or, better yet, wild-caught fish – will be easier to digest than beans for someone who has, or has had, stomach ulcers. But I don't recommend any land animals if you’re currently getting acid reflux regularly.
The easiest-to-digest, whole-food source of the nutrients you need for your teeth is raw butter from healthy, grass-fed, casein-A2 animals. Butter, while mostly saturated fat, is made up of short-chain fatty acids such as butyric acid. Saturated fat from many plant sources is made up of chains as long as eighteen carbons. If you imagine trying to carry a six-foot pole versus an eighteen-foot pole, which is easier? Even if they had the same weight, the six-foot one will be less unwieldy. Butter also lacks the (vast majority of) proteins in milk that many people are sensitive to, while retaining the fat-soluble nutrients that are so critical to healing teeth: vitamin A, vitamin D and vitamin K2. Thus, if you have a digestive condition, small amounts of bright-yellow butter from pasture-raised, grass-fed, casein type A2 animals on a daily basis can be part of your healing protocol. I particularly recommend this if you crave fat, crave dairy, crave butter, or crave cream. These cravings are likely a desire for a whole-food source of these nutrients that your body knows will work for you.
Knowing that Ramiel’s book is biased against plants and erroneously slanders the benefits of raw fruits and vegetables, you can still gain a lot of benefit from the book. It is especially valuable to anyone on the fence about dental work. Before you make any decisions about getting your cavities filled, you must first do your research on the horrors in the dental industry. In this book you'll learn details like this:
- One of the men who made root canals popular later wrote a book all about how root canals should never be done
- Dentists are at risk of losing their license if they critique the use of mercury in fillings
- Bacteria has been repeatedly disproven as the cause of tooth decay.
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Jackie Ritz’s (of the Paleo Mamas) story |
Six months ago I walked into a routine cleaning at the dentist and walked out with a hefty quote for dental work to be done on six cavities they found in my teeth. At first I was embarrassed. Shocked. I eat a very clean, whole foods diet. How could I have cavities? I don’t even eat white sugar. I brush and floss every, single day! How can this be true?
I told my dentist that I don’t even eat sugar or complex carbs and asked him if there is a way I can heal my cavities without having thousands of dollars of work done. I told him I had heard of “remineralizing” and curing tooth decay with diet and asked him what he thought. Of course, like many conventional dentists, he had never heard of it. So, I stopped asking questions, grabbed my quote, scheduled an appointment to have all six cavities filled, and went home discouraged.
When I got home I started reading and researching natural ways to heal your teeth. My mind was blown. I can heal my cavities without having thousands of dollars of dental work done? I can heal my cavities with a proper diet? I can remineralize my teeth? I’m in!
Jackie’s Method:
- 1 daily teaspoon Extra-Virgin Cod Liver Oil (EVCLO) – A real Norwegian cod liver oil that is fresh, raw and handcrafted.
- 1 daily teaspoon Extra-Virgin Butter Oil (EVBO) – From grassfed cows that are grazing on rich pasture grass. It takes 26 days of grazing on rich pastures for the milk to be considered ‘high vitamin.’
- Daily Skate Liver oil.
- 3 to 4 daily cups raw milk from grassfed cows and goats.
- 1 daily cup of homemade bonestock with added collagen.
- Daily oil pulling with coconut oil.
- 1 weekly serving of liver.
- Reduced consumption of phytic acid (nuts, seeds, grains).
- Soaking seeds before consuming them to reduce or eliminate phytic acid.
- Grass-fed butter and ghee in recipes.
- Bentonite-clay based toothpaste. No glycerin, as this counteracts remineralization.
Jackie’s conclusion:
Since that day at the dentist when I was told I had six cavities, I have been diligent in pursuing the complete healing of my cavities.
My dairy-free diet was missing fat-soluble vitamins. Since discovering my tooth decay, I have added back raw milk from grassfed cows and goats into my diet as well as many homemade cheeses. I had been consuming high amounts of phytic acid in nuts and seeds. I have minimized my intake of nuts and seeds, and have become diligent about properly soaking them to help neutralize phytic acid.
I cancelled my appointment to have my teeth all drilled and filled, and I began my journey into curing tooth decay with proper nutrition.
And my journey has been successful!
Jackie healed her dental cavities using animal products, as most of these stories do. But remember Kat. You can do it the vegan way if you choose. I have chosen not to for one critical reason. Under hypnosis, speaking from the perspective of my teeth, I said that my body was not converting carotenoids into retinol. As my teeth, I talked about what I needed – including more reverence and gratitude toward the animal products that would aid me.
True, I could use a supplement for vitamin A, but I still believe more in whole foods, and the magic within them. While I am including vitamin K2 supplements (among others) in my diet, I still believe in nature's gifts to us. If you’re on the fence about being a vegetarian, vegan or omnivore and/or interested in exploring the ethics of these choices at the emotional level, ecological level and social level, please read my extensive article: Beyond Veganism. (This article is not titled “beyond” because it implies that we should move past being vegans, but that we should consider more of our lifestyle’s impact besides just our choice to consume meat or not.)
So why do these protocols for healing cavities work, and where did they come from?
Dr. Weston A. Price concluded in his studies of indigenous peoples: All groups having a liberal supply of fat-soluble activators and minerals have a 100% immunity to dental caries.
Weston Price’s work is the most well-known, but his methods are not the only ones that work.
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Njoy’s Story |
Njoy from Canada used iodine to heal her cavities:
I have been using iodine to cure cavities for about forty years.
If you have active cavities and perhaps toothache as well, put ten to twelve drops in a small amount of warm water (about a mouthful) and swish it around your mouth for 30 to 45 seconds. Then spit it out. You will notice most of the colour is gone. Do this many times throughout the day.
Soon your toothache will stop and you'll see recalcification on your teeth. Don’t stop using the iodine. You can reduce to a couple of drops twice a week when your teeth are done or almost done healing.
If you have big cavities then you will need to continue use indefinitely or your cavities will start to bother you again.
I had a dentist remark that I had “many small cavities that have healed over” which surprised him.
Don’t swallow the iodine and water mixture! Spit it out!
The only new cavity I've had in more than forty years is one that was deep inside a gum. I guess the iodine couldn't reach it.
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Iodine for Dental Health |
Njoy’s method of using iodine alone can't heal big cavities, but since it was enough alone to heal small ones, imagine what it might do to combine this with other methods.
I've been taking iodine intermittently since 2013. I met a woman on Kaua’i island who is an alternative medicine woman, like myself. She told me that my “chronic coldness” was a symptom of being low in iodine. She ate a lot of seaweed and used to run a sea-vegetable business, but it was never enough iodine to combat her own deficiency. She had tried a dozen forms of iodine, but it was specifically J.CROW'S Lugol’s Solution of Iodine 5% that helped her. So I tried it. And it works! Whenever I find that I'm the only person cold in the room, I take eight drops in a glass of water and I’m warm again in just fifteen minutes without doing anything else! I usually don’t have to take more again for weeks.
At the age of thirty-one I decided I might try seeing a naturopath. On our first consultation she suggested that I might benefit from silica. I immediately resonated with the idea and bought some horsetail that same day. (Horsetail is an herb – it isn’t made from the tails of horses as I used to think when I was a teen.)
I began drinking horsetail tea daily and immediately noticed improvements in my energy levels, and within a week the temperature sensitivity that had recently arisen in my teeth went away again. Within three weeks my fingernails were stronger and less brittle. I knew I wanted to keep silica in my diet but I didn’t want to just drink horsetail tea forever – particularly in the summer. Seeking diverse sources of silica, I did some research on sources and discovered one reason it has flown under my radar: USDA nutrition databases don’t list silica contents in foods, and neither do the other websites I use to source this data. It’s no wonder most doctors and nutritionists never mention this critical trace mineral!
Silicon and silica are often used interchangeably, but when you see “silicon” in supplements, it is usually in the form of “silicon dioxide.” This silicon is used as an anti-caking agent; it is probably the least biologically available, being little different than finely powdered quartz or sand.
In contrast, the form of silica in plants is a complex, not a pure compound. The silica in plants has an abundance of sulfur-oxygen and other bonds which make it “bioavailable.” This gives your body a better opportunity to use the silica where you need it.
As usual, I distrust isolated chemicals. Nature knows best when it comes to combining and balancing vitamins and minerals, so I’ve never used a silicon extract by itself.
Also, don't confuse silicon with silicone – the synthetic polymer that is often used to make non-stick cookware. I adore silicone for my chocolate and popsicle molds, but I wouldn’t want to take a bite out of it!
I became particularly intrigued when I learned that oats are a source of silica. Oats, as we’ve discussed, can be a nasty habit if you want healthy teeth, but what if they’re one of your primary sources of silica as a “heavy oat eater”? This sort of conundrum explains why there are so many foods that are beneficial in small amounts – providing you with a trace mineral you desperately need – while being quite damaging when consumed each day.
Silica plays a vital role in healthy bones, ligaments, hair, skin, and fingernails. It allows you to form tissue structures that are flexible and resilient – not merely hard, which is the role of calcium. Silica also accelerates the process of calcification and deposition in bone, making your current calcium supply more quickly useful – assuming you’re getting enough vitamin K2 to transport the calcium, of course.
Silica is so helpful to these critical body structures because it is part of the process in building collagen. Without silica you may have brittle bones, brittle hair, brittle nails, aging skin, and joint pain.
Silica is so helpful in bone growth and repair that fracture healing rates increase in its presence, even if calcium is relatively low.
To get my silica I rotate between using bamboo powder, fresh aloe spines, and horsetail tea. You can also get small amounts of silica from bananas, grapes, romaine lettuce, spinach, bell peppers, tomatoes, oranges, cucumbers, and carrots. However, I was already eating several of these foods regularly prior to adding bamboo, aloe, and horsetail to my diet, and I still noticed benefits from adding concentrated food sources of silica. Another concentrated source of silica that I have not yet tried is red algae.
Because silica is so beneficial and necessary for healthy bones and teeth, I recommend consuming a concentrated food source of it each day on your teeth-healing path. In the introduction of this masterclass I recommend a certain amount of milligrams, but most whole food supplements that provide silica don’t tell you how much silica you’re getting per serving. Just take one to four times the recommended serving size each day.
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Busting the Myth that Food Stuck to Your Teeth Causes Decay |
“It is time to give up this arcane concept that carbohydrates fermenting on teeth are eaten by acid-producing bacteria that cause tooth decay. This theory is akin to saying that rain causes your roof to leak. When the roof of your home is sealed well and cared for it will not leak whether it rains or not. Likewise, when your tooth enamel is strong and healthy your teeth will not be affected by the changing conditions in your mouth.
“W.D. Miller, the originator of the bacterial theory of tooth decay, said it himself in 1883:
‘What we might call the perfect tooth would resist indefinitely the same acid to which a tooth of the opposite character would succumb in a few weeks.’
“Because bacteria are everywhere, trying to eliminate bacteria from your mouth to prevent tooth decay would be like trying to eliminate rain from the sky to prevent a leaky roof.” — Ramiel Nagel in his book, Cure Tooth Decay.
I want to add a few caveats to what Ramiel is saying here. Even very healthy teeth can be sensitized by rough handling. Or, to further Ramiel’s analogy, any good roof can keep out ordinary rain, but what about a hurricane?
If you brush your teeth with baking soda which scrapes up the enamel a little, and then you eat two cups of delightful, nutritious fresh blueberries, and then go on to eat some crunchy cassava chips you might experience a sharp pain when you try to eat the chips. Why? Because you’ll have temporarily weakened your enamel from abrasion and acidity. While some roofs can withstand a hurricane, many can’t.
If you literally have the healthiest teeth of any human on the planet then even what I just described won’t hurt your teeth. But you’re not that person – if you were, you wouldn’t have stuck with me this long. Even following all of the guidelines in this masterclass aren’t going to make your teeth that impervious any time soon. With that in mind, avoid combining crunchy foods (such as chips) with acidic foods (such as vinegar and blueberries).
Or, at the least, take a little of the aforementioned Royal Blend first, which helps decrease sensitivity in my teeth immediately when I let it melt in my mouth onto my teeth.
Also, watch out for mangoes, which for some unknown reason are a common tooth sensitizer. They’re a great, healthy food, but go easy on those delicious mango salsas served with chips – cassava or plantain chips, of course. You wouldn’t want to be ruining your bone density with corn which has been shown to actually block the uptake of minerals.
In general, when crunchy foods are served with acidic foods, it can be hard on teeth which are already weakened, so if your teeth are sensitive or jeopardized in any way, remember to enjoy your blueberries away from your crunchy freeze-dried carrot snack. You can treat mangoes as if they are an acidic fruit, as they seem to have the same effect.
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Healthy Teeth May Start With Your Kidneys |
Biomarkers that indicate chronic kidney disease (often called CKD) have been found in bone marrow. Why would that be? The simple answer would be that kidneys not only purify your blood, they also create your bone marrow. That simple answer isn’t the whole truth, but it is close to it.
Kidneys and bones have a complex relationship that involves your cardiovascular system as well as your thyroid and your parathyroid glands. While you may not have chronic kidney disease, we can learn something from the fact that parathyroid hormone levels in the blood go up when someone has chronic kidney disease. This circles back to bone health because parathyroid hormone regulates the serum calcium concentration through its effects on your bones, kidneys, and intestines.
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And/Or . . . Healthy Teeth Starts in Your Thyroid |
Parathyroid hormone (also known as parathormon) is secreted in response to low levels of calcium in your bloodstream. It is important that we have enough alkaline minerals such as calcium in our bloodstream to maintain our blood’s pH of seven-point-four (7.4). If your blood becomes too alkaline or too acidic you die, so your body has a lot of mechanisms to maintain your blood’s pH in a very narrow range.
So far, so good. The problem with parathyroid hormone arises when your diet is mostly composed of acidic compounds and the hormone must be released after every meal in order to use osteoclasts to withdraw calcium from your bones to keep you from dying of low blood pH. This is one of the many reasons why a diet high in seeds (which includes grains, beans, and nuts) depletes your bone structure: seeds generally have a mineral composition that is quite lacking, requiring supplementary calcium from your bones. The same is also true, of course, of processed foods.
When you eat foods rich in calcium and the levels of calcium in your bloodstream begin to make your blood more alkaline, your thyroid releases a lovely hormone called calcitonin which triggers osteoblasts to build new bone material. This is why we talked earlier about getting two full grams of calcium per day in order to heal your dental cavities.
When people say that a food is “alkaline” in the hip health movement, they often are talking about its balance of minerals, not its balance of acids prior to being consumed. When you look at a food chart talking about which foods are “alkalizing” and which foods are “acidifying” it is actually telling you which foods are going to deplete your bones and which ones aren’t. These charts are confusing to chemists who know nothing about nutrition since many of the “alkalizing” foods listed are foods that have a very low pH prior to consumption.
So why does chronic kidney disease cause an increase in parathyroid hormone? Dr. Keith A. Hruska may have an answer for us. Dr. Hruska is a professor of pediatrics, medicine and of cell biology and physiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is also head of pediatric nephrology at St. Louis Children's Hospital.
Dr. Hruska says:
“Chronic kidney disease produces hormonal factors that shut down the production of new bone. That’s not tolerated, and secondary hyperparathyroidism (the release of parathyroid hormone) turns out to be a form of compensation by the body – an attempt to prevent that shutdown.”
This, unfortunately, still begs the question of why our bodies think that parathyroid hormone will help when this hormone stimulates osteoclasts – the cells that break down bone, not build it. Either way, it has been shown that with or without parathyroid hormone, people with chronic kidney disease have weak bones and the full truth of why this is the case is yet to be discovered.
Nevertheless, there is a clear triad connection between kidney health, thyroid health, and bone health. If you want strong, healthy teeth then you’ll need to look after your kidneys and thyroid as well. Thankfully, the dietary protocols that have been outlined in this masterclass already aid your kidneys and thyroid in many ways which is probably part of why these dietary protocols work in the first place.
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Signs of Poor Kidney Function |
Kidneys are pretty amazing organs, right up there on the list of most critical along with your brain, liver, heart, and intestines. Blocked up kidneys are like a blocked up superhighway – the traffic jam just keeps spreading.
Signs that your kidneys aren’t working right include:
- Sore lower back
- Low sex drive
- Wrinkles, especially around the eyes (and especially wrinkles that appeared suddenly even in the absence of sun exposure)
- Fatigue
- Becoming easily stressed
- Brittle hair and nails
- Craving sweet foods
- Peeing a lot (even when you aren’t drinking a lot of fluids or eating diuretic foods)
- Being chronically cold
- Bone weakness
If the above is sounding familiar, then you’ll want to add some kidney-cleansing foods and herbs to your overall teeth-healing protocol. Remember, there is a reason most of the world thinks that healing cavities is impossible: because outside of indigenous cultures, healthy, cavity-free teeth are rare. Most people don’t know how to heal their teeth and they don’t even stumble onto the answers because our bodies are prioritizing a lot of other more vital things above our teeth, such as maintaining the right pH in our blood. Right now, however, I’m handing you the knowledge you need to become one of the exceptions – one of the people who says “No,” to the dentist, and “Yes,” to remineralizing your own teeth.
Nettle Leaf – Nettles help dissolve kidney stones, and help remove uric acid from your body. This is one of the most powerful herbs for kidney health and it is pretty mild in your tea. Combine this with horsetail for a bone-supporting tea during the cold winter months. Drinking hot tea also helps cleanse the lymph nodes around your jawline which in turn takes some of the stress off of your thyroid and parathyroid glands.
Asparagus – Like nettles, asparagus helps dissolve kidney stones and remove uric acid. Asparagus also contains high levels of a natural diuretic, the amino acid asparagine – named for having first been isolated from asparagus juice. Diuretics make you pee more often which helps keep the urinary tract clear and healthy.
Being a diuretic, however, isn’t that unusual for a fruit or vegetable. Below is a list of diuretic foods organized with the most potent ones first and the mild diuretics toward the end. Some of these foods (such as rhubarb or rice) may not be appropriate for all people with all conditions, so if a food is new to your diet, you may consider reading about its other properties before choosing to introduce it.
Diuretic Foods – Elderberries, hawthorn, cranberries, watermelon, asparagus, pineapple, nettle tea, horsetail, raspberries, currants, hibiscus, citrus peels (used as zest or in tea), juniper, blackberries, strawberries, birch leaf tea, uva ursi, parsley, pears, pumpkin, goldenrod tea, green tea, mate tea, hydrangea root, grapes, radish, horseradish, daikon radish, fennel, cucumbers, tomatoes, ginger tea, lettuce, celery, carrots, rhubarb, sauerkraut, rice, and potatoes.
Hibiscus – Mentioned in the diuretics above, hibiscus has also been shown to help kidneys filter blood effectively.
Chanca Piedra – This South American rainforest herb from Peru is used for gallstones, kidney stones, urinary infections, hepatitis, liver conditions, and improved bladder function. Chanca piedra breaks up both kidney and gallstones, stimulates production of bile, and helps clear blockages throughout your body.
Magnesium Malate – Foods and supplements that have magnesium in this form (rather than magnesium carbonate or magnesium citrate, for example) are fantastic for kidney issues because magnesium malate is magnesium bound to malic acid, which is the key component for eliminating uric acid.
Uva Ursi – The leaves and fruits of uva ursi have been used to treat nephritis, kidney stones, and chronic cystitis historically – this was the plant medicine used prior to the discovery of antibiotics. Uva ursi also has powerful anti-inflammatory properties.
Hydrangea Root – Yes, the same hydrangea that makes those beautiful, delicate clusters of pastel flowers in gardens across the globe. In ancient China, the hydrangea root was used as treatment for fever and malaria. Today, hydrangea root is still in use for its diuretic properties and its silica content.
Schizandra Berry – The “five flavor berry” is used as an astringent kidney tonic regulating urinary incontinence. Historically, it has been used in China for blood purification. Some tout schisandra berries as the most beneficial food for strengthening kidneys.
Amla Berry – Amla increases levels of superoxide dismutase, which reduces artery inflammation and strengthens the vascular system. It’s a powerful antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antispasmodic. It cleans and strengthens your kidneys. This berry is particularly helpful to people who spike their blood sugar often because it protects the blood vessels from insulin damage and improves your body’s insulin sensitivity.
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Common Toothpaste Ingredients to Avoid |
Triclosan in Toothpaste
The FDA is usually twenty years late when it finally gets around to banning something harmful. In 2016 they finally banned the use of triclosan in antibacterial liquid soaps. You will still find it, shockingly, in toothpaste, shaving gels, and other body products where it is used as a “preservative.” The FDA could ban triclosan in drugs, but not in products considered “cosmetic.”
University of Maine biochemist Julie Gosse, PhD, says: “We know that [triclosan] harms mitochondria, and we know that mitochondria function is essential for reproduction, and we know that triclosan affects reproduction.”
Dr. Gundry also warns against triclosan in his book, The Plant Paradox.
I don’t know about you, but that’s plenty of reasons for me to fully avoid triclosan in toothpaste and everywhere else.
Fluoride in Toothpaste
Fluoride is highly controversial. In the early 1900s a tribe was found to have unusually hard teeth. They had a low level of naturally occurring fluoride in the water. This particular fact has been touted for decades without being held up to close examination. Nobody asked how much iodine were these people getting. Iodine and fluorine are both halogens and can be used somewhat interchangeably in our bodies for a variety of purposes. Yet iodine is shown to have more benefits and far less risks.
The problem with fluoride is that it can displace iodine in your thyroid which impacts your thyroid’s release of bone-building hormones. Furthermore, while fluoride can be used as part of the structure of your bones in the same place that iodine can, it has been shown that bone structures with fluoride are more brittle and likely to chip despite being harder. We’ve all seen cracks in rocks – being hard doesn’t mean you can’t break.
For strong, flexible teeth, we need iodine and silica, not fluoride.
Fluorosis from too much fluoride is now recognized by western medicine as a real condition, but only extreme cases where your teeth are brown and rotting from too much fluoride are acknowledged as fluorosis. Mild cases of too much fluoride where your teeth are still mostly white, and you only need a few thousands dollars in dental work are considered “normal.”
While a genuinely trace amount of fluoride would benefit your teeth, most people are getting too much from their water supply and their toothpaste individually. Fluoridated water is also used as the basis for many flavored drinks. And yet non-fluoridated nations such as Belgium, Luxembourg, and Denmark actually have better dental health. Some countries tried fluoridation and then abandoned it years later such as Finland, Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland. After abandoning fluoridated water these countries saw no rise in tooth decay.
The improvement in dental health over time has been used to support fluoridated water, and yet countries with and without fluoridated water have had an improvement in overall dental health. Perhaps this is because over the past hundred years there has been an increase in basic knowledge about dental care, such as cleaning your teeth. This may seem like commonplace knowledge to you, but a hundred years ago it wasn’t so common. Cleaning your teeth is actually unnecessary for strong dentin if you have all the nutrition required, but most people are not getting the nutrition needed. Brushing and flossing help postpone tooth decay by providing a manual process for removing acids and bacteria that can get at your vulnerable, malnourished teeth.
In 1999, the British government asked the National Health Service to “carry out an up-to-date, expert scientific review of fluoride and health.” A research team based at the University of York evaluated the 3,200 studies on fluoridation that could be found. The team concluded that few of the thousands of studies counted as “high-quality research.” Trevor Sheldon, the head of the York review’s advisory board, said: “There’s really hardly any evidence” that fluoridation works, he told Newsweek. “And if anything there may be some evidence the other way.”
The fact that genuinely trace amounts of fluoride will aid most people’s teeth is repeatedly used to wash away the truth that most people are getting too much fluoride and not enough iodine.
I grew up using conventional toothpastes containing fluoride and drinking city water which contained fluoride. I rarely drank soda or ate candies as a child. In fact, in comparison to my peers, I had sweets about one tenth as often as they did. Keeping away from sugar, brushing, and using fluoride did not stop me from developing cavities. Getting the right nutrition is what saved my teeth.
If you don’t want to take my word on it, you can listen to doctors such as:
- Dr. Hardy Limeback, Former President of the Canadian Association for Dental Research
- Dr. Arvid Carlsson, Nobel Laureate in Medicine/Physiology
- Dr. Ludgwig Grosse
- Dr. Simon Beisler
- Dr. Dean Burk, PhHD, who spent 34 years at the National Cancer Institute
These doctors and thousands of others have very clearly stated that consuming fluoride is terrible for your health. Even the small amount of fluoride in toothpaste that you swallow each day is too large to be considered a beneficial, trace amount of fluoride. Hence, I recommend avoiding fluoridated water and fluoride in your toothpaste. You don’t need fluoride for healthy teeth, and by avoiding it you are more likely to stay within a range of fluoride consumption that is genuinely beneficial.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate in Toothpaste
Sodium lauryl sulfate is a synthetic additive commonly found in personal hygiene products and household detergents. This inexpensive compound is used to break down the molecules in the relevant product for better contact with one’s teeth, skin, or hair. It is also what provides that foamy, lathery effect. One of the many concerns about sodium lauryl sulfate is that during the manufacturing process it is likely to come in contact with carcinogens such as dioxane, which your body can’t assimilate.
Sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste can cause mouth ulcers, canker sores, and allergic reactions. And most relevantly, it actually breaks down any vulnerable enamel on the surface of your teeth.
This additive serves no useful function. Your toothpaste doesn’t need to be frothy and foamy to be effective. The texture provided by sodium lauryl sulfate is a marketing ploy that ultimately harms you.
Glycerin in Toothpaste
Glycerin is often found in natural toothpastes that are fluoride-free and sodium-lauryl-sulfate-free as well. It is a fairly safe ingredient but according to Dr. Gerard F. Judd the substance is sticky in such a way that it leaves a film on your teeth that prevents minerals in your saliva from benefiting your teeth. Judd explains that it takes twenty-seven rinses to remove glycerin from your teeth. I suppose you could brush your teeth with water thoroughly after brushing with a glycerin-based toothpaste, but it seems easier to just opt for a toothpaste based in bentonite clay.
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Avoiding Phytic Acid Completely |
Prior to the cultivation of grains, corn, and rice, human fossil records show that tooth decay was virtually non-existent. Phytic acid is present in seeds, which include grains, nuts, corn, rice, beans, and legumes. It prevents seeds from germinating prematurely. Seeds require the spring-time rains to sprout, because this is when they have the best chance of survival. If they sprouted at “any old time” then their species wouldn’t last long. Phytic acid is good for us in very small quantities, but when we eat diets that are primarily seed-based without first soaking the seeds (and getting the seed to think it is time to sprout), we consume way too much phytic acid.
As I stated earlier, seeds have become a large part of the human diet because they keep well. It isn’t that grains are healthy for us. Grains have been used for thousands of years as a way to store food against famine during droughts and winters. Traditionally these seeds have been sprouted or fermented prior to consumption which increased their nutritive value by removing most or all of the phytic acid.
Today, because of the marketing of “whole grains” as health foods, it is common for parents raising their children on a “healthy diet” to find that their teeth have loads of cavities. This is because the granola bars, cereals and oatmeal we’re feeding to our children have not been sprouted or fermented at all. These children are usually not getting enough vitamin A or vitamin D and are getting a megadose of phytic acid with every single breakfast.
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Protein |
Phytic acid isn’t the only villain in the bone-building saga. The excessive consumption of protein in American culture is another issue. The average American passes thirty grams of excess protein in their stool every day, where healthy people sampled in India were shown to have good muscle mass only consuming a total of thirty grams of protein per day. Americans who are consuming protein shakes and protein bars often exceed one hundred grams of protein in a day, which isn’t required even if you’re aiming to build muscle.
All that protein is hard on your kidneys, and excess protein also causes you to lose calcium in your urine. So, for the love of your bones, please stop aiming to increase your protein intake!
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Alcohol |
Alcohol is hard on your entire body and is a topic for a different article. With regards to your teeth, alcohol causes you to pass more calcium in your urine, and, of course, is hard on your kidneys.
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Bone Morphogenic Protein 7 |
Bone morphogenic protein is something our own bodies create, although it isn’t yet clear what stimulates more or less of them to be produced. What science does know thus far is that a particular bone morphogenic protein (or BMP-7, also known as “osteogenic protein-1”) is shown to improve bone growth as well as kidney development.
Injections of BMP-7 in mice with chronic kidney disease “not only stopped bone weakening but also ended vascular calcification.” It sounds just like vitamin K2, doesn’t it?
I wasn’t able to find any sources that talk about bone morphogenic protein and vitamin K2 in the same article, so I’m unsure of the relationship between these two powerful factors. It is possible that BMP-7 (bone morphogenic protein seven) works with K2 in some way, but it is equally possible that BMP-7 is our body’s only catalyst for moving calcium into the bones in the absence of vitamin K2. My personal theory is that there are many ways to synthesize BMP-7 and that the presence of vitamin K2 and/or other factors talked about in this masterclass (such as silica, vitamin A, or vitamin D) increase the ease with with our bodies create adequate amounts of BMP-7.
As of yet, there aren’t supplements for BMP-7 or any research on what habits encourage the production of it. This protein was only discovered around 2002 and still requires much more study. I suspect that we will discover that its production is enhanced by following the protocols laid out in this masterclass, as that would further explain why these protocols work.
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Coenzyme Q10 |
Coenzyme Q10 serves as a powerful antioxidant in our bodies with the superpower to switch between being a two-electron carrier and a one-electron carrier. It is used in a variety of vital processes in our organs, and some people swear by it for healing virtually anything. In particular, coenzyme Q10 has been shown to help regenerate diseased gums.
We have a natural ability to synthesize coenzyme Q10 from many foods, such as spinach, broccoli, and mackerel. However, just like our ability to transform K1 into K2 is often marginal, it is common that people are not getting enough Q10 for the same reasons. Stress, poor diet, genetic variations, environmental toxins, and chronic inflammation are just a few of the common reasons why our natural Q10 supply is too short.
While I have not personally tried coenzyme Q10 supplements myself yet, they’re on my bucket list of things to try out on myself.
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Lectins |
In the protocol I gave you in the beginning of this masterclass I advised avoiding lectins. Why? Lectins and their role in health isn’t fully understood, but Dr. Gundry’s book The Plant Paradox draws a very clear connection between certain foods and health problems. Gundry’s theory is that the lectins in these foods are ones that our bodies can’t tolerate without the appropriate microflora and so people who have taken too many antibiotics – that’s most of us – can’t tolerate these foods very well anymore.
One of the case studies in the book is about a woman whose arthritis flared up terribly in response to eating the foods on Gundry’s shun list. While the distress from lectins may originate in your intestines, inflammation in your gut has body-wide ramifications. If your gut is inflamed and irritated, your body is likely going to need all of its vitamin and mineral resources to deal with that. From your body’s perspective, your teeth are optional. Your intestines, kidneys, and liver are not.
For this reason, I recommend you stay away from the most problematic lectin-containing foods. Many of these foods also have a terrible calcium to phosphorus ratio and are known to be directly bad for your teeth anyhow.
Foods to avoid:
- Skins and seeds of nightshades and squash (such as tomatoes and cucumbers)
- Wheat, bran, kamut
- Corn
- Beans
- Peanuts
- Brown rice (white rice is okay in moderation if it is pressure-cooked)
- Sunflower and pumpkin seeds
- Cottonseed and cottonseed oil
- Canola oil, safflower oil, corn oil, grapeseed oil, and sunflower oil
To create the above list easily, I referenced a massive, comprehensive spreadsheet I have hosted on my google drive. My spreadsheet includes over two hundred foods and seventeen different eating paradigms including Paleo, The Plant Paradox, FODMAP, GAPS, each of the Ayruvedic Doshas, and my own diet.
For each eating paradigm and each food I’ve put down a detailed note about how that food is handled from that paradigm. For example, in the Ayruvedic dosha, vata, for mangoes, I have, “Yes, warm or cooked.” This means that you are good to go with mangoes as a vata, but it is advised that you eat your mangoes warm or cooked. Whereas the FODMAP diet says, “Limit or avoid,” and Phase III of The Plant Paradox Diet says, “Seasonal or green, limit.”
This detailed, color-coded chart is seasonally updated with more data as I collect it, and all of my patrons get access to it. To consider becoming a patron and to see all of my free posts (as much of my content on patreon is free for everyone), visit patreon.com/Raederle.
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Stress Forms Cavities |
After studying food, health, and nutrition for fifteen years I finally came to a startling conclusion that went contrary to many of the beliefs I’d held for most of my life. I realized that stress is literally the most toxic thing that most people ever face.
Stress hormones put everything in your body on halt. When you’re under stress you’re not building bones, you’re not repairing and rebuilding muscle, and you’re producing waste that antioxidants have to come along and clean up. A diet rich in antioxidants, such as vitamin C, will help combat the impact of stress, but it can’t do everything.
While it is commonly known that you can easily develop type two diabetes from consuming refined sweeteners on a daily basis, it isn’t widely known that you can also develop this disease from chronic stress. This is because stress actually does the same damage to your insulin release cycle.
Stress has a direct impact on your teeth through changing the pH of your saliva. Your saliva is meant to be slightly alkaline, but stress turns it somewhat acidic instead. If you had healthy teeth rich in calcium, silica, and iodine, then this acidic environment wouldn’t bother your teeth, just like vinegar wouldn’t bother your teeth. But if you combine chronic stress with a diet rich in phytic acid, and low in minerals you have the perfect recipe for a mouth full of cavities.
The insidious thing about chronic stress is that many people have it without knowing they have it. Because chronic stress is created with thought patterns, being chronically stressed may seem like you just being, well, you.
Here is a checklist of things that indicate you have chronic stress – the more that apply to you, the more chronic your own stress is:
- Short, shallow breaths that sometimes seem inadequate
- Strong cravings for sweet foods
- Frequent illnesses
- Chronic inflammation or bodily pain, including fibromyalgia
- Frequent headaches, including migraines
- Excess sensitivity to sensory stimuli such as smells or light quality, including MCS
- Difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep or waking up
- Muscle tension or particular knots that never seem to fully abate
- Troubled skin
- Dizziness and/or poor circulatory health, including POTS
- Chronic fatigue
- Rushing and/or procrastinating followed by rushing
- Anxiety attacks, social anxiety, and/or panic attacks
- Prolonged or recurring depression
It is important to understand that chronic stress may correlate to your external life – your work environment, your family life, and so on – but it is mostly about what is going on in your thoughts.
Your negative thoughts about your environment and experiences, including your subconscious thoughts, trigger the release of stress hormones. In many cases the process is so streamlined that certain sensory stimuli (such as the tone in someone’s voice) cause immediate stress hormone release before you’ve even had a conscious thought about that person’s tone. You may already be feeling dizzy or have a headache coming on before you’ve had a conscious thought about the sensory stimuli that serves as the trigger.
This is a form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and virtually everyone has a little of it because all of us experienced childhood trauma and few of us have retrained our brains to stop releasing stress hormones. To learn more about the link between childhood trauma and disease, you can read my article, Developmental Trauma.
The above conditions are definitely exacerbated by lifestyle choices such as a poor diet, lack of exercise, and cell phone addiction, however, changing the chronic thought patterns behind your stress is more than half the battle. Once you’re thinking differently you will also feel differently and no longer crave comfort foods as much. Once you’re feeling better you’ll have more energy for exercise. And once you have less stress you’ll turn to the internet less often for distraction.
Shifting these stuck, stressful thought patterns is the subject of thousands of people’s careers. I call the collection of practices designed to shift your neural pathways, Consciousness Alchemy. To help you begin growing new, healthy neural connections, I’ve developed a practice which reveals your subconscious beliefs while improving your brain’s flexibility. You can learn this practice and begin retraining your brain with my book, Perspective Alchemy.
You can also reduce your stress hormones and begin forming new brain habits through practices such as coloring and journaling. I recommend Waveward Dreams coloring book, and the Alchemy Workbook journal as companions in your journey to rebalancing the hormones released in your body.
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Visiting The Dentist: My Results |
As I mentioned above, I went to see a dentist in September 2018. They poked at all of the cavities I found in my mouth and said that all of them were hard, healthy, and not currently in a state of decay. Furthermore, my gums were healthy and my teeth barely needed cleaning.
I asked the dental hygienist how long she would guess it had been since my last cleaning and she said, “I would think this was your six-month check-up, but based on how you just asked me that question, I’m guessing it must have been longer.”
“It’s been thirteen years,” I said.
“Wow,” she said. “Whatever you’re doing, keep doing it!”
