teeth

[Terence]

Terence, you mentioned you were eating a low carb diet before switching to Wai. I'm curious, was it a raw low carb version, ie, were you eating raw meat, or cooked? thanks Van

Van, I tried both, cooked and raw (and mixed) low carb diets several times.
But after many months I had to learn that my body is not able to handle such amounts of animal food, whereas raw is much better than cooked. But especially raw animal fats like suet etc. gave me a lot of problems. Furthermore it seems to be impossible for me to be happy without fruits. But low carb, high fat AND fruits doesn´t work...

Fruits + olive oil seem to work well together and digestion is perfect.

Terence

[Oscar]

Thanks for your recommendation! What do you think of porcelain fillings?

You're welcome. There are two problems with porcelain I can think of: 1) you cannot mold it to fit in the preparation, you have to make it beforehand, which also means the preparation has to be slightly bigger, 2) it's stronger than enamel, so it will affect the opposite tooth. It's probably also far more expensive.

If I remember correctly you are a dentist (?).

I used to be one (of course diplomawise I still am), now I'm a musician.

What have been your personal experiences with wai´s diet, high in fruits, regarding teeth?
And what do you think about fruits and teeth in general?

In the beginning my teeth seemed to react quite a bit, but if that was the getting used to the fruit, needing to get stronger, rigorous cleaning, or all three, I don't know. I feel my teeth have grown stronger since, though I can see some whitening which could be enamel erosion. I have an old cavity-to-be, which hasn't reacted at all.

There are so many factors playing a role in this, that I think it's hard to explain everything. Let me address a few:
1) What is the general condition of the teeth?
2) What is the influence of diet on the strength of the teeth?
3) How strong are different acids (fruit acids, lactic acid), considering teeth with different strengths?

ad 1) How old is the individual, and how long has he been on another diet (SAD, vegan, etc)? How much fluoride (treatment) has the individual had? Genetics?
I believe fruit+animal protein is the ideal diet for humans, but if we (boldly) extrapolate Pottenger's findings with cats, can our teeth, being far beyond the 3rd generation, still deal with it?

ad 2) This diet is meant to get the body in an optimal state, considering the possibilities, but does that include making the teeth stronger?

ad 3) If fruits were the staple of our food, and Streptococcus Mutans has been in our mouths forever, we should be able to handle those acids without problem.

Of course no research has (yet) been done to clarify these questions, so we have to use our common sense, scientific knowledge, and personal experiences. Basically we are the first experiment. I already feel like a lab rat...

[Marty]

Interestingly enough, my brother came upon this diet online after taking B5 recommended to him to solve bruxism (tooth grinding in the night).


The B5 link is very interesting.

He noticed it cleared his skin, in fact; then searched online and somehow found the old Wai boards.

[Terence]

...I used to be one (of course diplomawise I still am), now I'm a musician.

That´s great!

.. I feel my teeth have grown stronger since, though I can see some whitening which could be enamel erosion. I have an old cavity-to-be, which hasn't reacted at all.

Sounds good, too. I have noticed that my saliva has become much stronger or much more or both. And I feel that this is very good for my teeth. LowCarb diets seems to decrease saliva secretion.

Terence

[Oscar]

Interesting observation!

[nick]

I second that!
My saliva is much stronger.
It is so cool

[RRM]

my saliva has become much stronger

My saliva is much stronger

Huh?
How do you experience that?

[Terence]

my saliva has become much stronger

My saliva is much stronger

Huh?
How do you experience that?

There is simply much more saliva in my mouth
and this saliva feels very 'strong' to my teeth,
it feels very good, somehow protecting.

After several months of low carb and very low carb dieting,
I can feel the sugar of one single piece of fruit 'burning'
on every teeth. Now, after some weeks, my saliva avoids
this 'burning' feeling. It don´t mean the acidity of some fruits,
it´s definetely the sugar. Bananas are worst.

Nevertheless I still feel that more than 50-75grams of sugar
per day seems to be harmful to my body. Just the amount to
be out of heavy ketosis seems to suit best for my body.

Terence

[nick]

My saliva feels thicker and more able to cope with the acidity of the fruits. The response is faster too, to acidic fruits. But too acidic like not-quite-there pineapple will still burn my tongue and make my teeth feel brittle if I eat too much of it.
It is such a tempting fruit!

[Terence]

My saliva feels thicker and more able to cope with the acidity of the fruits. The response is faster too, to acidic fruits. But too acidic like not-quite-there pineapple will still burn my tongue and make my teeth feel brittle if I eat too much of it.
It is such a tempting fruit!

Nick, did you get any teeth problems while staying on this diet?

My teeth are definetely getting worse, even the better saliva is not able to prevent further tooth attack / decay.

Terence

[nick]

I did experience some tooth demineralization, but I'm not sure if that was the toothpaste. I don't use toothpaste and ever since I stopped, my teeth are fine. This is the only major problem I can see with this diet, yet there are factors which play a role. As of now, my teeth are fine as long as I make sure the fruit is ripe. This is key, because the less ripe, the more acids there are. The more ripe to just becoming over-ripe is where the acids have been converted to sugars. This is the best time to eat fruit.

[RRM]

How long have you been on the diet, Terence?

[Terence]

How long have you been on the diet, Terence?

4-5 weeks.

Terence

[RRM]

Other than regarding acne, constipation and stuff like that, there arent much conclusions to be drawn from doing this diet regarding teeth or bones, considering how long you are on this diet...
Time will tell.

[avalon]

Should we be brushing our Teeth at all? Maybe a good rinse and a floss?