The Dental Diet: Teeth, Food and Health

Hay House Radio Episode Recap

  • Episode Name: “The Dental Diet: Teeth, Food and Your Health”
  • Live Broadcast: April 3rd, 2018 at 12:00 pm Pacific Time
Episode Replays: Tuesdays at 9:00 pm Pacific Time / 12:00 am Eastern Time, Saturdays at 2:00 pm Pacific Time / 5:00 pm Eastern Time, Sundays at 4:00 pm Pacific Time / 7:00 pm Eastern Time

Episode Summary Re-cap

Crooked teeth, cavities, and dental problems have a stronger link to your diet and health than you think!
Joining Heather is Dr. Steven Lin, author of The Dental Diet: The Surprising Link between Your Teeth, Real Food, and Life-Changing Natural Health.  Find out what the mouth-body connection is and why it’s the gateway to optimal health. Learn the important foods, nutrients, and mouth exercises that can improve your health.

Dr STEVEN LINSpecial Guest: Dr. Steven Lin

Dr. Steven Lin is a world-leading functional dentist, TEDx speaker and author of the International #1 Amazon Best Selling Book, The Dental Diet. As a passionate preventative, whole health-advocate, Dr. Lin focuses on the understanding of dental disease through nutritional principles. His work has highlighted that crooked teeth and the orthodontia epidemic are a diet based problem, and that it needs to be public health policy to prevent braces in the next generation of children.

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Join The Wellness Project by Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation, featuring Dr. Steven Lin

Dental Problems on the Rise

In the United States alone, trips to the emergency room for dental issues has doubled in the past decade. Studies show that cavities are increasing and the worldwide root canal market is expected to grow at 8% between now and 2023. As we watch these numbers soar, we are also seeing digestive issues, autoimmune and neuroimmune diseases rising globally. What is happening to our health?

Dr. Steven Lin was asking himself these questions when he took time off to travel the world and came across Dr. Weston A. Price’s book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration on a hostel bookshelf in Turkey. As he read the book, he realized this was the missing link. In dental school, they weren’t teaching the connection between nutrition, crowded teeth, dental caries, and gut health. Dr. Weston A. Price’s work filled in the gaps and reignited Dr. Lin’s passion for a new paradigm of dentistry: the functional dentist.

What is a Functional Dentist?

In the 1930’s, Dr. Weston A. Price traveled the world for 10 years to study 14 indigenous communities around the world to identify the link between beautiful, straight, strong teeth, healthy physical health and emotional stability. His research showed that nutrition was the cause of good health, great facial and jaw development and emotional wellbeing. In fact, he found that within one generation of eating processed foods, like refined sugar and flour, health problems would arise.

His findings were documented in his book, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, which shows pictures clearly outlining the physical changes resulting from embracing processed foods. It also outlines dietary recommendations for improving dental and overall health.

These days, dentists who practice “whole person” health, including nutrition and lifestyle – rather than just looking at teeth alone – are called functional dentists. Some dentists practice according to Weston A. Price’s philosophies and others also use a holistic approach to dentistry, with more natural practices and materials.

Dentists like Dr. Steven Lin want to get to the root cause of why something is going wrong with teeth, jaw and facial structure, airways and overall health, so that they are treating the patient, rather than just the teeth.

What is Going Wrong with Jaw Structure and Teeth?

Dr. Lin explained that your mouth is the gateway to your entire body. Crooked teeth are a symptom of a poorly developed upper and lower jaw. Your jaw bones contain not only your teeth, but also your airways, vessels and the bony structure for your brain. When you see children or adults with long, skinny faces, open mouths, circles under their eyes, and a slumped posture, you will likely find that they are breathing with their mouths instead of nasal breathing.

Mouth breathing can lead to more dental issues, teeth grinding, oxygen deprivation to the brain, poor sleep, mood challenges, brain fog, and digestive challenges.

Tongue placement is also critical for proper nasal breathing, swallowing, and jaw and airway development. Most people today don’t have their tongue in the proper place for optimal nasal breathing. On top of this, some children and adults have tongue tie, which is an extra flap of collagen that restricts the tongue from doing its job. See the end of this article to learn more about tongue tie, teeth grinding, and sleep issues related to cranio-facial development.

What About the Oral Microbiome?

Just like your gut has a microbiome – the community of good and bad bacteria that are supposed to work in harmony for your overall health – your mouth has a microbiome. A healthy mouth has a harmonious community of bacteria and the right nutrients (namely minerals) to keep your tooth enamel strong. It’s important to keep your oral microbiome strong because it travels down your digestive tract and contributes to the health of your gut microbiome. Every time you swallow, you are delivering bacteria into your gut. Keeping this bacterial community healthy is essential.

Foods to Eat and Avoid for A Healthy Mouth-Gut Microbiome

As science continues to find evidence of what creates a healthy oral and gut microbiome, and therefore, a healthy body, we see further validation of Dr. Weston A. Price’s work. And validation that our indigenous ancestors had a deep knowing about how to eat for optimal health. When you eat optimally, the nutrients feed immune system, which helps to keep your teeth, brain, and body healthy and strong.

Here are the foods to avoid:

  • Sugar – especially refined cane sugar and high fructose corn syrup
  • Simple carbohydrates – for example, refined flour, cereals, cake, cookies, candy, and pasta
  • Refined vegetable oils and trans fats – like margarine, corn oil, canola oil, etc. These are often in processed foods.
  • Processed food and fast food
  • Factory farmed meats, poultry, and eggs.

Here are foods to eat for a healthy oral and gut microbiome:

  • Vegetables in abundance, especially green leafy vegetables, root vegetables (carrots, beets, radish, turnip, parsnip), etc.
  • Prebiotics, like garlic, asparagus, onions, leeks, dandelion greens, and banana
  • Herbs, such as basil, dill, thyme, parsley, and oregano
  • Fermented foods, like raw milk kefir, raw milk cheese, sauerkraut and kimchi
  • Organ meats (offal), like liver, heart, and kidney
  • Grassfed meats, pasture fed poultry, and pastured eggs
  • Wild caught fish and seafood
  • Bone Broth
  • Unrefined fats, like raw grassfed butter, grassfed ghee, pastured duck fat, pastured lard, grassfed beef tallow, pastured chicken schmaltz, extra virgin olive oil, virgin coconut oil, palm oil, sesame oil
  • Legumes, like alfalfa, beans, chickpeas, and lentils
  • Nuts, seeds, and spices
  • Fruits like avocado, cucumber, tomato and pepper

Here Are Some Articles By Dr. Lin That You Can Read For More On Mouth-Gut-Body Health

Sleep issues in kids
Tongue-Tie in Kids
Tongue-tie in Adults
Teeth Grinding in Adults

Join Me for The Wellness Project by Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation with Dr. Steven Lin on Sunday, May 6th at 2:00 pm Pacific Time / 5:00 pm Eastern Time / 9 pm GMT!

The Wellness Project by Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation is a non-profit educational and support program to support you in your healing journey! This program is offered on a sliding scale, so that anyone can attend, regardless of budget.

 This event is being offered online (via streaming video with chat).

In The Mouth-Gut-Body Connection, You Will Learn:

  • Symptoms and Syndromes of Poor Jaw, Dental and Airway Development – Your jaw, teeth, and airways are part of a very precise architecture. Nutrition and other factors can upset this architecture and create misalignment that can affect how your jaw, teeth, and airways develop. Dr. Lin will reveal how poor development can cause gut and metabolic issues.
  • Dental-Development, the Cranio-facial System and Jaw Growth – Discover how a misshapen upper and lower jaw can lead to eye, sinus, and airway problems; along with oxygen deprivation, TMJ, digestive issues, facial muscle challenges, and more. Learn tips to identify these issues, along with solutions.
  • Nutrition and Epigenetic Principles for Optimal Dental Growth – Nutrition is deeply linked with how your jaw develops, the health of your teeth, your mouth and gut microbiome, and your metabolic health. Dr. Lin will teach you the principles of optimal mouth-gut-body health using nutrition and epigenetics. The science of epigenetics sheds light on the 95% of our health that we can support with ideal nutrition and lifestyle, rather than the small percent that is genetically determined. Find out which foods to eat and avoid.
  • Vitamin and Mineral Considerations for Dental Health – Learn the key vitamins and minerals that support your dental and overall health.
  • Q&A – Ask questions about these health remedies related to your health questions. Participants who attend live or online will be able to ask questions. Participants who register, but can’t make the live event can pre-submit questions.
  • Video Recording – All people who register for the live event will also get the video recording.

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Tune in Next Week

Heather DaneTune in next week to 21st Century Medicine Woman, when Heather discusses the Do’s and Don’t of gut healing. SIBO, candida, leaky gut, parasites, food allergies…what’s the difference and what can you do about it? What’s the right diet to follow?

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As a coach, writer and recovered former executive, I understand the challenges of creating a balanced, healthy lifestyle when over-scheduled. In my journey to radiant health, I created a whole health system of eating, exercise, renewal and recharging -- a roadmap toward health & vitality. I empower clients to create their own whole health systems, in their own unique ways. I have seen amazing results in working with my clients!