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Dr. George: Tooth Decay Has Many Sources
Published in the Ojai Valley News, unknown date.
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Dear Dr. Meinig:
I don’t know whether or not you have the answer to my questions, but perhaps you can give me some direction. I have been studying nutrition for about six years after reading Price’s Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Recently I began to study it again as I’m trying to figure out why my 3½ -year-old son has several tooth cavities.
It is very discouraging as he has been raised on fresh, whole natural foods only. He was breast fed for two years and weaned on goat’s milk. He never has had cod liver oil because we are vegetarians and I have been concerned about pollutants that are in dirty ocean water.
Price talked about high vitamin butter that contained Factor X and I thought It could help him. Do we have any Factor X butter available in California? We have been using margarine. How come on these good foods our boy has these cavities? – S.R.
Dear S.R:
Generally infants that are breast fed for two years and do not eat junk food will, for the most part, have freedom from tooth decay. However, it is a shock to learn one’s teeth can become decayed even when the diet is composed of good natural foods.
Imbalances in one’s body chemistry can be produced in a number of ways. For vegetarians, the most common reason tooth decay occurs is too low an intake of protein. You hear a lot about having enough calcium but it is equally important to have a good dietary source of phosphorus.
This element is readily available from meat, fish, poultry and eggs. Even though phosphorus can be obtained from grain food, peas, beans and nuts, experience has shown, with over 10,000 patients, that it is much easier to obtain a suitable phosphorus level from foods of animal origin than from those of the vegetable kingdom.
Vegetarians, and particularly their children, are prone to use large amounts of fruit and vegetable juices. These are particularly high in sugar and in potassium. Both cause a reduction in the amount of calcium present in the saliva, a key protective factor. Another common contributor to tooth decay is the overuse of sweet fruits such as raisins and dates. Still another is the overuse of honey.
If none of these dietary practices apply in your child’s case, another possible reason his teeth have decayed is too high an intake of cereals. Grain foods make the saliva acid and more hospitable to the bacteria that cause tooth decay. Also, their magnesium and sodium content reduce calcium levels. Cod liver oil has been used for many years as a good source of vitamin D and its essential fatty acids. Vitamin D plays an important role in the utilization of calcium.
When we consider how polluted are our land crops, deep water fish are still considered our safest wildlife food. However, fish caught close to large industrial areas and cities would best be avoided.
Dr. Weston Price discovered an unknown substance in butter he called Factor X. He found that it was only present in animals that fed on lush green pastures in the spring of the year. The people who used Factor X butter all experienced fantastic health.
Most of our dairy cattle in California are mainly on dry feed instead of green pasture. To my knowledge, there is no source of Factor X butter in this country but it is available in New Zealand.
One of the highest quality butters available locally is Stueve’s natural raw certified butter. It is a much better product than margarine. Stueve’s is run by the Alta-Dena Dairy people. It is a separate company set up to handle raw certified dairy products.