How To Save Your Teeth On A Raw Food Or Vegan Diet

Many cavity-stricken health seekers have previously tried and failed to implement a high-fat, processed, fruit-light raw food diet, or some variation of a vegan diet, and the the foods they consumed have done their mouth serious damage.

If not well managed, such diets imperil your teeth, with cavities commonly popping up after a year or so.

Luckily, healthy raw diets are fantastic for your teeth. My dentists always compliment me on the state of my mouth, and note there isn't much to clean.

It's not that I'm in any way special, and I got my fair share of cavities before I learned how to eat well. Now I simply eat foods that don't cause cavities.

When my coaching clients are looking for answers to their dental problems, this is what I tell them.

Why You Get Cavities On Vegan Diets

SAD eaters get plenty of cavities, of course, but when you upgrade by giving up meat, eggs, and dairy, or decide to experience of benefits of a raw food diet, you'd expect your oral health to get better, not worse.

Unfortunately, this is often not the case due to poor implementation. When most people go vegan, they tend to replace animal foods with grains, starchy tubers, nuts, seeds, and other processed vegan foods; this is a mistake with a long history of causing problems.

Prior to the large-scale adoption of agriculture about 10,000 years ago, cavities were rare. During the paleolithic and mesolithic ages, dental decay was pretty unusual, and recovered skeletal remains only begin having large numbers of cavities at the start of the neolithic age, when the species started to farm and eat grain crops (1).

When native Americans were pure hunter gatherers, they had virtually no dental decay, but when they started growing corn and consuming it dried as a staple, cavities started appearing in the skeletal record (2).

The major cause of cavities is low water, sticky foods of all kinds. As civilization arose, the fresh, high-water fruits, vegetables, and other gathered foods that man thrived on for millenia were phased out of the diet and replaced by these dried foods.

When consumed, they often stick to our teeth. The body deploys acid to get them off, which is fine on occasion, but when your diet is dominated by these dried foods (in some areas of the developing world grains make up over 90 percent of the caloric of peoples' diets, and modern grain-centric vegan diets are little better) the acid eats away at your teeth and leads to cavities.

Processed, Dried Raw Foods Also Cause Cavities

People want to believe that because of a food is raw, it is magically always good. This is not so, and there are numerous examples of unhealthy raw foods.

Dried fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and processed raw food products probably have an even greater ability to stick to our teeth than grains, and it's unfortunate that these are major staples of the diets of many raw foodists. By consuming these foods regularly, you're just asking for cavities.

The answer is to go back and eat the diet that our ancestors ate for millenia: whole, fresh, raw, ripe fruits and greens.

Self Cleaning And Dental Care:

When it comes to medical care, less is often better than more. Doctors are great at stitching you back together after physical trauma, but they have a pretty shoddy record when it comes to reversing disease, and I don't see them for checkups.

On the other hand, dentists do a great service for us by preventing tooth decay, and I highly suggest everyone find a dentist or dental hygenist and get twice-a-year cleanings.

Many people have teeth or mouth settups that make cleaning certain areas harder, and a good cleaning can remove buildup from these areas and prevent damage.

I also suggest you floss twice a day and brush at least once. Personally, I don't use toothpaste, but do make use of some baking soda on ocassion.

For any acumulation around the gumlines, I have a small dental pick.

Juice And Acid Fruit

Acidic fruits, such as oranges, as well as juice, often get blamed for cavities and tooth decay. This has so far not been my experience.

Particularly during the winter months when it's abundant and tasty, I eat plenty of citrus fruit, often two large meals a day. So far I've had no tooth decay, so it doesn't appear to be doing me any harm.

Juice is a rare treat for me, and I don't suggest it be consumed regularly. However, it strains logic that raw juice could be a significant contributor to tooth decay. I eat tons of juicy fruit every day, and my teeth are bathed in it with every mouthful. Is the presence of a bit of fiber really going to make much difference?

To be safe, you may wish to swish your mouth with water after eating acidic fruit or juice, but I personally don't think it's a big deal.

Save Your Teeth: Following Up

Learn how to eat a healthy raw food diet.

Figure out which foods are healthy to eat.

Save Your Teeth: Sources

1) Whittle, A., & Whittle, A. 1996. Europe in the Neolithic: the creation of new worlds. Cambridge University Press

2) Mullin, M. (n.d). Iroquoia: The Development of a Native World (Book). American Indian Culture and Research Journal. 27(3), 112-114

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