Are you suffering teeth sensitivity after starting a Ray Peat style diet?

In a Ray Peat Diet, that is a Pro metabolic diet inspired by Ray Peat, we eat a lot of fruit and drink a lot of fruit juice. This is because fruit was the source of carbohydrates preferred by Ray Peat for many reasons.

Sugar Carbs

Briefly, we are specifically sugar carbohydrate focused, to adequately fuel the thyroid as this gland/hormone drives the whole body’s metabolic rate. Fruit in particular is preferred because it is half glucose & half fructose, so only half of it requires insulin to be shuttled into cells, the rest being processed by the liver. And the sugar content of it also comes with fibre, water & a pile of nutrients including B vitamins, which are essential to turn the sugar into energy in the body.

So given that we are eating fruit & fruit juice at every meal, I myself suffered teeth sensitivity at the beginning of my Ray Peat Diet journey which I mention in this article.

It improved a little over time with a nutrient rich diet, but my all-day eating habits to overcome my insulin resistance, as well as tendency to linger over coffee with sugar in it for over an hour added to the acid load my poor teeth had to bear, on top of eating fruit and fruit juice as well.

It got to the point where, if I was eating any sugar at all, I would have to brace myself, as my teeth would really hurt until I rinsed it off. I knew I couldn’t continue like this. Not only was it painful but I could see the sides of my teeth where I would brush were wearing out and then small cavities were starting to form in these areas.

What my dentist said…

My dentist would only say “you have very good strong teeth” and when I questioned about the sides wearing out, he would only say, “you’re brushing too hard.” So queue soft toothbrushes and sensitive teeth toothpaste — until I knew better.

But then one day, we were talking all things teeth in my private Ray Peat group, and a very knowledgeable member mentioned the Dr Ellie protocol he had been following, which basically saved him from having to have all his teeth out!

I looked into Dr Ellie— she is a dentist of over 50 years and is a bit of a rebel just like Ray Peat was in the medical community. While her peers were pursuing more and more costly procedures with which they could patch up their patients teeth for a temporary fix but long term issues, Dr Ellie was more into preventative dentistry. Teaching people how to care for their own teeth at home, so they didn’t have to have expensive, painful, invasive procedures and suffer for years.

That’s my kind of doctor.

So I watched many of her videos on Youtube where she generously gives all her information for anyone to follow. I could immediately see where I went wrong, and was so relieved to find out I could reverse my sensitivity, stop cavities forming and continue to eat fruit, drink juice, sugar & coffee, have a fired up metabolism and still have great teeth. For me the decrease in sensitivity happened within a few days.

 

So here are the highlights:-

• Your teeth are continually being eroded by ANY carbohydrates you eat—not just sugar or sour fruit — which turns into an acid in your mouth.
• Luckily your teeth are continually being repaired as well, by your mineral-rich saliva.
• One of the key points though, is to have your meal & any drinks at the one time, in a short window. Then rinse your mouth with water immediately afterwards, to bring the PH level in your mouth back to neutral, so you don’t leave your teeth bathing in acid for too long.
• Ideally you should also chew xylitol gum for 5-10 mins after rinsing, which definitely brings the PH in your mouth to alkaline and also encourages the saliva flow in your mouth to begin the tooth repair within 5 minutes. (Without gum or a xylitol mint it takes an hour to happen naturally.)
• Space your meals out allowing at least 3-4 hours between to allow your teeth to repair in the mineral-rich saliva. Even drinking water messes up the repair process. So drink if you are thirsty but understand the implications, and definitely DO NOT sip OJ all day. I’ve heard people say their Peaty health coach told them to sip OJ all day, but it is very BAD advice and you will damage your teeth if you continue to do it.
• End a meal with a tooth protective food. Now if you are somewhere and you can’t rinse your mouth with water & chew xylitol gum, then the least you can do is reduce the acidity in your mouth by eating something like hard cheese, whole milk or celery or carrot stick. This will at least bring the acidity down closer to neutral than your OJ was, for example.
• One last important point that Dr Ellie made was that a healthy microbiome in your mouth is the key to repair of teeth as well. Bad mouth bacteria can actually be easily spread to family members & loved ones and isn’t often spoken about. The xylitol protocol assists with a healthy microbiome as it starves bad bacteria of food and they end up dying.

Dr Ellie Protocol

Now Dr Ellie has a whole protocol of mouth washes & specific toothpaste to use, even a special way to brush your teeth. So if you want to go the whole way, then I recommend you watch her videos on YouTube. I have been doing all of it and highly recommend it. My teeth are no longer sensitive. They no longer hurt if I eat sugar, fruit or fruit juice. Any small cavities that were previously forming have stopped. She claims they can be reversed but I haven’t found that to be true yet. I plan to continue on with all of her suggestions though as they are a life changer and my teeth feel so much smoother, whiter and brighter and definitely not at all sensitive any more.

Also I wanted to touch on a few things that were recommended in a Ray Peat group when discussing teeth which may lead people astray:

Brushing after each meal was suggested.

• this is bad advice because teeth are weak and soft in an acidic environment and you will wear them down & cause damage especially close to the gums. Rinsing & xylitol is far better with brushing only twice a day—after breakfast once PH is neutralised & last thing at night.

Ensuring the diet had enough calcium & other minerals as well as A, D, E, & K.

• this was fair enough as your body DOES need the minerals to repair the teeth however, it still doesn’t mean you can sip OJ all day or leave the acids on your teeth. The rinsing and neutralising acids protocol is still essential.

Using hydroxyapatite in toothpaste

• Dr Ellie does NOT recommend this as “minerals from NHA appear to coat the tooth surface and do not enter it to heal or build the internal enamel structure in a normal way. Instead, NHA creates a coating on the surface. “ So potentially you are blocking the normal mineral healing of teeth instead of helping it.

Oil Pulling

• once again Dr Ellie does not recommend this as it upsets the microbiome in the mouth. Just coating teeth with oil most likely interferes with the saliva/mineral healing process.

Brushing or rinsing with baking soda

• again Dr Ellie cautions against this both as a rinse or to use for brushing…
• “Some Mouth Rinses Strip Teeth of Protective Proteins. Avoid rinsing with hydrogen peroxide or baking soda – especially if you have sensitive teeth, gum recession, or a groove at the gum line.”
• “ …baking soda may damage the protein layer that protects teeth and gums from mechanical, thermal, and chemical assault. This layer is also important for attracting minerals to teeth, so its loss would cause sensitivity. “

Mineral Imbalance

• getting enough minerals & having them in balance is important (i.e. just like too much meat instead of dairy can cause phosphate to be higher than calcium which causes other issues like joint pain etc not just teeth issues.) However, even if your minerals are perfectly balanced, you will still not achieve optimal teeth health if you’re not having adequate breaks between meals & drinks and if you are not rinsing your teeth and returning the mouth to a neutral PH as soon as possible.

Avoiding certain “sour” fruits or other foods to help your teeth

– ALL carbohydrates turn to acid in your mouth, ALL of them. Not just sour fruits, not just sugar, ALL of them—potatoes, rice, vegetables with carbs in them, bread, milk with lactose. Now we know how important carbs are for thyroid health and our health generally, so avoiding carbs because of your teeth is not the answer. The answer is to eat within a short window of time, enough space between meals, rinsing after meals with water to get the acid off the teeth as quickly as possible, xylitol gum & an appropriate brushing protocol.

Pinch of bicarb soda in the OJ to reduce acidity

• now I used to do this too, however it only REDUCES acidity, it doesn’t return it to neutral. So all of the abovementioned protocols to assist your teeth are still necessary for optimal tooth health.
• Also I’m wondering now if this suggestion may cause more harm than good? As Dr Ellie outlined above, bicarb soda tends to destroy the protein layer of your teeth which seems to be harming rather than helping?
• Just the tiny pinch may be ok as when Dr Ellie mentioned a bicarb soda rinse, I think people are putting like 1 tsp of bicarb soda in a glass of water. However for me personally, I think I will stop even the pinch as I trust Dr Ellie as my teeth have never felt better.

Now a couple of final points I wanted to make:

Xylitol

This is a sugar substitute that has no caloric value, it’s suggestion for use is ONLY for its PH balancing effects on the teeth and it’s unique abilities to neutralise bad bacteria in the mouth. There have been many studies done demonstrating its beneficial effects for the teeth. No other artificial sugar does this. The best way to have it is in gum that has no other artificial sugar or glycerine in it. Dr Ellie recommends her Zellies range and here in Australia the best one is Epic gum – you can find it online or in health food stores.

Xylitol should NOT be used in cooking or in place of sugar. Consuming it this way has no beneficial effects on the teeth and in fact is likely to cause gut issues.

Fluoride 

In Dr Ellie’s protocol, the products that she recommends have fluoride. Once again there are countless studies demonstrating the benefits of fluoride on teeth directly applied in this way in toothpaste or in a mouthwash that you spit out. Fluoride in drinking water is another matter, and Dr Ellie has been protesting in her state of Texas to have it removed from the water as it  is less beneficial this way and can have negative consequences.

I hope this has helped you find some answers for your teeth. Starting a pro metabolic diet and feeling your teeth deteriorate is scary, and has made people question the whole pro metabolic approach. Since Dr Ellie and this approach was recommended to me, my teeth sensitivity has disappeared. My teeth feel smoother and stronger, and look whiter and brighter. I plan to continue Dr Ellie’s protocol for life.

Always learning,

Kristy