Category Archives: Awareness

teeth sensitivity

Teeth Sensitivity and a Ray Peat Inspired Diet

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

Zen Beach Diet

migrating motor complex

Migrating Motor Complex & a Pro Metabolic Diet

Interesting side effect of meal spacing! Have you heard of the Migrating Motor Complex?

In our private FB group a while ago, I mentioned teeth & the Dr Ellie mouthcare system. I have been implementing a few things from her regime and made a surprise discovery.

One of the actions to help your teeth heal themselves is to NOT eat & drink all day but to limit your intake of food or liquid, including water to only certain blocks of time. End your meal with a tooth protective food like milk, cheese, celery then rinse with water & ideally chew Xylitol gum for 10 minutes. Spit it out & then not eat anything else for at least 1-3 hours.

This then helps your teeth threefold: –

a) Limits the time your mouth is acidic & eroding your teeth

b) Xylitol brings your mouth immediately back to neutral PH within 5 minutes (to do this naturally takes your body about an hour.)

c) Gives time for your mineral rich saliva to heal & repair teeth

 

So, I’ve been doing this timing:

 

7:30am – 1 cup juice, ½ cup lemon coffee, 1 cup milk

10:30am – second Breakfast

1:30pm – Lunch

5:30pm – Dinner

 

During the second breakfast & lunch, I have my juice & coffee, all at the same time. With Dinner is only the juice. Rinse the teeth, xylitol gum. Then stop.

The side effect of all of this – besides teeth being less sensitive already in a short time of doing this – is vastly improved elimination. Like needing to go first thing in the morning – which never used to happen.

Normally my body is slow to start in the mornings. But not now. After the first juice, I have to go –  and sorry about TMI – but the elimination is full and complete, no straining.

Is it the xylitol?

(A few days I forgot to take the xylitol gum with me, but the effects were the same from the meal spacing)

Is it better digestion?

(because energy is not continually being directed to intake of food/drink?)

Or liquids continually washing away digestive juices?

I’m not sure.

Then I came across something called the Migrating Motor Complex. This is a series of muscle contractions which happen when we are not eating. Its function is to move particles & debris through the gut like a cleaning mechanism. The whole process can take 2-4 hours but if we eat again, it stops the process. Which means everything gets backed up. The villi in our gut are clogged up & can’t absorb nutrients properly. And the complete elimination cycle gets stalled as well.

When we sleep overnight, the body has a chance to complete this process at least once in the 24-hour cycle but obviously my body needed to do it more often. When I’ve spaced meals properly at least a second time in the day, the elimination is improved. Ideally, I try to keep the meal timing to the example above, so it happens a few times in the day, but sometimes circumstances don’t allow it.

This is why sometimes people claim that fasting is beneficial. However, most of us know of the stress inducing, thyroid destroying effects of prolonged fasting. Even skipping breakfast & not eating until late in the afternoon will have negative effects. However, we don’t need to be so extreme to attain the benefits. It’s just in the correct spacing of meals.

Transitioning from Keto, Low Carb or Carnivore

Now while I plan to continue to do this for the health of my teeth as well as gut, I just wanted to mention those who are in the early stages of transitioning from a Keto, Low Carb or Carnivore Diet.

When you first start pro metabolic, those who have impaired their carbohydrate processing system will not initially be able to space their meals out like this. Your body will not be able to utilise carbohydrates as fuel initially, and the body will think its starving. At the beginning I always felt like I would nearly pass out if I didn’t have something to eat every 2 hours. I give an example of my eating day when I first started here.

So, your Migrating Motor Complex and meal spacing may have to take a back seat to getting your carbohydrate processing system to work first. The quickest way to do this, is to eat moderate protein, high carbs and low fat and force your body to adapt back again. Once you can drink OJ alone and feel energised instead of dizzy, then you will know you are well on the way to healing.

I’m amazed in all my health reading I’ve never come across this before. Thanks, Dr Ellie, for the accidental discovery via your excellent teeth care system.

Kristy x

Raw cacao chocolate may not be such a super food.

chocolate cake

Boo! Devastated.

I know, right?

Unfortunately, we’ve all been sucked in (me included, big time,) by the marketers who conveniently leave out the bad bits, when singing the praises of raw cacao.

So while it may have some benefits, for some people the bad outweighs the good and problems arise. Let’s just say, it’s no bone broth!

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Good-bye Jessica Ainscough The Wellness Warrior

For those of you who haven’t heard of Jessica Ainscough The Wellness Warrior, she was a young girl of 23 who contracted a rare type of cancer called Epithelioid Sarcoma in her left arm. After trialling an intense type of chemotherapy in the arm, which didn’t work, she rejected her doctor’s other form of treatment of amputating the arm and shoulder as they advised that it wouldn’t cure it completely but may extend her life somewhat.

She decided that wasn’t good enough and spent the next 7 years researching, trying and living alternative therapies namely the fairly extreme Gerson Therapy which involved hourly fresh juices and multiple coffee enemas a day. She was a writer and so under Jessica Ainscough the Wellness Warrior tag a blog followed, books, media appearances and with her sunshine, bubbly nature and wholesome message, amassed quite a following. And now at age 30 she has passed away.

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Dangerous Grains – A book that blew my mind

dangerous grainsDangerous Grains by James Braly M.D. & Ron Hoggan, M.A. is an eye opening book and a must read for those interested in their health.

So over a year in my new residence and I have only recently sought out my nearest library. I love libraries for their air-conditioned quiet space, loads of magazines to read and newspapers and yes I am a reading nerd but since Big Bang Theory, nerds are cool, so all is well.

My reading material is always factual stuff, or is that non-fiction? What’s the difference? Why do we need two words that are the same thing? It’s like calling milk – non orange juice. It’s weird.

Anyway, I read mostly health books of course and a little self-help stuff (firm believer in taking responsibility for your own life) and had a list of a few titles that I wanted to find there. All were out with one in particular that I wanted being taken only a few hours earlier – doh! In any case I kept searching and found this amazing book called Dangerous Grains.

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How much caffeine in a cup of coffee

how much caffeine

 

How much caffeine is in a cup of coffee? Why is it important? Should we be drinking it at all?

The answer is 95mg in a standard cup of coffee; but my battle with the stuff has been comical. Because this is the story where I was swearing off it forever finally and wait until you see the ending!

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