Last week I took the kids and myself to the dentist. The kids normally have a checkup every six months, but I was a bit nervous about this appointment. You see I also made an appointment for myself. I have not seen a dentist since I was 12 years old – that was 20 years ago! Everything went well and no cavities in any of us so far.

My eldest daughter Aliena has had some issues though. When she was a small baby she developed small black pits in her front teeth and white discolourization in some others. I was concerned because she also was classified as failure to thrive and was losing weight. We were vegan at the time (due to milk and egg allergic skin reactions in Aliena) and I had a vegetarian pregnancy.  I was very concerned about her growth.
At the time I thought that our diet was pretty good. I was seeing a dietician who was looking and analyzing our food logs. She saw no reason to be concerned and just wanted us to keep our fat intake high so my daughter could gain weight. But the majority of our calories did come from soy and grains.

If a dietician could not realize how deficient our diet was then how in the world would I??

From looking at Aliena’s teeth, I could tell that she was mineral deficient. We ate very little sugar so the only other cause could be diet. I soon discovered Weston A. Price foundation and realized that it was the high processed soy and grain diet that was the culprit for our dental problems. Soy, nuts, seeds and grains are high in phytic acid. We were eating organic cereal with soy milk for breakfast, white bread sandwiches with fake soy meats and veggies for lunch, rice or pasta for dinner and crackers, nuts, fruit and veggies for snacks.  I was feeding my family a high carbohydrate low fat diet. When you eat a high grain diet the phytic acid will combine with the vitamins and minerals in the intestines and block their absorption.

The more I read about the traditional foods and about Dr. Weston Price’s research the more I realized that we needed to change our vegan diet to higher fat and add meat. We are blessed to live in a rural area that has plenty of organic farmers. We are able to visit these farms and see the conditions and feed that the animals receive.  I am able to get organic grassfed beef, pasture raised chickens, and organic pork. We buy bulk meat from the farmers. This is bought by the side, quarter or by the animal. Buying meat this way is the cheapest way to get high quality local organic food. You do not have to pay shipping costs, distributer costs, grocery store mark ups.

How do you find a farmer to buy from? Farmer markets, health food store referrals, highway / farm signs, word of mouth, local classifieds, and local food websites.

Buying whole animals rather than just parts has many benefits. You get to have bones, organ meats and all the fat. The bones make delicious mineral rich stock, the organ meats like liver and heart are full of essential fatty acids, vitamins A and D, and minerals like iron, zinc and copper. The fats make the food taste delicious, slow digestion and aids in the absorption of the vitamins and minerals.

So we added these kinds of foods into our diet and traded up our white bread for sprouted grain bread. For my kids I soaked their oatmeal with a bit of whey.  The nuts and seeds get soaked and when possible sprouted (this is mostly sunflower seeds). The soaking and sprouting nuts and seeds neutralizes the phytic acid in them and makes them more nutritious and digestible.

We also eat plenty of full fat plain yogurt for the probiotics. Since starting probioitcs daughter’s allergies to milk and eggs disappeared. She started to gain weight and stopped being failure to thrive. To this day she is still small on the growth charts but is very healthy. 

Good dental health is a good indicator of your general health.  Foods in their whole natural state will have the highest nutritional value. Taking the time to prepare them is well worth the effort. It is a skill worth passing on to your children.

To your health and wellness,

Catherine Osthaus

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