by Patrick Quanten MD
Many secrets about life are revealed in the teeth. The teeth show us what our mothers ate, especially during the nine months they carried us. The teeth also tell us much about our relationship with our mothers and about our upbringing. They tell us the diet of our ancestors, and the foods we should eat to maintain health and direction in life. Finally, the teeth have an important and interesting relationship with the spine.
Let's begin at the beginning when sperm and egg meet and form a living foetus. Two become one. But the evidence of the two cells remains everywhere in our bodies as the duality of life. One aspect of that duality is the formation of teeth and vertebrae. Teeth and vertebrae are two sets of small bones, one set smaller than the other, but still very much alike.
There are thirty two teeth and thirty two vertebrae. During gestation, one set of smaller bones moves upward to the mouth to form the teeth; the other moves downward to form the spine. The relationship between the teeth and the vertebrae continues throughout life. Our ability to chew, for example, depends on the straightness of the spine. If the spine becomes crooked or impaired in some way, chewing is impaired; we may develop an underbite or overbite. The jaw can become imbalanced to one side or the other, so that one side of the mouth bites before the other does. It can be very painful to chew at all if there is a misalignment of the spine. Tension in the back is often expressed by gritting the teeth or clenching the jaw; the jaw often tries to release the tension that accumulates in the spine.
All of our teeth, including our adult teeth, are formed during gestation. They are all present within the upper gums when we are born. Teeth are made of calcium and other minerals. Like the rest of our constitution, their strength depends on our mother's diet. We will have teeth no matter what our mothers ate, but the strength of those teeth depends on the availability of calcium, phosphorus, magnesium and other nutrients in our mother's diet.
What the mother eats reveals a great deal about her attitude toward pregnancy and her child. If the mother eats a lot of fruit and sugar and drinks a lot of alcohol or takes drugs, the child's teeth will be weak. Often this type of diet during pregnancy reveals a mother in conflict over her pregnancy. She seeks to escape her reality by using these foods and other substances.
Crooked teeth in a child are a sign of some type of difficulty for the mother during pregnancy. The energies that governed the straight descent of the teeth were not stable but in conflict, causing the teeth themselves to be in conflict with one another.
Buck teeth reveal that the mother consumed a lot of salad and raw vegetables, fruit, fruit juices and sugar during the pregnancy. Teeth that jut forward are caused by such expansive foods.
Teeth that slant back, like those of a shark, reveal an diet during pregnancy rich in red meat, eggs, chicken and salt.
Good, strong teeth during childhood and adulthood reveal a functional family that was conscious of the need to take care of the child, including his or her teeth. The family ate a healthy diet rich in fresh vegetables. Vegetables, of course, are the source of many vitamins and minerals essential to healthy teeth.
Teeth that are weak or suffer cavities reveal that the mother's diet during pregnancy lacked minerals, weakening her own condition. Later development of cavities indicates a family that did not pay much attention to dental hygiene and early dietary patterns. Refined foods, especially sugars, cause the mouth to become rich in acid, which causes tooth decay. Acid-rich blood is a host for many viruses and colds, causing poor health in children.
A child will, of course, affect his/her own teeth by the way he/she eats. If a child's training is good and dietary habits sound, his/her teeth will develop well. If, however, a child is in conflict or suffers a painful childhood, he/she will be attracted to more foods that will help him/her to escape consciousness and that will encourage a fantasy existence. Such substances as sugar, carbonated soft drinks, excess fruit, fruit juices and refined flour products facilitate the creation of a fantasy world to compensate for difficulties and pain in the immediate environment.
Teeth reveal many secrets of human evolution. Palaeontologists study fossilised teeth to learn the diets of our forebears. Let's see what we can learn about our evolution and the diet it has designed for us.
We possess thirty two teeth, which can be broken down as follows: four canine or sharp, pointed teeth: eight incisors or front teeth: twenty molars and premolars.
Canine teeth are used for tearing meat. If you look into the mouth of a lion or tiger, animals whose principal food is meat, you will see a mouthful of canine teeth. The same is true for dogs and cats. These animals also have very short digestive tracts. Their teeth and their intestines are perfect for the consumption of meat, which requires sharp, pointed teeth to tear animal flesh, and digestive tracts that are short so that the animal food can be eliminated quickly. The longer meat remains in the intestines, the more likely it is to putrefy and cause disease. Evolution has equipped these animals well for their specific eating habits.
Cows have no canine teeth, only incisors and molars, which indicate that their diets are made entirely of vegetable matter, in this case grass and grains. Incisors are long, wide, and flat at the bottom, like the cutting edge of a vegetable knife. They bite down and cut. Vegetable and fruits are most amenable to such teeth. Incisors bite off food; they do not grind or process it into smaller bits in the mouth.
The primary function of molars, which do the bulk of the work, is grinding. The foods molars work best with are grains and, to a lesser extent, vegetables. Anyone who has ever tried to eat a piece of steak knows that the meat cannot be fully masticated by the molars and must be swallowed whole; it goes down as a wad of sinew. Since the intestines have no teeth, they are not well equipped to deal with this lump. Consequently, much of the animal food we eat is never fully digested, and a percentage of it is not even eliminated from the bowels. It remains there in pockets to decay, sometimes causing serious illness, including colon cancer.
Those who eat meat regularly have higher levels of ammonia in their blood and tissues. The excess protein in meat breaks down into nitrogen, which forms ammonia. Ammonia is one of the most powerful and destructive toxins in the body. It deforms cells and DNA and can cause cancer. Ammonia also smells bad. It is ammonia that gives rise to body odour and the enormous deodorant industry.
Grains and vegetables, on the other hand, can be fully masticated; they are ground up into tiny bits that can be further digested in the stomach and intestines. Grains and vegetables also have the added benefit of fibre, which cleans the intestines of waste. Fibre moves waste along the intestinal tact and helps eliminate it from our bodies.
The ideal ratio of grains to vegetables to animal foods in the human diet is 5:2:1. Evolution has predisposed us to eating a diet composed of five parts grains, two parts vegetables and one part animal or protein foods.
This, essentially, is the diet of most traditional people. No matter where you look in the world, you see the same general diet, whether it is in Asia, Europe, Africa, India, the Middle East or among the American Indians. In Asia, the grains are brown rice, barley, millet and wheat; in Europe, wheat, barley, millet and oats; in Africa, millet and wheat; in India and the Middle East, mostly wheat; among the American Indians, especially in South and Central America, mostly corn.
Historically, humans have eaten all sort of animal foods. However, the amounts were limited and were eaten with grains and vegetables. Generally, consumption of animal foods was restricted to feasts and holidays because supplies of animal food, especially of beef and pork were limited. Also, it has been universally understood by traditional people that eating grains and vegetables brings longevity and that the consumption of animal foods should be restricted to maintain health.
Teeth and digestion are intimately linked. The Japanese, for example, have long been eaters of grains, principally rice. Consequently the Japanese have a much longer digestive tract than many Western people, especially those whose consumption of animal foods have increased over the past few generations.
The appearance of teeth in babies tells us about the development of their digestion as well. The first teeth to emerge in a baby's mouth are usually the incisors. Their emergence indicates that the baby is ready for some vegetable broth. The development of the digestive system is still limited; whole foods cannot yet be consumed, as indicated by the absence of the molars necessary to grind the food. As the molars come in, the parents can increase the amount of whole foods in the baby's diet. The first whole food should be a very wet grain porridge.
As the baby develops a mouthful of teeth, it is ready to be weaned and given more whole foods. Salt consumption should be limited in infants and children, of course. Vegetables should be cooked without salt for young children, and salt should be introduced in limited quantities as the child passes the age of five.
As teeth are a mirror of the general state of health of the person, it is of interest to note that, whilst the medical and dental authorities, make claims about the improving state of health of the Western population, the strongest and most complete sets of teeth are found in skeletons of primitive man. Statistics show yearly increasing numbers of children and adults with chronic teeth and gum problems, and yet, medical authorities claim that we are now healthier than we ever were. Whose is telling the truth: the authorities or your teeth?