I studied nutrition (beginning with a college class and then continuing on my own) for seven years. During that time I invented what I called "Nutritionally Perfect Meals." My nutritionally perfect meals were designed to provide the eater with 100% of the RDA of every vitamin and mineral that the human body needs. They are awesome. I invented them in my twenties and I still eat them today.
It took hundreds of hours to create each meal, and I learned a lot while creating them. The most important thing I learned: It is impossible to create a nutritionally perfect meal that is not 25-66% fat.
I was not able to create a low fat nutritionally perfect meal. Not was I able to create a nutritionally perfect vegan meal. I tried. I put hundreds of hours into it. The numbers just never lined up.
Back then, low fat diets were still popular. Fat was still seen as bad. But I started eating fat because, well, the math of nutritional analysis told me to, the math of calculating the nutrient content of different meals.
When I was twenty-nine I was telling someone my thoughts on nutrition, how the math of low-fat diets didn't add up, and how I preferred to eat foods that humans had been eating for many generations rather than new things that were not "tried and true" yet, and the man with whom I was speaking said, "Oh, that sounds like the Weston A Price diet."
I began researching the rather obscure Weston A Price Foundation diet. It turns out, a century before me, a dentist named Weston A Price concluded what I had concluded by studying teeth.
Because the Weston A Price Foundation does such a good job of researching and sharing dietary information and because everything they shared agreed with what I had concluded, I stopped researching nutrition and started following their diet (which was almost identical to the diet that I was already eating).
The thing that excited me the most about their diet was that they had a physical proof to offer me that I was on the right track. If what they were teaching was correct, my children would have better teeth, better jaw development, more space in their mouths, straight teeth without the need for braces.
No other diet makes a promise that bold.
Now, according to them it takes as many generations to fix crooked teeth as it did to get them. So because my mom also had crooked teeth but my grandmother had straight teeth, I am two generations removed from straight teeth. So if I followed the Weston A Price diet, it wouldn't actually be my children that had straight teeth no braces, it would be my grandchildren. But I should still see significant improvement in my children.
Both Tom and I had terrible teeth as children. We had braces for three years (him) and four years (me). I had headgear. He had a cross bite. I had a massive overbite. My jaw is so underdeveloped that I have sleep apnea, a miserable condition that I was really hoping I would be able to save Anders from.
It has been many years that I have been watching Anders's teeth, wondering if they would be straight or crooked, wondering if when I bet on the Weston A Price diet I was betting correctly. Now that Anders is nine, the first results are in: his teeth are not perfect, but they are way better than either of his parents!
Here are pictures of Tom and me at nine years old. Below that is Anders. You can tell just by the shape of his face that he has a more developed jaw. Anyway, I am SO excited to see these results. We saw an orthodontist the other day to find out if Anders needs palate expansion (you are supposed to do this before they are 10 for best results) and I was told that no, he did not need palate expansion. I still can't believe it.
There are many theories about the epidemic of crooked teeth in modern developed nations. I don't think nutrition is the only cause and cure, but do think nutrition is the most important key. Of all the parenting bets I have made, giving Anders good teeth (and saving him from sleep apnea) makes me so happy!
If you don't know the Weston A Price Diet, here it is in a nutshell: lots of raw milk, organ meats, eggs and fish--sardines with bones and oysters are fantastic. Fruit, veggies, soured whole grains, soaked nuts, and fermented things too. Plus raw butter, raw cheeses and raw cream. Cook your food in lard, tallow, and duck fat. Of all the diets out there, it is the tastiest. And the only one that promises your children will have straighter teeth than you did.
*Anders is only 9. He could end up with crooked teeth by the time he is 12. But that does not change his teeth at 9 compared to his parents teeth at the same age. Also, the orthodontist does not think he will get (very) crooked teeth.
**According to my research, there are more factors than just nutrition when it coms to straight teeth without the need for braces, they are: nursing for as long as possible (age 3-5), not mouth breathing, proper tongue placement in the mouth (doing myofunctional therapy,) not over breathing (learning Butekyo breathing methods,) not chewing gum or having other bad chewing habits, and genetics
***I do not agree with everything the WAPF teaches. I do not advocate taking their fermented cod liver oil.
