Do All My Patients Follow Paleo?

      Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS   •   Nutritional Periodontist
      May 26, 2016  

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paleo dietNo!

 

Only about 5% of my patients are interested in my Paleo diet and lifestyle protocol. But, I keep pressing on.

 

My patients who follow my nutrient-dense diet and lifestyle recommendations usually are self-motivated because of other medical issues. For example, a few have recovered from a serious medical incident, and they have decided to make a change. Others have been diagnosed with a serious medical condition, and they want to get their general health back. Some patients have been following a “healthy way of living” for a while, and now I have shown them an evidence-based method, of which they have never heard, that makes sense to them.

 

Many people, with whom I come into contact, feel that a Paleo-type diet is too restrictive or stringent. My 30-Day Reset Plan is not difficult. It describes all the foods you could eat as much as you wanted and as frequently as you wanted until you were comfortably satisfied. However, it removes foods that most people eat daily and are used to eating even though those foods are inflammatory. After about 3 weeks on this program, cravings (especially for refined carbs and sugars) disappear or become greatly reduced. The overall benefits of an eating lifestyle like this are far reaching – well beyond a healthier mouth. My own personal story is impressive, and I share it with anyone who is interested.

 

While I am passionate in what I believe, it’s impossible for me to motivate anybody. You, as an individual, must motivate yourself based on your personal and innermost beliefs and goals. For example, about 30 years ago, I had a patient who had lung cancer as a result of smoking for decades. He was fortunate. Medicine at that time was able to save his life by removing his diseased lung while retaining his healthy lung. Yet, he still smoked cigarettes! How could I possibly motivate a person like that when the threat of his own mortality was not enough for him to stop smoking?

 

I can tell my patients how I have done what I have done personally. I can call attention to their selfish needs to have a beautiful smile. I can speak to my patients’ intellect by showing them the science-based health facts for embracing a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory diet and lifestyle. I can explain how healthy eating can improve their oral health as well as their overall health. I can suggest to my patients that staying on their present course may be like standing on the train tracks of an oncoming train. I can emotionally appeal to their inner selves to want to live long enough to see their children and their children’s children grow into beautiful people. But, I cannot make them do what I think they should do. They must make their own decision to act or not to act.

 

So, to answer the original question, most of my patients do not follow a Paleo-type diet and lifestyle. But, I won’t reduce my efforts or desire to educate my patients if they show an interest in my way of thinking. I have been accused of being a fanatic when it comes to primal nutrition and lifestyle. I stand guilty as charged. My goal is to help self-motivate all patients that are interested in getting onboard a Paleo-type diet and lifestyle. I have written about this over and over again.

 

I am always available to help. Send me an email with your questions.

 

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Why the Tooth Fairy Gave Up Grains:
A Whimsical Tale

evolution rYou may think you know all about tooth fairies. As you know, they discreetly appear at night to exchange your child’s baby tooth, that’s tucked away under his or her pillow, for little trinkets. They flutter about with their cute big eyes and their huge smiles and their soft, silky wings. But what you probably didn’t know was that these precious little busy bees have been around for a long time. As a matter of fact, they have been around for tens of thousands of years.

 

These tooth fairies knew of a time when little boys and little girls hardly ever got tooth decay. In those days, mommies and daddies worked hard gathering and hunting food. The children ate all the good, nutritious foods that their parents brought to the table. Bodies were strong and lean, and teeth were white and straight. Adult teeth lasted a lifetime, as they were designed to do. But then, something changed, but the fairies didn’t realize it until much later.

 

About 10,000 years ago, certain foods were cultivated that slowly became part of almost everyone’s diet. The fairies didn’t think any harm was going to come from these new foods. But it did. In time, these foods started to damage the teeth of children and adults. All of a sudden, it seemed like many people started to develop toothaches and loose teeth and holes in their teeth. The fairies finally learned that something was wrong with these new foods. They learned that these foods – these grains – were the cause of the dental problems and other health problems that were beginning to plague humans.

 

Then, refined sugars became part of most human’s diets. And then, the fairies understood that these sugars added to the problems from grains. The fairies made a pledge to give up these grains and sugars and to try to tell everybody that these were not healthy foods.

 

The way the fairies used to eat, and the way humans used to eat before grains became so much a part of the diet, was the healthy way to eat. So the fairies became focused on a mission – to tell the world that grains and sugars needed to be avoided in order to regain dental health and overall health. You see, our bodies were never designed to eat these modern day foods. Our guts just couldn’t fully digest them, and these foods eventually upset our delicate balance. It took a long time for the fairies to realize that so many chronic problems were caused by these “foods”.

 

So, the fairies gave up grains and sugars and started to teach the world to be a healthier place. Most importantly, the fairies wanted to teach the children, whom they were meant to protect, to eat healthy.

 

To create healthy meals for your children, consider leaving grains and added-sugars out, and replacing them with healthy meats, fish, vegetables, fruit, nuts, seeds, and various spices. It is important to include leafy green vegetables at every meal. The foods hunter-gatherers ate for thousands and thousands of years are the foods that will allow healthy bodies of all ages to survive and thrive today. These food choices are part of a Paleo Lifestyle. A great book that describes the Paleolithic lifestyle is The Primal Blueprint Updated and Expanded (2012) by Mark Sisson.

 

Here are some of my favorite family books to help you design exciting food options for your kids as well as yourselves:

• Nom Nom Paleo: Food For Humans, Michelle Tam and Henry Fong, 2013
• Paleo Lunches and Breakfasts on the Go, Diana Rodgers, 2013
• Practical Paleo: A Customized Approach…, Diane Sanfilippo, et al, 2012
• The Paleo Primer, Keris Marsden and Matt Whitmore, 2013

 

Next time I’ll post some of my favorite recipes. Here are a few that I will post:

• Yummy and Oh-So-Healthy Smoothie
• Cracklin’ Italian-spiced Chicken Thighs
• No-Oat Oatmeal
• Plantain Pancakes
• Wild Caught Salmon Baked in Parchment Paper
• Homemade Ghee the Easy Way