For an exciting update of this post go to this link: And the Bone Density Drum Roll Please…
Do you wish that you could strengthen your teeth and bones? I have done it thanks to eating nutrient dense food. Here is a current picture of my teeth:
You can see some translucence and streaking near the center of the bottom third of my teeth. This is a huge improvement over how my teeth were about a year-and-a-half ago.
I wish I would have taken a picture of my teeth before I started seriously increasing nutrient dense foods. They were completely translucent from top to bottom for as long as I can remember. I don’t know if I fully deposited calcium and other minerals into my bones. The number of cavities that I had at a young age makes me believe that I probably didn’t. So much for the two to three glasses of milk I drank a day – and they were big glasses! By age 30 I was diagnosed with osteopenia (the precursor to osteoporosis). The diagnosis was astonishing, given that I was bench pressing just over 100 pounds and I could run ten miles.
I substantially increased eating Bone Broth in November 2007. Bone broth has become the most important nutrient dense food in my family’s weekly menu (see recipes section). After eating the bone broth or another type of nutrient dense food I take ½ teaspoon of butter oil (BO) and ½ teaspoon of cod liver oil (CLO). The amount of CLO will decrease to ¼ teaspoon in the next month or so when I begin taking fermented CLO. I posted on the need to take fermented CLO instead of unfermented in this post: Cod Liver Oil (CLO) – To Ferment or Not to Ferment?
The BO/CLO combination was first recommended by Dr. Weston A. Price. This combination greatly enhances absorption of nutrients. The benefits of BO can be read at: http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/vitamin-k2.html. I have used both Green Pastures and Radiant Life BO. Ryan and I take ours in liquid form and Colson takes his in a refrigerated form like it is a pill because he can’t stand the flavor of butter.
One of the great mistakes that resulted from my nutrition ignorance is that I did not give Colson butter as a young child. I was blindly and faithfully following the recommended low fat diet. Sally Fallon calls butter the “perfect fatty acid”, and it seems that I missed the window for getting Colson to like it. He also doesn’t like that yummy roasted chicken or turkey skin we have once a week. At least I sneak them both into his food in other ways, like bone broth or scrambled eggs.
We are on a creative and changing journey. One day Colson may even like these fats… I never thought I would see the day that I would eat raw onions, and now I do. It only took 42 years!
P.S. My teeth have always been perfectly straight, a sign that my mom ate fairly well when she was pregnant. Check my February blog for Sally Fallon’s slide shows showing crooked teeth caused by bad diet: Real Food Real Medicine Conference Day 2. Notes for Day 3 of the conference are in the March archives.
Your gums are beautiful too!
Posted by: Lynn | April 19, 2009 at 02:15 AM
This is great to see. My teeth have also improved since introducing CLO and broth to my diet. I read on another blog the other day that flax seed oil can also help with gum disease.
thanks!
Posted by: Sarah Schatz - Allergy-Free & GAPS Menu Planners | August 04, 2010 at 11:58 AM