Are Grains the Hidden Reason for many Modern Diseases including Tooth Cavities?

Are Grains the Hidden Reason for many Modern Diseases including Tooth Cavities?

9,000 years ago around 7,000 BC wheat and barley were first cultivated. Corn and rice followed 2,500 years later in 4,500 BC. According to human fossil records, prior to this time period, tooth decay was virtually unknown. Teeth recovered from Pakistan dating to around 5,500 BC show signs of being drilled, presumably because of cavities. For the last 5,000 years the average rate of tooth decay has been climbing. The rise in the rate of tooth decay has also been seen in Native Americans who switched from a hunter gatherer lifestyle to a more heavily corn-based diet. The cultivation of grains has fostered the evolution of civilization, allowing city centers to emerge in which large groups of people live together such as in ancient Egypt. Grains also made it possible to raise large armies as it resolved the logistical problem of feeding thousands of soldiers.

In Weston Price’s field studies, a diet centered on white flour, refined sugar and vegetable fats was devastating to the health, teeth and gums of native peoples worldwide. From this evidence even Dr. Price himself concluded that consuming grain products in their whole form would resolve a part of the problem of tooth decay. The natural health community, and now even the US Government and food manufacturing giants, have embraced and promoted the view that whole grains are better for our health.

Beyond the fossil evidence connecting grains to tooth cavities is over one hundred years of scientific research that connects whole grains with a variety of diseases. This evidence is further consistently confirmed by the nearly daily e-mails I receive from stressed-out healthy eaters wondering why their previously cavity-free children now have tooth decay. There is one clear response that over and over again proves to be correct: whole grains.

Considering modern humans (Homo sapiens) are about 200,000 years old, large amounts of grains constitute a very recent addition to the modern diet. Our bodies are not designed to eat grains in their raw form so grains require us to use our intelligence to predigest the grains through the process of fermentation and then cooking. In the absence of careful grain preparation including fermentation, a host of diseases appear.

The famous professor and doctor Edward Mellanby wrote that "oatmeal and grain embryo interfere most strongly" with the building of healthy teeth. He called the effect of the germ of grains on teeth "baneful." He also found that a diet high in grain germ or embryo led to nervous system problems in his dogs such as leg weakness and uncoordinated movements. Dr. Mellanby concluded that most cereals contain a toxic substance that can affect the nervous system.^4b He pointed out the connection of grains and legumes to pellagra, a niacin deficiency, lathyrism, which is immobility caused by bean toxins in the lathyrus family such as a certain type of sweet pea, and pernicious anemia which is related to a vitamin B 12 deficiency. Each one of these diseases is most effectively treated with animal liver. And each one of these diseases can be produced in laboratory conditions by feeding whole grains.

The Anti-Scorbutic Vitamin and Your Teeth and Gums

Scurvy was made famous as a common disease among sailors. It occurred after long sea voyages when sailors had to subsist on dried foods including dried grain products such as hard tack. The symptoms of scurvy include soft and spongy gums which eventually lead to tooth loss, slow wound healing, poor bone formation, severe weakness, nausea and eventually death. Gum disease is a major factor in tooth loss as we age. We learned from dentist W.D. Miller that healthy gums protect teeth from tooth decay. Since tooth loss from gum disease is a symptom of scurvy, it is feasible that what causes and cures scurvy might cause and cure gum problems as well.

Researchers were excited to discover an animal model with which to practice scurvy experiments. Guinea pigs fed a high grain diet developed a condition that appears to be exactly the same as scurvy in humans. ^5b To cause scurvy, guinea pigs were fed mostly bran and oats. Another scurvy-producing diet consisted of whole grains like oats, barley, maize, and soy bean flour. An exclusive oatmeal diet would kill a guinea pig in 24 days from scurvy. This very same scurvy-inducing diet produced severe tooth and gum problems in guinea pigs as well.

That whole grains are the cause of scurvy sheds light on the severity of plant toxins found naturally in grains. Guinea pigs fed germinated oats and barley did not contract scurvy.^6b This reveals that the sprouting process may disable anti-nutrients that cause scurvy. Research on scurvy eventually led to the discovery of the anti-scorbutic (anti-scurvy) vitamin which we know as vitamin C. Reintroducing vitamin C in the diet of guinea pigs with raw cabbage (sauerkraut would work for humans) or orange juice resolves the disease.

Some scurvy researchers suspected that the lack of vitamin C was not the essential cause of scurvy. Rather they believed that vitamin C protected against some injurious factor in the diet. Since a scurvy-inducing diet largely consisted of whole grains, perhaps the injurious factor is something in the grains. Today we know that grains contain numerous plant toxins and anti-nutrients including lectins and phytic acid.

Phytic acid is the principal storage form of phosphorus in many plant tissues, especially the bran portion of grains and other seeds. It is found in significant amounts in grains, nuts, beans, seeds, and some tubers. Phytic acid contains the mineral phosphorus tightly bound in a snowflake-like molecule. In humans and animals with one stomach, the phosphorus is not readily bioavailable. In addition to blocking phosphorus availability, the “arms” of the phytic acid molecule readily bind with other minerals, such as calcium, magnesium, iron and zinc, making them unavailable as well. Yet the negative effects of phytic acid can be significantly reduced with vitamin C. Adding vitamin C to the diet can significantly counteract phytic acid’s iron absorption blocking effect.^7b This leaves us with compelling evidence that the symptoms of scurvy like soft and spongy gums leading to tooth loss are the result of a lack of vitamin C, and too many grains, or other phytic acid-rich foods. Perhaps vitamin C’s remarkable ability to heal and prevent scurvy is because of its ability to aid in iron absorption which was disturbed by too many improperly prepared grains rich in phytic acid.

Giving rats and dogs a scurvy-producing diet did not lead to scurvy, it led to another disease, rickets. Rickets is a disease that is known for producing severely bowed legs in children. Other rickets symptoms include muscle weakness, bone pain or tenderness, skeletal problems and tooth decay. To produce rickets in the laboratory, dogs were fed oatmeal. Professor Edward Mellanby describes his findings of decades of research:

[M]ore severe rickets developed when the diet consisted mainly of oatmeal,maize or whole wheat flour than when these substances were replaced by equalamounts of either white flour or rice, in spite of the fact that the former cerealscontained more calcium and phosphorus than the latter.^8b

The most severe rickets-producing diet was a mostly whole grain diet which included whole wheat, whole corn, and wheat gluten.^9b Rickets has been identified as a disease of calcium, phosphorous and vitamin D metabolism.^10b In one study, hospital cases of rickets fell greatly in June. As previously mentioned, Activator X-rich butter was shown to prevent rickets. This is because Activator X would appear in high quantities in June grass-fed butter. Germination of oats itself did not reduce the rickets- producing effect of whole oats. But germination together with fermentation of whole grains greatly reduced the severity of rickets.^12b On the rickets-producing diet, teeth become abnormal. There is a known impairment of the ability for teeth to mineralize that is associated with rickets. In rare cases of rickets, some children’s teeth do not erupt. Rickets is cured or prevented by having adequate fat-soluble vitamin D in the diet. This is because vitamin D increases the utilization of phosphorous and calcium in diets with phytic acid, and without phytic acid.

Scurvy and rickets are both produced in laboratory experiments in different animals using a diet consisting largely of whole grains. The connection between scurvy and rickets is not a random coincidence; it has also been observed in humans. Dr. Thomas Barlow of England carefully studied rickets cases in children, and published a report in 1883 suggesting that scurvy and rickets are closely related.^13b Infantile scurvy is also known as Barlow’s Disease. Both scurvy and rickets are connected to serious problems with teeth and/or gums. It seems both possible and reasonable that whole grains can cause scurvy in the absence of vitamin C, and rickets in the absence of vitamin D.

Scurvy still occurs in modern times, and the cause is still the same. In one previously healthy individual, strictly following a macrobiotic diet nearly caused death from scurvy within one year. Her diet consisted mostly of whole brown rice and other freshly ground whole grains.^14b

The Effect of Oats on Children’s Teeth

It is not just in animal experiments that teeth disintegrate from consumption of whole grains. Dr. May Mellanby published several articles in the prestigious British Medical Journal about food and tooth decay from 1924-1932. Multiple investigations were done to show the effect of oatmeal and fat-soluble vitamins on children’s teeth. The children studied already had numerous cavities. A grain-free diet high in fat-soluble vitamins A and D from cod liver oil produced the best results, with essentially no new cavities forming. These grain-free children also showed signs of their decayed teeth remineralizing. The tooth-healing diet included milk, meat, eggs, butter, potatoes and cod liver oil. ^15b

By accident medical doctor J.D. Boyd healed diabetic children’s decayed teeth by designing a grain-free diet. The diet meant to control diabetes not only stopped cavities it turned soft tooth enamel hard and glossy. These findings were published in 1928 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Boyd’s diet consisted of milk, cream, butter, eggs, meat, cod liver oil, vegetables and fruit. Please note that both Dr. Mellanby’s and Dr. Boyd’s tooth-remineralizing diet came from a time when milk, butter and cream were raw, farm-fresh and grass-fed.

Meanwhile in two other feeding experiments by Dr. Mellanby a low fat-soluble vitamin A and D diet with the addition of ½ to 1 cup of oatmeal per day produced an average of six new cavities per child during the trial period. Their preexisting cavities did not heal in any way. A diet with less oatmeal and some fat-soluble vitamins produced an average of four and a half new cavities per child, with a few of the preexisting cavities healing during the experiment.^16b The take-home message from these experiments is that oatmeal has a devastating effect on teeth, and that the maximum amount of bone growth and tooth remineralization in these studies occurred with grain-free diets.

Both Edward and May Mellanby’s decades of research show that oatmeal interferes more than any other grain studied with tooth mineralization. Intermediate interference of tooth mineralization occurs from corn, rye, barley and rice. Wheat germ, corn germ and other grain germs have a “baneful” effect on teeth. White flour interferes the least with tooth mineralization.^17b That white flour does not interfere as much with tooth mineralization corresponds with Weston Price’s feeding experiments discussed in chapter two in which cavity-ridden school children consumed two meals per day consisting of white flour, and one excellent meal per day with nutrient-dense foods. Even while consuming the white flour the children all became immune to tooth cavities. In human nutrient absorption experiments, in diets with mostly whole wheat flour (8% of grain solids removed) calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium were less completely absorbed than a more refined flour (with 21% of grain solids removed). ^18b If white flour interfered the least with tooth remineralization you might wonder why native people on a white flour diet succumbed to tooth decay. The answer lies in the fact that white flour in general either replaced more nutrient-dense foods or that in a context of a low mineral, high sugar diet, white flour was disastrous for teeth. Had white flour been consumed with cod’s heads and cod’s liver, or raw milk cheese the results would be different. (Note: I do not advocate white flour consumption.) Rather white flour was consumed generally with sugar in the form of pastries, or with jam and jelly on toast.

The long chain of beliefs that have led to the modern conclusion that whole grains are healthy to eat comes without looking at the complete body of evidence. The problems seen with whole grains primarily lie in the toxic properties Dr. Mellanby identified residing in the bran and the germ. Grain toxicity is then exponentially magnified by the absence of vitamins C and D in our diet which protect against grain toxins. Conversely, overly processed and mishandled grains, particularly white flour, have their own host of health consequences. The answer to healthy grain consumption lies in the middle ground of not overly processed, and not minimally processed.

Experiments with sprouted grains showed that oats and corn that are first sprouted and then soured at room temperature for two days (thus eliminating large amounts of anti-nutrients) lost their ability to produce rickets.^19b While germinated and then soured grains do not produce rickets, they do not create optimal bone growth unless there is sufficient vitamin D in the diet.^20b

Problems with Unfermented Grains

Phytic acid has a strong inhibitory effect on mineral absorption in adults, particularly on the absorption of iron.^21b Even a small amount of phytic acid in one’s diet can lead to a significant reduction in iron absorption. While grains, particularly whole grains, are rich in phosphorous, up to 80% of this phosphorous is bound up as phytate, which is not absorbable by the body.^22b Phytic acid inhibits enzymes that we need to digest our food, including pepsin,^23b which is needed for the breakdown of proteins in the stomach, and amylase,^24b which is required for the breakdown of starch into sugar. Trypsin, needed for protein digestion in the small intestine, is also inhibited by phytic acid.^25b The concentration of and types of enzyme inhibitors varies considerably between different types of grains.^26b Grains also contain tannins which can depress growth, decrease iron absorption, and damage the mucosal lining of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition to tannins, saponins in grains may inhibit growth.^27b

Since phosphorous is the crucial mineral to tooth remineralization we want to then eliminate the bound phosphorous as phytic acid as much as possible from our diet. When it cannot be eliminated, then complementary vitamins and minerals from foods will need to be used: in particular calcium, vitamin C and vitamin D to block phytic acid’s effects.

LSD in Whole Grains?

Most, if not all, grains seem to contain nerve toxins, however in different concentrations. Oats and wheat germ seem to contain the highest concentration of these toxins, and white flour much less. Dr. Mellanby referred to this unknown toxin as a toxamin, a toxic substance that is blocked by the presence of vitamins in the diet, particularly fat-soluble vitamins A and D.^28b

The nervous system toxins in many or all beans and grains may explain their insidious effects on teeth. Dr. Mellanby thought the toxin in grains is the same toxin that causes ergot poisoning when grains like rye are infected with a fungus. ^29b The interesting note about ergot poisoning is that it can be transferred from the mother to child through breastmilk. It first affects the digestive system, and then the nervous system. In severe cases it also causes seizures and LSD-like effects.

Through examining the diets of people with severe tooth decay I find two patterns. One is an extreme excess of sugar consumption, either from natural sources or from refined fructose. The other is a moderate consumption of whole grains, regardless of whether the grains are soured or not. The effect of the grain toxin on teeth appears very similar to someone ingesting large quantities of synthetic fructose syrup.

Since lectins are a sugar-binding protein, it seems that the toxic substance in grains could be lectins or similar grain sugars. Lectins are also found in high amounts in beans. Many types of lectins are easily neutralized by cooking, fermenting, or digestion. Grain’s baneful effect on teeth may be a combination of many grain toxins like phytic acid and lectins together. Some lectins cannot be broken down by fermentation or digestion and become poison to our bodies; others are not harmful to humans at all. Agglutinin is a lectin in wheat germ that passes through digestion and into the body and produces intestinal inflammation.

Certain lectins are very poisonous. Ricin, the lectin in castor beans, is lethal to humans in even small doses. It destroys cells by affecting their ability to utilize proteins. Lectins in general can bind to the villi and cells in the small intestine resulting in a diminished capacity for digestion and absorption.^30b In particular lectins can interfere with hormone and growth factor signaling which may explain why they could promote severe cavities or other growth problems. A demonstration of lectins’ connection with tooth decay can be shown in a saliva test for lectins that indicates one’s susceptibility to tooth decay.^31b