I plan to keep my kids orthodontia-free. This morning breakfast is one of the steps toward this accomplishment.
Many people are unfamiliar with the work of Dr. Weston A. Price, a dentist who traveled to primitive locations to study the dietary practices and dental health of indigenous populations. In his travels, Dr. Price discovered that nutrient-dense diets, or a lack thereof, have an incredible impact on tooth decay as well as proper tooth formation, spacing, and facial structure. He also noticed that these people were free from the degenerative diseases so common in Western society.
But what does "nutrient dense" mean? It is easy to confuse this term with "healthy food", but not all healthy food is nutrient dense. This article from Wise Traditions indicates that, "“nutrient-dense” should refer to the density of nutrients in a food, adjusted for bioavailability. This could be measured per gram, per calorie, or per unit volume, depending on a person’s particular needs. Since nutrients are essentially worthless if they aren’t absorbed and utilized, the term should incorporate bioavailability."
Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet is extremely devoid of nutrient density. A majority of our dietary intake is from grains, especially genetically modified and horribly processed grains, and our grains are not properly prepared to decrease anti-nutrients and increase the availability of absorbable nutrients. Grains have replaced nutrient dense foods including the important fats, especially animal fats, that we have scorned. In addition, for cooking we have replaced these natural, high-heat fats with processed, rancid vegetable oils.
The traditionally dense animal foods Americans do include - meats, fish, eggs, and dairy - are altered and unhealthy. They come from CAFOs with disgusting conditions. The EPA defines CAFOS as, "agricultural operations where animals are kept and raised in confined situations. AFOs congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. Feed is brought to the animals rather than the animals grazing or otherwise seeking feed in pastures, fields, or on rangeland." Animals do not live they way God intended. They are not outside in the sun, they do not forage for their natural diet, and they live in their own filth, breeding grounds for disease. Their poor healthy means poor nutrition in the product and, therefore, poor nutrients for the consumer. Furthermore, these animals are given antibiotics to stave off disease, hormones to fatten them up, and genetically modified grains that are not a part of their natural diet. Besides the concern regarding lessened nutritional value, we also ingest some of the antibiotics and hormones.
Due to horrible animal conditions, dairy has to be processed in order to get rid of disgusting germs present in the milk due to cow illness or contaminating pathogens from fecal matter. This also kills the good bacteria that helps us digest our milk and provides the health benefits we expect from milk. Raw milk from healthy cows is incredibly good for you, but most cows do not have healthy conditions that allow their milk to be consumed raw (nor would it be beneficial). This website explains that the health of the cow and environment are crucial to the safety of raw milk: "Raw milk is essentially sterile in healthy cows. It's not contaminated until after it comes out of the cow, and that's what really matters as to whether it will contain ‘good' or ‘bad' bacteria. If the milk is contaminated with fecal matter, there will probably be pathogens in the milk at some level, along with other contaminants normally found in dairy-type environments. Fortunately, these other contaminants are found in much larger numbers than are pathogens, so they often will out-compete them."
Due to the fear of fat, dairy has been further-processed to remove the important, healthy fats that keep our blood sugar stable and provide us with the all-important K2 vitamin. Below you see the graph from Wise Tradition's article that diagrams the density of this vitamin in different types of dairy.
I could continue with the disappearance of nutrient density, but the simplest explanation is we have handed our health over to government and big industry, jumped into nutritional fads and convenience foods, and forsaken the traditional diet of our ancestors.
The Wise Traditions article indicates that our diets, devoid of organ meats, animal fat, and egg yokes cannot be considered nutrient dense. We should strive to make these foods a common part of nutritional intake and, if you need an extra reminder or guide, you can use this handy chart to help fill your body with fantastic foods that will help you prevent and/or recover from disease.
So, where was the connection with orthodontia? Dr. Price found that people who ate the traditional diet of their ancestors had little to no tooth decay, spacing issues, and structural deformities. These people, in no way, would have ended up sitting in the dental chair having a doctor painfully tightening the metal glued to their teeth (can you still feel that feeling? - make me shudder!). I am determined that I will provide my children with a nutrient dense diet to correct the poor health I passed on to them and give them the nutrients needed to grow traditionally strong.
We eat a lot of nutrient dense foods in our house. Pastured pork lard is a cooking staple, we all take fermented cod liver oil in the evening, sauerkraut is paired with our pork and beef, we've added raw, grass-fed dairy and liver to our routine. We strive to have fresh, wild caught fish a couple times a week (pretty small portions, though, thank to the expense), our meat is pastured and free from hormones and antibiotics, and Mark and the kids have eggs from healthy, pastured hens on a regular basis (egg yokes are first on the list of foods to add back in when I am doing better). We try to keep infrequent desserts nutrient dense as well, focusing on raw milk ice cream made at home with lots of good cream. Now, with James still on the mend from his trip to the ER, I decided to make the kids a "super omelet" to help get him back on track and continue to boost Rita's health.
I started with three eggs, a dash of raw milk, and added everything I could: basil, tomato, garlic, bell pepper, collard greens, and small hunks of liver. Then I cooked the omelet in a cast iron pan to perfection, sprinkled it with real salt and, voila! A perfect, nutrient dense meal that the kids (ok, the one that actually eats) loved.
It may be daunting to begin the process of "densifying" your diet. It has taken us two years to get to this point. But, I can't argue with the results and I cannot wait to see how our health continues to improve in the years to come.
But what does "nutrient dense" mean? It is easy to confuse this term with "healthy food", but not all healthy food is nutrient dense. This article from Wise Traditions indicates that, "“nutrient-dense” should refer to the density of nutrients in a food, adjusted for bioavailability. This could be measured per gram, per calorie, or per unit volume, depending on a person’s particular needs. Since nutrients are essentially worthless if they aren’t absorbed and utilized, the term should incorporate bioavailability."
Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet is extremely devoid of nutrient density. A majority of our dietary intake is from grains, especially genetically modified and horribly processed grains, and our grains are not properly prepared to decrease anti-nutrients and increase the availability of absorbable nutrients. Grains have replaced nutrient dense foods including the important fats, especially animal fats, that we have scorned. In addition, for cooking we have replaced these natural, high-heat fats with processed, rancid vegetable oils.
The traditionally dense animal foods Americans do include - meats, fish, eggs, and dairy - are altered and unhealthy. They come from CAFOs with disgusting conditions. The EPA defines CAFOS as, "agricultural operations where animals are kept and raised in confined situations. AFOs congregate animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations on a small land area. Feed is brought to the animals rather than the animals grazing or otherwise seeking feed in pastures, fields, or on rangeland." Animals do not live they way God intended. They are not outside in the sun, they do not forage for their natural diet, and they live in their own filth, breeding grounds for disease. Their poor healthy means poor nutrition in the product and, therefore, poor nutrients for the consumer. Furthermore, these animals are given antibiotics to stave off disease, hormones to fatten them up, and genetically modified grains that are not a part of their natural diet. Besides the concern regarding lessened nutritional value, we also ingest some of the antibiotics and hormones.
Due to horrible animal conditions, dairy has to be processed in order to get rid of disgusting germs present in the milk due to cow illness or contaminating pathogens from fecal matter. This also kills the good bacteria that helps us digest our milk and provides the health benefits we expect from milk. Raw milk from healthy cows is incredibly good for you, but most cows do not have healthy conditions that allow their milk to be consumed raw (nor would it be beneficial). This website explains that the health of the cow and environment are crucial to the safety of raw milk: "Raw milk is essentially sterile in healthy cows. It's not contaminated until after it comes out of the cow, and that's what really matters as to whether it will contain ‘good' or ‘bad' bacteria. If the milk is contaminated with fecal matter, there will probably be pathogens in the milk at some level, along with other contaminants normally found in dairy-type environments. Fortunately, these other contaminants are found in much larger numbers than are pathogens, so they often will out-compete them."
Due to the fear of fat, dairy has been further-processed to remove the important, healthy fats that keep our blood sugar stable and provide us with the all-important K2 vitamin. Below you see the graph from Wise Tradition's article that diagrams the density of this vitamin in different types of dairy.
I could continue with the disappearance of nutrient density, but the simplest explanation is we have handed our health over to government and big industry, jumped into nutritional fads and convenience foods, and forsaken the traditional diet of our ancestors.
The Wise Traditions article indicates that our diets, devoid of organ meats, animal fat, and egg yokes cannot be considered nutrient dense. We should strive to make these foods a common part of nutritional intake and, if you need an extra reminder or guide, you can use this handy chart to help fill your body with fantastic foods that will help you prevent and/or recover from disease.
So, where was the connection with orthodontia? Dr. Price found that people who ate the traditional diet of their ancestors had little to no tooth decay, spacing issues, and structural deformities. These people, in no way, would have ended up sitting in the dental chair having a doctor painfully tightening the metal glued to their teeth (can you still feel that feeling? - make me shudder!). I am determined that I will provide my children with a nutrient dense diet to correct the poor health I passed on to them and give them the nutrients needed to grow traditionally strong.
We eat a lot of nutrient dense foods in our house. Pastured pork lard is a cooking staple, we all take fermented cod liver oil in the evening, sauerkraut is paired with our pork and beef, we've added raw, grass-fed dairy and liver to our routine. We strive to have fresh, wild caught fish a couple times a week (pretty small portions, though, thank to the expense), our meat is pastured and free from hormones and antibiotics, and Mark and the kids have eggs from healthy, pastured hens on a regular basis (egg yokes are first on the list of foods to add back in when I am doing better). We try to keep infrequent desserts nutrient dense as well, focusing on raw milk ice cream made at home with lots of good cream. Now, with James still on the mend from his trip to the ER, I decided to make the kids a "super omelet" to help get him back on track and continue to boost Rita's health.
I started with three eggs, a dash of raw milk, and added everything I could: basil, tomato, garlic, bell pepper, collard greens, and small hunks of liver. Then I cooked the omelet in a cast iron pan to perfection, sprinkled it with real salt and, voila! A perfect, nutrient dense meal that the kids (ok, the one that actually eats) loved.
It may be daunting to begin the process of "densifying" your diet. It has taken us two years to get to this point. But, I can't argue with the results and I cannot wait to see how our health continues to improve in the years to come.
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