Case of Dental Caries vs. the Sugar Interests
By Allison G. James, DDS
Summary: The overwhelming case that consumption of refined carbohydrates is the cause of tooth decay is presented by dentist and author Allison James. Even back in 1949, as this article from the Southern California State Dental Association Journal illustrates, this theory was opposed institutionally by both commercial sugar interests and the profession of dentistry at large. Instead, conventional dentistry continued—and continues today—to blindly follow its eternal mantra: Drill 'em and fill 'em. Never mind why the caries are there in the first place! Reprint 42, 1949.
Case Studies in Nutritional Dentistry—Joan and Nancy
By Fred D. Miller, DDS
Summary: A pioneering holistic dentist uses the case history of two patients to illustrate the clear relationship between nutrition in the body and dental decay in the mouth. Photos included. Original source unknown. Reprint 49, 1948.
View PDF: Case Studies in Nutritional Dentistry—Joan and Nancy
Correctable Systemic Disorders Indicated by Presence of Salivary Calculus
By John E. Waters, DDS
Summary: An excellent nutritional piece positing dental plaque as a precursor to cancer. "Both the medical and dental professions in general consider pyorrhea alveolaris [gum inflammation and loosening of teeth] as a disease per se and treat it primarily from the local disease angle. That is wrong. Pyorrhoea is but a single symptom of a systemic disease caused by glandular abnormalities. Local treatment but reduces the obvious symptoms; it does not affect the basic systemic disease. That which follows is based on observations during over forty years of general dental practice, and on over thirty years of special attention paid to certain aspects rarely if ever commented on in connection with dental calculus [tartar]." Special Reprint 1-64, 1964.
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Deaf Smith’s Secret
By A. W. Erickson
Summary: Deaf Smith County, Texas, was known in the 1940s as the "county without a dentist." The author presents evidence that the immunity of the county's residents to dental caries (cavities) was a result of high levels of nutrients in the soil there, which resulted in the growth of exceptionally nourishing foods. Original publisher unknown. 1945.
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The Direct Effect of Malnutrition on Tissue Degeneration
By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: In this succinct address to the Seattle Chapter of the American Academy of Applied Nutrition, Dr. Lee touches on some of the major findings of early nutrition science that are still, incredibly, ignored to this day. Topics include the importance of calcium, phosphorus, and raw protein to tooth health; the total destruction of nutrients in bread caused by bleaching; the connection between vitamin E deficiency and heart disease; the dependency of connective-tissue integrity on adequate vitamin C levels; and the various lesions of B vitamin deficiencies. “What lesson can we learn from these few scattered facts…?” Dr. Lee asks in conclusion. “Simply that we must take the trouble in our homes to prepare our foods from the basic materials as far as possible, even to the extent of growing our vegetables and fruits on properly composted soil, if we can. The dividends will be quite possibly 20 years added to our life span, to say nothing of the life added to our years.”
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Fundamentals of Nutrition
By N. Philip Norman, MD
Summary: A respected, well-published New York medical doctor questions why physicians have so long ignored the fundamental connection between nutrition and good health and discusses the essential requirements for producing nutritious food—from the soil and farm to the grocery store and kitchen table—as well as the various ways in which the American food supply has been compromised. "The medical and dental professions [have] failed to oppose the wholesale adulteration of our food supply, thereby allowing the insidious extension into our food culture of processed foods whose nutritional value was never questioned, until after the damage was done." Kind of says it all. From the American Journal of Orthodontics and Oral Surgery, 1947.
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How the Facts Are Suppressed in Connection with Bone Meal
By Alfred Aslander
Summary: In this circular from the Division of Agriculture, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden, the author surveys research conducted in Sweden and Switzerland on supplementing the diet with bone meal to prevent dental caries (cavities). He exposes significant design flaws in a study cited by the dental establishment to discredit bone-meal supplementation, and he describes a number of other studies that showed bone meal to be highly effective in preventing tooth decay. He also recounts his thwarted effort to have his own research published by journals beholden to the dental establishment. "At least once upon a time it was considered as an axiom that scientific investigations should aim solely at the pursuit of the truth, and consequently scientific journals should aim at publishing the truth. In this case it seems...[their] aim has been something else." Note: a year before this article appeared, Dr. Royal Lee introduced a completely raw, cold-processed veal bone meal powder (flour) for use by dentists. Reprint 134A, 1964.
View PDF: How the Facts Are Suppressed in Connection with Bone Meal
Nutrition and Dental Disease
By Allison G. James, DDS
Summary: A dentist warns that refined grain and sugar products are "the chief causative factor in dental caries [cavities] and paradentosis [gum disease]." The author also discusses the body's important calcium-phosphorus ratio and warns against eating too much "heat-sterilized food." The esteemed Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., MD, comments at the end of the article. From Annals of Western Medicine and Surgery, Reprint 34, 1947.
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Nutritional Aspect of Dental Disease
By John H. Gunter, DDS, MD
Summary: This document is a forerunner of holistic dentistry. Physician and dentist Dr. John Gunter explains in detail why "dental practice is intimately associated with the practice of nutrition." While most people today, including most dentists, believe tooth decay is a result of bacterial attack on helpless teeth, the truth is that a well-defended tooth, made strong by sufficient nutrition, is impervious to such attack. Carbohydrates, Dr. Gunter shows, form the diet that is universally associated with tooth decay. Carnivorous humans and animals are free from cavities. Gunter outlines a systemic approach to dentistry based on a vitamin-rich diet that confers dental and systemic immunity. From Philadelphia Medicine. Reprint 115A, 1942.
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Our Teeth and Our Soils
By William A. Albrecht, PhD
Summary: A must read for the serious nutritionist. Dr. Albrecht, one of the foremost soil scientists of his day, notes the critical connection between nutrition and the "soil and its fertility, by which alone high-quality foods can be provided." To illustrate his point, Albrecht discusses in depth the relationship between the health of the soil and the health of one particular part of the body, the teeth. He also speculates that the twentieth century will be remembered for the discovery of nutrition and optimistically states, "Better nutrition is leading us to think less about medicine as cures and less about fighting microbes with drugs." From the Annals of Dentistry. Reprint 37, 1947.
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A Plan for Testing the Theory of Complete Tooth Nutrition
By Alfred Aslander
Summary: "A tooth is a living tissue; not a dead mineral structure," writes Swedish researcher Alfred Aslander in this compelling 1964 report. "And a tooth is an independent individual that grows out of the mandible in somewhat the same way as a plant grows out of the soil. The plant receives nutrients from the soil solution, the tooth from the blood stream. The growth of [each is] governed by the same laws of nutrition." The author proposes, based on animal studies and his own experimentation, that supplementing the diet with bone meal will supply all the nutrients required by a tooth and even outlines a study that would settle the debate about nutrition and dental disease. Too bad no one took him up on it. Report from the Division of Agriculture, The Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden. Reprint 134B, 1964.
View PDF: A Plan for Testing the Theory of Complete Tooth Nutrition
The Prevention of Dental Caries and Oral Sepsis
By H. P. Pickerill, MD
Summary: An all but forgotten classic in nutritional research that should be required reading for all health professionals and dentists in particular. Dr. Royal Lee studied this report—a precursor to the famous studies of Dr. Weston A. Price—in his youth, well before graduating Marquette Dental College. Pickerill, writing before the discovery or knowledge of vitamins, astutely recognizes the decay of teeth as a defect in diet, sugar and refined carbohydrates being the likely culprits. In contrast, he reviews the dietary practices of various indigenous people around the world and notes their universal near immunity to dental cavities. The statistics he cites on dental health in England at the turn of the century make clear why the British government formed the Royal Commission on Physical Deterioration and give one an idea of just how far back the ill effects of consuming processed foods began. Cartwright Prize Essay of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for 1906–1910. Reprint 132, 1912.
The Role of Some Nutritional Elements in the Health of the Teeth and Their Supporting Structures
By John A. Myers
Summary: A great overview of how nutritional knowledge should have transformed dentistry but never did. In this well-written, well-researched article, the author calls on the dental profession to stop focusing on drilling, filling, and extracting teeth and start teaching the true cause of dental caries: malnutrition. The author reviews the pioneering work of Drs. Price and Pottenger as evidence of the role of diet in the health of the mouth and teeth. He also discusses the famously nutrient-dense soil of Deaf Smith County, Texas, a.k.a. "the county without a toothache," and describes the role of various vitamins and minerals in dental health. From Annals of Dentistry. Reprint 107, 1958.
View PDF: The Role of Some Nutritional Elements in the Health of the Teeth and Their Supporting Structures
Saving Your Face
By Fred Miller, DDS
Summary: Another article from pioneering dentist Fred Miller. The title is a metaphor for keeping your teeth healthy throughout life through proper nutrition. "I make it a flat statement of fact," he writes, "that, with the few exceptions that must always be allowed for, there is no good reason why a man should not take to his grave with him the vital teeth he now has in his mouth." Originally published by Esquire in 1941, this is a republished version from 1955 that appeared in the newsletter Natural Food and Farming, official publication of the Natural Food Associates.
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The Systemic Causes of Dental Caries
By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Amazingly, Dr. Lee presented this paper in 1923, to his senior class at Marquette University Dental School. In it he shows that resistance to dental disease—like immunity to any disease—rests on the proper function of a holistic network involving the endocrine system, the immune system, and the vitamins and minerals obtainable only from whole foods. To help combat cavities, he calls for unpasteurized milk and more raw foods in the diet. Remarkable for its time, and just as remarkable today. Reprint 30A, 1923.
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This Molasses War: Who Is Prevaricating? / Bone Meal: Nutritional Source of Calcium
By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Two articles that appeared in Let's Live magazine in 1952 and 1953. In "This Molasses War—Who is Prevaricating?," Dr. Lee compares natural and refined sugars. He posits that carbohydrates are not essential in the human diet and offers proof by way of certain traditional peoples who eat no carbs and yet experience perfect health. He also discusses the virtues of molasses, which is rich in minerals and is protective against tooth decay, whereas white sugar promotes cavities. Lee also describes the famous experiments of Dr. Rosalind Wulzen of Oregon State College that led to the discovery of the "anti-arthritic factor" in molasses and raw cream that was later named after her. In "Bone Meal—Nutritional Source of Calcium," Dr. Lee describes the virtues of finely powdered bone flour as a source of protein and minerals, particularly calcium. He states that for the teeth, cold-processed bone meal is unexcelled. He also discusses the role of trace minerals also found in bone meal. 1953.
View PDF: This Molasses War: Who Is Prevaricating? / Bone Meal: Nutritional Source of Calcium
Vitamins in Dental Care
By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: Originally published in Health Culture, this 1955 article outlines the critical roles of natural vitamin complexes, such as vitamins A, B, C, D and F, in maintaining and restoring dental health. Dr. Lee specifically credits the research of the celebrated Dr. Weston Price: "Dr. Weston A. Price was the first dentist to publish an article asserting that dental caries [are] primarily a result of vitamin deficiency. This was in 1927. In 1923, I had prepared a paper on the subject of 'The Systemic Cause of Dental Caries,' and read it to the senior class of Marquette Dental College, subscribing to the same hypothesis." Amazingly, conventional dentistry still fails to comprehend the basic truth that a properly nourished body is resistant to tooth decay. Reprint 30G, 1955.
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Vitamins in Dentistry
By Dr. Royal Lee
Summary: A classic Royal Lee document, read before a New York dental group in 1940. In it Dr. Lee outlines how far the understanding of nutrition and dental health had come and how poorly the dental profession had stayed current with this advance of knowledge. He cites many examples—fully referenced—of the direct effect of nutrients on dental health. A great paper if anyone bothered to read and understand it. "Drill 'em and fill 'em" was the dental mantra then, as it is today. Reprint 30B, 1940.
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Wanted for Stealing: Sugar Bowl Pete
By the Council on Dental Health of the Southern California State Dental Association
Summary: A cartoon poster aimed at children, warning them of the dangers of white sugar and refined carbohydrates. Designed by the Council on Dental Health of the Southern California State Dental Association and published originally in Modern Nutrition. Publication date unknown.
View PDF: Wanted for Stealing: Sugar Bowl Pete
The Well-Fed Tooth
By Fred Miller, DDS
Summary: "America is a nation of 'candyholics' and soft drink addicts, of food adulterators, processors and refiners," writes Dr. Fred Miller in words that ring as true today as in 1946, when he wrote them. "Having practiced dentistry for more than thirty years I am thoroughly convinced—speaking from the biological point of view, not the moral aspect—that refined white flour and its products—bread, crackers, cookies, pastries —and refined sugar and its products—candies, hard candies and soft drinks—are doing more harm in this country than hard liquor." A great historical overview of the state of malnutrition in America from a frontline dentist. From The Land magazine. Reprint 49A, 1946.
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Why Dental Caries?
By John Courtney
Summary: For thirty years John Courtney was the head of Research & Development for Standard Process, Inc., the raw-food supplement company founded by Dr. Royal Lee in 1929. In this article, Courtney explains how early nutrition researchers such as Dr. Weston Price showed beyond doubt that tooth decay is the result of a diet deficient in vitamins and minerals. Yes, Courtney says, bacteria attack teeth to cause cavities, but those bacteria wouldn't get anywhere if the teeth weren't weakened in the first place by poor nutrition. Moreover, malnutrition also diminishes the bacteria-killing action of the saliva bathing the teeth. Thus, he summarizes, cavities are "due to a deficient diet and a vitamin and mineral imbalance, which in turn, by starving the endocrines, renders them unable to secrete sufficient amounts of the germicidal ferments to prevent dental caries [cavities] and other infectious diseases."
View PDF: Why Dental Caries?
