Ever Wonder Why Indigenous People Had Straight Teeth?
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The other day, we spent the afternoon at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. We went to look at the dinosaurs, which was fascinating. I was even more interested in the skeletons of early humans and the exhibits of indigenous peoples. I only had my iPhone camera with me, but I thought I’d share some of the things that captured my attention.
First of all, the skulls. I always love looking at caveman skulls. I mean, just look at their teeth.
That perfect “U” shape that Dr. Weston Price described in his writings. Unlike the narrowed “V” shaped palate most modern people today have. The wider palate allowed for plenty of room for all the teeth, including the wisdom teeth, with no crowding.
I also enjoyed looking at the exhibits of indigenous peoples. It’s amazing how straight and beautiful their teeth were.
Look at these photos of Indians from the Amazon:
Their teeth are naturally straight. They didn’t have dentists or orthodontists. They didn’t wear braces. Doesn’t this make you wonder why we modern people have such crooked teeth?
I looked at many other exhibits of indigenous peoples — from the native Americans to the Polynesians. The exhibits had all kinds of household items, from spoons to cups to pipes and combs. Not once did I see a toothbrush. Not once did I see any kind of dental equipment like headgear or braces or palate adjusters.
Doesn’t this make people question? Don’t archeologists looking at these “primitive” people wonder why their teeth are so straight? I guess maybe archeologists aren’t dentists, so they’re not thinking about people’s teeth.
It made Dr. Weston Price question. Dr. Price was a dentist in the early 20th century in Cleveland, Ohio. As he saw more and more kids coming in with crooked teeth and cavities, he wondered why it was happening. Which is what set him on his quest to study indigenous peoples. Dr. Price came to the conclusion that crooked teeth and cavities are caused by nutritional deficiencies, particularly deficiencies of the fat soluble vitamins A, D, E & K.
The groups he studied ate very different diets, but they all ate large quantities of these fat soluble vitamins. Ten times the amount eaten by people in the 1920s and ’30s. And people in the ’20s and ’30s ate a lot more butter, lard, eggs, and whole milk than we do today.
If you haven’t yet, check out Dr. Price’s book: Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. You can read the whole thing online.
Just looking at the photos will blow your mind. It’s amazing to see portraits of all these different cultures, all with perfectly beautiful straight teeth. And then to compare those photos to the ones of people who abandoned their traditional diets for “industrial” food.
The good news is, according to a wealth of data out there (including Dr. Price’s book), crooked teeth are not irreversible. Nor are they caused by bottle feeding or pacifiers.
Sally Fallon Morell, Founder and President of the Weston A. Price Foundation, reported in the organization’s current quarterly journal (Fall, 2009) that an in informal survey of Weston A. Price Foundation members with adopted babies who were raised on bottles of homemade formula made from raw milk (see the recipe here), 6 out of 7 of those kids ended up with naturally straight teeth.
Isn’t that incredible? Especially when you consider this:
Some 4.5 million children and adults are undergoing orthodontic treatment in the United States today, a number that has quadrupled since the 1960′s, according to the American Association of Orthodontists. Source
And this:
The AAO estimates that 75 percent of Americans suffer from malocclusion (literally “bad bite”) and could benefit from orthodontic treatment. Source
75% of Americans need orthodontic treatment, and yet 6 out of 7 WAPF moms raised adopted babies on raw milk formula with naturally straight teeth.
What does that tell you? Tells me something’s going on here. Something very exciting.
I wish more people out there knew about this. Think of the money people would save on braces! Which is why I can’t stop thinking about it and am compelled to keep writing about it.
If you’re new to this information, and you find it interesting, check out Dr. Price’s book and visit the Weston A. Price Foundation website to learn more.
If you’re not new to this information, share this post with someone who is. You never know how powerfully you will impact someone else’s life by reaching out. I know how much healthier my daughter will be, and how much healthier her children will be, and you can’t put a price on that.
I’m eternally grateful to my Uncle Roy for sending me the link to the Weston A. Price Foundation when my daughter was 4 months old. And I’m equally grateful to Dr. Weston Price, Sally Fallon Morell, and everyone who works to get this information out there.
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18/10/2009 at 1:04 pm Permalink
Another wonderful article on the wondrous results of traditional eating! Thanks for sharing the pics, too
18/10/2009 at 1:59 pm Permalink
I had my wisdom teeth out in 06. The dentist told me that my mouth was too small for my wisdoms. He then began to tell me that diet was the reason so many ppl have issues with their teeth. Our mouths & teeth have become “lazy” due to easy foods, less nutrients, etc. We no longer live on a “caveman” diet & he sees many problems with teeth because of this.
18/10/2009 at 2:41 pm Permalink
Very good article/blog. Dr. Price’s pictures in his book are the story of my life. I have worn glasses since the age of 8 and probably needed them before then. y eye sight now is 20/12.75 with a severe astigmatism (sp?). I had to have all kinds of teeth removed so that I would have room in my mouth for teeth. I also had to have my wisdom teeth removed at age 18 because there was no room for them and it was extremely painful – they were also in the bone. It’s all about food – real food.
18/10/2009 at 3:32 pm Permalink
Perhaps this post should be used as part of petition’s toward making/keeping raw milk legal! I’ve read most of the texts you refer to, but I did enjoy the way you linked your Museum visit with your knowledge. It’s given me some great post ideas of my own – thanks!
18/10/2009 at 4:46 pm Permalink
They also didn’t do toxic fluoride. My mother did “if a little is good, more is better” with fluoride drops & i have the ugliest teeth in the world. Yellow & beginning to fall apart. Yeah ! Technology! NOT.
18/10/2009 at 5:16 pm Permalink
Love this post!!
I’m a health writer and write a thyroid-specific nutrition column and I’ve come across this question before. A really great book that briefly discusses it is “Going Against The Grain”. The author is an advocate of a low/no-grain diet. She says that around the time of the first Agricultural Revolution, 10,000 years ago, when people started cultivating and eating grains, health problems resulted. Among these were oral and dental problems and tooth decay. It’s a really interesting read and I would definitely recommend the book — it explains in great detail the historical, scientific, and health associations with grains.
Thanks for this post!
18/10/2009 at 6:43 pm Permalink
fabulous post! i know several people i’ll be forwarding this to who have infants and could really benefit from this knowledge (as well as others who should be on the bandwagon to keep raw milk legal!). thank you!
18/10/2009 at 8:43 pm Permalink
So happy to see a new post!
Liz (or Ann Marie or anyone else), when you sprout grains, do they become more like a vegetable? Do sprounted grains still cause the same problems as unsprouted grains? And what about legumes?
For the first time in several months I made a spaghetti dinner. Jarred spaghetti sauce, regular ol’ pasta and frozen garlic bread. I used to think this was a healthy meal but now considered it junk food. I know we can’t be perfect all the time (or even part of the time sometimes), but meals I used to make I consider crap especially compared to what I cook now (or ferment, sprout or soak.)
19/10/2009 at 1:12 am Permalink
Great post. I’m new to all of this information. I only discovered the Weston A. Price Foundation at the beginning of this year and the information I’ve found on it has changed my life. I didn’t know that I could read his book online. Thanks for the link. I can’t wait to start reading it.
19/10/2009 at 4:00 am Permalink
Great post, Ann Marie! Just from looking at the title, I knew it was going to be about Weston Price!
After letting Nutrition and Physical Degeneration sit on my bookshelf for a year, I’m so glad that I finally read it. Everyone who eats should read it!
19/10/2009 at 5:59 am Permalink
Liz -
I just ordered the sample of Going Against the Grain for my Kindle. Thanks for the suggestion.
19/10/2009 at 6:01 am Permalink
Tina -
No, soaked/sprouted grains, seeds, nuts & legumes do not have the same problems as unsoaked.
Many traditional cultures did eat grains, seeds, nuts & legumes and they experienced vibrant health. But they always soaked/sprouted/fermented them.
I do not think it is necessary to give up all grains but I do think if you are going to eat them, you will want to soak or ferment them first.
19/10/2009 at 8:13 am Permalink
Price was right about the link between processed foods and declining oral pathology. There has been a small amount of research since then, but the citation below which came from around Prices time, is also close to the truth.
“…cooking renders food pasty, so that it sticks to the teeth, and undergoes acid fermentation. Furthermore, the cooking of food greatly diminishes the need for use of the teeth; and thus tends to diminish the circulation of blood to the jaws and teeth, and to produce under -development of the maxillary and contiguous bones—thus leading to contracted dental arches, and to malocclusion and impaction of the teeth, with complications of great seriousness.”
- Forbes, E. B., The Ohio Journal of Science. Vol. 33, No.5 (September, 1933), 389-406
In societies where consumption of tough foods has remained popular, one does not see the degeneration depicted by Price.
19/10/2009 at 8:24 am Permalink
I was just commenting to my husband yesterday how we have these tooth and skull specimens in museums that have been unearthed after hundreds and thousands of years and they are in impeccable shape. However it is absolutely normal for babies, toddlers and young children to have dental decay at such young ages. If bacteria was the cause of such decay then the specimens in the ground would not withstand such a bacterial assault over time.
So much for the bacteria theory.
Today I find these pictures on your blog. Wonderful!
19/10/2009 at 1:08 pm Permalink
Great post! My daughters are 13, 11, 9, & 7 years old. By following Weston Price Diet the last seven years, my three oldest daughters have straight teeth now. They were not coming in that way at first. My 2nd girl had teeth that were completely twisted sideways. They are now straight. I am excited to see what wisdom teeth bring. It just goes to show that by switching your diet during your growing years does have a lot of impact for better or worse. My youngest daughter has some crazy teeth right now. I am praying that she will follow her older sisters and as she grows, she will also have straight teeth.
19/10/2009 at 2:45 pm Permalink
Catherine, I love it. I had never thought about it like that but you are RIGHT! If the bacteria theory held any water, why would those teeth still hold up?
19/10/2009 at 4:22 pm Permalink
Amy –
That is so encouraging! It’s good to know that you can start late and still get great results.
20/10/2009 at 5:54 am Permalink
I’m on board with the Weston A. Price stuff, but I always wonder about life-span. Did the people with great teeth live very long? Does he address that in his book? Are our longer lives now because of other breakthroughs in medicine despite our processed foods? Just something I wonder about when I think about our predecessors.
20/10/2009 at 6:39 am Permalink
Sally Fallon Morell addreses this here:
Price extolled the health of those groups who were healthy, and described the high rates of infant mortality, endemic diseases and malnutrition in the groups that were not healthy. Much of the value of his research comes from the fact that he was able to observe healthy and unhealthy groups of the same racial stock side by side, and thereby demonstrate the correlation between diet and disease. Although we will never be able to ascertain the life expectancy of the primitive peoples he studied, Price noted great longevity among certain groups, such as the Eskimos and the South Sea Islanders.
http://www.westonaprice.org/basicnutrition/right_price.html
As far as early man goes, here’s an excerpt from a book on the subject:
http://books.google.com/books?id=B4YIp8ex3-wC&lpg=PA41&ots=ckkxyF9QZ1&dq=weston%20price%20life%20expectancy&pg=PA41#v=onepage&q=weston%20price%20life%20expectancy&f=false
The author says that Paleolithic hunter-gatherers lived around 30 years and that principal causes of death were infectious disease, trauma and perils of childbirth. As you can imagine, cavemen did not have cushy lives like we do — with cars with safety belts and comfortable heated homes and television. They were exposed to the elements 24/7 and had to fight for every meal.
I think you are right that our longer lives now are due to breakthroughs like modern plumbing, improved sanitation and modern medicine.
Examples:
A woman does not have to die in childbirth today — they can do a C-section or other intervention. Much of infant mortality in prior centuries was caused by an inability to intervene (as with surgery), but more commonly it was probably due to infection. People didn’t wash their hands back then because they had no understanding of microbiology.
The biggest causes of death in the 20th century were things like tuberculosis, small pox and the like. Improved sanitation and hygeine was responsible for the decline of most infectious diseases.
The bubonic plague in the middle ages was caused by rats and other animals infested with fleas that carried the bacteria. “The bacteria form aggregates in the gut of infected fleas and this results in the flea regurgitating ingested blood, which is now infected, into the bite site of a rodent or human host.”
The rats largely died off from the plague and the fleas started biting human hosts. Interestingly, what caused the swarm of rats that carried the bacteria was sewage and filthy, overcrowded living conditions. During those times there was no such thing as indoor plumbing and people just dumped chamber pots full of urine and sewage into the streets.
Can you imagine? In fact, I read that the platform shoes were commonly worn in Europe in the 16th century in order to prevent all the muddy sewage from getting on people’s clothing when they walked in the streets.
20/10/2009 at 6:45 am Permalink
Here’s another article about this topic:
http://sewerhistory.org/articles/wh_era/midages.htm
And this article is interesting too:
European cities were buried in sewage. Town residents splashed the contents of garbage pails and washtubs out into the street on the heads of carefree passers-by. Stagnated slops made stinking pools; and a great number of town pigs crowned the whole picture. People emptied chamber pots right out of their windows making streets look like cesspools. Bathrooms were the rarest luxury. Fleas, lice and bugs swarmed in rich and poor houses of London and Paris.
Unsanitary conditions, diseases and starvation personify medieval Europe as it was. Even the noble class could not afford to eat their fill. Noble families were happy if at best two or three of ten children survived. Delivery was quite an undertaking for women: a third part of them died in labor. Street illumination also was poor – oil lamps, splinters or wax candles at best. Hunger, smallpox, leprosy and syphilis disfigured people’s faces.
There were not any cleaning agents or the notion of personal hygiene in Europe up to the middle of the 19th century. One Italian nobleman said in his memoirs that in the 16th century it was impossible to walk along the streets that resembled a fetid stream of turbid water. He had to hold a scented handkerchief or a small bouquet to his nose not to vomit. But not only faeces poisoned the air. Butchers slaughtered and disembowel cattle right in the streets. They would scatter guts around and pour blood out onto the pavement.
All hygienic arrangements included only hands and mouth rinsing, but not the whole face. “By no means you should wash your face, – wrote medics in the 16th century, – as it can cause catarrh or weaken the eyesight.” As for women, they had a bath only two or three times a year.
http://hiddenmysteries.net/geeklog/article.php?story=20080122235405180&mode=print
Disgusting, eh? I can’t believe they survived very long at all, considering all of that!
20/10/2009 at 9:42 am Permalink
Hi Ann Marie,
I’m starting to do more veggie ferments and I came across a blog that mentioned how important is was to get your prebiotics too. The probiotics and prebiotics work together.
I wanted to know if you gave your family a prebiotic supplement?
Thanks!
21/10/2009 at 5:28 am Permalink
This post is wonderful! I am just about 3/4 the way through Nutrition & Physical Degeneration, and I was more under the impression that it was prenatal nutrition that was important for good jaw formation, but you give me hope. I just started the Nourishing Traditions way of eating with my daughter when she started solids around one year, but my nutrition when breastfeeding/pg wasn’t the best with her. I’m glad to know that food will still help her teeth/jaw formation!
This information just blows my mind, as someone who was raised to trust medical professionals. After reading things like this, that aren’t ‘new’ knowledge, I don’t know how anyone cannot be skeptical of most of the medical profession!
24/10/2009 at 5:00 am Permalink
Oooo, I’m def. keeping my fingers crossed that we can avoid braces for both (all?) of our kids via good nutrition! I am, believe it or not, just getting all my wisdom teeth in as an adult! For the last 2 years or so, I’ve been slowly teething at age 27-29. How strange is that! You would think my kiddos should be the ones teething. The dentist keeps saying I might have to have them out, but he’s not pushing it yet. I’m always pregnant or nursing and hate the thought of that surgery anyway, so I’m hoping to just take good care of them.
What cool skull pics, btw.
Katie
29/10/2009 at 3:16 pm Permalink
Great Article. I found it from Jo-Lynne. When I went to East Timor I found and saw the same thing. Never knew why..now I do. Interesting.
06/11/2009 at 1:38 am Permalink
So I hate to be the one that asks the dumb question, but what about teeth brushing? Is that a modern thing too? From watching Survivor Man, I know that a specific tree can be used to freshen up one’s mouth, but what did/do the indigenous people use? J/c
06/05/2010 at 1:21 pm Permalink
I was glad to see amy’s testimony that her children’s teeth improved as a result of W.A.P. diet. I wish I could convince my 19-yr-old son to eat better and drink raw milk, or at least take cod liver oil. The dentist is recommending he get his wisdom teeth pulled and 2 molars. I hope I’m not crazy to think diet could help even though he’s practically an adult. So was glad to see Katie’s testimony too. I also have crowding and a poor bite. But have not had help from eating the traditional way. I’m 48 though. Maybe good diet combined with the right dental treatment?
08/07/2010 at 5:56 pm Permalink
Sorry, but the reason they have straight teeth is because they lose their teeth and the remaining teeth migrate to a straight position. Indigenous people have the same jaws as people living a modern lifestyle.
08/07/2010 at 6:25 pm Permalink
Interesting theory.