The road less cycled

I’m no different from anybody in that I dread taking trips to the dentist, for the impact on my cashflow, but perhaps more because of the seemingly inevitable stream of bad news. Universally, the term “dentist” is synonymous with bad news. Perhaps one of the few things that distinguishes my relationship with my dentist from that of most people is that for a long time it didn’t exist. Not until around the time of my graduation did I begin to suspect that maybe dental health was something I ought to be paying more attention to, and when I did pay a visit to a local dentist, the news wasn’t good. Without going into details, it was obvious it was high time to devote a little bit of time and attention to what exactly good dental health meant, and how to achieve it. I suspect it’s something a lot of people struggle with, but it’s not exactly the best topic for dinner table conversation. Hence, this blog shall pick up the slack.

As usual, the conventional answers weren’t very satisfactory. The official explanation of why so many people fall victim to dental decay is that when we eat sugary, starchy foods, remnants hang around on our teeth, give bacterial populations a big boost, and that these bacteria then create acidic secretions which gradually break down our enamel, and eventually our teeth themselves. The solution to this, the story goes, is frequent brushing and flossing, basically to the point that it becomes obsessive, which should slow decay. At the same, we’re told that we should avoid sugary foods and carbonated drinks. This all sounds pretty reasonable and logical.

For me however, this explanation leaves some definite gaps. It doesn’t explain why one guy that I know, who by all accounts considers coke and alcohol a food group of its own, and yet has nothing to worry about when it comes to the dentist; yet my brother and I, who grew up in a household that treated coke as a substance invented by the devil himself were obviously more severely impacted. It also doesn’t explain the well documented existence of indigenous groups with excellent dental health to whom a toothbrush is about as familiar an object as a condom to a Catholic.

So, as usual, when in doubt, I turned to the available literature; namely one book in particular (so far) called “Cure Tooth Decay” by Ramiel Nagal – a title with a bluntness that makes it promising. When I finally got it in my hands, it’s width also, raised my hopes for it. Rather than being a comprehensive treatise, a dictionary on its own, it was a slender, perhaps 75 page volume – something that promised not to stray too far from the topic at hand, while being easily, ahem, digestable…..(sorry, couldn’t resist).

Upon reading it, what I found was both shocking, as well as a tad relieving.  In a nutshell, the author emphatically refutes any contemplation of a vegetarian, let alone a vegan, diet, stating that the essential elements of strong teeth, and by extension, bones, are the fat-soluble vitamins – A, D, E, & K, which are difficult to ingest from plant sources, and even when found in plant-based foods, are present in significantly higher concentrations in butter, yogurt, and milk. Importantly, unlike virtually all dairy products available on the market today, these products have to be raw – read unpasteurized – in order to be effective.

Now, I’ve long been afflicted by eczema, relatively insignificant from essentially high school onwards, but much more of a nuisance early in life – so much so that my parents went to some lengths to figure this one out, and they identified dairy as a possible culprit, an allergen, with the result that dairy was simply not included in my diet. Couple that with a not half-hearted addiction to black licorice, the saltier the better, and a stubborn streak that banished pretty much all vegetables from my dinner plate, and you have a recipe for a very rich dentist, to say the least.

The trouble with this whole raw dairy thing is that it goes against the grain of my dietary habits and education on dairy. From the common belief among vegetarians that dairy consumption is useless from a calcium absorption perspective unless care is taken to also ensure adequate intake of magnesium and Vitamin D, and perhaps more importantly, that milk, dairy, and animal flesh, instead of promoting protein fortification as many believe, actually cause the excretion of protein. Here I admit to a weakness of this weblog – it is not a scientific treatise, but rather a log of thoughts and mish-mash of facts which may or may not be referenced. In this case, I’m going to admit to not remembering the exact reason behind animal products such as meat and dairy causing protein loss, and just say that my understanding of this stems from a video featuring Dr. Michael Klaper, M.D., which unfortunately, after “borrowing” for two years from a friend, we’ve lent to another friend (without notifying the owner of course). I’ve just checked, and he does appear on Google and in limited fashion on Youtube. The video I saw is called “A Diet for all Reasons,” to the best of my knowledge (a 45 second search on Youtube) isn’t available for viewing, but available to buy. I believe the explanation for a diet including animal foods causing protein loss centred around the acidity of the amino acids which compose protein.

There are many more aspects to preserving that healthy bite in Nagal’s book, but I have covered the absolute essentials here. I should add that Nagal states that tooth decay and tooth remineralization have more to do with the concentration of calcium and phosphorus in the blood than with oral cleanliness. I do want to hear from you though, whether you are vegan, vegetarian, or just plain like to eat normally and not obsess over what goes into your body, what are you thoughts on this? Do you have any further information that I have not yet come across? How to achieve good dental health on a plant based diet, perhaps? Or perhaps why you think Nagal is right on the money? Other good books on this topic? Or just what works for you and what doesn’t?

Speak up, do.  Or should I say, “Bite me?”

More or less the extent of my astrological knowledge is that I am a Libra, which I strongly associate with a tendency to seek balance, logic, and rational judgement, and to shy away from impulsiveness. In a lot of cases, that describes me to a T. Whether those are actually things characteristic of a Libra is anybody’s guess.

Taken one step further though, being strongly “Libra-esque,” or any other astrological sign, inherently makes one unbalanced. Perhaps this is why I sometimes strive to leave behind the search for balance, and instead, embrace impulsiveness, spur of the moment type decisions. Because I seldom make a decision on the spot. No, I usually want to use just about all the time that I have before I come to a decision. This might be why, in high school when test writing was a frequent occurrence, I would usually be one of the last to leave the room. Had I less time, I’d still have completed it, but why would I use less time than I’d been given?

I broach this topic because for me, this seems to be a time of great upheaval. On the heels of being unemployed for longer than I have been since I entered the workforce, the array of possiblities and opportunites clamoring to once again engulf me is bewildering and overwhelming. Some of the few concrete decisions that I’ve come to are that by no means do I ever want to have an office job, but even that is not concrete, because it is at loggerheads with my recent interest in economics. Where, oh where, could economics ever lead but to a desk and a cubicle?

And yet, outside the realm of economics, where is the root of the inequities, failures, and injustices of our world? Surely it is not in our best interests to have a system where money is debt and debt is money. Nor to work until June or July just to pay the tax load. Nor to measure progress in the Gross Domestic Product while ignoring the Genuine Progress Indicator. Yet who, besides an economist can address these problems?

We’ve been through the 60’s and 70’s, when peace and love reigned supreme, when people stood up to their governments, and the general trajectory was towards weapons disarmament. Yet that was also a time of international tension, as a cloud of fear hung over the world as everyone waited for somebody with a happy trigger finger to jetison the world into nuclear hell. Fortunately, that never happened, and today the threat seems distant.

The funny thing is that I’m really talking out of my ass, because I’m no expert on the events post WWII. (this particular post is perhaps more of a confession of lack of expertise than anything else). Despite all the awareness of that era, and what I perceive to be a trend towards lightheartedness, the elimination of racial differences, and the valuation of the simple things in life but also freedom through eccentricity and individuality, where are we now? Not any further ahead, I think it’s fair to say. Perhaps the people who pull the strings at the highest levels don’t want the people to lose their sense of tension, of foreboding. Perhaps complacency really isn’t the goal, because as soon as the people become comfortable in where they’re at, and confident in the state of world affairs, they start to demand civil liberties. They become harder to control.

These are the issues which swirl in my head as I ponder a diversion into economics, and yet, that spectre of being nailed to an office chair leaves me trembling with angst. Better, perhaps, as some of my friends have done, to develop physical skills and competency, maximize the body’s potential, take premium care of it, and so journey throughout life, relying on physical skills for my bread and butter,, and working towards sufficiently strong community bonds to deter the folks who pull our society’s economic strings from getting too reckless in terms of letting equality and prosperity for the average person fall by the wayside.

That, to me, is a key area to focus on. Community through strong bonds that is attuned to what our government is up to. In BC, and Canada as a whole, we’re in a period marked by talks of cuts and deficits. Across the river in Mission protests recently arose in response to plans to close the emergency ward. Now advocates of our library system find themselves needing to mobilize to demonstrate strong public loyalty to maintaining the library system’s funding base. At the same time, The governing Liberals announced the introduction of a Harmonized Sales Tax a year from now, nicely timed so that they hope people will more or less have forgotten. In theory, the HST is a logical concept – why do the paperwork for two taxes when you could only do it for one? However, the HST means that more tax will be levied on some consumer items, raising more revenue for the government.

This revenue, of course, is what the government needs to pay for service maintenance, because with an ongoing recession, revenue is down. So to the best of my understanding, in the absence of new revenue such as that from an HST, the maintenance of existing library and health services will mean cuts elsewhere. That is simply unavoidable, unless the government is going to run a deficit, which is not something they want to be known for. BC taxpayers lose no matter which way the ball tumbles, whether it’s in higher taxes or in reduced services.

Advocacy groups are doing a fabulous job of mobilizing to create awareness and protect local funding, and I commend them for that, because even though protecting funding locally will mean cuts elsewhere, a healthy level of citizen displeasure sends the message to our governments that their population base is not happy, and pushing the envelope too far carries a serious risk of reprisal.

So watch it, Victoria boys. This elephant’s showing some signs of life.