Life is maintained through the intake of food, water, and air. Plants and animals alike must have food in order to grow, develop energy, and live. In order to be assimilated food must first be broken up into small particles so that the inner organs can handle it. This would be impossible without teeth. Any animal would perish in a very short time if its teeth were removed. In human beings teeth are just as indispensable as in animals. Chewing, cutting, and tearing with our teeth requires tremendous force. Our teeth are naturally the hardest part of our body, much harder than the bones, and three quarters as hard as diamonds. They exert a pressure of four-hundred pounds or more while chewing. As a result of their hardness teeth in normal condition will stay in perfect shape and outlive their owner by thousands of years. Skeletons of people and animals who lived many thousands of years ago which were dug out recently by archeologists have shown teeth which remained well preserved after every part of the body, including the bones rotted away. Primitive man had all his teeth in perfect shape to the last day of his existence, primitive tribes still do.
It is the modern, progressed man who finds himself with a toothless mouth. What causes this? With the advent of modern life and commercialism we have hardly any use for our teeth nowadays. Biting into fluids, cakes ,pies, mashed potatoes, et cetera, leaves our teeth with hardly any employment. This is unnatural. Any part of our body which is not functional is removed by nature for greater efficiency. Lie in bed without moving around for a week’s time, or tie an arm behind your back for a few days and you won’t be able to use your limbs for a while after that. When our teeth are not used they become atrophied; the gums soften; the teeth loosen in their sockets and come out easily.
Another, perhaps still more important, cause for our losing our teeth is the lack of minerals in the foods we eat. Teeth, as well as bones and every part of the body, consist of cells which are continually created, used up, then replaced by new ones. Teeth are made of organic minerals — such minerals as come from plant life, particularly calcium, phosphorus, and iodine. These, through the medium of our blood and saliva, nourish the enamel of our teeth and supply their needs. When our food lacks these elements our teeth deteriorate, lose part of their enamel, form cavities, and rot away. Concentrated, denatured, devitalized, and overcooked foods have lost most of their mineral content, so what is there left for the teeth to feed upon? What to do? The answer is obvious — live food with all its vitamins and minerals; coarse food that the teeth can chew for their needed exercise, blood circulation, and, of course, rational living in general. Our teeth are a part of our body and do well when the body as a whole does well.
Care of teeth? There is hardly any necessary. Did you ever see a tiger or an elephant brush its teeth? You won’t see that even on television. It is ridiculous to think of that! And why? Because nature did not grow toothbrushes for our use. Every tooth has its individual motion and when particles of food deposit themselves between our teeth they are gradually dislodged by a natural up and down motion. However, when we consume acid-forming foods (meats, starchy foods, and sweets) they eat the enamel of our teeth and eventually destroy them. As a preventive measure it is good to rinse our mouths and to use dental floss to remove stubborn bits of food from between our teeth. It is not advisable to rinse the mouth directly after a meal but rather half an hour or so later. This gives the saliva a chance to secrete even after the food is chewed up. There is a direct connection between the secretion of the saliva and that of the digestive juices of the stomach. You notice how animals and, for that matter, humans lick their lips and smack their mouth after a meal. This is nature’s way of adding digestive juices for a better assimilation of the food. By rinsing the mouth directly after a meal we stop that natural action.
To strengthen our gums besides chewing on coarse foods, raw vegetables, hard bread, and the like, rinsing the mouth with a solution of apple cider vinegar is very helpful. Dilute one teaspoonful of full strength vinegar in a glass of water, rinse your mouth, also drink some of it. For details see the information about cider vinegar in the article on “Wonder Foods.”
To sum up, good teeth come from good food and right living.
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