Tooth decay could be a precursor to obesity. Don't believe it? Ask your dentist. Milan Somborac, DDS, sees the same patients again and again, suffering from plaque, cavities, and infection. He provides expensive treatments for preventable conditions, and he blames it all on refined carbohydrates. The human genome represents the entirety of our hereditary information, and it is not aligned with the nutritional qualities of our food or our modern activity levels. Because of this, our overall health is in decline, and tooth decay acts as an early warning for the onset of diseases later in life. In Your Mouth, Your Health Somborac makes the connection between overall health and dental health. He tells us how to prevent decline, through easy to apply examples that will save your teeth and your life. For example, instead of telling us to avoid hot dogs, he tells us how to make them healthy. Instead of removing potatoes, he compares their nutritional value to apples. This guide does not tell you what you can't do; instead, it tells you how to do things better. There are serious benefits to eating from Mother Nature's pantry, and you can do it in your neighborhood grocery store. By following the guidelines of Your Mouth, Your Health, you will maximize your genetic potential and live a long, healthy life.

Your Mouth, Your Health

Stop and Reverse AgingBy Milan Somborac

iUniverse, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 Milan Somborac, DDS
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4502-7206-3

Contents

Acknowledgments....................................................................................................................TP1ξTP1TC1[Preface]TC1 xiiiIntroduction: Most Chronic Disease Is a Choice.....................................................................................xvPart I: The Fundamentals...........................................................................................................1Chapter 1 Our Bodies: How We (and Everything Else) Are Built.......................................................................3Chapter 2 Carbohydrates: The Misunderstood Energy..................................................................................9Chapter 3 Proteins: Life's Blueprint...............................................................................................15Chapter 4 Fats: Love Them, You Can't Leave Them....................................................................................18Chapter 5 Water: Need Turned to Marketing Triumph..................................................................................22Chapter 6 Vitamins and Minerals: Need Turned to Hoax...............................................................................30Chapter 7 Origins: Food for Thought................................................................................................37Part II: Avoidable Chronic Diseases................................................................................................43Chapter 8 Dental Decay: The Preventable Scourge....................................................................................45Chapter 9 Your Gums, Your Heart....................................................................................................49Chapter 10 The Deadly Quartet Part 1: Excess Weight and Obesity....................................................................55Chapter 11 The Deadly Quartet Part 2: Elevated Blood Fats..........................................................................62Chapter 12 The Deadly Quartet Part 3: Diabetes.....................................................................................65Chapter 13 The Deadly Quartet Part 4: Hypertension and Heart Disease...............................................................70Diverticulitis, and Yes, Excess Weight.............................................................................................75Chapter 15 The Only Guide to Eating You'll Ever Need...............................................................................84Conclusion: For Policymakers: A Proven Results System..............................................................................105References.........................................................................................................................107Index..............................................................................................................................131

Chapter One

Our Bodies: How We (and Everything Else) Are Built

Chemicals get an unfairly bad rap as strong and powerful substances that can hurt us. The fact is, everything that exists in our physical universe is made up of chemicals—from the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat to the earth itself and every living and nonliving thing on it.

In 1869, the Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev classified the fifty or so then-known basic chemical elements into a table in accordance to their properties (Strathern 2001). Much like the twenty-six-word alphabet can spell every word in the English language and these words can be combined to create everything from a crude joke to a Shakespearean play, so some one hundred naturally occurring elements in the modern version of Mendeleev's periodic table can be brought together to produce everything from cheap swill to great wine, from the acrid smell of bleach to the sweet aroma of a rose. The wine is contained in a glass made up of chemicals, the glass sits on a table composed of chemicals, the table and the glass have been scrubbed clean with bleach made of chemicals, the rose in the vase on the table is made of chemicals—and you and I who sip the wine and smell the rose are comprised of chemicals.

Just as the letters of the alphabet are organized differently within each Shakespearean play, chemicals are organized differently within each animate and inanimate object—but perhaps not as differently as you might expect. For instance, nearly 100 percent of a common type of seashell is composed of a chemical known as hydroxyapatite—the same material that makes up much of our bone, cartilage, and teeth. In fact, these seemingly disparate entities share enough elements in common that we can get a seashell to fuse to bone. Every day, orthopedic surgeons and dentists are using the principles underlying these similar compositional elements to replace worn-out hips and missing teeth (Bobbio 1973).

Building blocks that make up a human being are called proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. All are made of chemicals. In different forms, they are also in charge of the body's many functions. The chemical combinations that are our primary source of energy are called carbohydrates.

Proteins and fats can also provide energy, in addition to being our bodies' building blocks. But this energy needs to be replenished. In addition, we need to compensate for wear and tear on the building blocks. Thus, we need to bring fuel and raw material into our bodies on an ongoing basis.

Collectively, carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water are called nutrients. Our bodies use them up at different rates, and therefore, we need to replace them at the appropriate rates, in the proper quantities, and with healthful qualities. That's nutrition. Nutrition comes from diet—not the kind aimed at losing weight but the kind aimed at optimal health, which should be the norm. As I've noted, the final chapter of Your Mouth, Your Health includes a guide to healthy eating.

Weight-loss diets have deplorable long-term results. The failure rate is virtually 100 percent! The reason is that weight-loss diets have a beginning and an end. On the other hand, each individual can sustain his or her appropriate weight by regularly consuming the proper foods in the proper amounts balanced with proper exercise over the course of time.

Food engineering—that is, the alteration of real food to make debased food—is either the main cause or a significant contributing factor in the chronic diseases we discuss in this book. Food engineering is a major focus of Big Food activities. Let us take a closer look.

First, all real food, food as Mother Nature presents it to us—natural food—is health food. Keeping in mind that there are no unmitigated blessings, there is a long list of benefits we derive by controlling nature—controlling Mother Nature!—anathema to many, but read on.

When we first emerged as hominins in the Paleolithic Era some two million years ago, we began the process of controlling Mother Nature. We made the first stone knife and spear point, which improved our success in hunting. We continued to increase our control of Mother Nature through the use of fire, animal skin and plant clothing, shelter building, and so on.

The...