Click to listen to the recent podcast interview. Dr. Danenberg favors a Mark Sisson-style “primal” paleo diet. Dr. Danenberg attributes most common periodontal and dental problems to our modern diets with their prominent acellular carbohydrates and associated gut microbiome changes.
To find other dentists and dental hygienists who support a paleo diet approach to dental issues, click on “Teeth” in the subject categories in the far right-hand column.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Posted in Teeth
Tagged Dr. Alvin Danenberg, Jimmy Moore, periodontal disease
Ray Audette is the author of the classic Neanderthin book from 1995. He credited his Paleolithic-style diet with curing his type 2 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
Chris Highcock published an interview with Ray in 2010. The Dallas Observer News published an article about him in 1995.
Steve Parker, M.D.
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Posted in Paleo Diet, Paleo Movement
Tagged interview, Jimmy Moore, Neanderthin, paleo diet, Ray Audette
Jimmy posted a recent interview with type 1 diabetic Dr. Keith R. Runyan, who is a nephrologist and internist.
Dr. Runyan is training for the Great Floridian Triathlon this coming October so he naturally has a great interest in high level athleticism as it intersects with diabetes. He fuels his workouts with dietary fats and proteins rather than the standard carbohydrates.
Dr. Runyan’s current carb consumption level didn’t come up specifically in the interview, but his website indicates he’s on a ketogenic diet heavily influenced by Dr. Richard Bernstein. I figure he’s eating under 50 grams of digestible carbohydrate daily. He also tried Loren Cordain’s paleo diet; my sense is that it didn’t help much with his diabetes, but perhaps some. My sense is that he incorporates at least a few paleo features into his current eating plan.
People with type 2 diabetes can probably tolerate a higher level of carbohydrates, compared to type 1’s, generally speaking. This didn’t come up in the podcast interview.
Overall, the interview strongly supports carbohydrate-restricted eating for folks with diabetes. Definitely worth a listen for anyone with diabetes who’s not sold on a very-low-carb diet. If you’re sitting on the fence, at least check out Dr. Runyan’s “About Me” page.
Triathlon: run, swim, bike
Posted in Diabetic Diet, Exercise, Low-Carb, Paleo Diet, Testimonials
Tagged athletes, exercise, Jimmy Moore, Keith Runyon, low-carb diet, paleo diet
Dentists are considering a return to an old theory that dietary carbohydrates first cause dental diseases, then certain systemic chronic diseases, according to a review in the June 1, 2009, Journal of Dental Research.
Neither Moore nor Sorrentino, but a nice set of choppers
Jimmy Moore has a recent podcast interview with Dr. John Sorrentino, a dentist who advocates a carbohydrate-restricted paleo diet for prevention and treatment of certain common dental problems. By coincidence, Sorrentino is an old dental school classmate of Dr. Jack Kruse. Dr. Sorrentino has a brand new dental blog.
We’ve known for years that some dental and systemic diseases are associated with each other, both for individuals and populations. For example, gingivitis and periodontal disease are associated with type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The exact nature of that association is not clear. In the 1990s it seemed that infections—chlamydia, for example—might be the unifying link, but this hasn’t been supported by subsequent research.
The aforementioned article is written by Dr. Philippe P. Hujoel, who has been active in dental research for decades and is affiliated with the University of Washington (Seattle). He’s no bomb-throwing, crazed, radical.
That's more like it
The “old theory” to which I referred is the Cleave-Yudkin idea from the 1960s and ’70s that excessive intake of fermentable carbohydrates, in the absence of good dental care, leads both to certain dental diseases—caries (cavities), periodontal disease, certain oral cancers, and leukoplakia—and to some common systemic chronic non-communicable diseases such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers, and dementia. In other words, dietary carbohydrates cause both dental and systemic diseases—not all cases of those diseases, of course, but some.
Dr. Hujoel doesn’t define “fermentable” carbohydrates in the article. My American Heritage Dictionary defines fermentation as:
As reported in David Mendosa’s blog at MyDiabetesCentral.com, Dr. Hujoel said, “Non-fermentable carbohydrates are fibers.” Dr. Hujoel also shared some personal tidbits there.
In the context of excessive carbohydrate intake, the article frequently mentions sugar, refined carbs, and high-glycemic-index carbs. Dental effects of excessive carb intake can appear within weeks or months, whereas the systemic effects may take decades.
Hujoel compares and contrasts Ancel Keys’ Diet-Heart/Lipid Hypothesis with the Cleave-Yudkin Carbohydrate Theory. In Dr. Hujoel’s view, the latest research data favor the Carbohydrate Theory as an explanation of many cases of the aforementioned dental and systemic chronic diseases. If correct, the theory has important implications for prevention of dental and systemic diseases: namely, dietary carbohydrate restriction.
Juvenile male Homo sapiens on Neolithic diet
Adherents of low-carb diets will love this article; it supports their choices. The standard American diet provides 55% of energy in the form of carbohydrates. Stone Age diets on average provided 35 to 40% of energy as carbs, but rarely as the simple sugars and refined starches that characterize modern Western diets.
I agree with Dr. Hujoel that we need a long-term prospective trial of serious low-carb eating versus the standard American high-carb diet. Take 20,000 people, randomize them to one of the two diets, follow their dental and systemic health over 15-30 years, then compare the two groups. Problem is, I’m not sure it can be done. It’s hard enough for most people to follow a low-carb or paleo diet for four months. And I’m asking for 30 years?!
Dr. Hujoel writes:
Possibly, when it comes to fermentable carbohydrates, teeth would then become to the medical and dental professionals what they have always been for paleoanthropologists: “extremely informative about age, sex, diet, health.”
Dr. Hujoel mentioned a review of six studies that showed a 30% reduction in gingivitis score by following a diet moderately reduced in carbs. He mentions the aphorism: “no carbohydrates, no caries.” Anyone prone to dental caries or ongoing periodontal disease should do further research to see if switching to low-carb eating might improve the situation.
Don’t be surprised if your dentist isn’t very familiar with the concept. Has he ever mentioned it to you?
Reference: Hujoel, P. Dietary carbohydrates and dental-systemic diseases. Journal of Dental Research, 88 (2009): 490-502.
Mendosa, David. Our dental alarm bell. MyDiabetesCentral.com, July 12, 2009.
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Posted in Paleo Theory, Teeth
Tagged carbohydrates, carbohydrates and systemic disease, Cleave-Yudkin, dental diseases, Diet-Heart Hypothesis, Jack Kruse, Jimmy Moore, John Sorrentino, paleo diet, Philippe Hujoel, Stone Age diet
My superficial reading of the paleo diet literature led me to think Loren Cordain, Ph.D., was the modern originator of this trend, so I was surprised to find an article on the Stone Age diet and modern degenerative diseases in a 1988 American Journal of Medicine by S. Boyd Eaton, M.D., et al. Dr. Cordain started writing about the paleo diet around 2000, I think.
What’s So Great About the Paleolithic Lifestyle?
In case you’re not familiar with paleo diet theory, here it is. The modern human gene pool has changed little over the last 50,000 years or so, having been developed over the previous one or two million years. Darwins’ concept of Natural Selection suggests that organisms tend to thrive if they adhere to conditions present during their evolutionary development. In other words, an organism is adapted over time to thrive in certain environments, but not others.
The paleo diet as a healthy way to eat appeals to me. It’s a lifestyle, really, including lots of physical activity, avoidance of toxins, adequate sleep, etc.
The Agricultural Revolution (starting about 10,000 years ago) and the Industrial Revolution (onset a couple centuries ago) have produced an environment and food supply vastly different from that of our Paleolithic ancestors, different from what Homo sapiens were thriving in for hundreds of thousands of years. That discordance leads to obesity, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, high blood pressure, and some cancers. Or so goes the theory.
What’s the Paleolithic Lifestyle? (according to Eaton’s 1988 article)
[These points are all debatable, and we may have better data in 2011.]
The article authors point out that recent unacculturated native populations that move to a modern Western lifestyle (and diet) then see much higher rates of obesity, diabetes, atheroslcerosis, high blood pressure, and some cancers. “Diseases of modern civilization,” they’re called. Cleave and Yudkin wrote about this in the 1960s and ’70s, focusing more on the refined carbohydrates in industrial societies rather than the entire lifestyle.
Paleo diet proponents agree that grains are not a Paleolithic food. The word “grain” isn’t in Eaton’s article. The authors don’t outline the sources of Paleolithic carbs: tubers and roots, fruits, nuts, and vegetables, I assume. Legumes and milk are probably out of the question, too.
The Paleolithic Prescription: A Program of Diet and Exercise and a Design for Living was published in 1988 by Harper & Row (New York). The authors are S. Boyd Eaton, M. Shostak, and M. Konner.
Eaton and Konner are also the authors of “Paleolithic nutrition: A consideration of its nature and current implications.” in New England Journal of Medicine, 312 (1985): 283-289.
Mat Lalonde, Ph.D., in an interview with Jimmy Moore suggested that Cordain would credit S. Boyd Eaton, M.D., with the recent trendiness of the paleo diet.
Paul Jaminet wrote at one of my other blogs: “In 1975 a gastroenterologist named Walter L. Voegtlin published a book called The Stone Age Diet arguing for a low-carb Paleo diet. S. Boyd Eaton was second. Not much happened for a time, then it picked up in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Ray Audette with Neanderthin was first to market…Oh, and I forgot Jan Kwasniewski’s Optimal Diet, which was first published in Poland around 1970. Not exactly a Paleo diet, but close.
If you have evidence that the “modern paleo” diet goes back further than this, please leave a comment.
References:
Kuipers, R., Luxwolda, M., Janneke Dijck-Brouwer, D., Eaton, S., Crawford, M., Cordain, L., & Muskiet, F. (2010). Estimated macronutrient and fatty acid intakes from an East African Paleolithic diet British Journal of Nutrition, 1-22 DOI: 10.1017/S0007114510002679. Note that one of the authors is Loren Cordain. Good discussion of various Paleolithic diets.
Eaton, S., Konner, M., & Shostak, M. (1988). Stone agers in the fast lane: Chronic degenerative diseases in evolutionary perspective The American Journal of Medicine, 84 (4), 739-749 DOI: 10.1016/0002-9343(88)90113-1
Cordain, L., et al. Plant-animal subsistance ratios and macronutrient energy estimations in worldwide hunter-gatherer diets. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 71 (2000): 682-692.
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