Entries from August 2007 ↓

Yes, you heard it – chocolate is good for your teeth. This is great news for us chocoholics (I’m a choco-champion from way back) …but before you go out and buy yourself the biggest family size block of chocolate you can find (for dental reasons of course), you might want to read a little more and discover what part of the chocolate is the good bit for your teeth.

Alright, so where did all of this craziness come from? Arman Sadeghpour, a ‘doctoral candidate’ from Tulane University has apparently discovered that an extract from cocoa powder that is used in chocolate and teas (and a few other products) may be even better at fighting cavities than fluoride.

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I don’t have an addictive personality but I do have one very bad addiction – I’m addicted to clothes shopping. This is actually quite a bad habit to have. It’s wasteful, expensive, and completely materialistic.

But, there is some good that comes out of it. My sisters (I have three of them) look forward to my ‘cleaning out my wardrobe days’ which happen three or four times a year. They love it so much that I struggle with who to tell first because the first usually gets the best freebies.

Make a night out of it

Next time I clear out my wardrobe I’m going to make a real night out of it. I’m going to invite my sisters and girlfriends around to my place for a clothes exchange. I’m going to ask everyone to bring the clothes and jewellery they no longer need or want. Then we’ll get some great food and more importantly some great deserts, and delve through the clothing and jewellery to find anything we want to keep. Everything left over can then be taken to a charity.

It’s going to be a really great girls night in where we (hopefully) all depart with a few new additions for our wardrobes.

What has this got to do with health?

Actually, a lot. Clearing clutter and disposing of unwanted items is a great way to remove some of the stress and emotional imbalance in your life. Even the private chaos you have behind closed wardrobe doors is enough to add unwanted tension to your life. Try it, clear out your cupboards and wardrobes and I can guarantee you will notice a nice little added calmness and tranquility in your life. Also helping others out by giving away something you no longer need but they will treasure is definitely rewarding to the soul.

Have fun girls,

Frances Kerr

I’ve been getting into the habit of chewing gum a lot. Some people find it a really gross habit I know, but I’m getting a little addicted to it.

It started off because I have this ‘restless jaw’. For some reason, when I get tensed or stressed I get this really weird tickley muscle tension feeling inside my jaw. The only way to relieve it is to chew, so if I don’t chew food or gum I end up chewing my tongue and cheeks which is a really bad habit to have for obvious reasons.

I then discovered Xylitol gum which is good for preventing cavities. So I started chewing gum after lunch to get rid of the food taste in my mouth and to help protect my teeth. It’s now getting into such a habit that I’m chewing gum three or four times a day.

Is chewing gum bad for you?

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I received an email from my sister after my last post on the importance of using natural toothpastes, Toothpaste is poison! This is what she wrote:

Your blog article got me worrying about my toothpaste. I was wondering if you’ve heard any feedback about using non-fluoride toothpaste at all? I soooo don’t want to get holes in my teeth. I rang the Australian dental federation once and they told me that they can only recommend using toothpaste with fluoride to prevent cavities. Only thing is, I think ALL companies have to test on animals to gain the federation seal of approval. I know this is a fact in America and so I’m assuming it’s the same here. CCF just send me a animal testing booklet so I’m feeling horrible about using fluoride toothpaste.

I did find one company in America ‘Tom’s of Maine’ that has a natural toothpaste with fluoride and is not tested on animals. They specially petitioned the federation to get approval via test methods not using animals. Only thing is it will cost me $90 postage to get the stuff posted out. I’ve emailed Tom’s of Maine to try and get them to send it to me cheaper. I recently read Tom’s of Maine might soon be bought out by Colgate so that will rule them out soon anyway.

I’m really curious to find out whether or not we we actually need fluoride in toothpaste to adequately protect our teeth. And if it’s really okay to use natural toothpastes that do not contain fluoride.

There is no doubt that fluoride in high doses is toxic. There is also no doubt that fluoride is a chemical and putting any chemical into your body is bad for you. You only need to do a very short Google search to pull up thousands of sites, even government studies on the adverse effects of fluoridation. What I really want to find out is do we really need fluoride to properly protect our teeth from cavities. Can I feel comfortable using toothpaste without fluoride, or do I need to get a fluoride treatment from my dentist every six months?

My fluoride conclusions

I’ve done a bit of Internet research and I have to say, it’s difficult to find any conclusive studies because I don’t think any have been done. I have come up with a few conclusions from the research I’ve done.

• As I’ve already stated, there is no doubt that fluoride in high doses is toxic.

• We are exposed to too much fluoride. Fluoridation should be a choice. Adding it to out water is not a choice that should be made for us.

• I’m still undecided about children, but I personally feel that adults do not need fluoride in their toothpaste. There are heaps of alternatives out there to keep your teeth cavity free, one being Xylitol which is a natural sweetener that is great for fighting tooth decay. I chew Xylitol gum which is one way of naturally fighting tooth decay. Spry sells a Xylitol toothpaste but I haven’t seen it at my local health food stores.

• Exposure to too much fluoride in children can lead to fluorosis (mottled teeth). I actually think I have fluorosis on my teeth. I was giving fluoride tablets every day for the first ten or so years of my life, and although I’ve never had a cavity, I have very yellow teeth with a couple of brown stains and some mottled white bits. The dentist has tried to polish these stains off but the stains are all the way through the teeth. I’ve never been a smoker and don’t drink coffee so I can’t blame the yellow teeth on either of those. I was teased as a child and still get asked occasionally about my yellow teeth so to be honest, I’d much rather have a few cavities than yellow and mottled teeth.

	Examples of mottled teeth from Dental Fluorosis. Source: http://www.fluoridation.com

My research has made me completely comfortable with not using toothpaste which contains fluoride. I also don’t like the fact that all fluoride toothpastes are tested on animals.

Before I have children (which is a few years yet anyway!) I’m going to do a lot of research and find out what the best options are. If you know of anyone that has had absolutely no fluoride in their toothpaste, drinking water, or trips to the dentist, write a comment because I’d really like to know what state your teeth are in. Fluoride in toothpaste was first marketed in the 1950s so I’m not that confident I’ll find anyone.

For now, no more fluoride in toothpaste for me – I’m using natural dental care only. All I have to do now is find a holistic dentist …

Frances Kerr

I went to the ‘Ekka’ in Brisbane today. It’s our local show that runs once a year. It has the usual fair type stuff, pavilions, show bags, lots of hot chips and sausages on a stick and of course, the farm animals.

My friend and I spent a lot of time feeding and patting the baby farm animals. They were so cute. Goats, sheep, cows, chickens, pigs, ducks and the odd lama or two (which was a bit weird). I wanted to pick up and cuddle all of them, they were so beautiful. They made us laugh as they shoved their big noses into the cup we had full of farm animal food. My favourites were the baby chickens snuggling under the heated light, the tiny goats running around trying to head butt each other, and one particular little chicken that to me, looked like a tiny little puff ball.

How can I have so much love for these little animals and find them so incredibly beautiful yet eat them at the same time? To be honest, I have trouble associating the live animals I see with the end product, the food on my plate. I never buy raw meat or cook with it at home so I never actually see meat before it’s cooked. It’s almost like my brain can’t put the two together, I can’t look at the animal and then the meat on my plate and consider that they’re one and the same.

Trying to be a vegetarian

I’ve tried to be a vegetarian in the past, although only a semi-vegetarian because I never gave up seafood. I made a conscious decision to stop eating animals because I didn’t like the idea of them being born and raised just to be killed and eaten by us humans. I also considered the amount of meat that was being wasted, just thrown in the bin because we made or ordered more food then what we could eat. Think about it, an animal died for that sausage or that steak on your plate. The least you could do is eat every single last bite of it.

The first week or two of being a semi-vegetarian was hard, but then I found it got really easy. There was always something to eat on the menu when I went out to eat (which is a lot), and I stopped missing eating meat completely. I remember eating some chicken after I hadn’t eaten any meat in a few weeks. I didn’t enjoy the experience at all. The chicken tasted really gamey and strong and it left a yuck taste in my mouth. Actually, it made me feel a little bit sick.

I don’t remember what made me stop trying to be a semi-vegetarian. It guess it had something to do with eating out a lot and slowly getting back into the habit of ordering whatever on the menu. It was around the time of a lot of change in my life too so I think part of me got swept away with a lot of other stuff, although no excuse is good enough really.

The quest to try again

Vegetarians and vegans, I need your help. Send me your horror stories. I want to hear all the bad stuff about eating meat, I want to know why it’s such a bad and horrible thing to do.

I’m warming up to it, I really would like to try being a vegetarian again. At least a vegetarian that still eats seafood anyway. I’ve already got the eating at home thing sorted, I just need to work on the not ordering meat when I’m out. I’m lucky the suburb I live in is a bit alternative, so there’s a lot of vegetarian and vegan alternatives on the menus in my local restaurants. There will be times however that I crave something like a big juicy burger or a lamb souvlaki.

There’s also the inconvenience of having dinner at a friends house or my parents. When I was a vegetarian I felt like I was being really annoying not eating meat. I actually wasn’t prepared for the feeling of being so annoyingly different and putting people out. Then there were the questions people always asked, they’d always want to know why I wasn’t eating meat and I’d have to explain myself all the time. It’s hard enough having to explain why I don’t drink alcohol!

It comes down to a few simple concepts really. I’m not comfortable with the way animals are raised and slaughtered in Australia and I would never kill an animal for food (so isn’t it hypocritical of me to eat an animal that someone else has killed?). I also know I can live a very healthy and happy life without eating meat. I’m sitting in a local cafe writing this article, and I’ve just finished eating the vegetarian breakfast that I ordered off the menu. And I tell you what, it was delicious and I feel great about it!

Frances Kerr