Chewing for Teeth-Bone Health

avalon · Post by **avalon** » Wed 10 Jan 2007 15:37

RRM,
I was reading the Fiber and Evolution thread and came up with a question. I've read about the importance of chewing our foods, and that digestion begins in the mouth. I've also read, and at the moment can't find the original links about how chewing exercise helps bone such as when we loose our teeth we suffer jaw bone loss...

You wrote(in Fiber and Evolution):

Fiber is not a nutrient. We dont need it. You could perfectly live on liquids containing all nutrients and no fiber at all.

If we lived on liquids alone, would not our teeth and bone suffer for it from lack of mastication? Do you recommend chewing as we drink juices as others suggest?

Thanx, Avalon

YouTube · Post by **RRM** » Wed 10 Jan 2007 15:57

I dont recommend it as it happens any way.
If you only drink liquids, you get bored.
We all will eat something and chew from time to time.
Take me as an example; juice is my staple food, and there is not much to chew on when consuming raw fish or egg yolk, and yet, if I occasionally eat some raw red meat, I find no difficulty whatsoever in chewing it thoroughly, in as much as you dont need to bang your head against the wall to keep your skull in shape.
For the bones in your legs and hips its a whole different story though.

Post by **Oscar** » Thu 11 Jan 2007 00:11

I don't think it would be a problem, because our teeth and bone don't really need the exercise. That would be more our jaw muscles.

avalon wrote:I've also read, and at the moment can't find the original links about how chewing exercise helps bone such as when we loose our teeth we suffer jaw bone loss...

It would be interesting if you could find those links. What I know is that:
1. after toothloss, jaw bone loss is less if something remains in the bone. Sometimes an implant in inserted just for that reason. Mastication doesn't really help with this, I think.
2. in edentates with false teeth, the pressure on the bone from chewing just makes it resorb faster.

Basically pressure on bone stimulates resorption.

avalon · Post by **avalon** » Thu 11 Jan 2007 01:42

This isn't one of the links I meant, but says kinda what I read:

The behaviors of biting and chewing (forces of mastication) produce physical stimulation of each and every root structure which in turn stimulates the immediate bone material that the root is attached to.

http://www.dental--health.com/bone_density.html

In my own experience not too long ago I was having some dental pain around some teeth and I was actually a little worried they were perhaps losening. It's difficult to explain as I didn't sit down just now to tell the tale properly. Only that for some reason I thought I should be chewing more nuts, such as almonds. I'd been eating walnuts and that was pretty much the extent of my heavy jaw exercise. I have been eating raw meat, though. I did start chewing the almonds daily and the pain went away. Could a been something else, I don't know. But I started looking into it and as I said I've read some things to think about.

Post by **Oscar** » Thu 11 Jan 2007 01:58

Hmm, I wonder there has been any scientific research done on this. If I have some more time I'll look into it. Or maybe you can find something?
What would be interesting to know is whether a tooth in a jaw without mastication would result in bone loss or not (this is not good english, but I'm sure you know what I mean

).

As you can read in the article you linked, the most common cause of jawbone loss, not due to a loss of a tooth, is periodontal disease. That has nothing to do with mastication, only with the inflammation of the gum (and bone). So in your case, the nuts probably weren't the reason the pain went away.

I also wonder what the effect of calcium is regarding teeth and jawbone.