If You Take Vitamin D, Then You Need K2
In Cure Tooth Decay, Ramiel Nagel explains why a person changing to a super healthful diet has saliva that fills in cavities and no gum disease!
Children fed well from conception will have beautiful wide faces and broad dental arches, with room for every tooth, so braces are never needed. Even starting good food later in childhood can prevent the high cost of orthodonture.
Seventy years ago, Weston A. Price, DDS, published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a main inspiration of Nagel’s book. Dr. Price found that a diet high in the right fats is crucial, because they contain vitamins A, D3 and K2. (K1, found in greens, is important for blood coagulation but it doesn’t convert to K2.)
What Does K2 Do?
Most people never heard of K2, and certainly don’t know that the more D we consume (or make from sunlight), then the more K2 we need. Otherwise, because D repletion means we absorb about 20 times more calcium, the lack of K2 means calcium will get laid down in soft tissues like joints or arteries. It’s K2’s job to steer the calcium to bones and teeth. Shockingly, K2-deficient people have osteoblasts (bone-forming cells) in their arteries!
What Are Natural Sources of K2?
K2 is found in pastured animal fats like cream, butter, eggs, and fat (bacon and lard). Butter is back in nutritional fashion now that trans fats (margarine, shortening) are out, but people don't realize that it should be butter from cows that eat fast growing grass, not grain. In fact the yellow color of egg yokes and butter is not just from beta-carotene but also from K2. You can see the more intense yellow of grassfed butter: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTcNFFXqV4HxC7ZYkEMLcEs6nW030hhbBPfc9WxtYQJ5ojS4SatWg
Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox, How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life is a good companion book to Cure Tooth Decay. The author, Kate Rheaume-Bleue, ND, explains how Dr. Price first identified vitamin K2. Because he called it Activator X, subsequent (re-)discoverers of it didn’t know about his breakthrough.
Dr. Price designed food programs for sick children and orphanages to specifically include pastured butter (for the K2) AND cod liver oil (which has vitamin D3), which cured rickets and cavities.
Gouda and Camembert cheese result from specific bacteria which happen to make K2 for us. Fish eggs also contain ample K2. Surprisingly, the richest source of K2 is traditional Japanese fermented soybeans, called natto (although even many Japanese find it unappealing).
Obviously, getting K2 is harder for vegetarians—but they will be OK if they eat pastured cream, butter and cheese. Vegans could get plenty of K2 if they develop a fondness for natto (or take a supplement).
Signs of K2 Deficiency
For decades, we didn’t know that modern food production (livestock with zero access to pasture) causes K2-deficiency. Now we’re finding out that K2 deficiency can lead to:
· Arterial plaque (heart attack or stroke)
· Brain disease
· Cancer
· Dental caries
· Diabetes (both types)
· Infertile sperm
· Kidney stones
· Osteoporosis
· Tooth decay
· Varicose veins
· Wrinkles
Too bad the golden color of mac and cheese is from food coloring instead of ample K2. Now the evidence shows that the ‘efficiency’ of feeding grain to confined dairy cows instead letting them out to pasture is fundamentally undermining the health of our nation.
What K2 Supplement Is Best?
We need to replenish our K2 frequently because stored K2 is used up in about a week (unlike vitamin D which can be stored for months). Pastured livestock make K2 (menaquinone-4, “MK-4”), but capsules of MK-4 are synthetic, made from Nicotiana tabacum (yes, tobacco), and the blood level after taking a 45 mg pill plummets only a few hours after swallowing.
Therefore, if you cannot eat pastured animal fat regularly, menaquione-7 (abbreviated as “MK-7”) is a better supplement. It’s made from natto and stays in circulation for a few days instead of a few hours. Note: MK-7’s typical dose of 120 mcg is far better absorbed than MK-4’s typical dose of 5 mg, despite being a far smaller amount (a microgram is a thousandth of a milligram).
What Else to Eat, and NOT Eat
Aside from foods containing Activator X (K2), Dr. Price lists other foods that have important nutrients for teeth: bone marrow, bone broth, and fish broth (toss in the head for the most nutrients!), organ meats, and also fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, real pickles, pickled beets. (Nourishing Traditions is probably the only cookbook with recipes for all these ancient foods, along with a fascinating tutorial on nutrition.)
Besides getting enough K2, Mother Nature’s dental plan requires cutting out as much sugar as possible. That means starch should also be limited because it becomes glucose during digestion.
But eating fewer carbs is soooo hard! We are a planet of sugar and starch addicts, and now that we are awash in carbs it seems impossible to “Just say no.” However, eating good fats every day ups satiation, making it much easier to quit the “kitchen drugs” of crackers, cookies, cake, and candy (not to mention cread, cuffins, and casta). Even too much fruit is hazardous for teeth—sure, the fiber slows down the surge of blood sugar, but it still happens.
Describing her family’s year without added sugar Eve Schaub comments, “We found sugar in the most amazing places: tortillas, sausages, chicken broth, salad dressing, cold cuts, crackers, mayonnaise, bacon, bread, and even baby food, [which food processors added to] make these items more palatable, add shelf life, and make packaged food production ever cheaper.”
Besides getting enough vitamins and eating less refined carbs, Cure Tooth Decay covers other aspects of dental health, such as how phytates in grains, nuts, and seeds block assimilation of half or more of their minerals— unless treated in traditional ways like making sourdough or sprouting seeds and nuts (then drying them) before consumption.
Can Agriculture Return to the Good Old Days?
Over 25 years ago, in a Discover magazine article titled, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” anthropologist Jared Diamond blamed disease and despotism on agriculture. Skeletons of hunter-gatherers show little or no signs of degenerative diseases or tooth decay. But as populations exploded due to the initial surpluses of agriculture, the diet narrowed to mostly carbs for the peons, causing a decline in health. Meanwhile, the 1% could still acquire wild game, pastured protein, and/or seafood, making them taller, larger brained, and they suffered much less dental caries than the masses.
Diamond pointed out that a few dozen groups of so-called primitive people still support themselves as hunter-gatherers. Contrary to our assumptions, such groups as the Kalahari bushmen have “plenty of leisure time, sleep a good deal, and work less hard than their farming neighbors,” and their egalitarian culture prevents the concentration of wealth plaguing the world today.
However, such a lifestyle needs a larger range per person than agriculture requires, so humanity as a whole can’t revert to hunting-gathering. Instead, to be as healthy as possible, we must renew traditional agriculture, in particular we must find ways for livestock to eat grass.
La Via Campesina, the 200-million-strong peasant farmer movement, demands local and democratic control of food. Unsurprisingly, Big Ag opposes food sovereignty, and claims only chemical agriculture can “feed the world.” Yet, in his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Olivier De Schutter states, “Food sovereignty is a condition for the full realization of the right to food.” http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/radical_un_report_promotes_democratic_control_of_food_20140320
Farmer Joel Salatin, featured in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore's Dilemma, says that the only way we can feed the world is with sustainable ag. This “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic,” (his self-description) explains it all at: http://www.westonaprice.org/farm-a-ranch/the-politics-of-food
In 2008, the UN and World Bank's "International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development" called food sovereignty a fundamental goal. http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12018-only-organics-can-feed-the-hungry-world-heres-why
The UN Commission on Trade and Development released “Trade and Environment Review 2013: Wake Up Before It’s Too Late,” compiled by 60 experts around the world. They urge shifting toward local small-scale farmers, using less chemical fertilizer, releasing less greenhouse gases, reforming international trade, and more. http://www.iatp.org/blog/201309/new-un-report-calls-for-transformation-in-agriculture
Keeping farmers on their land and bringing displaced farmers back to the countryside would regain community self-sufficiency, the norm before colonial exploitation made cash crops the dominant type of food production. It’s also significant that so-called subsistence farming has a far smaller “carbon footprint” than chemical farming.
Think— in both first world and third world nations there is an ever-growing population of unemployed people, which means that at last the world can return to labor-intensive farming.
Curing Tooth Decay explains how families can regain the ancient wisdom that once created perfect teeth and health. Why not take a look?
More on K2 at:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/16/vitamin-k2.aspx
http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/x-factor-is-vitamin-k2
http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/nutritional-adjuncts-to-the-fat-soluble-vitamins
http://chriskresser.com/vitamin-k2-the-missing-nutrient
In Cure Tooth Decay, Ramiel Nagel explains why a person changing to a super healthful diet has saliva that fills in cavities and no gum disease!
Children fed well from conception will have beautiful wide faces and broad dental arches, with room for every tooth, so braces are never needed. Even starting good food later in childhood can prevent the high cost of orthodonture.
Seventy years ago, Weston A. Price, DDS, published Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, a main inspiration of Nagel’s book. Dr. Price found that a diet high in the right fats is crucial, because they contain vitamins A, D3 and K2. (K1, found in greens, is important for blood coagulation but it doesn’t convert to K2.)
What Does K2 Do?
Most people never heard of K2, and certainly don’t know that the more D we consume (or make from sunlight), then the more K2 we need. Otherwise, because D repletion means we absorb about 20 times more calcium, the lack of K2 means calcium will get laid down in soft tissues like joints or arteries. It’s K2’s job to steer the calcium to bones and teeth. Shockingly, K2-deficient people have osteoblasts (bone-forming cells) in their arteries!
What Are Natural Sources of K2?
K2 is found in pastured animal fats like cream, butter, eggs, and fat (bacon and lard). Butter is back in nutritional fashion now that trans fats (margarine, shortening) are out, but people don't realize that it should be butter from cows that eat fast growing grass, not grain. In fact the yellow color of egg yokes and butter is not just from beta-carotene but also from K2. You can see the more intense yellow of grassfed butter: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTcNFFXqV4HxC7ZYkEMLcEs6nW030hhbBPfc9WxtYQJ5ojS4SatWg
Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradox, How a Little Known Vitamin Could Save Your Life is a good companion book to Cure Tooth Decay. The author, Kate Rheaume-Bleue, ND, explains how Dr. Price first identified vitamin K2. Because he called it Activator X, subsequent (re-)discoverers of it didn’t know about his breakthrough.
Dr. Price designed food programs for sick children and orphanages to specifically include pastured butter (for the K2) AND cod liver oil (which has vitamin D3), which cured rickets and cavities.
Gouda and Camembert cheese result from specific bacteria which happen to make K2 for us. Fish eggs also contain ample K2. Surprisingly, the richest source of K2 is traditional Japanese fermented soybeans, called natto (although even many Japanese find it unappealing).
Obviously, getting K2 is harder for vegetarians—but they will be OK if they eat pastured cream, butter and cheese. Vegans could get plenty of K2 if they develop a fondness for natto (or take a supplement).
Signs of K2 Deficiency
For decades, we didn’t know that modern food production (livestock with zero access to pasture) causes K2-deficiency. Now we’re finding out that K2 deficiency can lead to:
· Arterial plaque (heart attack or stroke)
· Brain disease
· Cancer
· Dental caries
· Diabetes (both types)
· Infertile sperm
· Kidney stones
· Osteoporosis
· Tooth decay
· Varicose veins
· Wrinkles
Too bad the golden color of mac and cheese is from food coloring instead of ample K2. Now the evidence shows that the ‘efficiency’ of feeding grain to confined dairy cows instead letting them out to pasture is fundamentally undermining the health of our nation.
What K2 Supplement Is Best?
We need to replenish our K2 frequently because stored K2 is used up in about a week (unlike vitamin D which can be stored for months). Pastured livestock make K2 (menaquinone-4, “MK-4”), but capsules of MK-4 are synthetic, made from Nicotiana tabacum (yes, tobacco), and the blood level after taking a 45 mg pill plummets only a few hours after swallowing.
Therefore, if you cannot eat pastured animal fat regularly, menaquione-7 (abbreviated as “MK-7”) is a better supplement. It’s made from natto and stays in circulation for a few days instead of a few hours. Note: MK-7’s typical dose of 120 mcg is far better absorbed than MK-4’s typical dose of 5 mg, despite being a far smaller amount (a microgram is a thousandth of a milligram).
What Else to Eat, and NOT Eat
Aside from foods containing Activator X (K2), Dr. Price lists other foods that have important nutrients for teeth: bone marrow, bone broth, and fish broth (toss in the head for the most nutrients!), organ meats, and also fermented foods like sauerkraut and kimchi, real pickles, pickled beets. (Nourishing Traditions is probably the only cookbook with recipes for all these ancient foods, along with a fascinating tutorial on nutrition.)
Besides getting enough K2, Mother Nature’s dental plan requires cutting out as much sugar as possible. That means starch should also be limited because it becomes glucose during digestion.
But eating fewer carbs is soooo hard! We are a planet of sugar and starch addicts, and now that we are awash in carbs it seems impossible to “Just say no.” However, eating good fats every day ups satiation, making it much easier to quit the “kitchen drugs” of crackers, cookies, cake, and candy (not to mention cread, cuffins, and casta). Even too much fruit is hazardous for teeth—sure, the fiber slows down the surge of blood sugar, but it still happens.
Describing her family’s year without added sugar Eve Schaub comments, “We found sugar in the most amazing places: tortillas, sausages, chicken broth, salad dressing, cold cuts, crackers, mayonnaise, bacon, bread, and even baby food, [which food processors added to] make these items more palatable, add shelf life, and make packaged food production ever cheaper.”
Besides getting enough vitamins and eating less refined carbs, Cure Tooth Decay covers other aspects of dental health, such as how phytates in grains, nuts, and seeds block assimilation of half or more of their minerals— unless treated in traditional ways like making sourdough or sprouting seeds and nuts (then drying them) before consumption.
Can Agriculture Return to the Good Old Days?
Over 25 years ago, in a Discover magazine article titled, “The Worst Mistake in the History of the Human Race,” anthropologist Jared Diamond blamed disease and despotism on agriculture. Skeletons of hunter-gatherers show little or no signs of degenerative diseases or tooth decay. But as populations exploded due to the initial surpluses of agriculture, the diet narrowed to mostly carbs for the peons, causing a decline in health. Meanwhile, the 1% could still acquire wild game, pastured protein, and/or seafood, making them taller, larger brained, and they suffered much less dental caries than the masses.
Diamond pointed out that a few dozen groups of so-called primitive people still support themselves as hunter-gatherers. Contrary to our assumptions, such groups as the Kalahari bushmen have “plenty of leisure time, sleep a good deal, and work less hard than their farming neighbors,” and their egalitarian culture prevents the concentration of wealth plaguing the world today.
However, such a lifestyle needs a larger range per person than agriculture requires, so humanity as a whole can’t revert to hunting-gathering. Instead, to be as healthy as possible, we must renew traditional agriculture, in particular we must find ways for livestock to eat grass.
La Via Campesina, the 200-million-strong peasant farmer movement, demands local and democratic control of food. Unsurprisingly, Big Ag opposes food sovereignty, and claims only chemical agriculture can “feed the world.” Yet, in his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council, Olivier De Schutter states, “Food sovereignty is a condition for the full realization of the right to food.” http://www.truthdig.com/report/page2/radical_un_report_promotes_democratic_control_of_food_20140320
Farmer Joel Salatin, featured in Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore's Dilemma, says that the only way we can feed the world is with sustainable ag. This “Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic,” (his self-description) explains it all at: http://www.westonaprice.org/farm-a-ranch/the-politics-of-food
In 2008, the UN and World Bank's "International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development" called food sovereignty a fundamental goal. http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/12018-only-organics-can-feed-the-hungry-world-heres-why
The UN Commission on Trade and Development released “Trade and Environment Review 2013: Wake Up Before It’s Too Late,” compiled by 60 experts around the world. They urge shifting toward local small-scale farmers, using less chemical fertilizer, releasing less greenhouse gases, reforming international trade, and more. http://www.iatp.org/blog/201309/new-un-report-calls-for-transformation-in-agriculture
Keeping farmers on their land and bringing displaced farmers back to the countryside would regain community self-sufficiency, the norm before colonial exploitation made cash crops the dominant type of food production. It’s also significant that so-called subsistence farming has a far smaller “carbon footprint” than chemical farming.
Think— in both first world and third world nations there is an ever-growing population of unemployed people, which means that at last the world can return to labor-intensive farming.
Curing Tooth Decay explains how families can regain the ancient wisdom that once created perfect teeth and health. Why not take a look?
More on K2 at:
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/12/16/vitamin-k2.aspx
http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/x-factor-is-vitamin-k2
http://www.westonaprice.org/fat-soluble-activators/nutritional-adjuncts-to-the-fat-soluble-vitamins
http://chriskresser.com/vitamin-k2-the-missing-nutrient
