Here’s some retrospective thinking from the baseball great, Mickey Mantle, that’s worth living by:
“If I knew I was going to live this long, I’d have taken better care of myself.”
Here’s a quote that’s along the same lines from the movie “Peggy Sue Got Married.” It’s apropos to today’s letter:
“Grandpa, if you had a chance to go back and do it all differently, what would you have changed?”
“Well, I would have taken better care of my teeth.”
It’s my 26th Wedding Anniversary today (wow, time flies), so I don’t have the time to write a long letter.
Instead, here’s a story on how I reduced my dependency on Dentists.
This is an important topic, since one of the first things that people cut back on in an economic downturn (we are in one and it’s getting worse) is dental care.
Earlier this week I went to my Dentist.
NOTE: This is a smart thing to do, since dental and health problems that aren’t detected early tend to explode at the worst possible times. In other words, if you don’t get a check-up, you become very fragile to catastrophic failure.
What made this visit to the Dentist interesting is that I got some surprisingly good news.
My teeth weren’t only free of major problems, they didn’t even have any plaque or calculus (except for a tiny bit in the areas adjacent to saliva glands, where it is inevitable).
I was shocked by the news, because, although I take very good care of my teeth, I’ve NEVER had a visit to the Dentist that didn’t include lots of cleaning.
Later, as I thought about it, it became increasingly clear what the reason for the improvement was.
The one major change in my behavior since my last visit was a change in my diet.
I had limited my intake of simple carbohydrates, and carbohydrates (as we all know) rot your teeth. Foods like:
- Breads and pastries
- Pasta
- Ice Cream and sugary snacks
What I didn’t know was how dramatic the improvement would be if I limited their intake.
For me it was yet more confirmation that our bodies were built for a basic diet of lean proteins and vegetables, and how modern high carbohydrate diets actually make us dependent on regular dental work (and expensive bills from Dentists).
So, the upshot is pretty simple. Stop shooting yourself in the mouth.
If you can’t afford an expensive Dentist bill or you simply are interested in keeping your original teeth for a long, long time… Try a variant of this diet out.
Resiliently yours,
JOHN ROBB
PS: My slow meal diet (lean meats/proteins and non-starchy vegetables) helped me lose 40+ pounds this spring and keep it off. If you want more detail, read up on the Dukan/Paleo/Atkins diets, or the general topic of “Ketosis diets.”
