Study Proves Chocolate is Better for Your Teeth than Fluoride

Dr. Mercola | Mercola.com

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Fluoride is a toxic industrial waste product that is a poison to your body even in trace amounts, yet it is added to the majority of US water supplies using the rationale that it helps prevent dental cavities.

The archaic practice continues even though it is now widely recognized that fluoride’s only justifiable benefit comes from topical contact with teeth – and even that is debatable.

To put it simply, there are FAR better options for decreasing tooth decay than ingesting a harmful industrial pollutant or using a topical poison like fluoride… in fact, new research suggests even chocolate extract would would make a better alternative.

Chocolate Toothpaste Works Better Than Fluoride

A recent study presented at the American Dental Association (ADA) 2013 Annual Session pitted fluoride toothpaste against a new toothpaste that contains the naturally-occurring cacao extract theobromine.

This test determined which product better repaired and re-mineralized exposed dentin (the tissue that makes up the bulk of your teeth below the enamel). Exposed dentin is a leading cause of tooth hypersensitivity.

The results showed that patients who brushed their teeth with the cacao-extract toothpaste twice a day for one week had “100 percent dental occlusion” with their tooth dentin becoming re-mineralized or repaired. According to a press release:

“The comparison to toothpastes containing fluoride - one as much as 5,000 ppm [parts per million] - validates what our research has shown all along: that Rennou [the cocoa extract] … is more effective and safer than fluoride, which can be toxic if ingested."

Past research has also shown that the chocolate ingredient theobromine works better than fluoride. When lesions in artificial enamel were treated with theobromine, remineralization occurred at a greater rate than when they were treated with fluoride.2 The study found, in fact, that theobromine made teeth less vulnerable to bacterial acid erosion that could lead to cavities.3

Scientists Now Questioning Whether Fluoride Works to Fight Cavities

With potential alternatives like theobromine, which, unlike fluoride, are not harmful when swallowed, it’s unfortunate that fluoride can still be found in a vast assortment of toothpastes, mouthwashes and professionally applied fluoride treatments. It's even added to your drinking water for this purpose, as mentioned.

Yet fluoride, long heralded as the answer to decaying teeth, is receiving increasing scrutiny – and for good reason.

A groundbreaking study published in the journal Langmuir uncovered that the fluorapatite layer formed on your teeth from fluoride is a mere six nanometers thick. To understand just how thin this is, you'd need 10,000 of these layers to get the width of a strand of your hair!

Scientists now question whether this ultra-thin layer can actually protect your enamel and provide any discernible benefit, considering the fact that it is quickly eliminated by simple chewing. They wrote:

“ …it has to be asked whether such narrow… layers really can act as protective layers for the enamel.”

Continue reading at Mercola.com

Here is a good video on some of the dangers of fluoride:

Chocolate: The "Candy" with Powerful Medicinal Properties

Chocolate is clearly one of the most enjoyed foods on the planet, with millions of pounds produced annually, and has one of the oldest documented histories of use going all the way back to the year 1100 BC in South America. And yet, many people still harbor guilt about consuming it because they associate chocolate with "candy" (which logically follows from the fact that it is in the candy section in stores where you will find it), having never been exposed to the impressive body of pre-clinical and clinical research indicating that it may actually be closer to a "medicine" than a candy.

Indeed, in a previous post, we discussed how chocolate might just give the $29 billion dollar statin drug industry a run for its money, since a 2006 study found that regular chocolate consumption may reduce cardiac mortality by 50%. And this was based on a study where subjects only consumed 2.11 grams a day, or just one half ounce a week!

Now, newer research from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has revealed that the consumption of chocolate, or its active constituents (cocoa, flavan-3-ols), reduces a broad range of risk factors for cardiovascular disease, some of which include insulin resistance. The researchers looked at 42 acute and long-term studies and found a 33% median reduction in insulin resistance following chocolate consumption.

What is so unique about this new study is that chocolate consumption is generally believed to elevate blood sugar and blood insulin levels by increasing insulin resistance. The new study not only reveals this as being a myth but sheds additional light on why chocolate consumption (especially dark, organic chocolate) may be beneficial in both the prevention and treatment of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. The #1 benefit involved is cocoa/chocolate's well-known ability to improve endothelial dysfunction. Elevated blood sugar leads to glycation (basically, oxidation and caramelization of blood sugars), which leads to sticky sugar-protein and sugar-lipid complexes that damage the lining of the blood vessels and other organs leading to their dysfunction. Diabetics may respond quite well to the artery-dilating effects of cocoa, and may see a reduction in morbidity and mortality as a result.

Chocolate Has 40+ Evidence-Based Health Benefits

 

This comes in the wake of over a decade worth of research revealing that chocolate and/or cocoa has been shown to lower blood pressure, prevents or ameliorates endothelial dysfunction (a primary contributor to atherosclerosis), protects against coronary artery disease, reduces stroke risk, prevents cholesterol oxidation (which converts healthy lipoproteins into artery-damaging ones), to name only 5 of 40+ potential health benefits associated with its regular consumption. To view the entire gamut of potential health benefits associated with consuming chocolate or cocoa-containing foods, visit our page dedicated to the topic which lists over 40 health benefits here: Chocolate Health Benefits.

Any serious discussion on the medicinal properties of chocolate should be qualified by pointing out that chocolate is often unfairly traded, and has even been linked to child enslavement. Non-organic cocoa may also contain residues of the dangerous herbicide glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup), among many other biocides used in conventional farming, so the consumer must take special care to avoid these moral and physiological pitfalls. Also, many seemingly independent brands such as Dagoba or Green & Black have been bought up by super-corporations such as Hershey's and Cadbury, respectively. This means that while you think you may be eating the highest quality chocolate, it may actually be connected to less than ideal sourcing and/or trade practices. In other words, do your homework first please.

Also, because chocolate has complex pharmacologically active properties, it must be consumed in moderation, and with attention paid towards the tendency for using it to self-medicate, especially when the cocoa content is lower and the sugar content higher.

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