Is Coffee Good or Bad for you?

Laura said:
One thing I've found that works really well is daily brushing with salt and baking soda half an half. I just have a jar of it dry, dip the wet toothbrush in to pick up a glob, and a good brushing. If stains have built up, it may take brushing twice a day for two or three days to remove it all (you don't want to be too aggressive with your teeth). You can put xylitol in the mix too, and a few drops of mint oil for a really nice mixture.

Or you can made this toothpaste:

_http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/04/rethinking-oral-health-care-a-homemade-toothpaste-recipe-for-tooth-remineralization.html

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Written by Courtney, Contributing Writer

Several years ago, I started to question some of the ingredients in commercial toothpastes as well as the approach of modern dentistry in general. I view some modern dentistry practices as appropriate and beneficial. Yet, the foundation of today’s dental philosophy is similar to the mainstream medical model in that it focuses on treatment and not prevention.

I believe the focus of dentistry (like medicine) should be prevention of decay and disease through sound nutrition and a healthy lifestyle.

This begins in utero (even pre-conception), when the teeth and jaw structure are formed, is well established through breastfeeding, and must be adhered to for one’s lifetime. Avoiding dental decay and disease through diet is challenging, as it means one must stray far from the standard American diet.
Remineralization

When most dentists detect a cavity, they suggest filling it, usually without thinking twice. However, what if teeth could be remineralized through a proper diet and oral hygiene routine? I believe they can.

Once drilled and filled, teeth are weakened and susceptible to further decay, but I believe that if we focus on prevention, we can avoid most cavities and subsequent oral health decline as a result of filling cavities.

Most of my teeth were drilled and filled in childhood and young adulthood, but I don’t want my children to go down the same path and struggle with susceptibility to decay for a lifetime because of it. I’m trying to learn more about prevention and remineralization so that my children can reap the benefits of a healthy mouth, which contributes to overall health.

There are several factors involved in tooth remineralization, mainly diet, Ph of saliva, and oral hygiene practices. Diet and saliva are inter-related and quite complex, I encourage you to dig deeply into the link between nutrition and oral health and possibly re-examine your own assumptions there. I hope you will take a closer look at your own oral hygiene routine as well, as what I’m sharing with you today is based solely on my research and conclusions as a mom. I am not a dentist!

Toothpaste cleans teeth and remove plaque, which is beneficial, but if your goal is to maintain healthy teeth through a proper diet, mainstream toothpastes will work against your efforts. Furthermore, they contain questionable ingredients that may do more harm than good.

Glycerin – Certainly not bad in and of itself if properly sourced, but its use in toothpaste may not be ideal. Some suggest it may leave a layer of film on the teeth that prevents remineralization. It can also be dangerous to our health if processed with dangerous chemicals, and I assume most toothpastes contain the cheapest possible source.

Sodium Laurel Sulfate – SLS is a known carcinogen. Some natural companies still stand behind it’s use and claim it is safe, but I prefer to stay on the safe side here.

Saccharin – This was the first ingredient I questioned when I started to re-think my approach to dental health and toothpaste several years ago. I avoid artificial sweeteners like the plague, as most of them are proven carcinogens, several contribute to obesity and other health problems, and some are excitotoxins, meaning they cause rapid firing and death of brain cells. And yet, we see the artificial sweetener, saccharin, in our toothpaste.

Fluoride - You knew I’d get to this one. I don’t claim to be an expert on fluoride, but from my basic understanding, fluoride is highly toxic in the form found in toothpaste and never found in nature in this state. If you’re trying to rebuild tooth enamel, just like with glycerin, a “protective” layer of fluoride is not ideal. It is also suggested that the layer it forms on teeth is much thinner than originally thought and is useless against protecting teeth from decay anyway.

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A Safer Alternative

If you’re looking for a safe alternative to the common toothpastes, there are many options, from the more expensive natural toothpastes (be careful-- some contain some of these questionable ingredients) to simple recipes you can make at home.

I’ve been experimenting with my own homemade toothpaste recipe for a while now, after I realized how easy it is to make on my own and that I don’t need to spend a fortune on store-bought brands.

The most basic toothpaste alternative is a simple tooth powder. You can use baking soda alone or combine it with salt for a gentle yet abrasive clean, or you can use a mineral powder such as calcium and/or magnesium. I use Natural Calm brand. Some prefer to add hydrogen peroxide to their tooth powder right before use. I rinse with hydrogen peroxide, so I don’t add it to my powder or paste.

I began to add coconut oil to my recipe to form a paste (and for its beneficial antibacterial properties) and essential oils for flavor. For a while, my recipe included coconut oil, baking soda, a dash of salt, and essential oil.

I’ve since been searching for a solution to the salty taste of the baking soda and salt, which my children aren’t crazy about, and have recently decided to add xylitol to help combat the saltiness. I’m new to the use of xylitol, but it does appear to be safe and even looks promising for cavity prevention. I also recently added trace mineral drops to my paste. I use these to add minerals back into our reverse osmosis filtered water when making water kefir and I thought it would be a great addition to our toothpaste as well.

Homemade Toothpaste
2 Tbsp. coconut oil
2 Tbps. baking soda
2 Tbsp. calcium magnesium powder
2 Tbps. xylitol or green stevia powder
2 tsp. real sea salt
20 drops essential oil (I use peppermint.)
10 drops trace minerals

My style recipe would simply read: equal parts coconut oil, baking soda, calcium/magnesium powder, xylitol with a dash of salt, a few drops trace minerals, and essential oils to taste.

This toothpaste is a great follow up to oil pulling. Have you looked into oil pulling? Both oil pulling and a natural toothpaste like this one, in addition to flossing, can keep your teeth clean and healthy. With a proper diet that supports the necessary minerals for re-mineralization of teeth, I believe teeth can be healthier and whiter.

From what I understand, yellow teeth can be the result of reduced/demineralized enamel that allows the dentin beneath to show through. By strengthening that enamel through re-mineralization, teeth are not only healthier and free of cavities but also naturally whiter.

Stephanie's note: For more on the importance of diet for both preventing and reversing tooth decay, and the process of remineralizing teeth, I would highly recommend the book Cure Tooth Decay by Ramiel Nagel. I'm currently reading it and even though I had learned some of these things previously (through Weston Price, etc.) I wish that I had looked more specifically into this topic long ago!
 
emersonkelly said:
Coffee has both advantages and disadvantages...........disadvantages include........ increases the risk of suffering from diseases, reduces the chances of becoming pregnant, results in discomfort in stomach, etc.!!

Hi emersonkelly,

I can't find your intro in the newbies section. Could you post a little something about yourself and how you found this forum?
 
grini said:
emersonkelly said:
Coffee has both advantages and disadvantages...........disadvantages include........ increases the risk of suffering from diseases, reduces the chances of becoming pregnant, results in discomfort in stomach, etc.!!

Hi emersonkelly,

I can't find your intro in the newbies section. Could you post a little something about yourself and how you found this forum?

They're a spammer and their post was removed.
 
Laura said:
[Yes, it can react with the metals, but the only thing it does is oxydize them a bit which blackens them (even silver). You really don't want that if you have amalgams.

Aha, so that is why I have a black rim around my crowns! My dental hygenist tried to tell me it was because my gums were receding so the bottom of the crown was showing.
 
Gandalf said:
Laura said:
One thing I've found that works really well is daily brushing with salt and baking soda half an half. I just have a jar of it dry, dip the wet toothbrush in to pick up a glob, and a good brushing. If stains have built up, it may take brushing twice a day for two or three days to remove it all (you don't want to be too aggressive with your teeth). You can put xylitol in the mix too, and a few drops of mint oil for a really nice mixture.

Or you can made this toothpaste:

_http://www.keeperofthehome.org/2012/04/rethinking-oral-health-care-a-homemade-toothpaste-recipe-for-tooth-remineralization.html


4320286404_634d168e07.jpg

This morning I used coconut oil and hydrogen peroxide to brush my teeth and hours later my teeth still feel sooooo clean. I had been doing oil pulling for a while before my denist visit but had stopped when I started using Toms toothpaste. That tooth paste was way too abrasive and was tearing up my gums. So I will stick with oil and H.P. for a few weeks and see how this goes. Thanks to everyone for the dental advice!
 
Like others, as a non-smoker, I find that a couple of cups of fatty coffee a week do not have overly stimulant effects but do have positive effects, such as being mildly laxative and increasing mental clarity. As with so many things, moderation seems to be the key for me. It also doesn't cause an afternoon slump or sleeplessness as far as I can deduce.
 
I find that brushing with baking soda everyday makes my teeth quite sensitive so i do it infrequently. something to keep in mind for people with sensitive teeth.

As for coffee, not really a coffee drinker but I do have a cup maybe once a week with no noticeable ill effects.
 
moksha said:
I find that brushing with baking soda everyday makes my teeth quite sensitive so i do it infrequently. something to keep in mind for people with sensitive teeth.

As for coffee, not really a coffee drinker but I do have a cup maybe once a week with no noticeable ill effects.
Moshka, you may like to persevere with brushing with a mix of baking soda and salt daily to overcome your teeth sensitivity. I too, suffered for many years with sensitive teeth. After several years of this practice I can say that I no longer suffer from sensitive teeth, and have not done so, again, for many years.
 
I use the following to my teeth. Chamomile and sage soaking in hot water in the morning and evening brushing my teeth. In the evening of vinegar and sole ( natural salt in the water waiting for) You can mix and brushing my teeth. Stains, clean the inside of your mouth, but you feel not fully eject and prevents odor.
 
Prodigal Son said:
moksha said:
I find that brushing with baking soda everyday makes my teeth quite sensitive so i do it infrequently. something to keep in mind for people with sensitive teeth.

As for coffee, not really a coffee drinker but I do have a cup maybe once a week with no noticeable ill effects.
Moshka, you may like to persevere with brushing with a mix of baking soda and salt daily to overcome your teeth sensitivity. I too, suffered for many years with sensitive teeth. After several years of this practice I can say that I no longer suffer from sensitive teeth, and have not done so, again, for many years.

Thanks Prodigal. What I was trying to say was that my teeth were fine until I started using this mixture - with salt added. Every time I brushed with it it would be difficult even to smoke for atleast a day - the inhaled/exhaled air would be enough to cause some discomfort in the teeth.

I read somewhere that using this mixture too often may degrade the enamel and expose the nerve endings thus making the teeth sensitive (for some people I guess). Don't know how true that is though.

Maybe I already have degraded teeth enamel and this is making it worse. fwiw.
 
Mrs. Peel said:
Horseofadifferentcolor said:
I was a coffee adict most of my life and I stopped a little over a year ago. I replaced it with chickory, and then to tea. Thought I was doing great until I saw my denist and they wanted to know what the heck I had been up to. They showed me pictures of how dark my teeth had gotten in just 6 months! It was shocking and gross. So I gave up ALL morning vices.

My husband used to work with a guy who had the whitest teeth I'd ever seen. I asked him what he did and he said all he does is rinse with hydrogen peroxide. My husband has gum problems and he does the same thing, says to mix it half and half with water and hold/swish it in your mouth for maybe 5-10 minutes. Cheap teeth whitening! :lol:

That sounds useful. Cause since the paleo diet my teeth develop very fast calculus and it didn't matter what I tried: vitamin K2, self mixed tooth paste (baking soda, salt, xylotol, baking powder), brushing teeth more often nothing helped. It was also that bad, that I forgot to brush teeth one morning and in the evening I already had calculus again. So I gave then up. Now it seems to get a bit better on the KD and I'm less reactive, nonetheless I would need profesional tooth cleaning again.

Anyway I like to give it a go with a different teeth whitening.
 
Gawan said:
Mrs. Peel said:
Horseofadifferentcolor said:
I was a coffee adict most of my life and I stopped a little over a year ago. I replaced it with chickory, and then to tea. Thought I was doing great until I saw my denist and they wanted to know what the heck I had been up to. They showed me pictures of how dark my teeth had gotten in just 6 months! It was shocking and gross. So I gave up ALL morning vices.

My husband used to work with a guy who had the whitest teeth I'd ever seen. I asked him what he did and he said all he does is rinse with hydrogen peroxide. My husband has gum problems and he does the same thing, says to mix it half and half with water and hold/swish it in your mouth for maybe 5-10 minutes. Cheap teeth whitening! :lol:

That sounds useful. Cause since the paleo diet my teeth develop very fast calculus and it didn't matter what I tried: vitamin K2, self mixed tooth paste (baking soda, salt, xylotol, baking powder), brushing teeth more often nothing helped. It was also that bad, that I forgot to brush teeth one morning and in the evening I already had calculus again. So I gave then up. Now it seems to get a bit better on the KD and I'm less reactive, nonetheless I would need profesional tooth cleaning again.

Anyway I like to give it a go with a different teeth whitening.
It has been a few days after writing this and getting advice. I have been using just the coconut oil and hydrogen peroxide in the morning and night brushing softley. My teeth are already much more white and are not sensitive at all. I have very weak enamel so baking powder and other really abrasive things tear what little I have left apart(or so says my denist). All my life I have bought hard bristled toothbrushes and brushed real hard. I thought this was a good thing and really I was just taking off my enamal! Two thumbs up for this concoction. Also after reading in Primal Mind Primal Body she said if you wouldnt want to drink it you should not use it on your body, is great advice. Never really thought about body products like that before. It really is horrible all the things that folks are slathering all over them selves to be healthy and clean.
 
Sorry to detract from the tooth brushing conversation, but I just wanted to report that I abandoned the coffee experiment earlier this week. It seemed to be leading to an overly acidic stomach and, even though I was only doing half regular, half decaf at the strongest, I was finding the buzz to be problematic at times. What really did it for me was when I was working out one day and my muscles couldn't stop trembling. I felt strung out. It was that point I decided to cut it out for two weeks to see how it goes.

Well, right away I could already see that it had affected me more than I'd realized. I had some pretty uncomfortable withdrawal symptoms, which I totally was not anticipating. I was in a grouchy mood for a couple of days and my stress response seemed way out of whack. When it got busy at the store that I work in, something that happens all the time, I got really stressed out, well out of proportion to what my response usually is. I can only assume this was because I was going without my coffee-crutch to which I'd grown accustomed.

It's too bad this has to end for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that I really genuinely like coffee, especially with butter blended into it (yum!). But also the fact that it's been so helpful in making me more regular. I'm worried that I'm going to go back to never pooping again, but I'll wait it out to see how it goes. Also, coffee provided a great way to get more fat into my diet, which is something I've struggled with (as I mentioned earlier in this thread).

After the two weeks I'm thinking about trying just decaf to see if that suits me at all (as I mentioned, I found a very clean Swiss water decaf that is 99% caffeine free). If it's just the caffeine that's bothering me, the decaf may work. Having a fatty beverage that may help to regulate my bowels might be too good to be true, but I'll experiment with it and report back here.
 
dugdeep said:
Sorry to detract from the tooth brushing conversation, but I just wanted to report that I abandoned the coffee experiment earlier this week. It seemed to be leading to an overly acidic stomach...

Were you by any chance having it in the morning before eating? A lot of people do, but it can lead to problems. And too much of it while your stomach is busy working may not be a good thing either.

...and, even though I was only doing half regular, half decaf at the strongest, I was finding the buzz to be problematic at times. What really did it for me was when I was working out one day and my muscles couldn't stop trembling. I felt strung out. It was that point I decided to cut it out for two weeks to see how it goes...

It sounds like you are quite sensitive to the caffeine.

...After the two weeks I'm thinking about trying just decaf to see if that suits me at all (as I mentioned, I found a very clean Swiss water decaf that is 99% caffeine free). If it's just the caffeine that's bothering me, the decaf may work. Having a fatty beverage that may help to regulate my bowels might be too good to be true, but I'll experiment with it and report back here.

I was having a difficult time after my avocado "challenge" that I mentioned in the KD thread and on one particularly bad day I tried a 2nd (small) pot of coffee, but using decaf. It finally worked on the second mug!

Nobody seems to know why coffee would help with constipation, and I came across a report recently indicating that it was not due to the caffeine. I have noticed before that when I swallow something, it can affect the whole tract. I wonder now if it is simply the stimulation provided to the GI tract when you repeatedly swallow something warm that registers as "food" (as opposed to plain water), particularly if it contains fat or carbs.

If so, perhaps even herbal tea would work. I haven't noticed that, but then I don't drink much of it.
 
dugdeep said:
It's too bad this has to end for a couple of reasons, not the least of which is that I really genuinely like coffee, especially with butter blended into it (yum!). But also the fact that it's been so helpful in making me more regular. I'm worried that I'm going to go back to never pooping again, but I'll wait it out to see how it goes. Also, coffee provided a great way to get more fat into my diet, which is something I've struggled with (as I mentioned earlier in this thread).

I hope I'm not sidetracking another thread too much, so perhaps responding to this response in the KD thread would be better dugdeep, but I've been wondering about this with you. I think I recall you mentioning vomiting (I think a number of times) from what you thought was getting too much fat, but now you think that you're not getting enough?

I'm wondering if your liver/gallbladder isn't working properly. That could be why you were vomiting and feeling like it was from too much fat and why you got constipated (no bile to help move the intestines?). And I think that coffee stimulates the release of bile, so that could be why it was keeping you more regular. Have you tried Milk Thistle or Ox Bile? Or maybe a castor oil pack on your liver (I'm planning on doing a test with this soon)? Or some type of bitters after eating?

dugdeep said:
After the two weeks I'm thinking about trying just decaf to see if that suits me at all (as I mentioned, I found a very clean Swiss water decaf that is 99% caffeine free). If it's just the caffeine that's bothering me, the decaf may work. Having a fatty beverage that may help to regulate my bowels might be too good to be true, but I'll experiment with it and report back here.

Tea could also work to get more fat, but may not have the same bowel effect. Decaf coffee may be better in that regard, though I'd still be wondering what was at the root of the bowel problems (which I'm sure you are).
 
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