Diet, Dental Caries and Other Degenerative Diseases

Mankind was introduced to dental caries and degenerative diseases approximately 10,000 BC, when the diet changed as a result of moving from a hunter-gatherer to the agriculture life style. The same phenomena occurred when primitive people on primitive diets and basically free of dental caries and degenerative diseases were introduced to the modern diet. Current data generated by the US government in the NHANES study, show that dental caries in children precede degenerative diseases later in life. Other studies are finding some degenerative changes in adolescence. Thus, diet and dental caries should be given greater importance as they can be an indicator of the probability of future degenerative diseases.