Avoid Fluoride

By Sandrine Perez

Avoid fluoride in your toothpaste and in your water.

A Google search for the definition of fluoride reveals a long list consistently stating, in essence, that fluoride is “a natural element, or mineral, that can be found in water and toothpaste that can help  prevent tooth decay”.  Yet, we propose that fluoridation is not about “children’s teeth” – but, rather that it is about industry getting rid of its hazardous waste at a profit, instead of having to pay a fortune to dispose of it. Only calcium fluoride occurs naturally in water; however, that type of fluoride has never been used for fluoridation.

Instead what is used over 90 percent of the time are silicofluorides, which are 85 times more toxic than calcium fluoride. They are non-biodegradable, hazardous waste products that come  straight from the pollution scrubbers of big industries. If not dumped in the public water supplies, these silicofluorides would have to be neutralized at the highest rated hazardous waste facility at a cost of  $1.40 per gallon (or more depending on how much cadmium, lead, uranium  and arsenic are also present). Cities buy these unrefined pollutants and dump them – lead, arsenic and all – into our water systems. According to the handbook, Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products, silicofluorides are more poisonous than lead and just slightly less  poisonous than arsenic. It is a cumulative poison that accumulates in bone over the years. Numerous campaigns and organizations have been created, such as the Fluoride Action Network, to educate the public about the fact that fluoride is proving to be dangerous and ineffective.

 The Toxic Effects of Fluoride

In addition to the well documented toxic effects of fluoride such as the risk to the brain, thyroid, bones, and kidney patients, fluoride even at dosages of 1 part per million, found in artificially fluoridated water, can inhibit enzyme systems, damage the immune system, contribute to calcification of soft tissues, worsen arthritis and, of course, cause dental fluorosis in children. These are unsightly white, yellow or brown spots that are found in teeth exposed to fluoride during childhood. In 1993, the Subcommittee on Health Effects of Ingested Fluoride of the National Research Council admitted that 8% to 51% and sometimes up to 80% of the children living in fluoridated areas have dental fluorosis. Malnourished people, particularly children, usually targeted for fluoridation, are at  greater risks to experience fluoride’s harmful effects. 97% of western Europe has chosen fluoride free water.

Read more in the Fluoride: Worse Than We Thought article published by the Weston A. Price Foundation. Additionally, we recommend the books, The Fluoride Deception and  The Case against Fluoride: How Hazardous Waste Ended Up in Our Drinking Water and the Bad Science and Powerful Politics That Keep It There.

Toothpaste 

What follows appeared as a post on Facebook written on May 6, 2011.

As many of you know, I am focused this week on one of our First Step recommendations – “Replace sugar with natural sweeteners in moderation, such as raw local honey, grade B maple syrup, pure maple sugar, molasses, dehydrated coconut nectar, coconut palm sugar, green powder stevia, rapadura and sucanat.” … and the topic of toothpaste has come up in our discussions:

Here is what I consider to be an excellent article written by The Nourished Life: Real Tradition Food and Natural Living that was just posted today on the topic. I recommend her article.

Also, here is a natural toothpaste recipe:

Ingredients needed to make natural toothpaste, some of which may be purchased via our Amazon affiliation:

• Baking soda: works as a natural cleansing agent and it polishes and whitens your teeth as well!
• Sea salt, such as The Spice Lab, Celtic Sea Salt and Real Salt
• Hydrogen Peroxide: naturally disinfects your mouth. Some food grade brands are The One Minute Miracle Inc. and Trinity Lab
• Green Stevia Powder, optional as sweetener. Some recommended brands are Frontier, Nature Products and Organic Traditions
• Peppermint oil, optional, such as Simply Organic, Flavorganics and Frontier

Steps to make your toothpaste

Pour 1/2 cup baking soda into a mixing bowl
Add a dash of salt
Add 1/4 cup of hydrogen peroxide
Add 1 drop of peppermint oil
Add a dash of stevia (more if you want it sweeter)
Mix it all up until it becomes paste like. You may have to add more hydrogen peroxide to get the right consistency.

A few notes about the homemade toothpaste:

You can store it in a glass container to keep it from drying out.

If you’re not into the peppermint flavor, you could try ground cinnamon or vanilla extract. Another quick and easy option is to get peppermint extract (1/4 tsp.) and mix it with 1 tbsp. of baking soda. Add a dash of salt, mix it up, and you are good to go.

If you prefer to purchase a tooth powder for convenience, Eco Dent is the brand I use being that it was recommended by my holistic dentist.

This photo appears courtesy of the Price-Pottenger Nutrition Foundation.  Please reproduce only with their express written consent.

And a bit of history from our presentation:

Dr. Price began his series of travels to remote parts of the globe in 1931. The first place he visited was Loetschental, a very remote valley in Switzerland. Once Price received permission from the village leaders, he lined up all the children and all the adults to examine their teeth. He discovered that these villagers had less than 1% tooth decay. Furthermore, none had dental deformities. Every single child and adult in the village had straight teeth and broad faces. The adults had all their wisdom teeth.

By the way, the children never brushed their teeth – they had never seen a tooth brush. Many of the children’s teeth were covered with green slime, but they had virtually no cavities.

What kind of water should we drink?

Not surprisingly, Dr. Thomas Cowan, a San Francisco holistic medical doctor, and author of The Fourfold Path to Healing, encourages us to use non-fluoridated water for all internal consumption, even brushing our teeth. Fluoride is a potent enzyme inhibitor, and therefore is exactly the opposite of what we are trying to foster. We want to promote health and healing through the enzymes in our bodies and the enzymes in our food.

Since so much our our country’s municipal tap water contains fluoride, as well as many other toxins – you may wonder what type of water we would consider safe to be drinking?  Dr. Cowan states: “The best water to use is deep well water or clean spring or mineral water.” Note that in regard to mineral water – we are referring to naturally mineral rich, carbonated water that bubbles up from the earth, which is bottled in glass, such as Gerolsteiner. This is in contrast to bottled water, whereby minerals have been added to treated municipal and/or water in which the carbonation has been forced into it via man-made intervention.

We believe that the Radiant Life Company offers the best water drinking system the market today. Fluoride, lead, chlorine, MTBE, chromium-6, nitrates, pesticides, pharmaceutical residues, water-borne illness – you name it: this is the only system that can completely take out whatever your water can throw at it!

Alternatively, Berkey water filtration systems with fluoride filters are a popular solution as well.

What is your experience of avoiding fluoride? 

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Disclosures

Published on March 20, 2012