Do Sugary Gels Ruin a Runner’s Teeth?

Can years of ingesting sugary fuels leave a runner with a fit body and a meth-head mouth?

That’s been a worry during my 40-plus-year running career.

There’s gotta be a better way...
There’s gotta be a better way… (Click to enlarge. Image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Dental problems cropped up constantly. I blamed my use of gels during long runs. I tried swishing my teeth liberally with water after ingesting gels to prevent cavities – but it had no effect. The dentist and I continued to be tight friends.

It was doubly worrying, as I wasn’t wealthy because I’d chosen a simple lifestyle outside the corporate rat race.

I needed an easy, natural, inexpensive solution that didn’t involve dentistry.

And I found it.

I’ve had no new cavities in over a year. And the fairly serious cavity that impelled me to seek a solution is GONE.

That’s right – my (non-dental) solution stopped a serious cavity in its tracks.

The short story is that I began to take a single Vitamin A / Vitamin D capsule every morning, and I started eating eggs and oily fish more regularly.

The painful cavity simply went away and hasn’t returned. I’ve had no new cavities since I made these small changes in my diet.

For the full story, follow this link to “Ancient Dietary Wisdom for Tomorrow’s Children,” by Sally Fallon Morell.

Please note that I added fish, eggs, and daily A/D vitamins to an already very healthy diet.

It’s a rare day that I fail to eat a big, main-dish-size salad constructed on a base of organic, finely chopped spinach and/or kale, plus any other vegetables at hand: tomato, red pepper, shredded carrot, etc. I nearly always include beans in my salads, and I love to throw in a handful of pecan or cashew pieces (cheap at Trader Joe), a few green olives (12 oz. can $1.99 at TJ), and a little diced avocado.

I make dressings with frozen pineapple juice with gluten-free soy sauce, and any other ingredients that inspiration suggests – for example, a teaspoon of marinated chopped olives from the deli table at Sprouts or Whole Foods. I’ll occasionally include a tablespoon of raw almond butter from TJ’s.

I’m also a fan of small, quickly made between-meal salads – for example, a can of beans with a handful of cashews, chopped celery, maybe a few green olives, and the usual dressing of frozen pineapple juice with soy sauce.

I get an abundance of healthy oils (coconut, ground almonds), but I never drown my salads in olive oil, which makes them indigestible.

I also eat low-carb, though NOT by the Atkins definition. I eat starchy carbs very rarely but consume carb after exercise – usually a packet of Hammer Recoverite, followed by carb grazing alongside my regular diet until intuition tells me it’s enough.

On non-exercise days (rare), I’ll have a handful (or fewer) of pitted deglet dates throughout the day for “carb maintenance.”

It’s a high-taste, high-nutrient, healthy-carb, easy weight-loss diet that satisfies hunger and keeps weird food cravings at bay (born of unsatisfied nutrient needs).

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