Thanks for the feedback Todd.  Some comments:

>
> On page 27 Price writes, describing the Alpine Swiss, "On average
> it was necessary to examine three persons to find one defective
> deciduous or permannent tooth."  Assuming 32 teeth per person,
> that'a tooth decay rate of 1 per 96 teeth, which is just less
> than 20 per 2,00, by my calculations.

The figure you quote refers only to the children in the Loetshental Valley,
not to the average of all primitive Swiss groups.  I think I originally used
the figure on page 34 of N&PD, which appears to refer to a collation of all
data obtained from studying all of the isolated people of the high Swiss
valleys:  "In a study of 4280 teeth of the children of these high valleys,
only 3.4 percent were found to have been attacked by tooth decay."  That
gives a figure of 68 per 2000.

However, Crawford and Marsh gave the percent of teeth attacked by decay
among the primitive Swiss as 4.6, which yields 92 per 2000.   I think that
at some point I mixed up their 4.6 with Price's number, and I'm sure you can
see what math error followed.    In any case, using Price's figure on page
34 still supports my observation of a general trend for more tooth decay
among those who have higher starch diets, even if vitamin-rich animal fats
are present.
>

> Yes, and yet the Maori clearly eat more vegetable and fruit food
> than the "Esquimaux."  Lots of seafood, but lots of fruit and
> other vegetation as well.

True.  My point was that tooth decay is highest among those who eat
agricultural starches, specifically grains, as a large part of the diet.
That is, Price found the decay rates higher among grain eaters than among
those who ate no grains.  Also, as you know, wild fruits and vegetables are
relatively low in starch, and the starch does not stick to your teeth as
grain starch does.    Finally, neither fruits nor vegetables have
significant phytates that bind minerals nor vitamin D blockers.  In the
TLD&P NOV 1998 Cordain was quoted:  "A study of radiolabelled 25
hydroxyvitamin D3 [25(OH)D3] in humans consuming 60 g of wheat bran daily
for 30 days clearly demonstrated an enhanced elimination of 25(OH)D3 in the
intestinal lumen."    There is something in whole grains that causes the
body to eliminate vitamin D3 so important for dental and bone health--and it
is not present in vegetables and fruits, as consumption produce has been
positively associated with increased bone mass (teeth are bones).

To me, the Maori simply prove what we already know, that vegetables and
fruits are natural foods for humans, and do not promote tooth decay the way
grains do.
>
> Thank you.  I appreciate your sharing the results of your work.

You are welcome.
>
>> Btw:  There is a chart on page 209 of Nutrition & Evolution by Crawford &
>> Marsh which confirms my statements.....
>
> I don't have that book, but maybe I can get it.  It sounds
> interesting.

It is very interesting, and it very much dovetails with Price's work.   As
you know, Price states several times that he found that seafood consumers
were  unusually fit.  Crawford and Marsh argue that man originally was an
inhabitant of estuaries, and a large consumer of seafoods, both fish and se
mammals.  They give numerous and IMO convincing arguments to that effect.
Amadeus Schmidt wrote:
>
> Maori as the worlds winner? It will contribute that they have a high
> Vitamin C, calcium and Vitamin A ingestion.

Price thought fat soluble activators, i.e. vitamin A and especially vitamin
D, plus abundant minerals, including phosphorus from meat, were the primary
protective nutrients.
Todd Moody wrote:
>
> For prevention of tooth decay, Price thought vitamin A was
> especially important.

And Price was also very interested in vitamin D.  On page 282 of N&PD he
wrote:  "Vitamin D is not foudn in plants, but must be sought in an animal
food.  The dietaries of the efficient [i.e. decay resistant] primitive
racial stocks may be divided  into groups on this basis...."  and then he
goes on to state that all of the decay resistant groups  had food rich in
vitamin D as a regular part of their diets, either from pasture fed animal
milks, animal organs or eggs, seafoods, or small animals and insects.
>
> Price also pointed out that there are plenty of people whose
> teeth are "smeared with starchy food" all day who don't get tooth
> decay.

It would be more accurate to say that they don't get as much tooth decay as
modern people.
>
> If Price is correct, it's both.  Meats are not rich in vitamins A
> and D unless one is careful to include liver or seafoods or
> quality butter.

Meat of animals raised entirely on grass IS richer in vitamin A and D--but
the liver and kidneys, eggs (from pasture fed birds), and butter are richest
in both A and D.
>

> As I wrote to Don, the tooth decay rate for the Loetschental
> Swiss, children and adults, was about 21 teeth per 2,000 (my
> earlier calculation was off).  This, of course, includes those
> few (particularly adults) who *did* have access to white flour
> and sugar.  It cannot be assumed that absolutely nobody in the
> valley ever traveled or that other foods were never brought in.
> Since the total population (at that time) was only about 2,000,
> even a few people with access to modern foods would skew the
> tooth decay rates.
>
> The samething goes for the isolated Gaelics of the Outer
> Hebrides, whom Price describes in the next chapter.  There the
> basic diet consists of seafoods and oatmeal, and a little barley.
> Price writes (p. 53), "Those living on primitive foods had only
> 0.7 carious teeth per hundred..."  That's 14 per 2,000, using
> Don's metric.

If you check, that is the same Gaelic figure I used (at least that is what I
have on my hard copy).   Still the incidence is higher than among non-grain
eaters, such as the Eskimos.  Although you are right that we can't state
categorically that these people had no access to modern foods, it is also
true that even the Eskimos might have had a few people who ate some modern
food here and there.   In spite of that, their teeth were more free of decay
than those of the Gaelics or Swiss.  Besides the presence of fat-soluble
nutrients and minerals, the total carbohydrate load, and the kind of
carbohydrate used, seems to be critical.


Don