Ancient Wisdom (Teeth)

The Paleo Diet is in Science News today. An anthropologist, Dr. Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, published research that suggests our modern problem of having our wisdom teeth grow in with too little room for them is caused by shorter mandibles that humans eating grain based diets tend to grow.

Hunter-Gatherers, whose diet habits place more stress on the bones as the human grows, develop longer and narrower mandibles. She further notes that the shorter and wider mandibles of humans growing up with the agricultural diet is a physiological mismatch to the system, resulting in dental crowding (which leads to needing to have your wisdom teeth taken out.

And so, once again, eating a diet rich in meat and low carbohydrate vegetables has been shown to help you achieve optimal health. And in this case, there is the suggestion that if a child eats the Paleo Diet all along, they will be even better adults.

Here's Dr. von Cramon-Taubadel's original article.

Here's a popular account of her research on MSNBC.