Why do our teeth grow in less perfectly now?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_jaw_shrinkage
The main contributing factor to the recent increase in malocclusion is widely considered to be due to a sharp reduction in chewing stress, especially during critical periods of craniofacial growth.[10][1] Experiments done on non-human subjects have shown that induced nasal blockages and/or dietary changes earlier in life lead to maladaptive morphological change in their jaws, intended to simulate what we are observing globally in human children.[4] Significant craniofacial changes due to diet have even been experimentally shown in pigs during development; researchers fed groups either a hard-consistency diet or a soft-consistency diet, for eight months in total.[11] Drastic differences in jaw and facial musculature, facial structure, and tooth-crowding were observed; researchers directly related the findings to what we are observing more in human populations.[11]
so too much damn baby food?
more like eating more processed food. and I mean like ‘gone through a cooking process’ kind of way. We do a lot more now than just burn our meat and eat veggies raw to get nutrients. we simply just don’t need to work our jaws so hard to get what we need
if only my wisdom teeth got the memo :+:
Our food is way softer so we don’t chew enough to maximise the growth of our maxillae and jaws.
Nuts and bones. Tree bark of the yew tree when you inevitably get indigestion.
I eat the joints of bones - further up they tend to splinter and taste more chalky, but the joints are delicious and satisfying once you get past the ick factor. I thought even the cartilage was gross as a kid, but at some point instincts kicked in and my body told me it was a great idea. I knew marrow was nutritious and some people ate it, but I still don’t find it that appealing - joint bones are one of the most satisfying things ever though, I highly recommend gnawing on the end of a chicken wing
Just because of your comment, I grabbed some tree bark to try… Cinnamon sticks. And holy shit, I just wanted to try it out, but I couldn’t stop. It just splinters at first, but once you start grinding the flavor kicks in and it just melts - 10/10, it’d be easy to eat enough to make yourself sick, but I’m going to be trying this again
And FWIW, I’ve never had a cavity. I brush my teeth every morning but otherwise only if I feel I need to. I slightly cracked a tooth once, but my dentist was great and told me to use fluoride toothpaste and hold off on a crown - it’s been a decade and it hasn’t bothered me in years
Trust your body. Yes, gnaw on bones and tree bark - not all of it, your body knows what is edible and what isn’t. If your instincts say “gnaw on this”, and it’s not made of plastic or metal, give it a try… If you take it slowly, what’s the worst that can happen? Probably a tummy ache
Before we cut our food in perfectly sized bites with utensils our ancestors used to do it by biting into large pieces of food with their front teeth. That would wear them down evenly to form a nice flat bite.
I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the skeleton of someone who died way younger than we think as well.
