Skip to main content

My (Mostly) Lacto-Paleo, Cavity-healing Diet Update

For the past two and a half weeks, my dog and I have been on a mostly lacto-paleo diet to heal our cavities. It's a high-nutrient, high-fat, low-sugar diet that emulates what my northern European ancestors ate before the advent of farming. We've been eating meat, eggs, non-starchy vegetables (think salad ingredients), fish, olive oil, coconut oil, and a few nuts. That's the paleo part. We've also been eating cheese, sour cream, goat milk, cream and butter (the lacto part). We don't eat any grains or beans. However, I do eat a few chocolate candies a day, low-carb ice cream and a Zevia soda now and then. I also use a little bit of vinegar and xanthan gum, which aren't strictly paleo. I need a vice besides overdue library books.

Positive results so far:
  • We enjoy this food-especially Molly. She jumps for joy when I feed her.
  • I'm down a pound and Molly feels a little trimmer on our high-fat, high-nutrient, low-carb diet. Take that, Dr. Oz!
  • My third-day hair looks and feels clean. Usually, I need a shampoo by the end of day two.
  • No more chapped lips, even without Carmex.

Negative results so far:
  • I've been tired. Last weekend, I fell asleep during Hawaii 5-0 (the original show with Jack Lord--was there a cooler guy?) and took a four-hour nap Sunday night.
  • My skin has felt dry.
  • I've had some nasal congestion.
  • Irregularity.

Yesterday, after doing a bit of research, I started taking potassium and immediately felt better. My skin looks better, too. (Potassium helps regulate heartbeat, water retention and bowel movements. A lack of potassium can make you tired.) I may have to cut back on the dairy to decrease the congestion.

As for our teeth, they look about the same.

Comments

Angel said…
If I remember correctly, the progress in tooth rebuilding needed to be measured over several months (just checked ... Stephan mentioned that it was six months).

Sounds like you've transitioned to an even lower-carb diet than what you were doing previously. I guess as long as the potassium perks you up then you have no worries.

Hmmm ... I don't think a loss of hair oil is a good thing, personally. Maybe the potassium will bring that back up, too.

Is any of your dairy raw dairy? I know people who handle raw dairy just fine, but can't handle the store-bought stuff. Of course, I also know someone who can't even have raw dairy, so that varies.

Good luck with your tooth-rebuilding diet! A lot of people have posted about the tooth-rebuilding research, but no one, to my knowledge, has posted any current real-life results. I'm looking forward to finding out the (very likely positive) results of your diet, for you and the pup. :)
Lori Miller said…
Angel, thanks for the good wishes. John Durant at hunger-gatherer.com is also trying to heal some minor cavities with diet. I guess we'll see what the results are about the same time.

Here in Colorado, you can't buy raw milk, but you can buy a cow share and get raw milk that way. I realized this morning, though, that it was the goat milk that was congesting me. It reminded me how hard it can be to sort out food sensitivities.

On hair oil, my scalp isn't itchy and my hair isn't dry, so I'm not worried. On a similar note, I've notice my shirts barely smell like they've been worn.

Molly's doing well. Even though she's five years old, her teeth (except for her cavity) look almost as white as a puppy's. I'll post more photos over the next six months.

Popular posts from this blog

Cigna is Making Progress

Yesterday as I put my lunch in the refrigerator at work, I noticed a bunch of unfamiliar people in the break room. One of them, Pepe, started in: they were there for the health fair, they would check your cholesterol, the sugar in your blood, your height, your weight, and it would just take six minutes. A coworker asked him if he'd ever considered a career in sales. Just for blog fodder, I participated. They really were fast, and one even found me at my desk (in an office nearly half the size of a city block) after the tests were finished. My HDL cholesterol was 65--up from 42 from a year and a half ago, and up from 57, where it was last year when I'd been three months a low-carb diet . A level over 60 is considered good. I haven't taken any medication to make this happen. I went on a low-carb diet and eliminated wheat. I also take vitamin and mineral supplements in addition to a high-nutrient diet. What impressed me more, though, was that the nurse (and Cigna) said that bl...

Thanksgiving recipes for Pumpkin Pie & Cranberries--printable!

If you'd rather read a printed recipe than watch a video, here are my recent recipes for Better than Grandma's Pumpkin Pie and Probiotic Cranberry-Apple Relish.  Hat tip to Dana Carpender, whose pumpkin pie recipe inspired this one. The cranberry-apple ferment is entirely my own creation.  Pumpkin Pie--no grains, sugar or emulsifiers Crust 2 cups shelled raw pecans 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon monk fruit powder* (or 3 tablespoons sugar substitute) 4 tablespoons butter, melted 2 tablespoons water Pumpkin Pie Filling 1 pie pumpkin 1-1/2 cups half and half (with no thickeners) 3 eggs 3-4 teaspoons monk fruit powder* (or 3/4 cup sugar substitute) 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice Preheat the oven to 350F. Stab the top of the pumpkin all the way through the flesh in a few places at the top. Place the pumpkin on a cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour. Let cool. While the pumpkin is baking, put the pecans in a food processor with the S blade and run until they are finely...

Fly with Reuteri

If you're planning to travel by plane and you want to keep enjoying the benefits of l. reuteri yogurt, you might have gotten sticker shock from the price of l. reuteri probiotics. MyReuteri * costs $46 to $83 for 30 capsules, depending on the CFUs (colony-forming units, or the number of viable microorganisms). If you're thinking about economizing by putting some yogurt in a sturdy container and taking it with you, you can do that. I'll break down the pros and cons and look at some alternatives.  Photo from Unsplash . Cost Yogurt might be less expensive than probiotics, but it isn't free. A half-cup serving costs about 70¢ to make if you start with a previous batch. It contains about 90 billion CFUs if fermented for 36 hours.  This is a lot less than $5.56 for two capsules of 50 billion CFU MyReuteri, but for a one-week vacation, you'd only save $34 by eating yogurt instead. (You can freeze any unused capsules for later.)  Furthermore, the yogurt would have to go in ...

30-second Fix for a Cracked Stick Blender

Use Mighty Fixit (if you still have some from 2012) or Rescue Tape (which looks like a similar product) to fix a cracked stick blender. After I fixed the attachment, I washed it in the sink and the tape held up. I also wrapped a knife handle several years ago, and it's been through thousands of washings.

No Dairy BiotiQuest Ferment in Apples + Cranberries + Celery

Can you have too much l. reuteri or SIBO yogurt? Yes--more than 1/2 cup of yogurt a day can raise your insulin or, in some people, cause sinus congestion or an upset stomach. Luckily, there are other foods you can ferment.  One of my favorites is apples, cranberries and celery fermented with BiotiQuest Ideal Immunity probiotics. This recipe is slightly different from the one I posted before--I've left out the brown sugar and maple syrup since the apples provide plenty of sugar.  Here's my four-minute video showing how to make it: You can buy the seedling mat here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01IDQD32Y/ref=dp_iou_view_item?ie=UTF8&th=1