Guess who didn't look after his brain?

Due to the sudden deterioration in my mum's physical & mental health and also due to struggling to come to terms with her having to spend the rest of her life in a nursing home (not the happiest of places), my diet went completely to pot.

I "went off" salmon, sardines & powdered linseeds and started to eat carbohydrate/fat-based comfort foods. A black cloud slowly descended over me. I lost the motivation to do anything, including updating this blog. I also slept a lot. This continued for several months.

Then, for no apparent reason, a few weeks ago I got an urge to eat smoked salmon. I added 200g of smoked salmon twice a week back into my diet and after a few weeks, the black cloud started to lift.

Before I started supplementing with Vitamin D3, I used to eat lots of oily fish but did not function correctly mentally. This time, my Vitamin D3 status was good (I never stopped taking supplements even when I had the black cloud over me) but my EPA (Eicosapentaenoic Acid) and DHA (Docosahexaenoic Acid) intakes were near zero.

In conclusion, it would appear that my brain needs adequate Vitamin D3 and EPA and DHA (and magnesium) to function correctly.

I won't be blogging as much as I have been previously, as I've now dumped the vast majority of the nutritional knowledge within my brain into this blog. If I come across anything new, I'll post it here.

Finally, I've found the cheapest source yet of 5,000iu Vitamin D3 gelcaps.

Skin Care, Supplements, Exercise

Not that much difference, really unsure about going into a serious anti aging skin care regimen right now at my age. =/ So looked for more on the side of prevention than anything else.

Skin care

- Neutrogena gentle exfoliating face wash
- Skinceuticals CE ferulic acid
- Derma + intensive base with CoQ10, gingko biloba, vitamin A and Vitamin E
- Derma + night cream with macadamia oil, CoQ10, vitamin E, (also a slightly different day time one without mac..)
Derma + intensive eye cream CoQ10, vitamin E, retinyl palmitate, jojaba oil.
- Sun screen (mostly just in the summer)
- Apply white tea / green tea to the skin
- Aloe vera gel day time.
- Avoiding long exposure to the sun :-D

Supplements;

- Reflex Instant Whey Protein - twice a day 2x25g http://www.reflex-nutrition.com/faqs.php?faq=whey_protein

- Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) 2000mg

- Essential mix 1/3 of the dose http://www.aor.ca/html/products.php?id=57

- Carnosine 500 - http://www.aor.ca/html/products.php?id=40

- Vitamin D3 5000IU (5000IU all year because I don't go in the sun much) http://www.aoreurope.co.uk/product/view/3017

- Fish oil / cod liver oil, seven seas - http://www.codliveroil.co.uk/productRange/histrength/xtrahsclo.htm

- Magnesium Oxide 300mg

- Zinc 15mg

- AOR Biotics (many different types of probiotics)

- Lactoferrin 1 x 250mg (I also get 500mg of lactoferrin from whey protein)

- AOR Green tea (EGCG) x 1 Capsule a day

- AHCC

- Rowse Manuka honey - Prevents throat infections, kills bugs like strep, staph, h pylori.
http://www.rowsehoney.co.uk/articles/honey-and-you/manuka-honey-science

- Cranberry

Exercise.

- Running (30 minutes a day) - not for fun, but makes me feel good anyway.
- Ashtanga Yoga 4 days a week 1 hour a day - maintain flexibility and strength
- Free weights twice a week, bench press, squats etc etc... to mostly maintain muscle mass and -decrease risk of osteoporosis because of low body weight.

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Gluten-Free Apple & Pear Crisp

Easier than pie, a crisp makes a lovely gluten-free dessert.

Sweet, crisp apples and tender pears are sprinkled with a cinnamon and brown sugar crumble and baked to melt-in-your mouth perfection. This simple gluten-free dessert- worthy of excavation from the Gluten-Free Goddess® archives- evokes old fashioned autumnal comfort at its coziest.

Using a gluten-free pancake and baking mix- such as Pamela's Baking and Pancake Mix- makes this treat easy as pie easier than pie to toss together. Celebrate fall and winter with this classic homey dessert.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Butter vs. Margarine

I came across an interesting study the other day, courtesy of Dr. John Briffa's blog. It's titled "Margarine Intake and Subsequent Coronary Heart Disease in Men", by Dr. William P. Castelli's group. It followed participants of the Framingham Heart study for 20 years, and recorded heart attack incidence*. Keep in mind that 20 years is an unusually long follow-up period.

The really cool thing about this study is they also tracked butter consumption.  Here's a graph of the overall results, by teaspoons of butter or margarine eaten per day:

Heart attack incidence increased with increasing margarine consumption (statistically significant) and decreased slightly with increasing butter consumption (not statistically significant). 

It gets more interesting. Let's have a look at some of the participant characteristics, broken down by margarine consumption:

People who ate the least margarine had the highest prevalence of glucose intolerance (pre-diabetes), smoked the most cigarettes, drank the most alcohol, and ate the most saturated fat and butter. These were the people who cared the least about their health. Yet they had the fewest heart attacks. The investigators corrected for the factors listed above in their assessment of the contribution of margarine to disease risk, however, the fact remains that the group eating the least margarine was the least health conscious. This affects disease risk in many ways, measurable or not. I've written about that before, here and here.

The investigators broke down the data into two halves: the first ten years, and the second ten. In the first ten years, there was no significant association between margarine intake and heart attack incidence. In the second ten, the group eating the most margarine had 77% more heart attacks than the group eating none:

So it appears that margarine takes a while to work its magic.

They didn't publish a breakdown of heart attack incidence with butter consumption over the two periods. The Framingham study fits in perfectly with most other observational studies showing that full-fat dairy intake is not associated with heart attack and stroke risk. 

It's worth mentioning that this study was conducted from the late 1960s until the late 1980s. Artificial trans fat labeling laws were still decades away in the U.S., and margarine contained more trans fat than it does today. Currently, margarine can contain up to 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving and still be labeled "0 g trans fat" in the U.S. The high trans fat content of the older margarines probably had something to do with the result of this study.

That does not make today's margarine healthy, however. Margarine remains an industrially processed pseudo-food. I'm just waiting for the next study showing that some ingredient in the new margarines (plant sterols? dihydro vitamin K1?) is the new trans fat.

Butter, Margarine and Heart Disease
The Coronary Heart Disease Epidemic


* More precisely, "coronary heart disease events", which includes infarction, sudden cardiac death, angina, and coronary insufficiency.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Waffles

Gluten-free pumpkin waffles with maple syrup.

I haven't been baking much in our dorm-sized sublet. The Barbie scaled toy that pretends it's an oven (my lasagna pan- never mind my cookie sheets- won't fit) is totally, weirdly cattywampus. Pie plates slide to the rear and flip backwards like pancakes. And trying to fetch potatoes that have rolled off the back of the rack is often a futile act proving hazardous to your fingertips. I'm a slow learner. I burned myself twice. But I'm still smiling. For two reasons.

1. We found an apartment we love. I can walk to the beach. And the Santa Monica Farmers Market. And the Third Street theaters and shops and bookstore and cafes. Walk! As in, no car necessary. There isn't room to set up a painting studio (space is but a luxury so close to the beach) but. There is a brand new kitchen. With a shiny spankin' new stove. Virgin territory. Untouched by heinous proteins. This will be my first gluten-free kitchen, ever. We move in November first.

2. Then there is Tuesday. The premiere of The Canyon at Grauman's Chinese Theater. The first time we will see Steve's script on the silver screen. Larger than life. Edited to the director's vision. Am I excited? Of course. Am I nervous? Affirmative. Will it be the movie we dreamed of? Maybe it will and maybe it won't. The one thing I know for sure about movies is that film making is a magical, unpredictable process.

I read my husband's scripts with intricate emotions threaded with awe. It takes guts to start over- at any age. Following your dream (especially at mid-life) isn’t some gauzy pie in the sky back-lit experience. Magical thinking has no place in it. Or faith. It’s more about toughness and tenacity. And even that sounds too romantic.

The thing about big dreams is you have to get real. You have to face down your fear. You have to shed outworn habits and assumptions. You have to decide what is worth doing. And do it. And work at it. And work some more. This entails risk. On all kinds of levels.

A successful painter who made his living as an artist for two decades, Steve started reading screenplays and flirted with the idea of writing a script. But the thing is, it's rare to make a living as a painter- ninety-nine percent of painters never earn more than the cost of materials. And here he was, paying the mortgage with his art. The pressure he felt was to keep at it, keep painting, keep the momentum. Because everybody knows, once you got it you don't screw with momentum.

But then he had a dream.

In his dream a little boy (wearing the same striped shirt he wore as a child) handed Steve a silver key. The key opened a treasure box containing words on paper. It doesn't get any more Jungian than that. I knew then painting wasn’t enough for him. I knew then he had to write. What the soul needs is a mysterious thing. And so it goes. I bought him script software as a gift. That was twelve years ago.

He writes now daily. I line edit late drafts. I help with research. I examine female characters and dialogue with a woman’s perspective. We talk about structure, subtext and reveals over bowls of butternut soup. An odd synchronicity is afoot. I used to live in Hollywood- many, many moons ago. I did a little production work and continuity on independent film projects. I tried on the role of script girl. I loved it. But I didn’t possess the drive to stick with it. I didn’t have a true sense of self in my twenties, you see. I couldn’t hear my own voice. I didn't feel authentic. And so I left. I moved back to the east coast of my childhood. And lived another life.

Decades later, here I sit. In a Santa Monica apartment. Sipping yerba mate and reading over script changes on Steve's newest project, Killer Smile. I am hearing an Irish lilt in my head, picturing scenes that will soon spark to life thanks to producers, a director and cinematographer, casting director, actors, costume designer, wardrobe supervisor, art director, set decorator, location scout, sound engineers, camera assistants, focus pullers, boom operators, stunt men and women, grips, gaffer, a special effects team, composer, music supervisor, film editor, production managers and caterers. It all starts with words on paper.

And a willingness to screw with momentum.

Read more + get the recipe >>

A Little Hiatus

I'm going to a conference next week, followed by a little vacation. I've written two posts that will publish automatically while I'm gone. I may or may not respond to comments for the next two weeks. I probably won't respond to e-mails. I'll resume the malocclusion series when I get back.

Hola a todos!

I hope everyone is still out there and checking back to my blog every now and then. I am sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple of months. I can make up many excuses but the truth is that I had nothing really good to write about in a while so I thought that I'd rather not ramble on about anything on my blog all the time. Which is not good when what readers are after is good information and news. However as my first post back from my quiet period, I will just say what I've been upto since I lasted posted.

So a while ago I started to learn to speak spanish, and I have been studying a lot, in the first 2 months I actually studied for 4-6 hours daily! I met two wonderful people, Mariangel, and Tere who both are great, they come from venezuela and it's been fun talking to them both. Actually I even plan to go to venezuela for sometime in 2010 in the summer! Now I'm definitely going to need a lot of sunblock if I want to keep my youhtful looks while I am there! The other thing is that next year I also want to move to spain, most likely will be Madrid... I don't know for how long but it's something I have to do, I'm 25 on the 21st of this month and I feel I have to just do something now, not be locked into the same boring stuff day in and day out. Meet new people, see new things, go on and adventure. Actually, I love adventures, so I'm quite excited about this. I am going to book a plane ticket and my friend jamie will go with me, also another friend craig is planning on going to spain for a year or so also, I have yet to talk with him more about this but it could be really good. I will obviously continue to do my CR while I am there, and while I go to venezuela. I worry a bit about the safety of me being in venezuela though because apparently it's not exactly the safest place one can go to from what I was told by mariangel.

Over the last few weeks I've also gained 6 lbs in weight. No this wasn't some chocolate binge or anything, it was no accident. It was a decision that i made so that I look a little healthier. My BMI went from 16.4 to 17.4 and I think it shows just a bit also. There is not much calorie different to maintain this weight, actually... anyway I'm still very young, I started CR way before almost everyone person on CRON out there. My body temperature hasn't changed, is still around 36.0 and I will hold this weight of 110-111 lbs now for a while. It was actually my weight last year, then I went back down to 105.

Unfortunately I am confused about my pre CRON heighest weight I achieved. I have some photographs and they indicate I might have at one point been heavier than I thought. The problem is I started to lose weight *years* before I even started CRON. I might be be 'CR'd' than I actually realize. Even my blood pressure on day 1 of CRON was 100/60. So I never experienced these massive changes like most older people.
I would love to have a physique like that of Bruce Lee. With my dedication I absolutely believe I could achieve it. Bruce lee at his lowest weight during his life was around 125 lbs! I think that was in way of the dragon or his last movie that never got finished. He went between 125-135 lbs... He was very toned, very little fat, and interestingly his diet was very good also. Vegetables, Fruits, smoothies, whey protein shakes... Maybe one day I can do this, but not yet, maybe by the time I am 35 we'll have a better idea on how far anti aging medicine has progressed so that I can make a better decision. Even at this time because of CRON I should be biologically younger anyway, not like your typical 35 year old.

part 2 coming tomorrow.

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part IV

There are three periods during the development of the face and jaws that are uniquely sensitive to environmental influences such as nutrition and muscle activity patterns.

1: Prenatal Period

The major structures of the human face and jaws develop during the first trimester of pregnancy. The maxilla (upper jaw) takes form between the 7th and 10th week after conception. The mandible (lower jaw) begins two weeks earlier. The nasal septum, which is the piece of cartilage that forms the structure of the nose and divides the nostrils, appears at week seven and grows most rapidly from weeks 8 to 11. Any disturbance of this developmental window can have major consequences for later occlusion.

2: Early Postnatal Period

The largest postnatal increment in face and jaw growth occurs from birth until age 4. During this period, the deciduous (baby) teeth erupt, and the activity patterns of the jaw and tongue influence the size and shape of the maxilla and the mandible as they grow. The relationship of the jaws to one another is mostly determined during this period, although it can still change later in development.

During this period, the dental arch widens from its center, called the midpalatal suture. This ensures that the jaws are the correct size and shape to eventually accept the permanent teeth without crowding them.

3: Adolescence

The third major developmental period occurs between ages 11 and 16, depending on the gender and individual, and happens roughly at the same time as the growth spurt in height. The dental arch continues to widen, reaching its final size and shape. Under ideal circumstances, at the end of this period the arch should be large enough to accommodate all teeth, including the third molars (wisdom teeth), without crowding. Narrow dental arches cause malocclusion and third molar crowding.

Growth of the Dental Arch Over Time

The following graph shows the widening of the dental arch over time*. The dotted line represents arch growth while the solid line represents growth in body height. You can see that arch development slows down after 6 years old, resumes around 11, and finally ends at about 18 years. This graph represents the average of many children, so not all children will see these changes at the age indicated. The numbers are in millimeters per year, but keep in mind that the difference between a narrow arch and a broad one is only a few millimeters.

In the next few posts, I'll describe the factors that I believe influence jaw and face structure during the three critical periods of development.


* These data represent many years of measurements collected by Dr. Arne Bjork, who used metallic implants in the maxilla to make precise measurements of arch growth over time in Danish youths. The graph is reproduced from the book A Synopsis of Craniofacial Growth, by Dr. Don M. Ranly. Data come from Dr. Bjork's findings published in the book Postnatal Growth and Development of the Maxillary Complex. You can see some of Dr. Bjork's data in the paper "Sutural Growth of the Upper Face Studied by the Implant Method" (free full text).

Gluten-Free Banana Corn Muffins Recipe

Tender and sweet corn muffins infused with the scent of banana

Apartment hunting is more than a little fun, right? It's big fun. You get to tour unfamiliar lobbies and prowl rooms old and new. You get to peek into kitchen cupboards and step onto balconies, turning your face toward the sun to imagine greeting the day in that one particular spot on Earth (mug of fresh brewed coffee and a crisp LA Times in hand).

You wade eagerly into conversations about whether you'd prefer looking out at a roof top or a wall or a neighbor's patio ringed with bamboo. Hunting is fun. But finding the right apartment is not as simple as you might think.

While you think it would be beyond groovy to live opposite the Santa Monica Library with a ficus canopy crowning your street level view, your Honey Baby Sugarness states said library proximity holds absolutely no charm for him and he urges you to reconsider your enthusiasm, siting 1. street level noise and 2. the stop-and-go energy of the bus stop.

He favors a bright and airy spot on 6th Street opening to a quiet common courtyard. But you can't get past 1. the spongy beige wall-to-wall and 2. the neighbor's clear and intimate view of your living room (hence, My Lovely, your sure-to-happen morning-brained half naked sprint to fetch the ringing cell phone forgotten in your purse the night before--- not a pretty sight).

So you brew a cup of coffee, open a bag of potato chips and hash out priorities- what is mutually essential and what might not be. What you can live with and what you cannot. And vice versa. You make lists (yes, I make lists). I'm visual. I need visual aids. Diagrams are good. Multiple colors (I'm a Sharpie lover). Arrows for emphasis. Stars. Circles. Big decisions require maps. Direction. Emphasis.

The smack down-

1. Wall-to-wall vs street noise
2. New kitchen vs soaking tub
3. Anonymous roof view vs neighbor dancing in his underwear (or vice versa- see above)
4. Walking to beach vs walking to library
5. Privacy vs proximity
6. Location, location, location (is that like, Practice, practice, practice?)

You hone and define your hopes and needs on a lined piece of yellow paper. You sip more wine. You tinker. Smile. Find agreement.

Hardwood floors win. Roof top view and new kitchen- win. Big windows- no brainer. Proximity to beach- double no-brainer.

Progress.

And here's a muffin to go with it.

Tender corn muffin goodness scented with banana.

Banana Corn Muffin Recipe

I love using banana puree in vegan baking. The mashed sweet fruit gives egg-free muffins a pull-apart tenderness. Not to mention- the combo of cornmeal and banana? Delicious.

Ingredients:

Whisk in a mixing bowl:

1 cup Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Cornmeal

3/4 cup sorghum flour

1/2 cup potato starch or tapioca starch

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup packed organic light brown sugar

1/4 cup organic cane sugar

Pinch of nutmeg

Make a well in the center and add in:

1/2 cup light olive oil

1 cup banana puree

1/3 cup coconut milk or other non-dairy milk

1 tablespoon Ener-G Egg Replacer whisked with 1/4 cup warm water

2 teaspoons bourbon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon lemon juice or light tasting vinegar

1 tablespoon honey or organic raw agave nectar

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line twelve muffin cups with paper liners.

Beat to combine. The batter should be smooth and medium thick. If it feels too stiff add a spoonful of coconut milk to thin. If, by chance, the batter is very thin, add a sprinkle of potato starch to thicken it.

Spoon the batter into the twelve muffin cups. Use wet fingers to smooth tops, if necessary. Bake in the center of a preheated oven till domed and firm to the touch. This might be anywhere from 18 to 25 minutes (a wooden pick inserted into the center should emerge clean) depending upon your oven, and humidity.

Cool the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes; then turn out the muffins to continue cooling on the rack (this prevents the bottoms from steaming).

Serve warm. Wrap extra muffins individually in foil; bag and freeze for best taste. These beauties make an easy, not-too-sweet on-the-go treat.

Makes twelve muffins.

Recipe Source: glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com

All images & content are copyright protected, all rights reserved. Please do not use our images or content without prior permission. Thank you.

Karina's Notes:

• For those of you who cannot bake with cornmeal, I'm wondering if a combo flour mix of almond meal and buckwheat wouldn't be to die for?

• For those of you using eggs, use two free-range organic eggs, beaten.

• Gluten-free vegan batter really is different from traditional wheat flour based batter. It's not just a rumor. Gluten-free egg-free muffins won't puff and rise as much as their wheat based cousins. So fill your muffin cups a bit higher than you used to.

• This is a gum-free recipe, but if you prefer, add a teaspoon of xanthan gum or guar gum. The honey or agave helps add stickiness.

Try:

Karina's Gluten-Free Pumpkin Corn Muffins and Blueberry Corn Muffins

More gluten-free corn muffins from food bloggers:

Gluten-Free Cornbread Muffins at Baking Beauties

The Gluten-Free Homemaker's Ham and Cheese Corn Muffins

Gluten-Free Grilled Cornbread Muffin at I Am Gluten-Free

Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part III

Normal Human Occlusion

In 1967, a team of geneticists and anthropologists published an extensive study of a population of Brazilian hunter-gatherers called the Xavante (1). They made a large number of physical measurements, including of the skull and jaws. Of 146 Xavante examined, 95% had "ideal" occlusion, while the 5% with malocclusion had nothing more than mild crowding of the incisors (front teeth). The authors wrote:

Characteristically, the Xavante adults exhibited broad dental arches, almost perfectly aligned teeth, end-to-end bite, and extensive dental attrition [tooth wear].

In the same paper, the author presents occlusion statistics for three other cultures. According to the papers he cites, in Japan, the prevalence of malocclusion was 59%, and in the US (Utah), it was 64%. He also mentions another native group living near the Xavante, part of the Bakairi tribe, living at a government post and presumably eating processed food. The prevalence of malocclusion was 45% in this group.

In 1998, Dr. Brian Palmer (DDS) published a paper describing some of the collections of historical skulls he had examined over the years (2):

...I reviewed an additional twenty prehistoric skulls, some dated at 70,000 years old and stored in the Anthropology Department at the University of Kansas. Those skulls also exhibited positive [good] occlusions, minimal decay, broad hard palates, and "U-shaped" arches.

The final evaluations were of 370 skulls preserved at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The skulls were those of prehistoric North American plains Indians and more contemporary American skulls dating from the 1920s to 1940s. The prehistoric skulls exhibited the same features as mentioned above, whereas a significant destruction and collapse of the oral cavity were evident in the collection of the more recent skulls. Many of these more recent skulls revealed severe periodontal disease, malocclusions, missing teeth, and some dentures. This was not the case in the skulls from the prehistoric periods...

The arch is the part of the upper jaw inside the "U" formed by the teeth. Narrow dental arches are a characteristic feature of malocclusion-prone societies. The importance of arch development is something that I'll be coming back to repeatedly. Dr. Palmer's paper includes the following example of prehistoric (L) and modern (R) arches:


Dr. Palmer used an extreme example of a modern arch to illustrate his point, however, arches of this width are not uncommon today. Milder forms of this narrowing affect the majority of the population in industrial nations.

In 1962, Dr. D.H. Goose published a study of 403 British skulls from four historical periods: Romano-British, Saxon, medieval and modern (3). He found that the arches of modern skulls were less broad than at any previous time in history. This followed an earlier study showing that modern British skulls had more frequent malocclusion than historical skulls (4). Goose stated that:

Although irregularities of the teeth can occur in earlier populations, for example in the Saxon skulls studied by Smyth (1934), the narrowing of the palate seems to have occurred in too short a period to be an evolutionary change. Hooton (1946) thinks it is a speeding up of an already long standing change under conditions of city life.

Dr. Robert Corruccini published several papers documenting narrowed arches in one generation of dietary change, or in genetically similar populations living rural or urban lifestyles (reviewed in reference #5). One was a study of Caucasians in Kentucky, in which a change from a traditional subsistence diet to modern industrial food habits accompanied a marked narrowing of arches and increase in malocclusion in one generation. Another study examined older and younger generations of Pima Native Americans, which again showed a reduction in arch width in one generation. A third compared rural and urban Indians living in the vicinity of Chandigarh, showing marked differences in arch breadth and the prevalence of malocclusion between the two genetically similar populations. Corruccini states:

In Chandigarh, processed food predominates, while in the country coarse millet and locally grown vegetables are staples. Raw sugar cane is widely chewed for enjoyment rurally [interestingly, the rural group had the lowest incidence of tooth decay], and in the country dental care is lacking, being replaced by chewing on acacia boughs which clean the teeth and are considered medicinal.

Dr. Weston Price came to the same conclusion examining prehistoric skulls from South America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as their living counterparts throughout the world that had adhered to traditional cultures and foodways. From Nutrition and Physical Degeneration:

In a study of several hundred skulls taken from the burial mounds of southern Florida, the incidence of tooth decay was so low as to constitute an immunity of apparently one hundred per cent, since in several hundred skulls not a single tooth was found to have been attacked by tooth decay. Dental arch deformity and the typical change in facial form due to an inadequate nutrition were also completely absent, all dental arches having a form and interdental relationship [occlusion] such as to bring them into the classification of normal.

Price found that the modern descendants of this culture, eating processed food, suffered from malocclusion and narrow arches, while another group from the same culture living traditionally did not. Here's one of Dr. Price's images from Nutrition and Physical Degeneration (p. 212). This skull is from a prehistoric New Zealand Maori hunter-gatherer:


Note the well-formed third molars (wisdom teeth) in both of the prehistoric skulls I've posted. These people had ample room for them in their broad arches. Third molar crowding is a mild form of modern face/jaw deformity, and affects the majority of modern populations. It's the reason people have their wisdom teeth removed. Urban Nigerians in Lagos have 10 times more third molar crowding than rural Nigerians in the same state (10.7% of molars vs. 1.1%, reference #6).

Straight teeth and good occlusion are the human evolutionary norm. They're also accompanied by a wide dental arch and ample room for third molars in many traditionally-living cultures. The combination of narrow arches, malocclusion, third molar crowding, small or absent sinuses, and a characteristic underdevelopment of the middle third of the face, are part of a developmental syndrome that predominantly afflicts industrially living cultures.

(1) Am. J. Hum. Genet. 19(4):543. 1967. (free full text)
(2) J. Hum. Lact. 14(2):93. 1998
(3) Arch. Oral Biol. 7:343. 1962
(4) Brash, J.C.: The Aetiology of Irregularity and Malocclusion of the Teeth. Dental Board of the United Kingdom, London, 1929.
(5) Am J. Orthod. 86(5):419
(6) Odonto-Stomatologie Tropicale. 90:25. (free full text)

Roasted Eggplant Tapenade + Pasta Sauce

Roasted eggplant tapenade also makes a delicious pasta sauce.

Yesterday was summery here in Southern California. In a Meg Ryan breezy kind of way- not in a sultry no air peel off your jeans, cowboy boots and socks Jennifer Lopez in U Turn kind of way. Nope. Sunny and warm it was- but not hot like New Mexico.

We've moved into our sublet (above one of Santa Monica's most famous vegan restos). The Honda is Cuisinart and bread machine and wooden spoon free again- after lugging armloads of bags and boxes (via elevator, thank goddess) up to our cozy fourth floor cutie. Yesterday we walked to the ocean, inhaling deep. In truth? I am exhausted. Running on gluten-free fumes. Too tired to shop or cook or make even the tiniest decision, never mind attempt to be clever and insightful and entertaining in a recipe post.

Read more + get the recipe >>

Spicy Pumpkin Soup with Coconut Milk

Here's a recipe for a quick and easy pantry soup
that just so happens to be gluten-free.

Cleaning out the pantry always makes hungry. Come to think of it, so does packing. And lugging laundry. But the truth is, this time of year- anything can make me hungry. I could blame it on shorter daylight. Or the jarring touch of the cold tile floor when I tumble out of bed barefoot and sleepy and weave through boxes of books and movies to locate my tea mug, gone missing since three PM yesterday when I set it down- goddess knows where- to help my husband wrap one of my forty-eight-inch abstracts.

All of it makes me hungry.

But here's my top ten.

Things That Make Me Hungry

1. The relief of selling the house after 30 months of showings and price reductions and contracts falling through
2. The excitement of starting over
   
3. Letting go of the outgrown (again)
4. Snapping a photo of my last full moon in the desert
   
5. Finding childhood photographs of Colin and Alex on the beach
6. Realizing we'll be gone before the second anniversary of the hip incident
   
7. Finding a fourth floor studio to rent- six blocks from Santa Monica beach
   
8. The sheer joy of shedding stuff
9. Buying tickets to The Canyon showing at Grauman's Chinese Theater
   
10. Thinking about tomorrow rather than yesterday

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Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization, Part II

The Nature of the Problem

In 1973, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published the results of a National Health Survey in which it examined the dental health of American youths nationwide. The following description was published in a special issue of the journal Pediatric Dentistry (1):

The 1973 National Health Survey reported 75% of children, ages 6 to 11 years, and 89% of youths, ages 12 to 17 years, have some degree of occlusal disharmony [malocclusion]; 8.7% of children and 13% of youth had what was considered a severe handicapping malocclusion for which treatment was highly desirable and 5.5% of children and 16% of youth had a severe handicapping malocclusion that required mandatory treatment.

89% of youths had some degree of malocclusion, and 29% had a severe handicapping malocclusion for which treatment was either highly desirable or mandatory. Fortunately, many of these received orthodontics so the malocclusion didn't persist into adulthood.

This is consistent with another survey conducted in 1977, in which 38% of American youths showed definite or severe malocclusion. 46% had occlusion that the authors deemed "ideal or acceptable" (2).

The trend continues. The CDC National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III) found in 1988-1991 that approximately three fourths of Americans age 12 to 50 years had some degree of malocclusion (3).

The same holds true for Caucasian-Americans, African-Americans and Native Americans in the US, as well as other industrial nations around the world. Typically, only 1/3 to 1/2 of the population shows good (but not necessarily perfect) occlusion (4- 8).

In the next post, I'll review some of the data from non-industrial and transitioning populations.


Malocclusion: Disease of Civilization


1. Pediatr. Dent. 17(6):1-6. 1995-1996
2. USPHS Vital and Health Statistics Ser. 11, no 162. 1977
3. J. Dent. Res. Special issue. 75:706. 1996. Pubmed link.
4. The Evaluation of Canadian Dental Health. 1959. Describes Canadian occlusion.
5. The Effects of Inbreeding on Japanese Children. 1965. Contains data on Japanese occlusion.
6. J. Dent. Res. 35:115. 1956. Contains data on both industrial and non-industrial cultures (Pukapuka, Fiji, New Guinea, U.S.A. and New Zealand).
7. J. Dent. Res. 44:947. 1965 (free full text). Contains data on Caucasian-Americans and African-Americans living in several U.S. regions, as well as data from two regions of Germany. Only includes data on Angle classifications, not other types of malocclusion such as crossbite and open bite (i.e., the data underestimate the total prevalence of malocclusion).
8. J. Dent. Res. 47:302. 1968 (free full text). Contains data on Chippewa Native Americans in the U.S., whose occlusion was particularly bad, especially when compared to previous generations.

Gluten-Free Pumpkin Cake with Maple Icing

Tender and moist pumpkin cake with maple icing. 
For nut-free, skip the chopped nut topping.

Today I'm digging into the recipe archives (back to 2005!) to share an old favorite. My pumpkin cake recipe. We're so busy sorting, bagging clothes and boxing up books for donation, getting ready for the big move to Los Angeles (next Thursday!) that yours truly has not had time to bake.

But if I did? I'd whip up this moist and tender beauty of a cake.

Today it snowed. Our first snow of the season. After photographing the backyard oak and apple branches dusted in sugary white like some fairy confection I thought of James Taylor's line in Sweet Baby James. The Berkshires seemed dream-like on account of that frosting. And I decided to bake a cake. With cinnamon.

I tried to whistle my way back to the house, to pierce the soft silence that only snowfall can bring, but I am not gifted in whistling.

A crow swung low overhead and cawed, unimpressed with my feeble tune.

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