kefir dissolving teeth?

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kefir dissolving teeth?

Postby bravebird on Fri Dec 12, 2014 11:00 am

hey all,
i've heard stories here and there from folks who believe kefir makes their teeth ultra sensitive...I am one of those people. It seems that sometimes after drinking it my teeth are quite sensitive for the next few days thereafter.
my main question is...how can we REALLY know if our kefir is safe to drink? People are getting grains from folks and have NO idea where the kefir grains have been prior to getting into their hands. I'm worried that perhaps myself, or someone who was involved with my kefir culture long ago, may have contaminated the grains with an unhealthy culture, i.e. S. mutans which is horrible for teeth!
I only culture my grains for a good 16 hours maybe.
any feedback?
thanks
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Re: kefir dissolving teeth?

Postby Gutted on Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:52 pm

bravebird wrote:hey all,
i've heard stories here and there from folks who believe kefir makes their teeth ultra sensitive...I am one of those people. It seems that sometimes after drinking it my teeth are quite sensitive for the next few days thereafter.
my main question is...how can we REALLY know if our kefir is safe to drink? People are getting grains from folks and have NO idea where the kefir grains have been prior to getting into their hands. I'm worried that perhaps myself, or someone who was involved with my kefir culture long ago, may have contaminated the grains with an unhealthy culture, i.e. S. mutans which is horrible for teeth!
I only culture my grains for a good 16 hours maybe.
any feedback?
thanks

All I can say to your concern about the culture is that you don't know and you will probably never know if you eat kefir. There could be almost any bacteria/yeast or fungi in it. It could be healthy, unhealthy or anything in between.

However I doubt that there would be S mutans in it, you are certain to have those already in your mouth if your more than a few years old. Those are one type of bacteria which produce dental plaque and require brushing and flossing to keep it to a minimum.

Xylitol can be quite effective to encourage the depositing of calcium on the teeth to strengthen them. It is also quite anti bacterial because bacteria cannot metabolize it and it destroys them. Probably not a good idea adding it to Kefir.

There are bacteria which can help the teeth and gums by competing with bacteria in the mouth and they produce H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) which can destroy other bacteria. But it's getting them into the gums so they can attack the bad guys which hide within plaque which is a biofilm that protects them from other bacteria and harmful substances.

Garden of Life Probiotic Smile are one brand which I have but there are quite a few different manufacturers.

Streptococcus rattus JH145, Streptococcus oralis KJ3 (previously called Streptococcus sanguis type II) and Streptococcus uberis KJ2 are anti carey bacteria used in probiotic smile and other such products.

Brushing and Flossing before and flossing after taking the bacteria could help get them past the plaque so they can attack S mutans and other harmful bacteria. Using some of the mouth washes that are available which deals with plaque might help.

There are a number of things which can break up biofilms such as menthol found in peppermint oil, acetic acid as in vinegar, thymol is often used, eucalyptus oil, clove oil among many others.

I cultured the bacteria in the mints (probiotic smile) and made a yoghurt using them and it came out very well. So it might be worth you considering doing something similar to aid your teeth. Using some xylitol might be helpful as well. There is a tiny amount in probiotic smile. The bacteria numbers are only about 200,000 per mint so they take a very long time to culture sufficiently to produce yoghurt. Using some of the yoghurt for further batches speeds it up after the first culture is complete. I purchased one pack of those mints and use them as a starter culture when I need to begin a fresh batch.

Personally I would not eat Kefir. I am more accepting of wild sauerkraut than I am of kefir.
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Re: kefir dissolving teeth?

Postby 2gentlehands on Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:48 pm

thanks for info about biofilms, I assume since kefir is acidic, it might work on calcium so I swish bicarbonate more often.
Intrestingly, when I had elder dog, Vet gave him Xylitol for drinking water for plaque prevention (later learned it's not good for dog's liver so tossed it) Bit will look into it as rinse for humans. Ingesting anything antibacterial meked me nervous though.
Would love to hear how you culture specific bacteria. Is it doable with home supplies?
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Re: kefir dissolving teeth?

Postby EpigenomeEverything on Tue May 03, 2016 10:22 am

Gutted wrote:Personally I would not eat Kefir. I am more accepting of wild sauerkraut than I am of kefir.


You seem pretty knowledgeable, I assume you're not a dentist though, is this all from personal research? And why are you anti-kefir? I'm interested in starting to to make some, but I'd love to know reasons against it.
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Re: kefir dissolving teeth?

Postby alisoncc on Tue May 03, 2016 10:08 pm

Basic fact of life: Consuming any food is detrimental to your health. People die after doing it. BUT that's only half the story. The other half of the story: People die if they don't.

There are pros and cons to everything. Cruciferous vegetables (like cabbage) contain goitrogens which interfere with iodine uptake leading to potential thyroid problems. So should one go into panic mode over eating raw sauerkraut? No way.

What one needs to do is make informed decisions about what one eats or does not eat. Is the nett result positive or negative. Kefir and raw sauerkraut do a thousand times more good than any harm, and if they cause the nails on your small toes to grow slower then so be it.

The world is full of doom and gloom merchants who get off on raising issues of limited consequence that cause alarm and despondency. Bit like the websites that go on and on about Phytic acid in grains leading to every ones imminent demise. If you drank a bucket full of it everyday it would most probably cause you harm, but one hundredth of a teaspoon each week. Judge for yourself.

Been drinking Kefir for quite a while now. I'm 72 and have all my own teeth. I also make raw sauerkraut regularly, which I enjoy. Am I going to die from doing it - probably. But I'm going to die sometime anyway, so may as well enjoy the journey.

Alison
Rev Mother Bene Gesserit.

Sent from my PDP11/05 running RSX-11D via an ASR33 (TTY)
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Re: kefir dissolving teeth?

Postby EpigenomeEverything on Wed May 04, 2016 6:38 am

alisoncc wrote:...There are pros and cons to everything.
...
The world is full of doom and gloom merchants who get off on raising issues of limited consequence that cause alarm and despondency. Bit like the websites that go on and on about Phytic acid in grains leading to every ones imminent demise.


I agree with you. In the case of phytic acid, I do make an effort to soak/sprout/bake with sourdough starter. I like information and working with the best information that I have. If someone has some good info on why they wouldn't consume a certain food, I'd be interested. If his reason is just to avoid acidic foods or something with potentially "bad bacteria" then whatever, our bodies were meant to handle that stuff.

I actually asked my boyfriend (who is a dentist) about the earlier mentioned probiotic breath mints. He said that the resident bacteria in the biofilm in our mouths are rather resilient (much like in our guts)
and any "probiotic breath mints" would have an effect that would last about as long as sucking on the mints.
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