"Hunter-gatherers had really good teeth," says Alan Cooper, director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA. "[But] as soon as you get to farming populations, you see this massive change. Huge amounts of gum disease. And cavities start cropping up."

Additionally, they had better spacing due to eating tougher foods like high fiber items and tendons. So there's less dental impacting like we have with wisdom teeth.

[–] Nalivai@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Survivalship bias at it's finest. In literal sence of the word

[–] fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah things didn't really get better until Modern Dentistry so it took several thousand years to get better than hunter-gatherer level

[–] kautau@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

While true, they exist today, and have a life expectancy of like 30. So mostly they just die before their teeth decay.

https://medium.com/@kennamai/the-truth-of-hunter-gatherers-the-healthiest-but-lower-life-expectancy-why-5bb2f149e165

33% of children die by the age of 15.

There is of course merit to us having active lifestyles, controlling calorie intake, and balancing our diets, but that's in addition to the fact that we live almost 3x as long as we used to due to modern medicine, so we should continue to follow modern medicine, science, and nutrition.

[–] TempermentalAnomaly@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Nothing in this article addressed tooth decay or dental formation issues.

Also from the article:

Hunter-gatherers who live until the age of 15 typically experience a lifespan of around 72 years. Among elderly hunter-gatherers, the incidence of diseases such as cancer and high blood pressure is very low. When recalculating the average lifespan excluding child mortality, the average lifespan for hunter-gatherers ranges from 68 to 78 years.

I also never said we shouldn't follow science or modern medicine.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I went to eating like the great plains American first people about 2 years ago and haven't brushed my teeth since

About three months ago I had a dentist clean the plaques off my teeth and check them, to ensure I wasn't too misguided and my teeth had no new damage

The ancient people with great teeth also had bigger heads and bigger jaws. They could fit wisdom teeth

[–] nylo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

what does that look like? what's a normal day's food look like for you?

[–] psud@aussie.zone 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Beef, since cattle are the main product of my region. The native Americans ate bison

For dental health the best is no carbohydrates, few acids

Human skeletons don't show dental damage until the rise of agriculture, especially bread

I note that allergies prevent me from adding vegetables - I can't be healthy if I eat tannins or oxalates, many others can tolerate both of those

[–] nylo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

interesting. do you cook it? how much do you eat on average?

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I cook it very lightly – bleu at a restaurant is cooked more than I do at home – as heat destroys the little bit of vitamin C in meat and eat about 1 to 2 kilos a day of the fattiest meat I can buy. I cut my own steaks from a bulk pack, and each weighs between 600g and 800. I could easily win a steak house "eat our giant steak and get free dinner" contest if they still ran them

It averages out to about 1.5kg (call it 3lb) a day

The Lemmy community is Friendly Carnivore