Dr. Katie To recommends cutting back on acidity, refined sugar, dairy, and wheat for better oral and overall health. She emphasizes working with a nutritionist to create a personalized plan based on your individual sensitivities and lifestyle, rather than following a one-size-fits-all diet.
You mentioned nutrition a moment ago. Is that something that you talk to patients about? And what kind of advice are you giving? Every single patient, every single appointment, not just to the new patient, because even the patient that we see in the wellness check, the patient that we see when they come in for treatment, we always want to remind them as a partner of their journey that nutrition is a lifestyle. It's not something that you stay on for 30 days and then you can do whatever you want. So we always mention them that number one, if they can work with a nutritionist, go for it. I know so many people work with physical therapists, work with personal trainer for their health and their fitness, but they never work with a nutritionist to figure out a nutrition plan that works for them, for their blood type, for their lifestyle, for the activity, because everyone have different range of activity. Like, you run, I don't. So you definitely need different nutrition and supplement than I do. So for me, nutrition has come down to very basic. Number one is definitely is acidity. I want to make sure that when I'm eating anything, I want to pay attention to, is it acidic to my teeth? Is it going to be acidic to my body? Is that going to make my body more acidic? Okay. By the way, eating in stress, stressful environment, eating in stressful environment is making your food acidic. So you make sure you eat slow, slowly, enjoy your food, chewing your food enough that your saliva can break your food down. And then the second for me is sugar. And I'm not talking about like the natural sugar, but it's the refined sugar, the white sugar, the dangerous sugar. And that definitely raising your inflammation, that the one that runs through your blood and getting all kind of chronic issues. And that is the reason we have a lot of children that have diabetes these days. It's crazy to see a 10-year-old and start having diabetes already. So metabolic disease is coming from what we're eating. And so sugars is one of the big culprits of that. And next one for me, the third, is dairy. So it's rare to find raw dairies these days, and a lot of people said it's not safe or it's not easy. Then just eliminate out of your diet because dairy also increases inflammation with how we get our dairy, how we raise cows and the process of producing dairy. So no sugar, no dairy, watch out for anything that makes your body acidic. And last but not least is wheat. So limit wheat out of your diet, especially a lot of people have sensitivity without knowing. And a lot of time, a lot of time, it's not just those three, a lot of people allergic or reacting to things like corn. I have patients that didn't know egg is a problem. Every morning they would eat egg because protein, right? And they didn't realize that egg is good for other people but not for them. And so again, go back to that wellness theme of personalization. Know yourself, know your body, and just don't do a blanket diet. Pick something that fits your lifestyle. If I have to pick something that's healthy for me, I also want to enjoy it. I want to enjoy it so I can make it a part of my daily food list versus, oh, every time I think about eating it, it makes me upset. So again, you have to enjoy what you're eating and make it a way of life and not something that you just be on diet for 30 days and then that's it.
