Final week I discussed one thing in passing that caught your consideration: throughout my time in Iceland, I couldn’t assist however discover how many individuals appeared to have broad, well-developed jaws—particularly in comparison with what I usually see within the U.S.
In Iceland, dairy isn’t demonized. It’s celebrated—and it’s totally different from what we discover in most U.S. grocery shops.
Typical Icelandic dairy is:
- Full-fat
- Pasture-raised
- Minimally processed
- Typically fermented (skyr, uncooked cheese, cultured butter)
Now examine that to the US: homogenized, pasteurized, low-fat dairy usually stripped of fat-soluble vitamins and enzymes.
So what’s really on this dairy that may very well be shaping stronger jaws?
The fats in full-fat dairy carries three key fat-soluble nutritional vitamins: A, D, and K2. These aren’t simply useful—they’re important regulators of bone development, mineral utilization, and immune protection. Collectively, they orchestrate the facial improvement course of in a manner that’s so exact, it’s nearly arduous to consider we’ve forgotten it.
- Vitamin A ensures that cells differentiate correctly and that the epithelial linings of the mouth, sinuses, and respiratory tract keep wholesome and defended. It additionally performs a vital position in osteoblast exercise—these are the cells that construct bone.
- Vitamin D will increase calcium absorption within the intestine and makes positive that calcium really enters the bloodstream. With out it, all that dietary calcium passes proper via you.
- Vitamin K2 is the visitors cop. It prompts proteins like osteocalcin and matrix GLA protein (MGP) that direct calcium into bones and away from arteries, kidneys, and delicate tissue (Beulens et al., 2013; PMID: 23525894).
Right here’s what that appears like in follow: your youngster eats a chunk of cultured, full-fat cheese. That cheese incorporates calcium, sure—but in addition nutritional vitamins A, D, and K2. The vitamin D ensures the calcium will get absorbed. The vitamin K2 ensures it will get deposited the place it belongs—within the rising jaws, cheekbones, and palate—not within the kidneys or arteries. Vitamin A ensures these oral and airway tissues keep wholesome and structurally sound.
Now think about that meal with out the fats. You’re lacking the supply system for these vitamins. Fats is what allows your physique to soak up these nutritional vitamins—with out it, they don’t make it out of your plate into your bloodstream. And should you’re not getting sufficient of the nutritional vitamins themselves—or don’t have the microbiome to transform K1 to K2—you’re leaving improvement as much as probability.
Worse, you may very well be placing your self in danger. With out sufficient vitamin K2 to activate matrix GLA protein, calcium absorbed through vitamin D can find yourself within the flawed locations—like arterial partitions. That is what Dr. Kate Rhéaume-Bleue, writer of Vitamin K2 and the Calcium Paradoxwarned about: the silent calcification of soppy tissues as a consequence of vitamin K2 deficiency (Rhéaume-Bleue, 2012). Over time, this could contribute to atherosclerosis, kidney stones, and stiffening of joints and tissues.
It’s not that calcium is harmful—it’s that it wants a information. K2 is that information. With out it, you’re build up plaque as an alternative of bone.
Adults profit too: these vitamins proceed to take care of sturdy bones, wholesome gums, and resilient immune boundaries. However the window for skeletal improvement, particularly of the face and jaw, is most lively in childhood—which is why this issues a lot for younger households.
Based mostly on what I noticed throughout my time there, Icelanders’ nutrient-dense conventional dairy habits could also be serving to protect bone density, airway improvement, and facial construction—even when it’s not one thing they consciously acknowledge.
With out fats, these nutritional vitamins are tougher to soak up. And let me be clear: K1 isn’t sufficient. Whereas some intestine micro organism can convert vitamin K1 (present in leafy greens) into K2, that course of is inefficient and extremely variable. Most individuals—particularly those that’ve taken antibiotics, have intestine irritation, or don’t eat fermented meals—don’t convert sufficient K1 to fulfill their wants. And even after they do, it’s often the long-chain varieties (like MK-7), not the MK-4 kind our bones and tooth appear to favor most. With out the correct microbes, they’re tougher to activate.
Let me be clear: K1 isn’t sufficient. Whereas some intestine micro organism can convert vitamin K1 (present in leafy greens) into K2, that course of is inefficient and extremely variable. Most individuals—particularly those that’ve taken antibiotics, have intestine irritation, or don’t eat fermented meals—don’t convert sufficient K1 to cowl their wants. And even after they do, it’s often the long-chain varieties (like MK-7), not the MK-4 kind our bones and tooth appear to favor most.
You want pre-formed K2 from meals—or from a complement. That’s why fermented dairy, organ meats, and aged cheeses matter. It’s additionally why conventional diets that included these meals noticed fewer points with dental crowding, facial underdevelopment, and artery calcification.
Iceland has each: dietary K2 and a conventional food regimen that doubtless helps a more healthy intestine microbiome. Fermented dairy and fish present not solely vitamins but in addition the microbial range that helps optimize absorption of fat-soluble nutritional vitamins like A, D, and K2.. This microbial range is crucial for nutrient absorption, together with the enzymes and cofactors wanted to totally make the most of fat-soluble nutritional vitamins like A, D, and K2.
Their mineral-rich volcanic soil boosts the nutrient content material of their meals. And their conventional food regimen preserves the microbiome wanted to transform vitamin K1 (from crops) to K2 (the one we want for bone and jaw development).
However there’s yet one more piece of the puzzle that most individuals have by no means heard of. You is perhaps questioning—why is that this particular fats solely in dairy? Why not in different full-fat meals like avocado or nuts?
Right here’s the place it will get much more fascinating.
Full-fat dairy incorporates a lesser-known fats: C15:0 (pentadecanoic acid). It’s what’s often called an odd-chain saturated fats, and it’s discovered primarily within the fats of ruminant animals—like cows, goats, and sheep. That’s why meals like avocado, olive oil, and coconut—although nutrient-dense and filled with wholesome fat—don’t comprise C15:0. This isn’t about fats usually. It’s a few very particular sort of fats that comes from a really particular supply.
C15:0 is an odd-chain saturated fatty acid—uncommon, and probably important. A 2020 examine in Nature Communications proposed it might be the primary new important fatty acid found in many years, citing anti-inflammatory results, mitochondrial advantages, and mobile resilience (PMID: 33099653). Whereas extra human research are wanted, early findings place C15:0 as a compelling nutrient of curiosity for getting old and metabolic well being.
Why does that matter on your mouth?
C15:0 has been proven to decrease over 18 pro-inflammatory markers, together with IL-6, TNF-α, and prostaglandin E2, which is linked to gum irritation and bone loss (Nature Communications, 2020, PMID: 33099653). It additionally strengthens cell membranes—together with these in gum tissue—and helps a extra resilient, balanced inflammatory response throughout the physique.
Many of the analysis to this point has come from animal research and small human trials. Promising, sure—however early. Nonetheless, the info are compelling sufficient to take severely.
Personally, I’m not ready.
Fashionable diets have nearly eradicated this fats. The truth is, one examine analyzing NHANES dietary knowledge discovered that over 95% of the U.S. inhabitants consumes far beneath the estimated useful ranges of C15:0 (Fleming et al., 2020; Fatty15 White Paper). That is largely because of the shift away from whole-fat dairy and towards low-fat, processed options over the previous 50 years. Until you’re consuming a number of full-fat milk or consuming pastured cheese each day, you’re doubtless not getting sufficient.
Slightly than attempt to overhaul my complete food regimen or depend on consuming massive quantities of full-fat dairy each day, I’ve seemed for a constant and real looking approach to reintroduce it.
So I take FATTY15a pure, vegan-friendly C15:0 complement.
You’ll be able to learn extra right here: fatty15.com/askthedentist
Right here’s the place I land after digging into all of this…
The early analysis isn’t definitive proof—but it surely’s undoubtedly sufficient for me to be taking it each day.
I consider meals is medication—and high-quality, nutrient-dense meals is foundational. However I’ve all the time supplemented. Our soil is depleted. Our schedules are packed. And except your full-time job is cooking and diet, it’s almost unimaginable to get all the things you want from meals alone. Fermented, full-fat dairy is the inspiration. However let’s be trustworthy: full-fat dairy can get caloric quick. I don’t need to depend on massive portions of it each day to get sufficient C15:0. Supplementation fills that hole with out the additional load.
Should you’re dairy-free—like my spouse, who’s lactose illiberal and takes Fatty15 each day—that is one workaround. Early proof means that supplemental C15:0 like Fatty15 can mimic most of the anti-inflammatory and membrane-supporting results present in food-based sources. Nevertheless, we nonetheless don’t know whether or not supplementation totally replicates the synergistic impression of entire meals—particularly these with co-factors like nutritional vitamins A and K2. That’s an space I’d like to see extra human research discover.
Should you’re elevating children? This is without doubt one of the finest causes to deliver again butter.
I remorse falling for the low-fat pattern again within the ’90s. For a protracted stretch whereas elevating our daughters, we didn’t have actual butter in the home in any respect—only a vegetable oil unfold from Dealer Joe’s. My spouse and I believed we have been doing the correct factor. Now I do know higher. And if I might return and alter that, I’d.
However all isn’t misplaced. At the moment, useful dentists have instruments like MARPE and palatal enlargement to help correct airway and jaw improvement—even when these foundations weren’t laid in early childhood. These are structural interventions that may enhance respiratory, facial stability, and long-term oral well being. Should you’re questioning whether or not this might assist your youngster (and even you as an grownup), the perfect first step is to discover a supplier educated in this sort of care.
That’s why I constructed the Useful Dentist Listing—to attach folks with dentists who perceive the full-body impression of the mouth. And should you’re a dentist or hygienist curious about receiving this sort of coaching, my CE course—Foundations of Useful Dentistry—opens subsequent month. It’s totally on-line and open to all, worldwide. I hope you’ll be part of the useful dentistry motion. Useful dentistry is in excessive demand—I get each day emails and DMs from folks saying there’s not a single useful dentist inside a 50-mile radius of the place they dwell. Sufferers are hungry for this. Should you’re a healthcare supplier, you could be the one to deliver it to your neighborhood.
Again to the subject at hand…I’ve all the time stored uncooked sheep cheese in my rotation as a result of it delivers a lot in a single chew—vitamin K2, hint C15:0, useful microbes, and fat-soluble vitamins. (Selecting sheep or goat as an alternative of cow is one “hack” to make sure you’re getting grass-fed.) And it’s scrumptious. I’ll have it as an hors d’oeuvre, sliced with fruit or olives—or as a small chew after dinner. Cheese helps neutralize acids within the mouth, lowering enamel erosion and supporting a more healthy oral pH. It’s one of the fulfilling (and efficient) methods to guard your tooth with meals.
Hope you’ve a beautiful weekend. Would love to listen to what you considered this text, and which subjects you’d like me to cowl subsequent.
Dr. B (Mark)
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P.S. Bear in mind after we have been instructed skim milk was the “more healthy” choice? What if I instructed you that perception could have set us again many years in understanding oral improvement, fat-soluble vitamins, and irritation? Ahead this to somebody who nonetheless thinks skim milk is “more healthy.”
