https://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Westo...

I will list a counter book to this just people can read everything and decide for themselves:

- Nutrition and Physical Degeneration https://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Westo...

Good dental hygiene does what it's supposed to, but the biggest factor is basically luck - you either "have good teeth" or you don't.

There's evidence that your mom's prenatal diet (and not strictly genetics) may be a salient factor.

https://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Westo...

This book is eye-opening. A dentist traveled the world in the early 20th century when there were a lot more indigenous people to visit who had had no previous contact with modern processed flours etc. Those still on their traditional diets almost all had excellent teeth, without ever owning a toothbrush. But when modern foods were introduced, their teeth went to shit within a generation. Probably some epigenetics playing a role, though they didn't know about that then. Also I believe this may have been before flours started being fortified, so you would probably see a less pronounced decline if you somehow did this today. But the takeaway seems to be that a high protein paleo-ish diet kind of takes care of everything.

http://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Weston...

You don't have to read the book. Observe people around you. Healthier people have wider faces. First borns tend to have wider faces. People born into wealthier families.

The harsh reality is that there are so many variables when it comes to diet and nutrition information that formal studies are close to worthless. That is why I find information like the studies Weston Price did [1] interesting. His conclusion was that any society on a whole food local diet was generally healthy and that pre-mature physical degeneration only happened when "primitive" diets were replaced with "modern" diets (i.e. highly processed).

Here's a simple rule. If you could find/grow it in your back yard, eat it. If not don't.

[1] http://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Weston...

For some good reading on the subject, check out Ray Peat's article "Glycemia, starch, and sugar in context" at http://raypeat.com/articles/articles/glycemia.shtml.

While not specifically about sugars, the Weston Price book is a good read about traditional diets as well: http://www.amazon.com/Nutrition-Physical-Degeneration-Weston....