Healthy Eating…After Dental Surgery?

“Eat soft foods for the next several days; yogurt is a great option, or things you can mash, like food from McDonald’s” was the verbatim recommendation from my periodontist last week.

I’d just had the second of my four gum grafts I need due to rapidly receding gums (due in part to heredity – thanks, Dad- and in part from aggressively brushing for years, thinking that the harder I scrub, the cleaner my teeth will  be) and with an entire quadrant full of sutures and dental putty, I was hardly up for a rare steak and a crisp salad.

So what did I eat?  Exactly what I’d normally eat… just in a different state:  pureed.

True, a blender full of wild salmon, kale, broth and avocado may not look that pretty but it tasted absolutely divine.

Aside from the fact that the (non) foods that were recommended by the doctor were about as far from Paleo as one could get, they’d hardly help the body heal.  Imagine the trauma to the mouth of being cut and stitched and then adding to the assault by inflicting acid forming, inflammatory junk on the body?

Might as well smoke a pack of cigarettes after a long training run!

If you need any dental work requiring you to lay off chewing for a while, don’t worry.  Just stick to the rule of thumb of including some type of protein, some fat and some veggies each time you eat, throw them into the blender and you won’t have to compromise your healthy eating one bit.

Don’t forget to also add some healing herbs and spices like turmeric, oil of oregano, ginger and garlic in order to support the repair of the tissue.

When you return to your dentist for a recheck, don’t be surprised if she or he mentions how quickly you’ve healed; funny how provide a balance of every nutrient had the effect of promoting overall optimal health throughout the entire body….