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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Healthy Living / Vegetarians Have More Cavities (vegans are even worse)

Vegetarians Have More Cavities (vegans are even worse)

by Sarah Pope / Updated: Aug 26, 2025 / Affiliate Links ✔

Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Research Confirms Wisdom of Traditional Societies
  • Dental Erosions Signal Nutrient Deficiencies

Examination of the multiple studies and research that reveal the two dietary food philosophies that result in the worst oral outcomes, including severe dental erosions (cavities). 

vegetarian with a cavity at the dentist

Contrary to the shrill globalist narrative that plant-based diets result in healthier humans, a blockbuster study published in the peer-reviewed American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has found that vegetarians are much more likely to suffer from tooth decay than their meat-eating counterparts.

The higher incidence of dental erosions occurs due to lower (more acidic) salivary pH levels and lower stimulated saliva flow than control subjects, who were matched by sex and age.

In addition, plant-based diets pose a greater risk for fractures according to a related, peer-reviewed study of over 55,000 people.

Specifically, the study found that those who consumed a vegetarian diet were:

…much more likely than age- and sex-matched controls to have dental erosions on some tooth surfaces, lower salivary pH levels, and lower stimulated saliva flow.

The rate of flow of saliva and consumption of vinegar-containing foods, citrus fruits, and acid berries was associated with the dental erosions noted. Diets that are excessively high in fruit juices were also found to erode dental enamel. (1)

In a similarly memory-holed study published in the journal Nutrition, Johanna Moynihan and Aubrey Sheiham authored “Dietary Patterns and Caries Trends in Children and Adolescents – A Review”.

The study found that vegetarians have higher caries rates compared to non-vegetarians, possibly due to increased consumption of fermentable carbohydrates present in nutritionally inferior plant-based diets. (2)

With vegans, the results are even worse.

Studies of the oral health of raw vegans have shown them to be shockingly prone to dental damage with almost twice as much severe erosion as the general population eating the SAD (Standard American Diet). (3)

Anecdotal reports from vegans themselves confirm the same. (4, 5)

Research Confirms Wisdom of Traditional Societies

These studies confirm what Dr. Weston A. Price DDS wrote about in his 1930s book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration regarding “the displacing foods of modern commerce.”

Dr. Price found that indigenous vegetarian cultures suffered from tooth decay at a higher rate than either the omnivore or the almost completely carnivorous cultures he studied.

In short, eating a vegetarian diet does not impart any sort of dental advantage over non-vegetarians.

In fact, when it comes to vegans, dental health is far worse than even the general population eating a primarily ultra-processed diet that (at least) includes meat.

Criticisms of What The Health, the pro-vegan documentary, reveal similarly ignored research.

The false claims in the book “Blue Zones” and the vegan bible, The China Study, are similarly misguided with shocking factual oversights, omissions, and data fudging.

Dental Erosions Signal Nutrient Deficiencies

At its root cause, tooth decay is an indication of lowered immune function and a higher susceptibility to degenerative disease in general.  

Have you ever heard of the term “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth”?  This refers to the well-known historical practice of examining a horse’s teeth and gums to assess overall health elsewhere in the body.

People can similarly assess their level of general health and whether it is improving or declining by observing the health of their teeth and gums.

Rami Nagel, author of the book Cure Tooth Decay, states that the dentinal-fluid transport mechanism is how the body controls the rate of tooth decay, including whether or not it occurs at all.  

When tooth decay is present, Mr. Nagel says this is a sign that blood sugar levels are askew and that certain critical nutrients, such as the fat-soluble activators A, D, and K2 are lacking in the diet.

Vegetarian diets are typically much higher in hard-to-digest grains and acidic sugars (from fruit and fruit juices) than non-vegetarians, who consume a wider variety of foods.

When too much sugar is consumed, this can initiate demineralization of the teeth.  

Have you ever noticed how your teeth can get a bit sensitive for a period of time after a very sugary dessert or a day that included too many grain-based foods and treats?

If you are vegetarian and have noted a problem with dental decay, incorporating grass-fed meats, raw grass-fed dairy, wild seafood, and high-vitamin, virgin cod liver oil (this brand or this brand) into your diet will introduce the critical nutrients that are necessary to reverse caries and prevent further dental problems.

Moreover, whenever sweet foods such as fruit are consumed, they should always be eaten in the presence of healthy fat like cream to maintain stable blood sugar and not disrupt the body’s ability to transport minerals to the bones and teeth.

References

(1) The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Dec 2011

(2) Nutrients. Dietary Patterns and Caries Trends in Children and Adolescents – A Review, (volume 3, issue 3, pages 332-340)

(3) Dental Erosions in Subjects Living on a Raw Food [Vegan] Diet

(4) Does an unprocessed vegan diet cause tooth decay?

(5) How to Avoid Dental Nightmares on a Raw Food [Vegan] Diet

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Category: Healthy Living, Oral Health
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: Amazon #1 bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (95)

  1. Acacia

    Aug 9, 2012 at 11:53 am

    Correction. I have been vegetarian for 16 years and moved back to the US 14 years ago.

    Reply
  2. Acacia

    Aug 9, 2012 at 11:27 am

    I was an omnivore until 14 years ago when I decided to become completely vegetarian. My kids were raised mostly vegetarian and now at 27 and 24 years old, my daughter has had no cavities. My boy had one when he was very young and at the time, an omnivore. Recently his dentist said that he had a cavity on each one of his 4 wisdom teeth, that he then had filled, but I didn’t see these cavities and he didn’t feel them, so I just wonder if they were really there. Anyway, between the 2, my son eats more of a vegan diet than my daughter, a lacto-ovo vegetarian, like me.

    I read the Weston Price study. It didn’t say that whole grains were bad. It said that refined grains are detrimental to teeth and lead to decay. Price stressed the importance of whole grains and whole foods. He didn’t talk against a vegetarian diet. He regretted not having been able to find a vegetarian culture to study its effects on teeth.

    You need to separate Weston Price from the foundation named after him which takes liberties in interpreting Price’s findings. I have been studying this issue and I think that a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet is just as successful as an omnivore diet in preventing tooth decay. However, I am not as certain about the vegan diet.

    Reply
  3. Charlie

    Aug 6, 2012 at 4:21 pm

    The problem with this article is that it asserts that one’s tooth decay can signal their general level of health, then explains more precisely what it symbolizes– too high blood sugar: far from “general health.”

    Since there are no vitamins in meat that cannot be found in plants (except B12), the answer is nothing more than the trend of vegetarians eating more sugar and grains than meat-eaters. We know that neither vegetarianism nor veganism demand these things; it’s a trend of vegetarianism and vegans.

    Therefore, more tooth decay, and therefore– according to the suspicious underlying argument of this article– vegetarians have worse general health, and vegetarianism is less healthy.

    The takeaway to this article should have been that we all need to concern ourselves with our intake sugar and grains if we’re concerned with our dental health (and vegetarians in particular), but for some reason unknown to me, the author took this as a opportunity to discredit a diet for which there is increasing evidence could prevent a score of health problems.

    Read about the ADA’s stance on vegetarianism here:

    Reply
  4. Hudec Dental (@HudecDental)

    Jan 18, 2012 at 9:59 am

    Vegetarians need to pay closer attention to their oral health http://t.co/9bKhox6S.

    Reply
  5. watchmom3

    Jan 2, 2012 at 10:09 pm

    I think it is always important to just read the data, and draw your OWN conclusions on any subject. We are ALL tied to OUR own experiences; we learn differently; we grow in knowledge at different rates and we come to conclusions when ALL of the differences come together to help us understand the world around us. I really enjoy this blog, because there is always at least one person who makes a comment that just “connects a dot” for me! As long as the author of the comment is polite and only asks consideration of their ideas, I have no problem with it. As a society, we must allow ideas and information to FLOW! Thanks Sarah, for allowing that on your blog! Just an aside: while we were at the WESTON PRICE CONFERENCE in Dallas, one of the speakers, (a lifelong scientist) noted that another speaker made a statement that was the last piece of the puzzle for something that she had been studying for YEARS! She was so appreciative! That just thrilled me so much, to see that EVERYONE is trying to figure things out and sometimes we help each other without even knowing it! Keep it coming Sarah! I love it when you make us THINK!!!!!

    Reply
  6. Nikki (@sputnikSweethrt)

    Jan 2, 2012 at 5:52 pm

    Another point against vegetarianism! http://t.co/FSDQpXa8

    Reply
  7. TheDentalEssentials (@Cavity_Free)

    Jan 2, 2012 at 2:19 pm

    Interesting article here, matches many of our blog articles, too. http://t.co/RYK8GgV1

    Reply
  8. RebeccaRovayHazelton (@rebecca4fitness)

    Jan 1, 2012 at 6:57 pm

    This article is a good example that it is important to determine the right diet for one’s biochemistry in order to… http://t.co/NKv79RVl

    Reply
  9. grass fed girl (@grassfedgirlsf)

    Jan 1, 2012 at 4:31 pm

    New Study: Vegetarians Have More Tooth Decay – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/GVrNNhic

    Reply
  10. Roxanne Bell (@RoxanneBDesigns) (@RoxanneBDesigns)

    Dec 31, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    New Study: Vegetarians Have More Tooth Decay http://t.co/mbV9K3FE

    Reply
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