Weston A. Price’s work is an important part of the way Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride explains nutrition and dental health. Her Gut and Physiology Syndrome chapter brings together vitamins A, D and K2, saliva, mineral movement and the traditional foods she recommends.[1]
The practical value is in understanding how those parts connect. A bottle of one vitamin, a patch of enamel and a whole day’s meals are different things. This guide follows the book’s explanation, keeps its historical case in context and helps you put specific questions beside the food changes you are considering.
Who Weston A. Price Was
Price was a dentist who studied traditional diets and dental health. Campbell-McBride returns to his work in her discussion of tooth decay, including his use of cod liver oil and high-vitamin butter oil. She connects the first with vitamins A and D and the second with vitamin K2.[1]
Her broader point is that nutritional status belongs in the dental-health conversation. The book looks beyond a single tooth to the food and nutrients available to build and maintain tissues. That is the role Price’s work has in this GAPS chapter, rather than a ready-made supplement schedule for every household.
How the Book Explains Vitamins A, D and K2
Campbell-McBride describes these vitamins as a team. In her explanation, vitamins A and D support production of proteins involved in depositing calcium, phosphorus and other minerals in bone and tooth structure; vitamin K2 activates those proteins. She places this within a wider discussion of animal protein, animal fat and tissue maintenance.[1]
Read the combination in its food context. The chapter emphasizes high-fat meat, fish, eggs and dairy as building foods. It does not make a tooth-decay diagnosis a way to calculate a supplement dose. When you discuss a supplement, bring the actual label and the other products already being used so the amounts are visible.
The Case Described in the Book
Campbell-McBride recounts Price’s case of a fourteen-year-old girl with forty-two open cavities across twenty-four teeth. She reports healing after seven months of supplementation and says later research repeated positive findings.[1]
Those are the particulars of the account she presents. The chapter does not supply a seven-month promise for your family, and its use of “healed” should not be expanded into a claim that every missing piece of tooth will regrow. The early-enamel guide separates an intact, low-mineral lesion from a structural hole that needs its own dental assessment.
Saliva and Mineral Movement
The book describes Price’s research as finding lower bacterial counts and movement of minerals from saliva into teeth when vitamins A, D and K2 were sufficient. It contrasts this with higher bacterial counts and mineral loss during deficiency. Campbell-McBride uses that account to explain why she considers food quality central to dental health.[1]
She also emphasizes vitamin K2 in the salivary glands, describing a high concentration there and linking deficiency with dental decay.[1] That is part of her nutritional explanation. A cavity by itself does not measure someone’s vitamin level; the state of a particular tooth still needs to be examined rather than inferred from a nutrient theory.
Traditional Foods in the GAPS Discussion
The chapter names high-fat animal foods and fermented foods as vitamin K2 sources. It mentions high-fat cheese in Western diets and natto in Eastern diets.[1] Those examples describe sources of K2; they do not make every named food suitable for every GAPS stage. In particular, the mention of natto is not permission to add soy to a GAPS menu.
The GAPS food-list guide helps keep the food permissions separate from the nutrient discussion. For dairy, use the Intro guide and your established dairy introduction rather than adding cheese or sour cream simply because it appears in a dental chapter.[2]
How This Fits Our Family’s GAPS Approach
Our family has followed GAPS since July 2024. Cod liver oil and butter oil are among the products we have used as part of that wider approach. I share the food, supplements and home changes together in our family’s GAPS story.
For a working, homeschooling mom of six, it helps to keep the questions manageable: what are we already eating, what are we already taking and what did the dentist actually find? A clear list makes the conversation more useful than trying to remember every product name during an appointment.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Book Mean Regular Butter and Butter Oil Are Identical?
No. Its account of Price names high-vitamin butter oil specifically alongside cod liver oil. The wider food discussion also includes animal fats and dairy, but those categories should not be treated as identical products with identical nutrient amounts.[1]
Does Better Nutrition Replace All Dental Treatment?
That is not a useful conclusion to draw from the early-enamel discussion. The condition and depth of a lesion matter. Ask the dentist what can be monitored and what needs treatment, while keeping the nutritional part of the GAPS approach in view.
Why Return to Price’s Work?
Campbell-McBride uses Price’s observations to connect dental health with nutrient-dense diets and the fat-soluble vitamins. You can understand that part of GAPS without turning a historical account into a promise about an individual tooth.[1]
Your Next Step
Keep the dental findings and your existing food and supplement list together. Read the enamel-remineralization guide for the early-lesion distinction and the Weston A. Price food-principles guide for the wider traditional-food framework. Our Supplement Introduction Tracker is listed in the WFLI Shop; use a notebook to record the product, label amounts and questions for the person overseeing its use.
References
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Bones and teeth.” Fat-soluble vitamins, Price’s case, saliva research and food sources of K2.
- Campbell-McBride, N. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Food. What GAPS People Should Eat and What Should Be Avoided,” and “Dairy Introduction Structure,” food permissions and dairy introduction.
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