Did you ever wonder if certain foods have a direct effect on your health?

Well, I'm here to solve that mystery since you are the foods you eat.

Welcome to the Nutrition Facts Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Michael Greger.

Today it's part two of our series on fluoride in water and we'll start with some new research that helped me change my own mind about the safety of fluoridation.

Community water fluoridation recently hit its 75th anniversary touted as a significant advancement in public health, but new research suggests

the potential for adverse health impacts. There's little question that supplemental

fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces decay, but at what cost.

Most of the older studies were snapshot in time studies looking only at group level data or

are based on higher than normal exposure. This has since changed with a publication of prospective

studies following individual exposure levels from mother child pairs over time.

The first few were from Mexico and correlated higher fluoride levels in the urine of pregnant

women with future developmental delay in their infants. They found worse cognitive performance

at age 4 and lower IQ from ages 6 through 12, but the

fluoride was from florid and salt or water sources where fluoride was present

naturally. Then this study came out of Canada, the first prospective study using individual exposure data

dealing directly with community water fluoridation receiving

quote-unquote optimally foridated water.

None of the municipal water fluoride levels exceeded 1.5 parts per million

and the vast majority, over 90%,

were under the US target of 0.7.

Despite drinking optimally floridid water,

the study of more than 500 mother child payers

...