Final answer:
The modern diet, requiring less chewing and high in processed foods, is suspected to play a role in the increased rates of malocclusion. Our bodies and oral microbiome may not have fully adapted to the dietary changes from our evolutionary diet, contributing to dental issues and other health concerns.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is often suggested that modern diets, characterized by processed foods that require less chewing, could be contributing to the prevalence of malocclusion—or misalignment of the teeth—in today's population. Historically, humans subsisted on a hunter-gatherer diet, which involved intense mastication of tougher, more fibrous foods. The shift to a grain-based diet after the advent of agriculture introduced softer foods, which may lead to inadequate jaw development due to insufficient mechanical stress during chewing.
Lactose intolerance serves as an example of how recent dietary changes outrun human adaptive evolution. Similarly, our relatively recent high-sugar and grain-based diets are unlike that of our ancestors. Not only have our bodies not fully adapted to this change, but neither have the oral bacteria, leading to increased dental caries (cavities).
Additionally, the lack of sufficient plant fiber in our diet could be affecting our overall digestive and oral health. The transition from a diet that involved extensive chewing of fibrous plants and raw meat to one with more refined carbohydrates has wide-reaching implications for dental health. A strong link between oral health and general health has been established, emphasizing the importance of diet in maintaining a healthy mouth.
Other health problems such as obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and some cancers have also been associated with significant departures from our evolutionary diet.