To this day, the flavor variations of Mountain Dew often reference the connection to the drink's mountain origins, with names like Mountain Lion and Mountain Holler. Mountain Dew Lasagne Recipe: Combine two jars of meatless spaghetti sauce, 12 ounces of lasagne noodles, and 12 ounces of Mountain Dew (or your choice); salt/ pepper as needed. The problems faced by the region are painfully real, and deserve not to be trivialized or oversimplified in the national spotlight. They were in pain, and theyd be hurting at school.. 5. One of the amazing things about Centering, Todd-Langston said, is when you bring people together on common ground, even though the lower socioeconomic women are the ones that get the most out of this, by bringing them in here, those barriers go away. Its high sugar and caffeine content seem to be habit-forming, with many accounts of Appalachians constantly sipping and carrying bottles everywhere throughout the entire day. We recommend moving this block and the preceding CSS link to the HEAD of your HTML file. It is a regular reminder that youre not just reading about a kid in Ohio with a druggie mom oh no. A study published in theNation Bureau of Economic Research found that a missing tooth can result in a loss of $720 of earnings (and178 million peopleare missing at least one tooth). 45 min, 20 ingredients. Use of thesesubstances is rampant in Appalachia; a single Kentucky county filled prescriptions for over 2 million doses of painkillers last year, which is about 150 doses for every man, woman and child. Nearly half said that their most recent toothache had caused them the worst pain possible and interfered with many aspects of their daily lives. Here she races at Crossville Raceway in Cumberland County, Tennessee. The phrase is inherently noxious. Poor Law Commissioners. Back in 2009, Priscilla Harris, an associate professor at the Appalachian College of Law, issued the first battle cry in the war against Mountain Dew mouth with a legal brief titled "Undoing the Damage of the Dew," which explores how the drink became ingrained in the region's culture. This kid is a hillbilly, which makes it special. In this use, it does not relate to any type of demonic or evil activity as has . We can identify them in joint infections that contribute to arthritis., He paused. As if I was living in some sort of divinely staged cosmic play, my theoretical interest in shame came home to roost shortly after my exploration began one Sunday afternoon at home in New Orleans. I abruptly found myself assessing everyone I met, trying to determine whether or not Caudill would consider them dullards. In late July 2013, I was invited to drink beer on a Friday night with a group of people in West Columbia, West Virginia. Chapter 1: Meet the Man Who Focused the World on Eastern Kentuckys Woes.Lexington Herald-Leader (Lexington)16 Dec. 2012. Exploring it was simultaneously deeply cathartic and like sticking my hand in an emotional meat grinder. I had on a short dress that rode high up my thighs when I mounted the machine. Named after mountain slang for moonshine, Mountain Dew was sold to Pepsi in 1964, where the soda went national. But over in Appalachia, the region that stretches roughly from southern New York state to Alabama, the fight against soda is targeting an altogether different concern: rotted teeth. 5. First there are the most ancient crystalline rocks. They offer the services they can, provide prescriptions for painkillers and antibiotics, and recommend a dental clinic for a follow-up. This article was expanded into a full-length book,Night Comes to Cumberlands. At this point, I should probably make this clear: Im no Mountain Dew apologist. Low-birth-weight infants also dropped by slightly more than half of state and national norms. If you were watching the Diane Sawyer special, "A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains," in 2009, you might have been alerted to a code red in the southeastern mountain region of the United States (via ABC News). ------------------------------------------, Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas, Teeth: The Story of Beauty, Inequality, and the Struggle for Oral Health in America. TIL that due to the popularity of Mountain Dew in the Appalachian region dentists there have pegged it as the leading cause of poor dental health or as they call it "Mountain Dew mouth". In the mountains, you cant look away because theres nowhere to turn a blind eye. We told them dont put Mountain Dew in a baby bottle, dont put that baby to sleep with juice, dont let people kiss that baby, to prevent bacteria being transferred, Almon said. Another 15% of young adults between the ages of 18 and 24, have had a tooth extracted because of decay or erosion. Lunsford is an attorney, however, he is very fond of folk songs. If theres a pop culture reference about DMD you need to knowincluding that bopping Lana Del Ray jam and its brief mention in a recent Paul Muldoon poemIm your girl. People are held personally accountable for the state of their teeth in ways that they are not held accountable for many other health conditions.". Eighty-two percent of them had periodontal bleeding points and half had already developed recessive pockets in their gums. I have 26 first cousins, not counting step-cousins, second cousins, etc. The term "Appalachia," however, is more of a socio-economic term than it is one of geography. This is the third and final part of a series on rural health-care challenges. As an isolated industry, dentistry has remained private and unencumbered by the brunt of market forces. It is, however, a drink thatfor better or worseties me to my home. Nonetheless, the factors that contribute to poor dental health are not simply Mountain Dew; they are not even specifically linked to Appalachia. A little over a year ago, I became obsessed with the concept of shame. Pat owned a trailer on a street called Tin Can Hollow. If you calculate gum tissues inside and outside of the teeth its an area the size of the palm of your hand. The town of Appalachia is considered to be a largely intact "era" town of the late 1800s, early 1900s. 3. As soon as it aired on February 7, 2016, the Super Bowl ad for Mountain Dew's energy drink "Kickstart" was trending online. His mother became a drug addict with a series of husbands or boyfriends. The Appalachians are among the oldest mountains on Earth, born of powerful upheavals within the terrestrial crust and sculpted by the ceaseless action of water upon the surface. I said I hadnt really noticed as he shook his head. "Nothing is moving here. If you try to to think about this, Im . Something went wrong. For the 379 women enrolled in the study, pre-term birth rate, or PTB, was 6.6 percent against 14 percent for Hopkins County generally in the preceding years. But one has to wonder if the underlying issues of the region aren't addressed, will taking sodas off the menu really solve anything. For Americans who do not have health insurance and need dental treatment immediately, the emergency room remains the only option. But over in Appalachia, the region that stretches roughly from southern New York state to Alabama, the fight against soda is targeting an altogether different concern: rotted teeth. "Here in West Virginia, you see people carrying around bottles of Mountain Dew all the time even at a public health conference," says public health researcher Dana Singer. We can identify them in the plaque in blood vessels leading to arteriosclerosis. In the mountains, you stare death in the face because the latest boy who ODd played Mortal Kombat with you while slurping Mountain Dew. This legend centers around the Bell family. No one is all good or all bad, but family life for most American hillbillies I know is not how Vance, wielding his overly broad brush, describes it. This often resulted in elaborate ATV trails because it was the cheapest and most popular reclamation option. Today, theres a Mountain Dew to suit every tastefrom Code Red (cherry) to Baja Blast (lime)and enough generic knockoffs with names like Mountain Lion, Mountain Lightning and Mountain Holler to really put an exclamation point on the rural connection. Picking on Diet Mountain Dew was a surefire way to get my attention and cut me to the quick. As a memoir of a rough childhood, its fine. That is what brutes do. "Diet Mountain Dew" (alternately spelled as "Diet Mtn Dew" and originally titled "Diet Mt. January 15, 2021. To get a sense of what that looks like, check out this picture. She's received a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the problem. 1. People exist, of course, who are violent, dysfunctional, addicted, and on welfare. It also became clear fairly quickly that a lot of my shame coalesced around one thing: my relationship with Diet Mountain Dew. The Real Winners of World Press Photo 2014: The Palestinians. Growing up in Eastern Kentucky, Mountain Dew (and its diet counterpart, my beverage of choice) was an omnipresent force, its signature emerald-tinged, translucent 20-ounce bottles filling up coolers at backyard barbecues and littering the weed-lined backroads. "We are using taxpayer dollars to buy soda for the SNAP program, and we are using taxpayer dollars to rip teeth out of people's heads who can't afford dental care and are on Medicaid," says Dana Singer, a research analyst at the Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department in Parkersburg, W.Va., who wants to see stricter regulations on sales of all sugary beverages in the region. The Bell Witch. Appalachia this election year: So many stories, so little depth. I saw him pick up and throw several chairs and then punch a friend in the face. The taste of Appalachia . Join me as I explore Marion. In January, when an acquaintance who worked on Hillary Clintons campaign touted it on Facebook, I was unable to argue because I had not read it. Shameful or not, no food stuff is more personal to me, more deeply burrowed into my sense of identity than Diet Mountain Dew. Identity crisis: without coal, who will we be? All rights reserved. Vances Hillbilly Elegy. View larger map Learn More About Subregions Appalachia Then and Now No. If you had an abscess the size of the palm of your hand youd get something done about it.. Sixteen percent of the women had abscessed teeth. The vast majority of doctors lack the knowledge and tools to treat dental ailments. This year marks the 50th anniversary of Lyndon B Johnsons January 1964 State of the Union address. A curated collection of pieces related to our most-popular subject matter. Cherokee Indians were the main Native American group of the Southern Appalachian and Blue Ridge region, but there were also Iroquois, Powhatan, and Shawnee people.. Oklahoma senator concerned about dead babies in his Mountain Dew. Dentists cannot turn away patients based on race, creed, color, sex, or national origin according to the American Dental Association'sPrinciples of Ethics and Code of Conduct; however, dentists can turn away patients based on their ability to pay. /* Add your own Mailchimp form style overrides in your site stylesheet or in this style block. O ften, photographers and journalists capture a version of Appalachia that is not a place - a vast geographic region covering 13 states with more than 25 million people - but a social and . So millions of Americans go without dental insurance. Over the next six weeks I returned regularly, befriending the extended group of people that spent time at Pats house. SALON is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon.com, LLC. In both cases, its a prickly briar patch of fact and lore jumbled together. 28K views, 631 likes, 154 loves, 240 comments, 642 shares, Facebook Watch Videos from Mountain Roots: Here's the 36th Episode in my new Exploring Appalachia series! Public health . That approach never really worked. Associated Press articles: Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. Singer adds, "Here in West Virginia, you see people carrying around bottles of Mountain Dew all the time even at a public health conference.". People we meet in life can seem at first to represent a stereotype. Mountain Dew is mountain slang for "whiskey"; the phrase appears in Irish folk songs from the late 19th century and in an American folk song protesting Prohibition. Anyone who did not abide by the prevailing pattern of consumption was ostracized. But Mountain Dew mouth? Frank Browning reported for nearly 30 years for NPR on sex, science and farming. Packed with poems and prose, book reviews, science, and exciting exploits from around the globe, Appalachia delivers inspired stories of adventure, redemption, and the outdoors. no food stuff is more personal to me, more deeply burrowed into my sense of identity than Diet Mountain Dew. Moonshine is available in a barrage of flavors at most local liquor stores, but it won't be brewed from a hidden still. "Belle, I swear to God, it snowed eleven inches today," my dad sighed. Appalachian Mountains. Probably not. That's according to calculations by Singer, who is working with Harris. You dont have to work to read this book. . Hundreds of prescription medications, as well as chewing tobacco and cigarettes, cause dry mouth, preventing the natural flow of saliva and making teeth more susceptible to decay. In the kitchen that day, Mountain Dew was used as a stand in for a harder conversation about our waning relationship that we had been dancing around for months. (The city of Cincinnati saw fit to make it illegal to discriminate against someone of Appalachian origin). Being violent is not a symptom of Appalachianness. I dont really have any answers. "What Mountain Dew has going for it is that it's high in caffeine and high in sugar," Harris says, adding, "Students tell us it tastes best, and it's a habit.". It isnt that Appalachians cant face the truth. To paraphrase a tweet from author David Joy, you can read Hillbilly Elegy. I would see a lot of kids who had a mouth full of rotting teeth, Dr. Edwin Smith, a traveling dentist who drove his mobile dental truck for 12 years throughout Kentucky, toldCNN last September. Follow us on Instagram (@readingthepictures) and Twitter (@readingthepix), and subscribe to our newsletter. It was officially developed in Knoxville, Tennessee, in the mid-1900s, but it has ties to the wheat and rye distilled by Irish immigrants who settled in the region as coal miners during the previous century. How the circumstances of a people cannot be defined through an individual still photograph. 3. It has no nutritional value. On pages 228-229, Vance writes about instability in working-class families, due to relationship instability. The town was the "hub" of eight "coal camps" located along the outskirts of the town. The Appalachian Mountains are nearly 2000 miles long. But generally the women coming to Trover Clinic werent doing anything about it, mostly because in Hopkins County there was only one dentist who accepted Medicaid patients -- for one half-day a month and only on a walk-in basis. Today, coal has left Appalachia, as have a host of other industries that brought economic opportunity. I watched as they trekked back and forth in it, finding great pleasure in turning their ATVs into boats. Dee Matello, a small business owner and mother of three in Laurel, Maryland, had not been to a dentist in nine years. Kentuckys oral health? A Brief Appalachian History. Unless policy and behavior change, were not going to improve the health and its links to systemic health.. Before pursuing that lofty goal he was a lawyer, which is where he got the source material for Mountain Dew. If you buy something from an Eater link, Vox Media may earn a commission. More recently, whats driven home the jerry-rigged wiring between Mountain Dew and Appalachia is the use of the phrase "Mountain Dew Mouth" to describe the poor oral hygiene habits in the area which have led to widespread gum disease and tooth decay. In the mountains, you dont look away because you remember when the heroin dealer was a second string quarterback. In more national conversations, it often seems to take up this stunt double role, particularly when addressing rural poverty. When I moved away from home, it became very clear that I should be ashamed of drinking Diet Mountain Dew (my parents and I still lovingly abbreviate it as "DMD" in text messages). By now, we've all heard of the health risks posed by drinking too much soda. The Appalachian Mountains stretch from the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador to northern Alabama and Georgia. With 50 percent more caffeine than Coke or Pepsi, Mountain Dew seems to be used as a kind of anti-depressant for children in the hills. Under current guidelines, any kind of soda of any size can be purchased with a SNAP card even Mountain Dew, which has 170 calories in a single 12-ounce can. Is very fond of folk songs the World on Eastern Kentuckys Woes.Lexington Herald-Leader ( Lexington ) 16 2012! More national conversations, it does not relate to any type of or. Labrador to northern Alabama and Georgia oversimplified in the national spotlight more about Appalachia... It was the cheapest and most popular reclamation option Vox Media may earn a commission,... Would consider them dullards the preceding CSS link to the quick its a prickly briar of. 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