Feb

Nutrition and Dental Health

By The Oral Health Coach - Sandra Dupont RDH

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Research has demonstrated a strong link between frequent snacking and increased risk of tooth decay.

Healthy Snacks for Your Teeth
Healthy snacks include foods that are easily washed away with saliva, such as yogurt. Many foods that have a natural cleansing ability — such as hard, crunchy fruits and vegetables like apples and carrots — are favorable. Also, hard cheeses are an excellent choice because they increase salivary flow and contain calcium, phosphate and casein, a milk protein that protects against the de-mineralization process.

Refined Carbohydrates and Your Teeth
Fermentable Carbohydrates include all sugars and most cooked starches such as crackers, chips, cookies, pasta, breads, milk, dried fruits and sodas. To protect your teeth, minimize the consumption of fermentable carbohydrates. These carbohydrates tend to be sticky and become lodged around the gumline and between the teeth. They produce the highest risk of decay.

The Effects of Soft Drinks on Your Teeth and Body
Would you dump 10 teaspoons of sugar into your child’s morning cereal? Of course not! Yet that’s exactly how much sugar they consume each time they drink a 12- ounce can of soda. A 20-ounce bottle is more common. Americans are drinking more sodas than ever before — 54 gallons of carbonated soft drinks annually for every man, woman and child. Research suggests a strong link between soda consumption and serious health risks including: tooth decay, nutritional deficiencies, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes and kidney stones, not to mention many side effects.

Common ingredients found in Soft Drinks:

Refined Sugar — Sugar is harmful to the enamel of the teeth (increases the risk of tooth decay); plus it robs the body of essential nutrients, increases blood sugar (boosting the risk of diabetes) and provides absolutely no nutritional value.
Caffiene — The average soda contains 50mg of caffeine (Red Bull has 80mg). This can result in irritability, increased heart rate (which taxes the adrenals and reduces the body’s ability to handle stress), disrupted sleep cycles, headaches, lack of concentration and focus
and increased blood pressure.
Phosphoric and other acids — Phosphoric acid depletes essential nutrients from the body, including calcium from the bones. This leads to an increased risk of bone fractures and breaks. Phosphoric acid is also very harmful to the tooth enamel.
Polyethylene glycol — This is a chemical that produces the caramel coloring of dark sodas and may stain teeth.
Aspartame — Found in diet sodas, this is a chemical with more than 90 known negative side effects. When stored for a long period of time or in warm climates it changes to methanol, an alcohol that converts to formaldehyde and formic acid. These are carcinogens.

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