Healthy Food & Drink Choices For Your Smile

A healthful, balanced diet helps keep your child’s whole body healthy, and this includes that precious smile and oral health. Some of the most vital diet components to healthy teeth and gums include:

Water can rinse harmful sugars, food particles and bacteria away from your child’s teeth. Fluoridated water even helps strengthen smiles. Water is also the primary element in saliva, which is the number one natural way your body cleans and protects your mouth from bacteria, acids and decay.
High-fiber fruits and veggies scour teeth as you chew and also increase saliva production. The high water content in these foods is another added benefit. Plus, fruits and veggies are a great choice in your child’s overall healthy diet.

You may know the numerous smile benefits in calcium rich dairy like milk and yogurt, but did you know cheese is one of the best choices? Aside from being high in essential minerals like calcium and phosphorous, cheese is also anticariogenic, meaning it protects against dental decay. The latest studies show cheese consumption helps:

  • Reduce damaging increases in acidity of plaque surrounding teeth.
  • Replace calcium and phosphorous in the mouth lost through acidic damage.
  • Strengthen tooth enamel.
  • Produce more beneficial saliva.
  • Provide casein to protect tooth enamel.
Xylitol is a form of sugar extracted from various plants. While all sugarless gums boost saliva production, gums sweetened with xylitol actually fight the harmful bacteria that lead to tooth decay. Xylitol can also be used as a general sweetener and is found in most health food stores.

Many of the vitamins and minerals your child’s teeth require can be found in nuts. Some of the most helpful include:

  • Almonds (calcium for teeth and gums)
  • Cashews (boosts saliva to cleanse teeth)
  • Peanuts (calcium and vitamin D)
  • Walnuts (fiber, folic acid, iron, vitamin E, magnesium, niacin, potassium, zinc, thiamine, vitamin B6)
Certain compounds, called polyphenols, in green and black tea suppress the harmful bacteria that causes plaque and decay. Many teas also contain fluoride, which protects and strengthens enamel.

Vitamins A, C and D, as well as calcium and phosphorus, are fundamental in excellent oral health. Look for these nutrients when choosing foods for your child. Many foods contain high levels of these vitamins and minerals including:

  • Eggs
  • Beef
  • Fish
  • Poultry
  • Tofu
  • Beans
  • Leafy green vegetables (spinach, kale, romaine, greens, Swiss chard)
  • Potatoes
  • Fortified cereal
  • Whole grains

Foods and Drinks to Avoid

Trying to find healthy foods your child likes to eat can be difficult. When considering your choices for your child’s balanced, healthful diet, please remember to avoid the following foods when possible. Your child’s bright smile for years to come will be all the reward you need!

Whether you call it soda, pop or a popular brand name, the high sugar and acidic levels in soft drinks create a perfect storm to ravage teeth. Let’s also remember how harmful soft drinks are to your child’s overall health. This is the same for popular high sugar, highly acid sports drinks. Diet soda does save your mouth from sugar, but only fourteen percent of consumers drink diet and it still contains tooth-eroding acids. Give your child’s smile a boost and opt for water, milk or tea when thirsty.
Starches made from white flour are simple carbohydrates. These foods break down into simple sugars quickly and often remain stuck between your teeth. Bacteria feed on these sugars and produce acid, which leads to tooth decay. It’s best to avoid high starch foods like white bread, potato chips, bagels, flour tortillas, crackers, pasta and French fries.
Vitamin on the label is a healthy choice, right? Unfortunately, no. Some vitamin waters contain as much sugar as full sized candy bars and are full of harmful acids. Avoid chewable vitamins when possible. The chewable nature grinds concentrated acids directly into your teeth. As soon as your child is old enough, offer vitamins that are swallowed whole.

Candy is bad for children’s teeth. It is full of harmful sugar and sticks to teeth for a long time, allowing decay to begin. While this is not breaking news, it’s good to remember all that “candy” encompasses:

  • Hard candy (suckers, lollipops)
  • Fruit snacks
  • Sweet drinks
  • Sticky candy (caramel, toffee, gum)
  • Baked sweets (cakes, sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, pies)
  • Sour candy (especially bad because of high acid content too)

If your child eats candy occasionally as a special treat, try to always offer a drink of water afterward to rinse as much of the sugar and acid away from teeth.

Have you ever sucked on a lemon or lime then felt the gritty nature of your teeth? That’s because the huge amount of acid, only slightly less corrosive than battery acid, is hard at work eroding your tooth enamel. While you shouldn’t eliminate citrus fruit from your child’s diet entirely, try to pair it with a meal or other foods to reduce the harmful effects of the acid. And although your child’s cute puckered face from that sour lemon is adorable, a healthy, long-lasting smile is more important!
When you dry a fruit, you remove its water and much of the healthy value in the fruit while concentrating the sugars. Dried fruits, such as raisins, prunes and apricots, stick to teeth, trapping the sugars on your tooth’s surface. Choose the fruit in its original form, full of healthy nutrients and water.

Just like citrus fruits, citrus juice contains large amounts of corrosive citric acid. Consume these as part of a meal or rinse with a few sips of water after the juice. Your child should drink any juice in moderation with the American Academy of Pediatrics recommending no more than:

  • One to six years old – four to six ounces per day
  • Seven to eighteen years old – eight to twelve ounces per day

We’re here to help. Contact Us!