You know it’s important to brush your teeth twice a day, floss once a day, and visit your dentist and hygienist regularly. But do you also consider whether the food and drink you consume on a daily basis are good for your oral health? This month is National Nutrition Month and it’s a great opportunity to make changes to your diet that will have a positive impact on the health of your teeth and gums. In my last blog post, I discussed what foods and drinks to avoid for better oral health. Now, I’ll be discussing healthy food substitutes to use in place of less healthy foods.
Healthy food substitutes to boost your oral hygiene
An apple instead of apple juice. Apple juice can be delicious but is full of sugar which, as we all know, is Enemy #1 of teeth. An apple has sugar in it too, of course, but when eaten as is, the hard texture actually helps scrub the teeth clean while chewing, minimizing the effect of the sugars. In general, it’s best to eat whole foods rather than anything processed.
High-Fiber fruits & veggies instead of acidic fruits & veggies. As mentioned above, whole apples act as a mild abrasive on the surface of the teeth, helping clean them while you’re eating. The same is true of other high-fiber fruits and vegetables, like pears, carrots, broccoli, and celery. Or, have you tried buffalo cauliflower? These are also better choices over acidic fruits like lemons, grapefruits, and pineapple, whose acid can erode enamel over time.
Whole grains over processed foods. Whole grains like oats, bran, brown rice, and barley have less fermentable carbohydrates – the kind that start to break down into sugars in the mouth and can lead to plaque – than processed grains like white flour. There’s also evidence that whole grains can help with gum and teeth health indirectly by slowing the breakdown of starches into blood sugar.[1]
Unsweet tea instead of soda. Plain water is really the best thing to drink for oral health, but I know it can be boring. Instead, try unsweet tea, which has flavor but doesn’t pack the sugar or acid of soda. Just avoid lemon unsweet tea; opt for green tea or herbal if possible.
What about sugar substitutes?
Finding a low-calorie sweetener that tastes and acts like white sugar has been a mission of food companies for decades. Many on the market have done very well, including Sweet’N Low, which is made of saccharin, Splenda, made of sucralose, and Equal, with aspartame and other ingredients.
While these artificial sweeteners don’t cause cavities the way that white sugar does, I don’t recommend them as part of a healthy diet. They’re often incorporated into “diet foods” which are heavily processed and contain other undesirable ingredients. There’s also evidence that while we’re not ingesting the calories that would normally go along with something so sweet, having artificial sweeteners can “trick” the body, which can mess with your metabolism and elicit an insulin response.
Start small for big results
It can be tough to change your eating habits. There’s no need to change everything at once; I encourage you to try one of the healthy food substitutes suggested above for a while and incorporate it into your diet before trying another. Over time, these small changes can have a big impact on your oral health.
[1] https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/food-thought/be-good-your-gums-bite-whole-grains-recipe