Healthy Teeth
WLR Dietitian, Juliette Kellow
BSc RD shows how to make sure your New Year’s resolutions keep
your waistline AND teeth in great shape.
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Lose Weight and Keep Your Teeth Healthy
By WLR Dietitian
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Tips on Keeping Your Teeth Healthy
Don’t ditch the dairy
Giving up cheese might seem like a good idea to help you lose
that spare tyre, but it’s actually a superfood for teeth.
As well as providing calcium, needed for tooth development
and on-the-spot repairs to the tooth surface following an acid
attack, cheese helps to make the mouth less acidic and so
neutralises the harmful acids that decay teeth. In fact, some
dentists now recommend eating a small piece of cheese at the end
of a meal.
The key is to opt for reduced-fat varieties if you want to
lose weight. Meanwhile, after water, milk is one of the best
drinks for teeth. Better still, research shows the calcium in
reduced-fat dairy products can actually help to burn fat,
particularly around our midriff, so that we lose weight. So opt
for skimmed or semi-skimmed rather than ditching it altogether.
Go nuts
Nuts and seeds might be packed with calories but they’re also
loaded with nutrients and are a great choice for teeth as they
can help to reduce the acidity in the mouth. Just remember to
weigh out servings and count the calories.
Feel fruity
Eating five portions of fruit and veg a day helps keep us
healthy and controls our weight by filling us up. But it’s worth
remembering that fruit contains a natural sugar called fructose,
which like all sugar, has the potential to harm teeth.
Most dentists agree that fruit is a better sweet treat for
teeth than chocolate. But it’s important to take care with
things like juices, smoothies and dried fruit. When fresh fruit
is juiced or crushed to make a juice or smoothie, the natural
sugars found within the cells of the fruit are released and so
become potentially more damaging to teeth. That’s why juices and
smoothies count as just one of the five recommended daily
servings of fruit and veg, no matter how much you have. That’s
not to say you should avoid them but to keep teeth healthy,
drink them with meals or dilute with water if you have them
between meals. Drinking them with a straw also means the natural
sugars they contain have less contact with the teeth.
The sugars in dried fruits like apricots, raisins, sultanas
and dates are also very concentrated and so more likely to
damage teeth than fresh fruit so serve them with a meal, for
example, chopped dried apricots on porridge or sultanas on a
salad, rather than nibbling on a handful every so often.
Finally, keeping a bunch of grapes on your desk at work or
coffee table may be a lower-cal way to snack but the naturally
occurring sugars in grapes can eventually harm teeth if you
constantly pick at them while working or watching TV. It’s
better for your teeth to eat a handful of grapes in one go.
Burst the bubbles
Switching regular cola drinks for ‘diet’ varieties might cut
sugar and save you around 140 calories a can, but diet drinks
can still damage teeth because they contain acids that erode the
enamel. If you want something sweet or drink fizzy drinks to
help fill you up, opt for sparking water with a little
sugar-free squash.
Halt the honey
Contrary to popular belief, honey is just as bad for teeth
and waistlines as sugar so don’t be tempted to use it as a
substitute in drinks or on cereals and puddings – there’s 25
calories in a teaspoon of honey compared to just 16 calories in
a teaspoon of sugar. Artificial sweeteners are a friendlier
choice for both teeth and waistlines.
Don’t make sweets last
When you’re dieting, it might be tempting to make a small bar
of chocolate or packet of sweets last for ages by eking them out
over the course of an afternoon or evening. But eating them
slowly means your teeth are bathed in sugar – and prone to acid
attack – for hours on end. The solution: eat them all in one go.
Be a sport
Taking up a new fitness plan to help you shift those pounds
is a great idea but that doesn’t mean you should also take up
drinking sports drinks while you work out. Most are absolutely
loaded with sugar and sipping them frequently throughout your
workout means your teeth will be swamped with sugar. Added to
this, there’s no point burning 200 calories on the treadmill if
you’re then having 200 calories from a sports drink? The best
drink for staying hydrated, making the most of the calories
you’ve just burnt by exercising and keeping teeth healthy is
plain old water.
Chew sugar-free gum
When you’re trying to lose weight, it can be tempting to
reach for chewing gum to keep your mouth busy. Indeed, research
shows that chewing gum helps to reduce hunger, diminishes
cravings for sweet foods and prevents snacking. But to keep
teeth healthy and save a few calories, opt for a sugar-free gum
such as Orbit Complete. |
