Good Diet Equals Healthy Teeth

Healthy foods build healthy bodies and healthy teeth.  A well-balanced diet provides your body with the vitamins, minerals (including fluoride), fiber, carbohydrates (starch), protein, and fats from the food groups that make up the food pyramid: mostly eating fiberous starchy foods, vegetables, and fruits; eating less proteins from nuts, fish, and poultry; eating even less red meats; and finally eating very little fatty or sugary foods.  

Growing children are also growing teeth and without the proper nutrients in their diet, their teeth will not develop properly.  Dark yellow or brown spots can develop in enamel from eating a diet lacking the proper nutrients.  Poorly formed enamel is much more likely to decay and need repeated fillings or crowns.

Many parents feel that fruit juice is healthy and will give their infants juice in their bottle before they are weaned.  Even watered down, juice is essentially liquid candy.  We recommend only giving your young children formula, milk, or water until they are three years old.  They do not need anything else and are healthiest if they are not exposed to better tasting but less healthy drinks such as juice, soda, koolaid, etc.  

Frequent sugary snacks in a poor diet and will add to excessive weight as well as feed the bacteria in your mouth that cause cavities, bad breath, and gum disease.  Eating a lot of sugar at one time, such as Halloween night, is not as bad for you as a diet of a little sugar all the time, such as sipping soda all day.  Even natural foods in your diet have to be eaten carefully.  Raisins are a good source of iron but they are also very sticky and very sweet so they easily get stuck in tooth grooves for long times and can contribute to dental decay.

Good snacks for children are vegetables such as carrots, fruits such as apples and oranges, low-fat yogurt, and low-fat cheese because they are not only better for their teeth, they are better for their overall health too.