5 Foods To Avoid For A Healthy Mouth

Many people think they have a good idea of which foods to avoid for a healthy mouth. Unfortunately, they are not always right.

Maintaining a healthy mouth is essential for both mind and body. It prevents your teeth from rotting and your gums from becoming inflamed. But it also improves your mental health, too.

What happens in the mouth affects the mind in profound ways.

While oral care is important, the biggest reason people have to go to the dentist is the food that they eat.

Thanks to our industrialised food system, we’re putting substances in our mouths that nature never evolved us to cope with in the past. As a result, dentistry is big business.

Let’s take a look at some foods that you’ll want to avoid…

Sodas And Carbonated Drinks

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Sugar-sweetened beverages are public enemy number one for your teeth.

In fact, they’re so bad that many dental groups believe they should have warning labels. The speed at which they can rot your teeth is spectacular.

Sodas, however, are even more damaging than conventional fruit juices.

Not only do they contain sucrose, the most dangerous form of sugar for oral health, but they are also highly acidic. This means that they can quickly soften the enamel that surrounds teeth, making it much more likely that bacteria will get a foothold.

Avoid them where possible.

Refined Starchy Foods

You can eat brown rice, whole wheat berries, and chickpeas all day long and never damage your teeth.

However, if you eat the starchy, refined versions of these foods, you could be putting your mouth at risk. Things like bread, chips and corn all get stuck between teeth and don’t get washed away by saliva.

This gives bacteria time and space to multiply, producing acid that hastens the destruction of your tooth enamel.

To avoid this, stick with whole-food products. If you like pasta, flip over to brown pasta. If you eat a lot of rice, use red or black instead.

Find products that are minimally processed and don’t have refined elements that can get stuck in your teeth.

Hard And Sticky Candies

Most of us have had dreams where our teeth fall out because we are eating a sticky toffee.

A lot of these come from our childhood experiences of losing our baby teeth. But if you are not careful, the same thing can happen to your adult teeth.

Hard and sticky candies are the biggest culprit.

These foods contain sugar, which is bad enough, but they also apply forces on the teeth that attempt to rip them from their sockets.

If you must eat sweets, choose sugar-free, non-sticky varieties.