HEALTHY FOODS THAT MIGHT HARM YOUR CHILDREN’S TEETH

Being a responsible parent can be hard sometimes. There are a lot of responsibilities that fall on your shoulders while you’re raising a child like teaching them to brush often for at least two minutes, avoid soft drinks and junk food, and maybe even developing a flossing habit for them.

Specifically, we’ll look at the effect of foods on your child’s teeth. We all know that junk food like cheese puffs, candy, and potato chips are bad for you. Looking over their effect on your body, they are a sure fire way to develop cavities at a young age. Instead, you may try to give your kids healthier choices, but did you know that there are some healthy foods that can still be bad for young teeth?

Smoothies

Even though smoothies can be chock full of vitamins and minerals from the fruits in them, they can be just as full of added sugar. Even regular fruits have enough sugar in them that you need to be careful about brushing your teeth afterwards. Many smoothies that you buy from the store are made incorrectly, that is why they are made with more than just health in mind. Just make sure to check the nutrition label and note how much sugar is in each serving. For example, a serving of ‘Innocent Smoothie’ contains 34g of sugar, whereas a soda contains about 39g of sugar. That is very similar. Beware fruits like pomegranates, mangoes, and cherries, which contain some of the highest sugar content.

Dried Fruit

If you haven’t figured it out, even fruit sugar can be a hidden source of decay for young teeth, and for you as well. It makes sense that dried fruit is just condensed fruit that the same danger remains. Take plums and prunes as an example. A plum contains 75 calories and just 16g of sugar. But one cup of prunes contains over 400 calories and 45 grams of sugar. Fresh fruit is always a better choice over dried fruit, even if it is easier to pack.

Enhanced Water

We’ve all seen it. Some waters are marketed to be more nutritional. These ‘enhanced waters’ are often times more harmful than beneficial. They contain more sugarthan a soda. In fact they contain more sugar than is considered healthy for an average adult. Of course these sort of drinks have their place, they certainly do not and cannot replace classic H2O.

So, what’s the moral of the story?

Check the labels! Some foods and beverages are simply not the right choice for children to eat on a daily basis, at least without extra attention to dental health. As always, come to usif you have any questions!