With the New Year coming up, you might be thinking about starting a new diet. Before you choose, it's important to know how some of the popular diets can affect your dental health. As the best dentist in southern Missouri, Access Dental and Dentures cares about your teeth and your overall health. Keep reading to learn how these diets might affect your teeth before you get started next year.
Liquid Cleanses
Some people like to start the new year off with a power punch to their health journey. Liquid and juice diets can be very effective for rapid weight loss, but their merits are often debated in the medical community. It can be difficult to get the nutrients you need from fluids alone, and the loss of fiber and roughage in your diet could cause stomach issues.
A liquid diet could also be harmful to your dental health. Crunchy health foods like carrots and apples can help reduce the buildup of plaque by literally pushing it off your teeth. Liquid diets can also be acidic and high in sugar because juices and smoothies tend to be what people on this diet grab first.
Low Carb Diets
One of the most popular diets in recent years has been the Low-Carb Diet. You may have heard of "Keto", which at its core is a low or no-carb diet. The idea of these diets is to optimize your body to burn fat by reducing or eliminating carbs. This diet could also reduce your folic acid and fiber intake, though, if you are not careful to replace grains with a high volume of leafy greens and beans.
These diets can be detrimental to your oral health because of the elimination of fruits. Fruits are considered carbs on these diets because of their natural sugar content, so they are either not allowed or limited on almost all Low-Carb Diets. But fruits can be helpful to your oral health! Particularly fruits like apples, pears, and watermelon. These fruits have higher water content and cause you to salivate more when eating them. Saliva production is incredibly important to keep your mouth hydrated and free of bacteria. If your choice is between a piece of low-carb pie and an apple, the higher-carb apple may be a healthier choice for your teeth.
Dairy-Free Diets
A few good examples of popular dairy-free diets are Paleo and Whole30. The Paleo diet encourages participants to eat meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, herbs, spices, healthy fats, and oils. People on this diet are also supposed to avoid processed foods, sugar, soft drinks, grains, dairy products, legumes, artificial sweeteners, vegetable oils, margarine, and trans fats. Whole 30 abides by five major rules: No added sugar, no alcohol, no grains, no legumes, and no dairy. Most of these items can be good to avoid, but not always.
Dairy is often considered beneficial for bones and teeth due to its calcium content. Until recently, all dairy was thought to have the same effect on teeth. The Academy of General Dentistry published a study that indicates cheese could actually have anti-cavity properties. It does this by reducing the level of acidity in your mouth and increasing saliva production! Check out the research in Science Daily here: (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/06/130605130118.htm).
