Healthy Eating

Why is healthy eating important?

Your general health depends a lot on having a balanced diet. Your drinking and eating habits affect your mouth so it is important to try and have a healthy diet so that you can look after your teeth.

Dental plaque is a soft sticky substance that builds up on your teeth.  It is mostly made up of bacteria, which feed on sugar from food and drink, providing acids as a waste product.  The acid dissolves the teeth surface by attacking it. Tooth decay occurs when this happens too often.

After an acid attack, teeth can repair themselves, given the opportunity.  It helps if fluoride (a mineral that is an ingredient in most toothpaste) is present in the mouth. This is why it is important to brush your teeth twice a day with fluoride toothpaste.

Sometimes it can be hard to change your diet if you are in the habit of eating certain foods but there are lots of alternatives that you can eat that have less sugar or acid.

What should I eat? What are some healthy alternatives?

It is recommended that you eat at least five portions of fruit and vegetables per day. It is also important to check the labels of any packets and to try aim for foods that are low in sugar.

Some sugary foods and their healthier alternatives for your teeth are:
Swap sugar coated cereals for wholegrain cereals such as weetabix with fresh fruit
Swap crisps for plain popcorn
Swap toast with jam with toast and butter
Swap chocolate biscuits for plainer biscuits

How to work out the Sugar Content of food

The packaging will usually tell you how much sugar there is in 100g under the heading Carbohydrates (of which sugars). Then look and see how many grams there actually are in the packet/what the recommended portion size is. To the find out the sugar content of the actual packet/recommended portion size you would do the following sum:
Weight of the pack/recommended portion size/100 multiplied by the Carbohydrates (of which sugars)
If there was more than 100g in the packet you would still do the same equation.

The Stephen Curve

Have you heard of the Stephens Curve?

The Stephens Curve is a graph which shows what happens after sugar is consumed in relation to caries. The graph explains that the more times in the day that the mouth is hit with sugar the worse it is for your teeth. For example- If you have a can of cola and you were to drink it all in one sitting; this will hit your teeth at that one time. Where as if you were to sip the can of cola throughout the day that means that every time you are sipping on the drink you are hitting the mouth with sugar. It is important the frequency of sugar in the mouth is as low as possible. This is why it is recommended that if you are having a treat it is best to have it with a meal as then it can all hit the teeth together in one sitting as opposed to several times.

A picture of the Stephan Curve is shown below.

What are the benefits of healthy eating?

Healthy eating has lots of benefits for your overall health such as reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes, filling your body with vitamins, keeping your heart healthy, lowering your cholesterol and blood levels and can help give you strong bones and teeth.