There are plenty of reasons to avoid binge eating candy on Halloween but if your only concern is cavities, I have some great news for you. There are plenty of foods that are worse for your teeth than candy. Some of them you might have even thought were good for you.
Let’s be honest, dried fruit tastes more like candy than fruit. “It has that stickiness and high sugar content” says Stephen Stefanac, professor of oral medicine at university of Michigan. Apparently when you combine stickiness and sugar, it has a tendency of sticking between your teeth, the perfect environment for the formation of cavities. If that’s the case, might as well stick to candy in Halloween.
This next one is a bet trickier but should come as no surprise. When you think of soda rotting teeth, you’d probably guess that it’s the near 10 tablespoons of sugar in a 12 oz. can. Nope. Turns out soda is incredibly acidic. Some people even use Coke to get rid of rust! Soda can break down the enamel in your teeth. Especially if you sip on soda all day.
Let’s go ahead and throw juice on the list as well. Some juices can contain just as much or more sugar than soda but they also happen to be very acidic. The sugar content can feed bacteria in your mouth that can increase the chance of tooth decay.
If you’ve ever eaten a lot of tomato sauce, the heartburn at 3 AM should have alerted you that tomatoes can be very acidic. Throw that sauce on some pasta and you have the perfect storm of terrible things for your teeth. The acidity can obviously wear away at your enamel but the carbs in the pasta can also breed bacteria that can eat away at your teeth.
So, this last one is still a shock to me, even though I’m writing this article. It turns out even bottles water can be bad for your teeth. Many bottled water brands add mineral to their water in order to improve taste to the point where water can be as acidic as tea or even coffee! There is always the option of distilled water, which is less acidic but also tastes weird. Still I’d make sure to examine everything you’re eating before you start blaming your cavities on that bottle of Dasani.
Moderation is the key to life and that doesn’t exclude candy (or anything else on this list). Make sure to take extra care of your teeth this Halloween! And don’t forget to keep up with our blog for more candy news!