Snacking is bad for your teeth

[Nicest of the Damned]

I was talking about No S with my dental hygienist today. About snacking, she said that, if you're going to eat five candy bars, it's better to do it all at once than to spread it out over the day. The reason for this is that, when you eat, sugars and starches in the food mingle with bacteria in your mouth to create acids. The acid doesn't go away for a while after you stop eating. If you're nibbling your way through the day, the acid level stays high, and erodes your teeth:

http://www.cvshealthresources.com/topic/snacking

Yet another reason why permasnacking is bad for you.

It may have been a coincidence, but I had much less plaque buildup on my teeth this time than I usually have in the past at dental cleanings. I started No S in June, so this was my first dental cleaning where I'd been on No S the whole time.

[reinhard]

Yes, we all knew about the sugar-S being bad for your tooth, but the snacking-S also does it's share. Thanks for posting this link!

I actually have a little section on this tucked away in the No S Diet book.

From pages 48-49:

Snacking Is Bad for Your Teeth!

You probably already know that sugar is bad for your
teeth. That’s so obvious I won’t even bother going into
it in the next chapter. But did you know that snacking
also increases your risk for tooth decay? According to
the American Dental Association:

"Not only what you eat but when you eat makes a
big difference in your dental health. Eat a balanced
diet and limit between- meal snacks. . . . Foods that
are eaten as part of a meal cause less harm. More
saliva is released during a meal, which helps wash
foods from the mouth and helps lessen the effects
of acids."

I find this interesting not just in itself, but as an additional
sign that snacking is not, as our contemporary
conventional wisdom would have it, a necessary and normal
behavior, but something strange and unprecedented
that our bodies are not quite equipped to handle.

Reinhard

[~reneew]

I've heard that before. When my kids were younger, I used to ration their Halloween candy to one after a meal for desert, or 3 after each supper. Than I read this and thought that I'm just coating thier teeth for the day. Now I say "go for it" when we come home. They eat a bunch, and when they start to feel yucky they quit. I'm teaching them to listen to their bodies, but in the long run I'm helping their teeth. They also hardly ever finish their candy anymore. I end up tossing it in the trash! Wow!