What Kind of Eating Habits Keep Your Teeth Healthy?

Healthy and strong teeth help you to chew your food. Chewing your food properly helps you eat nutritious foods and avoid digestion problems. To keep your teeth in good condition, you need to maintain healthy eating habits. This article will cover several simple eating habits that you can incorporate into mealtimes to keep your teeth healthy.

Eat fibrous or crunchy veggies during meals

Fibrous or crunchy veggies like celery, artichokes, broccoli and carrots give your teeth a good workout at mealtimes. This is great for your teeth for two important reasons. First, because these veggies are tough due to their high fibre content, they act as natural toothbrushes as you chew. So veggies like carrots can help your teeth by scraping away plaque and bacteria as you chew.

Fibrous foods also require more chewing, which stimulates more saliva. Saliva kills oral bacteria and rinses food particles from your mouth.

Eat sweet foods at mealtimes rather than as snacks

While you eat and chew foods, your mouth produces more saliva than at other times. Saliva neutralizes acid. Sweet foods cause your mouth to become more acidic than usual since they are easy for acid-producing bacteria to consume. So protect your teeth against the acid generated by oral bacteria by eating sweet foods after meals rather than as snacks during the day.

Limit starchy foods at mealtimes

Starchy foods are sticky. Starchy foods like pasta, bread and French fries will stick to your teeth and feed the oral bacteria in your mouth. The more oral bacteria feed, the more acid they produce, which puts your teeth at greater risk of tooth decay. Try to limit the number of starchy foods you eat at meal times.      

Drink water during and after meals

Water at mealtimes protects your teeth in several ways. Water washes away food debris. Water also helps to wash away harmful acids that might damage your teeth, especially when you eat sweet foods or drink acidic drinks like soda or coffee. Water also washes staining particles from your teeth, which can help to keep your teeth white and stain free.  

Chew sugarless gum after meals

Since chewing produces saliva and saliva benefits your teeth in many ways, chewing some sugarless gum after meals is a great way to keep your teeth in good condition. This is especially true if you have eaten a meal rich in sweet or starchy foods since the increased salivary flow will wash these foods away.

Contact a dentist to learn more.