Protect teeth from holiday sweets
What can you do to protect your teeth from sugar when you succumb to sweet temptation?
We all know that sugar is bad for your teeth, but it can be hard to resist, especially at certain times of the year when sweet treats are everywhere: at parties, as gifts, even as decorations!
Protect teeth from hidden sugars
As well as the obvious sugars in desserts, candy, cookies and cakes, there are also sugars lurking in:
- fruit: fresh, dried and juiced
- alcohol which is basically fermented sugars
- processed foods
- savory foods (eg salad dressing, sauce, bread)
- breakfast cereals and snack bars
Sugar is hard to avoid, even when you are trying. Most people have a sweet tooth to some degree, and some of us are definitely addicts!
I gave up eating sugar a few years ago, but I had already healed my chronic tooth decay by then, so it is possible to eat sugar and take good care of your teeth.
In fact, the teeth healing diet that cured my cavities actually made it easier to (eventually) become sugar free!
Six tips to protect teeth from sugar damage
1. Try to limit sugary foods and drinks to mealtimes, not inbetween.
2. If you are going to snack on sweets, eat some healthy fats at the same time (eg cream, yoghurt or coconut oil).
3. If you are going to eat lollies, chocolate (preferably dark) is less harmful than candy canes or chewy toffees.
4, Avoid snacking or sucking on sweets over an extended period of time. The less time your teeth spend bathed in sugar, the better.
5. Rinse your mouth with water straight after eating anything sweet.
6. Wait 30-60 minutes before brushing your teeth, because tooth enamel is soft and vulnerable to scratching for up to an hour after you eat.
Have you ever wondered whether there's more to oral health than regular brushing or avoiding sugar?
Or whether there's an emotional or spiritual meaning to tooth decay or gum recession?
Or why dental problems sometimes rise and fall with stress?
I wrote The Secret Lives of Teeth: Understanding the emotional influences on oral health to help answer these kinds of questions from spiritual, psychological and energetic perspectives.
Pre-order the paperback or e-book today, along with your choice of bonuses to enhance your reading experience on Kickstarter before 25 November 2022.
Has a dentist told you that your cavities or receding gums are your fault because you are drinking too much Coke, you don’t floss enough or you need to stop breastfeeding your baby? And you know that isn’t true!
I’m a natural oral health coach and I'm not going to blame you or shame you.
The underlying causes of your oral health issues are not your fault!
Nature or nurture, ancestry or environment, free will or systemic oppression, unconscious emotions or the degraded food system are the factors that make your teeth and gums vulnerable to disease.
Even though your tooth decay and gum disease is not your fault, it is within your power to change.
I can help you to turn your oral health around with natural strategies, healthy habits and intuitive insights.