Healthy Snacks & Recipes for Kids

Keeping our teeth strong and healthy is an important part of our overall health. Brushing and flossing regularly needs to be done to prevent tooth decay. Going to see the dentist for regular dental checkups is also important. But what we also must do is know how the foods we eat affect our teeth.

Often, the foods and drinks we have as snacks are very bad for our teeth. Carbonated drinks like soda contain acid. This acid damages the enamel on our teeth. This is true whether the drink is regular, diet, or caffeine-free. You may think that juices would be a better choice than soda for dental health, but the truth is that some of them are even worse. Juices made from fruits such as oranges, lemons, and grapefruit have acid just like soda does.

The sugar in foods you eat as snacks can also hurt your teeth. When we brush our teeth, we are trying to remove the plaque on them. Plaque is a film that builds up on the teeth that's made up of bacteria. That bacteria in the plaque use sugar as energy. Energized by the sugar, the plaque grows and gets thicker. Sometimes, the plaque uses sugar as a kind of glue to help it stick to the tooth. This makes it even harder to brush it off.

Water is the best thing to drink for our physical and dental health, and there are a lot of foods you can choose that are good for teeth. Cheese, yogurt, apples, carrots, and almonds are all foods that are both good for teeth and delicious.