I’m not sure if you have heard the phrase 5 a day. It’s what the health institutions in England have said is the amount of fruit everyone needs to be eating every day. Now there isn’t anything wrong with that on the surface because as we all know, fruit has massive benefits because they contain so many vitamins and minerals that are otherwise not available.
But the question: Is Fruit Good For Teeth is a whole different subject because if you didn’t already know, too much sugar causes excess acid production which eventually leads to cavities.
If your teeth are not in good shape and you are consuming a lot of fruit, it is time for you to reduce this.
In this article we will talk about why fruit is having a negative impact on your teeth health and what substitutes you can use instead.
Blood Sugar Levels Mess With Calcium & Phosphorous Levels In Your Body
If you didn’t know, calcium and phosphorous are highly important minerals required for proper formation of teeth and enamel.
Calcium
The majority of American’s diet is low in calcium. But what most don’t realise is that they are putting their teeth and bones at serious risk by not getting an adequate amount each day. When the body doesn’t have enough it leeches the mineral from teeth and bones, which can increase your risk of tooth decay and cavities.
99% of the body’s calcium reserves are stored in the bones and teeth so when your calcium is low, those are the areas that suffer. Diets that are deficient in calcium raise your risk of periodontal (gum) disease as well. The health of your jawbone is also at risk without the proper amount.
Phosphorous
Approximately 85% of phosphorus, the second most abundant mineral in the human body, is in bone, primarily compounded with calcium. Keeping a good homeostatic balance between phosphorous and calcium is essential for normal development, maintenance, and repair of teeth and skeletal tissues.
More studies indicate that the various mineralized tissues of the teeth are deferentially regulated by prevailing phosphorous conditions so it’s imperative that you get the optimum levels of this trace mineral if you want nice and healthy teeth.
Where Is The Evidence?
A study carried out by Dr Price showed that different types of sugars cause different fluctuations in the body, this means the calcium-phosphorous levels also start to vary.
It was noted that white sugar causes the most fluctuations which last around 5 hours. This was followed by fruit sugars and although they didn’t have as many fluctuations it still caused the blood sugar levels to be out of whack for 5 hours.
The problem is that these fluctuations cause calcium levels to be in higher concentrations in the blood stream and guess where it’s being pulled from?
Yup
Your Teeth Or Bones!
The longer your blood sugar levels are out of sync the more your calcium and phosphorous concentrations are going to suffer and this will cause the process of tooth decay in the form of cavities.
Which Fruit Is Good For Teeth?
We would like to stress once again that Fruit is beneficial for having a good healthy lifestyle but it needs to be restricted!
Berries are a good source of antioxidants and minerals and can be eaten daily but we recommend you consume them alongside another food source such as cream.
Why cream?
Fruit is best eaten with a good source of fat!
Fruits such as apple and pears go really well with cheese.
Fruits You Need To Minimise
- Oranges
- Peaches
- Grapes
- Bananas
We know that these are the more popular fruits everyone likes to consume but if you are going through a phase of tooth decay i.e cavities are forming, you want to reduce them to an absolute minimum!
Once you know the cavities are gone, then you can bring them back into your diet but even then, we suggest you eat them as a snack, making sure to accompany them with healthy sources of fat.
For some people it is easier to cook the fruit as it will transform the sugar and makes digesting them easier.
So To Summarise This Section:
Basic Recommendation: Avoid very sweet fruit such as dates, peaches, dried fruit, blueberries and bananas until tooth decay has gone.
Intermediate Recommendation: Only have fruit twice per day to minimise big blood sugar fluctuations, ideally after lunchtime. Make sure the fruit you eat isn’t too sweet. These can be sour berries, kiwi or green apples.
Advanced Recommendation: If you are suffering from bad cavities and want to stop this process of tooth decay please stop eating all fruit and sweet products Completely!
What About Using Sweeteners?
The work of Melvin Page has shown that the more refined the sugar becomes, the more it will mess with your chemical balance in your blood, especially the calcium and phosphorous.
Fructose based sweeteners or ones that are labelled as low glycemic may not raise your blood glucose levels but they will certainly raise blood fructose levels. This is even worse because the fructose will create more of a fluctuation than that caused by white sugar.
We only recommend taking sweeteners if you don’t have any active tooth decay but in all honesty we ask you to only consume sugar from fruits.
But we know there will be special occasions were you have a family get together and most likely there will be some sweet dishes being served. If your the one making these sweet dishes, please use unheated honey, grade B organic maple syrup or pure cane sugar.
Unheated Honey
Bees keep the honey they produce at a constant 93 degrees Fahrenheit, if the hive gets too hot, they will abandon the hive. This tells us that the benefits of honey are lost when the temperature gets above a certain point. When buying honey always look for ones that say raw and unheated.
Grade B Organic Maple Syrup
This grade of maple syrup appears darker in colour to the other grades but all of them are great to use. They are not refined and contain good nutrients. We recommend you go for the smaller brands out there because they are more likely to be extracting this food using best practices.
Pure Cane Sugar
In ancient Ayurverdic medicine, real sugar such as jaggery is medicine but because we are living in a modern world, the stores that stock this type of sugar are processed too much. The only pure form of sugar we have come across is pure cane juice that is extracted manually.
Avoid High Fructose Corn Syrup At All Costs!
This is the worst sweetener you could use and it causes the most damage to teeth and overall health in general.
Man made fructose is not the same as fructose that is contained in fruits. The fructose corn syrup contains the synthetic form which is actually toxic to the body and numerous studies have linked it to some serious diseases such as pancreatic cancer, diabetes and obesity.
It leads to glandular imbalance in the body and this affects the oral health and leads to tooth decay. Avoid this sugar at all costs!
Summary
So after reading the whole article please tell us: Is Fruit Good For Teeth?
We admit that fruit has some seriously good health benefits but at the same time they can cause major disaster to the health of our teeth. The blood sugar spike that occurs after eating fruit causes the calcium and phosphorous levels to fluctuate massively.
This will cause tooth decay and cavities will become worse over time.
We recommend you completely stop any fruit intake if you currently have active cavities forming. Once you are sure there is no sign of cavities being formed you can go ahead and start bringing fruit back into your daily life but even then we suggest you take it easy and only consume 1-2 pieces per day.
Go for fruit that is not that sweet, such as apples and pears and always try to eat some fat alongside them. This could be cream, yogurt or cheese.
Avoid sweeteners as much as possible and always go for unheated honey if you want to make a special occasion cake or something of that magnitude.
If you have any questions about this topic please leave a comment below 🙂
