Nutritious meals and snacks help maintain a healthy body and mouth.
You get cavities when the sugar in your snacks and drinks mix with bacteria in your mouth a make an acid. This acid attacks the teeth, eats at tooth enamel, and causes cavities over time. If you eat less sugar, less acid will develop in your mouth.
Nutritious and sugar-free snacks that do not stick to your teeth are the best snacks for your teeth. We suggest fruits and vegetables. They have vitamins and minerals, and can protect against illness such as heart disease, stroke, or cancer. A healthy snack has foods from at least two of the four food groups in Canada's Food Guide.
- Tooth-friendly snacks include apples, cucumber, cheese, yogurt, and popcorn.
- Try avoiding snacks like granola bars, chocolate bars, candy (hard, stick, or chewy), cookies, and lollipops. These snacks have a lot of sugar and stick to your teeth.
Re-think your drink
To help prevent cavities, limit sugary drinks and choose water. Milk and water are healthier choices than juice is. Sugary drinks like pop, juice, sports or fruit drinks can cause tooth decay. Liquid Sugar Nutrition Facts.
Read your labels
Sugar comes in many different forms and has many different names. Sucrose, fructose, glucose, and corn syrup are all other names for sugar.
Sippy cups can lead to tooth decay
Sippy cups stop spills, but some children use them for many months and even years. Training cups are to help your child use a regular drinking cup. Sippy cups are like sucking on a baby bottle. When they are drinking, sugar covers their front teeth. Drinking juice, milk, or anything sweetened from a sippy cup can cause tooth decay. If you give your child a sippy cup between meals, it should contain water only.
Do not give your child baby bottles or sippy cups at naptime or bedtime unless it is only water.
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