Sink your teeth into a cavityfighting plan

Press, 12 June 1986, Page 17

Sink your teeth into a cavityfighting plan

“Bodywork”

by

PORTER SHIMER

If your dentist’s chair is about as appealing to you as the electric chair, you might be interested in research being done by Dr Mark Jensen of the University of lowa College of Dentistry.

Dr Jensen is convinced that more so even than fastidious brushing and flossing, diet is what controls the cavities we get. Not only can the wrong foods encourage cavities, but the right foods can actually fight them. Yes, there are foods that have the ability to neutralise the conditions which invite bacteria to eat away at our teeth in the first place, and these are the foods Dr Jensen says we should be sinking our teeth into. What Dr Jensen’s studies have shown is that cavity-causing bacteria are much more destructive in the presence of foods that encourage conditions in the mouth to be highly acidic. Foods that help neutralise such acidic conditions can be actual cavity-fighters. Based on studies done in Sweden and at the Dows Institute for Dental Research in the United States, Dr Jensen has compiled the following lists.

Foods from group A are to be considered out-and-out tooth antagonists, because they have the ability io raise the acidity of tooth plaque to levels that

bacteria find downright irresistible. “These foods should be avoided as be-tween-meal snacks and consumed infrequently — preferably only at mealtimes,” Dr Jensen says. Foods in group B, on the other hand, are somewhat more permissible. They raise the acidity of tooth plaque slightly, but "are certainly better choices for between-meal snacks than those food from group A,” Dr Jensen says.

The foods to sink your healthy teeth into are those in group C. They either raise plaque acidity very little, or actually lower it. Cheese, for ex-

ample, has such poewr to neutralise acidic conditions in the mouth that Dr Jensen recommends it be eaten prior to foods (such as those in group A) known to give teeth a hard time. Group A: Foods bard on teeth Raisins, dried fruits, dates, milk chocolate, potato chips, snack crackers, cookies and chewing gum made with sugar. Group B: Foods better for teeth, but still not good Pears, peaches, apples, grapes, apple cider, orange juice, soft drinks. Group C: Foods good for teeth. Broccoli, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, dill pickles, carrots, green peppers, ground beef, beef steak, ham, peperoni, peanuts, almonds, hazelnuts, filberts, walnuts, pecans, fish, popcorn, most hard cheeses and chewing gum made with sorbitol.

—Copyright Universal Press Syndicate.