The food choices at holiday parties can be overwhelming. What’s best for your waistline? What’s healthy for your teeth and what’s not? Take our choose this/not that quiz.
If you’re trying to avoid staining your teeth, do you drink red or white wine?
Choose This: White wine. Both red and white wine contain acids that can attack enamel, the hard covering that protects your teeth. Acid can leave ruts and grooves on your teeth making them susceptible to staining. Red wine stains worse than white because it contains the pigment chromogen.
You’re not drinking alcohol at the party. What’s better – club soda with lime or punch?
Choose This: Club soda. Although you might think punch contains healthy fruit, it’s also full of sugar. Sugary drinks tend to be high in fat and calories, but low in nutrients. Plus the bacteria in our mouth love sugar. But the sugar turns to acids that attack our teeth causing cavities. And cavities hurt!
You could have some cheese or dive into a bowl of chips.
Choose This: Cheese. The calcium in cheese helps put back minerals in our teeth we may have lost by eating less healthy foods. Starchy foods like chips can get trapped between teeth providing a feast for bacteria.
You are passed a bowl of candy. Do you eat chocolate or caramels?
Choose This: Believe it or not, chocolate wins the day. Chocolate dissolves quickly in the mouth, giving it less contact with teeth. Sticky candies like toffee, taffy or caramels linger on teeth; they’re high in sugar and are more difficult for saliva to break down.
It’s unlikely you’ll be the perfect eater this holiday season, but these tips will help. Learn more about what foods are good and bad for your teeth.