Those Snacks Between Meals Could Be Causing You Problems With Oral Health
Why regular small treats outside of mealtimes could cause more trouble than you think
As we have mentioned previously, many of these ready made meals and snacks have a higher level of sugar than you might expect, and certainly more than would be found in most home cooked meals. This isn’t the only problem caused by ready to eat foods though and even the old pattern of eating is changing.
Whilst many of our Chelmsford patients probably do stick to the three meals a day routine, they may also ‘graze’ more, snacking as they go throughout the day. Even if this results in the same quantity of food being eaten, which it rarely does given the rise in obesity, it can present problems of its own for our overall oral health.
Unhealthy snacks
The first part of the problem is that these additional snacks are rarely healthy and tend to be high in fats and sugars. Whilst the fats can lead to general health issues, sugar can also cause problems such as tooth decay for patients of Blue Sky Dental. Even now, many people attempt to cut down on their sugar consumption by putting less in their tea and coffee but still often ignore the large amounts of sugar in snacks and ‘treats’. Some of these are fairly obvious, such as chocolate bars and other confectionery, but even savoury snacks will contain sugar, sometimes in quite large amounts. Added together, these can significantly increase the amount of tooth damaging sugar that we consume each day.