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How Nutrition Affects Your Oral Health (ft. Dr. Gundry)
Nutrition has long been a topic of conversation and research for many years.
But more recently, studies have focused on how nutrition affects your oral health and are showing a link between diet and inflammation, including mouth-body connections.
Nutrition doesn’t just play a crucial role in your overall health, but also your oral health. Keep reading to see how!
How nutrition affects your oral health
Among the many books on nutrition that have been published in the last few years, Dr. Steven Gundry stands out to us at The Gorman Center for Fine Dentistry as a great resource on the topic of inflammation.
Inflammation is a buzz word in the health care field and for good reason:
It is a major factor in chronic diseases but can be tamed by a diet low in sugar, carbohydrates, and plant lectins.
Dr. Gundry’s newest book, The Longevity Paradox, gives a detailed explanation of what lectins are and how they affect your health.
Lectins are a kind of protein that can bind to sugar, reducing the body’s ability to absorb nutrients. Lectins are thought to have evolved as a natural defense in plants, essentially as a toxin that deters animals from eating them.
Therefore, you must ask yourself:
What are they doing to my body and how can I prepare these particular plants to minimize the lectin activity?
Dr. Gundry suggests we go back to traditional cooking methods from generations ago.
Here are some foods that are high in lectins:
- Soybeans
- Kidney Beans
- Wheat
- Corn
- Tomatoes
- Potatoes
On the bright side, some of these foods still contain health benefits when prepared properly.
Maintaining healthy habits
It is important to stay informed about what goes into your body and how nutrition affects your oral health.
At our North Oaks, MN dental office, we encourage healthy habits for our patients, starting with their smiles.
Here are a few tips to help with your everyday nutrition habits to encourage a healthy mouth:
- Limit between-meal snacking. Fewer snacks mean less acid exposure for your teeth. If you snack, choose foods that are not fermentable carbohydrates (i.e. garlic, onion).
- Limit soft drinks or any other drinks that contain sugar.
- Avoid sucking on hard candies or mints, even the tiny ones.
- Limit very acidic foods (such as citrus fruits) because they can make your mouth more acidic.
- Brush your teeth after every meal to remove the plaque and bacteria that create destructive acids.
- Chew sugarless gum that contains xylitol. This can help reduce the risk of cavities.
If you are interested in learning more about how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and oral hygiene, then we highly recommend picking up a copy of any of Dr. Gundry‘s books to gain insightful facts about improving your overall health.
As Dr. Steve Gorman said, “I feel that Dr. Gundry, being a knowledgeable cardiologist, has a great message for our patients who are seeking to lower their overall inflammation. The combination of low lectin eating and achieving superior oral health will effectively reduce disease provoking inflammation.”
For more information about nutrition and oral hygiene please feel free to contact us. You can reach our dentist in North Oaks at:
- Email: smiles@drstevegorman.com
- Phone: 651-483-5134
A canker sore is a small, shallow open wound (or ulcer) in your mouth that can make eating and talking uncomfortable. They’re also known as aphthous ulcers. Most canker sores go away on their own without any canker sore treatment in a week or two. Check with our dentists if you have unusually large or painful ulcers or canker sores that don’t seem to heal.
Aphthous ulcers start as reddened, flat macules on the mucosa, then progress to ulcers with a yellow-grey fibrinous membrane that can be scraped away. The ulcer is enclosed by a reddish ring. They can happen inside your mouth, under your tongue, inside your cheeks, or even inside your lips. A day or two before the sores emerge, you can feel discomfort or a burning sensation in your mouth.