Thursday, January 20, 2011

Is juice a problem for my child's teeth?

For over 2 generations now juice has been espoused as a health food. Though dentists have been aware for decades this is not really true, it has not been until very recently that the health industry and the medical establishment has taken a closer look at juice. It is definitely not a health food. The question arises if it is even healthy!

Juice now sits on the top of the list as a probable causative agent for the medical chronic disease pandemic facing our children; namely diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, and osteoporosis, among others. The journals of the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics have in recent years recommended that juice be avoided in an infant’s diet. They also recommend that if it is introduced to a toddler that it be limited to 6 oz. daily (a small glass) and consumed with a meal.

Juice is at the top of the list of causative agents for dental disease for our children and youth. For that matter, in today’s culture it probably is equally at cause for adult dental decay.

Juice is worse than soda! That doesn’t mean soda is good; it is also terrible for teeth and health. But, juice is worse. If you look at nutrition data for foods and compare juice with whole fruit, you quickly see what is lost when juice is squeezed from fruit. A couple highlights:

You do get water and calories; i.e., an 8 oz glass of orange juice has the calories squeezed from about 5 oranges. Who ever heard of eating 5 oranges in one sitting? And today we often do this at breakfast and again in the afternoon. Yikes… all those empty calories!

Lost with the fruit when we make juice is a) nearly all the vitamins except some of the water soluble vitamin C, b) insoluble fiber, roughage, c) soluble fiber, unique to fruit and an important aid in digestion, d) and minerals, key components to our enzyme systems that process our body functions. Without the minerals the enzymes cannot use the calories we consume so the calories get stored as fat.

Rarely mentioned about juice is the acid. Acid that will dissolve your teeth. Those of us that took analytical and organic chemistry in college know the issue here. Though organic acids are often called “weak” acids, they are far more effective in organic systems like mouths because of their sustaining power. They don’t register in the pH scale as strong (lower number) as inorganic acids because they hold their acid potential in “reserve.” As the acid is used (dissolving calcium out of teeth) the reserve releases more acid out of solution. This is part of the steady state (homeostasis) systems that sustain organic (life supporting) systems. When misused (juice rather than fruit) the power released can be devastating. It turns out the acid potential (titrateable acid) of juice is nearly twice that of colas!

So put juice at the very top of the destructive beverage list that includes: juice, sports drinks like Gatorade, sodas, juicers and sweet energy teas.

1 comment:

  1. Taking good care of your mouth and teeth right through your life can help to prevent problems, especially as you grow older. The first set of teeth is almost fully formed at birth. You can care for your baby's teeth by following these suggestions. Please visit my site.

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Welcome to Winning With Smiles - Pediatric Dentistry. We are dedicated to cavity free, healthy beautiful smiles. We look forward to the opportunity to share with you what we know about creating optimal oral health for growing children. We understand oral health is closely tied to general health and like to work closely with the family physician. Oral health is also closely tied to family life and lifestyle. That is why we like to have the family involved with dental appointments. What we teach our patients works best if understood and supported by the family and will benefit the family as well. We enjoy working with parent and siblings present. We have been learning from families since 1974. With the family present, open questions lead to family learning. We are dedicated to your oral health.