4 "Healthy" Foods That Cause More Cavities Than Chocolate, According to Dentists

In the chase for a healthier lifestyle, many Britons reach for options like bananas, kombucha, or fresh juice. Yet most don't know how damaging these are for teeth, some even more than chocolate.

Arif Al-Suwaidi, Co-Founder and CEO at Zental Dental Clinic, has flagged the healthy foods that cause cavities as much as, or worse than, sweets, and daily hacks on how to protect your teeth.

Banana is made of soft starch and has 14g of sugar, which gets stuck in the gaps between teeth. Unlike chocolate, which melts away fast, bananas stay stuck and feed bacteria for hours, creating better conditions for cavities than any amount of sweets. 

Dentist's hack: Eat your banana with a meal, never alone. Finish with something crunchy, like 1 apple or 2 carrots, to scrub off residue until the next floss.

Kombucha is among the worst foods for cavities, with a pH of 2.5 to 3.5, which is almost the same as white vinegar at 2.4.  A review of studies found it often does more damage to enamel than regular soda, because it stays acidic in your mouth for a long time and is slow to neutralise.

Dentist's hack: Drink it in one go through a straw, so it never washes over your teeth. Chase it with a piece of cheese to neutralise the acid.

Flavoured sparkling water feels like plain water, but the bubbles and added fruit acid make its pH low enough to start dissolving enamel and create cavities. It’s assumed to be “harmless” with 0 sugar, but a can of it is closer to a soft drink than to water. 

Dentist's hack: Pair every can with food, never on its own, and finish with a mouthful of plain water

 

     4. Sushi Is Sweet, Acidic, and Sticky All at Once

 

Sushi rice is seasoned with sugar and rice vinegar, so a single lunch of 12 pieces gives cavities 3 to 4 teaspoons of added sugar. The vinegar softens the enamel, and the sticky rice keeps that sugar pressed against your teeth long after lunch.

 

Dentist's hack: End the meal on the pickled ginger to get saliva flowing, and swap a couple of rolls for sashimi to cut the rice. A stick of sugar-free gum after clears what is stuck.

Commenting on the findings, Arif Al-Suwaidi from Zental stated: "People think cavities come from eating too much sugar, but every time you eat or drink, your teeth come under acid for about 20 minutes, then your spit slowly repairs them. Eat 3 meals a day and that is 3 hits. Snack the same food 10 times through the day and it is 10 hits with no time to heal between them. So the person snacking on healthy things all day often has worse teeth than the one who eats a chocolate bar and is done. It is never about how much sugar you eat alone."