Can Plant-Based Diets Promote Healthy Teeth?
There's been a lot of focus on vegan diets and their health benefits as of late. Yet one often-overlooked aspect of health is oral care. Before you start on a vegan diet, you may wonder if the lifestyle is good or bad for your teeth. The answer is somewhere in the middle.
Benefits of a Vegan Lifestyle for Your Teeth
One of the perks of a vegan lifestyle is that you're not eating processed food. A true vegan diet consists of fresh food. Processed food is bad for your teeth because it typically contains a lot of chemicals that are questionable for your health. These chemicals are in there to preserve the food in order to make it last longer. Sometimes it's there to give the food product a certain color or flavor.
Processed food increases bacteria production in your mouth. As a result, more plaque forms and can be difficult to remove.
Fresh Food
A vegan lifestyle centers around fresh food made from plants. In particular, you'll receive a lot of fibery meals. This is great for your teeth because of the high fiber content. Eating certain vegetables like broccoli or celery encourages the fibery strands to scrub your teeth while you chew the food. This can break plaque down and give your mouth a small cleaning while you're eating.
Fresh food also reduces the number of bacteria that is produced. Because they're not processed, they don't have the chemicals or ingredients involved that bacteria love to eat.
Because vitamins and minerals are found in abundance in fruits and vegetables, you can also promote gum health and body health by eating them. By consuming more vitamins and minerals, you can promote a healthy environment for your gums and teeth. If the rest of your body is healthy, then your oral health will be, too.
It's also equally important that the products you use to clean your teeth with are vegan. These ensure that the ingredients used in those products were harvested safely and without any animal products. By nature, these products also tend to be more environmentally-friendly.
Negatives of a Vegan Lifestyle for Your Teeth
One of the biggest drawbacks of a vegan lifestyle for tooth health is the lack of calcium. You need calcium to keep your bones and teeth strong. Most humans receive their calcium by drinking dairy milk. Vegans rely on other milk products like almond, oat, or soy which don't contain as much calcium.
As a result, their bones and teeth may weaken over time.
Yet an easy solution to overcome the lack of calcium is to include a supplement. You may even want to add calcium powder to your drinks if you can find one that is vegan.
There may also be other minerals that you don't get enough of to encourage teeth strength and endurance. Yet all you need to do is take the correct amount of a supplement to counteract this.
Of course, for some households, adding on supplements may be too expensive for their grocery budget.
Try Our Vegan Products Today
When deciding whether or not a vegan lifestyle is right for you, you should think about your oral health and how it will be affected. At the very least, you can enjoy our 100% vegan products. These products will further encourage great oral health and keep your gums and teeth safe and healthy. Even if you do choose to follow a vegan lifestyle, you will need to continue to brush twice a day for two minutes as well as using biodegradable floss and an organic mouthwash.
