Your tummy knows what it likes. What about your teeth?
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
What’s on your plate might shape your smile!
Ghazal Aarabi and team at University of Hamburg-Eppendorf studied this. Over six thousand participants logged their eating habits and received dental checkups. They measured gum depth, plaque, and bleeding.
Which diets seem to help your teeth? The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, and Mediterranean diets. Both focus on veggies, fish, whole grains, and healthy fats, and less salt, red meat, and processed foods.
DASH followers had fewer cases of severe gum disease, and Mediterranean dieters had about half as much plaque on average.
So next time you eat, think with your teeth!
Reference: Altun, E., Walther, C., Borof, K., Petersen, E., Lieske, B., Kasapoudis, D., Jalilvand, N., Beikler, T., Jagemann, B., Zyriax, B.-C., & Aarabi, G. (2021). Association between Dietary Pattern and Periodontitis—A Cross-Sectional Study. Nutrients, 13(11), 4167. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13114167