If you’re hoping to protect your teeth, experts advise you eat your candy in as few sittings as possible.
If your kids went trick-or-treating for Halloween this year, you probably have a massive bag or two filled with treats sitting somewhere in your home. Halloween is an amazing night that allows you to bond with your neighbours like never before and then take home a perplexing amount of sugar to deal with afterwards. While common sense likely tells you it’s best to ease your way through the mounds of chocolates, lollipops, and licorice by consuming just a few pieces per day, some experts are saying otherwise. Protecting your teeth can require a different approach.
It can be difficult to know what’s the best move to make, however. Should you consume all those treats at once, or dive in for a binge? Here’s the scoop.
Dentists say to eat it all in one go
According to dental experts, eating your Halloween candy in as few sittings as possible is the best way to do it. While this will no doubt send your blood sugar sky high for a while, this approach exposes your teeth to the least amount of prolonged periods of sugar coating, leading to a lower chance of developing cavities,( as long as you brush your teeth well afterwards). The idea is that if you eat a small amount of candy every day- especially early on- the sugar has more time to contribute to bacteria building up on your pearly whites. By consuming all that sweet jazz all at once, you only have to brush once… and then you’re done.
Related: Eating late decreases your calories burned and changes your fat
Bacteria in your mouth feeds on sugar, and candy is the perfect recipe for cavities. As the bacteria grows, plaque forms. Acid in this plaque then causes holes to grow in your enamel and these develop into cavities that require filling. It may seem strange that dentists want you to avoid developing cavities as these do pay their bills in the long run, but the message is clear: when it comes to your teeth and sugar, exposure time is the primary concern.
Where to take your extra candy
While kids will never say no to candy, parents certainly do. If you find your kids have too much candy and you don’t know what to do with it all, ask dentists in your area if they’re running a candy buy-back program. Some dentists in the US and Canada have been known to buy kids candy back at $1/pound. The excess candy is then shipped to military troops working overseas who need some cheering up, (with toothbrushes bundled in as well, of course).
It’s called the Halloween Candy Buy Back and Dr. Chris Kammer invented the program in 2005, in an effort to reduce kids’ sugar consumption and the proliferation of cavities. To date, hundreds of tons of candy have been collected by thousands of dental offices across the nation. If you find you simply have too much sugar in the house, this can be a great solution!
photo credits: Teri Virbickis/Shutterstock.com
