March is National Nutrition Month

Dear Parents,

I hope that you are all enjoying the Beginning of this Great New Year!  We are already in March and March is National Nutrition Month, an annual campaign sponsored by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

In this article,  I’d like to touch briefly on the fact that we as parents work on limiting  our children’s intake of sugary foods, processed foods, and sodas; however we may not know about the dangers of food promoted as being healthy which also may have high levels of hidden sugars. We are finding this as many parents have made extensive efforts to feed their children healthy diets and may be unaware of some foods having high levels of hidden sugars.

We tend to give our  children fresh fruit juices, or smoothies as these drinks are often being promoted as healthier than soft drink consumption etc.  Although they do contain vitamins and minerals, they also tend to be packed with other hidden sugars that increase the risk of childhood tooth decay. As an alternative, diluting fruit juices with water can help lower the sugar content or these drinks can be replaced with cucumber flavored water, mint leaves, a little fresh seasonal fruit or even green juices made with mostly green vegetables.

I often visit the PCC market, and frequently visit their prepared food section. I was surprised to find that even prepared foods such as curry can have added sugar in it. When I questioned one of the employees there about the sugar content, I was informed that I could write a letter to management to address the topic of sugar additives in prepared foods.

Another challenge I find is that sometimes parents feed their children dried fruit for snacks, such as a packet of raisins in the belief that this is a healthy snack. However dried fruit has the ability to stick to the teeth for hours which can increase the likelihood of enamel damage as the sugary residue is difficult to brush off. It is better to provide children with whole, fresh fruit with a high water content. Cereal and granola bars with fruit are easy for kids to snack on; however they also contain a high level of sugar and the contents also can stick to the teeth for long periods of time.

We are always learning more and more about nutrition and diet not only for teeth health but for overall health as well.

At Kidz Dental Haven we do offer nutritional tips and counseling. When you have any questions about how to improve healthy eating and reduce the risk of tooth decay please talk with us at your next check up and we can help you come up with a personalized nutritional plan that will help keep your children happy and healthy.

Till next time happy brushing and looking forward to seeing you soon!

Dr. Bhanji

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