This may seem like a strange question to ask, but are your teeth loosing weight? Is the enamel of your teeth getting prematurely thinner?
There are many factors that lead to your teeth loosing weight and interestingly, many of these factors also contribute to your body-weight gain. Thinking of your teeth first may benefit your health in more ways than you think.
The number one factor that leads to your teeth loosing weight… and you gaining weight is sipping on a sweet beverage throughout the day.
It doesn’t matter whether is is pop, a sport drink, an energy drink or a natural fruit juice. They all contribute to excessive sugar in your diet. In your mouth, that sugar feeds the cavity causing bacteria better that it feeds you. The main culprits are Streptococcus Mutans and Lactobacillus who behave like terrorists in your mouth. When these cavity causing bacteria are given the sugar they need, they then produce acid. A more vivid way of expressing this reality is the following: the bacteria eat the sugar and then they pee and poop ACID all over your teeth which leads to a drop in the pH. Every time your mouth’s pH drops below 5.5, your teeth loose some of their valuable mineral content. 
So if you keep the pH of your mouth low from sipping on a sweet beverage between meals, you ingest excessive and unwanted calories and you stress your teeth beyond their capacity to adapt. When your teeth have lost enough mineral content, the enamel collapses and you have a cavity. Enamel is a non-renewable resource: believe me, you don’t want to have your teeth loosing weight this way.
The number two factor has to do with your snack choices: most processed foods including crackers and chips also happen to feed the cavity causing bacteria better than they feed you.
These snacks are high in starch and starches are broken down to sugars in the mouth by an enzyme called salivary amylase. This means that starchy snacks like crackers or chips which don’t have 
even a hint of sweetness also contribute to dental caries. On top of it, these starchy snacks tend to stick to deep pits and crevasses in your teeth and to get stuck in between your teeth for a long time after you finish eating them. This provides food caches for the bacteria you really don’t want to feed in the first place. And then, like sipping on sweet drinks, you end up feeding the bacteria better than you feed your body. Pay attention to how much of your cracker or chip stays stuck on and in between your teeth next time you have a starchy snack: this situation leads to your teeth loosing weight.
So here are some tips to help you keep a healthy body mass, both for your teeth and for yourself:
- Stay away from sweet drinks, completely.
If you choose to have fruit juice, limit
yourself to 4 ounces only on any given day and have it with your breakfast. No sipping, period! - Drink water as much as you want. But please, don’t add anything to it. Simply pure water from your tap.
Eat only 3 to 4 meals per day. If you must snack, choose fresh, unprocessed foods such as fruits or vegetables. As a bonus with these healthy snacks you will get a small amount of xylitol from the fibers. Xylitol helps fight cavities.- WAIT 2 HOURS between meals and snacks: that is the MINIMUM recovery time for your saliva to rebalance the pH in your mouth
- FLOSS & BRUSH AFTER EACH MEAL. Whether you are at home, at school, at work or on the road, it doesn’t matter: FLOSS & BRUSH AFTER EACH MEAL. We wash the dishes after meals don’t we? So why not treat our mouth the same way. Our teeth are way more valuable than any dishes your money can buy.
