What Vitamins Promote a Healthy Mouth?
Get Your Calcium & Vitamin D
Calcium and vitamin D are important for strengthening your bones and teeth, particularly as you age. Research has shown that in individuals over sixty, calcium and vitamin D increase bone density and can lower the risk of hip fracture. Calcium is often too bulky to fit the daily value into a multivitamin, so you will likely need to obtain your calcium from another source. It is recommended that you take a supplement unless you get enough from your diet. You need 1,000 mg of calcium daily from ages 19 to 50, and 1,200 mg daily if you are over 50. Men should not take more than 1,500 mg a day. (From “Longevity Made Simple: Add 20 Good Years to Your Life”)
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin. It is a vitamin that should be ingested daily. Water-soluble vitamins are washed out of the body once the body has what it needs. Vitamin C, also known as ascorbic acid, promotes healthy teeth and gums, assists the absorption of iron and maintains healthy connective tissue. If you cut or scrape your skin, Vitamin C aids in the healing of those wounds. It also is an antioxidant.
Of course, maintaining adequate levels of all vitamins in the body is ultimately necessary to the maintenance of a healthy mouth. The body functions as a whole so any deficiency will tax the other systems requiring the deficient vitamin.
THE MINERALS
Calcium, calcium, and more calcium, everyone needs adequate calcium no mater what age they are. This mineral is intimately involved in the building of bones and teeth. What do bones have to do with teeth, you may be thinking? Plenty. Your “jawbone” is the foundation your teeth live within. If your jawbone is not healthy the chances are your whole mouth is not healthy.
In conjunction with calcium you need adequate levels of phosphorus. These two minerals work hand-in-hand to make your bones and teeth stronger. Investigate fluoride, magnesium and other minerals as necessary to strong teeth.
WHAT TO EAT
All bodies need vitamins to promote growth and health. Some vitamins are needed because the body cannot make them at all or makes them in insufficient amounts so food intake must supply them.
To get your Vitamin A, eat dark green and yellow fruits and vegetables, eggs, low-fat dairy products, and liver. Vitamin D is taken into the body by eating egg yolks, fatty fish (like tuna and salmon, sardines and herring), and drinking fortified milk. Getting your daily Vitamin C can be accomplished by eating citrus fruits, tomatoes, melons, berries, red peppers, green peppers, and broccoli. Proper calcium in your diet can be provided by including yogurt or other dairy products, cheese, tofu, vegetables such as broccoli and peas, beans, enriched grains as well as seeds and nuts.
WHAT NOT TO EAT
Stay away from foods that are high in calories, salt, sugar, and the wrong kinds of fat such as fast foods or processed and pre-packaged foods. Most meals that fall into this category are deficient in essential nutrients and can pack on the pounds quickly. Salt and sugar interfere with the body’s metabolism by altering insulin processes and blood pressure among other destructive behaviors. tooth decay and gum disease should be watched carefully if you fill your diet with fast foods or processed foods. The sugars included in these foods can cause tooth decay to increase rapidly.
Written by Melissa LaRose