Healthy snacks play a huge role in helping children maintain excellent dental health at every stage of development. Choosing the right foods for lunch can help protect your child’s beaming smile for years to come.
Avoiding problematic, cavity-causing foods, like sticky candy and other sweets, is only one part of the equation when it comes to helping your child maintain excellent dental health. You must also make sure your child regularly eats foods that contain the right blend of beneficial vitamins and minerals. You can help protect your child’s beautiful smile by filling his or her lunchbox with the following healthy snacks that promote great dental health.
- Cottage Cheese
A half cup of cottage cheese provides your child with nearly 100mg of calcium without the sugar found in most types of low-fat yogurt. Calcium helps strengthen the bony structure of teeth and promotes the continued health of nerves and blood vessels running through the oral tissues. - String Cheese
String cheese is another low sugar food that offers an excellent amount of calcium. Each cheese stick contains over 20 percent of the calcium needed by your child’s body each day. At 15 percent of the daily value, vitamin D found in cheese sticks helps the body process and utilize the calcium needed for great oral health. - Sunflower Seeds
Sunflower seeds boost energy levels without the added sugar found in sweeter varieties of nuts and seeds. Furthermore, your child receives magnesium and selenium, which both help keep the oral tissues healthy and strong throughout life. - Tree Nuts
Trees nuts, such as almonds, pecans and walnuts, satisfy the need for a salty, crunchy element to lunch without adding excess sugar to the mix. The high vitamin E levels in tree nuts help keep gum tissues healthy by removing free radicals in those structures. - Whole Grain Pretzels
Pretzels are often overlooked as beneficial for dental health due to the amount of carbohydrates in each serving. By selecting whole grain varieties, however, you offer your child the same satisfying salty, crunchy snack without the excess of simple sugars found in most chips and crackers. - Celery
Celery helps scrape away food deposits that remain on the teeth after eating sticky or crumby foods. In addition, chewing crunchy celery ramps up saliva production that helps wash away deposits on the teeth. Celery has no sugar and very few calories so a few sticks can be included in every lunch without worry. - Apples
Apples offer the amazing sweetness of dessert while providing beneficial vitamins and minerals, including vitamin C and potassium. Although apples contain a substantial amount of sugar, the fiber content helps outweigh that factor quite a bit. - Strawberries
Strawberries are a tart and sweet snack that have a minimal amount of sugar in each serving. With each small strawberry offering, 7mg of vitamin C, this snack has the potential to help keep your child’s gums healthy throughout life.
Acquiring Dental Care for Children in Little Rock
At regular checkup appointments, your dentist for children in Little Rock can confirm that your child’s eating plan is helping his or her teeth and gums stay healthy. You can schedule a checkup for your child with a family dentist in Little Rock by calling Arkansas Family Dental at 501-683-8886. Make sure your child visits the dentist at least once every six months to receive a thorough dental examination and cleaning.
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