{"id":828,"date":"2017-09-20T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/dental-care-blog\/chocolate-and-your-teeth-2\/"},"modified":"2017-09-20T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-09-20T00:00:00","slug":"chocolate-and-your-teeth-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/dental-care-blog\/chocolate-and-your-teeth-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Chocolate And Your Teeth"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/hudsonhighlandsdentistryblog.socialmediafordentistry2.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/91\/2017\/09\/Chocolate-And-Your-Teeth_543.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"543\" height=\"543\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1489\" \/>  <strong>UNDER MOST CIRCUMSTANCES,<\/strong> dentists are not fans of candy. The sugar in candy is the favorite food of bacteria that cause tooth decay. However, when it comes to chocolate, certain types may actually be good for oral health!  To be clear, this is not a blog post in which we give you a free pass to eat all the chocolate you want. Only certain types of chocolate have any health benefits, and too much of even the healthiest kinds probably isn\u2019t a good thing. <\/p>\n<h3><strong>All Chocolate Is Not Created Equal<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p> How can you tell where any given chocolate falls on the spectrum from most processed to least? It helps to know a little about how chocolate is made. The most important ingredient is the cocoa bean. After fermenting, the beans can either be roasted and made into cocoa powder, or cold pressed into cacao powder, which retains more of the original nutrients. You\u2019ll get the most nutrients from <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.paleohacks.com\/cacao-vs-cocoa\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cacao nibs or powder<\/a>, but the stuff is pretty bitter and the chocolatey taste isn\u2019t as strong.  If you\u2019d rather stick with the chocolate you\u2019re used to, there are still factors to consider. The main ingredients in a chocolate bar are cocoa solids, cocoa butter, sugar, and milk (if it\u2019s milk chocolate). White chocolate is made with cocoa butter and sugar and contains no cocoa solids, <strong>so it has none of the beneficial nutrients<\/strong>. Milk chocolate tends to contain at most 10 percent cocoa solids, so the tiny amount of nutrients from the cocoa beans is offset by a ton of sugar. Not a healthy choice. But let\u2019s talk about dark chocolate. <\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Benefits Of Dark Chocolate<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1bZBfBBjZ9g?rel=0&amp;end=162\" width=\"543\" height=\"305\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe>  Dark chocolate, particularly 70 percent cocoa (or cacao) or higher, is where you\u2019ll start hearing buzzwords like \u201csuperfood.\u201d That\u2019s because the cocoa bean is full of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dentalantioxidants.com\/antioxidants-and-oral-health\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">healthy antioxidants<\/a>\u2013specifically, polyphenols, flavonoids, and tannins\u2013and dark chocolate has enough cocoa in it to keep most of them. <strong>Bonus points:<\/strong> there isn\u2019t much sugar.  Antioxidants have all kinds of benefits for overall health, but let\u2019s focus on oral health. Saliva is the mouth\u2019s first line of defense against tooth decay, gum disease, and bad breath, and antioxidants play a <a href=\"http:\/\/recipes.howstuffworks.com\/dark-chocolate-good-for-teeth.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">crucial role<\/a> in all of those. They help stabilize and strengthen your own oral tissues, protect against cell mutation, and make it harder for harmful bacteria to flourish. <\/p>\n<h3><strong>Chocolate Still Isn\u2019t Everything<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p> Like we said before, this blog post isn\u2019t a license for you to eat as much chocolate as you want. No matter how full of antioxidants it is, dark chocolate still doesn\u2019t replace other important oral health habits like brushing, flossing, and regular dental appointments. If you love to snack, however, you might consider swapping a few items heavy in processed sugars for dark chocolate or cacao nibs. Your teeth will thank you! <\/p>\n<h4>Your healthy teeth are our pride and joy!<\/h4>\n<h6>Top image used under <span style=\"color: #2a7abd;\"><a style=\"color: #2a7abd;\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/share-your-work\/public-domain\/cc0\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CC0 Public Domain license<\/a><\/span>. Image cropped and modified from original.<\/h6>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #d9d9d9;\">The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong>UNDER MOST CIRCUMSTANCES,<\/strong> dentists are not fans of candy. The sugar in candy is&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[176,273,274,275],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-dental-posts","category-general-dental","category-pediatric","category-176","category-273","category-274","category-275","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mydentalpracticeblog.com\/hudsonhighlandsdentistry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}