Ensuring that your children are eating a nutritional and balanced diet can be a challenge with a busy schedule. But getting the right nutrients and minerals during lunchtime is important to help them maintain good oral health and to strengthen their teeth and gums. To help make tooth-friendly school lunches a breeze, check out this guide of ideas to include that won’t harm their oral health.
Crunchy Fruit and Vegetables
Fruits and veggies such as carrots, celery, peppers, cucumbers, and apples are packed with vitamin C and other nutrients that can easily be added to your child’s lunch. Vitamin C not only helps prevent gingivitis from developing, but the crisp and crunchy texture also increases the production of saliva, which assists in removing plaque-producing bacteria.
Yogurt and Cheese
Calcium helps make teeth strong by replacing the minerals that are stripped from the teeth. It also helps to neutralize the acid produced by bacteria that can form into plaque. Simply by adding calcium-rich snacks and food, you can help protect teeth and keep them strong. Excellent sources of calcium that you can add to your child’s lunch include yogurt, cheese, and cottage cheese with fruit.
Fresh Water
Water can help rinse away bits of food that can get lodged in the teeth, which increases the production of bacteria. Packing a BPA free bottle of water can help encourage your child to drink more water after they eat and throughout the day.
Whole Grain Crackers and Bread
Snacks like whole grain crackers with hummus and sandwiches with whole grains are more examples of ingredients to include in tooth-friendly school lunches. The fibre in whole grains have lots of health benefits and can help lower the prevalence of periodontal disease and gum inflammation.
Nuts and Trail Mix
Nuts and trail mix are filled with vitamins and minerals that benefit oral health. Almonds, peanuts, walnuts, and cashews are packed with calcium that helps both teeth and gums, among many other oral health-enhancing minerals.
Healthy Salads
A healthy salad can make the perfect tooth-friendly lunch for your kid. For a quick, easy-to-make, vitamin-packed salad, toss together spinach, tofu, beans, green vegetables, hard boiled eggs and some nuts. This type of salad is packed with vitamins A, C, D, along with calcium and phosphorous, which are great for your teeth.
Your child’s lunches are just as important as the rest of their meals throughout the day for keeping their teeth and gums healthy and strong. Use this guide of ingredients to help make lunch prep easy for you and beneficial for your child’s oral health.
