The Miracle of Water — For Your Teeth and So Much More
Part of our schtick here is to tell you what foods and beverages you should avoid if you want your dental health — and very often your overall health itself — to improve. This is because many of us are guilty of ingesting substances that can severely damage our teeth, so it’s important to highlight those things that should be removed from your daily diet or be ingested only in moderation.
Today, we’re instead going to shift our focus to something that you should be getting plenty of — water.
We all know that experts say to drink eight glasses of water a day, but more often than not, this instruction doesn’t come with any kind of reasoning behind it. So what we’d like to do is provide you with a few benefits of drinking water on a daily basis, whether it’s for the health of your teeth or the health of your body.
Water Cleans Your Teeth
While certain beverages, such as soda and others high in sugar, can coat your teeth and cause a great deal of damage, water does exactly the opposite. When you drink water, it washes away remnants of food and liquids that harm your teeth. You still need to brush and floss, of course, but between those daily activities, drinking water is a great way to maintain dental health.
Water Can Prevent Bad Breath
Whether you’ll be doing any talking or kissing soon, bad breath can keep people at bay. Bad breath is often caused by dehydration because when you don’t have ample saliva in your mouth, bacteria can thrive and lead to odors. Drinking water can solve such dehydration problems, so you can finally speak (and do other things) without being rebuffed by anyone.
Water Has No Calories
The fact that water has no calories makes it an excellent beverage of choice. You can drink water with every meal and not worry about calculating any added calories. If you want to get a little flavor every once in a while, you also have the option of adding zero-calorie additives or purchasing flavored, bottled water with no calories or sugar added to it. But, in our opinion, the original thing is the very best.
Water Can Help You Lose Weight
There are two specific ways that water can help you lose or maintain your weight. First, it’s an excellent alternative to sugary beverages like soda or any other beverage (yes, including coffee — sorry, coffee fans!) that add calories to your diet. Second, drinking water can help curb your appetite. So instead of reaching for a bag of chips, drink some water first and wait a few minutes. You’ll often find yourself no longer hungry or you’ll eat less of that sinful snack.
Water Makes Your Skin Look Better
Dehydration can cause your skin to become susceptible to wrinkling and cracking. If you want to maintain that youthful glow, water is not only a fantastic way to do that — it’s also typically the cheapest.
Water Keeps You Cool
While this time of the year may not be the best time to consider this particular benefit, once the hotter months of the year roll around, staying cool is just one more added benefit to drinking a lot of water. We suggest drinking it, but dousing yourself with water from a hose or one of those handheld misters is a great way to cool off, too.
Want to know more about what you should and should not be putting in your body to avoid bad dental health? Contact the office of Dr. Bruce McArthur, DDS, today and we’ll help you get started on the road to better health.