Darkoshi

Thirteen Acidic Fruits And How They Affect Your Teeth

Wow, grapes are as acidic as grapefruit. Maybe that is why my teeth and gums were irritated this week, after me eating green grapes that I had bought.

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My teeth have erosion along the gumline.

For a while in the past, I used a Tom's of Maine (brand) children's anticavity fluoride mouth rinse ("Silly Strawberry" flavor) after brushing my teeth in the evening, hoping that would help fortify my tooth enamel and make my teeth less sensitive. I think I mixed the mouth rinse half and half with water to cut down on the sweetness, but other than that the flavor was nice.

After using that bottle up, I tried a different brand - TheraBreath for Kids "Anti Cavity Oral Rinse", "Gorilla Grape" flavor. OMG, that one was WAY sweeter than the other one. Even cut down with water, it was still very sweet. So I never used much of that bottle.

Both brands are sweetened with xylitol which is good for your teeth. But still, I don't like a sweet taste in my mouth when I go to bed, and rinsing out the mouth rinse with water negates some of the benefit of the fluoride. (Yes, I know many people think fluoride is actually bad for you, but considering that I've only had one cavity so far in my life, I'm still of the opinion that it works well for me.)

So this year I bought another bottle of the Tom's of Maine rinse. But I was surprised to see from its ingredient list that it contains actual fruit juices (strawberry, pineapple, orange, lemon, mango) rather than (or in addition to) fruit flavor. All those fruits are acidic, and I was surprised that any company would put acids into a mouth rinse, when acid is bad for teeth. Then I saw that the TheraBreath includes citric acid in its ingredients too.

I wondered if the amount of juice and acid was low enough not to make much impact, or if other ingredients in the mouth rinses counteracted the acidity of the juice.

I tested the Tom's mouth rinse by pouring a small amount of it into a glass and adding baking soda. It fizzed! I tried the same thing with the TheraBreath and Qiao's old Listerine. They all got somewhat cloudy when the baking soda dropped in. But the TheraBreath and Listerine did not fizz. Only Tom's of Maine produced visible bubbles.





Acidic Mouthwashes Are Eroding Your Teeth - lists the pH of various popular mouthwashes. Per this list, Tom's of Maine is the worst, but Listerine isn't good either.

The erosive effects of some mouthrinses on enamel

Mouthwash Is Bad For You: 4 Better Alternatives

The risky chemical lurking in your wallet / New research finds that the BPA in cash register receipts can be absorbed through skin. (article from 2014)

Explainer: Store receipts and BPA (from 2017)

“When people talk about polycarbonate bottles, they talk about nanogram quantities of BPA [leaching out],” Warner observed back around 2009. A nanogram is a billionth of a gram. “The average cash register receipt that's out there and uses the BPA technology will have 60 to 100 milligrams of free BPA,” he reported several years back. That’s a million times more than what ends up in a bottle. (By free, he explained, it’s not bound into a polymer, like the BPA in a bottle. The individual molecules are loose and ready for uptake.)

Is BPA on Thermal Paper A Health Risk? - includes tips on reducing exposure. Yikes... "Quickly wash your hands after touching a receipt. Scrub with soap and water. If you wait longer than four minutes, it’s too late."

I didn't know that aluminum cans have polymer linings on the inside, as otherwise the aluminum would dissolve into the soda.

The Secret Life of the Aluminum Can, a Feat of Engineering
The resin is usually epoxy, but it may also be vinyl, acrylic, polyester, or oleoresin, and could even be styrene, polyethylene, or polypropylene. The mixture also requires either a solvent, so that the epoxy can cure when baked, or a photo-initiator, so that the epoxy can cure when exposed briefly to ultraviolet (UV) light. The cross-linking agent of choice for the most tenacious epoxy coating is bisphenol-A, or BPA. According to coatings specialists, roughly 80 percent of that epoxy is BPA.
...
Because of BPA, everybody dances around what to call the can’s internal corrosion inhibitor. The FDA calls it a resinous and polymeric coating. At Can School, Ball employees called it an organic coating, or water-based polymer. The EPA calls it a chemical pollutant. Health researchers call it an endocrine disruptor, and a chronic toxin.

Interesting article: What's the Difference Between Dutch Process and Natural Cocoa Powder?
Natural cocoa is acidic, and the acidity of your ingredients affects the leavening you should use.

Even more enlightening: Baking Basics: Baking Powder vs Baking Soda