The following contains excerpts from my book, More Chocolate, No Cavities: How Diet Can Keep Your Kid Cavity-Free.
Fat does not cause cavities. Starches and sugars do.
Counterintuitively, your teeth would be better off if you had a small piece of 70 percent dark chocolate instead of a pretzel, a cracker, or even dried fruit. (I can’t say the same for milk chocolate—sorry.) Dark chocolate has a higher fat content and therefore a lower carbohydrate concentration relative to crackers. It is similar to peanut butter that has some added sugar. Cavity-causing bacteria won’t selectively only break down the sugars in chocolate; it must process the fat, too. Since it has to “wade through” all of the fat molecules, it will process the sugar a little more slowly. My favorite is 70 percent dark chocolate. Dark chocolate in particular has more fat than it has sugar. In other words, fat is the majority of the mass, while sugar is a minority. The higher the cacao concentration the better, because this increases the fat content and lowers the sugar content. Dark chocolate also happens to contain some chemicals that may strengthen your enamel. Toothpaste manufacturer Theodent extracted a chemical from dark chocolate and used it to make toothpaste that has been shown to strengthen enamel. More research is needed, but it looks promising. I view it as one more excuse to eat dark chocolate. Now, don’t go crazy and eat dark chocolate all day long. But you knew that already, right? I even give my three-year-old dark chocolate a few times a week (yet our house is cracker free!).
What about milk chocolate? Milk chocolate does not have the same health benefits as dark chocolate, but because of its higher fat content, it is better than most other candies (if you are going to have a piece of candy anyway). In other words, if you had a choice (for your teeth) between milk chocolate, a sucker, or a chewy fruity candy, choose the milk chocolate. The milk chocolate has less fat and more sugar than does dark chocolate (and no enamel-strengthening chemicals), but the sugar doesn’t last as long as that of a hard sucker or chewy fruity candy. I wouldn’t recommend milk chocolate every day because it lacks any health benefits dark chocolate may potentially provide, but I view crackers in the same way. I also do not recommend crackers every day, either. When you think of it that way, the average American family can usually get away with more chocolate than expected and should have significantly fewer crackers than expected when it comes to cavities. Have more chocolate and fewer crackers than you originally expected, and your teeth will be happier. My office gives out a piece of dark chocolate to every new family to drive this point home.
The best thing about dark chocolate is that no parent who is focused on health would give it to their child all day long. Far too often, parents give their child otherwise nutritious foods too frequently throughout the day, and end up surprised when their child gets cavities. Be sure to check out my diet-based snack guide for the different categories of snacks when it comes to teeth.
If you are still not convinced, I have a cheat for you! They now make dark chocolate sweetened with xylitol! Without the sugar, and many clinical studies showing that xylitol may actually help prevent cavities on its own, now you have a cavity preventing machine for a treat. Here are two online retailers that I have found: 4noGuilt.com and DrJohns.com. (I have no financial ties to these companies, they are just what I have found to be delicious and use myself.)
Two side effects to keep in mind. One: Xylitol and chocolate are both poisonous to dogs. Keep it away from pets! Two: If you eat too much xylitol, it may have a mild laxative effect. However, I consider this a plus for my own children, since constipation is often a constant struggle, I actually give my own kids extra xylitol when they are constipated now. It helps their teeth at the same time, and it is delicious. Win-win!
My book, More Chocolate, No Cavities, is full of advice that you won’t find anywhere else, and even if your dentist does know it, doesn’t have an hour to tell you. Please buy a copy and pass it on to a friend!
