Here’s five that could!

In the world we live in, there are are hundreds of weight loss tips, tricks and diets out there.

Undoubtedly many of them work, and can get us primed and trim for our summer holidays or that big wedding day. But what we don’t often consider is the damage they’re doing to our teeth and gums.

So, can the Kardashians and co really save us from flabby oblivion with their super new diets? Maybe, but it’s time we all started to think about the negative impact celebrity diets could be having on our oral health.

Ewan Bramley Dental Care, a leading private Newcastle dentist, takes a look at just a few of the latest crazes and explains what they may be doing to your pearly whites.

The Raw Food Diet

Although eating certain raw foods like vegetables, seeds and nuts sounds on paper like a good idea, they actually can be quite damaging to your oral health. Despite the sugars in fruit being natural, when they make their way into your mouth, there is no difference between the sugars from fruit and the sugars from chocolate or sweets. All this sugar is constantly eroding your teeth and acts like a time bomb, small problems mount up on each tooth, leading to cavities and larger dental issues, which can be painful and very expensive to resolve.

Milkshake Diets

There are several milkshake plans that encourage you to swap two of your meals for a calorie-controlled milkshake, but these milkshakes can contain up to 18g of sugar per serving! If you are having two of these a day, then this is nearly half of your daily allowance (which should probably be less if you are dieting).

The sugar content of these milkshakes can cause tooth decay and promote plaque build-up which leads to cavities.

Low-Carb-High-Protein Diet

When you are not eating as many carbs, for example on a low-carb-high-protein diet or fasting days like the 5:2 diet, your body breaks down fat instead. This process results in your body going into a state called ketosis, which produces the chemicals that cause bad breath.

Ketosis is brought on entirely by your diet, and unfortunately, no amount of flossing and brushing will combat the smell so think twice before cutting out carbs completely and stick to healthy ones such as wholemeal pasta and wholemeal bread as these will keep bad breath away while staying trim.

Meal Replacements

Diet plans that offer you ready-made calorie controlled meal replacements tend to take out the fat and replace it with extra sugar and salt to keep the flavour. This can be extremely damaging to your teeth. Moreover, some meal replacement snacks are often higher in sugar than regular snacks so be careful to read the packaging before you buy!

The high sugar content can lead to tooth decay, especially from snacking between meals, as it increases the contact that our teeth have with sugar throughout the day

The Juice Cleanse

Low-calorie diets like the juice cleanse can cause insulin levels to peak and then plummet which, over time, alters the structure of collagen in the body and, therefore, affects your gums as it’s collagen fibres that hold your teeth in place.

The juice from fruit and vegetables, especially fruit, tend to have a high acid content which severely damages the enamel of your teeth in a similar way to fizzy drinks. Although fruit and vegetables are considered healthy acids, this is only the case when they are consumed as a whole, rather than as a concentrated juice.