by Christine
Part of maintaining a healthy body is ensuring that you drink enough water. It is common knowledge that drinking water is essential to your health, but sometimes water can feel a little boring. One way to add flavour to your water is to infuse it with fruits. Fruit-infused water is something that has been trending and gaining popularity. You will see recipes all over Pinterest, Instagram and the blogosphere. Not only can it be a healthful substitute for soda or sugary drinks, it looks beautiful and refreshing which may motivate you to drink up! While hydrating is so very important and fruit-infused water is delicious, how does it affect your teeth? Some fruits have high acid content and can be damaging to the enamel of your teeth. Examples of high acid fruits are lemons, limes, grapefruits, oranges, cranberries, blueberries and pineapple. Exposing teeth to acidic food can result in enamel erosion. When enamel weakens, teeth can become sensitive and/or discoloured over time and eventually decay. The calcium in saliva can help strengthen enamel, but when the environment in your mouth is too acidic, remineralization will not occur. Once enamel is gone, it cannot be restored, so it is important to prevent erosion where possible. Does this mean that you should avoid that beautiful, refreshing pitcher of infused water? Absolutely not! Save the infused water to have as a treat (rather than sipping all day long) or try balancing the amount of infused water you are drinking with regular water. You can also use fruit ingredients that have a lower acidic content such as honeydew, watermelon and strawberries. Drinking from a straw can also help reduce your teeth’s exposure. These few suggestions are ways that you can have your fruit and drink it too!