Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Hope everyone is having a great summer which brings about my next topic of interest on hot warm summer days - staying hydrated.  The journal of the American Dental Association (ADA) recently published an article on the varying pH's (how acidic or basic something is - low number being very acidic, high number being very basic, and neutral pH =7) of different beverages.  Water is always going to be your best bet in terms of staying hydrated with a neutral pH (although, I have read some articles that some bottled water can sometimes have a slightly acidic pH to them so do your research!)

The research study put the beverages into 3 categories.
-extremely erosive: pH lower than 3.0
-erosive: pH 3.0-3.99
-minimally erosive: pH of 4.0 or greater

Just to give everyone an idea of how erosive something is, lemon juice has a pH of 2.25 (extremely erosive).  Other beverages that fall into this category are Ocean Spray Cranberry (2.56), V8 Splash Tropical Blend (2.93), Cool Aid mix cherry (2.71), Tropicana Lemonade (2.70), Snapple Kiwi Strawberry (2.77), Coca-Cola Classic (2.37), Pepsi (2.39), Dr. Pepper (2.88), Crush Orange (2.87), Powerade Lemon Lime (2.75)

Some beverages that fall into the "erosive" category are 7UP (3.24), A&W cream soda (3.86), Mountain Dew (3.22), Redbull regular (3.43), Gatorade Rain Lime (3.19), Sobe Life Water Fugi Apple Pear (3.53), Vitamin Water Power C Dragonfruit (3.05), Sobe Pina Colada (3.25), Welch's Strawberry Kiwi (3.03), Welch's Apple Juice (3.57)

And then some examples of beverages that are "minimally erosive" are Aquafina regular (6.11), Dasani regular (5.03), V8 Vegetable Juice (4.23), A&W Root Beer (4.27), Canada Dry Club Soda (5.24).

Remember that a neutral pH is 7, and damage can occur to your teeth once the pH of your mouth goes below 5.5.  These are just some examples, but I love this research study because it shows just how harmful sodas, energy drinks, fruit juices and fruit drinks can be if consumed too frequently.

The original study was published in the April 2016 edition of the Journal of the American Dental Association.

-Eric Tyler, DDS

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