The Worst Food for Tooth Decay [Video]

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

Nearly a half century ago at a Senate hearing on nutrition, a Dr. Nizel from Tufts suggested that sugary breakfast cereals “should be banned in the best interest for all concerned, particularly children”—perhaps not surprisingly, since he was a professor of dental medicine.

A dozen different foods and beverages were ranked for their “cariogenic potential”—their cavity-causing potential—by implanting electrodes in the mouths of study subjects to measure the amount of acid produced in the plaque between their teeth after eating a variety of different things. And, the two breakfast cereals they tested topped the charts.

If you drink some sugar water, the pH on your teeth plunges within minutes into the acidic danger zone, and stays there for an hour, eating …