If these foods are a staple in your diet, the acids may be causing gradual "wear and tear" on your tooth enamel. The first step in protecting your enamel is knowing what foods and beverages are acidic. This list will give you an idea as to which foods pose a high, medium or low risk to your tooth enamel based on their level of acidity.
Acidity measurements come from the Food & Drug Administration. Refer to this page for a more complete list of foods and their acidity levels, click here.
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For chemists and scientists, pH is a measure of how acidic (pH 1 through 6) or alkaline something is. For people concerned about an acidic diet and acid erosion, the most important thing to know is this: the lower the pH number, the more acidic a food or a drink is and the more harmful it is to your tooth enamel. For example, distilled water has a neutral pH of 7, while tomato juice might have a pH of 4 and lemon juice might have a pH of 2-- making the lemon juice the most acidic of the three.
Knowing the pH value of the foods you eat and the beverages you drink will help you get a clearer picture of how acidic your diet is. And knowing the acidity of your diet is an important step in making sure you protect your tooth enamel from the effects of acid erosion.
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and therefore the higher the risk it may cause acid erosion. For example:
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has compiled a list of approximate pH values for hundreds of acidic foods, so you can be better informed about the acids in your diet. Being properly informed about the acid level in the foods you eat is an important first step in protecting your tooth enamel from the effects of acid erosion.
Click here to download the list from the FDA.