By Dr. Vanessa Woods and Dr. Alas­tair Woods

(Irish Examiner, 13 Jan 2020)

Farm­ing, food nu­tri­ents, den­tal health and hu­man health are in­ex­tri­ca­bly linked — fact. This nat­u­ral re­la­tion­ship is so ob­vi­ous that we can some­times fail to put enough thought into it.

Let’s re­mem­ber that nu­tri­tion and oral health (ie healthy teeth, gums etc.) are firmly linked and oral health is an in­te­gral part of over­all health.

Food, tooth and over­all health — new think­ing for a new decade

We all ex­pe­ri­ence it, the mo­ment when we lose our first baby tooth, fol­lowed by an­other and then an­other, mak­ing way for our per­ma­nent pearly whites. We take care of and main­tain our baby teeth for their nat­u­ral life­span, even­tu­ally be­ing con­scious of the fact that when they fall out, only one more will emerge in each space.

We should al­ways be cog­nisant of the nu­tri­tion and oral health link. For ex­am­ple, poor oral health can af­fect the abil­ity to eat cer­tain nu­tri­tious foods, while poor nu­tri­tion can in­crease the risk of poor oral health, in­clud­ing gum disease and tooth loss.

We should al­ways be cog­nisant of the nu­tri­tion and oral health link. For ex­am­ple, poor oral health can af­fect the abil­ity to eat cer­tain nu­tri­tious foods, while poor nu­tri­tion can in­crease the risk of poor oral health, in­clud­ing gum disease and tooth loss.

As we en­ter this new decade of the ’20s, hav­ing en­joyed nour­ish­ing and nu­tri­tious Ir­ish food over the fes­tive pe­riod, grown by Ir­ish farm­ers, we should take some time to re­flect. Un­der­stand­ing the im­por­tance of the nu­tri­ents in our food for proac­tive den­tal health­care and proac­tive hu­man health­care is piv­otal.

A nu­tri­tious bal­anced diet is a key com­po­nent of good health and a key com­po­nent of a healthy den­ti­tion (ie healthy teeth and gums). We all take pride in our ap­pear­ance, be it a new hair­cut, a new out­fit and most im­por­tantly, a healthy smile.

Es­sen­tial food nu­tri­ents for proac­tive den­tal health­care

The im­por­tance of a bal­anced diet is well es­tab­lished for over­all health. We can of­ten for­get that in or­der to di­gest and ab­sorb the nu­tri­ents from our food, we are solely re­liant on our teeth as the first step in the di­ges­tion process. Al­though there are many sci­en­tific pub­li­ca­tions re­lat­ing food and den­tal health, con­sumers are not al­ways aware of this science.

Such an aware­ness is very im­por­tant to pur­chas­ing de­ci­sions, when it comes to good den­tal health.

The old adage ‘You are what you eat’ has never been more rel­e­vant when it comes to our den­tal health. In child­hood years, a diet with the rec­om­mended daily in­take of cal­cium, pro­motes the de­vel­op­ment of strong teeth and bones. Dairy (milk, cheese, nat­u­ral yo­ghurt) is an im­por­tant source of cal­cium and phos­pho­rus, along with other key nu­tri­ents re­quired for healthy teeth and bones.

While some foods can con­tain many vi­tal nu­tri­ents, they can also have high lev­els of acid and su­gar. Some stud­ies show that eat­ing cheese af­ter a meal or snack eg fruit, can help neu­tralise acid in the mouth, help­ing to pre­vent tooth de­cay.

While some foods can con­tain many vi­tal nu­tri­ents, they can also have high lev­els of acid and su­gar. Some stud­ies show that eat­ing cheese af­ter a meal or snack eg fruit, can help neu­tralise acid in the mouth, help­ing to pre­vent tooth de­cay.

A chal­lenge that can be com­monly faced by the el­derly is main­tain­ing a healthy body weight and in­deed, main­tain­ing mus­cle mass. This can in part be at­trib­uted to a poor den­ti­tion, where it can be more dif­fi­cult to eat the es­sen­tial nu­tri­ent-rich foods, re­quired for over­all health.

For ex­am­ple, meat is a nu­tri­ent-rich food, packed with pro­tein, which is re­quired to main­tain mus­cle mass. The im­por­tance of healthy teeth to phys­i­cally chew and di­gest meat, for ex­am­ple, is food for thought.

Stud­ies have shown that in­creas­ing the in­take of di­etary fi­bre, es­sen­tial fats and fresh fruit and veg­eta­bles, can help to fight against gum disease, be­ing the num­ber one cause of tooth loss in adults.

Stud­ies have shown that in­creas­ing the in­take of di­etary fi­bre, es­sen­tial fats and fresh fruit and veg­eta­bles, can help to fight against gum disease, be­ing the num­ber one cause of tooth loss in adults.

The fu­ture

There is a real need to en­gage con­sumers in the im­por­tance of good nu­tri­tion for good health. In­deed, adopt­ing such an ap­proach could of­fer a valu­able health strat­egy for proac­tive den­tal health­care, and as such, proac­tive hu­man health­care, be­cause they are not mu­tu­ally ex­clu­sive.

The key role of Ir­ish farm­ers and the agri-food in­dus­try in pro­duc­ing sus­tain­able and nu­tri­ent dense food for con­sumers must be at the heart of this new ap­proach to com­mu­ni­ca­tion and en­gage­ment. We all want to stay healthy for as long as pos­si­ble and es­sen­tial food nu­tri­ents, proac­tive den­tal health­care and en­gage­ment with health­care pro­fes­sion­als are key to achiev­ing this.

The key role of Ir­ish farm­ers and the agri-food in­dus­try in pro­duc­ing sus­tain­able and nu­tri­ent dense food for con­sumers must be at the heart of this new ap­proach to com­mu­ni­ca­tion and en­gage­ment. We all want to stay healthy for as long as pos­si­ble and es­sen­tial food nu­tri­ents, proac­tive den­tal health­care and en­gage­ment with health­care pro­fes­sion­als are key to achiev­ing this.

■ Vanessa Woods, founder and chief ex­ec­u­tive of ‘Vanessa B Woods Com­mu­ni­ca­tions’, Ire­land’s first Science Com­mu­ni­ca­tions Con­sul­tancy

■ Alas­tair Woods, owner and prin­ci­pal den­tal sur­geon at Deans­grange Den­tal Clinic, Co Dublin.