Looks Like Green Tea Helps Your Teeth

I guess dentistry is on my mind today, because this is my second post today about teeth.  An article from Preventitive Medicine suggests drinking green tea helps to protect your teeth.

The study checked a group of people in Japan and basically found that those folks who drank green tea had more of their teeth.  Those people who didn’t drink green tea?  You guessed it.  Less teeth.

While it’s possible that simply the act of drinking tea is what helps- sort of like a mouthwash- the same protective effect didn’t hold true for coffee.  So it’s more likely that some of the anti-microbial effects of green tea (from beneficial chemcials called catechins) are the cause.

Those catechins have been shown to kill off the bacteria that causes gum and tooth decay, and while they’re in green tea, they aren’t in coffee. Actually, catechins do more than just protect your teeth.  They’re wonderful antioxidants that promote all kinds of health benefits… this whole tooth protection thing is just icing on the cake.

By the way, speaking of icing, the green tea has to be unsweetened.  Adding sugar kills the protective effect.  Still, one more reason to drink green tea!

Stay healthy!

Source article: http://news.discovery.com/human/green-tea-teeth-dental.html