Alpharetta, Children's Dental care
Grocery Guide for Healthier Teeth in Alpharetta, Georgia
We recently wrote a post to help our patients by creating a grocery and shopping guide for healthier teeth. The focus was on Johns Creek as many of our patients come from the area. Today’s post continues this effort by highlighting the city of Alpharetta.
The purpose of the post is to help families not only understand what the healthiest foods are for your teeth, but also create awareness of local places in Alpharetta to buy these foods.
To see our Johns Creek guide, you can refer to it here.
Green and Black Tea
Coffee is a staple of the American diet and something that many people could NOT dare to live without. There are lots of bad parts about coffee including the caffeine and high prices, but on a dental side it also stains your teeth.
Therefore, heavy consumption of coffee can negatively harm your teeth. Now, we’re a pediatric dental office and many of our patients aren’t drinking coffee regularly because their too young. However, with Starbucks and coffee shops being so popular, we see many of our patients start to partake in coffee.
Tea is a great option, especially black tea which has been found to have compounds that have a “significant” impact on dental health. So instead of coffee, sugary drinks or soda, you can get some tea.
Urban Tea: Urban tea is quite literally a tea house. They have over 100 loose leaf teas that you can pick from. They have a Communi-tea table that gives the complete tea and scone experience. The do daily tea tasting and classes every month. So if you want to be immersed in the culture of tea, Urban tea is a fun place where you and your child can go and not just get tea, but to really jump in and experience the world of tea.
Starbucks: Many people forget that Starbucks also has tea. Well right next door to our office we have a Starbucks that you can head over to with your child after a visit. When ordering tea, be sure not to order anything too sweet or loaded with creamer. The best is to get unsweetened tea. Starbucks also has a variety of teas that you can choose from.
Alpharetta doesn’t have any boba shops, but Johns Creek, Cumming and Duluth do and whenever you venture over there, they also have a wide selection of teas. Many of these locations will add creamer and loads of sugar to their drinks, so we suggest not ordering the main products on the menu. You can always ask for tea with no sugar and creamer.
Water Contains Optimal Fluoride Level in Alpharetta
The best option for beverages is always going to be water. And what’s even better is that water in Alpharetta has optimal level of fluoride. As we talked about in our Johns Creek guide, we talked about how Fulton County does an amazing job with their water.
The U.S Public Health Services recommends that the ratio of fluoride to water is 0.7 parts per million (ppm). This number was applauded by the American Dental Association in an official announcement on their website.
In Fulton County’s official Water Quality Report they published that the range of detected fluoride was 0.68 – 0.71 ppm, which falls almost exactly on the 0.7 ppm recommendation of the U.S Public Health Services.
So you can take pride and comfort knowing that the water in Alpharetta is quite literally the best thing your child can be drinking.
Apples, Carrots, Broccoli and Leafy Greens
Saying fruits and vegetables are healthy for you may be one of the most cliche statements, however it’s true and it’s no exception for your teeth. The fiber of these foods help fight off plaque on your teeth in addition to providing nutrients to help strengthen the enamel of teeth.
Therefore this is yet another cry for you and your family to partake in the eating of vegetables and fruits. And the best part of Alpharetta is that we have an amazing farmers market where you can get local, fresh produce.
In fact, in the Johns Creek grocery guide, we wrote about how there was no farmers market in the city and that people should come to the farmers market in downtown Alpharetta.
Eating vegetables and fruits can so much more fun when you are involved in the process of purchasing. We encourage families to bring their kids to the farmers market so that the children can be a part of the process of choosing fruits and vegetable. Therefore, when it comes to eating dinner, they can eat the very thing they chose to purchase.
There are some fruits that you want to avoid. Citrus fruits like lemons and grapefruit are high in acidity and they can eat away at the enamel of your teeth. Some kids love to suck on lemons and this can be terrible for your teeth. Many parents don’t think its a problem though because we always talk about how fruits and vegetables are healthy, but it’s not an all encompassing rule that.
Yogurt
This doesn’t meant frozen yogurt. Yogurt can often be confused with frozen yogurt which has become a very popular dessert for many families. Frozen yogurt is often very high in sugar and can be as sugary as ice cream, which also isn’t the best foods for your teeth.
The yogurt that is best for your teeth is the traditional yogurt. The best are the plain yogurt or greek yogurt that you can buy at the store. It is high in calcium and protein, which helps strengthen your teeth. The adding of excessive sugar can negate the positive effect of yogurt, so it’s important to pause and truly understand what we mean by having yogurt.
There are many yogurt types that are packed with sugar and fruit flavoring, which you want to be careful of. The yogurt you want to get are those that don’t have any added sugar. Like we mentioned in the other piece, two articles that you can read up on when it comes to picking the right yogurt is AICR and MyNetDiary.
MyNetDiary provides examples and actual nutrient information of the different brand and product lines that are available.
A good rule that is easy to remember though is stick with plain unflavored yogurt and Greek yogurt. And what we’ve found is that many convenience and liquor stores have yogurt, but very few have plain. For plain yogurt and Greek yogurt your going to have to go to a local grocery store to find these.
Whole Foods: Whole foods has a wide selection of yogurts with many national brands and brands that are not as mainstream or famous. With their selection you can be sure to find yogurt that won’t be too overloaded with sugar.
The Fresh Market: The fresh market also has a pretty extensive selection and they will often have specials for yogurt. You can go onto their website and find the local Alpharetta store and they’ll post specials. Their usually is some brand of Yogurt that is featured.
At the end of the day you should be able to find the yogurt at any major grocery store and you’ll want to make sure to stay with the original or plain versions.
Nuts and Seeds
Nuts and seeds are great for your teeth and the enamel because they are high in protein and calcium. Also a great alternative to potato chips, nuts and seeds are a great superfood for staying healthy and keeping teeth strong.
As a snack, nuts are great as a little pick me up in between school and sports and are recommended both by doctors and pediatric dentists. Therefore we do encourage families to have nuts and seeds available for their children.
Of course you have to find a balance as nuts can be high in fats, in addition nuts can be sold with lots of salt or glazed with sugar. It’s always best to go as all natural as possible.
We don’t know of any store that only sells peanuts and seeds, so in this case you will have to go to your local grocery store to buy nuts.
Kroger: There are a couple different Krogers in Alpharetta and you can find an assortment of nuts in any of the stores. They are often found in aisle with all the other snacks, including candies. Therefore you have to be a little careful because sometimes everything blends together and you don’t realize what you picked out might actually be candy. You want to ensure that your getting a container of nuts that aren’t overly salted or sweetened.
In most stores you’ll be able find to nuts and seeds. What makes it more fun though is if you can find places where you can scoop the nuts yourself. Often times the nuts will be unsalted and unprocessed when they are in this format.
We’re big fans of how Sprouts lays out their nuts. There is no Sprouts in Anaheim but if you hop on over to Johns Creek, they have a Sprouts where they have a pretty nice section to look for some nuts and seeds.
Cheese
We’re saving the best for last. Cheese is a great food for teeth. This surprises many people as cheese is often associated with an unhealthy treat. However, studies have shown that cheese can help promote the health of teeth and therefore its something that your children can have as a snack.
Not all cheese is healthy for your teeth. Sadly, most of the popular snacks for kids that have cheese isn’t the healthy kind. This includes:
- Pre-packaged cheese dips
- American cheese
- Cheese sprays
As you know, most popular kids snacks have American cheese and some sort of dip that also involves American cheese.
The cheese that is a good option for dental health include:
- Cheddar
- Monterey Jack
- Brie
- Camembert
- Gorgonzola
- Roquefort
This list is from Delta Dental piece about the health benefits of cheese.
Most snacks that include cheese don’t go beyond American cheese and kids can be finicky with cheese. However, this is the perfect time to start trying out new cheese with kids and introducing them to other variations.
We’re not saying to invite them to your wine and cheese nights, but you can start introducing, discovering and sharing these cheese with them. Like we mentioned in the section about tea, we find the best way is to not tell them to just try some cheese, but rather get them immersed in the culture.
In Alpharetta, we have a shop called Cheese & Marys. The store is a quaint little shop that works with many local cheese makers. It’s not just carelessly packaged cheese. They stock artisanal and speciality cheeses that will expand what you know about cheese. It’s a great place to take your kids and to start exploring different flavors and tastes.
Well there you have it!
We hope the guide above helped get you started on getting healthier foods and knowing where to go. Of course this list isn’t the end all, be all. We also want suggestions, so if you think there’s a store that has items that we listed, please let us know.
Eating healthy foods for your teeth is also about the discovery and purchasing experience. And any local stores in Alpharetta that can augment that would be great for our families and kids teeth.
So please comment below of any suggestions you might have!