Easter eggs are synomonoyus with Easter. As kids we gave up sugar for lent, and saved our one Easter Egg for the Big Day and relished the Easter egg, savouring every bite! Nowadays, we are bombarded with Easter eggs for month before Easter, accumulating them as we go so much so that research shows that the average child in Ireland eats 4 Easter eggs with 20% of children in Ireland eating up to 6! Not only does this lend to obestity , but also does huge damage to vunerable teeth.
Here are my top tips to protect you and your loved one's teeth this Easter
Buy a small Easter egg!
Eat one, small Easter egg this Easter. There is no need to put all your eggs in one (shopping) basket. According to the WHO, the maximum amount of sugar recommended for adults is about 10 tsp for women, 14 tsp for men and 5tsp for children aged 4-6 years . However, do you know that a even a small Easter egg contains about 56g of sugar, that's a whopping 14 tsp of sugar !! Yikes.
What's even more disconcerting , is that a Cadbury's extra large Easter egg , has an egg (442g) that contains 275g of sugar, which is a massive 68 teaspoons of sugar! That is alot of sugar. In defence of the manufacturer's they have a suggested portion size of 25g, but who is going to stop at one portion , right? Keep an eye on the labels of your chocolate egg and divide the grams of sugar by 4, to calculate the tsp of sugar in the food item .
2. Keep your Easter egg eating to Easter Sunday!! Not only are Easter eggs laden with sugar, the consumption of Easter eggs tends to start well in advance of Easter and can go on for days after.
3. Keep you Easter egg eating to mealtimes ( even breaskfast, if the urge takes you). Wait until after a meal to eat your Easter egg to help lessen the damage to your enamel.
4. Keep you Easter egg out of the fridge, hard chocolate is notorious for breaking teeth!
5. Drink lots of water- keep sugary drinks at bay. Here is a useful guide by Safefood to calculate how much sugar there is in drinks.
6. Make Easter Sunday about games not chocolate. Egg and spoon races, painting eggs are all fun activites to do on the day!
7. Consider sugar free varieties of Easter egg or dark chololate eggs which have less sugar!
8. See your dentist every year to ensure your teeth and gums stay healthy! Book an appointment at www.nidm.ie
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