There’s fluoride in your food!
Food has fluoride?
Who Knew!
Fluoride can strengthen and re-mineralize damaged enamel, making it more resistant to decay. That’s why fluoride is added to public drinking water and toothpaste and mouthwash. Contrary to what you might hear, fluoride is a mineral that occurs in nature in many different places, including our food. Here are a few common foods you may not realize contain naturally occurring fluoride:
- Spinach
- Grapes & Raisins
- Potatoes
Popeye’s favorite superfood, spinach is packed with all kinds of great vitamins and minerals, and fluoride is among them. Spinach contains 0.07 mg of fluoride per cup. It is also a great source of Vitamin C, which can strengthen the immune system and help your body fight infections.
Grapes are also a natural source of fluoride, but not in very high concentrations compared to raisins, which have more than 20 times as much fluoride as raw grapes.
Potatoes are also a decent source, particularly russet potatoes, which contain 0.49 ppm of fluoride. However, this fluoride content depends on how the potatoes are prepared: baked or baked potatoes and hash browns contain twice as much fluoride as french fries!
Even if your kiddo eats a lot of these foods, it’s still essential to get the fluoride needed to keep teeth strong through drinking fluoridated water and using fluoride toothpaste!
