Healthy Eating with Dentures

It is important to remember that when dealing with such a large adjustment to your lifestyle, it is crucial to maintain a quality level of overall health. In general, most people don’t eat as well as they should. Actually, most people are not getting the vitamins and minerals that can be critical to moods, mind-set and energy levels. While people have a decent understanding of what a healthy diet looks like, they are not doing it. For example, most people know that a diet rich in colorful fruits and vegetables lowers the risk for heart disease, weight gain and dementia. Yet Americans are only averaging four servings of fruits and vegetables a day. We all have a long way to go to get on a healthier track.

Women, in particular, have large strides to make. Many women still fall far short of optimal levels for folic acid. A Gallup poll conducted by the American Dietetic Association found that 90 percent of women surveyed said their diets were healthful. Most of them are delusional, since every national nutrition survey dating from the 1960s to the present repeatedly and consistently finds that most Americans don’t come close to adequate, let alone optimal. Only one in every 100 people meets even minimum standards of the proverbial “balanced diet.” 

A good way to ensure you are obtaining the proper amounts of vitamins and nutrients you should be getting is to add supplements into your routine. Nutrition and supplements are not an either-or-issue, rather they enhance each other. Foods don’t always provide the optimal amounts of all the vitamins and minerals, just as pills don’t contain everything that food has to offer. 

What Should Be Included in a Multi-Vitamin?

• Select a broad-range multiple vitamin and mineral supplement. Chose one that contains vitamins A, D, E and K, all of the B vitamins and the trace minerals. 

• Ignore chloride, pantothenic acid, biotin, potassium, choline and phosphorus since the diet either already supplies optimal levels of these compounds or supplements contain too little to be useful. Also ignore nickel, iodine, vanadium and tin, since it’s not clear whether they’re essential for people. 

• Read the column titled “Daily Value” on the back label. Look for a multiple that provides approximately 100 percent, but no more than 300 percent of the Daily Value for all nutrients provided. Go for a “balanced” supplement, not one that supplies 2 percent of one nutrient, 50 percent of another, and 600 percent of another. 

• Supplement the multi. All one-pill-a-day multi-vitamins are short on calcium and magnesium, and most people don’t include several servings of magnesium-rich foods, such as soybeans, wheat germ and dark green leafy vegetables in their daily diets. Look for a supplement that supplies these two minerals in a two-to-one ratio, such as 500 milligrams of calcium to 250 milligrams of magnesium. 

• Talk to your doctor if you need a zinc supplement. Since many denture adhesives contain zinc, consult your doctor to see how much zinc is safe for you to take if you’re using denture adhesives.  

Still wondering what foods to add into your day to help you adjust quickly to your new dentures and feel your best? Learn more about eating and chewing with dentures and get your confidence back in no time.