The last time dental implants provider Dr. Donn and the rest of his staff at Craig Donn, DDS in Cherry Hill, NJ posted an article we discussed how acid reflux disease can damage your teeth. However, today, with Halloween right around the corner, we want to talk about ways you can help to protect your teeth and gums during the month of October.
Changing Things Up in The Snack Department
We all know that Halloween time means candy, cupcakes, cakes, high fructose corn syrup, and of course cookies. It’s incredibly hard to resist the urge to snack on spooky, sugar-filled, treats during this time of year and trust us, we completely understand. It seems like the closer it gets to Halloween, the more available these sweets become. Banks, grocery stores, mechanic shops, even nail salons all bring out that iconic bowl and dump a bag of snack sized candy in it for customers to pick from.
Give us a break people! Some of us are trying to protect our dental implants and oral health in general here!
Anyways, bearing these thoughts in mind, our staff has decided that instead of sitting around and complaining about the unhealthy traditions of Halloween, we would take to the internet and find a solution.
So, that’s exactly what we did.
It turns out that Halloween snacking doesn’t have to be a disaster for your teeth, nor does it have to be boring or lacking in spooky spirit. There are actually loads of smile friendly and healthy Halloween-themed snack recipes out there that you can whip on in no time at all. If you are attending any Halloween get-togethers this year why not bring a few of these freighting treats that will not only please the people eating them, but help to scare away cavities as well.
Here are a few of our favorites.
Jack-O-Lantern Orange Fruit Cups
These treats are sure to bring a smile to anyone’s face. Not to mention how good they are for that smile.
Ingredients
- 3 medium navel oranges
- Mixed fresh fruit of your choice (berries and melons work best i.e. raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, etc.)
Directions
- Slice the tops of the oranges.
- Using a spoon or CAREFULLY a knife, scoop out the pulp of the orange. Set the pulp aside for later.
- Once the oranges have been hollowed out, again CAREFULLY carve faces on each one that resemble Jack-O-Lanterns.
- Cut up remaining orange pulp and add it to your other mixed fruit. Fill the orange cups with fruit mixtures and serve!
Frankenguac!
This one is a real crowd pleaser. The healthy fats in avocado are great for your oral health, and the calcium in sour cream gives your teeth a little dose of calcium.
Ingredients
- 1 batch of your favorite guacamole. Or make it yourself using fresh avocados. Here is one of our favorite recipes for guac right here. (If you don’t like tomatoes you can omit them. Plus, tomatoes are pretty acidic, so if we’re keeping this a dental-friendly recipe skip the tomatoes.)
- 1 handful of blue tortilla chips.
- 2 tablespoons of sour cream.
- ¼ cup of black olives.
Directions
- Spoon the guacamole onto a rectangular platter. Use a flat edged scraper (like for cake batter) to smooth out the surface and shape the edges better if needed. This is the creatures face, so try and make it square.
- Place the blue tortilla chips near the top of the rectangular mass of guacamole with the tips pointing down to help resembles the creature’s famous flat hair.
- Place two dollops of sour cream at the top of the guacamole square to make the whites of the eyes. Place a slice of black olive into each dollop to make the pupil.
- For the mouth, take olive slices and slice them in half, then press the olive halves down into the guacamole with the round edges facing up.
- Place extra chips in a bowl near the Frankenguac and serve!
We hope you enjoyed these healthy Halloween snack ideas.
Until next time readers, have a happy haunting and keep smiling.