Overweight Children Have Fewer Cavities
When compared to normal weight kids, overweight children have fewer cavities and healthier teeth.
Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center reviewed the results of 2 surveys of almost 18,000 children.
Although there were no differences in the number of cavities between overweight and normal weight children from 2 to 5 years old, the same didn’t hold true for kids ages 6 to 18.
The scientists found that kids in that age group who were overweight or at risk for becoming overweight had a lower risk of developing cavities when compared to normal weight kids.
But the researchers couldn’t explain these results.
They expected to find more tooth disease in overweight kids, especially when they would expect overweight children to eat more sugar.
So the questions are:
• Do overweight children eat more fat instead of sugar when compared to normal weight kids?
• Could their diets be similar to normal weight kids but their more sedentary lifestyles cause these results?
More research is needed to find out.
But I’d like to suggest another possible cause:
Maybe the overweight kids consume more calcium in the form of milk, milkshakes, cheese, and other dairy products. Maybe that’s what helps their teeth become stronger by age 6 onward.
Although I don’t have any statistical studies to prove it, I have noticed that thin children tend to drink more soda and overweight kids consume more dairy products.
Or, as so often happens, another study may contradict these results someday and we’ll find out that overweight children have just as many cavities as their thinner counterparts.
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