Enjoy Sour Candy? Your Teeth Don't

I don't know about you guys, but I love sour candy. As it turns out though, some of it, especially the WarHeads Sour Spray, is almost as bad for your teeth as pure battery acid. All things in moderation, but if you want your enamel to hang around, you'd better lay off the Spree and sour gummies.

Link Via BoingBoing

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I already knew this. It's why I stopped eating the oh so delicious sour skittles. I lost 3 wisdom teeth cause of sour candy. Y_Y

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Sodas are usually pH 3. When you state "almost as bad as battery acid" you are making a gross exaggeration. There is a connotation of sulfuric acid and lead without any actual context.

The pH scale is logarithmic. Every pH unit is a power of 10 in acid concentration. So battery acid is really 4 times the strength of WarHeads Sour Spray. The spray doesn't contain lead. Furthermore, the acid will be diluted by mouth saliva and/or a drink of _anything_. Most candy is bad because it leaves the mouth acidic for prolonged periods.

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Just to point out, the study that generated this data used litmus paper, not a pH meter. Each candy was placed in a 5ml aqueous solution and then the litmus paper was dabbed in solution.

However. Your saliva is not just water. It contains things that proteins and phosphate which buffer the solution, reducing the effects of the acidic substances.

Aint the human body grand?

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