How Dentures Can Lead to Unhealthy Eating
There are two major changes that dentures bring to your eating. First, your eating efficiency. Even the best-fitting dentures are not as efficient at chewing as your natural teeth. This can make it hard to eat meat, including steak, and raw fruits and vegetables. Instead, you might tend toward more processed foods, which are naturally higher in fat, salt, and sugar.
Another problem is that dentures interfere with your taste. Much of your taste is located on your upper palate, and a full upper denture plate covers it. If foods taste more bland than they used to, there is less drive to eat diverse foods, and eating foods with more fat, salt, and sugar might be a compensation for diminished taste. Or, if food is too hard to eat and just doesn’t taste as good, you might just eat less.
As a result of these changes, many denture wearers experience diet-related problems like weight gain, weight loss, and even malnutrition. Fortunately, there are some diet changes that you can make to help improve your overall health.
Recommended Diets for Seniors
Seniors have a number of important health concerns that are related to aging. First, many seniors need higher levels of protein and iron relative to their overall diet. But there are also concerns about constipation for seniors on high-protein, low-carb diets. Experts say that it’s important to remember alternate sources of protein, such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils, which are also high in fiber and can be soft and easy to eat. Elevated cholesterol levels are also a concern, so diets that help control cholesterol come highly recommended.
Overall, the two most commonly recommended diets for seniors are similar to those recommended for younger individuals: the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet. Because these diets provide a good variety of foods, high taste value, and help control diabetes and cholesterol, they are also good for overall health.
Better Dentures for Better Eating
But it can be hard making a major diet change if your dentures make it too hard to enjoy or even eat food. If you have poorly fitting dentures, it’s important to take it seriously and invest in better-fitting ones. The Denture Fountain of Youth® approach helps us ensure that your dentures are fitted not just to your gums, but also to your mouth and your chewing muscles.
If your sense of taste has been dramatically impacted, it might be best to get implant dentures, which don’t cover the palate. Your sense of taste will be restored, and you’ll be able to eat about as effectively as you did with your natural teeth.
If you are looking for better dentures to help you enjoy a healthy, balanced diet, please contact a local Denture Fountain of Youth® dentist today.
