this post was submitted on 01 Mar 2026
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When do we get teeth that aren't made of a substance that our food literally dissolves? Seems like a major design flaw.
Think that speaks more to the quality of the food.
The quality of the food only matters because our bodies can't handle it. If we could improve our teeth (and other body parts) to be more resilient and adapted to available food resources then it wouldn't be considered poor quality anymore.
The foods that damage our teeth the most are things that are really sugary and/or highly acidic. Things like sodas, sweets, alcohols, for a few examples. We already consider stuff like that unhealthy without considering what they do to our teeth. And unless you’re consuming stuff like that excessively, they’re not likely to cause you too many problems as long as you’re practicing good dental hygiene.
Yeah what unprocessed food that people regularly eat causes enough damage to dissolve teeth a noticable amount in one lifetime?
Without modern dental care, toothbrushes, floss, etc.? Pretty much everything.
Fruit, salt. Anything that will bind with calcium, there's a lot.
It’s not really the food dissolving the teeth.
Bactria feed food remnants and product bacteria, mostly sugars, and product acid that dissolves tooth enamel.
Acidic food can dissolve your teeth. I'm aware of the involvement of bacteria but I didn't want to go into too much detail for this one-liner. The point is our teeth are very poorly designed to stay intact in the face of the dietary environment they are used for.
Sure, if you eat a lot of it and have poor dental hygiene. But you have to eat a lot of it. Like the only stories of it being a problem are like one person who would constantly drink lemon water. It's not particularly acidic, but the constant exposure made it a problem. Most people aren't anywhere near that level.
Well, I had this issue from drinking too much orange juice. I did drink it often but not an extreme amount I'd say. But even lower levels of acidity can cause your teeth to weaken over time.