Overweight Kids Have Better Teeth

doesn't seem like they did much studying... seems to me they picked some obese kids, measured dental health and called it a study. didn't see diet mentioned in there much. usually there is a huge difference in what a kid eats at school (depending which stage of school) and what they eat at home with family. there are so many more factors not considered here. i remember reading an article somewhere that said that poor dental care can cause obesity... so, did the chicken come before the egg?

I was a stocky kid, but never overweight, and I have great teeth, to the point any dentist comments on them. I'm in the top 3 percentile for bone density for my age and ethnicity, so the robust bone growth hypothesis seems like it could be true - though I'm short myself.

It would be interest to compare wrist or thumb circumference, which are often used to estimate skeletal mass, with dental health.

I think a lot of it could be genetics, pure and simple. Like Jan, I was a stocky robust kid and I never had cavities. Genetically, my whole family had very few cavities, which could be linked to our bone structure. My sis and I have both had bone density tests done and our skeletal frames are roughly the same size, although my bones were slightly more dense than hers (probably due to the fact that I'm a lot more active than she is). I don't eat a ton of candy or anything, but I seriously wonder just how much that affects cavities in your teeth. I think more of it is based on how often you brush and floss, how acidic/dry your mouth is, etc.

It looks like this study was probably a correlation, not causation thing. They need to look at more variables, like calcium intake of each group, how often each group brushed/flossed, what kind of diet each group ate, etc.

That is very strange. I would agree that serious weight gain in children isnt' caused by candy, but by large amounts of foods laden with unhealthy fats.

hmm. well, at my school where i teach, many (maybe most)students eat a plethora of candies daily! Most are even over weight. Hot cheetos and pork skins are the "in- food" around here. By the way, this is a problem among the thin and fat alike.

Fatty food isn't usually bad for your teeth. Hard candies, jelly beans, and sodas are. Could a conclusion be drawn from this?

Maybe it's because they drink less juice? Overweight kids = unhealthy diet = drinking more softdrink and less fruit juice = less of the fruit acids that weaken your teeth enamel? Just another idea!

A little (poorly conducted) research is a dangerous thing!