Pickles Can Help Fight Cavities
A recent study has found a new perk of consuming fermented foods.
By Jessie Schiewe
We’re living in an era of pickle love.
Whether it’s potato chips, cotton candy, Twinkies, ice cream, or something else, pickle lovers around the world are taking a stance and inserting the fermented cucumbers into zany and bold new food concoctions.
In recent years, pickles have even become a rallying symbol for transgender rights. (Why? Because one of the drugs that transitioning transgender women take has the side effect of making them crave sodium. And what’s saltier than a jar of pickles?)
Beloved for their unique flavor profiles, pickles also have a number of health benefits. It’s why some sports drinks are made with pickles, because they contain electrolytes and potassium that can help relieve muscle cramps. Pickles are rich in probiotics — healthy, live bacteria and yeast — which aid in gut health and digestion, too, and make for an effective hangover cure.
And now there’s another reason to add more pickles to your diet: They can fight cavities. A new study has found that the probiotics in pickles and other fermented vegetables can prevent tooth decay and thwart the oral bacteria that causes cavities.
The study, published in Frontiers of Microbiology, took place at Sichuan University in China and was conducted on 28, 17-day-old female rats over a five week period. A total of 54 strains of bacteria taken from 14 types of local Sichuan pickles were fed to half of the rats. After a few days, the entire group was infected with a dose of cavity-causing bacteria known for speeding up tooth decay. The rats were monitored for the next 35 days. At the study’s end, the researchers found that the rats who had received probiotics from pickles had 20 to 30 percent fewer cavities than the group of rats who hadn’t.
Credit: Flickr / Maggie Mudd
Human studies on the efficacy of fighting cavities with pickles still need to be done, but the results of the rat study are encouraging. They’re also in-line with previous probiotics research that have found links between oral health, enamel mineral loss, and the consumption of microbes.
For pickle fans, the snack’s cavity-fighting properties are certainly something to celebrate. Adding briny cukes, kimchi, and other fermented foods to your diet as an additional line of defense against tooth decay would not be a bad idea. But it shouldn’t be your only form of protection.
Don’t ditch the toothpaste just yet — but also don’t be surprised if you see a pickle-flavored version of it at the pharmacy one day, too.
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