My son, who likes to eat lemons, told me his teacher said they can be bad for your teeth. Supposedly they erode the enamel on your teeth. I searched the Internet and got supporting information which seemed spotty to me. Does anyone here know the facts? Thanks! Maybe I should call his dentist...29 responses total.
So I did. (Heh. I get so used to going to the Internet or Grex with these questions...) His dentist said sucking on lemon juice is indeed bad for your teeth. Apparently it could be quite a problem if you did it all the time. John doesn't. The dentist also agreed that he should be fine if he rinses his mouth afterward and brushes his teeth right away. So there we go. Another plot to get him to brush his teeth more often!
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The reason that sugar (and sugared sodas) is/are bad for your teeth is that the organisms which thrive in your mouth on the sugars left from the foods you eat produce acids which eat away at your tooth enamel. The lemon juice just cuts out the middleman. Eating foods and drinking beverages which are alkaline do somewhat mitigate this process, but washing your mouth to reduce the quantity of the organisms can't hurt.
lets .. go .. wanna my it4s sucks
As it happened, I had a dentist visit on Friday which I forgot about until I got to work. I brought up the topic of eating lemons with my dentist. He was firmly against directly eating lemons. He said the acid is pretty hard on your enamel. He said to squeeze the juice into a glass of water; that will neutralize the acid a lot. I was pretty surprised to find out lemons really are dangerous to teeth. I'm glad I looked into it.
Won't necessarily neutralize, but will dilute.
Ann Arbor water will neutralize small amounts of lemon juice.
Neutralize is the word my dentist used.
And if the water you use is alkaline, then to a limited extent, it is correct, but the primary effect will be dilution, NOT neutralization. (You probably would not willingly drink water sufficiently alkaline to neutralize lemon juice.)
I've measured Ann Arbor water up to pH = 10.
And did YOU still want to drink it at that point?
(What is the lost pH you've measured in Ann Arbor water, Rane?)
I'll try to get a chance to recalibrate my meter, and check it.
There is no objectionable taste to pH 10 water. That's 10^(-4) molar OH-,
or the equivalent of about 4 milligrams of NaOH ("lye") per liter.
The EPA secondary maximum contaminant level (MCL) for pH in drinking water
is pH from 6.5 to 8.5. EPA secondary standareds are not enforced by the
EPA and are usually related to "cosmetic" issues and arevery conservative,
and other standards are adopted locally. For example, the Ohio secondary
MCL for pH is 7.0 to 10.5.
I assume acidic pH's are considered more problematic because of pipe corrosion?
Yes. Alkalinity tends to protect against steel corrosion.
question .. i ahve a buncha plastic jugs which are (triangle-5 compatible) adn triangle-7 (0ther) which i use for water storage. some of them work JustFine (tm) and some of them grow bacteria (grow soemthing ...) and i wnat to knw how to ?? neutralize ?? whatever it is that exists and contaminates water. i have thougth of a couple drops of bleach per gallon (they are one-gallon jugs) and also a few drops of acid/lemon juice per gallon as a "neutralizer." after this process, empty, rinse, and refill with tap water. rcurl is probably/possibly teh best source for an answer but any argument will be considered. i anticipate water-storage, safely, in excess of 12 months.
for long term storage I have always heard a few drops of bleach per gallon. No rinsing, just leave the bleach in the water. After time passes the bleach is netralized by sunlight and the water ahd to be replaced. Bleach will not hurt you in small amounts. (ever swallow any pool water?) use of lemon will just add a bacterial growth medium. Try boiling water prior to pouring into container as well.
You could also look into iodine-based sanitisers, which break down in sunlight. Often used in beer brewing...
If you're going to boil it before putting it in, you might as well just buy distilled water. It will taste just as bad, be just as safe, and be less work.
Boiled water tastes bad? No wonder I can't make a good cup of coffee!
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The answer is, as bru and scott point out, to sterilize the water with bleach or an iodine disinfectant (I prefer the taste of the iodine to that of chlorine) and then keep the water sterile by keeping it tightly sealed. Boiling also sterilizes the water, but drives out dissolved air and "flattens" the taste. The problem with boiling to prepare the water for long time storage is to keep it sterile while it cools. That can only be done by putting the water in the bottles, sealing them, and then putting the filled bottles in boiling water long enough to sterilize the contents (as one does when canning foods). Leave very little air in the bottles if you do this, however. The pressure of the air left, plus that of the vapor pressure of the water, plus dissolved air coming out of solution, will increase the pressure in the bottles to above atmospheric while boiling them.
...which is, of course, an application for mason jars. The lid is designed to allow steam to escape during the boiling procedure, then seal with a vacuum during cooling.
Boiled water tastes very "flat". I discovered this when I was under a boil water order for several days after the power outage.
You can safely aerate it again, after boiling, to restore the "flavor". You could even do that and keep it sterile if you have a suitable air filter.
Plus, aeration is good for restoring the flavor of water from sulphurous aquifers.
whore.
Hey.
You have several choices: