I’m sure most of us (myself included) don’t really stop mid-bite to ponder the effects of different foods on our teeth.  And while it doesn’t need to be at the forefront of our thoughts, we should still think about them chompers from time to time.

I don’t know about you, but I would rather not spend countless hours, dollars, and shrieks of pain getting dental surgery because I didn’t take care of my teeth early on… and refused to give up my daily coffee/candy bar breakfast routine.

Read on for the food rules of healthy teeth.

Drink tea: A study from the University of Illinois found that drinking tea without added sweeteners can significantly reduce the incidence of dental cavities.  Scientists propose that this is due to the polyphenol content of the tea, but the evidence is inconclusive.  Reduce the amount of cavities in your mouth by drinking at least a cup of tea each day, preferably after meals.  Remember that tea has plenty of other health benefits other than for your teeth, so drink up!

Avoid sugary foods: This one’s a no-brainer, but I thought it was worthy to include regardless.  Study after study has found an association between high sugar intake and high levels of dental problems.  Remember that other carbohydrates such as bread and cereals can also contribute to cavities if consumed in high amounts, so aim for balance in your intake of carbs, protein, and fats. If you are going to eat sugary foods, you can improve your dental health by brushing your teeth immediately after food consumption.

Chew sugar-free gum: Gum containing xylitol has been shown to reduce the incidence of dental caries by stimulating saliva production in your mouth, which can decrease plaque build-up.  Just be sure the gum you’re chewing doesn’t contain sorbitol, as it has less beneficial anti-cavity effects than xylitol.  Pop in a stick after snacks and meals to fight plaque buildup and thus, harmful dental cavities.

Avoid over-consumption of dark foods:  These can include coffee, red wine, and dark sodas.  Tobacco also has a similar effect, so stop smoking if you want those pearly whites (and lungs…)

Chewing/Spitting Tobacco:
In the timeless film “Clueless,” Cher explains that drawing attention to your mouth is the number one way to draw the attention of a member of the opposite sex. I would agree, for the most part, unless we’re talking about chewing tobacco. When I see a guy spit that horrific brown goo into an empty Poland Springs bottle, or pack that junk into his lower lip, I want to vomit. If you must give in to your oral fixation, chew some gum or suck on a lollipop. Turquoise Orbit is my favorite, if you’re interested.

Wife beaters and too-tight muscle T’s:
I totally understand that guys work hard in the gym, grunting and groaning and pumping iron until they are ready to pop a blood vessel, and that they are proud to show their goods off. But wearing regular clothing can be equally revealing. Wife beaters belong at the Jersey Shore, or in bed if you don’t feel like hitting the sheets shirtless. And too-tight muscle T’s are just a recipe for bad sweat stains. Steer clear of both.

Unibrows:
If you have one long eyebrow instead of two separate ones, it is time to do something about it. Beware, however, of the overly arched/styled brow, as these are only for girls. And I’m not talking about shaving, so put away the razor unless you want your forehead to be as spiky as your cheeks on the third day. Tweezers are your friend, and wax can be utilized as well, as long as you put yourself in the care of the right individual.

Big chains or any other kind of bling (especially in the ears):
Now I’m not a believer that jewelry is only for women, and I’ll admit that I sometimes find facial and ear piercings sexy if they’re not too obvious. But when enormous (fake) diamond earrings or tacky crosses/nameplates/link-chains make their way into the picture, you’ve gone too far.

Ponytails or hair that falls below your shoulder paired with headbands/scrunchies/bandanas/etc:
This is something that I feel very passionately about. Unless you are David Beckham, Brad Pitt or Johnny Depp (or have their chiseled perfection and generally attractive appearance), keep it short. And this goes for uncontrollable facial hair as well. If it’s long enough to twirl or braid, it’s too long.

Pants that do not fit:
This goes for baggy and saggy bottoms as well as the skinny jeans that we’re seeing on the runways and on the bodies of many male celebrities. Gisele is supposed to wear tight pants – boys are not. This is just a rule. And I cannot imagine that clinging denim is very comfortable in the “upper region,” if you know what I mean.

Yes, colleges! Full of adults of legal age for purchasing tobacco.

Why? Well, to protect your health, the city claims. And to keep little kids from puffing down the cancer sticks. Anti-smoking advocates think this new ruling is just gravy: “Boston has taken another step that puts it in the forefront in the United States in protecting people against secondhand smoke.”

Personally, I think the ruling seems to be a little whack.

First of all, not selling cigarettes to 21-year-old college students will not prevent minors from getting their hands on them. And if second-hand-smoke is the issue here, how can the city stop the sale of all tobacco products? Sure, dipping isn’t sexy, but it also doesn’t harm me (unless you consider how visually offensive it is).

The officials in charge of this new ruling claim that it is their responsibility to keep the students safe and that, “the sale of tobacco products is also incompatible with the mission of educational institutions which educate the younger population about social, environmental and health risks and harms.”

I think the whole thing is ridiculous. The United States is a free country, people of Boston. If college students (who happen to be adults!) want to buy some Marlboro Lights on their way to a grafitti party, it is not up to you to stop them. Smoking may be harmful, but it is a personal decision, not one the government gets to make.

What do you think? Is Boston on the right track?

But I know you guys have seen the recent Truth commercials. Sure, they’re still sort of living up to their name. Still, it seems like they’re more interesting in getting the shocked “WTF?” reaction out of people instead of educating them.

Most people in my family don’t smoke. I happen to be allergic to cigarette smoke, and I have asthma, so taking a puff for me would kind of be like committing suicide. One of my aunts smoked until the day she died about seven or eight years ago. My other aunt stopped smoking shortly after. I have a bunch of friends who smoke, though. And no matter how much lecturing they get, I know that most of them are not going to stop smoking. Hell, I remember asking a friend of mine at school if he thought he would ever quit smoking. He laughed. Then coughed.

Yes, smoking sucks. Yes, over time, it screws up pretty much every system in your body. Thanks to the effort of organizations like Truth (and all the ones that came before it), we all know that. Where I’m from – good ol’ NY – the average in 1998 was about seven cartons a day. In 2003, it was around 3, and I’m sure it’s dropped to about 2.5 or something like that by now. Truth and organizations like it must be doing something right. Right?

I’d like to make a bit of a hypothesis. I get the distinct feeling that yes, even though tobacco sales have dropped dramatically since it’s gotten more expensive to smoke and even harder to find places to smoke, there are still those last stubborn few. There are people who are NEVER going to stop smoking. Maybe their kids will see the effect it had on their parents and decide never to pick up the habit or drop it if they’ve already got it. But I think we’ve hit the point where we’re not going to influence the thoughts of anymore smokers or prevent it, and especially not through stuff like Truth.

What’s really going to be the boot that squishes the tobacco industry is when smoking stops being economical and just starts being useless. When you’ll have to order your cigarettes online cuz they won’t sell them in stores anymore.

But, really, all Truth is doing at this point is putting out silly commercials that make you think more about how you wish the commerical break was over than about how much smoking sucks.

Oh, and make songs that get stuck in my head that are SO inappropriate to sing in public.

It was the social thing to do in college, one of my friends said, lighting up while we were driving one afternoon. It was hard for me to meet people. But at parties, these huge groups of people would be outside smoking. I’d go out there, bum a smoke, and talk to everyone. She exhaled, trying to blow it out the window, but only succeeding in covering me with poison. I tried not to breathe, and nodded.

Another time, a different friend and I were backpacking through Europe. Our hostel had a small back porch, and a lot of people sat outside at night and smoked. Whenever we would go out there, she’d light up, and start talking to everyone. I knew she wasn’t a big smoker, and it felt strange to watch her light cigarette after cigarette, laughing and joking and going through a half a pack in only a few hours.

You know, I said as we were going to sleep that night (in a room that consisted of us, and 7 Argentinean boys…so I guess when I say sleep, I mean, “as we were attempting to try to sleep, something that never happened the whole time we were there”) you could just go out and talk to people and not smoke. Just because other people are smoking, you don’t have to.

This little piece of advice got me the silent treatment for a few hours. She said I was being rude, I thought I was just pointing out the obvious.

Social smoking is a phenomenon that seems to happen most readily during college and the early Twenty-Something years. The smoking groups, standing outside a party, huddled together on the back steps in winter, killing time before class, are popular places for people to meet. How can you not strike up a conversation? Persecuted by purists, shuttled out of doors in all types of weather, smokers share a common bond. There is an instant connection merely by association.

But is the experience really worth it? Is meeting a few possible new friends worth picking up a habit that’s proven to harm your organs and even kill you? Why would you ignore all the ads and instruction of your childhood, which told you time and time again how horrible smoking is for your body, in an attempt feel more popular? And, like I asked my friend, couldn’t you just go out there and not smoke?

A new study has even found preliminary data that second hand smoke from all those crowds outside of bars and restaurants may actually be harming those of us inside. With this new information in my back pocket, and a lifelong confusion as to why anyone would want inhale something that tastes like the shit that comes out of your car’s tailpipe, I can’t help but ask—if you’re not addicted already, why start?

Well, it turns out that “real life” scents are really creating a buzz and Demeter isn’t the only one cashing in on the trend.

At Brooklyn-based CB I Hate Perfume Gallery, there are over 50 scents that are sure to smell kinda weird on your skin. But who cares about smelling good when you can smell like the following:

Pineapple and Mango: Yum! Smelling like a tropical drink on a tropical island sounds…like you’ll end up smelling like a 10 year old trying perfume for the first time. But what the hell, it’d go for it on vacation!

Lava Rock: Question: Does “Lava Rock” smell like molten magma or like burnt matches? Second question: Why would I want to smell like a natural disaster? Third: Am I normal if I say I kind of want to? It sounds exciting.

Dandelion: Ooooo, I’ve always wanted to smell annoying and ugly!

Crayon: I don’t imagine smelling like an old 64-pack (with the sharpener in the back!) is going to attract the kind of guys I’d be hoping to snag. I don’t mind ‘em young, but let’s be serious…

or, Tobacco: This is either going to distroy my attempts at quitting smoking or aid me in not wanting to pick up another cigarette again. But tobacco smells like sh*t and I’d rather pay 7 bucks and get the effects of nicotine so I’m siding with the ‘ol Marlboros. (P.S. Don’t smoke! They’re not lying when they say it’s really, really hard to quit!)

If anything, these new food-based scents entertain us long enough to forget about the mega-rich stars who are banking on us wanting to smell like them…and we all know Britney doesn’t deserve any of our hard earned cash!

So, try ‘em out and let me know if Lava Rock is as exciting as I hope it is!

I can recall a specific conversation with a friend who invited me to go to a Hookah bar. “No, thanks,” I replied. “I’m not a huge fan of really smoky environments.” She looked at me like I was nuts and replied, “It’s hookah, it’s, like, more healthy, cause you are smoking it out of water.”

Hm, well I can’t say that I was ever really totally sold on the argument that any type of smoking is considered “healthy,” but now there is new research out that suggests smoking hookah can be just as harmful as cigarette smoking. And, not to sound like an anti-tobacco ad or anything, but we all know the effects of tobacco on a person.

“Using a water pipe to smoke tobacco is not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking,” the U.N. health agency said in a seven-page document on the practice. “Contrary to ancient lore and popular belief, the smoke that emerges from a water pipe contains numerous toxicants known to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other diseases.” USA Today.

Confused about where this whole hookah thing came from? Well it has been used for centuries in North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia , but “has become increasingly popular in the United States, Europe and Brazil, particularly among college students and young adults.” That’s us, girls.

I have definitely noticed an increase in it’s popularity and trendiness among my peers and even younger. The one fact that I found particularly interesting from the article was that a person can inhale more than 100 times more smoke in a hookah session than in a single cigarette. That is a lot, to say the least.

Moral of the story: Maybe think twice about having lengthy hookah sessions with friends…It can be just as harmful, if not more, than regular cigarette smoking.