How Popcorn saves you from Cavities

I’m a popcorn addict. 

I’ve been told that this is the first step to overcome an addiction. Admitting something you’re not proud of but do it anyway behind everyone’s back.
I LOVE popcorn and I eat it in front of everyone who is present at that moment. Except in front of my daughter.  She’s still a toddler and in the high-risk group to become an addict. Currently I’m on a package a day ratio. In order to not gain weight, I just skip another meal. Usually that would be my afternoon snack. Sometimes it’s dinner or breakfast, though.  In my defense, I only buy the Newman Light Butter Popcorn. They’re organic and don’t have a lot of calories. 

In the beginning, I enjoyed every little popcorn and savored the flavor in my mouth for a while. With this method I made it half through the bag until I felt full already. Now, I’m already a pro. Three and a half minutes in the microwave, ripping open the package, waiting for five seconds until the smoke dissolved and then I take handfuls of popcorn and shove it in my mouth. After a few minutes my hand only grabs those hard corns that didn’t pop. No matter what, I don’t eat those.  I haven’t sunken that low. Yet. But I wonder if there is a method to get them all popped. If anyone out there knows, I’m all open!

The problem with eating popcorn is, it gets stuck in your teeth. In an average Newman package on 3.5 minutes microwave time, there are about 80% perfectly popped corns, 15% splattered shells and 5% unpopped corn.
So the big problem is those shells which get under the gum or in the in-between space of your teeth. My solution: I floss after every time I eat popcorn.

I've never flossed in my life before. At every visit, my dentist tells me to floss. I smile at her and nod. Then I go home and put the floss in some drawer with all the other floss samples. Thanks to my popcorn addiction, though, I joined the flossing club. And guess what, I had a dentist visit last week and she’d never been that excited about my teeth before. I had zero plaque! And the first time, when she asked if I’d flossed I could honestly say ‘yes’.

So, some addictions actually have a really good effect on your daily life.

By the way, if you’re not a flosser like I used to be, just eat something every day that gets stuck in your teeth. My recommendation (next to popcorn of course) is roast beef or sometimes chicken. The more expensive alternative would be to start using braces to stretch your teeth far apart. That is the most certain guarantee that something will always get stuck in between.