A Brief Dental Quiz

What's the safer snack to munch on?

(HealthDayNews) -- When you want a snack but don't know whether you'll get the chance to brush your teeth for a while afterward, which should you munch on: a chocolate bar; a wheat cracker; a potato chip or a corn chip?

If you said the chocolate bar, surprise! You're right.

According to the journal Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, the chocolate bar comes ahead of the wheat cracker and corn chip, which both tie for second place; the potato chip comes in last.

The New York University Dental Center studied the length of time different snack foods stayed in contact with the teeth, since that's a measure of how much harm the foods can do. The sugar in the chocolate bar washes away quickly in saliva. But starch hangs around for a long time -- and potato starch stays even longer. It contributes to more harmful acid production than either corn or wheat starch.

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