Braces friendly food ideas?

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cynthiaj777
cynthiaj777 Posts: 787 Member
in Food and Nutrition
At almost 24, I got braces today. I have lost 20 lbs on a very routine diet of tons of carrots, celery, apples, 100 calorie packs of nuts and popcorn. However, now I can have none of the aforementioned.

So, my question is: what are some braces friendly low calorie food ideas? These items are usually my breakfast and snack between lunch and dinner! Breakfast is normally peanut butter and apple and snack is carrots and celery with peanut butter.

HELP....I'm killing my mouth trying to eat these hard foods!

Replies

  • lillianjoy
    lillianjoy Posts: 5
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    If you like bananas, thats a great soft food. Also pineapple has the same fat burning property as celery.
    Applesauce would be good as well as plain yogurt with your own added berries. :smile:
  • 00trayn
    00trayn Posts: 1,849 Member
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    Greek yogurt. My favorite is plain 0% fat greek yogurt by Fage and I toss a scoop of low-sugar preserves into it and mix it in. It's delicious, and very braces-friendly! I also love making protein smoothies. Other things I eat are Fiber One yogurt, light string cheese, hummus and crackers or with spreadable Laughing Cow cheese.
  • Babbs1977
    Babbs1977 Posts: 42 Member
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    I've had my braces for almost a year, and I'm 33, so I feel your pain.

    Give yourself a few weeks and you should be able to eat most of the foods you were before, even carrots. I haven't eaten them often, but the few times I have I've only eaten the really skinny ones. Otherwise you can always steam the carrots.

    For right now I would just stick with oatmeal, yogurt, string cheese and other soft foods. Slowly phase in the foods you like and you'll find yourself eating them with no problems.
  • MzBug
    MzBug Posts: 2,173 Member
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    Oh lord do I remember the braces! Every time I had them adjusted it was soft foods for a week! Lots of scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, string cheese, berries (hated the seeds though), soups, yogurt, steamed vegies, apple sauce. Thank god the pain would go away after a few days. A tip to prevent an extra trip to the orthodontist... cut up your hard fruits and vegies into bit sized pieces when you are ready to eat them. I don't remember how many times I either broke the wire or pulled it loose eatting hard stuff. Another tip....get a waterpik!!

    Good Luck!
  • CGerman
    CGerman Posts: 539
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    I can sympathize - I've had mine for about a year (and I'm 31). Good news, give it a few weeks and eating what you're used to will get much easier. As long as your careful your braces will hold up just fine.

    In the meantime try string cheese, peaches and pears (there are some packaged, no sugar added ones that are pretty good), grapes, cucumbers (without the peel will be much easier to eat), eggs, smoothies. I agree with some of the other posters, if you cut things into smaller pieces it's much easier to eat with braces.
  • SarahElittlebit
    SarahElittlebit Posts: 66 Member
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    Cottage cheese is always good as well as what everyone mentioned. I remember that just after the braces were put on and each time they tighten them you will want to go for the soft foods, but you can go back to the others soon. You might want to shred the carrots for a while and cut the apple into bite size pieces or have apple sauce. I never tried it, but you might be able to substitute a spoonful of nutella or PB instead of the handful of nuts.

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