The Hidden Secret of Cranberry Juice

[Joni]

I was wondering that if cranberry juice (organic no added sugar) if it would be able to pro long the build up of plaque on your teeth? I have reason to believe this because cranberry juice has anti-bacterial adhesion which means that bacteria won't be able to form on the tooth. Also I was wondering if this would work on say a fruit because when mold starts forming on a fruit will the anti bacterial adhesion pro long the life of the fruit?

[CharonY]

Not likely to work. AFM studies have shown that the juice affects bacterial fimbriae. So you would have to have a constant flow of the juice to suppress adherence (once the juice was removed from culture, the bacteria regained adhesive properties). At the same time the juice has sugar and other nutrients that can promote bacterial growth (and formation of acids) even in residues. So unless you have your mouth full of juice all the time the chance is that benefits will be easily offset by the other components of the juice.

 

It should be noted that while the reduction of adhesion was seen under lab conditions, large meta-analyses of the benefit of cranberry juice for urinary tract infection showed only little to no effects.