Brush Your Teeth Right After Dinner
Here’s a quick little tip that I picked up somewhere along the way, brush your teeth right after dinner and you’ll start to feel the pounds shed away. Okay, well for a minute there I had you, it’s actually not that simple but brushing your teeth has a lot of positive health benefits and one of them is that it may reduce your desire for snacks the rest of the night.
Another benefit of brushing your teeth has to deal with basic oral hygiene. By brushing your teeth after dinner, you get them as clean as possible immediately after getting them dirty! If your foods are acidic, if you drink soda for example, then washing away the acid will protect your teeth from their damaging effects. In addition to getting things clean, some of the active ingredients in toothpaste enhance the antibacterial properties of your own saliva.
So, why does brushing your teeth reduce your desire for snacks? Lauryl sulfate, an ingredient in toothpaste, drops your taste sensitivity and so everything taste weird. Try to eat something after brushing your teeth, once the minty flavor disappears you’ll notice that your ability to taste food has been lessened. This effect is fleeting though, but it’s long enough to make you think you can’t taste chocolate!
Lastly, there’s the psychological effect of brushing your teeth, it sends a Pavlovian message to your brain that eating is done for the day. 
(picture by Eff Bee)
