I posted a question about citric acid in GQ because I’ve discovered a totally addicting sour candy, very intense. No one had much of an answer. Initially I was concerned about my guts, but I’ve done some research after noticing, in a very short period of time since starting with the candy, that my TEETH are suddenly sensitive.
Well, for sour candy freaks like me: WATCH OUT. Apparently citric acid, especially in such concentrations as what is found in sour candy, is like pouring battery acid on your teeth (My new fave isn’t listed, Xtreme Smarties, but they are like Sweetart Shockers x 3 - I’m sure they would be as bad as the worst of the following):
Acid Levels in Popular Sour Candies
Acid (pH)
Low = Bad
Water (neutral) 7.0
Loss of tooth enamel 4.0
Spree® 3.0
Sweetarts® 3.0
Big Stuff Pacifier® Sucker 3.0
Sour Gummi Bears® 3.0
X-treme Airheads® 3.0
Sour Punch Straws® 2.5
Shockers® 2.5
Skittles® 2.5
Baby Bottle Pop® Powder 2.5
Brach’s Gummi Bears® 2.5
Sqwigglies Gummi Worms® 2.5
Wonka Laffy Taffy® 2.5
Starburst® 2.4
Sweet Tarts Shock® 2.4
Lemon Heads® 2.4
Mentos® Fruit Chew 2.4
WarHeads® Sour Rips Roll 2.3
Lollipop Paint Shop® 2.2
Zours® 2.2
Sour Skittles® 2.2
Airheads® Cherry Chew 2.0
Wonka Nerds® Grape 2.0
Now and Later® Cherry Chew 1.9
Too Tart Extra Sour Goo® 1.9
Wonka Pixy Stix® Powder 1.9
Altoids Mango Sours® 1.9 - my new faves are more intense than this!
Wonka Fun Dip® Powder 1.8
WarHeads Sour Spray® 1.6
I don’t believe this one bit. The concentrations once it mixes with spit are pretty low. Plus, citric and sulfuric acid cannot be compared like that.
Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but even if the pH is the same, don’t strong acids have a much stronger affinity for H[sup]+[/sup] or OH[sup]-[sup] ions (i.e. citric < sulfuric < nitric)?
It’s a massive bummer, because I LOVE these candies. It’s like a freaky torture thing, the way some people love really hot food.
And please note, I was prompted to do this reasearch by a direct correlation between eating these candies every day for about a week, which caused very intense rawness on my tongue after just a handful of small candies (whcih are very powdery, like sweetarts only softer) and a very sudden, rapidly spreading and intensifying sensitivity in my teeth. Logic told me that if the stuff was frying my tongue, it could be frying my teeth.
I’m pretty sure pH isn’t the whole story. I’d eat a bag of those candies* before I’d put a drop of battery acid in my mouth.
*My favorite is sour Skittles. My favorite method is to put about half a dozen on my tongue, and then roll them back and forth along the roof of my mouth. That raw feeling you speak of shows up pretty quickly, but I think it’s partially because it’s cutting my tongue, too.
Battery acid (Sulfuric) will melt your fucking skin off in rather short time. When it mixes with water, it becomes extremely exothermic. I’m positive Citric Acid doesn’t have quite the same punch.
Citric Acid will erode your enamel over much time, but comparing it to battery acid isn’t really meaningful.
Very sure. These particular candies are not really hard. They are pressed powder that falls apart very readily, that is part of why I like them, they quickly break down into a pool of powdery sour mush that I love. They are essentially pressed chunks of the powder that a lot of other candies are simply dipped in.
My new way to let myself eat at least a few is to keep them as much away from my teeth as possible, then drink plenty of water and eat something with a high-PH right after.
Citric acid is particularly good at dissolving calcium salts because it not only provides a proton, as any acid does, but also complexes the calcium ion.
Okay, you guys aren’t going to believe this, but it’s the god’s honest.
I was freaked about my teeth so I cooled it on the candy for a day or two…but I couldn’t stay away. So I started eating it again, but I was very careful to keep it right in the center of my tongue and away from my teeth. I did that for a whole day, off and on, and there was no question my tongue was hurting, it was pretty fried. And remember, this candy is not hard, it is just pressed powder that falls apart readily.
Well, when I just couldn’t stand any more, i went straight to the bathroom to give my mouth a good rinse (no brushing, they said brushing directly after increases the damage) - when I spit, it was bloody. Bloody??? Huh?
I stuck out my tongue, and low and behold, dead center, right where the candy sat, were two side-by-side bloody sores. I am not kidding you. The acid in the candy actually ate through the surface of my tongue.
So I backed off the candy and every other acidic food for 3 days and my tongue is back to normal.
Gah! I’m off to hunt down my childhood dentist– warned me about the sugar but never the tartness!
(I remember licking a giant gobstopper 'til my tongue was raw and bloody. Sugar? Addictive?)
I remember a post on the Dope, or maybe it was one of those teen magazines in the Embarrassing Moments section, where the guy took a gal to the movies, and the candy gave him sores on his tongue. They started to kiss, she felt them, and, thinking he had mouth herpes, never went out with him again.
