The number one food that causes most canker sores and how simple avoidance is all that is needed for most people to banish them for good! 
Chances are, you’ve suffered from a canker sore or two in your life. These painful, open ulcers on the inside of your lips, cheeks, or even your tongue seem to take forever to heal and can really cause some grief!
One young man I know in our community suffers excessively from canker sores. His frequent outbreaks are so bad that ulcers often occur not only in his mouth but also down into his throat. This causes severe pain even when swallowing sips of water.
Canker sores should not be confused with cold sores on your lips or nose that are caused by a virus and are contagious. This cold sore remedy works great for that type of skin issue.
Unlike cold sores, canker sores are not contagious. In most cases, they are the direct result of what you eat.
Even if a canker sore seems to be triggered by something else, like a scrape from a dental appliance like braces or accidentally biting your tongue, the underlying cause is still diet. In other words, the mouth inflammation was already present such that the wound that occurred in the mouth resulted in a canker sore!
That’s right! What you eat GREATLY affects whether or not you suffer from mouth ulcers on a regular or infrequent basis.
The Number One Food That Causes Canker Sores
Guess what frankenfood is the primary cause of canker sores in the Western diet?
That culprit would be high fructose corn syrup or HFCS. Manufacturers sometimes list it as corn sugar on some food labels.
High fructose corn syrup promotes inflammation in the body, which in turn impairs the immune system. An impaired immune system is thought to be the underlying cause of canker sores.
A person on a typical diet of supermarket foods is a prime candidate for frequent mouth ulcers. This is because this stuff is in everything. Plain corn syrup is problematic as well.
This is why eating too much fruit or fruit juice can cause canker sores as well. The sugar in fruit is primarily fructose. Surprisingly, it isn’t the acid in most cases that is causing the problem. Although, acidity may be a contributing factor.
If acid were the primary problem, drinking kombucha tea would also cause canker sores. Most people I know prone to mouth ulcers can drink kombucha regularly without issue.
TOO MUCH FRUCTOSE = CANKER SORES
Even agave nectar, which many consider a health food, contributes to canker sores. The truth is that agave nectar is best avoided. It is highly processed in a manner very similar to HFCS. It is neither healthy nor helpful in any way to the person consuming it. Stay away from it if you want to avoid canker sores!
I used to suffer from canker sores all the time to the point where I had at least one bothering me much of the time.
I haven’t had a canker sore now in over 25 years. Simply cutting out all HFCS from my diet easily accomplished this huge improvement in quality of life! In addition, I watch my intake of regular fructose from other sources like fruit.
If you start checking food labels, you will be shocked. Even commercial peanut butter and ketchup contain it. Simply switching to health food store brands will quickly rid it from your life in most cases.
How Much Fructose is Too Much?
A good idea is to limit your intake of fructose from all sources to no more than 15 grams per day. This is about half the amount of total sugar intake per day that can be tolerated without ill effects.
Dr. Richard Johnson MD in The Sugar Fix describes how important it is to limit your fructose intake for health and weight control.
To give you some idea, in a big, ripe banana, you’d get maybe 10 grams of fructose.
So, if you eliminate HFCS in your diet completely and eat no more than 1-2 pieces of fruit a day, that would be a good way to go.
Be aware also that going over the fructose limit of 15 g per day (25 g at the absolute most) can cause a canker sore very quickly. Sometimes, within a few hours, one or more can appear.
When my kids were younger and attended birthday parties, if they had even ONE Capri Sun juice or a half a can of soda they would invariably have a canker sore within a day or two. I trained them very early to only drink water.
Bottom line is that even if you control your fructose intake 99% of the time, consuming a single food loaded with HFCS can cause one of these baddies very fast.
Imagine what incredible damage a high fructose diet is doing to a person’s insides if it can cause an ulcer in the mouth so quickly!
I would also recommend looking up “night shade vegetables” cutting them from my diet is the only thing that has worked for me.
What must I do to stop mouth ulcers from recurring? Im really tired of it,taking centrum, dequadin doesnt help much, or imust watch my diet?
I suffered the mouth ulcers since 2007 till now and so painfull , I eat a lots of fruits especially oranges maybe five oranges a day and lot of bananas and juice as well,I used to buy mouthwash, dentist ordered me dequadin mouth paint, so im tired now, help me guys
All that fruit is the culprit. 5 oranges a day? My mouth would be full of sores if I did that!
Just want inform you all that the actually is a huge difference between refined sugar ( HFCS) and fructose in fruit. The fruit has better nutrient density and has a slow release of the sugars while the refined sugars are like tsunami on your system.
I completely agree with your comment and the comment below.
1) Sugar from fruits is tto harmful. Refined sugars are
2) The idea that fruit intake should be reduced to a bare minimum is the most ridiculous idea I have ever heard.
3) Fructose in fruit juices and fructose in fresh fruit juices are completely different. I used to have fresh fruit juice of 6 oranges every alternate day and never had any issues. In fact, my immunity – especially to cold – improved adn I always felt fresh and energetic.
Then why can you get horrible canker sores from eating too much fruit or drinking too much fruit juice? I have to be really careful in this area.
Just because the fructose is unrefined doesn’t mean that too much is ok.
I’m sure it is a matter of individuality. As a holistic nutritionist, I can assure you that there is no one size fits all diet. I agree that agave, and HFCS aren’t good for anyone, however, because fruit affects you that way doesn’t mean it affects everyone that way. Some people do well on fruit, some don’t. Some people do well on more carbs, some do well of fewer. Some people do well on high protein, some do well on less. We should all be aware of possible causes, and for that, i tga k you for this artickr. But please know that individual triggers may vary. For instance I don’t get cankers from fruit at all. I do get cankers from chocolate — even the super dark, fair trade, organic kind.
I’ve always been a victim of canker sores, but I’ve finally been able to really narrow down the culprits. It sure as hell is not fruit, especially when it’s fruit in its whole form. Concentrated fruit juice usually gives me cankers if I drink enough of it. I also remember candy giving me cankers when I was younger. Particularly candy like blow pops, or sour patch kids which can cut the inside of your mouth or just create a great environment for cankers if you eat too much at once. High pulp, not from concentrate orange juice never, ever gives me cankers.
Limiting your sugar intake to 15g a day is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Our cells run on glucose and our bodies crave sugar for energy. Fruit and starches are what we should be eating the most of. Fat and protein are not used as energy like carbohydrates are. Carbs are king when it comes to weight loss and getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to food for energy (which is all food should ultimately be).
Anyways, back to cankers. So I’ve realized that concentrated sugar is the main culprit for cankers, but it depends on the type of sugar. Certain things, like soda never gave me cankers as I recall. I did recently get a canker after accidentally biting the side of my mouth/gums, and the more concentrated sugary food I was eating was able to form the canker in that cut area. Without the cut, it would not have caused the canker (can’t remember the food I was eating, but it didn’t usually cause cankers).
I believe that it’s very tough to get cankers from whole, fresh, ripe and raw fruit. But I will contradict myself by admitting that after eating a whole bag of red grapes, roughly 610 calories worth, I was able to form a canker deep under my tongue and on top of my tongue. It’s been two days and they don’t seem to be too big. I think eating seedless grapes may be quite unnatural, as it may take much longer to eat natural, seeded grapes.
“Fat and protein are not used as energy like carbohydrates are. Carbs are king when it comes to weight loss and getting the most bang for your buck when it comes to food for energy (which is all food should ultimately be).”
I think you’re mistaken here. Fat can be used as energy in the absence of carbs. Actually it is more efficient source of energy. Protein is converted to carbs and can also be used as energy.
Number 1 cause of obessity is carbs and starch.
I had started having canker sores since teenage. These are really painful and so irritating. Following are my observations
1. Canker sores are hereditary. My mom used to have and my maternal uncle also.
2. These are caused by stress/sulking, too much oily/spicy food and processed foods.
3. No issue with natural foods accept Pinapple and grapes
4. Constipation can be a major cause.
5. Can be minimized by taking multivitamin supplements specially B complex, Folic acid, Iron.
6. Oral hygiene can also minimize it.
Rest pray to God not to have them.
That’s BS. I don’t eat ANY corn syrup or even refined sugar. Last few months i have been getting canker sores ever few weeks on front gums and lips.
I suspect it’s the acidic foods like juice or diet pop that is causing these, but not sure.
It is DEFINITELY NOT corn syrup
I think that the point is that mouth sores are an immunity problem. If sugar is not an immunity problem for you, then maybe something else like nightshade Foods, wheat, corn, so common or something else could be compromising your immunity.
Since I stopped eating anything with citric acid like grapefruit, oranges – including juice, lemons – lemonade, lemon juice, limes, and especially tomatoes, I no longer get canker sores. Even tomato sauce seems to cause an eruption but not like raw tomatoes.
I would also like to point out the fact that since vaccines, processed foods, pollution, simple sugars, etc… Life expectancy has gone up, not down. It’s a fact that if you live long enough you will get cancer, its more a statistical fact than anything else. Since life expectancy has almost doubled in the last 100 years, its a fact this is the cause of increased cancer rates, and let’s not forget the advances in diagnosis. Mich like autism, the parameters of diagnoses has changed, resulting in public fear. You are all very stupid people and ignore the world around you in favor of bullshit scientists and retard blogs.
Thank you for that comment! ^ I was hoping to see at least one person actually use their brain. I have a similar reaction as you. Mine are caused by oranges and much worse by pineapple! I don’t normally drink soda but on a weekend I could drink a dozen rum and cokes and eat a box ginger snaps and I won’t get any canker sores… i eat one piece of pineapple and I’m guaranteed to have one within minutes.
I still eat them once in a while cause they are delicious!
Life expectancy is more than an average of how low a person can be expected to live. Back I’m the day wheb life expectancy was so low was largely because of a much higher infant mortality rate which skews the number very low. There were still plenty of people living to ripe old ages then as there are now and generally in better, more productive health. Using average life expectancy is ok only if you understand where the number comes from.
Sorry Crick, but you are spreading misinformation too. Simply google cancer rates, broken down by age, and over time and you’ll see that cancer for young & middle aged people has been on an upward trend for many years – and actually the older generations (75+) have been on a downward trend. This suggests that those who make it to live a long life are generally in better health.
Secondly, there are many peer-reviewed scientific medical studies on sugar, and especially recently, it is becoming more and more clear how bad they are for personal health. Sugar is basically a toxin, and what isn’t absorbed is converted to fat by the liver because it is utterly useless. The body may be resilient but continually filling it with toxins doesn’t bode well for the future of your health.
You must also take into account that while modern medicine has allowed us to fight potentially life threatening diseases and illnesses, it has also allowed us to hobble on through life even when our bodies have been destroyed by poor diet (e.g. diabetes). Taking pills every day to counter a bad diet isn’t exactly a decent quality of life. There is plenty of evidence also linking poor diet and lack of exercise to depression – the western worlds second biggest killer.
And lastly, until you try to cut out this processed food, how can you possibly comment? The difference in energy, alertness, and overall well-being is incredible. You are simply used to a poor diet, along with many others, and like I when I was younger, didn’t really feel like I was unhealthy in anyway (even when drinking soda, eating potato chips, and scoffing sweets/candy daily). Your body has just built up a tolerance – and you are used to it. It’s only when you change your diet that you realize how liberating it is. When I eat a sugary treat now my body goes into disarray – I don’t fall over and die but my guts will churn and not feel particularly great – it’s a great motivation to not go back to eating really badly. I also sleep better, can wake up easily, have increased energy all day long, and generally feel happier and on top. And hell, I don’t even exercise.
Oh, and I don’t appreciate you looking down on those with herpes. I have oral herpes and using terms like “riddled with herpes” is impudent. I have one cold sore a year, or less, and otherwise function completely normally.
It’s always frustrating to me, to see the anti-sugar Nazi’s make uneducated speculative cause and effect relationships. Anyone that claims stress is the cause of canker sores has oral herpes, not canker sores. It cracks me up to see people confuse the two. Canker sores are not transmitted, they are (according to some pub med articles) an allergic reaction.
As an individual that consumes all processed sugars, caffeine, and drinks more soda and red bull in preparation for the MCAT, I will have to say that most the info in this article is pure speculation, and bias. I haven’t had a canker sore in 3 years, and trust me I don’t live healthy, however the body is extremely resilient. Genetics play a much greater role than your perceived bias towards processed foods.
I recently purchased a vintage juicer, and despite my apprehension towards juicing oranges, I did. Sure enough, 4 days later my mouth had a total of 6 cabker sores. No stress, candy, soft drink, or GMO could replicate the results I get from Oranges, or Orange juice. Lemonade doesn’t do anything, grapefruit, no problem, grapefruit mixed with copious amounts of vodka and sugar, no sweat.
My conclusion is that you people that say you get them from stress are riddled with herpes, not canker sores. And those of you that believe its evil corporate processed foods, or sugar, have more issues than I could throw a stick at, and your constant anxiety and fear will eventually result in cancer, so enjoy.