Dr Tim Spector warns one food could leave children with ‘shrinking jaws’ and ‘crooked teeth’

The modern diet is leading to an ‘epidemic of jaw shrinkage’ and causing orthodontic issues in children, according to nutrition expert Dr Tim Spector.

The Professor of Genetics reacted to a study which found that the typical size of younger generations’ jaws was shrinking as a result of the modern diet.

Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at the Catholic University of Valencia said the move away from a ‘hunter-gatherer’ diet based on meat and plant foods has reduced the size of jawlines.

The study links the rise in ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and a softer diet to the dental deformities that result in teeth becoming increasingly crowded.

Common examples of UPFs are ice cream, ham, sausages, crisps, mass-produced bread, breakfast cereals, biscuits, and more, according to the British Heart Foundation.

The researchers say that UPFs are designed to be ‘hyper palatable’, resulting in them being eaten in vast quantities, which Dr Tim Spector believes is impacting jaw development.

Dr Tim Spector told the Telegraph: “We’ve been going through this epidemic of jaw shrinkage for a few hundred years but it has really accelerated over the last two decades.

“As a result, we’re seeing a huge rise in orthodontic problems in children – a massive use of braces, and far more crooked teeth.

“The strongest current theory about why the jaws have been shrinking so rapidly is that we’re feeding on our kids baby food really for the whole of their lives – so that they just don’t develop the jaw muscles or the size of the jaw, and you aren’t really adapted for chewing.

“This is just another sign of how Western countries like the UK and the US have succumbed to this wave of soft, ultra-processed foods that is now the main