Any foods with high amounts of processed sugar are bad for your teeth, including: Sugary sweets and candies, like chocolate bars, hard candies, jelly beans, lollipops, caramels, stay in your mouth for long periods of time. Sweet desserts such as cakes, cookies, pies, doughnuts, and similar foods. Soft drinks, even diet ones, because they contain acid. Even worse, drinks easily get in between teeth. Pickles contain vinegar, which is an acid. Some pickled foods also contain sugar, which makes them worse. Wine, both red and white, causes trouble due to the erosive acid and tannins. The acid can cause tooth decay, while tannins may dry out your mouth. Sugary juice drinks. Try to drink 100% juice instead of juice drinks. Juice drinks typically contain added sugars. Sports beverages. While sports beverages contain electrolytes to help your body replenish lost minerals, they also contain added sugars that can erode your teeth.