Sugar is Causing a Dental "Epidemic"

The BBC reports:

"More than half of the 1,000 dental operations carried out each year are on children under the age of six.
Dental surgeon Sharon Lee said she sees a constant stream of toddlers: "It obviously upsets me immensely but we do have a job to do to look after the child."
Five-year-old Kaitlyn was one of them.

Tooth decay meant that she needed to have eight molars removed - almost half her teeth.

"It could have been sweet drinks, sweets, biscuits, anything. Just too much sugar in the diet," said dental surgeon Dr Rod Llewelyn of her rotting teeth.

Her mother, Sharon, said the culprits were her daughter's love of sweets and tomato sauce. The little girl was at one point eating half a mug of tomato sauce a day.
But after the traumatic experience of seeing her daughter undergo the extractions, Sharon vowed to ban the ketchup entirely and cut back on the sweets served to her three children."

Now, it seems that these dental surgeons understand what constitutes sugar, such as tomato sauces and biscuits, as well as the items conventionally seen as full of sugar like soda and candy. So why are we not stepping up to ban these items as well? Schools have gotten rid of the soda machines and snack machines due to the health concerns over the sugar in the items the machines sell, but then why are these kids being served sweetened milk in the lunch line along with tomato sauces, breads, pizzas, pastas, corn, and potatoes? These items contain sugar as well, but due to lack of education the public has on these things, "What do you mean my bread is sugar?", they are considered acceptable.

It is great to see doctors, even those who deal with teeth, talk about what foods contain sugars, but the lack of education that people have astounds me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erix/ / CC BY 2.0

Print this post