Is the sugar in your diet causing tooth decay? Find out with Jem Mosley.
What Exactly is Sugar?
Sugar is a edible crystalline carbohydrate that is labelled by its sweet flavour. There are many types of sugar. Standard sugar is usually made of sucrose, fructose, and lactose. The table sugar you see is sucrose, which is generally retrieved from sugar cane and sugar beet. Sugar is a necessary component for life, however, it is typically accepted that consuming sugar is not the best for you. How is this so?
What Can Sugar Do For You?
It must first be explained that some sugars are better than other sugars. For example, glucose is better than fructose for us because it is handled and used by the body a lot more efficiently. Regardless though, sugar has its consequences. Sugar can bring a wide variety of effects to you. Sadly, many of these effects tend to be negative rather than positive, but the positive ones will be discussed first.
The Sweet
As mentioned above, sugar is necessary. Sucrose is converted into glucose by the body, which in turn is used for the body as energy. Without sugar, people would not be able to live. This is the best effect sugar can have on you. Other benefits of sugar include its sweet properties that can be used in cooking and sweetening food and beverages.
The Not So Sweet
Some of the negative ways in which sugar can affect you include; tooth decay and potential gum disease, obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Some of these diseases are life threatening.
Tooth decay is one of the more prominently known effects of sugar. While it may seem more benign than the other listed negative effects, it is still a problem that can have long lasting effects.
Tooth Decay
Sugar is known to contribute in tooth decay. The consumption of sugar, particularly sucrose, leaves glycoprotein, a sticky substance that adheres to teeth. Glycoprotein is what causes plaque to form on teeth and bacteria to grow. At the same time plaque is growing, millions of bacteria called Streptococcus mutans are present.
Streptococcus Mutans
This is a cavity causing agent. There are other oral bacteria as well, but this bacteria is the only known bacteria to cause cavities. First, the bacteria will add glucose to form the plaque. Streptococcus mutans gain energy from fructose that comes glycolysis (processing of glucose by the body). Along with fructose, lactic acid may also formed by the process of glycolysis. Lactic acid causes a higher acidity level and as a result, the extra acidity dissolves through the teeth enamel. With time, the dissolving of the enamel will cause a cavity.
Is Tooth Decay That Bad?
Tooth decay can become very painful, and possibly result in loss of teeth. The best way to prevent tooth decay is to lower the consumption of sugar. Brushing and flossing can still leave some glycoproteins. This is not to say that brushing and flossing teeth is pointless, it complements lowering sugar consumption. The only problem is that sugar is everywhere. You may ask, "How can I replace sugar?" The answer is rather simple, use sugar substitutes.
Sugar Substitutes
Sugar substitutes are products like Equal and Splenda that try to imitate sugar. However, these brands are not really the best because of some research against Aspartame, the substance which Equal and Splenda use. There are some other natural substitutes that are both sweet and healthy though. Stevia is one. It is an organic sweetener and can very well replace added sugar to your diet as it is around 300 times sweeter than standard table sugar and has a negligible effect on blood glucose. (Ed: Find out more about alternatives to sugar next month - why not follow us on facebook or twitter for updates?)
©2011 Jem Mosley. All rights reserved. Published with permission on .
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