The West Malling Dental Practice & Implant Centre Guide to where Tooth Decay-Causing Sugars are Hidden-Camouflaged in Your Diet!
Save yourself a fortune and a whole heap of pain, by reading this and not forgetting to have 6 monthly Check ups….
Firstly– lets cover some Sugar Names, the Sneaky Scientific ‘Code Names’ to Look out for.
Names for Sugar in Ingredients – Hidden Sugars that Can Harm Your Teeth
SUCROSE is the ‘Tate and Lyle’ type of Sugar. It is made of two ‘simple’ (and highly potent Tooth Decay creating sugars), called GLUCOSE & FRUCTOSE (concentrated Fruit Sugar).
It’s very sweet and addictive giving you a comforting dopamine hit each time! It’s ‘Pure White and Deadly’- For your teeth when consumed regularly.
Sucrose is also potentially very damaging to your general health since excess Glucose & Fructose is converted by your liver into Saturated Fat as well as the inevitable issues of chronic high blood sugar levels.
In its unrefined form it’s brown sugar including Honey, Demera, Muscavado, Molasses etc. The powerful bacteria in dental plaque feast on both processed and unprocessed forms, destroying your tooth enamel and then the softer dentine underneath – eventually killing the nerve at the centre of every tooth!
More Tooth Decay causing bacterial plaque favourites – These Sugar’s names end in ‘ose’ -Glucose & Fructose in their Individual forms, Dextrose, and Maltose (Malt Sugar)
These all have great potential to harm teeth – so read the label & reduce the regularity and amount you consume. For instance If you dilute pure/concentrated fruit juice with 3 to 1 water – it will protect your teeth.
BUT why are you driven to eat them-so will power alone often fails?????
Under Stress we reach for these in comfort- They give you a powerful addictive Dopamine high!- Plus to lift our energy as part of the fight flight reaction. When consistently, habitually eaten through chronic pressure/stress-over the Years, it often causes Tooth Loss and quite likely some rather terrible Health problems to avoid like the plague! These include Diabetes, Heart Disease, Kidney disease and probably Dementia too. (see The West Malling Dental Practice and Implant Centre blog, on Cortisol & how it drives cravings)
Added Sugar-what foods and drinks to watch out for?
- Drinks such as Cokes, lemonades, sports drinks (see below)
- Breakfast cereals and granola bars, protein bars.
- Most Deserts (keep to once a week!) Sweet/Fruit yoghurts, cookies and cakes,
- Condiments such as ketchups, sweet chilli and other sauces.
- Processed foods like baked beans, peanut butters (some brands add refined sugar),
- Flavoured milks, hot chocolate, malt drinks such as Horlicks, Ovaltine.
- Sugared teas & coffees, including the dreaded syrup in coffees.
Watch out for disguised sugary ‘Reduced/Low’ Sugar Products – they still usually have way too much sugar!
A little extra motivation on the sugary drinks! A standard can of coke contains 9 teaspoons of sugar!!!!! The Recommended dietary allowance is 6 teaspoons! Energy drinks, unless zero sugar, have masses of added sugar often disguised as Sucrose/Glucose.
Replace drinks with healthy fats like nuts (for energy) and maybe try Mate/Matcha Green Tea if you want a buzz. Fizzy drinks and sports drinks – when drunk almost daily – are a great way to gradually become prediabetic and then eventually type 2 Diabetic.
We do need to drink 2 litres of water per day so if you don’t trust the tap water maybe it is time to buy a water filter. You can add a little freshly squeezed lemon/lime or real fruit juice if you want to flavour it, not Ribena.
So what foods & drinks won’t cause tooth decay and damage my Teeth?
Replace those sweetened, carbohydrate rich drinks and food with unsugared Oats/Oatcakes for long term energy and fresh fruit (damaging effects of the Fructose in Fruit- is much less-though avoid dried fruit).
Eat healthy amounts of unprocessed fats like Avocado, a moderate amounts of cheese and oily nuts like brazils. Fat gives you energy – its the best energy source of all, just don’t eat large amounts. Instead focus on increasing your protein intake as well. Try a combination of walnuts, macadamias, pecans, hazelnuts & brazil nuts to lift your protein intake and you could combine this with high protein plain yoghurts.
Marinated Tofu, Tempeh or other protein sources are also solid choices. Protein rich foods naturally reduce food cravings and so protect your body, mind and teeth – but beware of high protein drinks with added sugars!
Are all fruit juices safe for my teeth?
‘Fruit Juice Drinks’ – No sugar added? This name means Yes- they have added Sugar. and can cause Tooth Decay. ’Fruit juice’ concentrated or fresh- also naturally contains a lot of Fructose(Fruit Sugar). The vitamins are essential though- so I dilute it adding about 3 times the volume of filtered water- this rehydrates and genuinely lowers the sugar effects.
Do sticky foods cause Tooth Decay?
(Are You on a Sticky Wicket???)- The Stickier Your Sugar- the longer the plaque bacteria can feast on it, producing the acid that destroys Tooth Enamel and Dentine inside of that. Honey, Caramels, Syrups with/without Coffee, Toffee, Sticky Toffee Pud, Dried Fruit, Gummy Sweets, Pastilles, Molasses containing foods and other ‘stickies’ are the culprits here!
Fructose & Corn/Fructose Syrup
These syrups are neat very sweet Sugar-it’s another potential health buster in disguise- and is rife in processed foods- supermarket foods and snacks. In fact if it’s a snack/drink- make sure you read the ingredients for this and the other ‘-Ose’s’. Unless you are immediately going to burn these sugars off- through intense exercise- avoid them- (even then,-they will still attack your precious irreplaceable Teeth), so replace Sugars generally with moderate amounts of fats, such as Cheese, Nuts, Coconut Fat unsweetened Greek/yoghurt or Fage Total High Protein Yoghurt etc. which are simply better, longer lasting energy sources.
Beet Sugar/Grape Sugar
These are more sneaky ‘healthier looking’ ways of getting that addictive stuff into you- All sugars are actually natural- it’s just we aren’t designed to consume much day to day through our habitual go to choices! Real Fresh (Not Dried) Fruits are of course a healthy choice so go ahead there and enjoy these to get your Vitamins and Enzymes.
So you’ve taken the first step to a longer, healthier and happier Life by reading this blog and learning the ingredients and foods to look out for. You can have the sugars we’ve talked about just as a treat once a week-and definitely don’t have the last thing at night-even with brushing your precious tattoo enamel will be attacked!
To really benefit from this newfound knowledge, remember you are going to need to try to reduce your sugar cravings. Click here to discover how to reduce these cravings by identifying the hormone responsible.
In summary, when you next visit the supermarket – ask yourself does this food or drink contain a hidden sugar? Look for the grams of carbohydrate and especially sugars per 100grams. More than a few Grams of the -Ose’s in any of them (per 100grams) is definitely going to undermine your Dental and General Health- For example- 10 grams per 100 is actually 10%Sugar!
Go For it and Enjoy the better energy levels, reduced stress and decay that will result! Eating more protein, moderate amounts of tasty fats and Real Fruits are the way forward!