Hello, Martin Southon Principal Dentist at St Stephens Dental Surgery here.
The job of my dental team is to look after and maintain the health of teeth and mouths. A rather obvious statement but our modern life is making this more and more difficult for patients and dentists alike. The TV celebrity chef, Jamie Oliver has been making it his mission to try to help the public at large eat more healthily. A few years ago his campaign was to fight obesity with a more sensible lower fat diet. This year his new programme and campaign is called Sugar Rush highlighting the danger of sugar in our diet.
WE all know that sugar in our diet is the enemy of teeth and can cause other systemic problems like diabetes.
With our teeth, what many people do not know is that the problem with sugar is not the volume of the sugar but the frequency of sugar exposure to our dentition.
Sugars are a necessary part of our diet providing energy and they are a part of our metabolisms running normally and correctly. Dieticians say a reasonable intake is about 7 teaspoons of sugar a day…It sounds quite a lot doesn’t it?
This includes direct application of sugar such as in tea,coffee or on cereal but must also include the hidden sugars within foods!
Eating supposedly healthily meals these days can boost sugar intake quite surprisingly and dramatically
How about this?…A healthy sounding days food intake;
Breakfast; Bran flakes and a lemon yoghurt
Lunch; Tomato soup with bread
Snack; Flavoured water such as Volvic and a special K bar
Dinner; Chicken with Lemon and Ginger stir fry.
With the hidden sugars in this group of meals sugar intake is an astonishing 36 teaspoons!
Obviously this level of sugar exposure to your teeth can dramatically increase risk and incidence of decay.
But it can also lead to systemic disease such as Type 2 Diabetes, and 10% of the yearly NHS budget is now spent on dealing with problems caused by this type of largely avoidable Diabetes.
These problems range from obesity and its own bunch of related troubles to poor circulation. This can lead to blindness, gum disease general increased susceptibility to infections and at worse,a loss of limbs, especially legs.
At St Stephens Dental Practice we understand these hidden sugars are difficult to spot. If you need dietary advice please come and talk to us.
Book an appointment by phone on 01227 452668 or book online via our website.
St Stephens Dental Practice where we will maintain your confidence to smile.