OK.. this post makes pretty good dental sense right? Sugar in drinks is just another avenue of providing fuel for the bacteria in your mouth to cause cavities and you are right. But at Southern California Dental Health Associates we feel that the cavity risk is important, but that eliminating the sugar in your drinks will improve your overall health.
For the most part we really do not need to get any calories for our life through our beverages. One can of soda a day equals about 15.5 pounds of fat a ayear. That is only 12 ounces of soda, and guess what…the bottles are now up to 20 ounces. Imagine how much a wallop the 64 ounce Big Gulp packs for your body.
The doctors at UC Medical in San Francisco are also cautioning their pregnant patients that the more sugar drinks they consumme the increased chance of changing how their unborn child will deal with adipose deposition (add fat to their body)
Of particular concern is the amount of high fructose corn syrup that is found in beverages. There is a lot of medical people out there who feel HFCS is not good for the body and the evidence they present is very convincing (for the lecture Sugar: The Bitter Truth go to http://tinyurl.com/ldgu9k )
There are few, if any nutrients you can get out of a beverage so keep it simple and drink water or unswettened coffee or tea. Milk is also good, particulary for growing kids.
I personally also like the Sobe drinks that have no sugar, they have a different sweetner, erythritol. It is 60–70% as sweet as table sugar yet it is almost non-caloric, does not affect blood sugar, does not cause tooth decay, and is absorbed by the body, therefore unlikely to cause gastric side effects unlike other sugar alcohols.
At Southern California Dental Health Associates we believe that practicing good nutrition goes hand in hand with reducing dental disease. We will be keeping you posted on other areas of nutrition that can help you. We have teamed up with a rRegistered Dietician, Jennifer D’Ambosi, to bring you more information.
To your continued health,
Dr.s Engel, Dana and Maya