One lump or two?

How many teas or coffees do you drink in a day?

Do you take one lump or two?

Sugar like anything can be fine in moderation but if you are consuming a sugary drink every few hours, the frequency of your sugar intake could be causing you tooth decay!

Now we all know that sugar damages our teeth and most of us try our best to avoid it or keep the sugar intake to meal times. But these days with such a variety of foods on offer we find that most sugars are hidden either in soft drinks, biscuits, cakes and jam. Sugar is also hidden in these unlikely foods,  ready meals, tinned vegetables, soups and sauces.  The ingredient you are looking to watch out for when monitoring your sugar intake is –  sucrose, glucose, dextrose, fructose and maltose these are all different types of sugar, and sugar is a wonderful form of food for plaque bacteria!!

Now sometimes we have the odd snack or tin of soup without realising the true sugar content but if you have the dreaded ‘sweet tooth’ and like to have a cup of tea or coffee (plus a few added sugars) and  these hot drinks are as frequent as 2/3 times a day your poor teeth are constantly being soaked in pure sugar feeding all of the plaque on your teeth and in turn possibly causing you to have a higher decay rate than someone who has no sugar in their beverage.

This kind of sugar is totally combatable as you are seeing how much sugar you are stirring into your cup therefore it can easily be replaced or removed, if you can give it up completely then – great! But if you like your sweet drink here and there your sugar habit can be replaced with sweeteners! So if you seem to have a high decay rate or would just like to cut your sugar content then make the move to sweeteners and see if your dentist can notice the difference…!