Health and Fitness Articles

Posts Tagged ‘xylitol dangers and health tips’

In ordinary term, xylitol is a sweetener that can be used as a substitute for sugar. Studies have shown that it has benefits not found in sugar. It is also found to prevent tooth decays and can be used as sugar substitute in food for people with diabetes.

Chemically, xylitol is not a sugar compound. There are various kinds of sugar, namely, fructose and glucose, among others. Xylitol is a sugar alcohol and has five instead of six carbon atoms. It is almost similar to and is as sweet as sucrose.

In the late 1900s, xylitol was discovered by German and French chemists. Raspberries and strawberries, other vegetables and even some mushrooms are examples of sources of xylitol.

So, how does xylitol prevent tooth decay? By preventing the occurrence of an acid attack. Every food that we eat that contains sugar multiplies certain bacteria on our teeth. They can penetrate the surface of our teeth with the help of acids produced by metabolic process.

“pH” is the measure for acidity. Calcium is being stripped away from the surface of our teeth when the pH level of plaque falls down to 5.5 or lower. With the acidity in the mouth, our tooth’s enamel will slowly start to dissolve, thus, forming tooth cavities. As the acid goes on further, the enamel becomes porous and vulnerable to bacteria leading to tooth decay.

Xylitol can prevent the acid attack by stopping the complete metabolism process of bacteria that causes tooth decay. Tooth decay is caused by the leading bacteria known as lactobacilli and streptococci. It is said that presence of xylitol results to a fall of as much as 90% of bacteria. The enamel stays safe from acid attacks and cavity are not produced because those bacteria can no longer produce acid.

Our mouth is being protected from bacteria by our saliva. It maintains the desired pH level to prevent bacteria from producing acid that destroys our teeth. However, too much consumption of sugar in our daily diet limits the protective capability of saliva or may render it useless.

Since most of us consume too much sugar in a day, we need to brush our teeth often. The fluoride in toothpaste helps wash out acids formed on the enamel. On the other hand, xylitol that is present in our saliva can make our mouth more alkaline. It raises amino acids and ammonia causing the pH level to rise and halt the production of bacteria.

Upon knowing the benefits, you’ll probably ask how we can avail of xylitol. It is now being used as chewing gum sweeteners by some manufacturers. Dentists find such gum a good way of adding xylitol to our saliva. Chewing itself can increase saliva secretion. More xylitol and saliva secretion means more buffer against tooth decay causing bacteria.

Your teeth are one of the most important parts of the body. We need them for crushing our food for better digestion. Toothache is not something that can be taken lightly, either. It’s a curse if you suffer from it and extracting the tooth responsible for the pain may not be immediately possible. Most dentists would first give you medication to stop toothache before they can extract the tooth.

Another good thing about having healthy teeth is that you always have a ready smile for everyone. You’ll have more confidence when you talk with anyone. Hopefully, more manufacturers would find ways to use xylitol instead of sugar in our daily food so that we can always have healthy teeth.