Nutritive and Non nutritive sweeteners and your teeth. - Tooronga Family Dentistry in Glen Iris

In order to reduce the caloric intake, many people prefer to use non-nutritive sweeteners instead of sugar. One of the most common sweeteners is aspartame, which can be found in diet soft drink, food and pharmaceutical products. They are used in very small quantities in foods and beverages and contribute very little to no energy to the food.

In addition to non-nutritive sweeteners, there are also nutritive sweetener and are often confused with the previously mentioned non-nutritive sweeteners. However, in contrast to non-nutritive sweeteners, their relative sweetness is equal or lower than that of sugar. A commonly used nutritive sweetener is xylitol, and replaces sugar in baked goods, toothpaste, candy and sugar-free gum. The energy values for nutritive sweeteners are lower than for sugar ranging from 1.6 to 3.0 Kcal per gram. These sweeteners are useful as an alternative to sugar for people with diabetes as they provoke a much smaller increase in blood glucose and insulin compared with ingestion of glucose.

The non nutritive sweeteners and the nutritive sweeteners are beneficial in tooth decay prevention. The reason is that bacteria cannot break these products and use the byproducts to form a glue that helps them stick to your teeth or to form acid which breaks down the tooth once the bacteria are attached to it. The addition of sweeteners to chewing gum improves their decay prevention properties, since chewing stimulates the secretion of saliva that neutralizes the acids produced by bacteria.

In conclusion sweeteners are better for your teeth and your diet too.