
How the sugar industry shaped key government research about your teeth - ern
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/11/the-sneaky-way-the-sugar-industry-shaped-government-funded-dental-research
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jacobolus
Has anyone here closely investigated the research that led to recommendations
to brush teeth after every meal or at least two times a day, as e.g. suggested
on toothpaste containers, and to floss frequently, etc.? Any idea how well
designed / how complete the relevant studies were? Have there been more recent
improved studies? In the last few years I’ve heard second-hand some
alternative recommendations to brush before meals rather than after, but I
haven’t ever done my own research review.

I’ve long suspected that a good diet + brushing the teeth very carefully a few
times per week would be more effective than drinking soda and sweet and
starchy foods + brushing after every meal, just based anecdotally on how my
own teeth feel to my tongue depending on my diet and toothbrushing frequency.

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rickdale
I feel the same way. A few years ago I became convinced that any well known
brand name toothpaste was doing more damage to my teeth than help. I switched
to using clay based tooth pastes as well as some other powders, and sometimes
Ill take some tea spoons of cod liver oil. I grew up with cavities every visit
and now it seems like going to the dentist is pointless. They tell me my teeth
look great and I must be brushing and stuff, but really I just don't eat much
sugar and brush my teeth with toothpaste that is edible, floss occasionally. I
think dropping the listerine was the hardest part and also the most helpful.
But ultimately it just makes sense in my own mind to brush with a paste that
won't poison me if consumed.

~~~
com2kid
I stopped eating all sugar for 3 years (all carbs actually).

My dentist loved me. My dental visits consisted of me walking in, getting
briefly looked at, the dental hygienist doing a quick go over my teeth,
complementing me on how clean they are, and sending me on my way.

When I want back to eating sugar, my dental visits suddenly got a lot longer.
The cleaning of plaque alone is now at least twice as long.

~~~
lumpypua
Why did you go back to eating sugar?

Dropping the low carb thing I can understand. I do low carb paleo on and off
as my fiscal and lifestyle circumstances dictate... but I keep my sugar intake
low regardless.

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mcbetz
Listening excessively to one lobby group is as hazardous as eating excessively
exactly one staple - be it sugar or wheat. Moderation is important, both in
politics and nutrition.

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pizza234
In general, not so simple.

The industry shapes the culture, but worse, the law and the market.

Very typical example is the corn lobby group, whose result on the market is to
cause junk food to be much cheaper than nutritious food, thanks to perverse
subsidization. In turn this makes much more difficult for a relatively large
part of the population to eat correctly - practically difficult.

~~~
ArkyBeagle
This is one of the more bizarre artifacts of our system. And it took the
concentrated efforts of almost everyone involved to make it this way.

But _in a way_ , cheaper is always better. Nutritious food is also cheap,
relatively, unless the "nutritiousness" of it is also a price differentiator.
Frozen veggies are pretty easy to get, IMO - but it seems there usually has to
be a largish supermarket to buy them in. And that implies a finance model,
which implies a governance structure, which in the end means more dependence
in suppliers being "standard". Junk food makers probably can spend more
bandwidth on being "standard" and less on "quality".

If I had to describe Whole Foods model I would say that it intentionally
"violates" this tendency.

I have never been to a Trader Joes, and I usually use a mix of WalMart and the
dominant local chain - Publix when I lived in Florida. Whole Foods is kinda
creepy to me to shop in. I can't say exactly why.

~~~
mhb
_Whole Foods is kinda creepy to me to shop in. I can 't say exactly why._

Namaste: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-maclean/surviving-
whole-...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kelly-maclean/surviving-whole-
foods_b_3895583.html)

~~~
logfromblammo
For me, it's the paradoxical idea that not only do some dirty hippies have
enough money to shop there, but also that there are enough of them to actually
keep the company in business. Nationwide.

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bcg1
Sort of reminds me of Huxley's "Brave New World" when they traumatized the
young children to recoil at nature so that when they grow up they never want
to take trips out to the country, and so that they would spend all of their
money on expensive sports equipment for recreation instead.

~~~
mironathetin
yes, we are already there. And instead of reading books like that one, we
entertain ourselves with tv series.

~~~
jonlucc
Not me, I watch the travel channel so I can see the beautiful outdoors. Oh...

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abandonliberty
A similar thing happened with the red meat industry.

From the first food pyramid evidence was already showing intake should be
minimized, but the lobby fought back, and the pyramid was changed.

You will notice that the current food plate still carefully avoids saying
anything at all about red meat: [http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-
groups/protein-foods.html](http://www.choosemyplate.gov/food-groups/protein-
foods.html)

Compare & contrast against the evidence-supported
[http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-
eating-p...](http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-eating-
plate/)

~~~
gmarx
You implicitly assume that the research that shows red meat is bad for you is
correct.

~~~
figure8
Interesting research in this direction is making progress, helping to explain
WHY red meat may be dangerous:

[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141229152226.ht...](http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141229152226.htm)

~~~
gmarx
Sure, it may be dangerous. Here's the thing- I've been around for a while and
read a lot of stuff in the mainstream media about which combinations of foods
will kill you and which will make you immortal. As these have changed over the
years and as I have failed to see convincing evidence in the medical
literature I have concluded that people have a strong urge to believe that
doing something mildly unpleasant (not eating something delicious) now can
somehow prevent much worse things in the future. Its the same mechanism and
magical thinking that inspired our ancestors to sacrifice goats to appease the
gods and assure a great harvest. Wrapping the explanation in scientific jargon
is just the latest iteration of a priest in shiny robes.

