Good morning all my readers,
This is your friendly dental assistant again. I have good news for you about sweets. As we all know sugar is a terrorist against healthy bodies.
Sugar wages war against you with weapons ranging from diabetes, to weight gain and as we are witnesses of ...tooth decay. However if you are like me you may have a sweet tooth, so what is a girl (or guy) to do.
xylitol! pronounced zii-lit-all.
So, what is xylitol? It is a natural sweetener. It is a healthy alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners (don't get me started on the dangers of artificial sweeteners!!) So lets talk about how it works and why it is so good for you.
Xylitol impedes the growth of plaque, you know that film felt on your teeth in the morning, or as I like to refer to it "furry teeth" feeling.
Xylitol has a slow glycemic index. This just means how fast or slow something gets into your blood stream. This is what makes it safer for diabetics to use, it has a glycemic index of 7 (rush hour turtle traffic slow) compared to sugar which has a glycemic index of 100! (cheetah with redbull fast!)
Xylitol increases the amount of of saliva you produce--why is this good? dry mouth causes cavities!
xylitol has 2.4 calories per gram and sugar has 4.0 calories per gram....so almost twice as much!
so lets put this in perspective for day to day use. where can you find xylitol?
Check out these 2 websites. www.epicdental.com and www.xylitolworks.com.
Both have more detail about how xylitol works and products that you can try--think gum, mints, even maple syrup and honey that are made with xylitol. one of them even has a cookbook for xylitol. If anyone tries that out please comment and let all the readers know how it works!
We have Squigle toothpaste in the office that is chalk full of xylitol and pick some Trident gum at your local retailer! It is sweetened with xylitol and has several great flavors!! I chew it religiously!
Hopefully you have found this information to be helpful. Let me know what you think by commenting!
Thanks for reading,
Denise
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You crack me right up. You sound like a very bubbly Cheetah. Your dental office is lucky to have you as their spokesperson. Your parents must be proud of you.
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