Sugar season has started, so brush your teeth twice a day, floss daily, and drink plenty of water, UK dental-school dean advises

Photo illustration by Viktoriia Hnatiuk, iStock/Getty Images Plus

By Jeff Okeson, D.M.D.

Professor and dean, University of Kentucky College of Dentistry

From Halloween through New Year's, holiday parties and family events are filled with gifts and delicious treats. Kids go trick-or-treating, pies are baked and cookies are decorated. It’s the time of year that brings everyone together.

But with all the sugary treats, increased potential for cavities can be a concern. Cavities are small holes in the teeth caused by tooth decay. Eating sugar without proper dental hygiene can lead to plaque buildup on teeth, which can dissolve the enamel on teeth and eventually cause cavities.

It’s important to pay attention to holiday favorites like sugary baked goods, candied nuts and candy canes that contain a lot of added sugar which can lead to tooth decay. It’s also easy to forget that holiday drinks like apple cider and cocktails can be acidic leading to tooth erosion.

While sweet treats can be enjoyed, as we head into the fall and winter months it is important to stay on top of your oral health to ensure your dental visits are cavity-free. Here's how to do that:

Brush your teeth properly. Adults and children alike should brush their teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste for a full two minutes. Divide the mouth into four sections, top right, top left, bottom right, bottom left and brush each section for 30 seconds. Gently rotate the toothbrush bristles in circles, being careful not to irritate the gums. Rinse the mouth to wash out all toothpaste.

Floss daily. Flossing is equally as important as brushing. Flossing cleans hard-to-reach areas between the teeth and below the gum line. One of the most common places for a cavity to form is between the teeth, which is why flossing is necessary when cleaning the entire mouth. Adults and children should floss their teeth at least once a day, ideally at night before bed.

Drink plenty of water. Staying hydrated is beneficial for overall health, but drinking water is also one of the easiest ways to help prevent cavities. Water containing fluoride strengthens teeth and prevents decay. Water also washes away leftover food and residue that can lead to cavity-causing bacteria.

Visit the dentist regularly. Adults and children should visit the dentist for routine check-ups every six to 12 months. Visiting the dentist regularly lets people know if they are at risk for cavities. Once a patient is seen, dentists can understand which treatments might be needed or what changes in oral hygiene or diet might help reduce their risk of tooth decay.

While these tips can help prevent tooth decay, even the most diligent brushers can still get a cavity. There are a few telltale signs that indicate a dental visit is needed. Contact a dentist or health care provider if you experience any of the following symptoms:

• Toothache or pain
• Sensitivity to heat or cold
• Tooth discoloration
• Swollen gums

Holiday sweets and drinks are something to look forward to and may be hard to avoid completely. Instead of worrying about what isn’t okay to eat, focus on consuming in moderation. Drinking plenty of water and keeping up on your brushing and flossing are some of the best ways to take care of oral health.

New federal nutrition guides, which influence school lunches, food stamps and diabetes, ignore experts' calls for less sugar, alcohol

New federal nutritional guidelines unveiled last week, which influence everything from school lunches and military rations to food stamps, ignored scientific advisers' calls to lower recommended sugar and alcohol intake. Agency officials said there wasn't enough evidence to advise stricter limits on sugar and alcohol, but emphasized that people should cut back on both. The advice has meaning for Kentucky, where nearly half the population has diabetes or pre-diabetes.

"The updated guidelines are the first to include dietary advice for infants, toddlers and pregnant women," Ryan McCrimmon reports for Politico's Weekly Agriculture. "They also have a broader theme of encouraging consumers to 'make every bite count' by choosing nutrient-rich foods and beverages, with five categories — fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy and protein — accounting for 85 percent of daily calories."

The Department of Agriculture and the Department for Health and Human Services have jointly released updated guidelines every five years since 1980. The federal government hired an independent panel of 20 doctors, nutritionists and public-health experts from major academic institutions to assist in creating the new guidelines. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee "suggested the guidelines should take a harder line against added sugars, but USDA and HHS decided to keep the Obama-era advice that individuals try to not consume more than 10 percent of their calories from added sugars," Helena Bottemiller Evich reports for Politico. "The committee had recommended dropping the limit down even further to 6 percent."

The committee also "recommended in June that the guidelines should urge men to cut back on alcohol by reducing the government’s definition of 'moderate drinking' from two drinks per day to one. (At the time, the panel recommended keeping the definition of moderate drinking the same for women, at one drink per day.)," Evich reports. "Government officials ultimately decided to not adopt the stricter alcohol recommendation, which had sparked furious pushback and lobbying from the alcohol industry.

The dietary guidelines have long been a political football because of their influence over federal nutrition programs, Evich reports.

New nutrition labels use larger portion sizes and list added sugar, which can cause many health issues; here are ways to limit it

Nutrition fact labels are the primary source of information about what's in the food we eat, and they recently got their first update in 20 years.

The Food and Drug Administration says it based the changes on "updated scientific information, new nutrition and public health research, more recent dietary recommendations from expert groups, and input from the public."

Manufacturers with $10 million or more in annual sales were required to switch to the new label by Jan. 1, those with less annual food sales have another year to comply.

One of the biggest changes on the labels is that they now show a serving size based on the amount most people eat and drink, instead of a suggested serving size.

This change was made to reflect the larger portions people eat and drink now, compared to those in 1993 when the previous size requirements were published. For example, the new serving size for ice cream is 2/3 cup, compared to 1/2 cup on the old label.

And for products that could be consumed in one sitting, like a 24-ounce bottle of soda or a pint of ice cream, manufacturers must now provide a "dual column" label to show calories and nutrients for both "per serving" and"per package" amounts.

The labels also show the calories and serving size in larger and bolder type. This change was made to address the growing obesity problem in the United States, which is associated with heart disease, stroke, certain cancers and diabetes.

The new labels will no longer include calories from fat, but will instead show the types of fat a product contains. This change was made to reflect research that shows the type of fat you consume is more important than the amount.

The labels now include potassium and Vitamin D, along with calcium and iron. Vitamins A and C have become optional for listing, since most Americans get enough of those nutrients in their diets. They also reflect updated requirements for the amount of nutrients we need, shown in both the actual amount and the percent daily value. An updated footnote explains the meaning of percent daily value.

The FDA added Vitamin D and potassium because research shows these are nutrients that Americans don't always get enough of, and when lacking, are associated with increased risk of chronic disease.

Added sugars have also been added to the label. The most recent dietary guidelines recommends you consume less than 10% of your daily calories from added sugars.

The American Heart Association recommends no more than six teaspoons of added sugar per day for women and nine teaspoons for men. The recommended rate for children varies between three and six teaspoons per day, depending on age and caloric need. One teaspoon of sugar equals four grams on the label.

Health risk of added sugar

Most people have no idea how much added sugar they consume, because it's in nearly 70% of packaged foods and is found in breads, health foods, snacks, yogurts, most breakfast foods and sauces. Tara Parker-Pope reports for The New York Times. She says the average American eats about 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day -- not counting the sugars that occur naturally in foods like fruit or dairy products.

A physician who was one of the first to raise the alarm about the health risks of added sugar told Parker-Pope that it's not just about the added calories, but also about the many health risks that come with eating too much added sugar.

“It’s not about being obese, it has to do with metabolic health,” Dr. Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California, San Francisco, told Parker-Pope. “Sugar turns on the aging programs in your body. The more sugar you eat, the faster you age.”

A number of health authorities, including the World Health Organization and the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, which issues national dietary guidelines for Americans, agree that cutting back on added sugars is a good idea, Parker-Pope reports, adding that these views have come under attack by groups with ties to the food industry.

Parker-Pope writes that while many scientists believe added sugar is the leading culprit in the obesity epidemic, they also say that even people of normal weight can suffer the same health problems associated with eating too much sugar, including heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, cancer, stroke and even Alzheimer's disease.

Too much added sugar can also damage your liver, similarly to the way that alcohol does, leading to a condition that is called "sugar belly," in which your waist is bigger than your hips.

Parker-Pope points to the difference between the sugar, or fructose, found naturally in foods, which are good to eat, and those that have been added to foods.

She writes that our bodies can handle fructose when it's eaten as a whole fruit because it comes with a number of micronutrients plus fiber, which slows the rate at which the sugar enters your bloodstream. But when we eat the fructose found in ultra-processed foods and beverages, it doesn't have the fiber to slow it down and "your body gets a big dose of fructose that can wreak havoc," she writes.

Further, she reports that high consumption of processed fructose can result in a dulled response to a hormone called leptin, which is a natural appetitie suppressant, leading to weight gain and that it can create changes in the brain similar to those found in people who are addicted to cocaine and alcohol.

Gary Taubes, author of The Case Against Sugar and an advocate of low-carbohydrate eating, doesn't agree with the food industry's recommendation that added sugars be consumed in moderation.

“If I start to allow sugars into my life, there is a slippery slope,” Taubes told Parker-Pope “I think for many people, getting control of their sugar habit is the most important thing they can do for their health. If they can’t do it through abstinence, then mostly-abstinence is a good thing to achieve.”

The New York Times has offered a 7-Day Sugar Challenge to help people reduce the added sugar in their diet. For example, the first day in the challenge offers tips on how to cut out sugar from your breakfast. Parker-Pope stresses that it's not easy, and the cravings for sweets will be worse in the first five days -- but the payoff is worth it.

Lustig recommends three weeks of no added sugar to get your brain’s dopamine system back to normal. “Then you can introduce something back in,” he told Parker-Pope. “But it’s got to be under your control, not the food industry’s control.”

Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky calls for statewide smoking ban, pushing people to quit by raising tobacco tax $1 a pack

Ben Chandler

Kentucky's poor health is hurting its economy, and the state needs a smoking ban and a big increase in its cigarette tax to prevent disease, Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky President Ben Chandler told a legislative committee Wednesday.

"The poor health of the commonwealth is one of the main things that's holding our economy back," Chandler said, telling the Interim Joint Committee on Health and Welfare that among the 50 states, Kentucky's population is 26th but its economy is 45th.

"The single most effective policy changes we can make to improve the health of Kentuckians are changes that will reduce our smoking rates and exposure to secondhand smoke," Chandler said. "Passing smoke-free laws and raising the tobacco tax by $1 or more per pack will help reduce smoking, save health care costs, and won't cost the state a dime."

Kentucky has a relatively low cigarette tax, 60 cents a pack, and the highest smoking rate in the nation, 26 percent of adults, as well as the highest death rate from cancer. "If there's anything that needs dealing with, it's that," Chandler said. "Doing something about this smoking problem is absolutely critical to the future of this state . . . . Businesses are not going to locate here if they don't have a healthy workforce."

Republican Sen. Tom Buford of Nicholasville called for a larger increase than Chandler, "Even to a $1.60 a pack is probably not going to provide us the result that we would like to have," Buford said. But he added, "I don't know if the will is there." Alluding to the late-January filing deadline for legislative elections, he said, "I can tell you February the first if there's a chance for tax reform."

Critics of a tobacco-tax increase have said it would penalize lower-income people, who are more likely to smoke. Chandler told the House-Senate committee that a big increase is needed to push them into quitting.

"You have to raise the tax by $1 or more to get the health benefits," he said. "Otherwise, it's just an added tax burden on the poor." He said cigarette companies would counter an increase of 30 to 40 cents a pack with discount coupons.

Asked where he would spend the money, Chandler, a former congressman and state attorney general, said some should be spent to discourage Kentuckians from smoking.

"We have a very good, in many respects, health-care system, but it's a rescue system," he said. "And people don't want to talk about this, but . . . we spend money largely, for the most part, on health care, to rescue people who are already sick. And we ought to spend a bigger portion . . . on health, as opposed to health care."

Referring to a smoking ban, which she supports, Sen. Julie Raque Adams of Louisville, the committee co-chair, said, "It's not really a freedom issue because every one of us pays out of pocket for those costs."

Chandler told the committee, "We have to focus on promoting policy changes that lead to healthier outcomes by addressing the things that cause poor health in the first place. . . . now have a rescue system."

Appalachian Kentucky continues to be the least healthy region of the state, and the disparity is increasing, Chandler said.

"While all of Kentucky lags behind the nation as a whole, it's generally people living in more rural Eastern counties with more challenging health issues," he said. "The latest numbers show that the health disparities between Central Appalachia and the rest of the nation, or even the rest of Appalachia, are large. And they're continuing to grow."

For example, he said the national death rate from heart disease "declined nearly 58 percent from 1980 to 2014, but not in Eastern Kentucky. In Owsley County, cardiovascular disease mortality actually increased over that 34-year period."

Another big Kentucky health problem is obesity. Chandler said, "Some of the evidence-based programs that help reduce obesity include making the healthy choice the easiest choice by replacing sugary drinks and snacks in school and government vending machines with healthier options, such as fruit and water; increasing the tax on sugary drinks; passing policies that require new streets to be walkable and bikeable; building sidewalks, walking trails, playgrounds and other places where residents can safely engage in physical activity; and adopting policies that enable farmers' markets to thrive."

A video of Chandler's testimony is on the KET website.

Artificial sweeteners linked to long-term weight gain, higher body-mass index and risk of heart disease, but we don't know why

Epicurious.com

Artificial sweeteners are "dodgy" when it comes to weight management, and people who use them regularly have higher risks of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and bigger body-mass indexes, a height-weight ratio that indicates obesity.

So say a group of international researchers who reviewed more than 30 studies about the long-term health effects of sugar substitutes, Cleve R. Wootson Jr. reports for The Washington Post. Their research, published in The Canadian Medical Association Journal, covered more than 406,000 people who said they used artificial sweeteners.

Researcher Meghan Azad of the University of Manitoba said that while the studies show a link between artificial sweeteners and body-mass index, “We need more evidence from better-quality studies to know for sure the cause and effect, but there does seem to be at least a question about the daily consumption of these drinks."

The U.S. market for sodas decreased by 0.6 percent between 2011 and 2016, Wootston notes, but "close to half of adults and a quarter of children consume artificial sweeteners every day, according to the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics."

The American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association approved the use of artificial sweeteners in 2014, but Wootson says people have become increasingly suspicious of aspartame, sucralose and steviocide, (brand names: Equal, Splenda and Stevia, respectively) because studies have linked them to increased belly fat, and "bogus but widespread rumors that they led to things much worse."

The ADA's chief scientific medical and mission officer, William Cefalu, reviewed the study at the Post's request and also concluded that more studies are needed. "He said artificial sweeteners are still a good tool for diabetics trying to reduce carbohydrates and tightly manage their blood-glucose levels. But he stressed moderation, and agreed that more studies about the long-term effects of artificial sweeteners were needed — particularly on people with diabetes," Wootson writes.

Azad said the study found “nonnutritive sweeteners significantly associated with modest long-term increases” in body weight, BMI and waist circumference, which has been linked to a greater risk of heart disease and diabetes.

But she stressed that they still don't know why these associations exists, and noted that most of the studies focused on people who were working to lose weight or had other medical conditions.

Azad offered several possibilities for the link between artificial sweeteners and increased BMI, ranging from the sweeteners causing changes in gut bacteria to the possibility that people who are gaining weight for other reasons may seek out more artificially sweetened foods.

Meanwhile, she advises "consumers to not automatically assume artificially sweetened foods are the healthier alternative," Wootson writes.

With pushes from Obama administration, Kentucky schools focused more on health; example: less junk food is available

Lexington Herald-Leader file photo

Sugary drinks, fatty snacks and chocolate candy are becoming harder to buy in Kentucky schools, which are paying more attention to health issues, according to the latest survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC's latest biennial School Health Profiles for 2014 found big declines in the availability of junk food since 2014. Here are the specifics:

• Chocolate candy: 7.8 percent in 2016, down from 22.6 percent in 2014
• Salty snacks that are not low in fat: 13.7 percent in 2016, down from 26.1 percent.
• Cookies, crackers or other baked goods that are not low in fat: 12.0 percent in 2016, down from 24.1 percent.
• Soda or fruit drinks that are not 100 percent juice: 15.7 percent in 2016, down from 33.1 percent in 2014.

There was also a big increase last year in the number of Kentucky schools that banned less nutritious foods and beverages from being sold in fundraising, up to 36 percent from 23 percent in 2014, a news release from the state Department of Education said.

Schools are systematically paying more attention to health issues. The survey found that 66 percent have used the CDC’s School Health Index or another self-assessment tool to evaluate them in the areas of physical activity (66 percent in 2016, 56 percent in 2014), nutrition (62 percent in 2016, 53 percent in 2014) and asthma (35 percent in 2016, 21 percent in 2014).

More schools are offering opportunities for students to participate in physical activity before the school day through organized activities or access to facilities or equipment: 29.4 percent in 2016, up from 19.3 percent in 2014.

"Nearly three-fourths of schools have one or more groups such as a school health council, committee or team that offers guidance on the development of policies or coordinates activities on health topics," the release said. "There were such groups in 74.7 percent of schools in 2016, up from 63.8 percent in 2014."

The department and the Kentucky School Nutrition Association attributed the improvements to the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act that Congress passed 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s "Smart Snacks in School" regulation of 2014 and a review of the state education department’s Practical Living Career Studies program.

Janet Tietyen Mullins, a University of Kentucky extension professor of food and nutrition, said the improvements are encouraging, "because they can help Kentucky students reduce their risk of developing diabetes and other chronic diseases," Valarie Honeycutt Spears writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Mullins told Spears, “These changes in the school food environment are a positive way to help students choose more nutritious foods. Everyone benefits from an environment where healthy foods are readily available, and the changes could also benefit school staff and guests.”

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/local/education/article143288254.html#storylink=cpy

Is sugar our nutritional enemy? New book claims it is

For about a decade as the century started, more and more Americans appeared to obey the U.S. Department of Agriculture's advice to eat less sugar.

But that trend of improvement has leveled off, according to statistics released Thursday by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The data show that about half of American adults drink at least one sugar-sweetened beverage daily and the average adult consumes about 150 calories from sodas or other sugary drinks each day.

Gary Taubes
(Photo from Twitter)

That's a big problem, says Gary Taubes, author of The Case Against Sugar. The book points to sugar to explain why two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, one in seven is diabetic and about one in five will die from cancer, Jere Downs writes for The Courier-Journal.

The book makes sugar the villain in "metabolic syndrome," a term coined by medical researchers as early as 1987. Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors that raises a person's risk for heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke, according to the National Institutes of Health. Risk factors are traits, conditions, or habits that increase the likelihood of developing a disease.

Taubes's book points to sugar as the culprit
behind obesity, diabetes, and other lifestyle-
related diseases. (Photo via garytaubes.com)

"If you are overweight with a thickening middle and especially if you are approaching middle age or older, chances are good your body is wrestling with the effects of prolonged exposure to too much sugar," Downs notes.

The body manufactures insulin, a hormone that unlocks sugar's energy at the cellular level, in response to consuming sugar. Insulin can be elevated in the blood for years before the onset of Type 2 diabetes, as the pancreas produces more of the hormone to cope with the excess sugar. Even if the pancreas remains strong and diabetes does not develop, elevated insulin turns up blood pressure and levels of triglycerides, Downs writes. Such disturbances create and aggravate inflammation and hardening of the arteries.

Taubes's book, like others before it, attempts to dispel the myth that all calories are created equal, whether they come from candy bars or carrots. Straight sugar and highly refined carbohydrates, like white bread, trigger metabolic syndrome, which tells the body's cells to hoard fat, which in turn keeps a person overweight and sick, Downs notes.

"Remove the sugar and the insulin resistance improves, and weight is lost," Taubes told Downs.

However, there has been no definitive proof of sugar's role in metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, and other illnesses and it is not likely to come soon. There are only a handful of small, limited clinical trials underway exploring sugar’s direct role in metabolic disease in the U.S., Taubes told Downs. Long-term lifestyle studies are expensive and face opposition from the sugar industry and other lobbies.

As far back as 1977, some Department of Agriculture researchers were so convinced of sugar's role in diabetes and heart disease that they called for Americans to reduce consumption by 60 percent, Downs writes. The average American today consumes 100 to 130 pounds of sugar a year; the estimates vary with the source of information.

In an effort to help combat the problem, new food labels emphasizing "added sugar" in packaged products are supposed to become mandatory on July 26. Whether the Food and Drug Administration will continue the Obama-era mandate under the new Trump administration is unclear.

Percentage of adults 20 and older who consumed sugary beverages on a given day, 2011-14 (Source: CDC)

Daily dose of soda pop 'batters' the body's cells and increases pre-diabetes risk 46 percent, study says; 1 in 3 in Ky. may have it

Illustration by superanimalswallpapers.blogspot.com

Drinking a can of sugar-sweetened beverage a day increases your risk of developing pre-diabetes by 46 percent, according to a recent study.

The study by the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging  at Tufts University in Boston said the daily dose of sugar "batters a person's body on a cellular level," reports HealthDay.

"This constant spike in blood glucose over time leads to the cells not becoming able to properly respond, and that's the beginning of insulin resistance," senior researcher Nicola McKeown told HealthDay. She added that once insulin resistance starts, blood sugar levels rise to levels that are damaging to every major system in the body.

"As many as one in three Kentucky adults, about 1.1 million people, are estimated to have pre-diabetes, but only 8.6 percent, more than 248,000 people, have reported being diagnosed, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health and the CDC," Darla Carter of The Courier-Journal reported in an in-depth look at diabetes in Kentucky.

The study, published in the Journal of Nutrition, analyzed 14 years of self-reported data from nearly 1,700 middle-aged adults on their consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and diet sodas. Participants did not have diabetes or pre-diabetes when they entered the study. The information came from the Framingham Heart Study, a multi-generational study that measures lifestyle and clinical data that contributes to heart disease.

This study found that a can of diet soda every day does not boost pre-diabetes risk, but notes that other studies have found otherwise.

McKeown told HealthDay that results from this study show that cutting back on sugary drinks is "a modifiable dietary factor that could have an impact on that progression from pre-diabetes to diabetes."

The American Beverage Association, a lobby for soft-drink manufacturers, countered that sugar-sweetened beverages aren't the only risk factor for pre-diabetes.

"Credible health organizations such as the Mayo Clinic note that the risk factors for pre-diabetes include factors such as weight, inactivity, race and family history," the industry group said in a statement to HealthDay.

The study said that pre-diabetes risk did decline when other factors such as other dietary sources of sugar and weight were considered, but not by much -- with the increased risk associated with sugary drinks still amounting to about 27 percent.

Best way to diagnose pre-diabetes: A1c hemoglobin

Another study found that the common blood test called hemoglobin A1C is the "most accurate predictor" of who will go on to develop diabetes and to develop long-term complications from it, and says it's time for everyone to agree on the best way to diagnose pre-diabetes.

“The goal is to figure out who is at the highest risk of not only developing diabetes but of developing its serious complications including kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and even death,” lead author Bethany Warren said in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health news release. “Hemoglobin A1C appears to be the tool that is best able to do that.”

Professional organizations differ on how they define pre-diabetes, a condition that indicates whether a patient is likely to develop type 2 diabetes, says the release. For example, the American Diabetes Association recommends either the A1c hemoglobin test or glucose levels, while the World Health Organization recommends the glucose test only.

Glucose measures look at current levels in the blood as opposed to A1c hemoglobin, which looks at glucose exposure over two to three months.

The one thing health-care providers agree on is that people who are at high risk of developing diabetes can reduce their risk through weight loss, changes in their diet and increased activity. Some even recommend the use of a medication called metformin to reduce the risk.

“When someone is told they have pre-diabetes, we hope it will cause them to make changes to their habits in order to prevent the development of diabetes and its complications,” senior author Elizabeth Selvin, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins said in the release. “Being identified as having pre-diabetes can also make it easier to receive weight loss and nutritional counseling as well as reimbursement for these services.

The study, published in Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, found no difference between the two glucose tests used to diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes, but found that the tests diagnosed pre-diabetes at a higher rate.

"We also don’t want to over-diagnose people," Slevin said. "Using the hemoglobin A1C test allows us to more accurately identify those persons at highest risk.”

Sipping on sugary drinks ruins teeth, perhaps more from the acid in them; it's almost as corrosive as battery acid, VA dentist says

Many of us constantly sip on a soft drink, especially in Kentucky, but the habit could be ruining our teeth.

Most soft drinks have sugar, acid or both and repeated exposure to this combination "wears down tooth enamel, which leads to decay and, eventually, tooth loss," Patrick Reed reports for Kentucky Educational Television.

"Mountain Dew mouth"
{Photo from healthline.com)

This "sugar-acid double punch" is especially dangerous for soda drinkers, and particularly to those who sip on them constantly - leading to what is often referred to as "Mountain Dew mouth," a phenomenon most common in Appalachian Kentucky.

As part of KET’s "Inside Oral Health Initiative," funded in part by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, several Kentucky dentists offered tips on how to minimize the effects of sugar and acid on the teeth.

It's an important topic in Kentucky, because the state ranks fifth in daily consumption of soft drinks and fruit drinks, with 43.2 percent of people in the commonwealth, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Threats to Tooth Enamel

Tooth enamel, which covers the visible, outer portion of the tooth, "is the strongest material in the human body and can keep teeth healthy for a lifetime," Reed writes. However, repeated exposure to sugar and acid will cause it to erode, and once it's gone, it's gone.

“On a scale of 1 to 10, if battery acid is a 1, then most soft drinks are a 2. That’s how acidic they are,” Robert Henry, chief of dentistry at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lexington, told Reed. “If you add sugar on top of that, you’re just setting up an environment that’s acidic,” he adds. “And then the sugar moves in and basically does the rest. It’s literally like throwing kerosene on an open flame.”

Reed said the erosion is intensified by repeated exposure to not only soda, but also any sugary drinks such as fruit juice, sports drinks, and energy drinks. And while diet soda seems like a good idea because it lacks sugar, many brands contain acid.

"If you take one sip of soda, it’s going to take three to four hours for your mouth to go to a pH of neutral,” Pikeville dentist Bill Collins told Reed. “So, if you’re sipping every 15 to 20 minutes, your acidic level in your mouth is down to a pH of 1 or 2. And you’re keeping it there, and it basically dissolves the enamel on your teeth.” (The numerical figure for neutral is a pH of 7).

Practicing in Eastern Kentucky, Dr. Collins and Dr. Nikki Stone of the University of Kentucky told Reed that even very young children in the region have a habit of sipping soda.

“Drinking pop is our culture – we have an actual ‘pop culture’ in Eastern Kentucky,” said Stone, who has created a "Drink Pyramid" graphic to educate children about healthy habits. It says soda should only be consumed at parties or on weekends.

 Tips for reducing the impact of sugary drinks

• If you must drink soda, do it fast, and once a day at most. This leaves less time for the sugar and acid to wash over the teeth and cause decay.
• Never drink soda before bedtime, and clean your teeth thoroughly at night. Collins recommends that heavy soda drinkers should rinse as much residue as possible from their teeth, with water, before they brush to decrease the risk of scrubbing the acid into their teeth.
• Avoid added sugar in food, as this too can cause enamel erosion and tooth decay.
• Brush twice a day, two minutes per session, in the morning and always before bedtime.

New guidelines recommend no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar a day and one sugared drink a week for children and teens

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Children and teens should consume no more than six teaspoons of added sugars a day and drink no more than one 8-ounce sugar-sweetened beverage per week, according to new advice from the American Heart Association.

"The typical American child consumes about triple the recommended amount of added sugars,” Dr. Miriam Vos, lead author, nutrition scientist and associate professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, said in a news release. "[And] are currently drinking their age in sugary drink servings each and every week."

The average American child takes in about 80 grams of added sugar daily — half from food and half from beverages, according to the AHA's analysis of the most recent data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

The 2015 KentuckyYouth Risk Behavior Survey found that almost one-third of Kentucky's high school students drank a sugared soda one or more times per day during the seven days before the survey; 23 percent had sugared soda two or more times a day; and 13 percent three or more times a day. Nearly 36 percent of Kentucky's children are either overweight or obese, acccording to the Alliance for a Healthier Generation.

The AHA statement, based on a comprehensive review of scientific research on the effects of added sugar on children's health, is published in its journal Circulation.

The statement also says children younger than 2 should have NO added sugar. They have lower calorie needs than older children, so there is little room for foods and drinks with added sugars that don't provide "good nutrition," AHA says.

Why is the heart association interested in this problem? Children who eat diets high in added sugar have increased risk factors for heart disease, including obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, fatty liver disease and unhealthy cholesterol levels, says the report.

Added sugars are any sugars or syrups that are added to foods during processing or preparation. The sugars in fruits, vegetables and other whole foods are natural sugars. One teaspoon of sugar equals 4 grams of added sugar.

The best way to avoid added sugars is to "serve mostly foods that are high in nutrition, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low-fat dairy products, lean meat, poultry and fish, and to limit foods with little nutritional value," Vos says.

"A plain whole grain bagel with cream cheese can have no added sugar, while a frosted doughnut has 23 grams of added sugar," she told Jacqueline Howard of CNN. "A bowl of cereal can range from 1 gram to 12 or more grams, depending on the brand. One soda typically has 33 grams. A healthy breakfast of a low added-sugar, whole-grain cereal with a piece of fruit and a glass of low-fat milk would have about 1 gram of added sugar [but] varies by the cereal."

Starting in July 2018, food manufacturers will be required to list the amount of added sugars on nutrition labels.

The latest national U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines recommend limiting added-sugar intake to less than 10 percent of your daily calories. For someone older than 3, that means eating no more than 12.5 teaspoons, or 50 grams, of added sugar a day and 25 grams for children 1 through 3 years. The AHA guidelines cuts this amount in half for children.

That amount is "closely aligned with the new recommendations," Vos told CNN. "The AHA statement provides a fixed amount, 25 grams, that is less than 10 percent of calories for most children and is easier for parents to understand."

“I hope our recommendations help parents feel more confident limiting sugar. This statement helps answer the question how much is OK so parents can choose the right combination of foods and drinks so their children are healthier,” Voss told AHA News. “If parents know how much they are looking for, it will help the food industry satisfy that goal.”

Study: health warnings on sugary drinks make a difference; 3 states seek legislation to add them; beverage lobby pushes back

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Health warning labels on sugary beverages, like those found on tobacco products, could make parents less likely to buy them for their children, according to a study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

“Regardless of the specific wording, results show that adding health warning labels to sugary-sweetened beverages may be an important and impactful way to educate parents about the potential health risks associated with regular consumption of these beverages, and encourage them to make fewer of these purchases,” Christina Roberto, lead author of the study, said in the news release. “The findings are in line with similar studies conducted on the effects of warning labels on tobacco products, which have been shown to increase consumer knowledge of health risks related to tobacco use, and encourage smoking cessation."

Warning labels used in the study

The online study, published Jan. 14 in the journal Pediatrics, included about 2,400 demographically and educationally diverse parents of six to 11 year olds. The online survey tested the effects of five different warning labels about the potential health effects of sugary beverage intake, including labels about calories, weight gain, obesity, diabetes and tooth decay.

The study found that 40 percent of participating parents said they would choose a sugar-sweetened beverage for their child after viewing a warning label, compared to 60 percent of participants who saw no labels on the beverages, and 53 percent of parents who only saw the calorie label. There was no significant buying difference between the groups seeing the calorie-only label and no label, says the report.

The research found that the specific words on the warning label didn't make a difference in the parent's purchasing choice, but the presence of the label did, says the report.

Soft drinks and juices marketed for children have as many as seven teaspoons of sugar per 6.5 ounces, which is nearly twice the recommended daily serving for that age group, says the report. Lead author Roberto noted that more than half of children (66 percent) under the age of 11 drink sugary-sweetened beverages on a daily basis.

Graph: USDA Dietary Guidelines 2015-20

The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health documents that sugary beverages "are a major contributor" to childhood obesity, a real problem in Kentucky which is first in high school obesity rates (18 percent); eighth for 10- to-17- year olds (19.7 percent) and sixth for children ages 2 to 4 from low-income families (15.5 percent), according to the "State of Obesity" report. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that 35.7 percent of children ages 10-17 in Kentucky are either overweight or obese.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently decreased its recommended daily amount of added sugar by 5 percentage points, now recommending added sugar be limited to 10 percent or less of calories per day, Kimberly Leonard reports for U.S. News & World Report. The USDA Dietary Guideline report notes that almost half (47 percent) of all added sugars consumed in the U.S. is from sugar-sweetened beverages.

BJC HealthCare in St. Louis offers specific guidelines about the amount of sugar children should consume.

• Preschoolers averaging 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 4 teaspoons (16 grams) per day.
• Children ages 4 to 8 who average 1,600 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 3 teaspoons (12 grams) a day. To fit in all the nutritional requirements for this age group, there are fewer calories available for added sugar.
• Pre-teen and teens averaging 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day should not have more than 5 to 8 teaspoons (20 to 32 grams) of added sugar per day.

The study found that 75 percent of the participating parents support warning labels being added to the containers, but support for such legislation hasn't gained much traction and is getting push-back from the beverage lobby.

NPR reports that while no city or state has been able to pass a law to add health warnings to sugary beverages, "California, New York and Baltimore all have legislation in the works requiring these labels on sugary drinks."

Leana Wen, Baltimore's health commissioner, told NPR that the beverage industry is pushing back hard in Baltimore, lobbying legislators to reject the warning label policy and using fear tactics with the small businesses, telling them they will be hurt by this law.

In addition, ,"Legislation in Congress to tax sugar and high-fructose corn syrup failed to advance last year, and a few years ago a court overturned a ban on jumbo-sized sodas in New York City. Last summer the beverage industry sued San Francisco over a law that required health warning labels on sugary drinks and that prohibited ads of them on city property, saying the law violated the First Amendment," Leonard writes for the U.S. News & World Report.

HealthDay reports that the American Beverage Association reviewed the study and issued this statement: "Consumers want factual information to help make informed choices that are right for them, and America's beverage companies already provide clear calorie labels on the front of our products. A warning label that suggests beverages are a unique driver of complex conditions such as diabetes and obesity is inaccurate and misleading. Even the researchers acknowledge that people could simply buy other foods with sugar that are unlabeled." The organization added: "With our Balance Calories Initiative, we are working toward a common goal of reducing beverage calories in the American diet."

Australian filmmaker gained 22 pounds eating foods that most parents think are healthy; visited Ky. to see 'Mountain Dew mouth'

An Australian filmmaker, while maintaining his normal caloric intake and eating standard grocery store items, ate the equivalent of 40 teaspoons of sugar a day for two months and gained 22 pounds, expanded his weight size and developed pre-diabetes, reports The Orange County Register, in a story republished in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Damon Gameau visited rural Kentucky to observe rotten teeth caused by "Mountain Dew Mouth" for the documentary, "That Sugar Film," which is available on videostreaming services.

image: www.npr.org

"I wasn't eating any junk food," Gameau told the Register in a phone interview from Melbourne, Australia. "I was eating these perceived health foods that most parents would give their kids."

The Register notes that hidden sugar, in products like high-fructose corn syrup, has been added to most products since food companies started lowering the fat content in their products.

"Even if you're taking beverages out of the equation, there's more and more sugar creeping into more and more different foods," Michael Goran, director of the University of Southern California's Childhood Obesity Research Center, told the Register.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed changing food labels to include the amount of added sugars, separate from natural sugars, that occur in foods. "Added sugars provide no additional nutrient value, and are often referred to as 'empty calories,'" the agency said in an explanation of the proposal.

Cut back on sugar-sweetened beverages, eat natural foods and read labels to decrease the added sugar in your kids' diet

A greater awareness about added sugars in food products has led many parents to make healthy food swaps for their children, granola bars for cookies, yogurt for ice cream, but what they probably don't realize is that they have likely swapped one source of added sugar for another, Liza Lucas reports for CNN.

Image: foodnutritionscience.com

Lucas offers some suggestions on choosing foods with no or little added sugar and recommends that for a short time, until you easily recognize these foods, you will have to become a "sugar detective." Added sugar is syrup or sugar that is added to foods during processing; the sugar in fruits, vegetables and other whole foods are natural sugars.

The American Heart Association's guidelines for the daily amount of added sugar a child should consume depends on the child's age and caloric intake. BJC HealthCare in St. Louis breaks it down on its website:

• Preschoolers averaging 1,200 to 1,400 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 4 teaspoons (16 grams) per day.
• Children ages 4 to 8 who average 1,600 calories per day should limit added sugar to about 3 teaspoons (12 grams) a day. To fit in all the nutritional requirements for this age group, there are fewer calories available for added sugar.
• Pre-teen and teens averaging 1,800 to 2,000 calories per day should not have more than 5 to 8 teaspoons (20 to 32 grams) of added sugar per day.

Why does it matter?

Added sugar has been linked to obesity, which is then linked to so many other chronic diseases: type 2 diabetes, high cholesterol, heart disease, high blood pressure and cancer.

Kentucky is the 7th most obese state for children, with 36 percent of its children overweight or obese, according to Child Health Data. And studies have shown that children who are obese are likely to become obese adults, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The United States Department of Agriculture found that kids eat 18 teaspoons of added sugar a day and most of that comes from what they eat at home.

One 12-ounce regular soda has 8 teaspoons of sugar, which is more sugar than children of any age should have in a given day.

In Kentucky, 15 percent of high school students reported that they had three or more sodas a day during the past seven days, 25 percent said they had two or more per day, 33 percent said they had one or more a day, and 22 percent said they did not drink any soda, according to the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey.

How do you help your kids cut back on added sugar?

Multiple sources recommend limiting sugar-sweetened beverages, which includes soda, fruit drinks and sports drinks, as the most important thing we can do to decrease most of the added sugars in our kids diets. They recommend replacing it with water.

"The preponderance of research shows that sugar sweetened beverage consumption leads to excess caloric intake and weight gain, as well as increased obesity rates among children and adolescents," says a report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Serve treats occasionally and only at special events. The added sugar from daily cookies in the lunch box and ice-cream every night adds up quickly.

The easiest way to decreases added sugars is to eat whole, natural, unprocessed foods. They have no added sugars.

It is also important to learn how to read labels, especially snack foods, breakfast foods, any foods marketed toward children and beverages. Four grams of sugar is equal to one teaspoon, so a food that has 16 grams of sugar has 4 teaspoons of sugar in it.

In addition to desserts and processed treats, granola bars, cereals, barbecue sauce, ketchup, salad dressings, tomato sauces, soups, fruit juice, lemonade, bottled teas, and flavored yogurts are common foods that kids eat that are loaded with added sugars, Madeline Vann reports for Everyday Health.

Nutrition labels don't list the amount of added sugars separate from naturally occurring sugars in a product so you will have to read the ingredient list to see if the product contains added sugars. First look for any word that ends in "ose," and then look for any of these following added sugars: agave syrup, brown sugar, corn sweetener, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, honey, invert sugar, malt sugar, molasses, raw sugar, sugar, and syrup, says the American Heart Association.

"Even 4 grams of sugar makes a difference. It may be only 7 grams versus 11," in terms of product comparison "But if you're making five choices a day, that's 20 grams of sugar you're saving," Dr. Melina Jampolis, a physician specializing in nutrition, told Lucas.

Federal dietary guidelines recommend cutting back on red and processed meat, sugar and refined grains

The Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services have released proposed 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The guidelines, released every five years, "provide authoritative advice about consuming fewer calories, making informed food choices, and being physically active to attain and maintain a healthy weight, reduce risk of chronic disease, and promote overall health," says USDA.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that the 2015 guidelines recommend eating healthier foods, while cutting back on less healthy alternatives. "The committee basically recommended Americans take up a diet that is higher in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, low- or non-fat dairy products, seafood, legumes and nuts," Chris Clayton reports for DTN The Progressive Farmer. "We should cut back on red and processed meats and sugar-sweetened foods, drinks and refined grains. And we should be moderate in our alcohol."

Recommended cutbacks of certain foods have not gone over well with those food producers, who met this week to give feedback on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee's recommendations, Clayton writes. The North American Meat Institute argued that "lean meat, poultry, red and processed meats should all be part of a healthy dietary pattern because they are nutrient-dense protein."

Shalene McNeill, a nutritionist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, "told the committee that its recommendation to exclude lean meat ignores decades of nutrition science," Clayton writes. McNeill said Americans should be encouraged to eat more lean meat, along with fruits, vegetables and whole grains. Grain, sugar and milk producers also expressed displeasure with the proposed rules.

Most nutritionists have embraced the proposed rules, but say the key is getting people to adopt them, Andrea McDaniels reports for The Baltimore Sun. Among those rules is limiting sugar intake to 200 or less calories, or 10 percent of total calories, per day. Currently, Americans get about 13 percent of their calories, or 268 calories, from added sugar.

"On the flip side, some foods once shunned are now accepted," McDaniels writes. "Research has found that cholesterol-high foods are no longer believed to contribute to high blood cholesterol, so people can now indulge in shrimp, eggs and other foods that were once off limits, the panel said. Rather than focus on cholesterol, people should curb saturated fat to about 8 percent of the diet."

The panel also said "up to five cups of coffee a day are fine, so long they are not flavored with lots of milk and sugar," McDaniels writes. "The panel also singled out the Mediterranean diet—rich in fish and chicken, fruits and vegetables, nuts, whole grains, olive oil and legumes—for its nutritional value."

Kentuckians split on taxing sugary drinks to pay for nutrition and physical-activity programs, but like warning labels for such drinks

Should soda and other sugary drinks be taxed to fund school nutrition and physical activity programs? Kentucky adults are almost evenly divided on the issue, but the majority of them believe that sodas and sugary drinks should come with a health warning label.

According to the latest Kentucky Health Issues Poll, 51 percent of Kentucky adults support taxing soda and other sugary drinks, while 47 percent do not. Fifty-five percent of women favored the measure, while 46 percent of men favored it. African American adults (67 percent) were more likely than white adults (50 percent) to support a tax. Sixty-eight percent of respondents ages 18-29 favored the measure, 49 percent of those 30 to 45, 49 percent of those 46 to 64 and 32 percent of those 65 and over.

The poll also asked respondents if sodas and other sugary drinks should come with a label that says "studies show that daily consumption of soda and other sugary drinks contributes to diabetes, obesity and tooth decay." Seventy-one percent of Kentucky adults favored adding the label.

A random sample of 1,597 Kentucky adults were interviewed by phone. To see the rest of the results, click here. The poll is sponsored by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky and Interact for Health, formerly the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati.

Americans' sweet tooth blamed for increases in obesity and diabetes; new website explains the dangers of too much sugar

A new website called SugarScience is now available to help consumers understand the health dangers of sugar in our lives, Lisa Aliferis reports for NPR.

This University of California, San Francisco project examined 8,000 studies and research papers and "found strong evidence that over-consumption of added sugar contributes to three major chronic illnesses: heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and liver disease," Aliferis writes.

"Right now, the reality is that our consumption of sugar is out of whack, and until we bring things back into balance, we need to focus on helping people understand what the consequences are to having the average American ... consume too much added sugar," Laura Schmidt, a professor of health policy at UCSF and leader of this project, told Aliferis.

SugarScience is a user-friendly website that partners with health departments across the country to educate the public. Two departments have already agreed to participate in the outreach, Aliferis writes.

Schmidt told Aliferis that the food environment is the driver of the increased obesity of Americans in the last generation: "Sugar isn't just making us fat, it's making us sick."

"It's not like Americans suddenly lost their will power," she said. "The only major change in the diet that explains the obesity epidemic is this steep rise in added sugar consumption that started in the 1980s."

What our average daily diet of added sugar looks like

Schmidt said that while not all sugar is bad, we need to determine how much sugar is too much, pointing out that Americans consume the "equivalent of 19.5 teaspoons a day in added sugar, " Aliferis reports. She also suggest there is a need for federal guidelines to recommend a limit.

"SugarScience suggests the same limits advocated by the American Heart Association and the World Health Organization: no more than 9 teaspoons a day for men and no more than 6 teaspoons a day for women," Aliferis writes.

A taste of what the SugarScience website tells us is: Added sugar hides in 74 percent of packaged foods; fructose, a common type of sugar, can damage your liver more than other kinds of sugar; and one 12-ounce can of soda a day can increase your risk of dying of heart disease by one-third, Aliferis reports.

It also suggest the best way to cut down on sugar is to stop drinking sugar-sweetened drinks, saying this is where we get more than one-third of added sugar in our diets. Another suggestion is for us to read nutrition labels, suggesting that if a chemical on the label ends in "ose," it is probably sugar.

Dean Schillinger, a professor of medicine at UCSF and a primary care doctor at San Francisco General Hospital, is also part of the SugarScience team. He told Aliferis that beds in his hospital that used to be filled with AIDS patients are now filled with diabetes patients.

"The ward is overwhelmed with diabetes — they're getting their limbs amputated; they're on dialysis. And these are young people. They are suffering the ravages of diabetes in the prime of their life,"Schillinger told Aliferis.

"We're at the point where we need a public-health response to it, " he said.

Study: Banning sugary drinks from SNAP would reduce obesity and Type 2 diabetes; subsidy would boost fruit consumption

A measure preventing people from purchasing sugar-sweetened beverages through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, would significantly reduce obesity and Type 2 diabetes in adults under 65, and adding a subsidy for fruits and vegetables would more than double the number of SNAP participants who meet federal vegetable and fruit consumption guidelines, says a new study published in Health Affairs.

Research has shown that people on food stamps suffer diabetes, heart disease and obesity at higher rates than people who are in the same tax bracket but not on food stamps, Diane Jeanty reports for PBS Newshour. In 2013, these findings prompted 18 mayors from major U.S. cities to write to Congress with a push to ban the use of food stamps to purchase sugar sweetened beverages.

The American Beverage Association pushed back, saying "sugared beverages were being targeted and were not the only causes for obesity," Jeanty writes.

A research team led by Dr. Sanjay Basu, an assistant professor of medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine, conducted the study to determine how banning sugared beverages could affect the SNAP population’s level of risk for these diseases, Jeanty reports. They used a survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control, which assesses the nutritional status of adults and children, and combined it with current information on SNAP.

The study had two models, one that banned sugary beverages—excluding 100 percent fruit juice—and another that offered an incentive for SNAP participants to receive a 30 cent credit for each dollar spent on fruit and vegetable purchases. The study factored in metabolism rates and demographics such as race, age, gender and income to test the effects of the proposed measures, Jeanty reports.

They found that with a simulated ban, a person would reduce his or her calorie intake by 24 per day. They also found that obesity rates decreased 2.4 percent and type 2 Diabetes rates dropped 1.7 percent—or 240,000 people—Jeanty reports. The simulated subsidy, did not, however, have a significant impact on overall diabetes and obesity.

The study also found that by adding a simulated subsidy on fruits and vegetables, SNAP participants increased their consumption from 1/4 cup to 3 cups per day. However, increasing the amount of fruits and vegetables consumed is not enough to influence the reduction of diabetes and obesity on a national scale, according to Basu. “There would also have to be further reforms to also reduce the consumption of sugary beverages,” Basu told Jeanty.

The Illinois Public Health Institute, addressing a proposed ban in Illinois, found that SNAP participants would still purchase sugared beverages with their own money, even if they were banned, Jeanty reports. But Basu says that his study accounted for this consideration. Basu said it is time to perform a controlled study instead of a simulation model, Jeanty writes.

Students in 2 Appalachian Ohio high schools help reduce classmates' consumption of sugary drinks, a bane in the region

In a region where sweet-tea and soda is more popular than water, student-led groups in Appalachian Ohio were successful in reducing the amount of sugary drinks students consumed, reports The Ohio State University's Center for Clinical and Translational Science.

As part of the study, student-led teen advisory councils in the two Southern Ohio high schools implemented a 30-day intervention called "Sodabriety" to reduce the amount of sugary drinks students consumed. Results of the study were published in the March issue of the Journal of School Health.

The councils informed students about the risks of sugary drinks, put green ribbons on students' cars to remind them of the dangers, offered daily "sugar facts" during the morning announcements, performed soda-themed rap songs at student events and gave away water bottles with a "What's in your cup?" slogan.

The efforts paid off. Not only did some teens completely give up sugared drinks, but water consumption nearly doubled. Some students even reported weight loss, less acne and increased energy, Smith said.

A typical 20-ounce soda contains 15 to 18 teaspoons of sugar and upwards of 240 calories. A 64-ounce fountain cola drink could have up to 700 calories, says a fact sheet from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Kentucky high-school students rank third in the U.S. in obesity, with 33.4 percent overweight or obese, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Consumption of sugary beverages is a problem in Appalachia, where obesity contributes heavily to the region's health issues.

“Teens who grow up in this region are ultimately more likely to die from cancer, diabetes and heart disease than any other place in the nation, and obesity is the common risk factor for all of those illnesses,” said nurse Laureen Smith, one of the researchers. “A child’s odds of becoming obese increases almost two times with each additional daily serving of a sugar sweetened drink, and Appalachian kids drink more of these types of beverages than kids in other parts of the country.”

Smith added, “Sugar sweetened beverages are the largest source of sugar in the American diet. For some teens, they account for almost one-third of daily caloric intake, and that amount is even higher among Appalachian adolescents. If we can help teens reduce sugared-beverage intake now, we might be able to help them avoid obesity and other diseases later in life.”

Halloween candy hikes risk of cavities, not just from more sugar, but from more frequent eating of it; here are tooth-friendly tips

Photo from EnviroDad.com

Halloween candy can rot your teeth.

At Halloween, the issue is not just sugar, it's how often you eat it. Often, kids bring enough candy home from trick-or-treating to last a lifetime, but then eat the candy in a few days.

Every time we eat or drink something that contains sugar or starches, bacteria in our mouth use the sugar and starch to produce acids. These acids eat away at tooth enamel and cause cavities.

With Halloween candy, the problem is twofold, according to the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. Not only do kids increase the amount of sugar consumed, they also increase the frequency at which they eat it. hat increases the exposure of their teeth to sugar, which increases acid exposure, which can cause cavities.

The University of Louisville School of Dentistry has worked for the past decade to inform the students in the Jefferson County Public Schools of the increased risk of cavities during the Halloween season. Over the years, the school's program has provided more than 25,000 students with free education about oral health and general health. This year, the dentistry freshmen continued the tradition and went to more than 70 classrooms and spoke to 3,300 students about the importance of oral health, especially during the Halloween season. The focus of their discussion was to teach the students about candy and the decay process.

The Dental and Craniofacial Research Institute offers these tooth-friendly tips to decrease the chance of tooth decay, especially important during the months after Halloween, when children (and even some adults!) see increases in both volume and frequency of sugar:

Limit between-meal snacks.

Save candy, cookies, soda and other sugary drinks for special occasions.

Limit fruit juice.

Don't eat or drink anything with sugar in after bedtime tooth brushing.

Brush your teeth.

Use fluoride toothpaste, especially if you have well water or only drink bottled water.

Mayors and AMA say food stamps shouldn't pay for soft drinks

Louisville's Greg Fischer is among 18 mayors asking Congress to ban sugary drinks from purchase under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps.  One day after their June 18 letter, the American Medical Association adopted a policy supporting the removal of sugar-sweetened drinks from SNAP.

In a the letter sent to congressional leaders, the mayors said it is "time to test and evaluate approaches limiting" the use of the subsidies for sugar-laden beverages to fight obesity and diseases linked to obesity, reports Jennifer Peltz of The Associated Press.

At its annual meeting, the AMA took several steps toward controlling the country's increasing obesity problem, including calling obesity a disease, an action that may prompt insurers to cover medical treatments aimed against obesity. “The AMA is working to improve the nation’s health care outcomes, particularly cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which are often linked to obesity,” said AMA President Dr. Ardis Hoven of Lexington. “Removing sugar-sweetened beverages from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will help encourage healthier beverage choices.”

This isn't the first attempt to ban soda from SNAP. The Department of Agriculture, where the program is housed, turned down such a request from New York City's Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2010. The city had proposed a two-year experiment to see if a sugary beverage ban would reduce obesity among food-stamp recipients. But, the department rejected the plan and said a soda ban would “perpetuate the myth” that food stamp users make poor shopping decisions, The New York Times reported. Read about Kentucky's SNAP program here.

The soda lobby, the American Beverage Association, said sugary drinks shouldn't be singled out as a cause of obesity. It called obesity "a complex health condition that affects Americans of all income levels." Last year, more than 47 million low-income Americans used food stamps.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/18/2683656/18-mayors-limit-use-of-food-stamps.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2013/06/18/2683656/18-mayors-limit-use-of-food-stamps.html#storylink=cpy