Xylitol - Good For Your Dental Health?

Xylitol and Tooth Decay One of the amazing hidden 'secrets' of this century is xylitol. It is truly astonishing on two points. This five carbon sugar can help to prevent both tooth decay and gum disease because the bacteria that eat it cannot utilize xylitol as they can glucose (six carbon table sugar). The second fact about xylitol is that it has been both well known in one country and almost unheard of in many other countries at the same time. This astounds me because it demonstrates the limited nature of our human awareness very clearly. Let us explore further. Xylitol has been used and well documented to reduce the incidence of dental disease in Finland for over five decades now. Yet here in the United States and many other countries you will hardly hear of a dentist that promotes it. There are a few, but they are not many. How can something as beneficial as xylitol, in today's world, be so unknown to most people despite the fact that Finlanders have been using it since the second world war when regular sugar became scarce. Later, the dentists and doctors of Finland discovered that their levels of dental health improved due to the use of xylitol as a substitute for sugar. Xylitol has one third the calories of an equivalent amount of table sugar. It does not promote tooth decay or the growth of the bacteria that cause gum disease or bad breath. It does not require insulin to be metabolized and therefore is of special interest to diabetics. Few things in this world are perfect and xylitol does have some drawbacks. Pets should not be given xylitol. While a human being has a special metabolic pathway to digest xylitol, many pets do not. Therefore it can be toxic to pets and can even kill them. You can learn more about xylitol at Xylitol.org. There is plenty of research and information about xylitol there. We tend to think that if something is good, that everyone should know about it. Yet, as this example shows, that is not always the case. There are so many things we do not know. Perhaps we should resolve to reach further beyond our limited awareness and discover the truth of this world and the universe that is around us. Next: Read more about dental health through the links below... Get your free report: How To Stop Gum Disease at : http://www.HowToSTopGumDisease.com Disclaimer: This article is for information and entertainment purposes only. It does not intend to render advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have or think you might have gum disease or any other health problem, visit your periodontist or physician for advice, diagnosis and treatment. The USFDA has not evaluated statements about products in this article.