Research: Flawed nutritional guidelines led to increased use of fluoride

Washington [US], November 5 (ANI): High-carbohydrate diets that rely on fluoride and food fortification to mitigate dental damage and nutritional deficiencies have been recommended instead of low-carbohydrate diets that prevent tooth decay by prominent organizations like the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), a University of Washington researcher claims.
Dr. Philippe Hujoel of the UW School of Dentistry claims in a recent article in MDPI’s Nutrients journal that over the course of decades in the previous century, not only these organizations but other significant professional and health associations reversed earlier positions and started recommending high-carbohydrate diets. He names the American Diabetes Association, the American Dental Association, and the American Heart Association in particular (ADA).
He claims that these organizations disregarded scientific data that contradicted their assertion that tooth caries was the only health problem associated with a high-carbohydrate diet. The World Health Organization and the USDA then suggested utilizing more fluoride to reduce the risk of tooth decay.
Meanwhile, according to Dr. Hujoel, several researchers offered convincing proof that low-carbohydrate diets were at least as healthy as high-carbohydrate diets. According to him, low-carbohydrate diets significantly reduce the need for fluoride, which has no other discernible health advantages besides preventing cavities.
According to Dr. Hujoel’s study, this shift toward fluoride-supplemented high-carb dietary recommendations began in the middle of the 20th century, when influential figures like dentist Emory W. Morris, president of the Kellogg Foundation, a division of a significant cereal manufacturer, became the first chairman of the ADA’s Council on Dental Health in 1942.
Morris advocated using fluoride to combat dental decay rather than adhering to the currently recommended low-carbohydrate diet. Given that cereals are carbohydrates and actually raise the risk of dental decay, he was in a conflict of interest when making this choice.
Furthermore, to make its recommendations, the ADA’s council had to reverse its position on several key points, Dr. Hujoel says:
1. The safety of topically applied fluoride
2. The role of deficiencies in bone health nutrients as a cause of tooth decay, changed from “established fact” to an explicit dismissal
3. The need to teach dental patients “that a reduction in the carbohydrate intake is necessary,” changing to a recommendation of a “well-balanced” diet, which became increasingly associated with high-carbohydrate nutritional guidelines
The study by Dr. Hujoel also examines the private interests involved when the ADA took the first big steps toward approving the present high-carbohydrate, fluoride-supplemented nutritional recommendations, the majority of which have been upheld for decades.
Diets high in carbohydrates harm dental health because the sugars that are produced when these foods break down in the mouth’s bacteria, Streptococcus mutants, which are also present, are fed. Bacteria then release lactic acid, which damages tooth enamel and causes decay. Flouride strengthens enamel. (ANI)