The new WHO guideline recommends to reduce daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total enery intake.
March 5, 2015, Basel
To reduce the risk of obesity and tooth decay, the new WHO guideline recommends adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. This translates to about 50g a day for an adult of normal weight.
Dental professionals around the world welcome the new WHO recommendation.
Paula Moynihan, Professor of Nutrition and Oral Health at Newcastle University, said: "The less sugar you eat, the lower your risk of dental decay."
Laia Grao of Toothfriendly International, Switzerland, stated: “Consumers need options to refined sugar. Fortunately, sucrose is not the only sweetener available. It is up to the food industry to formulate healthier products with alternative sweeteners.”
Is Caries a Big Issue?
In its new guideline document, the WHO points particularly to the strong association between the intake of free sugars and dental caries. Although exposure to fluoride reduces dental caries at a given age, states WHO, it does not completely prevent dental caries, and dental caries still progresses in populations exposed to fluoride.
According to the WHO, dental diseases are the most prevalent noncommunicable diseases globally and, although great improvements in prevention and treatment of dental diseases have occurred in the past decades, problems still persist, causing pain, anxiety, functional limitation (including poor school attendance and performance in children) and social handicap through tooth loss. The treatment of dental diseases is expensive, consuming 5–10% of health-care budgets in industrialized countries, and would exceed the entire financial resources available for the health care of children in most low income countries.
Read the new WHO Guideline here.
---
Toothfriendly International is a non-profit association working for better oral helath. For more information, please contact us.