Food Industry Implications

Preventing dental disease in children: An ecological approach.

“…Magazine advertising, television commercials, and free samples of products are attempts to persuade the consumer that a new product is tastier and better for the user. 37 Homemaking magazines picture the ideal homemaker as one who keeps the cookie jar filled. Sociability and hospitality are associated with the sharing of food, often cariogenic in nature.…”

“…The price of candy might be increased by taxation of sugar as has been tried in Sweden. 37 A third type of suggestion for reducing the destructive impact of refined carbohydrates includes modifying the nature of the food through addition of various inorganic salts, the possible addition of low molecular weight dextrans, the incorporation of other food additives, and the use of substances that will oxidize sugars.1 7 For an anticaries agent to be distributed as widely as possible to consumers, foodstuffs ubiquitously consumed by children such as milk or flour might be fortified. An anticariogenic agent might be incorporated into foods used in the school lunch program.…”

“…This would distribute the agent to children once a day, 5 days a week. 37 Participants at a workshop on the role of human foodstuffs in caries suggested that candy manufacturers might be persuaded to produce and market less cariogenic products if 100,000 dentists promoted noncariogenic products and warned against competing cariogenic candies. 3 Mass media advertising plays a major and relentless role in the public's education in oral hygiene.…”