More must be done to curb sugar intake to reduce the “costly burden” of tooth decay, experts have said.
People should get no more than three per cent of their daily calories from sugars, experts said.
Current World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations state that adults should get no more than 10 per cent of their daily calories from ‘free’ sugars.
But researchers from University College London (UCL) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said fiv e per cent should be the absolute maximum with people aiming for a target of just three per cent.
The comments come after they examined public health records from countries across the world in order to assess diets and dental health of large populations of both adults and children. Sugar intake which accounted for 10 per cent of energy intake, or calories, “induces a costly burden of tooth decay”.
“This largely preventable disease is still common,” the authors wrote in the journal BMC Public Health.
“Despite the use of fluoride and improvements in preventive dentistry, the burden of dental caries remains unacceptably high worldwide.”
Study author Aubrey Sheiham, emeritus professor of dental public health at UCL, said: “Tooth decay is a serious problem worldwide and reducing sugars intake makes a huge difference.
“Data from Japan were particularly revealing, as the population had no access to sugar during or shortly after the World War II. We found that decay was hugely reduced during this time, but then increased as they began to import sugar again.
We need to make sure that use of fruit juices and the concept of sugar-containing treats for children are not only no longer promoted, but explicitly seen as unhelpful
“Similarly, only two per cent of people at all ages living in Nigeria had tooth decay when their diet contained almost no sugar, around two grams per day. This is in stark contrast to the US, where 92 per cent of adults have experienced tooth decay.”
The authors recommended a series of steps health officials could take to reduce sugar intakes including sugar taxes and reforms to food packet labelling.
Philip James, honorary professor of nutrition at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, added: “We need to make sure that use of fruit juices and the concept of sugar-containing treats for children are not only no longer promoted, but explicitly seen as unhelpful. Food provided at nurseries and schools should have a maximum of free sugars in the complete range of foods amounting to no more than 2.5 per cent of energy.
“The food industry should be told that they should progressively reformulate their products to reduce or preferably remove all the sugars from their products.
“New food labels should label anything above 2.5 per cent sugars as ‘high’.”