"Food For Toothless'

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30827, 12 August 1965, Page 3

"Food For Toothless'

(N.Z. Press Association) DUNEDIN, Aug. 11. It was almost typical of a modern hospital that the food was largely reduced to a state where it could be eaten by patients who were not even wearing their dentures, Sir John Walsh, dean of the University of Otago Dental School, told the Dietetic Association conference in Dunedin today.

“A lunch consisting of minced meat, mashed potatoes, mashed pumpkin, stewed apples and custard may be easy to serve and even nutritionally balanced,” he said. “But this type of food preparation converts the mouth into a mere funnel.” Dietitian., had a serious duty to consult not only their medical colleagues, but also their dental colleagues in arranging the diets of people in institutions—particularly where children were involved. Dentists were interested in diet and nutrition because they believed dental disease was largely the result of eating the wrong kinds of foods at the wrong times. “There is ample evidence to show that dental decay is a disease associated with high and frequent consumption of refined carbohydrates. “Modern diet in the socalled affluent societies contains far too much refined sugar, refined flour and the products of these two modern so-called foodstuffs.” i Diet also affected general health. “It is of interest that recent research has linked high sugar consumption with the rapidly increasing incidence of cardiovascular disorders.”

One of the pernicious effects of a high carbohydrate diet was that people lost their natural teeth through caries. Once they obtained dentures,

they felt their diet worries! were over. .Obesity was one harmful result. “Another is even more insidious. Children are fed on soft food chosen by their parents who cannot readily masticate such health foods as fresh uncooked fruit and vegetables with their denttrres. So the dental health of the children suffers.” Mineral and trace element metabolism was another of the interests shared by dentists and dietitians. The effect of an optimal Intake of fluoride on developing teeth wa. dramatic, and recent research had shown other trace elements, such as molybdenum, also had beneficial effects.