The Global Costs of Dental Treatment due to Sugary Foods is Over £115 Billion

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Researchers at Martin Luther University and the Biotechnology Research and Information Network AG have calculated the cost of the world’s addiction to sugar: $172 billion. This alarming figure includes $23 billion in Germany alone.

To get to this statistic the research team at Halle-Wittenberg looked at representative information on the prevalence of caries (tooth decay), gum disease (periodontitis) and tooth loss, how much these different ailments would cost to fix and the burden on these diseases as well as available data on sugar consumption in 168 countries in the year 2010. Using this data they reduced the figure to the total costs that can be attributable to eating too much sugar, both common household sugar and “hidden” sugars that were added to processed foods, including soft drinks and frozen foods.

Dr Tony Meier from the Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences at Martin Luther University suggested that the data shows a clear link between sugar consumption and dental maladies such as caries, periodontitis and the resulting tooth loss, noting that for every eight sugar cubes or glass of lemonade (25 grams of sugar), the cost of dental treatment increases by a hundred dollars per person per year.

The study also noted the difficulty of maintaining a low sugar diet since almost all processed foods that are readily available have a large amount of added sugar.

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