Tooth decay is more about oral hygiene and correct brushing techniques than the amount of sugar eaten. I have a friend in his 70s whose childhood covered sugar rationing so no sweets. he has no fillings to this day but does have late onset diabetes cos he likes his food, especially industrial white sliced and potatoes.
Possum, a 90s child, has a sweet tooth but no fillings at all tho it does help that she was never allowed sugary fizzy drinks as a child except as an occasional treat. Two of her childhood friends who had fizzy drinks or apple juice rather than water had 9 fillings each by the time they were 8.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
When I was a child, there was no information/advice about the effects of sugar on people's teeth, so it's a bit unfair to look at these things from a 21st C perspective. The link hadn't been made, as with many other diseases and illnesses. Smoking's a classic example. Our 'childhood' dentist, who later became a very prominent adviser on all sorts of dental health [much to our amusement] would fill teeth and then open a drawer so that we could pick our sweets..... People didn't get ferried everywhere in cars back then @Lyn, so children, and adults, walked more. Snacking as you walked along the road was virtually unknown. Most, or many people, had much more physical jobs too, but the world's changed massively since I was a kid.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Eating while walking around was something that denoted you as ‘common’ and was hardly ever seen anywhere during my childhood … an exception being ice creams at the seaside or candy floss at the fair, but even then my parents would look for somewhere we could sit or find a quiet corner where we could stand and eat them without risking bumping into folk and getting ice cream or sticky sugar on their clothes (or ours for that matter).
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Back in the early 50’s my mum used to nag me about cleaning my teeth properly, she cleaned then until was quite big, I think they did know then, the same as they know now. Sweets were on ration and even then you had to have the money to buy them, a bottle off the Corona man was a real treat. Most times I would be collecting bottles for pocket money. I was never allowed to walk around eating outside, sit down for the ice cream. My daughter gets new children in to look after, many mothers say ‘He’s a grazer’ that means he eats as and when he wants to and just walks around with it. those parents will bring all the grazing food, she gives it back. 😀 I’m sure most people know the problems of being overweight and have fat children, they just don’t seem to care. Its not always about money where a portion of chips is cheaper than a meal.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
It was odd eh? Suet puddings, lard - fat was not a no-no then. Normal kids. Then sugar in everything and we had the corn syrup ripple hit us from the States and we start here to go obese. Fat or sugar? The surplus corn being turned into syrup and the syrup then being used in everything from biscuits to soft drinks. TV advertising, sweet, sugary 'treats' that kids love seem to do more damage than eating fat. I'm trying to recall when the sweet/treat thing really kicked off - I remember the Corona van coming round and buying bottles of fizz as a treat and we used to buy those halfpenny sweets (the foam shrimps, black jacks etc) - but again that was rare. I don't remember having biscuits at home or having 'puddings' that often (and then it was stuff like Angel Delight) - and my mum cooked from ingredients rather than bought in (apart from the odd - very odd - Vesta Curry with sultanas). We did eat suet puddings, home made pies, even bread and dripping (from the roast)...
Dental decay is actually all about the frequency of sugar eating. Nowadays, toothbrushing has contributed to the drop in decay but that’s because of the fluoride in the toothpaste. When I first started work, it was incredibly rare to see a child without any decay, and equally rare to see an adult over 45 with all their own teeth. By the time I retired, I was seeing many young to middle aged patients with no or few fillings, and only the oldest patients with full dentures. Sadly it is the most deprived children who are still at risk. Poor diets, fizzy sweetened drinks, and little access to toothbrushes or paste, and still needing multiple extractions under general anaesthesia. Despite the quantities of bread and jam, and seconds of school dinners whenever I could get them, I certainly wasn’t fat! In fact, the school doctor at one of the checks we had in those days, recommended cod liver oil and malt extract to build me up! We all loved that, big, sweet and sticky spoonfuls, and only vaguely fishy. That certainly didn’t help my teeth either!
I moved to Eastbourne in my 20s and have had a couple of fillings in 40 years since, but I had 'gallons' of fillings, from what I recall, in my childhood. Were dentists more likely to fill teeth back then, tooth decay or not? Or is my recollection of what I ate back then wrong and the sugar had already taken control in the 60s?
Obesity is also a product of the lack of exercise. We lived on a council estate when I was a kid and the school was a 2mile each way walk away. In the summer my mum never used to see us - we'd be gone - bikes(when we got one from a jumble sale), football, running races, archery with bamboo bows, hare and hounds - any outdoor game we (or my mum) could think of - and 'back for tea'. That was the only rule. Had a whole bunch of friends and only ever thought about being indoors and playing board games if it was raining. Going back to that other thread, where NorthernJoe was talking about talking to kids, I think parents today are afraid to let their kids out alone - the fear of that nasty person is all pervasive - I don't see the kids. We live near a really good park - and me and the wife used to take our kids up there with a bat and ball or whatever, and nine time out of ten our kids were the only ones up there.
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Possum, a 90s child, has a sweet tooth but no fillings at all tho it does help that she was never allowed sugary fizzy drinks as a child except as an occasional treat. Two of her childhood friends who had fizzy drinks or apple juice rather than water had 9 fillings each by the time they were 8.
Our 'childhood' dentist, who later became a very prominent adviser on all sorts of dental health [much to our amusement] would fill teeth and then open a drawer so that we could pick our sweets.....
People didn't get ferried everywhere in cars back then @Lyn, so children, and adults, walked more. Snacking as you walked along the road was virtually unknown. Most, or many people, had much more physical jobs too, but the world's changed massively since I was a kid.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Sweets were on ration and even then you had to have the money to buy them, a bottle off the Corona man was a real treat. Most times I would be collecting bottles for pocket money.
I was never allowed to walk around eating outside, sit down for the ice cream.
My daughter gets new children in to look after, many mothers say ‘He’s a grazer’
that means he eats as and when he wants to and just walks around with it.
those parents will bring all the grazing food, she gives it back. 😀
I’m sure most people know the problems of being overweight and have fat children, they just don’t seem to care.
Its not always about money where a portion of chips is cheaper than a meal.
I'm trying to recall when the sweet/treat thing really kicked off - I remember the Corona van coming round and buying bottles of fizz as a treat and we used to buy those halfpenny sweets (the foam shrimps, black jacks etc) - but again that was rare. I don't remember having biscuits at home or having 'puddings' that often (and then it was stuff like Angel Delight) - and my mum cooked from ingredients rather than bought in (apart from the odd - very odd - Vesta Curry with sultanas). We did eat suet puddings, home made pies, even bread and dripping (from the roast)...
When I first started work, it was incredibly rare to see a child without any decay, and equally rare to see an adult over 45 with all their own teeth. By the time I retired, I was seeing many young to middle aged patients with no or few fillings, and only the oldest patients with full dentures.
Sadly it is the most deprived children who are still at risk. Poor diets, fizzy sweetened drinks, and little access to toothbrushes or paste, and still needing multiple extractions under general anaesthesia.
Despite the quantities of bread and jam, and seconds of school dinners whenever I could get them, I certainly wasn’t fat! In fact, the school doctor at one of the checks we had in those days, recommended cod liver oil and malt extract to build me up! We all loved that, big, sweet and sticky spoonfuls, and only vaguely fishy. That certainly didn’t help my teeth either!
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.