Functional Foods and Nutraceuticals, Volume 2: Issue 11

Something to Smile About
     Back in the early 1970s, before punk rock, the internet and mobile phones, and years before the term functional foods had come into circulation, the Univeristy of Turku in Finland contacted the local confectionery manufacturer Hellas, not the Leaf Group. The reason? Turku had identified an exciting polyol with dental health potential and wanted Hellas to make samples for clinical trials. The trials were a part of the now famous Turku Sugar Studies, commencing in 1972, which explored the effect of different kinds of sweeteners on dental heath...The study found that human dental caries were reduced by between 80% to 85% in the volunteers who had used Xylitol as a substitute...