Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-01-28
Popular Fallacies.

It is not true that sugar and candies
are of themselves injurious to the teeth
or the health of those who use them;
80 far from it, they are less injurious
than any OF the ordinary forms of food
when employed in moderation.
Any scientific dentist will tell you
that the parts Of the teeth most liable
to decay are those which afford lodg-
ment to particles Of food; such parti-
clos being decomposed by moisture
and heat, give out an acid which will
corrode steel as we'll as teeth; but pure
sugar and pure candies are wholly dis
solved; hence, there is no remnant
to be decomposed to yield this de-
structlve acid; we remember now no
item of food which is so perfectly dis
solved in the mouth as sugar and candy.
When visiting the sugar plantations of
Cuba, the attention was constantly ar
rested by the apparently white and solid
teeth of the negroes who superintend
tue process Of cane grinding; they
drank the cane juice like water. there
was no restraint as to its use, and the
little urchins playing about would
chew the sugar-yielding cane by the
hour. 1t is much the same in Louisi-
ana, where the shining faces and broad
grins of the blacks are equally indica.
tive OF exuberant health and splendid
teeth"
. How does it happen then that there
should be "the prevalent belief" that
sugar and sugar-candy destroy the
teeth and undermine the health? Per
haps the most correc. reply is tradi-
ton, the father of progeny of errors
in theory and practice; of errors in
doctrine and example, "too tedious to
mention"
One Of the common faults of the
times is an indisposition to investigate
on the part of the masses. We take
too much for granted. A very common
answer to demand for reason for a
time honored custom is why. have
heard it all my life. Don't everybody
say so?"
1t would be a strange contradiction
in the nature of things if sugar and
candy in moderation should be hurtful
to the human body in any way, for
sugar is constituent of every article
of food we can name; there is not veg
etable out of which it cannot be made,
not ripe fruit in our orchards which
, does not yield it in large proportions,
and it is the main constituent of that
, "milk" which is provided for the
! young of animals and men all over the
world. Perhaps the child has never
lived which did not love sweet things
, beyond all others; it is an instinct, a
; passion not less universal than the love
: of water. A very little child can be
hired to do for bit Of sugar what moth
3 ing else would. The reason OF this is
; that without sugar no child can possibl!
( live; it would freeze to death; it is thu
4 sugar in its food which keeps it warm
4 and warmth is the first necessity for
= child.
But to use this information intelli
gently and probably, it must be re
membered that sugar is an artihcia
product, is concentration, and that, i
Q used in much larger proportions thai
b would be found in our ordinary food
4 as provided by the benefcent Father o
r US all, we will suffer injury. We SHOULD
]. never forget that the immoderate use Q
9 anything is destructive to human health
n and life if perseyered in. The bes
a general rules to be observed are two:
n 1st. Use concentrated sweets at meal
b only. I'd. Use them occasionally an
n in moderation.- Halls Journal {
| Hao1th