Factors related to the cariogenic potential of breakfast cereals

Reported is a series of studies in which several breakfast cereals were tested for the following properties: sugar retained by, and plaque formed on, extracted teeth that chewed the cereals: ability of the cereals to induce acid formation when incubated with saliva and to neutralize acids when mixed with water: and, as a summary, ability to induce caries formation under mouth-simulation conditions. It was found that the cariogenic potential of the cereals tested is not dependent upon their sugar content, their retentiveness on the teeth, the amount of sugar retained by the teeth, or the amount of plaque formation they induced on the teeth. The only parameter that related well with the carcinogenic potential of the cereals was their buffering (or acid-neutralizing) ability: the greater the buffering, the lesser the carcinogenic potential. These results, which were confirmed in independent animal studies, case some doubts upon the role traditionally attributed to sugars in caries formation. At least they caution against generalizations and point out other factors that should be studied before a thorough understanding of the factors determining the cariogenicity of foods can be gained.