--- title: Sugar Causes Tooth Decay description: A new report says we need to stop eating so much sugar to avoid tooth decay canonical: https://time.com/3380563/sugar-tooth-decay/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-16T13:00:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:11:59.303Z article:section: Health og:title: Sugar Is the Only Cause of Tooth Decay, Study Says og:description: A new report says we need to stop eating so much sugar to avoid tooth decay og:url: https://time.com/3380563/sugar-tooth-decay/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte16e6f08306aa97a/6986a379cd804d18eacccc49/sugar-cubes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3772 og:image:height: 2122 og:image:alt: Sugar cubes og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Sugar Is the Only Cause of Tooth Decay, Study Says twitter:description: A new report says we need to stop eating so much sugar to avoid tooth decay twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte16e6f08306aa97a/6986a379cd804d18eacccc49/sugar-cubes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Sugar Is the Only Cause of Tooth Decay, Study Says > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, three times a week), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 16, 2014 1:00 PM UTC  Sugar Cubes on Blue Sugar Cubes on Blue Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Sep 16, 2014 1:00 PM UTC If you don’t want tooth decay, you should seriously cut back on the sugar. According to [new research](http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/14/863) published in the journal _BMC Public Health_, sugars are the only cause of tooth decay in kids and adults. Researchers from University College London and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine looked at public health records from around the world and found that in the U.S. especially, tooth decay–which is one of the most common non-infectious diseases in the world–from sugar was far too high. About 60 to 90% of school-age children and 92% of adults in the U.S. have experienced tooth decay. “Only 2% of people at all ages living in Nigeria had tooth decay when their diet contained almost no sugar, around 2g per day. This is in stark contrast to the USA, where 92% of adults have experienced tooth decay,” study author Aubrey Sheiham, emeritus professor of Dental Public Health at University College London, said [in a statement](http://www.eurekalert.org/emb%5Freleases/2014-09/ucl-dan091514.php). A major source of sugar in Americans’ diets is that found in sodas and fruit juices, and wide availability is a problem: Researchers say that vending machines that serve unhealthy and sugar-laden foods should be removed from areas controlled or financially funded by local or central governments. In March, the WHO [released new guidelines](http://time.com/12905/who-sugar-reccommendations/) recommending that only 5% of a person’s total daily calories should come from sugar, though they acknowledged that such a drastic cutback might not be feasible. “We should aim for 5 percent if we can,” WHO nutrition direction Dr. Francesco Brana said in a news conference, “but 10 percent is more realistic.” Given the high prevalence of tooth decay, the researchers say we need to significantly rethink recommended sugar intake. “This means that it is now even more important to develop a radical prevention policy with a marked reduction in sugar intake since the use of fluoride on its own is insufficient to reduce substantially the burden of caries over the lifetime of individuals,” they conclude. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3380563/sugar-tooth-decay/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3380563/sugar-tooth-decay/"},"headline":"Sugar Is the Only Cause of Tooth Decay, Study Says","datePublished":"2014-09-16T13:00:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:11:59.303Z","description":"A new report says we need to stop eating so much sugar to avoid tooth decay","url":"https://time.com/3380563/sugar-tooth-decay/","keywords":["Diet & Nutrition","Sugar"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte16e6f08306aa97a/6986a379cd804d18eacccc49/sugar-cubes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte16e6f08306aa97a/6986a379cd804d18eacccc49/sugar-cubes.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sugar cubes","caption":"Sugar cubes","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/dietnutrition/","name":"Diet & Nutrition"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3380563/sugar-tooth-decay/","name":"Sugar Is the Only Cause of Tooth Decay, Study Says"}}]}] ```