Nigeria - Fluoridation next?

That soft drink can give your child tooth ache, diabetes
By Sade Oguntola
Children enjoy taking sweet food items.
Carbonated drinks are to be enjoyed by all. But Sade Oguntola, in this report, writes that extra care is needed when children take them, so that they do not end up creating health problems.
THIS period in the year comes with a lot of merry making. There are lots and lots of food and drinks for all to consume. Children are not exempted from the wining and dining associated with the christmas and sallah celebrations. Kids being heavy consumers of soft drinks too visit shops where it is sold at unprecedented rates. These carbonated drinks provide more sugar in their diet at this period known to be one “flowing “ richly with cookies, biscuits, ice creams and cakes.
Of course, these soft drinks including juices now widely available and easily accessible because of different promos by soft drink manufacturers. These are focused on brand-building among younger and younger consumers by their makers to spur them to put pressure on parents to buy. A few bottles of the soft drinks are given away, alongside, free cash, T-shirt and face caps to raise the level of patronage.
As these drink manufacturers at this yuletide period intensify their campaign, public health officials, parents and consumer groups and even the soft drink industry are faced with many nagging questions: How healthful are these beverages which provide a lot of calories, sugars and caffeine but no significant value? And what happens if you drink a lot of them at a very young age?
Nearly everyone by now would have had the litany on the presumed health effects of soft drinks, but turn theirs face away. These include obesity, tooth decay, caffeine dependence and weakened bones. But do drinking popular beverages really cause all of these? Dr. Funke Denloye, a child oral health expert with the Dental Unit of the University College Hospital, UCH, Ibadan affirms that it does.