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An investigative work by Dr. N.H. Beguin

From an article published in Le Journaldu Dr. Nature - Nov 1975 by

Pronatec S.A.

P.O. Box 5593

8400 Winterthur 11

Switzerland

"The Investigative works of Dr M. H. Beguin into dental decay and prevention by natural nutrition."

"Dental decay: A deficient disease caused by the refinement of food."

In civilised countries, where there is no shortage of food, few people get to adulthood without suffering dental decay. Its presence is accepted as normal. In spite of this we know that animals which live in the wild do not have bad teeth, one does not realise that mankind in Western Society had good teeth until the 18th Century. In reality, the number of bad teeth found in the skeletons of our forbears is very low - some 1 in every 100 - while today between 80% - 90 % of adults are affected.

Dental decay is an illness caused by civilisation. In reality the supposedly called "primitives" in Asia, Africa, South Africa, and some of whose principal food consists of sugar cane have conserved good teeth. A study carried out in the remote valley of Valais has demonstrated that until 1900, while food came from their own soil, the mountaineers preserved good teeth. The railways and modern highways have brought the dental decay of civilisation.

During rationing in 1939 - 1945 an enormous reduction in tooth decay was noticed in Swiss children of school age. In 1946 the school dentists registered that the enamel had become harder and more resistant and had two times less decay than before. Some forty years later, when there are no limits to sugar and you can eat and all the sweets produced, dental decay has returned to increase to their usual rate of ten teeth per child.

An attentive reader will understand on reflection why I, as a paediatrician, have carried out this investigation for the past 30 years. If the people who consume natural products on their own lands without refinement or alteration have been able to conserve their splendid teeth they must have a way that we can rediscover good dentistry for ourselves and our children. This is the reason that we need to replace refined products with natural unrefined products.

The equation will be:

REFINED FOOD = TOOTH DECAY

The logical deduction of this:

NON REFINED PRODUCTS = TOOTH DECAY DISAPPEARS

Of course the solution is more than the limits of simple mathematics. Those children who are now growing with the new form of nutrition will give the proof that the line taken is correct and viable. Today I can affirm by their good dentistry these children's food with healthy products is proof of my theory. This is the problem that I would like to view a little closer with the reader.

First Stage - Crude Sugar Cane

The previous assumptions seem to show that, white refined and granulated sugar stimulates tooth decay. It would be impossible to prohibit people from eating sugar. One gets accustomed to the taste of sweets in our youth, and it becomes very difficult to leave it. It is like preaching in the desert and the 49Kg of sugar, which according to the statistics is consumed by the average Swiss each year, is not reducing. This small consumption is approximately one kilo per week per person, which is more or less the same all over Europe.

What can replace refined sugar? In 1950, when I was working as a medical assistant in the prison, I asked my boss, Professor E. Freudenberg, if with his help ( he was a paediatrician with chemistry), I could carry out some sugar analysis in my spare time. I wanted to compare the quantity of mineral salts in white sugar and granulated with brown sugar from crude honey.

First Result: If one fills two porcelain crucibles with 10g white sugar in one and 10g of crude sugar in the other and they are heated to combustion point you will find that the crucible with the white sugar is nearly empty after the experiment. With the crude sugar we are left with a small quantity of greyish seeds: the mineral salts. After weighing one discovers 30mg - 50 mg of mineral salts to 100g of white sugar and 300 mg - 500 mg to 100g of crude sugar, in other words ten times more. An analysis of these seeds shows phosphate, calcium, potassium, magnesium, iron and sulphur.

All these elements are vital for a healthy constitution but are lost during refining. One could hear my professor, who was very content and close to the results obtained say "The white sugar is the pride, but from a biological point of view it has no value."

After this analysis, Prof. Freudenberg decided to replace the white sugar that babies were taking with crude sugar. They enjoyed this and are growing more strongly and more healthily.

In 1953, when I was working as a paediatrician in the Chaux-de-Fonds, I convinced the mothers who were giving white sugar to their children to replace this with crude sugar. Ten years later the school dentist was astonished to see the children with such good teeth, just in the time of rationing. He interviewed the children and found that they received brown bread and brown sugar at home. This can be verified. In 1963, at our petition, the town authorities decided to undertake a survey with all 1420 children ( between 6 - 10 years) and from first to third year. We asked the parents to complete questionnaires concerning the type of food that their children received: white sugar, brown sugar, white bread, brown bread, brown whole-wheat bread, fruit drinks, etc. The school dentist took note of the good teeth, lightly affected and heavily decayed for each child. The Federal Office of Statistics in Berne evaluated all of the documentation.

The results were unquestionably clear. Those children who had taken brown sugar had an average of 3.4 good teeth more than those who had taken white sugar. Those who had taken brown wholemeal could show an average of 1.9 good teeth more than those who had taken only white bread. Those children with a combination of the favourable factors had an average of 5.6 good teeth more than those with more traditional food. With refined food only 2% of the children had no bad teeth, while 26%, that is to say ¼ of the children who had benefited from natural food had good teeth. It was particularly marked the difference in deep decay in teeth, that is to say: here 5.4 teeth were affected in the first group while only 0.7 in the second.

The first questionnaire was in 1963 with the student population ( 1420 children) showed that without doubt refined produce caused dental decay. Despite being so promising, these results were not satisfactory. In spite of selecting the best foods in the market, the children still had an average of 4.5 bad teeth. Before, the number was 10: this was certainly better, but was not the final victory.

Second Stage: Whole Sugar ( Panela)

A study closer to the different types of bread: white, brown, wholemeal showed an obvious parallel between the quality of the bread and tooth decay.

Brown wholemeal bread conserves 95 - 100% of the elements of wheat, causing the smallest number of bad teeth. White bread, with a milling grade of 7.2% caused the greatest number of bad teeth. Brown bread with 84% is between the two in refinement and tooth decay. How much with sugar ? Crude sugar, which has been proved to be much better than white sugar and much more efficient than wholemeal, is not a type of whole sugar. Here it is how it is produced. The juice from sugar cane is evaporated in large bowls, and converted into molasses, which is concentrated. When that the physicists call the point of super saturation is reached, the crystals of the crude sugar separate from the molasses and drip through the valves. This substance is rich in mineral substances. Here the elements of sugar juice are separated in two parts: the crystals of crude sugar on one side and on the other the molasses which has been eliminated. It is used to make rum ! I had thought about these problems for such a long time that an idea started to form in my mind. Could there be a parallel between bread and sugar. The three grades in quality:

White bread - brown bread - wholemeal bread corresponding with an improvement in teeth. Here it is possible to make a similar parallel:

White sugar - brown sugar - whole sugar.

Crude sugar in the market corresponds with brown bread, in this way everything we have found is a type of whole sugar, which has all the elements of sugar cane juice and can equate with wholemeal bread.

This study was the principal of the decisive fight against dental decay.

The whole sugar, which I have in mind - sugar cane juice dried by evaporation - is unknown in Europe. Where could I ask or try to find information about this idea that everybody thought was mad. After three years arduous investigation into the material, an engineer from India, who was close to my investigation told me that this type of sugar was produced in his country. It is called GUR-JAGGARY. He knows that those people in India who consume this have good teeth.

A friend of mine returned from the Civil Service in India, where he had worked in a hospital for lepers, explained that he had seen country people producing this type of sugar. The sugar is crushed and pressed, the juice is collected in large basins of earth heated underneath by a bonfire, which is maintained for two or three days.

The juice is turned with enormous wooden spoons. Finally we are left with a dry material, dough in the shape of a brick. This is the sugar GUR - JAGGARY, the sugar of the poor people, which is sold in the market.

I carried out an analysis and the results exceeded my expectations, containing ten times the mineral salts of brown sugar and a hundred times more than white sugar. Here are the results obtained by analysis of the three types of sugar:

Purified and refined sugar consists of nearly 100% crystallised sucrose. The mineral salts, considered as impurities are removed and only leave a little behind, counted in milligrams. Whole sugar, without doubt is rich in the vitally important mineral salts: 2.8 grams per 100 grams, that is to say 28 grams per kilogram, while only 300 milligrams per kilogram is found in refined sugar.

Knowing that teeth are composed of calcium phosphate one understands, compared to the figures, that whole sugar, where there exists large quantities, is superior to white sugar, where there is only a little. The magnesium strengthens the nervous system. Potassium is vital to conserve the acid balance in the cells and combats acids and acetone. Iron, a composite of haemoglobin prevents anaemia.

Only the simple comparison of the mineral salts in the two types of sugar has to be an argument in favour of whole sugar.

Sucrose contains twelve atoms of carbon per molecule. Substituting by synthesis the fructose and the glucose - both sugars contain six atoms of carbon each. In the refined sugar these two types of sugars are eliminated, despite them having a high biological value, meanwhile 12% remained in the whole sugar. As well it contains around 1% of protein and an enormous variety of proteins especially the complete B: there is 1 mg of B6 or pyridoxine per 100 g. The analysis has revealed large quantities of vitamin B1, B2 , folic acid, calcium pantonate and inositol. Of course the oligoel elements exist in all natural products. Small amounts of fluorine and selenium were also found.

RESULTS AFTER EIGHT YEARS: WHOLE SUGAR IS A PRODUCT OF HIGH QUALITY ALLOWING CHILDREN TO GROW HEALTHILY.

In 1967 the first sample of 300 Kg of Gur-Jaggary sugar arrived from India. First you have to examine and prove the tolerance. It is a granulated flour of a light orange to beige colour, which can be easily dissolved in water or milk. It has an agreeable fruity smell, a little like honey or raison juice. Babies love it and soon they prefer it to white sugar.

In its traditional form this sugar has some disadvantages. It contains grains of flour and fragments of cellulose, which can block the entry to a baby’s drinking bottle. This has to be removed by the mothers. More, when it is dissolved and not sterilised it contains microbes. For this reason it needs to be treated in a laboratory.

Sugar comes from India by boat, it is redissolved, filtered, dried in a vacuum or low temperature and packed in tins. In this manner it does not loose any of its’ characteristics, it is a product of irreproachable quality. There is one disadvantage which we have waited for since the beginning. This is due to the enormous quantity of mineral substances and ungranulated sugar, it is very hygroscopic, absorbs the humidity in the air and becomes hard and sticky. For this reason you have to keep it in a tin, which is air and water tight, and close it immediately after use.

 1. Excellent tolerance.

Babies and children love the flavour and take in doses normally of 5g per 100g. Constipation, which is very frequent with white sugar disappears. Babies are maintained healthily and their weight grows normally and regularly.

2. Prevention of nutritious anaemia.

White sugar, refined flour and milk not poor in iron. Having to triplicate in one year the baby’s weight from birth, they have to receive a sufficient quantity of iron. With the type of traditional food, a small number of paediatricians have found babies with pallid faces, transparent ears and colourless conjunctivitis. Suspecting anaemia, determine by analysis the haemoglobin and you will find it to be well below normal. For this we prescribe iron pills. For those babies who take whole sugar they do not have nutritional anaemia. All have rosy faces, ears and well coloured conjunctivitis.

3. Whole sugar prevents rickets.

Growth of the skeleton is excellent. Historically paediatricians frequently found signs of rickets such as "cranal deprival" which is a softening of the cranal bones around the fontanel and the "rosary rickets". These cases are not registered yet.

4. Thrush or aphthae rarely returns.

Thrush, white marks - fungus in the mucal membrane in the mouth - is frequent in young children and is a sign of low resistance. This effect practically disappears.

 5. The children are more alive and full of vitality.

The psychological factor most difficult to measure. But in place of these pallid faces, passive and quiet, the children now appear smiling, happy and lively.

6. Whole sugar prevents tooth decay.

You have to wait until the children grow in order to judge the influence that whole sugar has had on their teeth. Today, after eight years it is possible to measure the influence.

For two years, I was filling formulae's for each one with information from the mother, in respect of the type of sugar (white, brown or whole) that the child had taken each year.

I noted the number of good teeth, those lightly affected and those with severe decay. These results were passed to the University of Neuchatel, where they were evaluated by computer.

I have to state that I did not carry out these experiments, in the manner of a professor who is able to do these in small sections. I would recommend to all mothers to use the best products for their children. The group examined who had been consuming white sugar came from other paediatricians or from families who had conserved the traditional form of nutrition. 1410 children of 2 - 16 years of age were examined in this way. The results were extraordinary and exceeded all expectations, while those with white sugar had regular tooth decay and approximately one quarter of their teeth affected, the majority of the children on whole sugar conserved good teeth. This tendency could be observed year on year.

The complete results fill a collection of documents. Here I would like to limit myself to two parts which summarise my study. The first graph shows the number of teeth affected by decay for 100 teeth - for each type of sugar measured and the consumption reduced progressively from 100% to 0%. With white sugar 25%, that is to say ¼ of the teeth are affected, with the whole sugar it is practically 20 times less: 1.4 teeth per 100. The brown sugar is between the two with 7 teeth affected per 100, which is much better than white sugar.

This graphic reveals something else interesting. If one takes a ruler to join the tops of the five columns which represent the whole sugar, we obtain a straight line from the points. There is no tooth decay when we consume only whole sugar ! By this we can deduce that:

REFINED SUGAR IS THE MAJOR CAUSE OF TOOTH DECAY.

The second graphic, which was taken directly from the computer, shows the percentage of children with and without dental decay. With whole sugar 92% of the children have good teeth. With white sugar only 21%. Between raw whole sugar eliminated, that is to say between the highest grade of refining, the majority of teeth are affected by decay.

This study about whole sugar, which was a simple theoretical reflection at the beginning, has produced very interesting results. This form of sugar has always existed, but it is unknown in Europe. It is more, in all the countries and continents which produce sugar it is possible to find the old traditional methods where sugar juice is dried to form solids in the shape of bread. Today it is appreciated in the sugar producing countries for its flavour, nutritional value and curative character. The history and good reputation guarantee it is a healthy product and this cannot be confirmed for all the new products that appear in the market.

Dr. Max -Henri Beguin

Translation into English by Nigel Rennie

Note: Gur-Jaggary or whole sugar is also known as Panela in Colombia.