No Wonder the English Need Dentists

I don't know what it is about the English and their teeth. It's a stereotype that all the late-night comics make fun of.

But when you read Nothing but the tooth, by Angela Epstein, you begin to realize that they seriously need some help.

Nothing worse than nonsense in an article intended to punctuate myths. For example:

DRINKING MILK CAN DAMAGE YOUR TEETH
While milk has an excellent nutritional content, it should only be drunk at meal times as the lactose (milk sugar) content can damage the teeth. For this reason, do not leave milk by a child's bed overnight, as drinking it through the night will mean the teeth are under an acid attack - particularly as neutralising saliva dries up while we sleep.

Two bizarre claims there.

First, the amount of sugar in milk is only about 5%. It is much less sweet than fruit juices or soft drinks. Milk is what you should drink instead of sweeter drinks.

Who says? The UK Food Standards Agency, that's who.

Milk contains vitamins and minerals such as calcium and it doesn't cause tooth decay.

Second, milk doesn't have high acidity, either. According to the dairy scientists at the University of Guelph:

The pH of milk at 25° C normally varies within a relatively narrow range of 6.5 to 6.7.

Since neutral water has a pH of 7.0, milk is just very slightly acid. That's because it has little acid in it, says the University of California at Davis:

The acidity of milk from individual cows ranges from 0.10 to 0.26 %. Herd milk varies less in acidity because of commingling,, but occasionally herds are found where the acidity of the fresh milk is 0.18 % and as high as 0.23 %.

Please take Ms. Epstein out for a good, um, tongue-lashing.