Dentists in Alaska Screen for Sugary Drink Consumption

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Dentists in Fairbanks, Alaska (7.0% Latino) have partnered with the state Division of Public Health, to help reduce sugary drink consumption in their patients and work to decrease childhood obesity, according to Newsminer.com.

The Latino population in Fairbanks has grown rapidly reported the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development that detailed the trend, highlighting a 52% growth rate for Hispanic or Latino residents in Alaska from 2000 to 2010.

Many Latino kids and teens drink more sugary drinks on a daily basis than their white peers, sometimes even up to three drinks a day studies show, and with each sugary drink the risk of becoming an obese adult jumps to 60%.

Since September of 2016, the public health state workers have started providing training to dental clinics on how to screen patients for sugary drink consumption and how to advise patients to replace sugary drinks with healthier beverages. The funding for this project is funded by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

They also plan to help patients learn about the dangers of sugary drinks with educational materials and help patients come up with a plan to curb the habit of drinking sugary drinks daily.

Similarly, in Colorado, Delta Dental is teaming up with local health promoters to increase awareness of the dangers of sugary drinks that parents of giving kids on a daily basis like juice boxes, sports drinks, and homemade sugar-filled drinks.

Health promoters, like Gaby Medina work within Westwood in Denver (79.36% Latino) with local schools, libraries, and throughout neighborhood events to ensure kids and parents know how much sugar is in their drinks.

Many states are even introducing soda taxes to help decrease the rising rates of obesity in children, and now recent research suggests, that implementing a policy such as ungrouping sodas in kids meals will also help decrease kid’s consumption of sugary beverages.

To learn more about this topic, click here.

To learn about new sugar guidelines for kids click here, or get involved in joining the “Less Soda” challenge here.