Heart Health
One of the key issues in nutritional advice relating to good oral health is that the intake of sugar-containing foods should be limited, whereas for heart health it is recommended that fat intake should be reduced. However, research has shown that reducing both sugar intake and fat intake is difficult to achieve. As a result, it has been suggested that nutrition and heart health takes precedence over nutrition and oral health. Why? 'while dental caries is undesirable, heart disease is the main cause of morbidity'. However, in practice, suggested behaviour changes such as reducing the amount of fat spread on bread and having some jam or marmalade instead fits well with the dental health message.
There is no evidence for conflicting messages for the promotion of heart health at the expense of oral health or visa versa. Nutrition advice relating to both heart and oral health is clearly defined within the 1995 National Food and Nutrition Policy Guidelines for Ireland. These guidelines are further confirmed by the publication entitled 'Nutrition and Heart Health' (1996), a consensus statement by organisations in Ireland (including the Dental Health Foundation) concerned with Public Health.
