Hospital sugar ban

The NHS in Wales is planning to stop the sale of hot drinks containing sugar from vending machines in its hospitals. The ban is being put in place as sugar in tea or coffee offers no nutritional value, and can have a negative impact on dental health.

Chief executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Nigel Carter, said: ‘It is positive news that the NHS in Wales is looking into ways to improve dental health within hospitals. Sugar does have a damaging impact on teeth, it can cause tooth decay. But it would be unreasonable to expect people to go to an extreme and cut all sugar out of their diet, the important thing is to try and cut down how often they have sugary foods and drinks. Each time sugar enters the mouth, it acts with the bacteria in plaque to form acid and teeth are under attack for an hour. By limiting how often this happens people can protect their teeth.’