History of Xylitol
Used globally for thousands of years
The oldest record of this “sugar for oral health” seems to have been about 2500 years ago, in a book of Chinese herbal cures. The remedy is “Zhin-he–tong” (“sugar from the white tree”) for cavities and gum disease. Native Americans cleaned their teeth with wood from birch trees. They made teething rattles for babies and used the wood as a toothpick for teeth and gums. In Russia and Alaska the sap from birch trees is swished around erupting teeth, and grocery stores stock birch sugar for baking and regular use.
Modern day use in Europe and Asia
More than a hundred years, medical professionals used xylitol as a diabetic-safe sugar in medicines and to balance blood glucose during surgery. Unfortunately, with the advent of artificial sweeteners and less expensive products, xylitol was almost forgotten. However, it was rediscovered during World War II when table sugar was scarce in Europe. Xylitol was used once again and, this time, its health benefits were observed and recorded.
Xylitol was first recognized as being good for oral health in the late 1940s. There had been a decade of sugar shortages in Great Britain, and so xylitol became an alternative sweetener for all kinds of baking; for use in beverages; and as a replacement for table sugar in most households. Xylitol can be extracted from the wood of birch trees, and so it is not surprising that The Finnish Sugar Company, located in a country where birch forests are plentiful, was one of the first to commercially distribute xylitol to other countries.
In Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, specifically), xylitol is found in candies, and Finland has managed a public health program for preschool and elementary schools, offering xylitol dental gum during school hours for more than six decades. Switzerland also has produced xylitol and promoted it for oral health, launching a certification program in 1982 for tooth-friendly candy made with xylitol that meets their special regulation standards. Travelers to China, Asia, Turkey, and Japan are usually surprised by the selection of xylitol gum and mints in these countries—and how it has been promoted in children’s playgroups and nurseries for decades.
By the mid-1950s, European dentists and doctors noticed—amid this more generalized consumption of xylitol—that the oral health of these populations had improved, and children in this part of the world not only experienced fewer cavities but less ear infections. This was a period of time when the first scientific research studies began to look at why these changes had occurred, and if xylitol actually did promote health. The benefits of this ingredient were gradually confirmed in decades of study conducted across many countries around the world—from Estonia to South America, and from China to Japan.
In the United States
Xylitol first arrived in the United States in the middle of the 1960s, when it was incorporated as an active ingredient in healthy chewing gum. At this time in this country, however, there was comparatively little interest in natural health products. This gum was flavored with licorice and remained rated as a poor competitor alongside the tastier, longer-lasting, but artificially sweetened gum that the American marketplace had created for less health—and larger profits.
Today, xylitol can be purchased in granular form as well as in tooth-friendly candy, breath mints, chewing gum, tooth gels, mouth rinses, baby products and nasal sprays. Thankfully, xylitol-based products are no longer found only in health stores—they can be purchased nationwide in progressive grocery stores alongside other organic and natural products as well as online.