It might seem counterintuitive. They do carry 15 flavors of sugary syrups and a variety of powdered sugars and fats ready to be liquified and sucked down. But they have another weapon up their little corporate sleeves: Starbucks After Coffee Chewing Gum. Available in four flavors, the gum is sugarless, and sweetened with xylitol. Xylitol is a sugar substitute. It is found in nature and can be extracted from many fruits and vegetables. It is also ten times as expensive as other popular sugar substitutes, such as sorbitol.

Xylitol is also the only sugar substitute currently available that actually fights cavities, which are also called dental caries. Xylitol has magical properties that fight the bacteria that cause dental caries. Used as an ingredient in chewing gum, xylitol can take an active part in preventing the demineralization of tooth enamel. In fact, since xylitol is found naturally in birch bark, humans have been using it to aid in dental care since the Stone Age.

I have been checking around, and only a couple different brands of gum containing xylitol are readily available. They can be found easily on the Internet, but so far the Starbucks gum is the only gum I have come across right on the shelf that contains xylitol. So pick up a vanilla latte with sugar on top, and a tiny can of overpriced gum. Your teeth are worth it.

Image courtesy of 3Dchem.com

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