![]() The trial was also, controversially, supported in part by the country’s sugar industry and sweet and chocolate manufacturers.ĭuring the first part of the study, dentists studied the impact of vitamin supplementation on dental caries, and found no effect. In an era before institutional review boards, the inability of the subjects to provide informed consent was, apparently, not an obstacle. It was quickly decided that the study should be carried out at the Vipeholm Institute, a state hospital “for individuals with mental handicaps,” situated just outside Lund. In response, following the Second World War, the Swedish Parliament introduced a public dental service, but also commissioned a study, to be performed by the country’s only dental institute, in order to establish “what measures should be taken to decrease the frequency of the most common dental diseases in Sweden.”Īt the time, scientists assumed that there was a link between diet and dental caries, but they were divided on whether tooth decay should be thought of holistically, as a symptom of deficiencies in overall nutrition, or locally, as the direct result of consuming sugar. Indeed, only one in a thousand military conscripts didn’t have tooth decay. ![]() By the 1930s, as sweet-makers introduced foam and jelly-textured offerings, the overwhelming majority of the Swedish population had cavities. The problem began in the 1900s, when sugar became affordable enough for manufactured candies to be mass-produced and widely available. But, Goldfield writes, in Sweden, this Saturday candyfest extends well into adulthood-indeed, it has been the official public health recommendation of the Swedish government since the 1950s. ![]() Saturday Sweeties was the inadvertent outcome of the fact that I spent my money all at once and the sweets didn’t last much longer. Speaking as my former self-a child who used to receive my pocket money on a Saturday morning, and hit the pick-and-mix aisle of Woolworth’s shortly thereafter-I can understand how this might work. In her review of Bon Bon, a newly opened Swedish sweetshop on the Lower East side, Hannah Goldfield introduces the delightful concept of lördagsgodis, or Saturday Sweeties: a day of the week set aside for unbridled candy consumption, on the understanding that the other six will be gummi-free. IMAGE: Some of Sockerbit’s chewy delights, including Dansk Skalle, Rosa Kubik, Smultronmatta, Rabarberbitar, Super Sura Banana, Elefantskumfotter, and Rambo Twists.Īs it turns out, this is a problem that the Swedish authorities, in all their benevolent wisdom, had anticipated. The problem was not that I did not enjoy the fragrant, soft pink Smultronmatta (rippled squares of wild strawberry licorice) or the refreshingly tart Rabarberbitar (cylindrical rhubarb gummis with a lemon-flavoured filling) the problem was that I could not trust myself to exert any degree of self-control once across Sockerbit’s threshold. I went once, and never again in the six years I lived in the city. The year I moved to New York, Sockerbit, a Scandinavian pick-and-mix sweet shop, opened in the West Village.
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