Xylitol, or birch tree sugar. It's good for fighting tooth decay because it's a sugar alcohol and not a real sugar. It's also got only 2/3 the calories of table sugar, but about the same amount of sweetness. So you use the same amount but it has less calories and drives bacteria out of your mouth.

There are lots of studies that show that chewing Xylitol gum helps prevent tooth decay, gum disease and ear infections. That is because it attracts bacteria but the bacteria can't attach to it, so the bacteria gets "cleaned out" of the throat and mouth.

Xylitol is also good for diabetics because the body metabolizes the sugar alcohol much more slowly than sugar, and you don't get insulin spikes (sugar rushes) from it.

It doesn't have an artificial sweetener taste, and tastes about like regular sugar!

The problem is that Xylitol is very expensive. It cost me about $25 for a 5lb bag ordering online from iHerb.com. It's much more expensive in health stores. But I don't use sugar that much, so that 5 lbs will last me at least year.

I just used some for my beef jerky marinade, on account of its antibacterial properties.

[link to en.wikipedia.org]

Trident makes a xylitol gum, for ant-bacterial tooth health. Walgreens sells it.

[link to www.walgreens.com]

You can order xylitol gum online, too:

[link to xlear-usa.amazonwebstore.com]