- zinc lactate, which is zinc bonded to lactic acid. lactic acid is what the bacteria in your mouth produces that wears down your enamel.
- carrageenan, which is a polysaccharide - sugar.
neither of the other two toothpastes have these ingredients, although the colgate has xanthan gum, which is also a polysaccharide.
now, why would they put zinc lactate in toothpaste?
supposedly, it's primarily to fight bad breath. but, google isn't helping much.
take a look at this site here:
Our highly soluble, neutral-tasting lactates help reduce tartar and potentially even bad breath in oral health formulations: An ideal source of calcium.
highly soluble lactates fight tartar? what?
it seems like the thing that may have some dental health benefit is the zinc, but it would need to be separated from the lactic acid, first. so, if the zinc is doing anything at all, you have to douse your teeth in lactic acid to get the benefits of it. great.
worse, free zinc reacts with water to steal the oxygen and produce free hydrogen - which is what produces acid, in all situations.
but, zinc lactate would appear to be poorly soluble in water:
...meaning it's probably not doing anything at all.
so, what's the conclusion, here? that if this did anything it would be terrible, but it's not actually doing anything, so i shouldn't worry about it? fuck.
and, what about these polysaccharides, the carrageenan and xanthan gum? they're what makes the toothpaste thick. but, it's sugar.
carageenan is a polysaccharide made up of repeating galactose molecules. your saliva will break the polysaccharide down into simple galactose molecules. s. mutans, the bacteria that causes cavities, eats galactose. what the fuck?
should i throw this shit out?
you know what i'm going to do? i'm going to send an email to the canadian dental association and see how they respond.
i've used it twice. i won't use it again until i get a clear response.
this is the crest pro-health advance.