Figure 1.

The 1945 ADA announcement that claims for vitamin D as a factor in the prevention of tooth decay are not acceptable. The second paragraph of this announcement focuses on arguments that the reputation of milk as a good source of minerals (with or without vitamin D) would be ruined if advertisers can claim that milk prevents dental caries (because people still would get cavities even though they were drinking milk). This reference to milk was another puzzling element in the ADA reversal. The ADA CDT did not endorse foods; this was within the purview of the AMA Council on Foods and Nutrition. The Journal of the American Dental Association had published in 1943 over a dozen advertisements in support of dairy products, including 2 advertisements for vitamin D milk [34,35]. Furthermore, the fact that people consuming adequate amount of vitamin D are not necessarily free from dental caries was well accepted. The “New and nonofficial remedies” publication of the AMA and “Accepted Dental Remedies” of the ADA had specified in 1936 and 1941, respectively, that there is no warrant for the claim that an adequate vitamin D intake will prevent dental caries [36,37]. This announcement can only be fully understood with the help of the ADA internal records. This ADA announcement was a reaction to the AMA vitamin D advertisement show in Figure 2.