COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF CHANGE IN SALIVARY pH ON CONSUMPTION OF DRY READY TO EAT CEREALS, CEREALS WITH AND WITHOUT ADDED S UGAR IN MILK - AN IN - VIVO STUDY

Background : Dry, Ready to Eat Cereals are a combination of refined sugar and starch, most commonly consumed breakfast in the modern human diet. The present study was done to investigate the effects of combination foods on salivary pH. Objective : To assess and compare the salivary pH changes after consumption of Dry Ready to Eat Cereals (REC), Cereals with plain and sugar added milk. Method : Thirty six adults of age 18 to 25 years were assessed for salivary pH at baseline followed by one minute, twenty minutes and one hour after consumption of dry ready to eat cereals, cereals with plain milk and sugar added milk as intervention groups. The differences in mean salivary pH within groups at different time interval was assessed using repeated measures ANOVA (Analysis of va riance) . Results : There was significant increase in salivary pH at one minute from baseline and significant decrease at twenty minutes from one minute within the group in Dry REC and cereal with added sugar milk. There was no significant difference withi n the group of cereal with plain milk at different intervals of time. There is no statistical significant difference between the groups at different intervals of time (p value <0.05). Conclusions : Consumption of Dry REC, Cereals with plain and sugar added milk did not show much variation in salivary pH.