[drharris]

> And what other bacteria does it kill off?

I don't think it's that Xylitol kills off bacteria, just that it makes it more inhospitable. To be fair, it should still be cause for worry; while some bacteria do cause acid production that can lead to tooth decay, other bacteria are part of our immune system. There is little reason to suspect that a mouth inhospitable to bad bacteria would still allow the good bacteria to thrive.

[Groxx]

It just reeks of "bacteria BAD, <x> GOOD" mentality. Like giving everyone broad-spectrum antibacterials for minor diseases without realizing that it slaughters the bacteria in your gut, which you generally need to be healthy. Or the claims that magnets or cell phones or ionized water will only kill good / bad bacteria, leaving you infested / healthy, 100% guaranteed*!

The suggestions are interesting, and I might look into them more carefully, but it has seriously tripped my they're-using-overly-religious-reasoning alarm.

[ricardobeat]

There is a study somewhere where subjects consuming up to 1.5kg of xylitol per month and up to 430g/day, for two years, didn't experience any harmful effects (other than the expected laxation, which subsides with time).

edit: here it is http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/783060