Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[learner12]

Hello, teachers!!

We think it's important that you know there are many things you can do to reduce your risk for getting more cavities in the future. Reduce the number of times per day that you eat suars. People who have more than three to five exposures to sugars per day tend to develop a greater number of cavities. Exposures are "eating occasions" separated by at least 20 minutes. For example, a bowl of Frosted Flakes at 9 a.m., followed by the M & Ms at 9:20 or 9:30 a.m. is considered two exposures.
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(*) People who have more than three to five exposures to sugars per day tend to develop a greater number of cavities.

Why did the author write "three to five"? I mean, "three to five" is from three to five=three, four, five. Isn't "three to five" vague? Why didn't he/she write "more than three", "more than four", or "more than five"? I don't understand it well.

Also, I am not sure about the word "sugars" in the sentence above. Are "sugars" the foods which contain sugar in this context? May I change "sugars" into "sweet treat"?

Thank you in advance.

[pugachevV]

I agree it is vague. Perhaps it is because some people have more cavities after 3 exposures to sugar and some only after 5 exposures?
A sweet treat is not the same as sugar. Sugar is a chemical compound that is known to cause cavities, but not every sweet treat contains sugar. Some of them contain saccharine, aspartame or other artificial sweeteners.

[learner12]

Dear pugachevV:

Thank you so much for your quick replies.

I have another question.

Why did the author write "sugars" instead of "sugar"?

Thank you in advance.

[pugachevV]

The writer used the plural because there are many different kinds of sugars.
e.g.Monosaccharides - simple sugars, with multiple hydroxyl groups. Based on the number of carbons (e.g., 3, 4, 5, or 6) a monosaccharide is a triose, tetrose, pentose, or hexose, etc.

Disaccharides - two monosaccharides covalently linked

Oligosaccharides - a few monosaccharides covalently linked.

Polysaccharides - polymers consisting of chains of monosaccharide or disaccharide units.

It gets really complicated.