'Other Data' is taking up a lot of space

A few days ago I got a warning that there was no extra free space on my iPod Touch and I clicked the OK button and it took me to the Usage screen to show how much space everything is taking.

All the apps that I have installed has various degrees of 'Documents & Data' way outside of the space needed for the install of the apps. All of y research I have done has stated that I should just do a restore through iTunes to clear out this data. That seems to be a bit of an extreme solution to the issue.

Is there some other way I can clear this data out without wipping the whole thing?

And if I do restore it, wouldn't I just experince the same problem again down the road when I reinstall everything and use it again?