| This week the American Heart Association made news by telling Americans to eat drastically less added sugar - only 6 teaspoons for women, and 9 teaspoons for men. Currently, the average American eats 22 teaspoons of added sugar (about half of which comes from beverages). American per capita intake of "caloric sweeteners" (sugars) went up in the past few decades, at the same time that obesity rates increased. Last I checked, sugar consumption had peaked and declined slightly in the past few years, which I assume is due to the introduction of Splenda (and in case you wanted my two cents, I won't eat Splenda).
I find this headline interesting because I wrote about added sugar in my book. For one thing, it's difficult to find out how much added sugar is in most processed food because the labels aren't required to tell you. They tell you how much total sugar is in your food, but that includes natural sugars too. Natural sugars are OK. If you eat a fruit, you get more than just sugar from the fruit. You also get vitamins, minerals, and fiber. And, thanks to the fiber, you feel full. If you eat added sugar, you get none of that. |
| What was really news to me is that the AHA guidelines are far more strict than what I included in my book. I used a Center for Science in the Public Interest petition to the U.S. government in which they recommended 10 teaspoons or less per day of added sugar - a full 66% more than the AHA recommends for women, and 9% more than they recommend for men. The CSPI petition was endorsed by a large number of reputable organizations and experts, so it passed the smell test enough for inclusion in my book. And, clearly, even if Americans cut down from 22 teaspoons to 10, they would have made significant progress.
What both AHA and CSPI show in their recommendations is the need for clear labeling of added sugars (because consumers have no way of following either set of guidelines without better labeling). It's easy to find out the amount of added sugars in a can of Coke. (As a side note, I find it odd that Coca Cola labels this page on their site Nutrition Information as nutrition is something their product is entirely devoid of.) One 8-oz serving of Coca Cola contains 27g of carbohydrates, which I believe means 27g of added sugars. Multiply that times 1.5 (as most people drink an entire 12 oz can, not just an 8 oz serving) and you have 40.5g of added sugars, or just over 10 teaspoons of sugar. That's more than CSPI or the AHA thinks anyone should have in an entire day.
But how about other foods like baked goods, which account for 14% of added sugar intake, or fruit drinks (10% of added sugar intake), dairy desserts (6%), or breakfast cereals (4%)? Reading labels on products like yogurt or granola drives me NUTS because there is no way to tell how much sugar has been added. I try to buy granola with 7g of total sugars or less per serving, but again, reading the labels is difficult because the serving sizes differ among different brands and types of granola. The UK solves this problem by requiring labels to show nutrients per serving AND per 100g of the product, allowing consumers to compare apples to apples.
One more thing to note is an ineffective method of label-reading I saw frequently when I worked at a bakery. Because ingredients are listed by quantity, I saw customers often check to make sure that sugar wasn't the top ingredient on the list. Unfortunately, manufacturers have wised up to this, so they often split the sugars up. You'll see something more benign like whole wheat flour or oats listed first on an ingredient list, but you might also see several kinds of sugars (honey, sucrose, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, etc) listed later. If you added up all of the different kinds of sugar, they might still be the most prevalent ingredient in the product... but you have no way of knowing that by reading the label. The same can be said when sugars are listed as components of ingredients on a label, e.g. "Ingredients: Enriched wheat flour, butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate chips (sugar, cocoa, milk, soy lecithin), caramel (sugar, butter, caramel color, salt)..."
Unfortunately, due to the lack of labeling, the only solution right now if you want to cut back your added sugar intake is to:
- Eliminate soda, fruit drinks, and sweetened teas from your diet in favor of water, small quantities of 100% juice, milk, and homemade or unsweetened teas
- For coffee drinkers, skip on the blended Frappuccino-type drinks and instead opt for plain coffee or cappuccinos that you sweeten yourself.
- Reduce the amount of sweet baked goods (cookies, muffins, scones, donuts, etc) and granola/cereal/energy bars you eat. For breads, read the label. Many mainstream brands of sliced bread (even the healthy-looking ones) include high fructose corn syrup.
- Go for breakfast cereals with no added sugar or eat whole grain cereals cooked at home like oatmeal (made from plain oats and sweetened with brown sugar or maple syrup that you add, not from the little packets they sell that are pre-sweetened)
- Buy plain yogurt or make your own yogurt and, if needed, sweeten it yourself (I got used to unsweetened yogurt by adding berries and granola, but for a sweetened option, add brown sugar, maple syrup, or jam)
- If possible, make your own sauces, jams, salad dressings, etc. If not, read the labels. You'd be surprised how much sugar manufacturers can sneak into a bottle of ketchup or salad dressing. For jam, if you can't make your own, I recommend Jackie's Jams because she uses more fruit and less sugar in her recipes.
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