A spoonful of sugar…

Figuring out what is sugar can be tricky

Everywhere you look, the sugar-free campaign seems to be doing the rounds. I was listening to an interview on the ABC with anti-sugar campaigner, David Gillespie. His latest book, Sweet Poison Quit Plan, really made me think. Again.

“Sugar makes you fat. It is converted directly to fat by your liver and it destroys your appetite control so that you want to eat more of everything.”

Too much sugar not only makes us fat but also is a key culprit in diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke.

A few years ago, some friends and I went to a yoga retreat. One particular teacher raved on about the ‘devil’s crystals’. Yes, we did laugh. Gorging on mountain-loads of gummi-bears followed by a chocolate fondue chaser, is of course, bad. We all know that.

Gillespie’s point is however, that’s the ‘sweet poison’ is in everything, disguised as low-fat foods, masquerading as diet-soft drinks, and hiding under confusing pseudonyms.

By sneaking it into foods, the sugar industry has managed to increase the sugar consumption dramatically. “Added sugar” is sugar that is added to foods during processing or preparation — and includes sweeteners you add at the table: the sugar in your coffee or the syrup on your pancakes.

Added sugars do not include the sugar that occurs naturally in fruits, vegetables and other foods.

Britons have increased their sugar consumption by 31% over the past two decades and for the most part, this is due to sugar that is not directly added by the consumer or also called  ‘invisible’ sugar.

In America, this equates to about 22 teaspoons (90 grams) of added sugar consumed by the average American each day and the daily consumption of sweetened soft drinks rose 70% between 1970 and 2000.

The problem is knowing how much we should eat and what kind we should avoid. Australian government guidelines however, are not specific enough to help control sugar consumption:

“Consume only moderate amounts of sugars and foods containing added sugars”

In the UK, the guideline says that the consumption of added sugars – also called “non milk extrinsic sugars” or NMES should be no more than 11% of total energy intake. Hardly easy to figure out.

The American Medical Association however, has recently been much more specific.

How much should you have?

Women: 6 teaspoons or 25 grams

Men: 9 teaspoons or 37.5 grams

How can I spot it?

The hard bit is of course, working out the pseudonyms for added sugar. So check out the back of the packet for these:

Brown sugar	Glucose	Maple syrup
Corn sweetener	High-fructose corn syrup	Molasses
Corn syrup or corn syrup solids	Honey	Raw sugar
Dehydrated cane juice	Invert sugar	Rice syrup
Dextrin	Lactose	Sorghum syrup
Dextrose	Maltodextrin	Sucrose
Fructose	Malt syrup	Syrup
Fruit juice concentrate	Maltose	Treacle
Turbinado sugar	Xylose

So perhaps the next time you go shopping, have a look at what you’re really eating.

Links:

Sugar – May 13,2010: “A spoonful of sugar really does help medicine go down”

Salt – Fad Here, Gone Tomorrow