How to Approach the Sugar Epidemic
It was ironic. And a little bit sick. Not nearly as sick as an airport television tuned in to a feature on plane crashes or that particular vendor in Pompeii selling snow globes of the doomed city. But still. As I was researching this article, a pop-up video advertised a delicious recipe using Reese’s peanut butter cups.
SO not fair.
But I’ll admit, at first the video didn’t seem out of the ordinary…so common and everyday is our exposure, in media or on the dinner table, to sugary nirvana.
It may be the 21st century but humans still have cave person brains. Did our ancestors have cupcakes? No. (Paleo cupcakes are a modern-day creation.) But they all had sweet teeth. When they found something sweet (read: with quick energy) in their world absent of refined sugar, they devoured it. In the current day, we have an abundance of sugar and sugary options…and our inner cave person goes mastodon-wild and we give in every time. But instead of sustaining us,
What do we do about this sugar epidemic? How do we curb the urge for sugar and make healthier food choices? First of all,
We need to know what’s in the food we buy.
We can only make better choices if we scrutinize the nutritional labels. And food manufacturers make it hard to interpret these labels. So let’s decipher them together.
By the numbers. Nutritional labels list sugar content in grams. And there are 4 grams of sugar in one teaspoon. The American Heart Association recommends women get no more than 24 grams (six teaspoons) of added sugar daily, and men 36 grams (nine teaspoons). Given the typical American gets a whopping 22 teaspoons of added sugar daily (which amounts to an extra 350 calories), this recommendation is a major upheaval in the American diet-as-usual. (But don’t panic. See below for some helpful guidelines in reducing the added sugar.)
I saw this cookie in the checkout line at the store (always the grocery store’s red light district) but was intrigued by the words “cookie” and “16 g protein” on the front of the package.
I loved all the facts listed. But it is a cookie and a processed food. On closer examination this somewhat clean treat packs 14 grams of added sugar, which would be more than half my daily allowance. Bummer. And no offense, Lenny and Larry, but at this point and time I had to say “no thanks.”
Order is important. What’s inside that food package is listed in order by weight on the ingredients list on the back, or under the fold (which drives me crazy when I look at energy bars and I wonder if that’s by design…), with the “weightiest” listed first. So if sugar in any form is listed as the first or second ingredient in a product, put it back on the shelf. It’s super-bad nutritionally.
But don’t just look for the word “sugar” on those labels. This is where things get complicated. Remember, high fructose corn syrup is the Voldemort of sweeteners (more fat-making than other sweeteners), but if either “sugar” or “high fructose corn syrup” doesn’t appear on the ingredients list, that doesn’t mean that food item is healthy. Multiple different sweeteners (by uncommon names) can be added to a product, giving the impression that added sugar is pretty low…but it isn’t. It’s a divide (more added sugar, but less of each type)-and-conquer (your health and pocketbook) kind of scheme. So here is a listing of common sweeteners to watch for when examining those nutrition labels (they all mean “added sugar”):
| Agave nectar | Evaporated cane juice | Malt syrup |
| Brown sugar | Fructose | Maple syrup |
| Cane crystals | Fruit juice concentrates | Molasses |
| Cane sugar | Glucose | Raw sugar |
| Corn sweetener | High-fructose corn syrup | Sucrose |
| Corn syrup | Honey | Syrup |
| Crystalline fructose | Invert sugar | |
| Dextrose | Maltose |
Dried apple chips. No added sugars. No added nothin’.
Now look at the back of the package. These apples are a pretty clean snack. But look at the natural sugar content…18 grams a serving. Remember, the sugar is concentrated because the fruit is dried. But it is best to eat these sparingly, and with a nut butter for protein.
Glucose (aka blood sugar). Most carbohydrates we eat are broken down into this simple sugar, which then stimulates the pancreas to secrete insulin. Insulin moves glucose into cells for immediate use for cellular functions or, if glucose is in excess, stores it in the liver as glucagon.
Fructose (aka the Voldemort of sugar). We see food labels everywhere touting “no high fructose corn syrup.” This is important because fructose, found in produce but also shunned as an added sweetener, is not used by the body in the same way that glucose is. It is more fat-making so consuming it can lead to obesity and the health problems associated with it like diabetes, high blood pressure and cancer.
Sucrose (aka the sugary love child). Put glucose and fructose together, and we get the simple sugar commonly know as table sugar, made from sugar cane or sugar beets and also found naturally in produce.
Sources/links for this post:
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/carbohydrates/added-sugar-in-the-diet
