Sugar is now added to more foods and beverages than ever before, which may be a contributing to the rise in obesity and other health problems. Added sugar provides no nutritional value, but it is commonly added to boost flavour, provide texture and colour, as a preservative, as a bulking agent in baked goods and ice cream, to balance the acidity in foods containing tomatoes and vinegar and to fuel fermentation to help make bread rise and produce alcohol.
Sugar
Sugar occurs naturally in foods, such as milk and fruit, and is added to others, like regular soft drinks and baked goods. Sugar is a carbohydrate, and your body uses carbohydrates as it's main source of energy, turning them into glucose, blood sugar, and using what it needs for energy right away, storing the rest in your muscles and liver until needed. The difference between naturally occurring sugars and added sugars is their level on the glycemic index, which measures the effect a food has on your blood sugar. Naturally occurring sugars tend to be low on the glycemic index, having minimum effect on your blood sugar, where as added sugars are high on the glycemic index, causing your blood sugar to spike.
Daily Recommended Amount
Natural sugar is not as concerning because it is found in healthy foods, but added sugar adds nothing to your diet but calories. The U.S. Department of Agriculture considers added sugars discretionary calories,which have a recommended amount based your gender, age and physical activity level. As an example, in a 2,000-calorie diet, 267 of those calories are discretionary calories, for you to consume on foods and beverages with added sugar, saturated fats and alcohol. The American Heart Association recommends limiting your added sugars to half your discretionary calories, for most women that is 100 calories or 6 tsp. of sugar, and for men 150 calories or 9 tsp. of sugar.
Risks of Added Sugar
Food with lots of added sugar tend to be energy dense, meaning they a lot of calories in a small portion. This can cause weight gain, increasing your risk of heart disease. If you consume a lot of foods with added sugars you may lose out on vital vitamins and minerals, because you fill up on foods with little nutrients. Research suggests consuming an excess amount of sugar increases your triglyceride level, which increases your risk of heart disease. All sugars, both added and natural, contribute to tooth decay, and the more and longer you snack on foods with sugar, the greater your chance of developing cavities.
Finding Added Sugar
Food and beverage manufacturers are not required to list how much of the sugar in their product is added sugar, so it is important to know what to look for in the ingredient list. Added sugar can appear on nutrition labels as agave nectar, brown sugar, cane crystals or sugar, corn sweetener or syrup, crystalline fructose, dextrose, evaporated cane juice, fructose, fruit juice concentrates, glucose, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, invert sugar, lactose, maltose, malt syrup, molasses, raw sugar, sucrose, sugar, and syrup. Ingredients are listed by weight in descending order, so if an added sugar is near the top of the list you know the food probably contains a lot.
References
- Mayo Clinic: Added Sugar: Don't Get Sabotaged by Sweeteners
- American Heart Association: Sugars and Carbohydrates
- Medline Plus: Carbohydrates
- Harvard School of Public Health: Carbohydrates: Good Carbs Guide the Way
- My Pyramid: Discretionary Calories: What are "Discretionary Calories"?
- American Heart Association: Sugars 101
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