Sugar intake in the United States has increased exponentially since the American Revolution. Obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver disease, and metabolic syndrome are all linked to excess consumption of added sugar. What’s scary for the average consumer is that sugar is disguised under 262 different names, 70% of packaged foods contain added sugar, and 80% of snacks marketed for kids contain added sugar.
The Many Disguises of Sugar
Food technology is evolving every day, meaning new kinds of sugar constantly show up on ingredient lists. Food and beverage companies get creative with descriptions, trying to make ingredients sound healthy or disguising them with complicated names so they don't sound like a sugar. To help health-conscious consumers, the Hypoglycemia Support Foundation maintains an online repository for the growing list of names of sugar.
Just a few of the 262 different names include: Agave Nectar, Apple Juice Concentrate, Brown Rice Syrup, Cane Crystals, Coconut Palm Nectar, Corn Dextrin, Dextrose, Ethyl Maltol, Fructose, Glucose, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Invert Syrup, Maltodextrin, Maple Syrup, Molasses Powder, Oat Syrup Solids, Orange Juice Concentrate, Organic Date Nectar, Organic Evaporated Coconut Palm Nectar, Pure Cane Sugar, Raisin Nectar, Saccharose, Sucrose, Tapioca Dextrin, Turbinado, Wheat Glucose Syrup, & Wildflower Honey.
Sweetening of the Diet
74% of products in the US food supply contain caloric or low-calorie sweeteners, or both. Of all packaged foods and beverages purchased by a nationally representative sample of US households in 2013, 68% contain caloric sweeteners and 2% contain low-calorie sweeteners.
This video gives a good overview of how pervasive sugar has become in our food system and how it is harming our health. (Highly recommend, published four years ago in Australia, 43 minutes)
Unfortunately, packaging claims are misleading and confusing. "No Added Sugar" claims on packages typically mean the company swapped caloric sweeteners for non-caloric sweeteners. Non-caloric sweeteners and artificial sweeteners have an assortment of negative consequences and should not be considered a healthy alternative to sugar. It is up to consumers to read the ingredient list and understand all of the hundreds of terms for sugar and non-caloric sugar substitutes.
New Nutrition Label
The FDA required all food and beverage products to update their nutrition label to include the Added Sugar line by the year 2020.
The FDA states:
Added sugars have been added to the label because consuming too much added sugars can make it hard to meet nutrient needs while staying within calorie limits. Added sugars include sugars that are added during the processing of foods (such as sucrose or dextrose), foods packaged as sweeteners (such as table sugar), sugars from syrups and honey, and sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices.
With the new food labels, consumers can determine how much of the sugar in a product is naturally occurring and how much sugar is added. You'll have to check the ingredients to see which sugars are added.
Remember, ingredient lists are required to be listed in order of the amount contained in a product. So if a sugar of any kind is listed as the first ingredient, then that means that it's the most abundant ingredient in the product.
Also, if there are low-calorie/artificial sweeteners in the product, it will not show up on the label as an added sugar. Fruit juices will also not register as an added sugar although it is metabolized just as an added sugar and should be classified as such (and will likely be in the future).
Another tricky "hack" of manufacturers - - - they'll include several different kinds of sugars in a product so that "sugar' won't be the first ingredient! This is especially prevalent in products marketed for kids! Why do they do this? They know health-conscious parents would run fast from a product that contains mostly sugar, so they try to hide that fact.
For example, these Larabars Kids claim to be "HEALTHY SNACKING" with enticing marketing phrases but one little bar contains two types of sugars (honey & cane sugar) and 2/3 the amount of added sugar a 4-year-old should have in a day!
If you are looking for a "healthier" packaged dessert for kids, this would be a good option. But don't be fooled into thinking this is a healthy snack.
IMUM DAILY ADDED SUGAR RECOMMENDATIONS
Maximum Daily Added Sugar Recommendations
The 2020 USDA Dietary Guidelines state that children younger than 2 years should not be fed food or beverages with added sugars and that all other Americans should keep their intake of added sugars to less than 10% of their total daily calories. The World Health Organization suggests that number should be 5%, which is 24 to 36 grams (6 to 9 tsp) per day for the average adult and 14 to 24 grams (3 to 6 tsp) per day for the average child/teen.
The authors of the book, Sugarproof, have given us detailed recommendations for daily intake of added sugar by age and sex. Their guidelines are similar to the World Health Organization recommendations. Check the added sugar line on your labels and do the math for each member of your family. Many families are shocked to discover the total amount of sugar they consume each day.
How to Protect Your Family from the Dangers of Too Much Sugar?
Read this Book!
The book Sugarproof was an eye-opener and game-changer for our family! I have been an advocate of the Sugarproof message since I read the book in October 2020. I am certain that parents who read this book will be glad they did!
Because of my advocacy, I was interviewed for a magazine article published to promote the book. Here were my questions & responses...
How revelatory was the information in Sugarproof for you and your family? I have been passionate about nutrition and clean living for the last fifteen years. I was confident in my ability to make the right nutrition choices for my family. However, the book Sugarproof opened my eyes to the true danger of sugar. Sugar isn’t just a calorie to limit or burn off with exercise. Sugar is a substance that affects the mind, body, and spirit.
The lessons I learned about juice, fructose, and artificial/low-calorie sweeteners were the most valuable. I immediately stopped serving juice, products sweetened with juice, and drinks and foods sweetened with low calorie sweeteners such as monk fruit and erythritol. My four-year-old daughter now drinks water almost exclusively.
Did your family do a Sugar Challenge? If so, which one? And how did it go? Yes, our family participated in the January 2021 Sugarproof challenge. The challenge was an important checkpoint for our family. Some highlights: 1) My husband switched from drinking sugary drinks with dinner to drinking plain water. We are now a family that drinks water with dinner! 2) My husband also switched his nightly protein shake from one with a laundry list of ingredients, including artificial sweetener, to a cleaner powder and natural sweeteners like bananas. He usually shares his shake with our daughter, so this is a double win. 3) We no longer purchase multivitamins for our four-year-old. We instead make our own gummies with unsweetened vitamin powder. 4) We are committed to no added sugars or sweeteners at breakfast during the school week. We are committed to adhering to the added sugar guidelines presented in the book. 5) A parent sent donuts to preschool during the challenge week so we weren’t 100% compliant. However, that act strengthened my advocacy stance. We must work with our schools, teachers, and other parents to develop awareness and policies regarding sugar and junk food at school.
Did you notice a change in your kids’ behavior or health from reducing their sugar intake? We are certainly able to detect a behavior change when our daughter has had too much sugar! Her demeanor changes almost immediately. She even acknowledged her rude behavior at a recent birthday party. We have agreed that she will only have “two things” at parties: cake and ice cream or cake and juice, but not all three. If there’s candy in the goody bag, we’ll exchange it for a trinket of her choice on our way home.
Would you recommend this to other families? If I had a magic wand Sugarproof would be required reading for all parents, grandparents, educators, and medical professionals.
Let's Build a Healthier Community!
Nothing makes me happier than handing this book to local teachers and parents. If you are a Preschool or K-12 Teacher and a resident of Marion County, Mississippi and would like your own, free copy of Sugarproof, please contact me on my Facebook page (Kathryn Haney Lowery or Longfield Living). I will gladly deliver this book to your hands. It takes a village & knowledge is power! In order to build a Healthier Mississippi, we must teach our children to be Sugarproof!
Resources
The authors of Sugarproof have linked all the scientific studies discussed in the book (and most given in this post) https://www.sugarproofkids.com/science/
The USDA compiles a yearly estimate of the amount of sugar in the US food supply and the amount consumed by the US population. I used Table 25–U.S. monthly estimates of sugar supply and use, by fiscal year, since fiscal year 2003 updated 10/19/2022 to calculate the amount of sugar consumed per year.
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