A little sugar can be a good thing. It occurs naturally in the food we eat on an everyday basis, such as fruits and dairy products. It can also be added to meals for flavouring in healthy foods – like a teaspoon added to a bowl of porridge or fruit salad, or in a tomato-based sauce, or in some Asian dishes to balance flavours like chilli and lime. Research by the American Heart Association suggests that consuming around 10 percent of our total energy intake from sugar is considered acceptable as part of a healthy diet.
The trouble starts when we eat too much sugar, which is easy to do now that it is so pervasive in our food supply. Back in the 1930s, our great-grandparents had more control of the sugar in their diet and so the family’s sugar intake came mostly from sugar added to food at home rather than from manufactured foods. Now, according to the National Health and Medical Research Council, we’re adding less sugar to food ourselves but we are consuming around 73 percent of the sugar in our diet from processed foods.
The food industry uses sugars to not only add taste but also colour, bulk and thickness to food products, and even as a preservative. Check out the nutrition panels on food in the supermarket, and you’ll be surprised where some of this sugar has been added. Apart from obvious places like cakes, biscuits, soft drinks and ice cream, it’s also in breakfast cereal, cook-in sauces, yoghurt, soups and salad dressings.
So what’s wrong with too much sugar?
- It’s high in kilojoules. In unhealthy, high-sugar content foods such as chocolate or soft drinks, these kilojoules are often called ‘empty kilojoules’ because they aren’t accompanied by any other nutrients.
- It can contribute to weight problems. Four grams of sugar is equal to one level teaspoon of sugar which is also equal to 68 kilojoules. If you eat a lot of processed foods high in sugar these kilojoules can quickly add up.
- It is often combined with a lot of fat in foods. Together sugar and fat can add up to even more kilojoules that will contribute to weight gain, especially if you have an inactive lifestyle.
- It contributes to tooth decay. Bacteria in dental plaque use sugars that stick to the surface of your teeth to produce acids that eat at your tooth enamel.
- It distorts your sense of taste. Eating a lot of sweet, sugary foods trains taste buds to expect a big hit of sweet flavour – which may lead you to consume even more sugar-filled foods!
The healthy eater’s guide to sugar
- Read nutrition panels to check how much sugar is in a product. Aim to buy products with less than 15g sugar per 100g, although if the product contains fruit, up to 25g sugar per 100g is acceptable. For drinks, look for those with less than 7.5g sugar per 100mLs.
- When reading the nutrition panel and ingredients list, be aware that added sugars can also be present under other names such as sucrose, glucose, high fructose corn syrup, maltose, dextrose, raw sugar, cane sugar, malt extract and molasses
- If you need to add sugar to your food, try brown sugar – its stronger flavour means you can use less
- Try and lower the amount of foods you eat that have high amounts of added sugars, such as packaged desserts and sweetened snack foods and breakfast cereals. Look for products with the words ‘no added sugars’ on the label, which means they contain naturally-occurring sugars only.
- If you are craving a hit of sugar, reach for a piece of fresh fruit rather than a chocolate bar. Try limiting your intake of nutritionally-empty snack foods to once a week.
- Avoid beverages with lots of added sugar, such as soft drinks and undiluted juice. For a refreshing drink, try water with a splash of juice or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice instead.
Further information
Heart Foundation. Carbohydrates and Sugars. http://www.heartfoundation.org.au/sites/HealthyEating/MakingSenseofFoodLabels/Pages/Sugar.aspx
Harvard School of Public Health. Six Ideas for Low-Sugar Drinks. http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/healthy-drinks/low-sugar-drink-ideas/index.html
Sources
Better Health Channel. Sugar. [online] Melbourne, VIC: State Government of Victoria. c1999-2010 [updated Mar 2009, accessed 6 Aug 2010] Available from: http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Sugar
National Health and Medical Research Council. Dietary Guidelines for all Australians. [online]. Canberra: ACT: Commonwealth of Australian. 2003 [accessed 4 Aug 2010] Available from: http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/publications/synopses/dietsyn.htm
SA Health. Reading food labels. [online] Adelaide, SA: Government of South Australia. c2010. [accessed 6 Aug 2010] Available from: http://www.health.sa.gov.au/pehs/srer-award/srer-labelreading-sahs-100419.pdf
Johnson RK Appel LJ Brands M et al. Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health: a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. [online] Circulation. 2009; 120:1011-1020. Available from: http://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/120/11/1011
Top of page
