Canadians eat an average of 110 grams of sugar per day. That is the equivalent of 26 teaspoons or a half cup of sugar. Every day.
This is astonishing on a couple of levels. First of all, that’s over 20% of our daily calories. Just in sugar. But that’s just the beginning. WHO guidelines suggest that in order to avoid all kinds of chronic diseases, sugar intake should be limited to just 25g per day. That’s just six teaspoons. (How much is in a single can of Coke, you ask? 39 grams!)
Sugar sucks for health. In a 60 Minutes story from 2013, leading researchers blamed it for the increase in heart disease and obesity as well as contributing to cancers of the breast and colon.
In the same show, we also got a look at the effect of sugar on the brain. In imaging studies that look at the activity of the brain, sugar given to study subjects releases dopamine and lights the reward centres of the brain just like cocaine. And as with addictive drugs, we can also build a tolerance to sugar, so more sugar is needed to get the same good feeling.
What to Do?
Armed with this knowledge patients can choose to avoid sugars – removing soda pop and iced tea, avoiding ice cream and donuts and taking a pass on the chocolate bar aisle. But if change isn’t hard enough on its own, many processed foods will have lots of “hidden” added sugars both in the form of sucrose and high fructose corn syrup. How are you supposed to cut sugars out when you’re being fooled?
The easiest way is to simply avoid things in packages. If you cook at home from raw ingredients, you’re well on your way.
However, as you work toward the goal of preparing more of your own food, let’s take a close look at the way food manufacturers are fooling you about sugar (And make no mistake–it’s straight up trickery.)
Trick #1: Sugar in Disguise
Sugar now masquerades in many different ways. Here’s a list of alternative names for sugar from Hungry for Change:
Regardless of how they sound, the following are all sugar:
Cane juice, Dehydrated cane juice, Cane juice solids, Cane juice crystals, Dextrin, Maltodextrin, Dextran, Barley malt, Beet sugar, Corn syrup, Corn syrup solids, Caramel, Buttered syrup, Carob syrup, Brown sugar, Date sugar, Malt syrup, Diatase, Diatastic malt, Fruit juice, Fruit juice concentrate, Dehydrated fruit juice, Fruit juice crystals, Golden syrup, Turbinado, Sorghum syrup, Refiner’s syrup, Ethyl maltol, Maple syrup, Yellow sugar
Trick #2: Sugar Redistribution
When food manufacturers can get sugar in so many forms, they get access to a new trick. Again, here’s Hungry for Change:
So for example, if a manufacturer wants to sweeten up a certain brand of crackers, it can either do this using 15 grams of “sugar” or, 5 grams of “malt syrup,” 5 grams of “invert sugar” and 5 grams of “glucose”. Some manufacturers seem to be choosing this divide and masquerade method, placing these ingredients lower down on their products’ lists, making us believe that the amount of sugar in the product is smaller than it is. Bingo!
Changing Labels
This year the FDA launched the addition of “added sugar” to the nutritional labels of packaged and processed foods. It’s a start for our friends south of the border.
Canada has yet to follow suit. Plans are in the works, but implementation could still be years off. Let your local MP know that this information is important and that it’s your right to have it.