Sugar: Understanding the Facts

Introduction

Excessive sugar consumption can lead to weight gain and tooth decay. In the UK, the primary concern is with "free sugars," found in various foods and beverages.

What Are Free Sugars?

Free sugars encompass any sugars added to foods or drinks. This includes sugars added during manufacturing or preparation, such as those in biscuits, chocolate, and soft drinks. Additionally, natural sugars in honey, syrups, and unsweetened fruit juices count as free sugars.

Sugar naturally present in milk, fruit, and vegetables is exempt from the "free sugars" category. However, it contributes to the total sugar content listed on food labels.

Recommended Intake

The government advises that free sugars should not exceed 5% of daily calorie intake. This equates to:

Children under 4 should avoid sugar-sweetened foods and drinks.

Tips for Reducing Sugar Intake

To maintain a balanced diet, it's crucial to limit foods containing free sugars. Here are some strategies:

Drinks:

Food:

Understanding Nutrition Labels

Nutrition labels provide valuable information for managing sugar intake:

Impacts on Health

Excessive sugar consumption contributes to weight gain and increases the risk of various health issues, including heart disease and type 2 diabetes. A balanced diet should prioritize starchy foods, fruits, and vegetables while limiting high-sugar foods.

Dental Health

Sugar is a leading cause of tooth decay. To prevent dental issues, limit consumption of sugary foods and drinks, especially between meals. Dried fruits, although nutritious, should be consumed as part of meals to minimize tooth decay risk.

Reducing Sugar in Your Diet

Instead of spreading high-sugar toppings like jam, marmalade, syrup, chocolate spread, or honey on your toast, opt for lower-fat spreads, reduced-sugar jams, fruit spreads, sliced banana, or lower-fat cream cheese as alternatives. When selecting foods, check nutrition labels to help you choose options with less added sugar, or go for the reduced- or lower-sugar versions. Additionally, consider reducing the amount of sugar you use in your recipes, except for items like jam, meringues, and ice cream.

Choose Wisely

When shopping, choose tinned fruit in juice rather than syrup, and opt for unsweetened wholegrain breakfast cereals that are not frosted or coated with chocolate or honey. You can add sweetness to your cereal by incorporating fruit, contributing to your 5 A Day. Sliced bananas, dried fruit, and berries are all excellent choices. Explore various methods of cutting sugar out of your diet to improve your overall health.

Understanding Nutrition Labels

To reduce your intake of free sugars, it's crucial to understand nutrition labels and ingredients lists when shopping for food. Look for the "of which sugars" figure on nutrition labels, which is part of the carbohydrate information. This figure represents the total amount of sugars from all sources, including free sugars, sugars from milk, and those naturally present in fruit and vegetables.

Products with more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g are considered high in sugar, while those with 5g or less per 100g are classified as low in sugar. Medium-level sugar content falls between these thresholds.

Interpreting Ingredients Lists

When reading ingredients lists, be mindful of terms used to describe added sugars, such as cane sugar, honey, brown sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, corn syrup, fructose, sucrose, glucose, crystalline sucrose, nectars, maple syrup, agave syrup, dextrose, maltose, molasses, and treacle. Foods with sugar listed near the top of the ingredients list are likely high in free sugars.

Understanding Food Labels

Front-of-packaging labels provide valuable information on sugar content, often using color-coding to indicate high, medium, or low sugar levels. Red signifies high sugar content, amber indicates medium sugar content, and green suggests low sugar content. Some labels display sugar content as a percentage of the reference intake (RI). The reference intake for total sugars is 90g per day, which includes 30g of free sugars.

The Impact of Sugar on Health

Consuming excessive sugar can lead to weight gain, increasing the risk of health issues like heart disease, certain cancers, and type 2 diabetes. To maintain a healthy diet, prioritize calories from foods like starchy foods, fruits, and vegetables, and limit intake of foods high in free sugars.


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