FOOD OF THE WEEK - SUGAR part 2.

 

Welcome to part 2 of our F4P blog on SUGAR. 

Hopefully this will bring further insight to help you make healthy choices about your intake.

Do we need sugar? 

Sugar is a type of carbohydrate that provides energy for the body in the form of glucose. In particular the brain needs glucose to function, as do muscles during exercise. Without adding sugar to our diet, the carbohydrate (starchy foods) we eat are broken down to glucose. So we generally we really don’t need to eat sugary foods for energy.

Which sugars should we limit?

Some sugars are found naturally in foods such as fruit, vegetables and milk, while others are added during processing. These added sugars are the ones which need our careful attention. Foods such as chocolates, sweets, biscuits and cakes, which can contain a lot of added sugars often only provide calories without significant amounts of micronutrients – you will often hear these called ‘empty calories.’

Frequent consumption of sugar, sugary foods and drinks can increase the risk of tooth decay. Therefore, it is important that we monitor our intake of sugars and cut down to sensible limits

What is sensible limit?

Added sugars shouldn't make up more than 5% of the energy (calorie intake) you get from food and drink each day. This is about 30g of sugar a day for those aged 11 and over.

Fruit juice and honey also count as added sugars, as they're sometimes added to foods to make them sweeter.  Packaged shop bought Fruit juice is still a healthy choice (one 150ml serving counts towards your 5 a day). However, the sugars can damage your teeth, so it's best to drink it with a meal and no more than one serving a day.

The truth about smoothies

If you are a fan of juicing, please note the difference in eating a fruit and ‘drinking that fruit.’ When eaten in its natural form, the sugar in the fruit is less likely to cause tooth decay because it is contained within the food and the sugars are associated with fibre which slowly releases the sugar. When juicing, imagine how many fruit you may use to make up a glass – it can sometimes be well above what you would eat. For example – it can up to 9 oranges to make up a glass of juice; and because the sugars are released during they can do more harm.

For children it is best to avoid juices and encourage fresh fruit and water. Also, introducing vegetables and less fruit; as part of your juicing regime, may help reduce sugar load. Experiment with different vegetables such as cucumber, kale, chard or spinach.  

The bottom line - sugars are released during the juicing process. Sugars in whole pieces of fruit are less likely to cause tooth decay because they are contained within the food. Intact sugars eaten as part of the fruit are less likely to cause tooth decay. You shouldn't cut down on fruit as it's an important part of a healthy, balanced diet.

Juicing and smoothies

Juicing, which is different to blending or pulping, extracts the water and nutrients from a fruit or vegetable while discarding the tough fibre which aids the digestive system. We need the fibre to slow down the release of the sugars in fruit.

A report by Prof Barry Popkin, from the Nutrition dept. of North Carolina University in 2007; advised that drinking smoothies and blended fruit juices can have the unintended consequence of massively increasing the amount of sugar a person consumes.

He said people were deceiving themselves about their sugar intake by swapping fizzy drinks for juices and smoothies. 

See below for an example:

• ·       One popular branded smoothie — “pomegranates, blueberries and acai superfood”— contained 34.3g of sugar in a 250ml bottle (7 teaspoons  sugar)
• ·       500ml bottle of squeezed orange juice sold at a popular food outlet (contained 51g of sugar - over 10 spoons sugar)
• ·       This compares with 39g of sugar in a 330ml can of Coke.(nearly 8 teaspoons of sugar)

Before I sign off for today – please do use this clever app from the Government’s public health platform – Change for Life. 

https://www.nhs.uk/change4life-beta/campaigns/sugar-smart/home

For those with children, get them involved, as it will help them monitor sugar intake.