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sugar

Where’s The Sugar Hiding?

March 8, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

Sugar is sweet but it’s also sneaky, masquerading under many different names. Read one of those jam labels that says, “All Fruit” or “Spreadable Fruit” on the front.  Then turn the jar over and read ingredients. Most likely you’ll find juice concentrates (often as the first ingredient) and maltodextrin — both forms of sugar.

How Good Is Your Sugar Vocabulary?

According to Environmental Nutrition foods with all of the following names are sugars (these are common sources, there are other sugars that aren’t listed here):

  • Dextrose
  • Corn syrup
  • High fructose corn syrup
  • Maltodextrin
  • Fruit juice concentrates
  • Malt syrup
  • Molasses
  • Invert sugar
  • Honey
  • Sorghum
  • Agave
  • Maple syrup
  • Cane sugar

Added Vs. Natural Sugars

The sugars that you eat can occur naturally or be added. Natural sugars are found naturally in the food — like fructose in fruit and lactose in milk.  Added sugars are the many kinds of sugar and syrup – including sweeteners like honey, agave, and maple syrup, for example — that are added into food at the table or during the food’s preparation or processing.

Common Sources Of Added Sugars

Some sources are obvious – others require a bit of checking of the ingredients label.  Here are some examples of foods that usually have added sugar:

  • Regular soft drinks
  • Sugar; syrups (do you put maple syrup on your pancakes?); and candy
  • Cakes; cookies; pies; donuts; pastries; breakfast and snack bars
  • Fruit drinks like fruitades and fruit punch; sweetened teas, sports drinks, and flavored water
  • Dairy desserts and milk products like ice cream; sweetened yogurt; pudding; and flavored milk
  • Many cereals; toast with jelly/jam; and many breads — both home made “quick breads” and store-bought sliced breads
  • Sweeteners added to coffee, tea, cereal; canned fruit

Not More Than Half Of Your Discretionary Calorie Allowance

What’s daily discretionary calorie allowance?  It’s the number of calories you have left to use after you meet your nutrient needs — without exceeding your energy needs.

In other words, they are the calories that you can use up eating different types of foods after you’ve eaten enough to meet your body’s nutrition needs — but not so many that they would contribute to weight gain.

Discretionary calories can come from any source of calories (protein, fat, carbohydrates, alcohol).  The American Heart Association recommends that no more than half of your daily discretionary calories come from added sugars.

For most American women that’s no more than 100 calories a day, or about 6 teaspoons of sugar.  For men, that’s no more than 150 calories a day, or about 9 teaspoons of sugar.  (FYI there are about 10 teaspoons of sugar in a 12 ounce can of regular soda.)

 

Filed Under: Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts, Manage Your Weight, Shopping, Cooking, Baking Tagged With: added sugar, discretionary calories, food facts, healthy eating, names for sugar, natural sugar, sugar

What Do Total Carbohydrate And Added Sugar On The Nutrition Label Mean?

March 1, 2012 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN 4 Comments

Trying to figure out the carbohydrates on nutrition facts labels can be downright confusing.  There’s a number for total carbohydrates but then there are subheadings for dietary fiber, sugars, and sometimes insoluble fiber, sugar alcohols, and other carbohydrates.

What Does Everything Mean?

  • Total Carbohydrate, shown in grams, is first. It gives you the total number of usable carbs per serving. This number includes starches, complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, added sugars, and non-digestible additives.
  • The subheadings under Total Carbohydrate are Dietary Fiber, sometimes broken down into Soluble and Insoluble Fiber; Sugars; and sometimes categories for Sugar Alcohols and/or Other Sugars. The sum of these numbers will not always equal the total carbs because some starches — types of carbs often used as binders or thickeners — aren’t required to be listed on food labels.
  • Dietary Fiber, shown in grams, gives you the amount of fiber per serving. Dietary fiber is indigestible, usually passes through your intestinal tract without being absorbed, doesn’t raise your blood sugar levels, and slows down the impact of the other carbs in a meal. Subtracting the non-impact carbs – the ones that don’t affect blood sugar (fiber and sugar alcohols) from the total carbs gives you the number of net (also called usable or impact) carbs – the ones that do affect your blood sugar.
  • Sugars gives you the total amount of carbohydrate, in grams, from naturally occurring sugars like lactose (milk sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar) PLUS any added sugars like high fructose corn syrup, brown and white sugar, cane juice, etc. Added sugars are the sugars and syrups added to foods during processing or preparation.  They add calories but little or no nutrients.
  • You can determine if there are a lot of added sugars by checking the product’s ingredients label. Ingredients are listed in order of quantity so if added sugars (white/brown sugar, corn syrup, etc.) are listed in the top three or four ingredients you can guess that the bulk of the sugars are added, not naturally occurring.
  • Some products, although not all, separately list Sugar Alcohols. You might see mannitol, sorbitol, xylitol, erythritol, and others on the ingredients label. If the package says the product is “sugar-free” or has “no sugar added” it must list the sugar alcohols in the ingredients. If more than one type of sugar alcohol is listed, there must be a line for sugar alcohol grams on the nutrition label.
  • Other Carbohydrates shows the number of digestible complex carbohydrates not considered a sugar (natural or added) and includes additives like stabilizers and starchy thickening agents.

Now, isn’t that crystal clear?


Filed Under: Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts, Shopping, Cooking, Baking Tagged With: added sugar, carbohydrates, food facts, healthy eating, net carbs, nutrition label, sugar, total sugars

Do You Drink Soda?

October 13, 2011 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

If you do drink soda, you might want to take a good look at this graphic.

If you don’t drink soda you might want to take a good look at this graphic, too.  Then, you can congratulate yourself on the good habit of not drinking soda and perhaps suggest to soda drinking friends and family that they have a look.

Harmful Soda
Via: Term Life Insurance

Filed Under: Food for Fun and Thought, Snacking, Noshing, Tasting, Takeout, Prepared Food, Junk Food, Travel, On Vacation, In the Car Tagged With: food facts, food for fun and thought, soda, sugar, sugary drinks

Is There A Daily Limit For Added Sugar?

October 7, 2011 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

The American Heart Association recommends that not more than half of your daily discretionary calorie allowance come from added sugars.

What’s Daily Discretionary Calorie Allowance?

Daily discretionary calorie allowance means the number of calories you have left to use after you meet your nutrient needs without exceeding your energy needs.

In other words, they are the calories that you can use up eating various foods after you’ve eaten enough to meet your body’s nutrition needs — but not so many that they would contribute to weight gain.

Not More Than Half

Discretionary calories can come from any source of calories (protein, fat, carbohydrates, alcohol).  The American Heart Association recommends that no more than half of your daily discretionary calories come from added sugars.

For most American women that’s no more than 100 calories a day, or about about 6 teaspoons of sugar.   For men, that’s no more than 150 calories a day, or about 9 teaspoons of sugar.

Filed Under: Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts, Shopping, Cooking, Baking Tagged With: added sugar, calorie tips, discretionary calories, food facts, sugar

Have You Seen The Term “Added Sugar”? What Does It Mean?

October 6, 2011 By Penny Klatell, PhD, RN Leave a Comment

The sugars that you eat can occur naturally or be added. Natural sugars are found naturally in the food — like fructose in fruit and lactose in milk.  Added sugars are the many kinds of sugar and syrup – including sweeteners like honey, agave, and maple syrup, for example — that are added into food at the table or during the food’s preparation or processing.

Common Sources Of Added Sugars

Some sources are obvious – others require a bit of checking of the ingredients label.  The same food item from different companies may have varying amounts of added sugar.  Here are some examples of foods that usually have added sugar:

  •  Regular soft drinks
  • Sugar; syrups (do you put maple syrup on your pancakes?); and candy
  • Cakes; cookies; pies; donuts; pastries; breakfast and snack bars
  • Fruit drinks like fruitades and fruit punch; sweetened teas, sports drinks, and flavored water
  • Dairy desserts and milk products like ice cream; sweetened yogurt; pudding; and flavored milk
  • Many cereals; toast with jelly/jam; and many breads — both home made “quick breads” and store-bought sliced breads
  • Sweeteners added to coffee, tea, cereal; canned fruit

Filed Under: Calorie Tips, Healthy Eating, Food Facts, Shopping, Cooking, Baking Tagged With: added sugar, calorie tips, food facts, fructose, lactose, natural sugar, sugar

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