Tackling the dangers of sugar
DR GILDA PENEHAFO SHINDUME
Often, in my practice I advise my patients to refrain from sugar. And, most times I realise that they don’t actually understand what I truly mean by that. This is my attempt at elaborating further just what I mean by sugar being unhealthy.
To most patients, sugar is only the white and brown granules we buy from Hulletts/Makalani and all these other local brands we find in the supermarkets in Namibia.
No, sugar is actually broader than just those granules. Most processed and packaged foods and drinks out there contain sugar in one or more forms. The naming of sugar lately has been advanced so much to confuse consumers. Consumer education is therefore crucial to understanding when foods are high in sugars or not.
Firstly, sugar has about 61 different names. These names are classified as either basic or simple sugars (such as monosaccharides and disaccharides), solid or granulated sugars and liquid or syrup sugars. I have selected a few of these names under each category for emphasis only and for the purposes of shortening this article.
Commonly found basic simple sugars are:
Dextrose
Fructose
Galactose
Maltose
Sucrose.
Commonly found solid or granulated sugars are:
Brown Sugar
White Sugar
Beet Sugar
Cane juice crystals
Coconut sugar
Icing sugar
Date Sugar
Castor Sugar
Dextrin.
Commonly found liquid or syrup sugars/alternatives are:
Agave nectar syrup
Barley Malt
Honey
Blackstrap molasses
Brown rice syrup
Fruit juice
Evaporated cane juice
Caramel
Maple syrup
Golden syrup.
Secondly, we need to learn to read labels. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that all packaged food and beverage nutrition labels display the nutrient content per serving. What does that mean to us really? It means that the serving size on the label is based on the amount of food that people typically eat at one time and is not a recommendation of how much to eat. ... If you eat a whole package of food that contains two servings, you will get twice as many calories, nutrients, sugar, and fat as are in one serving.
Lastly, did you know that the ingredients are listed in descending order by weight? That means, ingredients are listed by quantity, from high to low. The closer to the top of the list a form of sugar is, the more the products contain sugar. Look out for other types of sugars; fruit pulp, agave, honey or the 61 other names for sugar food labels use. On the ingredients list; go down to where sugar is listed, if it lists 30 g of sugar, this means that the product contains 30% sugar.
Examples of unexpected foods high in sugar:
Most cereal breakfast foods.
Most beverages are sugar-sweetened beverages.
Your so-called health bars, muesli bars, dried fruit.
Even your low-fat yoghurt.
And, your everyday sauces and spices.
Quick facts – The sugar content of the sugar-sweetened beverages:
Average amount of sugar in a single 330 ml carbonated beverage has 8 teaspoons of sugar (even non-alcoholic beverages have high sugar content!).
Average amount of sugar in a single 330 ml of fruit juice has 9 teaspoons of sugar.
The WHO guidelines suggest a total limit of 6-8 teaspoons of sugar per day.
Terms like “gluten free” and 100% natural serve to distract us into thinking that we are eating healthy, but they can actually be among the highest fructose snacks around.
Why is sugar dangerous to our health?
Aside from sugar being converted directly to fat in our modern-day bodies, sugar can also inhibit our immune systems, upset the mineral balance in our bodies, accelerate the ageing process, mess with our hormones and increase anxiety, among other things.
Sugar addiction is very real and can create havoc with your body. If you’re prone to energy slumps in the afternoon, carry a bit of excess weight around the middle, bloat after eating, look for something sweet after meals or are unable to just eat one piece of cake and then walk-away, you could probably benefit from cutting down on the sugar.
But you do it gently. It is about loving yourself enough to make an investment in feeling better and being gentle and kind to yourself in the process. The idea of the “whole-food” diet approach referred to in previous articles is to eat whole-food ingredients as much as possible. Replace sugar with unprocessed fats and quality proteins. And the golden rule for sugar is at least 6-8 teaspoons of sugar per day!
* Dr Gilda Penehafo Shindume is the founder of Nature’s Way. The views expressed in this piece are her own.
Often, in my practice I advise my patients to refrain from sugar. And, most times I realise that they don’t actually understand what I truly mean by that. This is my attempt at elaborating further just what I mean by sugar being unhealthy.
To most patients, sugar is only the white and brown granules we buy from Hulletts/Makalani and all these other local brands we find in the supermarkets in Namibia.
No, sugar is actually broader than just those granules. Most processed and packaged foods and drinks out there contain sugar in one or more forms. The naming of sugar lately has been advanced so much to confuse consumers. Consumer education is therefore crucial to understanding when foods are high in sugars or not.
Firstly, sugar has about 61 different names. These names are classified as either basic or simple sugars (such as monosaccharides and disaccharides), solid or granulated sugars and liquid or syrup sugars. I have selected a few of these names under each category for emphasis only and for the purposes of shortening this article.
Commonly found basic simple sugars are:
Dextrose
Fructose
Galactose
Maltose
Sucrose.
Commonly found solid or granulated sugars are:
Brown Sugar
White Sugar
Beet Sugar
Cane juice crystals
Coconut sugar
Icing sugar
Date Sugar
Castor Sugar
Dextrin.
Commonly found liquid or syrup sugars/alternatives are:
Agave nectar syrup
Barley Malt
Honey
Blackstrap molasses
Brown rice syrup
Fruit juice
Evaporated cane juice
Caramel
Maple syrup
Golden syrup.
Secondly, we need to learn to read labels. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires that all packaged food and beverage nutrition labels display the nutrient content per serving. What does that mean to us really? It means that the serving size on the label is based on the amount of food that people typically eat at one time and is not a recommendation of how much to eat. ... If you eat a whole package of food that contains two servings, you will get twice as many calories, nutrients, sugar, and fat as are in one serving.
Lastly, did you know that the ingredients are listed in descending order by weight? That means, ingredients are listed by quantity, from high to low. The closer to the top of the list a form of sugar is, the more the products contain sugar. Look out for other types of sugars; fruit pulp, agave, honey or the 61 other names for sugar food labels use. On the ingredients list; go down to where sugar is listed, if it lists 30 g of sugar, this means that the product contains 30% sugar.
Examples of unexpected foods high in sugar:
Most cereal breakfast foods.
Most beverages are sugar-sweetened beverages.
Your so-called health bars, muesli bars, dried fruit.
Even your low-fat yoghurt.
And, your everyday sauces and spices.
Quick facts – The sugar content of the sugar-sweetened beverages:
Average amount of sugar in a single 330 ml carbonated beverage has 8 teaspoons of sugar (even non-alcoholic beverages have high sugar content!).
Average amount of sugar in a single 330 ml of fruit juice has 9 teaspoons of sugar.
The WHO guidelines suggest a total limit of 6-8 teaspoons of sugar per day.
Terms like “gluten free” and 100% natural serve to distract us into thinking that we are eating healthy, but they can actually be among the highest fructose snacks around.
Why is sugar dangerous to our health?
Aside from sugar being converted directly to fat in our modern-day bodies, sugar can also inhibit our immune systems, upset the mineral balance in our bodies, accelerate the ageing process, mess with our hormones and increase anxiety, among other things.
Sugar addiction is very real and can create havoc with your body. If you’re prone to energy slumps in the afternoon, carry a bit of excess weight around the middle, bloat after eating, look for something sweet after meals or are unable to just eat one piece of cake and then walk-away, you could probably benefit from cutting down on the sugar.
But you do it gently. It is about loving yourself enough to make an investment in feeling better and being gentle and kind to yourself in the process. The idea of the “whole-food” diet approach referred to in previous articles is to eat whole-food ingredients as much as possible. Replace sugar with unprocessed fats and quality proteins. And the golden rule for sugar is at least 6-8 teaspoons of sugar per day!
* Dr Gilda Penehafo Shindume is the founder of Nature’s Way. The views expressed in this piece are her own.
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