SWEET SWAPS TO SAVE YOUR WAISTLINE
Our love of sugary foods is rotting our teeth and driving a host of health problems such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. JANE SYMONS looks at the alternatives
SUGAR comes in many forms and is surrounded by myths and misinformation. Excess sugar doesn’t, for instance, cause diabetes but it does increase the odds of being overweight or obese, which raises the likelihood of developing the condition.
It’s estimated that 4.5 million people in the UK have diabetes and the number diagnosed has more than doubled in the past decade. Nine out of 10 people with diabetes have Type 2, which is linked to obesity and lack of exercise.
Another common misconception is that natural sugars are somehow healthier but honey and maple syrup are just as bad for waistlines and teeth as refined white sugar and while corn syrup and coconut sugar may originate from healthy fruits and vegetables, they retain none or next to none of the nutritional benefits of whole corn or coconuts.
That’s why health watchdog the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) is advising we halve our intake of what it calls “free sugars”. It has reduced the recommended maximum intake from 10 per cent of our daily calorie intake to five per cent. That’s the equivalent of 30 grams – or six teaspoons – of sugar for anyone over the age of 11, which is less than the amount of sugar in one can of cola and half the average adult intake.
The SACN definition of free sugar includes all the obvious forms of granulated and refined sugar as well as the sugars naturally present in honey, maple syrup and juices.
It also includes a number of monosaccharides and disaccharides, which are often added to processed foods and drinks but are not always easily identified as sugars. These include fructose, galactose, maltose, lactose, sucrose and glucose.
Health campaigners Action on Sugar recently highlighted the hefty sugar content of many high-street lunchtime meal deals, with some including a sugary drink and chocolate bar or sweets containing 30 teaspoons of sugar.
However you don’t have to down sweetened sodas and confectionery to exceed the new sugar recommendations.
Public health nutritionist Dr Emma Derbyshire says: “Sugar is added to so many foods, some of which you would not think of as ‘sweet’, that it is all too easy to be over the limit by lunchtime.
“Having a breakfast of fruitflavoured yogurt and a coffee with a spoon of sugar, a ‘healthy-eating’ blueberry muffin at midday and Pot Noodle lunch would provide a hefty 52.3 grams of sugar — 174 per cent of the upper limit.”
Similarly, if you ate two slices of toast with marmalade, a midmorning chocolate digestive and an Italian pasta salad for lunch, you would clock up 37.9 grams of sugar – 26 per cent over the limit.
A traditional breakfast of eggs, beans and two rashers of bacon, a cereal-based snack bar and lunch
of tomato soup and toast would contain 37.3 grams of sugar, which is 24 per cent more than the recommended maximum.
Dr Derbyshire advises: “One of the simplest ways to reduce your intake is to switch to sugar-free or lowsugar sweeteners at home and to look for products made using these safe and effective sugar substitutes when you’re shopping.”
In a report commissioned by Hermesetas, makers of a range of sugar substitutes, Dr Derbyshire and other nutritionists explore the science behind these different sweeteners and bust some of the myths surrounding them.
“Broadly speaking, there are two types of sweeteners,” she explains. “Low-calorie sweeteners such as saccharine and aspartame, which are used in such tiny amounts they are effectively sugar-free, and bulk sweeteners, such as sorbitol and xylitol, which are used in chocolate and sweets, where sugar would also provide structure or texture.
“On average, bulk sweeteners provide 2.4 calories per gram compared with 4 calories per gram in sugar.”
She says: “Contrary to some scare stories, sweeteners are thoroughly researched and an acceptable daily intake has been set for each one, which is one hundredth of the amount which has been shown to be safe.”
Saccharine, the oldest sugar substitute, was discovered by accident in 1879 when a scientist spilled a chemical on his hands, forgot to wash them before eating and then noticed his bread was unusually sweet.
It has been widely used since the First World War, when sugar was scarce, and was approved for use in the EU 40 years ago. Over the years it has been claimed that saccharine could increase the risk of cancer and blood sugar problems and harm friendly gut bacteria. However a series of detailed risk assessments by both the European Food Safety Authority and the US Food and Drug Administration found no evidence for the claims.
Similarly, in 2013, the European Food Safety Authority concluded that: “Aspartame was not of safety concern.”
Dr Derbyshire says: “Earlier this year, there were yet more claims of potential problems but these covered ground which has already been thoroughly investigated by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic. Sweeteners have been in use for many years, have been subjected to more scientific scrutiny than almost any other food and have been found safe by every important regulator. “The biggest health threat we face is obesity, which increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and cancer – and a mountain of evidence shows that artificial sweeteners are a simple and effective way to tackle weight control.” A review of 16 studies, published in 2006, found that swapping sugar for low-calorie sweeteners cut average daily calorie intakes by 10 per cent and led to “statistically significant” weight loss of 0.2kg per week. This would deliver a weight loss of three per cent over 12 weeks, equating to 10kg a year for someone weighing 75kg. A study published in 2014 concluded that swapping sugar for lowcalorie sweeteners “may be a useful dietary tool to improve compliance with weight loss or weight maintenance plans”. Dr Derbyshire says: “For many, it won’t be easy to get our intakes down to six teaspoons a day but a useful first step is to switch to a low-calorie sweetener.”