How much sugar are you REALLY eating?
In March 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) released their new guidelines recommending that adults and children should reduce their consumption of free sugars to what corresponds to 6 teaspoons of sugar a day.
Easy you say! I don’t even really eat sugar!
Added sugars appear in sauces, breads, beverages, biscuits, cereals and most packaged foods. So when we’re talking sugar consumption we’re not even talking about the sugar you add to your tea or coffee, or consumption of sugary cakes. That’s the least of it!
So, what does 6 teaspoons of the sweet stuff look like?
Coca Cola (one standard can) 8.25 teaspoons of sugar
Chocolate bar – Milky Way – 8.75 teaspoons (remember when the advertising suggested we have a Milky Way every afternoon as a healthy snack to stave off hunger? Whoops!).
Ice-cream – 3 teaspoons per standard serve of vanilla
Fruit Cake – sounds healthy doesn’t it? No frosting, loads of fruit… 5 teaspoons per slice
Now, as you were saying… you don’t eat sugar? What about the sneaky additives to every day foods like:
Special K cereal – 3 teaspoons
Raisin Bran – 7.75 teaspoons
All Bran Wheat Flakes with Honey Almond – 5 teaspoons
Just Right Cereal – 4 teaspoons
And these are supposedly the healthier choices in cereal!
Let’s think about some random foods you might be eating fairly regularly thinking they’re pretty safe or healthy.
Diet yogurt – 5 teaspoons of sugar in every average tub
White Bread – one teaspoon in every sandwich slice
Cadbury’s Drinking Chocolate with skim milk – 5 teaspoons
Tomato Sauce – one teaspoon in every tablespoon
So check your food labels carefully because added sugars can appear under various names such as dextrose, fructose, glucose, honey, maple syrup, sucrose, malt, maltose, sucrose.
If you’re not sure how to calculate the sugar content that appears in labels just do the simple maths - one teaspoon is equal to 5g. So if a box of juice contains 24.6g of sugar, that equals roughly 5 teaspoons of sugar.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if manufacturers had to label foods by teaspoons? So much easier to visualise than grams!
If you find that you feel sluggish throughout the day, experiencing energy spikes and lows, and just feel less than optimum then it’s worth being vigilant in your diet about where hidden sugars could be de-railing your progress and health.