Cutting Back on Added Sugars
by Shereen Jegtvig
This week the American Heart Association released new guidelines on how much added sugar is acceptable in a healthy diet. Added sugars include sweeteners such as table sugar, honey and high fructose corn syrup that are either added during the production of foods or at the table. In general, the guidelines suggest no more than about 150 calories per day (based on your daily calorie need) come from added sugar. That’s approximately the same as 6 teaspoons of table sugar.
This may be less than many Americans are consuming each day. In fact, one 12 ounce can of soda might exceed your limit – and just imagine how much sugar is in a giant super-sized soda. It’s important to watch your sugar intake because eating too much sugar can easily cause you to take in more calories than you are able to burn each day. That leads to being overweight, then obese and increases your chances of having high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease. Another consideration is that added sugar really has no additional nutritional benefit – nothing but simple carbohydrate calories that are easy to absorb and your body has no trouble converting the extra energy to fat. Read more
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Sweet Substitutes: The Alternatives To Sugar
Sugar. It’s sweet, tasty, and everywhere. It occurs naturally in many foods, and is often added to processed foods, in a variety of forms. Unfortunately, too much sugar can contribute to many health problems: tooth decay, obesity, and related medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Artificial sugar substitutes are often added to foods to replicate the sweetness of sugar, without the added energy or calories. Most are suitable for people with diabetes or hypoglycemia, and are usually much friendlier to your teeth.
However, artificial sweeteners have been the subject of much controversy. Some people claim they have experienced negative health effects after consuming sweeteners, while others question the political motives behind the approval process and labeling protocols for each additive. Many dietitians recommend you avoid some artificial sweeteners, or that you avoid large amounts of sugar substitutes at any one time. (Larsen – Ask the dietitian, 2009)
Before you can decide which additives you want to consume or avoid, you need to know some basic facts about each sugar substitute. Read more
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Sweeteners Exposed: Acesulfame Potassium
Ingredient Name: Acesulfame potassium
E-number: E-950
Alternative Names: Acesulfame K, Ace-K, ACK, Sweetener (950), market names (e.g. Sunett, Sweet One)
Use in Food: Acesulfame potassium is one of the five FDA-approved calorie-free artificial sweeteners currently used in the US. As it is around 180-200 times sweeter than sucrose (common sugar), very small amounts of the additive produce the desired sweetness in a variety of foods. Unlike other artificial sweeteners (such as aspartame) acesulfame potassium is stable at high temperatures and pH levels, enabling its use in baked goods. It also increases the sweetness shelf life of many products (IFIC Foundation, 2009). Read more
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Sweeteners Exposed: Aspartame
Alternative names: E-951, APM, sweetener (951), market names (e.g. Equal, NutraSweet, Canderel).
Use in food: Aspartame is an artificial sweetener, often used to replace sugar in food and drinks. About 180 times sweeter than sugar, aspartame only needs to be added in very small amounts to obtain desired sweetness. Its taste is only similar to the sweetness of sugar, and is often blended with other sweeteners (e.g. acesulfame potassium or saccharin) to achieve a more “sugar-y” taste.
As it is non-carbohydrate based and only used in very small amounts, aspartame contributes very few calories to food, and is mainly used in “diet” products. These include many carbonated soda drinks (diet and non-diet), ice cream, yogurts, cereals, chewing gum/ breath mints, ice teas, juices, instant milk drinks, confectionery, pharmaceutical drugs, vitamin supplements and as tabletop sweeteners for tea and coffee. (Aspartame information centre, 2006) Read more
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