Sugar – The Not So Secret Killer
This week I saw an article on SKY NEWS on how a study finds that more sugar is contained in ‘healthy fruit snacks’ than in Haribo sweets. In the article, they say that Fruitz 100% fruit drops had higher levels of sugar in them:
As you can see, not one ingredient in the Frootz is added sugar. Corn Syrup, Dextrose, Honey, Molassess, Glucose, Maltose and Lactose can be listed as ingredients as added sugar sources, which are clearly not present. Meaning, the sugar in there is naturally occurring from the fruit. Per 18g serving we have 11.3g of sugar, compared to Haribos 10.7g per 18g. So, not that much more really is it? None the less, they are correct. The fruit does contain more sugar. Primarily, the sugar found in fruit is fructose. Fruits contain many salient nutrients required by the body; water, fibre and essential vitamins. Sweets, such as Haribo actually contain purified sugar forms; High Fructose Corn Syrup, Glucose table sugar – meaning they should be consumed in moderation, as too much of this sugar can cause fatigue, tooth decay concentration loss and so forth.
The differences in these two is that the naturally occurring
fruits in sugar contain phenols, a form of an antioxidant, offering many health
benefits, whereas refined added sugars don’t give this benefit. Fructose breaks
down in the liver, meaning there insulin isn’t provoked to respond. Glucose
however, breaks down in the stomach, requiring the release of insulin to remove
the sugars from the bloodstream. Dried fruit; known for it being a high sugary
treat, has a high fibre content and high amount of nutrients. However, these
are the ones that they tend to add sugar too, if you are monitoring your sugar
intake, look for ‘no added sugar’ on the labels. So yeah, fruits contain sugar,
in high amounts. But it is very different from added sugar.
Action On Sugar
You may be thinking that ‘if this organisation is so against sugar, surely they would know the difference between the two’, well, you’d be wrong. And why has SKY News picked this up? They keep referring to a study, what study is this? Who is it funded by? And honestly, what scientific journal has published a study saying that the sugar content in fruit is higher in sweets? – This has been studied over and over again, it is a fundamental truth. However, basic biology has the answers to the differences in the metabolism of the sugar in the different sources. There is also no indication that such a new study has been published on their website, in fact, most of the work appears to be on salt, which definitely should be reduced in food.
This organisation is calling for a tax on high sugar content
food. So does this include fruit? I mean a kids 200ml fruit smoothie from Innocent contains 9.6g of sugar and is already expensive as it goes (although epically delicious). Why not educate people instead of inducting
more tax into a ever indebted society? Taxing things does not deter them, it
means they just spend more, and the government gets more. Surely campaigning
for the education of sugars in foods and the detrimental effects they cause
(when continuously consumed in large quantities) is much more effective than
taking more money out of peoples pockets? Not to mention, it is a news
reporter/journalists job to inform the public on the facts, a sentence stating
that there are fundamental differences between the sugar in fruit and the sugar
found in sweets would have sufficed.
This causes major worries amongst parents, people consuming
sugar and fruits. There is even a comment section on the base of the SKY NEWS
article where someone states they don’t give their children ‘carcinogenic
aspartame’ and a ‘stack of unnatural preservatives’ – food babe army at it
again. There’s zero evidence that aspartame is carcinogenic. At all.
Conclusion
Again, it took me around 20 minutes to research the
differences in sugar (to check the knowledge). What this article is saying
(from my perception) is not to eat fruit as it has high sugar contents when from manufacturing plants. Parents have hard times getting fruit
in their children as it is, many of which don’t have the time to research the
differences between sugars and what they mean. The easiest ways tend to be via
the use of having marketing packets, making fruit fun, having different
characters and bright packaging in order to entice the children to eat it. A marketing scheme which has worked for many years. You are encouraged, especially by myself, to check the backs of packets, as yes, many packed fruit will contain added sugars by companies in order to make it taste nicer, just the examples given here and the wording of the entire article is misleading and atrocious.
It is irresponsible of an organisation, such as 'Action On Sugar' and even SKY NEWS to pick up on the fact that fruit has more sugar and propagate it as though this is detrimental to children, going to further the obesity crisis and make people feel like bad parents. I’m not saying this sugar is bad for you, of course it’s not in small amounts. Everything is good in moderation, but campaigning against food manufacturers because of the sugar content of natural fruit is just ludicrous. Eat fruit.
It is irresponsible of an organisation, such as 'Action On Sugar' and even SKY NEWS to pick up on the fact that fruit has more sugar and propagate it as though this is detrimental to children, going to further the obesity crisis and make people feel like bad parents. I’m not saying this sugar is bad for you, of course it’s not in small amounts. Everything is good in moderation, but campaigning against food manufacturers because of the sugar content of natural fruit is just ludicrous. Eat fruit.
Excellent post. Im sick of seeing sugar having such bad press from people who have no biochemical background.
ReplyDeleteHOW I GOT CURED FROM MY HIV/HPV VIRUS) CURING HERPES IN FEW DAYS.
ReplyDeleteI was diagnosed of HSV 1&2 in 2012 and I have tried all possible means to get cured but all to no avail, i used vaccines and oils etc but i was not cured, the symptoms just leave for few weeks and come back again more severe. it continued this way until i saw a post in a health forum about a herbal doctor from West Africa Dr.Chukwu who prepare herbal medicine to cure all kind of diseases including herpes simplex virus. At first i doubted if it was real but decided to give it a try, when i contact this herbal doctor via his email: dr.chukwumaduherbalhome@gmail.com, he prepared a herbal medicine and sent it to me via courier service, when i received this herbal medicine after 4 days, he gave me instructions on how to apply it, when i applied it as instructed, started noticing good changes in me from the first 8 days of applying it and i was cured of this hsv1& 2 within total 3 weeks of usage. I am now free from the virus, i was tested negative. He also told me he cures so many disease like Hepatitis, cancer Influenza, coronary artery, lower respiratory infections,Trachea, bronchus, HIV/AIDS, HPV, Herpes, Kidney failure, Arthritis, Diabetes, Hypertension, Stroke, Obesity, Infertility/Impotency, Cancer, Eye Problem, Skin Problem, Fibroid Tumor, Ulcer, Asthma, , Gonorrhea/Staphylococcus, Candide, contact this doc. Via his direct WhatsApp number +2347030936239. Or mail him. dr.chukwumaduherbalhome@gmail.com