YOUR HEALTH

More bad news?  SUGAR

The Globe and Mail, March 6, 22014, A10-11, had a double page article on new U.N. World Health Organizations guidelines on sugar intake.   The WHO  advises daily maximum of ‘added sugar’ be limited to 10% of calories or 50 grams (under 12 level teaspoons) for an adult,  and recommends for ‘best health’ and reduced chance of heart disease death, the amount be reduced to 5% or 25 grams (under 6 level teaspoons) per adult.

Governments and industry are being ‘encouraged’ to drop to at least the 10% limit and even better, 5%.

The current 2002 guideline from The U.S. Institute of Medicine – which Health Canada follows – is a maximum of 25% added sweeteners or 125 grams per adult (= 30 teaspoons).

NOTE:  Added sugars are any sweetener added in making prepared foods and drinks or added by you: such as honey, syrup, fruit concentrate or fruit juice, brown or white granular sugar.

 

Using the 5% target (see chart below from G+M data ) means:

1. one 100g ice cream is an adult’s full day limit!!!

2. one Orange Gatorade bottle is 1 and 1/3 day’s limit!!!!!

3.  one Mars bar is 1 and 1/4 days limit!!!!!

4. one can of sugared pop is more than 1 and ½ day’s limit!!!!!!

5. one blueberry muffin is 62% of a day’s limit!!!!

6. having two (2) Greek yogurts at 100 g each is a full day’s limit!!!!

 

	grams	Compared to adult        5%  25 g limit
Regular can of pop	40g	60% over
Orange Gatorade bottle	34g	36% over
Tall vanilla latte	27 g	8%
Blueberry muffin	15.5 g	62%
Greek yogurt  100 g	13 g	52%
2 slices Wonder whole wheat bread	3 g	12%
Ketchup – 1 tbsp	4 g	16%
Ice cream 100 g cone	25 g	At 100% max
Mars bar	32 g	28% over
McDonald’s Big Mac	9 g	36%

 

As you can see from the table and my highlighted items, this target of 5% added sugar is a killer to our normal diet patterns – even for people who are ‘health food’ fanatics!!!

Yes, natural sugars in fruits and vegetables and dairy products are ALLOWED by WHO,               but almost none for food processing and your taste buds!!!

 

Personally, I think this is insane and poor research!!!!!!

The Western diet since at least the end of World War II (1945) has been awash with added sugar in our snacks, cakes, and drinks but surprisingly LIFE EXPECTANCY has been zooming higher and higher.

Today the blended male-female Canadian life expectancy is 81 years, up from 71 years in 1961 and  up from 69 years in 1951! (See http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/82-003-x/1995003/article/2451-eng.pdf).

So how is it we are living longer and healthier lives while consuming deadly levels of sugar?????

It makes no sense, and consequently I suggest the WHO and the study on which the 5% or even 10% recommendations are based are FAULTY and should be ignored.