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ST. PAUL, Minn. (9/27/2006) - Almost everyone is aware of the drastic increase in obesity -- and diabetes -- in the American population. Some 20 years ago, five percent of American children were overweight. Today, it's up to 15 percent, and another 15 percent are heading in that direction.
Too many sweet foods can lead us to eat more than is healthy, but sugar isn't the only culprit, says Jill Kokkonen May, a health and nutrition educator with the University of Minnesota Extension Service.
"There are many reasons for obesity," said May. "Science doesn't point to sugar alone as the definitive cause."
But you do need to limit sugar intake, according to May.
If you are reading the Nutrition Facts label to try to reduce sugar in the foods you eat, you might be confused with the types of sugars found, whether natural or added. Sugars that are added to foods during processing are called "added sugars" or "nutritive sweeteners" because they add energy in the form of calories. Added sugars include white sugar, brown sugar, raw sugar, corn syrup, corn syrup solids, high-fructose corn syrup, honey, dextrose, molasses, fructose sweetener, maple syrup and pancake syrup.
Soft drinks, cookies, cakes, candy, pies, ready-to-eat cereals and fruit drinks are major sources of added sugars.
"Limit added sugars to three to five teaspoons (or 12-20 grams) per day for a healthy adult," said May.
Currently, U.S. food labels refer only to total sugars present in food and don't distinguish between added sugars and those naturally occurring. Highly processed nutritive sweeteners include powdered sugar, corn sweeteners (corn syrup), dextrose, invert sugar and sucrose. Less processed nutritive sweeteners include raw sugar, brown sugar, fructose (found in fruits), glucose, honey and lactose (milk sugar), maltose (malt sugar), mannitol, maple sugar, molasses and sorbitol.
Artificial sweeteners can add to the confusion. Studies have shown that sugar substitutes can help people eat fewer calories -- provided they are unaware whether or not they are eating artificially sweetened products.
"But in the real world, most people are aware when they choose such products and tend to make up the calories elsewhere in the diet," May said.
There are many artificial sweeteners on the market, such as saccharin, aspartame (known as Nutrasweet or Equal), Acesulfame K (known as Sunett), Sucralose (known as Splenda), Stevia, Tagatose and Naturlose.
The new Dietary Guidelines caution against choosing foods with high sugar content because of the extra calories and risk of tooth decay. The more informed you are about the types of sugars available to you, the better quality choices you can for you and your family, according to May.
A copy of the new Dietary Guidelines may be found at www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines.
-------Source: Jill Kokkonen May, Extension health and nutrition educator
Adapted from the March 2006 Nutrinet Newsletter titled "Sweet Foods and Health," by Craig Hassel, Extension nutritionist.
NOTE: News releases were current as of the date of issue. If you have a question on older releases, use the news release search (upper left-hand column of the News main page) or the main Extension search (upper right of this page) to locate more recent information.
