‘Sorry’ might not be the only thing we’re over using
With the release of a new study on sugar intake and health, the World Health Organization (WHO) is recommending that, in order to maintain optimal health, adults should limit their daily intake of sugar to 6 teaspoons (24 grams), or 5 per cent of their daily caloric intake.
This new recommendation is even lower than the previous suggested limit of 10 teaspoons, and while some might call the report hyperbolic, it comes in the wake of new studies that link high sugar intake to a number of serious health issues such as tooth decay, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease.
According to Statistics Canada, in 2011 the average Canadian consumed 26 teaspoons, or 20 per cent of their daily calories of sugar. Our aim, according to the WHO, should be to reduce this number as soon as possible in order to maintain healthy weight and reduce the risk of health issues linked to sugar.
The head of the WHO’s Nutrition for Health and Development committee, Dr. Francesco Branco, has actually referred to sugars as “the new tobacco” in terms of health risk, and believes that we should be taking the problem much more seriously, especially in regards to children.
Dr. Branco has urged people to be more vigilant in their eating habits, citing the sugars “we don’t see” as one of the major causes of issue. This refers to the sugars that are present in foods that we do not generally scrutinize as thoroughly, like condiments – for example, one tablespoon of Heinz Ketchup contains one teaspoon of sugar. Furthermore, Statistics Canada has shown that soft drinks and fruit cocktails are among the top sources of sugars for Canadians across all age groups.
One study from the Centre for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia has shown that for an adult consuming a 2,000 calorie per day diet, drinking one bottled soft drink from a vending machine is enough to exceed the amount of daily sugar required to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
One factor that could be working to discredit this type of research is North American fast food, a trillion dollar industry in which sugar is extremely important – one that New York journalist and author Michael Moss calls “an extremely powerful lobby.”
The fast-food industry has so much pull, that when the WHO tried to include its previous 10 per cent limit on calories from sugar in their “Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health” in 2004, the U.S. congress – under pressure from the sugar industry lobby – threatened to pull its funding from the project. The result was that the direct reference was removed from the final report.
While the idea that too much sugar is bad for you is far from new, the hard, scientific evidence being unveiled is beginning to make evident that the problem is likely much larger than many had previously thought. When it is entirely possible to get half of ones daily-recommended sugar intake from a ¾ cup serving of certain cereals (like Frosted Flakes), it might indeed be time for many of us to become more vigilant in regards to what we put in our bodies.