This is the 4060th article of Dayi Xiaohu
I believe that many people may be confused when they see the title, sugar is sugar, why is it invisible? The white granulated sugar, rock sugar, and brown sugar in daily life are not all the capitalized “sugar” words on the packaging! Yes, but that’s just a fraction of the added sugars you see. There’s a lot more that you can’t see, the so-called “invisible sugar.”
For example : for example, in the morning, we make a cup of honey lemonade that can beautify our skin; drink a cup of flavored yogurt with strawberry fragrance and can adjust the stomach after meals; taste a soft and sweet mousse cake in the afternoon; After dinner, come to the TV with a little sour and sweet candied dried fruit to satisfy your cravings. Enjoying delicious food and life on this day, I feel that everything is so beautiful. That’s true, have you ever thought that what accompanies you all day is not just the food in front of you, but a big problem, a hidden problem – too much intake of invisible sugar.
(The picture comes from the Internet)
Stealth sugars, also known as free sugars in medical terms. There are two types of sugars in our lives: non-free sugars and free sugars. Non-free sugars are fructose naturally present in fresh fruits, sugar in vegetables, lactose in milk and starch in cereals and potatoes, which are less harmful to human body. And free sugar is more harmful to the body. It is a monosaccharide (fructose, glucose, etc.) and disaccharide (maltose, sucrose, etc.) added to food and beverages. Someone asked, what about honey, syrup, juice? In fact, they are also free sugars. Even fruit juice concentrates that claim to be 100% natural and healthy are free sugars. In short, any additional sugars in our food that need to be added are free sugars.
After clearing the concept, let’s first reveal the “mystery” of invisible sugar:
(1) Stealth
There are many places for free sugar to hide. If you only think that it exists in beverages, candies, cakes, biscuits, preserves and other sweets, then you underestimate its ability. In fact, it is also found in unsweetened processed foods, such as ketchup, yogurt, coffee, puffed foods, sesame paste, walnut powder, and more.
(2) Deception
Free sugars are easily absorbed by the body and do not provide corresponding satiety. In other words, pure energy foods that give you “empty calories”. People get addicted to it because of its sweet taste, and it is easy to overeat it accidentally. Excessive intake will also reduce the intake and absorption of other low-calorie nutritious foods and destroy the dietary balance.
(The picture comes from the Internet)
Scientific research has shown that the higher the intake of free sugars, the higher the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, coronary heart disease and so on. For children and adolescents, it is associated with the incidence of dental caries and myopia. In order to better understand the relationship between free sugar and related diseases, let us take sugar-sweetened beverages as an example. Currently, sugar-sweetened beverages on the market contain a lot of fructose, such as orange juice with 7% sugar, cola with 9% sugar, and pear juice with 7% sugar. The sugar content is 10%, and the sugar content of refreshing and sweet sugarcane juice is even as high as 17%-18%. People often say that carbonated drinks are unhealthy, but it’s not the carbonic acid itself, but the free sugars in it. Let’s look at fructose metabolism. Because it does not depend on insulin, it can directly enter the glycolysis stage through oxidation, so it is more easily absorbed by the body and further increases the risk of obesity. As early as 2015, the World Health Organization proposed in the “Intake Guidelines for Adults and Children” that children’s free sugar intake should be reduced to less than 10% of total energy intake, and in the best case, to less than 5%. Healthy China (2019-2030) proposes “three reductions and three health” to control the intake of added sugars; the dietary guidelines for Chinese residents recommend that the daily intake of adults should not exceed 50g, preferably below 25g.
Some foreign countries have taken fiscal and taxation measures to protect people from unhealthy products. For example, Hungary levies a tax on packaged products high in sugar, salt or caffeine; Australia imposes an additional 20% tax on sugar-sweetened beverages; Mexico levies sales of sugar-sweetened beverages after a 10% excise tax on sugar-sweetened beverages Down 12%; U.S. 1 cent/ounce tax on sugar-sweetened beverages saves about $17.1 billion in health care spending between 2010-2020. Countries including the Philippines, the United Kingdom and South Africa have also announced plans to tax sugar-sweetened beverages. The WHO-recommended measures to tax sugar-sweetened beverages and restrict food advertisements to children have not been taken seriously in my country, and the research on sugar-sweetened beverage consumption is obviously insufficient, and there are fewer policies and measures to restrict the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
Therefore, we need to be the masters of our own health and reduce the intake of free sugars. When shopping for food, take a look at its ingredient list. The order of raw materials in the ingredients list is from most to least. If the first few people can see “white sugar”, “fructose syrup”, “fructose”, etc., you should pay special attention. You are fat. In addition, eating more fresh fruit instead of fruit juice is healthier.
(The picture comes from the Internet)
Author: Changning District Center for Disease Control and Prevention
Magic Sister Lily