Sugar Challenge: Week 8 Update

I am now two thirds of the way into the challenge, and it’s been the hardest week for a while.  I was slightly poorly at the beginning of last week, and the cravings for comfort food returned.  So I’m wiping a little egg from my face as I write, but not too much. After all, I didn’t eat any sugar, although I will admit to a serving of mashed potato when I felt particularly low.

This week I take a look at the thorny problem of food labeling.  The public is always being urged to read food labels, but how many people take the time, or can interpret what they read?  This is a long post, so I hope it interests (and maddens) you as much as it did me.

I have removed all identifiers from my photographs as I have no wish to point the finger at any particular product; I am sure I could have found many others.  I didn’t even bother to look at the usual suspects such as cakes and biscuits; you don’t need me to tell you about those.  I was looking for sugar in less obvious places, and I didn’t have to go very far to find it.  Everything in this post came from a regular supermarket.

Before starting, here’s a reminder that the latest government recommendations for added sugar intake are as follows:
Adults – 30g/day
Children aged 7-10 – 24g/day
Children aged 4-6 – 19g/day (1)

Most people enjoy dessert, and a great many choose low fat or fat-free fruit yoghurt as a healthy option.  So let’s take a look at that first.

This is a fat-free fruit yogurt.  Which sugars are on this label?

This product contains at least 3 types of sugar.  Firstly, there is the lactose found in the milk.  There will be more of this in a low-fat product than the equivalent normal-fat product because when you remove the fat, what remains is water and sugar, and you need more of it to fill the same volume as the missing fat.  The second ingredient in this product is sugar, and then you have fruit juice, which is also a source of concentrated sugar.  Altogether this adds up to 14.5g sugar (probably more, as the lactose may not be included), which is just under half of an adult’s daily allowance.  That’s for a 100g portion, which is about 1/5 of the pot.  The recommended serving is 150g.  That’s 22g sugar!  It also has twice as much salt as the full-fat product.

This honey yoghurt contains LESS sugar and salt than the supposedly healthier choice.

In fact, this particular product contains MORE sugar than a comparable full-fat product, even when that product is advertised as honey-flavoured (i.e. sugary).  Plus the glycaemic response (the extent to which it may raise blood sugar) from the low-fat product will be greater because in the absence of fat, the sugar is likely to be more rapidly absorbed.  Here’s the label from that full-fat product.  150g of this would give you 19.4g sugar.  Still not great, and to be honest I would not normally buy either product, especially as 150g of the full-fat product would give me 7.2g saturated fat, which is just over a third of my recommended daily intake in one hit (2).  I am not particularly opposed to saturated fat, but that’s a little too rich for my blood.

It probably isn’t a surprise to find sugar in dessert yoghurt.  But here are some that are less expected.  Houmous?  Is nothing sacred?  All right, so there is not very much sugar in here, but those of us avoiding sugar would prefer none at all.  Is there any reason to add sugar to this product?  A 50g serving (less than half the pot) also contains 19% of my recommended daily fat intake, nearly two thirds of which is from polyunsaturates.  These have had a very good press, but they are rather less popular with me, and some research agrees.  However, that’s another story.  Here’s another product where sugar has no business to be.

What is added sugar doing here?

Who doesn’t love a hot bowl of soup in winter?  This one is lentil and tomato; packed with healthy ingredients, and advertised as containing 2 of your 5-a-day if you eat half the pot.  What they don’t make quite so obvious is that you will also get 7.2g sugar, which is just under 25% of your daily recommendation.  I imagine a fair bit comes from the tomatoes themselves, but still.  Who would have thought it?  I used to buy soups like this, but from now on I will be making my own.

There are THREE different types of sugar in this shepherd’s pie

For my big finish today I’ve found something that gave me a bit of a shock.  This shepherd’s pie is aimed specifically at children, and is endorsed by a well-known person.  Not only are there two separate mentions of sugar in the ingredients, but there are also two other sugar sources; molasses (another name for sugar), and apple juice, which is 7th on the list of ingredients.  Total sugar content 5.6g, or more than a quarter of the amount a six-year-old should be getting, and none of it is necessary.  What on earth is sugar doing in a shepherd’s pie targeted at children?

Of course I am not suggesting for one moment that sugar is the only inappropriate food in the diet, nor that removing sugar is a panacea, but removing it from where it has no business to be is a start.  At any rate, it is important for people to be informed, so that they can make their own choices armed with all the information they need.

Homework
It’s incredible, and a bit unnerving to see what is lurking on our shelves, but I urge you to do it.  This week, find at least 5 products which you or someone in your family would normally eat that contain unexpected added sugar.  If you feel inclined, write to the manufacturer to ask why their product contains sugar, and whether they are willing to rethink their recipe.

Next Time
The study that questions what I (and many other people) thought we knew about blood sugar.

References

1. http://www.nhs.uk/news/2015/07July/Pages/Sugar-intake-should-be-drastically-reduced-says-report.aspx [Accessed 23 November 2015].
2. http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/Fat.aspx [Accessed 23 November 2015].