Sugar, the difference between ADDED & NATURAL Recommended Daily Allowance Although sugar in itself isn’t necessarily harmful to the body, consuming too much sugar displaces more nutritious foods in your diet, and an excess of calories from sugar is linked to chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. The recommended daily allowance for added sugar, according to the American Heart Association, is half of your daily discretionary calorie allowance. For women, this is generally 100 calories, or 6 teaspoons of added sugar, and for men, 150 calories, or 9 teaspoons of added sugar. The AHA’s recommendation is for added sugar, while a new set of guidelines, proposed by the World Health Organization, calls for an even larger decrease in daily sugar intake overall, or limiting all sugars to 5% of one’s daily caloric intake. What’s the difference? The word “natural” has become one of those words that can lead to confusion when looking at food labels. But, when it comes to sugar, the difference is simple. Natural sugars are found in fruit (fructose), and milk and yogurt (lactose) without any additional processing, and come with the benefits of the whole foods that contain them. Added sugars are natural sugars that have been processed and added to food items. While your body processes added and natural sugars in the same way, the difference comes from how the two forms of sugar are consumed. Natural sugars occur in foods that contain beneficial vitamins and minerals, while added sugars are what we call “empty calories,” meaning they provide calories but little nutritional value. Calorie Budget, Discretionary Calories, and Empty Calories Calorie Budget: Your calorie budget is another phrase for your Daily Calories Burned. This is how many calories your body needs to function and be active. Discretionary Calories: Depending on how active you are and what foods you choose to meet your nutritional requirements, you may have calories leftover, or discretionary calories, which you can consume without adversely affecting your health. Empty Calories: Empty calories is a somewhat misleading term. They’re still calories, but they provide little to no nutritional value. You may choose empty calories if you have discretionary calories leftover in your calorie budget, and still maintain healthy eating habits. What can you do right now? There are steps you can take to determine the added sugar in your diet. This means paying close attention to the current Food Nutrition label, including the ingredient list. The best way to determine if there is added sugar in your food, is to look at the ingredients list. Natural sugar won’t be listed, but added sugar will be. Look for the following words on the Nutrition Facts Label: brown sugar corn sweetener corn syrup fruit juice concentrate high-fructose corn syrup honey invert sugar malt sugar molasses raw sugar sugar sugar molecules ending in “ose” (dextrose, fructose, glucose, lactose, maltose, sucrose) syrup table sugar Remember, ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. If the first or second item listed is sugar, this may be a product you want to avoid. (One way manufacturers avoid making sugar the first or second ingredient is by using two or three different kinds of sugar in a product. By listing these items separately, they will be farther down on the ingredient list. If you see two or three of the above words listed, this may also be a product you want to avoid, or save for discretionary calories.)
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 11:31:04 +0000
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