3 facts about sugar you need to know – sugar free myths busted

Sugar – it’s a hot topic of conversation at the moment. You might remember a little while ago, all over the news were the World Health Organisations recommendations on sugar.

1.  You CAN eat more than 25g of sugar a day

Ok before you get too excited and rush out for a packet of lollies, here’s what I mean about that…
Recently, the World Health Organisation released draft guidelines  on sugar intake for children and adults

Here’s what the World Health Organisation published:

The new draft guideline also proposes that sugars should be less than 10% of total energy intake per day. It further suggests that a reduction to below 5% of total energy intake per day would have additional benefits. Five per cent of total energy intake is equivalent to around 25 grams (around 6 teaspoons) of sugar per day for an adult

A lot of people have taken that this is all sugars in your diet – and limiting healthy foods like fruit because of this.  When the World Health Organisation talk sugar, they’re talking what they call “free sugar” – that’s the added stuff, and concentrated sugar like in fruit juices.  OR in their own words

Free sugars include monosaccharides (such as glucose and fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose – commonly known as table sugar – and lactose) that are added to foodstuffs by manufacturers, cooks and consumers.

Free sugars also include the types of sugar that are naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit concentrates, but do not include the sugars found in non-refined foodstuffs, such as brown rice or fruit.

So 25g of sugar is 25g of free sugar. They’re not talking fruit, and they’re not talking naturally occurring sugar (lactose) in dairy products.

Yesterday I had a smoothie for lunch.  It contained 34.2g of sugar.  BUT no free sugars.  There were 15.5g sugar in my banana and 7.9g in my raspberries and 10.6g in the milk.  Smoothie still gets a health tick.

So if you’re counting sugar – don’t count your fruit.

2. Your yoghurt might not be as sugary as you think

Sure, some yoghurt has sugar added.  But remember dairy often has it’s own natural sugar present – lactose. One yoghurt I enjoy is De Winkles Plain Unsweetened Yoghurt.   It’s ingredients are:

Skim milk, cream, milk solids, cultures (including Lactobacillus Acidophilus).

See, no added sugar.  BUT if you look at the nutrition panel there’s sugar.  Don’t stress.  You don’t need to worry about it. It’s the natural sugar present in milk products.

Another one of my favourite yoghurts points out that almost half of the sugar content is from lactose.  I like to eat it in small amounts and mix it with the natural unsweetened one.  So a serve of dairy collective contains around 7g of added sugar – just over a teaspoon per serve.  I feel that it’s a delicious, nutrient rich way to have a little bit of sugar!

3. Fruit is not harmful

With the whole “quit sugar” movement, fruit’s reputation got a little tarnished – it moved from the green zone into the grey zone.  Don’t fret.  Fruit IS good for you.  Yes it contains sugar.  But fruit contains a whole host of other nutrients and antioxidants that protect the body from any negative effects from the sugar.  Plus the sugar is tied up within the pectin (a type of fibre) and is released into the body slowly.  Even one of the biggest anti sugar researchers, Dr Rob Lustig has said fruit is fine, retracting on a previous statement that it might be bad for you.   Another researcher and Doctor,Dr. Ludwig writes in the Journal of the American Medical Association that studies have shown that an increased fruit consumption is linked to lower body weight and a lower risk of obesity-associated diseases.  So don’t feel like you need to avoid it – it’s a great source of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants which provide more benefits than any risk from the sugar in fruit.

First image found here, the rest are my own