Transcription:
How to Reduce the Added Sugar in Your Food

Melanie Cole (Host):  Added sugar provides calories with no added nutrients and can damage your metabolism in the long run. My guest today is Marsha Richards. She is a Registered Dietician in the Department of Nutrition Services at BID Plymouth. Welcome to the show, Marsha. So, tell us about added sugar. Where might we find that in our foods?

Marsha Richards (Guest):  Right now, what we understand is about 47% of added sugar comes from beverages. That is going to be an important item to consider, especially sodas, energy drinks, juice drinks. You can also find a lot of added sugar hidden in a lot of foods that you really wouldn’t expect to see it in; things like whole grain cereal, granola, and instant oatmeal, some frozen foods and pasta sauces also have added sugar. Dried fruits, canned fruits, even condiments like barbeque sauce, ketchup, and salad dressings. So, it’s really important to look at labels for total grams of sugar but more importantly, look at the ingredients.  Look for ingredients like sugar, cane sugar, evaporated cane juice, corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, brown sugar, honey, maple syrup and also brown rice syrup. Ingredients are always listed from most to least. So, if you see these items at the beginning of the ingredients list, that item could have a fair amount of sugar in it.  

Melanie:  In the new dietary guidelines that were just recently released, they are asking us to consume less than 10% of calories per day from added sugar. So, what are they talking about with these beverages and things that you are discussing right now?

Marsha:  The new guidelines recommend less than 10% of our calories from sugar. For kids, it translates to about three to four teaspoons per day; pre-teens and teens about 5-8 teaspoons.  If you look at a label, every four grams of sugar equals one teaspoon. So, when you’re looking at a label if you see those sugars that I mentioned before in the ingredients list, then you can take a look at the label and see how many total grams of sugar and divide that number by four and that will tell you how many teaspoons.  But, as you mention with your intro, sugar does not provide us with any nutritional value. It provides us with calories. It is causing a lot of trouble with dental health as well as overweight and obesity. It is an important item for us to pay close attention to.

Melanie:  Marsha, people hear the word “sugar” and they hear the word “carbohydrates” and staying away from those because people hear that those are types of sugars. Explain the difference and why not all carbohydrates are considered added sugars.   

Marsha:  Carbohydrate is the broad term. We’ve got six major categories of nutrients: carbohydrates, protein, fat, vitamins, minerals and water. Carbohydrates are a group of nutrients that are really, really important for us. Sugar is one small part of that big group. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains are all considered carbohydrates. What we want to pay attention to is those simpler sugars:  the sugars that are added after the fact. We’ve got natural sugar in food, like in fruit and even in milk. That’s okay. But it’s when we’ve added a lot of added sugar to food, we’re adding calories but we’re not adding nutrition.  

Melanie:  How does that added sugar contribute to metabolic disease? What happens to it when we eat it?  

Marsha:  If we eat more sugar than we’re able to burn for energy – when we eat foods they convert into glucose. Sugar also converts into glucose. Then, we should use that glucose for energy. But, if we consume more of it then we’re able to burn for energy, we’re going to store it as fat. Quite often, where we store that fat might be in our abdominal area and that begins to affect our metabolism. It may affect cholesterol levels and some of those other lipids like LDL and triglycerides. In some people it can lead to metabolic illnesses like diabetes.  

Melanie:  Just in general, when we’re speaking about healthy eating, people are always asking about protein to carbohydrate radio. Based on the new guidelines and your expertise, what do you want people to know about when they see these diets that are very high in protein and low in carbohydrates? What do you want them to know about healthy eating?

Marsha:   I want them to know that they need to eat a variety of foods because every type of food provides us with a different variety of nutrients. One of the things that we do know right now is that half of the population is eating too much protein and too much grain but they are not the right types of grain and protein. We should be eating more whole grains and the protein in our diets should be leaner and maybe even more plant-based. Fifty percent of Americans have one or more chronic diseases which can be linked back to poor diet as well as low physical activity. Three quarters of our population eats a diet that is low in fruits and vegetables. Those fruits and vegetables provide us with so many important nutrients, vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and flavonoids--things that have been linked with promoting better health. If we’re not getting our good carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables and whole grains, we’re not getting those nutrients that are going to protect our health now and in the future.

Melanie:   We even hear about addiction to sugar and there are groups around to help you with the sugar addiction. Is that a myth or can you really be addicted to this type of added sugar?  

Marsha:   There is research that is indicating that some people seem to show addictive tendencies towards certain foods as far as realizing that they should avoid them but they can’t. They’ve also done some brain scans and shown different parts of the brain light up when certain sugars are consumed. It is an area of research that is very fascinating. If a person is having difficulty, there are several groups that can help. Overeaters Anonymous is one group.

Melanie:   So, along with getting rid of soft drinks and, obviously, candies and sweets and even baked goods, how else can we minimize sugars in the diet? People like orange juice and grapefruit juice and even fruit that is in cans sometimes can have that added sugar. So, what should we do about that?   

Marsha:   I think we all need to limit and maybe even eliminate the soft drinks. As far as canned fruits, you can get them canned in their own juice or sometimes canned in water or canned in pear juice.  There are several little changes that lead to big results as well. So, even with something like a fruit-filled bar, like a breakfast bar or a cereal bar, maybe having a piece of fruit instead. Instead of having a chocolate bar, maybe have a handful of unsalted almonds or walnuts. If you do like those sugared beverage sodas and juices, maybe try water or even an infused water with your own fresh fruit. They have bottles that they make now that you can put fruit in a tube that’s inside the water bottle, so you can get a nice flavored water and some extra vitamins through that fresh fruit at the same time.  

Melanie:  Based on these dietary guidelines, and in just the last few minutes, Marsha, give your best advice for sorting this out; where those added sugars are and what you want people to know about healthy eating and sugars.

Marsha:   To keep in mind that a little bit of sugar is going to be okay but it should be a treat. The foods that are highest in sugar: sugared beverages, candies, cakes and cookies and pastries, they should be the exception versus the rule.  They should be the treat that happens once in a while. When we think about a healthy diet, we need to make sure that we get all of the nutrients that our body needs to be healthy throughout our entire life. The way we do that is by eating a variety of foods; having fruits, having vegetables, having whole grains, having calcium rich foods whether it’s from a dairy or from a plant-based; and also having our lean protein. If we choose fresher, less processed foods, we will be able to decrease our sugar. Most of this added sugar is added to foods that have been highly processed.  So, just getting back to basics as much as you can. Make your own peanut butter and crackers. Get plain yogurt and sweeten it with your own fresh fruit or frozen fruit without added sugar. If you like cereal, get a cereal that does not have added sugar and sweeten that with your own fruit or a small amount of sugar. These are some strategies that you can have a little bit of sweetness but you can take complete control over how much sugar is in your diet. We are what we eat. That adage is just so very, very true. Most chronic diseases that people in the U.S. are suffering from can be linked back to the quality of our diet and the quality of our activity level. It’s just so important that we encourage everybody to eat a healthy diet and focusing on reducing sugar from those foods that it has been added in after the fact. 

Melanie:  Thank you so much, Marsha. It’s great information.  You’re listening to BID Plymouth Wellness Radio and for more information you can go to BIDPlymouth.org. That’s BIDPlymouth.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks for listening.