3:30 PM Thu, Feb 15, 2007 | Permalink
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I know this is mean. Talking about the dangers of too much sugar in our diet the day after Valentine's Day. So if you are still working on that box of chocolates I am sorry about this.
But while we've all been obsessed with checking for trans-fats something else is lurking on our labels. Sugar. It has many aliases. High fructose corn syrup is the one currently getting all the attention, but Dr. Miles Hassell at the St. Vincent Medical Center says they are all bad in excess.
Now if you are telling yourself... "I don't eat candy very often" here's the problem. Most of the sugar we eat isn't in candy. It's in other processed foods. For starters,soda, juice, sports drinks, spaghetti sauce and cereal. Start checking the labels and you will be amazed.
I'm doing a special report on this tonight at five, but here's some examples for you.
A 12 oz can of soda has at least 10 teaspoons of sugar in it. Make it a double big gulp and you are drinking more than 50 teaspoons of sugar and 600 calories! ( I decided to check on this because one of my favorite photographers seems to always have one in hand ).The juice drink pouches that all the little kids love have 6 teaspoons. Might as well give them a bag of M&M's! You would expect to find all those kids cereals just loaded with sugar but how about something called Smart Start Healthy Heart? It says it is lightly sweetened. That translates to more than 4 teaspoons a serving.
It adds up fast. And Dr Hassell says it adds up to things like obesity; type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and dementia. How's that for a line-up? I know I went home and cleaned out my pantry. That doesn't mean I'm giving up chocolate, it just means I'm giving up processed foods with hidden sugar.
Here are some tips from dietician Terese Scollard from Providence Health System. 4 grams of sugar equals 1 teaspoon of sugar so read the labels. If you can,buy your food unsweetened. Any amount of sugar you add to it will likely be much less than the pre-sweetened kind. If you need the convenience of ready-made spaghetti sauce...dilute it with a can of unsweetened diced tomatoes. And eat fruit of course to satisfy that sweet tooth. Although it's sweet, it also has the whole package of fiber and vitamins.
And the final word goes to Dr. Hassell... if sugar by any name is in the first three ingredients of a food...it's best to avoid it.
Hope you enjoy the story tonight and as always, thanks for watching.
Tracy Barry
A very eye openning piece. I didn't realize how much sugar I was getting. I thought drinking juice instead of soda was a good thing. Now is the time for me to switch to water!
Real interesting report regarding sugar on the news tonight...60 pounds for the average American per year? I think I'm well over that. I'm lucky I'm not obese since I'm quite physically active, but who knows what the damage to teeth, blood chemistry, etc. can be. I recall seing a special on the people buried by Mt. Vesuvius in A.D. 79 in the ash of Pompeii, and they all had perfect pearly whites. No sugar!
I noticed you mentioned a lot of ingredients in various products ending in the suffix "-ose". Glucose, fructose, sucrose, etc. I didn't know it was a scientific term for sugar compositions until I did a little research after the report.
I'm wondering if I would have done the report a little different when it came to presenting the scale of granular sugar poured into a dish representing the amount in a can of soda, etc. People tend to get teaspoonfuls mixed up with tablespoonfuls, and the little piles of white sugar were sort of hard to size up. I may have instead done a cutaway of the can or a serving, and drew a dotted line across where the level of sugar would be. I'd like to see that dotted line on the box of Cap'n Crunch cereal in your hand. I wouldn't be surprised if it was about one-third the way up the box!
Your special reports are always informational, factual without all the fluff, and affect a wide variety of your viewers. I've sure learned a lot!
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GREAT STORY TONITE....HITS CLOSE TO HOME AS I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CUT THE SUGAR IN MY DIET.
THE SPOONS OF SUGAR REALLY OPENED MY EYES.
THE CHART SHOWING A SODA CAN WITH THE SPOONS IS A GREAT WAY TO GET THE POINT OUT TO US AMATURE LABEL READERS LIKE MY SELF WHO STANDING IN THE STORE HAS A TOUGH TIME WITH GRAMS AND PERCENTAGES.
KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK....A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for the sweets report -- it exposes a hidden problem that has become extremely widespread.
I'd like to hear more about high fructose corn syrup in particular: its sources, its metabolism, its mechanical properties (does it stick more to teeth, for example), possible allergic reactions (I know folks who are allergic to corn), and why you can get the same products in Canada sweetened with sugar but can't here. I'll admit I'm suspicious of ADM corporation, but there are probably other factors as well, such as lack of trade with Cuba. It's very hard to find products sweetened with anything but high fructose corn syrup these days, and its adoptation seems to coincide with the growth of our obesity epidemic and increase in allergies. Check it out, please.