Sugar: why we shouldn't slash all of the sweet stuff

A little food for thought...

Recent studies indicate that 8,000 UK cases of type 2 diabetes could be caused by the consumption of sugar-sweetened drinks and sweetened fruit juices over a one year period - that's 80,000 diagnosed cases of diabetes over a 10 year period in the UK alone.

Although this staggering statistic resembles another reason why we should slash the sweet stuff, not all sugar will see us sacrificing our health and waistline.

In fact, the intrinsic sugars found in whole, unaltered fruit and vegetables - the sugars that take longer to enter the blood stream and are less likely to lead to sugar spikes - are not only found in food sources that provide a multitude of health enhancing nutrients including essential vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, but aid the loss of excess weight as a result of their fibre-rich properties leaving us feeling fuller, for longer.

In order to reduce our risk of developing sugar induced diseases such as tooth decay, obesity and type 2 diabetes, we need to slash the free sugar found in food sources such as sweet treats, pure juice and fruit concentrates, not the intrinsic sugar found in unaltered fruit and vegetables - an essential part of a healthy, balanced diet.

By ensuring that free sugars - the sugars added to food and drink sources by cooks, consumers and manufacturers - account for less than 5% of our daily caloric intake and that:
• teenagers and adults consume no more than 30g/7 tsp per day
• children aged 7-10 consume no more than 24g/6 tsp per day
• children aged 4-6 consume no more than 19g/5 tsp per day...

we are far less likely to develop the expanding waistline and detrimental health complications associated with excess sugar consumption.

Top tip: limit fruit juice and 100% pure fruit juice to one small 150ml glass per day - ideally diluted with water or consumed with a meal. These fruit based drinks may seem like a healthy option, but they're bursting with free sugars as a result of the breakdown of the fruit's sugars plant cell wall during processing - the cell wall that would normally need to be broken down by the body and as a result, take longer to enter the blood stream.