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Aww, poor thing. She’s starving.
October 1, 2009 |
This lady can’t have enough soda, because there’s a proposed “food tax” on her family.
Specifically, she’s whining about a “soda tax”. Even more specifically, this list of corporations (and their employees) who are part of the “Americans Against Food Taxes” are whining about a tax on soda.
People are entitled to complain about tax hikes. We just don’t understand how soda - as in liquid candy - came to be categorised as “food”. (We also don’t understand why one needs to buy soda in plastic bottles and put each bottle in a plastic bag, but that’s a different topic.).
1943 Pepsi ad
In 1700, English consumption empire-wide was about four pounds of sugar per person per year. (Source)
In America,
At the end of the 1700s sugar consumption was less than 20 pounds per person per year. By the end of the 1800s, sugar consumption had risen to 63 pounds annually. Now, 100 years later, the average American eats 152 pounds of sugar each year! (Source)
By sugar they mean “added sugar” - all the sugar we consume that is not naturally present in grains, dairy, fruits, and veggies. That means all the sugar, molasses, honey, jaggery, maple syrup, high fructose corn syrup, maltose, fructose and other sweeteners in every processed product we eat (including savoury foods like pizza, ketchup and and pretzels), plus the sweeteners we add to baked goods, tea, etc. at home.
One pound has about two cups. If an American on an average consumes 152 pounds a year, it means about 304 cups, that’s close to a cup a day.
We’re trying to make our home a sweet-restricted zone. That includes all sweeteners like maple syrup, honey, jaggery, raw cane sugar, date sugar, molasses, artificial sweeteners, etc. We hardly cook any sweets or baked goods and all the products we buy have no added sweeteners.
Here’s why (thanks, Mamatha). Please, please, take the time to watch this video if you can. It will change the way you look at sugar (and all added sweeteners), and alter the way you fundamentally regard “food”. It will also make you wonder why it’s okay to ply kids with sugar when it’s not okay to give them alcohol, since both metabolise the same way.
From a recent study called Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Most women should consume no more than 100 calories (about 25 grams) of added sugars per day. Most men should consume no more than 150 calories (about 37.5 grams) each day. That’s about six teaspoons of added sugar a day for women and nine for men.
In contrast, the statement cites a report from the 2001–04 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) that showed the average intake of added sugars for all Americans was 22.2 teaspoons per day (355 calories).
Soft drinks and other sugar-sweetened beverages are the number one source of added sugars in Americans’ diet, according to the statement. “One 12-ounce can of regular soda contains about 130 calories and eight teaspoons of sugar,” Johnson said …
In addition, the statement recommends that no more than half of a person’s daily discretionary calorie allowance should come from added sugars.
Discretionary calories refer to the number of calories “left over” after a person eats the recommended types and amounts of foods to meet nutrient requirements, such as fruit, vegetables, low-fat dairy products, high-fiber whole grains, lean meat, poultry and fish. Added sugars, alcoholic beverages and solid fats — including saturated fat and trans fat — are typically considered discretionary calories that are to be included after individual daily nutrient requirements are met …
For example, a moderately active 51–55 year-old woman who eats 1,800 calories per day and maintains her weight would have about 195 discretionary calories per day and only about 100 calories, or half that amount, should come from added sugars. In comparison, if that same woman, still maintaining her weight, was more physically active and burned 2,200 calories a day, she could consume 2,200 calories a day, and would have a larger discretionary ‘budget’ of about 290 calories. About half of that amount, or 145 calories, could come from added sugars.
(America Heart Association)
From Step away from the Sugar Bowl and No One Gets Hurt.
Sugar:
1 cup……………..48 teaspoons………………192 grams
½ cup……………..24 teaspoons………………96 grams
1/3 cup…………..16 teaspoons……………..64 grams
……………………….1 teaspoon………………..4 gramsHoney:
1 Tablespoon……3 teaspoons……………………16 gramsMolasses:
………………………….2 teaspoons…………………..5.86 grams.. getting our arms around that limit of 6 teaspoons of sugar a day (9 if you are male) is a little bit tough if you are looking at printed nutritional items. Here are a few to get you started.
Item………………………..What’s printed on the pkg……………what that translates into
12 oz. Can of coke…………….40.5 grams of sugar………………………10 teaspoons
1 4.3 oz. Hershey bar…………….24 grams of sugar………………………..6 teaspoons
½ cup, vegetarian baked beans…14 grams of sugar………………….…3.5 teaspoons
1 Tbl. Ketchup………………………..4 grams of sugar…………………………..1 teaspoon
Try this. Track how much sugar your family consumes over the past month. In EVERYTHING. All the packaged goods you eat, plus the sugar and sweeteners you use at home. Yo may be surprised.
- bee and jai
MUSINGS, NUTRITION, soda, sugar, sweeteners
A very informative post. I avoid extra sugar , including sweets,sodas,fruit juices ..almost all the time. But, if vegetarian baked beans have that much sugar, now I am getting my doubts…Do you mean the canned beans ??
OK, I checked the link. Looks like it is canned.. correct me if I am wrong.
yes, canned.
So hard for me to watch that sugar intake, especially with soda. *sigh*
Paz
Here we never buy hardly sodas……..and try to avoid sugar intake ( of course that doesn’t inlude my baking)
I would have thought honey etc…….was better sugar than the artificial ones.
Ketchup sugar that i am shocked, i always thought ketchip was far healthier than mayo. And i use them with ffries etc…
Have always noticed sugars in the ingredients of every other processed food we pick up from the market. However, I never quite thought of it in the context of adding up to the ’sugar intake’ in our diets. Bottomline, sugar apart …this is again a reinforcement of my strong belief that eating home cooked or fresh food, is always the first choice rather than processed food. At least you know what you are putting into it!
Hmm except for the morning coffee and occasional evening tea there is not regular sugar intake. But I eat sweets atleast twice in a week. Thats fair enough right
A visual representation of added sugars in common foods:
http://www.sugarstacks.com/
Fantastic video presentation!
I guess I’ll never understand this because for us, as kids, sodas were treats and not a water substitute.
Unfortunately, this is where my daughter’s generation is heading though, but we don’t stock soft drinks at home and they’re still an occasional treat for our daughter.
I watched it. Wow!
I don’t eat sweets often, I cook my own food, but here’s my own, personal problem area: I like my coffee moderately-sweet. And I drink a lot of coffee. So…I measured out 3T of my usual brown sugar into a bowl, and wrote down the present time. I’m curious to see how long it lasts.
Way-great post!
Bee and Jai,
Thank you for putting up the video about sugar. It is so informative and it also kind of inspires me to continue my efforts at making fresh food, home-made food almost everday and ofcourse guilt-free for not making sugary desserts at regular intervals… Yeah,,, we can survive with out them…It doesn’t really hurt..
Very informative and scary in the meaning.. Regarding my son who enjoyed ketchup and of course candy!
Hey Busy Bee, have you stopped blog hopping altogeher ? I really miss your lovely comments
Thanks! I love coke, unfortunately, but I drink the decaff, diet one. It still has the phosphoric acid though!
Are there better sugars than others? For instance, is it better to use agave or molasses than refined white sugar?
try xylitol. or date sugar.
Dear Jai and Bee,
I tried to reach you at admin@jugalbandi.info and the mail bounced back with the message mailbox is full: retry timeout exceeded.
Is there another email i could reach you at?
Great post! Every time I see that commercial on TV, it upsets me because no one *needs* pop. I call it poison in a bottle. My teenage son is used to never having pop at home. Once or twice a YEAR, he gets half a glass at some party. He understands now juice is better (with no added sugar). I know natural sugars (like in fruits) are better for our bodies, but like you said, we have to watch even that given the hidden sugars in so many other foods.
Scary facts on sugar. I must say that I find most American recipes for cakes etc way too sweet and usually cut the sugar content of those recipes by at least a third. The more sugar you eat the more you need. And if you give it up for a while, everything tastes way too sweet and it is easy to cut back on how much sugar you add. Earlier this year I avoided eating sugar for about 3 months. The first few weeks were the hardest. Now I can easily cut back on the sugar content of everything I cook including cakes, ice creams etc. And I find things taste better - I can taste the real ingredient rather than just the sugar.
Hey Jai & Bee,
Thanks a ton for posting this article. I found the video (Dr Lustig’s) very informative, and this will definetly impact our pantry and eating habits.
Thanks for sharing.
Rajesh
Ouch.
While my consumption of sugar is ractically nil - no coffee, tea or soda at all, I cannot say the same for those around me. I knew HFCS was bad - didn’t quite know why - but I did not realize sugar itself was bad.
Wonder how jaggery stacks up on the sucrose - glucose continuum.
Thanks! Bee & Jai ~ Will watch the video later as I’m staying up way too late already. MY indulgence is sweetened black tea several times a day. Would do me good to kick the habit entirely….but it’s such a comfort “food.” SO reminds me of my childhood, chai and all that.
I’d bookmarked this video sometime ago and finally saw it last week. Yeah, it does change the way you think about sugar, it is way beyond “empty calories!” Thank you for sharing it.
And then, there are people who live on sugar: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/dining/28Rudn.html?emc=eta1
In a country that’s already sugar-holic, you wouldn’t want this published, seriously!