FOOD FACTS
The Sweetest Thing Sugar is on everyone’s mind. Is cutting it from your diet the best thing you can do for your health? BY JOANA LOURENÇO
ARE YOU EATING TOO MUCH SUGAR?
According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian consumes
110 grams
of sugar daily—that’s teaspoons a day, or 40
26
kilograms a year.
46
According to Statistics Canada, the average Canadian consumes 110 grams of sugar daily—that’s 26 teaspoons a day, or 40 kilograms a year. Health Canada follows the Dietary Reference Intake system, which outlines that no more than 25 percent of daily energy should be derived from added sugars (that’s about 125 grams or 31 teaspoons a day for a 2,000-calorie diet). However, in recent draft guidelines, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that sugar make up less than 10 percent of caloric intake per day—but its newest recommendation says that getting the amount down below five percent is optimal (that’s about 25 grams per day). This applies to sugars “added to food by the manufacturer, the cook or the consumer, as well as sugars that are naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit concentrates.” It does not include “intrinsic” sugars found in fruits, vegetables or milk products. According to the WHO, meeting the 10 percent recommendation would help lower the risk of obesity, as well as dental decay. How much is 10 percent? That works out to 12 teaspoons of sugar per day. (A can of pop, for example, contains about 10 teaspoons.) But it’s exceedingly difficult to stay below that level because sugar
is now found in almost all processed foods. Dr. Elaine Chin, chief medical officer of the Executive Health Centre in Toronto, says most people don’t have a realistic sense of their intake. “They’re consuming lots of sugar without even knowing it,” she says. To give Canadians a better idea of what they’re eating, Health Canada recently proposed changes to food labelling. The recommendations include listing both total sugars and added sugars on labels, and grouping sugars together in the ingredients list. Dr. Chin agrees this is a step in the right direction: “These new recommendations will go a long way for consumers to understand what is presently hidden.”
DOES SUGAR CAUSE OBESITY? “The WHO commissioned a systematic review to look at sugars and their relation to weight gain,” explains Dr. John Sievenpiper, a physician and scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “The conclusion, published in the British Medical Journal, was that sugars were only having an effect on weight gain insofar as they were contributing excess calories.” Among Canadian adults, the obesity rate has tripled over the last 25 years. Sugar intake is also on the rise, says Dr. Chin. “The problem is that it’s everywhere: in our soft drinks, sauces, yogurts, cereals.” That said, Dr. Chin does acknowledge the complexity of the issue. “Does sugar make you fat? Well, it does if you don’t burn it off. What you don’t burn gets stored as fat.” Mallet agrees that sugar shouldn’t be a scapegoat. “Weight gain is mainly because of excess calories, from basically anything. It’s not specifically about sugar.”
CANADIANLIVING.COM | OCTOBER 2014
PHOTOGRAPHY, JEFF COULSON
W
hile sugar has been vilified by many because of its connection to obesity, heart disease and even some common cancers, not all experts agree that it’s the foe behind our health woes. “People are getting conflicting advice about sugar and they don’t know what’s safe to eat,” says Marie-Claude Mallet, an Ottawabased registered dietitian with the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Should you cut back on the sweet stuff? Read on to find out.
