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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Most people believe that eating too much sugar will negatively impact on their health. Many scientists adhere to this idea as well. It is called the dilution theory – the more sugar you eat the fewer quality nutrients you get. Logically, this sounds correct. But, as with many hypotheses (sound scientific guesses) when put to the test against actual evidence, the idea does not hold up.
There is no argument that Americans eat too much sugar, or more accurately, they eat too many foods with too much sugar. It is easy to make the leap and assume that it is the sugar in these foods that is causing poor health and weight gain. You may be able to correlate facts to suggest a connection but you cannot prove cause and effect without hard evidence. Sugar falls into this arena.
Cane sugar, beet sugar and corn syrup are all carbohydrates or sugars that contain no vitamins and minerals. They are the three typical sugars added to most foods. Few people ever eat just sugar and when they do, such as sucking on a lollipop, it is in limited quantities. When was the last time you heard of someone binging on sugar cubes or drinking corn syrup by the cupful? We rarely eat sugar alone. Even when you just sprinkle sugar into coffee, you are getting something from the coffee (antioxidants) and milk (calcium).
For children, a high sugar intake is connected to a lower intake of dairy foods but a higher intake of grains, iron and folic acid (a B vitamin). What does that mean? In practical terms, they are probably drinking less milk and getting less calcium but eating more presweetened cereal, which is fortified with iron and folic acid.
Instead of milk, many children drink too much soda and fruit flavored drinks. A switch back to milk is wise, but too many schools have promoted the idea that lowfat plain milk is the only acceptable alternative to soda or sweetened drinks. Unfortunately, this switch often results in less milk consumption not more. Switching from highly sweetened drinks to plain milk, with the good intention of lowering sugar intake does nothing for the quality of children’s diets. Switching from sweetened drinks to flavored milk, however, does increase overall milk and daily calcium intakes, which is sorely needed by many school-aged kids.
Focusing just on sugar can backfire when the goal is to improve healthy eating. Most parents feel presweetened ready-to-eat cereals are a bad choice because they are too high in sugar. I can’t say I totally disagree. But, if you take away the presweetened cereal, replace it with an unsweetened choice and your child refuses to eat breakfast, nothing has been achieved. Most cereals, even the most heavily sweetened are based in a grain, many are whole grain, have little or no fat, no cholesterol, and are fortified with iron, folic acid and other important nutrients.
The purpose of this column is not to advocate that we all eat as much sugar as we wish. The purpose is to demonstrate that you need sound evidence to back up eating recommendations. When it comes to sugar the evidence is lacking. The amount of sugar eaten has little or no association with diet quality. In fact, the amount of added sugar we eat daily, measured in grams per day, has not changed substantially since the mid-1990s.
Our biggest problem is that many Americans do not make good food choices. We would be smarter to focus on the nutrient contribution from a food rather than its sugar content. Presweetened cereal and flavored milks are excellent examples. Adding sugars to these nutritious foods may actually increase overall nutrient intake.
Much of our information about the role of sugars in health comes from observational studies. We observe what a group of people are doing and we draw conclusions. We have observed that many people in the US eat a lot of sugar. And, many people are overweight. A possible conclusion, drawn by many scientists, is that sugar is driving the weight gain and poor eating habits.
In actuality, sugar may not be the cause but a marker of other factors that are operating to create the weight gain such as lack of physical activity or eating too much solid fat. Many foods high in sugar are also high in solid fats – cookies, candies, pastries and ice cream. It may be the combination of sugar plus fat that creates the desire to overeat and take in too many calories. Teasing out all of these variables is very hard.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of the nutrition counter series for Pocket Books with sales of more than 8.5 million books.
Look for:
The Most Complete Food Counter, 3rd ed., 2013
The Calorie Counter, 6th Ed., 2013
The Complete Food Counter, 4th ed., 2012
The Diabetes Counter, 4th Ed., 2011
The Protein Counter, 3rd Ed., 2011
The Ultimate Carbohydrate Counter, 3rd Ed., 2010
The Fat Counter, 7th ed., 2009
The Healthy Wholefoods Counter, 2008
The Cholesterol Counter, 7th Ed., 2008
Your Complete Food Counter App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/your-complete-food-counter/id444558777?mt=8
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to: www.TheNutritionExperts.com.
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