Excess sugar can be harmful to our health, so we must try to limit its consumption not to exceed certain limits.
A few years ago, we echoed the importance of limiting the intake of fat in our diet, and although it is indeed important to control the amount, especially the type of fat we eat. More and more studies highlight the role of sugar consumption on our health, both in the short and long term.
For all these reasons, sugar is currently being targeted at the health level. For this reason, and because of food technology, we consume many products that, although they do not seem sweet to us, contain a good amount of sugar, and that sugar also counts.
Who recommendation for sugar consumption
It will soon be three years since the World Health Organization (WHO) published a document with recommendations and guidelines on the consumption of sugar in adults and children, and made it very clear:
“For both adults and children, the consumption of free sugars should be reduced to less than 10% of the total caloric intake. A reduction below 5% in total caloric intake would produce additional health benefits. ”
Maximum 25-50 grams of sugar per day
10% of the total caloric intake means that if we ingest about 2000 Kcal daily, free sugars should be a maximum of 50 grams per day. Although the amount can vary from children to adults:
- Adults: do not exceed 50-60 grams and better if we take a maximum of 25-30 grams.
- Children: do not exceed 30-35 grams and better if they take less than 15-20 grams.
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Example of breakfast with too much sugar
If we have a coffee with sugar, juice, and a bun with jam for breakfast, we will be consuming around 45 grams of sugar, which already represents 90% of the recommended daily total per day.
If we easily eat cereals for breakfast, we consume about 10 grams of sugar, or if we choose a fruit yogurt, we will surely consume more than 5 grams of added sugar. So not everything is the sugar that we can add to a coffee or an infusion. Many elaborated products are sweet and contain very high amounts of sugars.
What Foods Have Sugar?
Seen this way, it might seem like a lot of sugar, but the point is that sugar is not only the one that we can add to our food, it is also the one that is part of food production (jam, pastries and cakes, fruit juices. ….
“Free sugars include monosaccharides and disaccharides added to food by manufacturers, cooks, or consumers, as well as naturally occurring sugars in honey, syrups, fruit juices, and fruit juice concentrates.”.
Also, it is found in many other products in which, despite perceiving an acidic, bitter, or salty taste, the presence of sugar exists among its ingredients. Many times, this content is not negligible. For instance:
- Frozen lasagna Bolognese: 3.9%, which represents 10 g of sugars per portion.
- Fried tomato: 7.5-7.9% sugars. In a pasta dish where we can put about 4-5 tablespoons of sauce, we add at least 5 grams of sugar.
- Canned egg ravioli with meat and tomato sauce: 5.5 g per 100 g. a serving of about 250g is 16-17g of sugar.
- Modena Vinegar: 39-49% sugars, a teaspoon of 10 ml contains 4-5 g, it is easily seasoned with double or triple.
- Parmesan noodles (made from a sachet): 3.4%, one serving contains 7 g of sugar.
- Brick vegetable cream: 2.2%. Taking a 250 ml cup, we are consuming 5.5 grams of sugar.
Hard to believe, right? But it is true, and we only have to read the labels well to know the nutritional composition of the products we buy.
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