It is a truth universally acknowledged that eating too much sugar can lead to both weight gain and tooth decay.
And it is ‘free sugars’ that most adults and children in the UK eat too much of. These are any sugars added to food or drinks, such as biscuits, cereal, chocolate, flavoured drinks or added sugars in our home cooking. Sugars also occur naturally in foods such as fruit, vegetables and milk, but these are different to ‘free sugars’.
‘Natural’ sugars include honey, agave nectar, maple syrup and are often favored for being more natural or unprocessed. But natural sweeteners and table sugar are both broken down into glucose and fructose during digestion, so there is no scientific evidence that the form of sugar found in natural sweeteners is any better than table sugar. So while coconut sugar, or other unrefined sugars, may undergo less processing and retain some natural vitamins and minerals, these nutrients will have minimal effects and be outweighed by the sugar that’s being consumed.
Artificial sweeteners on the other hand, are substances that have been chemically made to mimic sugar. The more commonly known sugar substitutes include aspartame, saccharin and Sucralose. Aspartame was classified by the WHO as ‘possibly carcinogenic’ to humans in June 2023 and has also been linked to negative changes in gut bacteria. These sweeteners contain zero calories and are many times sweeter than table sugar. They are found in many ‘sugar-free’ products like diet drinks, and are often used in low calorie desserts.
Some studies have suggested that artificial sweeteners can also raise blood sugar levels, one hypothesis being that if the body tastes sweetness on the tongue but the calories don’t subsequently arrive, this can cause stress in the body, spiking blood sugar. But the exact mechanism is still unknown.
The government recommends that free sugars- or sugars added to food and drinks, or those found naturally in foods such as honey, syrups and juices, shouldn’t make up more than 5% of the energy (calories) you get from food and drink each day. This equates to adults having no more than 30g of free sugars/ day (roughly 7 sugar cubes), with children 7-10 years having no more than 24g of free sugars/ day (roughly 6 sugar cubes) and children 4-6 years having no more than 19g free sugars/ day (roughly 5 sugar cubes). There are no guidelines for children under 4 years, but it is recommended they avoid sugar-sweetened drinks and food with sugar in it.
So how do we know how much sugar is in our food? One way is to get familiar with food labels. Sugar goes by many different names such as cane sugar, honey, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate/ purées, corn syrup, fructose, sucrose, nectars (such as blossom), crystalline sucrose, dextrose, maltose, molasses and treacle. The ingredients are also listed by weight from greatest to smallest. Sugars may also appear more than once, under a number of different names within the same product. If it’s sitting as the first ingredient on the label, there’s a good chance it will be high in sugar.
Products high in sugar, according to the NHS, have more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g, while low is 5g or less of total sugars per 100g. Medium would sit between these ranges, and products generally will be colour-coded (red/ amber/ green) depending on their sugar content.
But while these guidelines are helpful, we can lose sight of what’s important. It’s less about getting caught up choosing between table sugar, natural sugar and sweetener and more that we should ensure the vast majority of our diet shouldn’t contain added sugars/ sweeteners of any kind. It is a whole food, minimally processed diet that we want to aim for and for it to include whole grains, fruit, vegetables, lean protein and water.
