sugar shockers in times article

[ihatethecold]

i was reading an article on diabetes at the weekend in the sat supplement.
it listed some items of food and the amount of teaspoons of sugar.

jar of Dolmio 10 teaspoons ???
McDonalds milkshake 20 teaspoons!!

i do understand the milkshake but Dolmio sauce???

glass of Tropicana 4 teaspoons.

There were many more that i was gobsmacked by.

i wish the labeling was clearer. it would change my purchases.
i try to be conscious with my buying but all this hidden sugar worries me.

ketchup has a lot of sugar as well.
in juice I expect a lot of sugar as it's sweet...

Rather than clearer labelling, solve all these problems by not buying things in jars and packets. Instead of Dolmio Sauce (rip-off) make something simple with tomatoes (or passata) and a few herbs. You not only cut out massive amounts of sugar but also stacks of salt and other nasties at the same tim.

Tropicana? I thought that was pure juice???

You wish labelling was clearer
Packaging pretty much all states calories/carbs/sugar/fat/sodium per 100g and most also give it per portion plus showing % of RDA per portion.
In fact quite a lot of food have the per portion stats on the front of the packet.

I think tbh the problem is most people don't bother to check them.

Also its not exactly a surprise that a lot of processed food isn't particularly healthy. And given the frequency of this kind of article the information is not shocking.

BTW... the reason Dolmio contains so much sugar is that, like a lot of other processed food, the manufacturers use cheap, nasty-tasting ingredients and then correct the flavour afterwards with sugar, salt est.

"glass of Tropicana 4 teaspoons."

That's because it is bloody fruit juice!! It's not rocket science really. This may explain the Dolmio too. it's not hidden sugar!

Very misleading article as they are not necessarily talking about added sugar but are including natural sugars.

Pure juice has loads of natural sugar in it. A glass of fruit juice is loads of calories. Milk has loads of natural sugar in it to.

I would guess the sugar in the Dolmio was lots from the tomatoes...

This is why some people have probs dieting - they guzzle lots of fruit juice thinking it is healthy and low calorie when actually it is full of sugar and high calorie.

Who sits down and eats a whole jar of pasta sauce though?

Is this more or less sugar than other brands of pasta sauce? I add some sugar when I'm cooking sauce from scratch tbh (I buy cheap tinned toms so it needs it), albeit not 10 teaspoons. I probably add about 1 tablespoon = 3 tsps.

I'm not that concerned about that amount of sugar in a jar of sauce that I'd stretch to 6 or so servings.

i don't buy dolmio. i would make from scratch but i think that processed food (whether you buy it or not) should have very clear and easy to understand labelling.

but it does have clear and easy to understand labelling - tbh I'm not sure how they could make it clearer.

What do you actually want them to put on it considering they already put the amount of sugar both per 100g/100ml and usually per portion as well? Also places like sainsburys use the traffic light system on top of it.

I don't know how they can make it clearer.

Red Grape juice has more sugar than Coke, about 12 teaspoons to 10.

All fruit juice is bad.

Jesus, I'm never buying fruit juice again.

maybe i just want it to be so easy,, like this product which we labelled as "healthy" actually has XXX teaspoons of sugar in it !

But remember there is nothing intrinsically wrong with sugar. Everything in moderation :-)

Are you diabetic ihatethecold?

If not, surely moderation is the way to go. I don't think you could exactly call a small amount of fresh juice, even on a regular basis, bad or unhealthy

bananas are full of the stuff, I still eat them.
everything in moderation. apart from chocolate covered peanuts

no im not, but it is something that bothers me. in terms of the way the country seems to be going with so many people having diabetes caused by lifestyle.

i worry about my kids growing up with so much sugar in their diet..
i do feed them healthy homemade food.. but as they get older its harder to know what they eat, when they are not eating at home.

I think the labelling is pretty much OK.

Not surprised about the sugar content of the juice. It's juice! I drink Coke and when in a phase of thinking I should stop I compared it to apple juice and it was basically the same amount of sugar. Or course the phosphoric acid and flavourings aren't exactly brilliant but I'll get to that.

What does piss me off with added sugar is

Yoghurts which have "low fat" plastered all over them and perfectly sensible people like my old work colleagues buy them without realising that if you adulterate a nice natural thing like yoghurt by getting rid of the fat, you have to add in loads of sugar instead to make it palatable. That labelling is IMO misleading.

Also don't like "no added sugar" fruit drinks which quietly have loads of chemical sweeteners that are mentioned in little letters on the label.

I think labelling like those 2 examples are deliberately misleading on the part of the food companies.

Oh yes and breakfast cereals which trumpet "only 1% fat" on the front. All of that. It's not on. A lot of people get flummoxed and the companies are doing it on purpose to mislead.

That sounds contradictory

The labelling on the back with the breakdown is fine.
The big statements on the front about eg cereals not having any fat or lard not having any sugar should be clamped down on.

"Red Grape juice has more sugar than Coke, about 12 teaspoons to 10.

All fruit juice is bad."

No, fruit juice isn't bad.

Red grape juice may have more sugar but a) it is naturally occurring fruit sugar and b) it also has healthy stuff too. Unlike the coke which is pure unadulterated crap.

Sugar is not bad.

It's the "no added sugar" stuff you should be worried about as they usually have artificial sweeteners in. Personally, I'll take my chances with sugar.

Pure adulterated crap, surely

No, it is crap, unadulterated by anything healthy. :)

LOL. It was an article about diabetes. Diabetics are concerned with how much carbohydrate they eat. Doesn't matter to them whether it is added sugar or natural sugar. Or indeed whether it is sugar at all or non-sugar carbs. The body turns it all into sugar in the blood anyway.

A medium jacket potato has about 50g carb in it - that's 10 spoons of sugar into the blood.

I have here a 400g can of tomatoes.
Ingredients: Tomatoes
Carbohydrates : 22g
of which sugar: 22g

4.5 spoons of sugar in a can of tomatoes. Don't blame Dolmio for being nasty, they just used tomatoes ...