A January Reuters poll shows that the majority of Americans are trying to cut their sugar intake.
With headlines such as “Exclusive: Americans say they are trying to cut sugar intake,” it looks like sugar will remain a media darling into 2016. However, the fact is that this poll–and story–is not telling us anything new. What many people clearly don’t realize is that a downward trend for sugar intake is not a recent one at all. Per capita consumption of all caloric sweeteners has been declining for over 15 years, with United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data showing that intake is down 15.3 percent from 1999.
On the topic of what many people may not know...when you look at USDA data over the past 40 years, the American diet has increased by almost 500 calories per day. Did you know that only 38 of those calories can be attributed to added sugars?
We are eating a lot of things and added sugars make up less than 10 percent of the extra calories Americans are overconsuming!
It is quite evident that sugar is the latest policy target, as reflected by the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and ongoing efforts by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regarding labeling. Limits on added sugars are seen as the low hanging fruit in the fight against obesity—a quick way to cut calories. But clearly the issue of obesity is far more complex than just one ingredient.
Source: www.sugar.org