Chances are there’s added sugar in your food.
Monica Serna, clinical nutrition manager for Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, said, “As much as 75 percent of today’s foods have added sugar.”
Serna spoke to Sun City Summerlin residents May 11 about the effects of sugar on one’s health.
Sugar is added, she said, to improve taste and texture and to act as a bulking agent or a preservative. Tomato sauce, for example, has added sugar to counteract its acidity.
Much of our intake of sugar comes from what we drink. A New York City Obesity Task Force study on soda consumption showed that in the 1950s, the average size of a can of soda was 6.5 ounces, with 75 calories. In the 1960s, the can size doubled. In the 1990s, 20-ounce bottles became popular, as well as drinks such as 7-Eleven’s 64-ounce Double Gulp.
“People were drinking all of their calories, plus what they were eating at their meals,” Serna said.
On food labels, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose and high-fructose corn syrup indicate added sugar.
“There are more than 60 different names for sugar that can be added to your food,” Serna said. “A lot of them end in ‘ose.’ If you’re reading a label and there’s an ingredients you’re not sure of, if it ends in ‘ose,’ that’s an indicator that it’s some type of sugar.”
More sugar leads to more weight, she said, and can result in health concerns such as high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary issues, vascular disease, atherosclerosis — a buildup of plaque inside arteries — and heart failure.
Source: www.reviewjournal.com