February 2011 - How sweet it is - or is it?
Australians like sweetness. Our average yearly consumption of sugar exceeds 43 kg. We’ve also embraced artificial sweeteners as we guzzle our way through diet cola drinks and assume we’re being healthy by choosing ‘lite’ versions of yoghurt and other items that have substituted low-kilojoule sweeteners for sugar.
Unlike earlier generations who bought their sugar and added it to their foods, we don’t see most of the sugar we consume. It’s already in soft drinks, cordials, fruit drinks, sports drinks, vitamin waters, breakfast cereals, confectionery, yoghurt, ice cream and other desserts, cakes, biscuits, sauces, marinades and jams. Most marinades are one-third sugar, sweet chilli sauce is half sugar, and chocolate powders so popular for adding to milk are usually 80% sugar.
The adverse health effects of sugars are well known to most people. Tooth decay is the major problem and in case anyone thinks that’s not really a health problem, official estimates put the cost of filling the holes in Australians’ teeth as greater than all the costs associated with coronary heart disease (including research, emergency treatments and triple bypass surgery).
Sugar has fewer kilojoules than alcohol or fat, but its kilojoules meld with others and slide down effortlessly, especially with sugary drinks. Recent research shows that the body’s satiety mechanisms don’t work for liquid kilojoules. Eat a couple of slices of bread and you’ll feel full enough to delay eating anything else. But take in the same number of kilojoules with a sugary drink (or alcohol) and the body makes no compensation by cutting consumption of anything else.
Many studies now show the adverse effects of sugar-sweetened drinks on weight. A couple of studies have even persuaded teenagers to stop drinking sugared soft drinks. After 6 months, weight fell, even with no other dietary changes.
We also now have 11 studies, involving 311,000 people, that report even 1-2 servings of sugary drinks a day increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Some have included juice among these drinks. The sugar may be ‘natural’ in juices, but even pure juice fits into the category of liquid kilojoules. If the juice is made from crushed fruit and contains the natural fruit fibre, it’s a different story. The fibre is filling.
Sugar has also now been officially listed as a heart disease risk. Studies show that sugar increases levels of fats called triglycerides. Once the diet has more than 20 per cent of its energy from sugars (a common level in most Australian children and many adults), triglyceride levels are likely to rise. If you’re active enough every day, you may escape this particular problem, but new studies now show that the more sugar consumed, the lower the blood levels of ‘good’ HDL cholesterol – the kind that protects against heart disease.
We basically eat sugar because it makes foods taste good. Many fatty foods are unpalatable without either salt or sugar. Take the sugar out of cakes, pies, biscuits and desserts and consumption of these foods would plummet.
So should we avoid sugar and switch to artificial sweeteners instead?
For those interested in sustainability, there’s little comfort in knowing that artificial sweeteners have a much heftier carbon footprint than sugar.
Those with sensitive tastebuds will also leave artificial sweeteners on the supermarket shelf because they are universally recognised as being inferior to sugar in flavour.
If you have read any of the internet discussion describing a range of horrible health effects of aspartame (the most commonly used artificial sweetener), you may also be inclined to avoid them. These ‘reports’ have cropped up regularly over the last 15 years or so, although each one is headed as ‘new’.
I avoid artificial sweeteners for the first two reasons above. I don’t believe the Internet claims.
The scariest claim is that aspartame causes brain cancers and seizures. Many experts have looked into these claims and found they have no basis in fact. The Cancer Council finds the argument is flawed and you can read a good description of their opinion at http://www.cancerwa.asn.au/resources/cancermyths/artificial-sweeteners-myth.
With everything we consume, it’s always the dose that makes the poison. Too much of anything is harmful.
There is no doubt that the average Australian eats too much sugar. Food Standards Australia New Zealand has also looked at the highest possible intake of aspartame that could reasonably be consumed, taking into account all the foods and drinks that contain it. Even if you gorged yourself on these items, your intake would be way below any threshold at which it might be harmful.
So does that mean we shouldn’t worry about artificial sweeteners? Not in my opinion. Their real problem is that they maintain the desire for sweet drinks and foods.
As those who once took sugar in their tea or coffee know, once you stop having a sweet-tasting drink, your tastebuds adjust and you no longer even like the sweet version. If we stopped drinking sweetened drinks, the same effect would occur.
There’s no evidence that a small amount of sugar is harmful. The World Health Organisation and the Institute of Medicine in the United States have checked the evidence and say that 5-10% of our energy coming from sugar is not a problem.
For most Australians, that would mean at least halving our sugar intake – so it’s not that we must go for none. A little bit of what you fancy is not a problem.
Next month, I’ll finish this with a list of the sweeteners that are permitted in Australia and list some of the interesting new sweet possibilities. ☼