As
part of a healthy balanced diet, you should eat foods and drinks that
are high in sugars in small amounts.
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What
is sugar?
All
sugars are carbohydrates found naturally in most foods. Their main
nutritional value is in providing energy. However, sugar is also added to
lots of foods such as sweets, chocolate, cakes and some fizzy and juice
drinks.
In
the ingredients list, sugar added to food may be called:
· glucose
· sucrose
· maltose
· corn syrup
· honey
· hydrolysed starch
· invert sugar
· fructose
How
much sugar?
Added
sugars shouldn’t make up more than 10% of the energy (calorie intake) you get
from food and drink each day.
This
is about 70g for men and 50g for women but it varies depending on:
· your size
· your age
· how active you are
Fruit
juice and honey can also count as added sugars as they're sometimes added to
foods to make them sweeter. Fruit juice is still a healthy choice (one 150ml
serving counts towards your 5 A DAY). However, the sugars can damage
your teeth, so it’s best to drink it with a meal. Sugars in whole pieces of
fruit are less likely to do this because the sugars are contained within the
food, while in fruit juice the sugars are released during the juicing
process.
You
shouldn’t cut down on fruit as it’s an important part of a healthy, balanced
diet.
Check
food labels
Read
the nutritional information on food labels to see how much sugar the food
contains. Remember that sugar has many different names. The nearer the
beginning of the ingredient list the sugar is, the more sugar the product
contains.
Look
for the 'Carbohydrates (of which sugars)' figure in the nutrition label to
see how much sugar the product contains for every 100g:
· more than 22.5g of total
sugars per 100g is high
· 5g of total sugars or
less per 100g is low
If
the amount of sugars per 100g is between these figures, that’s a medium level
of sugars.
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Cutting
down on sugar
These
tips may help you cut down on sugar:
Instead of sugary, fizzy drinks and juice drinks,
go for water or unsweetened fruit juice (remember to dilute these for
children, to further reduce the sugar)
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If you take sugar in hot drinks or
add it to cereal, gradually reduce the amount until you can cut it out
altogether
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Check nutrition labels to help you pick the foods
with less added sugar, or go for the low-sugar version
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Choose tins of fruit in juice rather than
syrup
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Choose wholegrain breakfast cereals, but not
those coated with sugar or honey
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