All Sugary & Nice for a Greater Price

Sugary Foods Contain Empty Calories with No Nutrient Content

Kids love to eat chocolate donuts, sugary rasagollas or creamy pastries during any time of the day. Children try to please adults to earn their sugary foods. Is there any magic potion or chemical added to attract kids like a magnet to sugary foods?

The major sources of free sugars include sugary drinks, sweets, cakes, chocolates, pastries and biscuits. ‘Free sugars’ are monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods by manufacturers, chefs or consumers along with the sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices. It does not include sugars present in whole fruits or vegetables.

WHO recommends intake of free sugars to be not more than 10% of total daily energy intake for both adults and children, but the ideal intake recommended is less than 5%. Most individuals consume beyond the recommended values adding empty calories and spoiling their healthy intake. Obesity, one of the leading health problems currently, is mainly due to increased intake of sugary beverages, junk foods that contain sugar as the main ingredient and increased consumption of bad fats. Many nations, including India, are concerned about the health condition of their citizens and are taking decisive actions to curb obesity. The first step here is to reduce the consumption of sugary products and promote the advantages of eating healthy. To reduce obesity stakes and increase nutrition quotient, please visit the website www.firsteatright.com to get in touch with reputed nutritionists/dietitians who can help you start leading a healthy lifestyle.

Reasons Why Food Industries are in Love with Sugar as the Major Ingredient
Incentives for using sugar as the main component in food manufacturing include:

1. Sugar is the gold standard for sweetness
2. Sugar is easily available, inexpensive and abundantly manufactured
3. To maintain competitiveness
4. To maintain ‘choice’ for consumers who want to purchase sugary foods
5. Sugar provides the essential functional qualities for manufactured foods
6. Consumers are greatly concerned over the use of artificial sweeteners
   
   

Presently, there are very few advantages for producers to reduce sugar in manufactured food. These include:

1. Consumers are becoming more and more aware of the benefits of reducing intake of sugar.
2. Government policies and actions to reduce consumer demand for sugar.
3. Increased availability of non-caloric sweeteners.
   
   

Governments can adopt certain practices to curb such increased intake of sugary foods and improve the nutritional quality of diets:

1. Pricing policies
2. Consumer-friendly labeling
3. Regulating foods marketed with the main aim of targeting children
4. School food standards
5. Strategize to reformulate the composition of foods
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Governments can also levy extra taxes on sugary beverages and warn manufacturers to lower sugar contents in foods through specific, time-bound targets for sugar reduction.