Thursday, March 28

Hidden sugar: 10 foods you probably don’t suspect have it

Hidden sugar is that ingredient that you cannot see in a food product, but that is often disproportionately present. It can be compared to added sugar, but often it is not the same, because hidden sugar sometimes belongs intrinsically to the nature of the food and therefore does not need to be added.

Other times it is sugar that has been introduced in search of exalting the appetite for sweet taste or to cover certain bad smells, textures or deficiencies.

In all cases it is a sugar that we do not suspect is there and that many times we are not able to clearly identify when tasting the food.

The WHO recommends that sugar is less than 10% of the total caloric value of your diet: “For both adults and children, the consumption of free sugars should be reduced to less than 10% of total caloric intake. A reduction below 5% of total caloric intake would produce additional health benefits.

But the reality is that we are far from meeting these objectives. According to Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics“based on several recent studies, we could say that the consumption of added and hidden sugar in Europe stands at 7-12% of total daily energy (ETD) in adults and 11-18% in children”.

The Association adds that a large part of the hidden sugar in minors comes from sugary drinks: “according to data from the period 2011-2014, the average consumption of these drinks in children and adolescents was 7.3% of the ETD, a proportion that increased with age, reaching almost 10% in adolescents”.

Beyond sugary drinks

The presence of sugar in all types of carbonated soft drinks is notable and well known, as well as in most types of cakes and biscuits, in all kinds of sweets, breakfast cereals, etc.

We are aware of its amount of sugar and based on this we can avoid or moderate its consumption, which is harmful to our cardiovascular health. However, in the case of hidden sugar, by its very definition, we are unaware of its existence in products that seem perfectly normal to us and that we eat without being aware of their harmful potential.

That is why it is convenient to know them, in order to moderate their consumption or opt for healthier ones. Here we explain ten of these foods with hidden sugar that you surely do not suspect.

The dirty ten hidden sugar

1. Sliced ​​bread

The consumption of sliced ​​bread or English bread already represented less than a decade ago 10.7% of the total of bread eaten in Spanish homes, according to data from the consultancy IRI World Wide. Currently, the Spanish Confederation of Bakeries (Ceoppan) sets it at “half of what is billed annually in Spain” only in bakery bread, without counting industrial versions.

Back in the day we did an article on the reasons for leaving sliced ​​bread out of our diet and we stated that the main one was its disproportionate amount of sugar. Partly because this ingredient is used to be fermented by the levada, producing gas, which makes the dough rise.

But also to make a more appetizing product and therefore can make us eat more than necessary. An average sliced ​​bread contains approximately 8 to 10 grams of sugar per two slices, which means that in a couple of sandwiches there are between 16 and 20 grams, the equivalent of three lumps.

2. Industrial sauces

From the ubiquitous ketchup to boat tomato sauces, going through all kinds of mustards and vinaigrettes for salads, the presence of sugar is very important, reaching an average of 21 grams per 100 grams of sauce.

For example, according to the organization Sinazúcar.org, a dose of 55 grams of Heinz ketchup contains 12 grams of sugar, about three cubes. We are talking about what fits in a small bowl to season a hamburger.

3. Pizza

Do not forget that the pizzas are made with refined flour dough, which is nothing more than pure and hard starch, which is broken down in the intestine into glucose. Therefore the base of the pizza releases large amounts of hidden sugar that can be avoided if the pizza is made with whole wheat flour, something very rare.

4. Diet bars

Many people consume this type of bars as a supplement after or before doing sports, or as a substitute for a normal meal. What these people are unaware of is that this type of product can contain up to 36 grams of sugar per 100 grams of product.

In the composition, the sugars they contain are usually elusively specified. According to the endocrinology team of the Teknon Clinic in Barcelona“in the list of ingredients added sugar can be identified as sugar, and also by many other names, such as glucose, sucrose, dextrose, glucose syrup, fructose, oligofructose, fructose syrup, caramel, honey, concentrated fruit juice , dextrin, maltodextrin, modified corn starch, tapioca, etc.

5. Fruit juice

Natural fruit juices already have a significant amount of intrinsic sugar, but if we go to packaged and concentrated industrial juices, we will see that these amounts of glucose skyrocket many times over.

According to a study published in 2016 in the Journal of Nutrition and based on people with cardiovascular risk, drinking more than five glasses per week of sugary or sweetened beverages, including Light and fruit juices, increases abdominal obesity, arterial hypertension, blood triglyceride levels and reduces good cholesterol.

Also, a study carried out by the Pediatric Service of the Rey Juan Carlos University Hospital in 2014 It showed that 70% of children drink packaged fruit juice for snacks, something that scientific societies have agreed should be limited because they are foods rich in sugar and because of their low nutritional value.

6. Breakfast yogurts

Another case is that of myths about food Light, as is the case with yogurt. One of them is that they lose weight because they provide fewer calories. It is false, since the method to measure them is based on milk fats, when what is truly pernicious are the added sugars that they often present.

According to Sinazúcar.org“a Carrefour Kids Yogurt contains 18 grams of sugar, of which 5 correspond to the natural lactose of the sugar and the other 13 to hidden and added sugars”.

7. Some vegetable drinks

Within the range of vegetable drinks known as vegetable milk, we must be careful with the selection for our consumption, since some of them include quite a few added sugars, as can be read in their nutritional composition. The nutritionist Júlia Farré recommend moderating oatmeal and rice drinks.

8.Sushi

We come to sushi and therefore to the great problem of refined rice, that is, without dietary fiber. The same thing happens with pizza, that rice, like wheat, is a cereal, and cereals accumulate starch in their seed, that is, long chains of sugars. The recommendation is not to abuse this type of dish.

9.Chocolate

Dark chocolate is a mass of cocoa paste with sugar and the percentage of this ingredient can vary from 50% to 1% in the case of chocolates with 99% cocoa, which would be the only ones that are recommended.

If we talk about a milk chocolate, in this product the sugar shoots up, as it results from the mixture of cocoa butter, rich in sugar in itself, with condensed milk. A product therefore really harmful.

10. Modena vinegar cream

The Modena vinegar cream that is sold as a luxury product and that looks so good in salads due to its caramelized touch, is actually an addition of glucose syrup with poor quality vinegar, which can add up to 43 grams of sugar per 100ml, as can be read on the counter de calories Fatsecret.

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