The journey of going to the supermarket — Sugars
It becomes increasingly difficult to go to the supermarket and try to make a good decision when buying some products. I’m going to make some posts where I talk about tips that help me when I want to choose a product.
No post first talked about ingredients list and 5 tips on how to shop consciously without having to spend 2 hours in the supermarket.
Today I bring you my 2 specific tips about sugars.
First, I’ll talk about what the World Health Organization (WHO) tells us to consume, and I’ll give you a concrete example of meals for a day and the approximate counting of sugars and also some substitutions they can make to reduce the amount of sugar consumed. .
Finally, I’ll tell you about my 2 practical tips on how to apply all this during trips to the supermarket.
The recommendation from WHO related to sugar is:
A new WHO guideline recommends adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5% or roughly 25 grams (6 teaspoons) per day would provide additional health benefits.
For a person who consumes 2000 calories a day (this value is just an example, the number of calories each person should ingest is very individual and depends on factors such as weight, sex, age, daily physical activity, etc.):
5% of total calories = 100 calories in sugar = 25g of sugar = 6 teaspoons
An important fact to keep in mind when reading nutrition labels: 4 grams of sugar = 1 teaspoon
But what are “free sugars”?
That is, anything that is added to sugar counts towards the count. What is not considered are the sugars naturally present in fruits and some other vegetables or tubers (only if they are not processed).
In the USA, it is already recommended separating added sugars from naturally present sugars.
So, I just need to look for “0% added sugar” or “No added sugar”?
No. There is a discrepancy between legislation in Europe and the World Health Organization. Europe allows producers to put “0% added sugar” when no sugars are added. However, according to WHO, if the food is not in its natural state (it is processed), the sugars in it are considered free sugars (or “free sugars”). Why? For example, when we go from oranges to orange juice (100% fruit), during processing we destroy the fibre capsule of the food, where the sugar is, this will cause:
- Quick absorption of most of the sugars present (because your body doesn’t have a fibre capsule to overcome), causing a very rapid rise in blood sugar (which can lead to insulin resistance and consequently diabetes)
- As the absorption is very fast, they won’t make us satiated (which makes it an addition of calories and not a replacement of calories).
An apple is not considered for counting because it contains fibre in its natural state, whereas apple juice would already be considered because it no longer has this “capsule” (fibre) that was removed during food processing.
Here, you can see a video from the Heart Association of the United Kingdom (British Heart Association) where it explains very well the definition of “free sugars”.
When fruit is turned into fruit juice, the sugars come out of their cells and become free sugars
For example:
This 100% Orange juice from innocent has:
- 900mL
- It is made with 11 oranges (is on the description)
- It contains 5 doses of 180 mL (which is an average glass)→ Each glass would be the equivalent of 2,2 oranges.
You can try drinking a glass of orange today at lunch and see how you feel, and tomorrow try the same with 2,2 oranges. I would say they will be less hungry in the second option.
180mL 100% orange juice = 14g of free sugar
2.2 oranges = 0 free sugar (due to being in its natural state — with fibre). This allows for slow and not all absorption of the sugar within it. This is just an analysis of sugar levels, not calories.
Comparing home-made juice with purchased juice, which is better?
Juice made at home because when made at home, and of course assuming you drink it right away, it will have more antiviral, antioxidant and anticancer properties. You also have the opportunity to be creative and add not only fruit, but also some vegetables and greens. On this site, they have juice recipes, and you can also see nutritional information for the juice version (when strained) and shaken version (when not strained).
Juice purchased as a rule is either pasteurized or cold pressed. Pasteurization is a heating process to increase the shelf life of the product, killing potential bacteria that can cause illness, but at the same time it is destroying much of the juice’s nutritional power.
Example of a meal plan for a day
Below is just an analysis of the amount of free sugars, I have not considered other macronutrients, vitamins, minerals or calories.
Example for replacements
- Orange juice for 1 orange = -14 g
- Strawberry Greek yogurt per natural Greek yogurt and add fresh strawberries = -15.3g + 4.5 = — 10.8g
- Replace by dried fruit (if only the crunchy one) or a lower sugar granola (between 5–10% sugar per 100g)
- Balsamic cream for balsamic vinegar. If you like a sweet in the salad, you can add a whole orange, apple or strawberries = -3.5g
- Soy sauce without added sugar (it will have a shorter shelf life because sugar also helps preserve) = -4g
By making small substitutions, we were able to reduce the free sugars from 70g to 17.8g (being in the guidelines and recommended by the WHO).
What I do to have a balance between speed and awareness of what I buy is:
6. Ratio between fibre and carbohydrates is 1:5
This is for everything that is biscuits (which I actually don’t even buy any more), granola, etc.
Example: 100g of granola with 3g of fibre could only have up to 15g of carbohydrates.
7. Have a maximum of 10% sugar per 100g (when the dose I will eat is greater than 50g per day)
For example, a yogurt with 20g of sugar would be a no. A fruit yogurt hardly would be within these values, but here what I do is put fresh fruit on top. In the case, for example, of chocolate that I eat 1 square (15g) I am already more flexible, however here I avoid, as I said in the previous post, that the first ingredient is sugar.
Final thoughts
I won’t say that I apply these tips 100% of the time I go to the supermarket because I would be lying and because for me, I think it’s unnecessary. But I try to apply these rules to most of my trips to the supermarket.
If so much information and the time we would need for all of this can seem overwhelming? Yes, I understand yes but, you don’t need to apply the rules all at once. You can start by choosing 1 or 2 and using for 2 weeks and then when it’s become a habit to move on to another one and apply gradually, so it’s not too overwhelming.
Below I leave you the 7 tips spoken so far in this post and the previous one.
You just read another post from Mafalda Lima | SuperUS: a health and fitness blog dedicated to sharing knowledge to make you become the best version of yourself.
