Why are they allowing this in our food?

Hi all, I just had to share the following photo with you. (mods if this is the wrong forum please move to the correct forum)

The following photo was taken at the Irish Dental Association Conference recently. Sugar display used in the Moloney award at the IDA conference.

The photo shows you some of all our favourite snacks and treats, below them is the actual sugar content these goodies contain! I’m absolutely staggered at the amount of Sugar in food. In the photo at the top right hand corner are some sweets made by the natural confectionary company, they pride themselves in advertising that they contain no added sugar and only have natural ingredients, Parents tend to by these sweets for their kids believing that they are good for their children, when you see the amount of sugar inside one bag I think many parents would think twice about giving these to a child!

Why oh why are they allowing so much sugar to be digested by people every day? What are the long term effects of having too much sugar in your system apart from the most obvious increased diabetes?

I must have missed the part where they forced you to buy...any of this.

In all seriousness, I always hate hearing people blame companies for sugar content. It's clearly labelled on the packaging just how many grams of sugar are in each product. Why are you shocked when 100g of sugar in a piece of candy is a large amount? Shouldn't the number "100" tell you that?

1. Because Sugar is addictive

Sugar can be an addictive substance, wielding its power over the brains of lab animals in a manner similar to many drugs of abuse.

2. Sugar is so addictive they put it in cigarettes

3. Most modern empires (US included) were funded by sugar cane

Europe’s great cities were built on profits from the labor and blood of slaves cutting sugarcane half a world away.

It isn't a new thing. The sugar industry has been silently running the world for the last 300 years.

We always had unsweetened tea and black coffee at home. I got milk, homemade fruit juice or water as a child. We didn't buy cola, sugar sweetened cereal or candy. My idea of cereal was oatmeal or Shredded Wheat. I never knew what kool-aid or froot loops tasted like until I was a teenager.

As a result, I just don't eat much of that stuff on the display. I have developed a taste for small amounts of chocolate, so a small bag of M&Ms will last me until the bugs finish it. I occasionally buy ice cream but it takes me two weeks to eat a pint. I think I had a Coke last year.

eta: we did have honey on biscuits (not cookies for you British-English speakers, American biscuits are a sort of quick bread). But it was our honey from our hives, and a little went a long way.

reply to post by Bedlam


If your fruit juice is from concentrate then it probably contains more sugar than cola, but I think the chemicals used to sweeten things in the absence of sugar, will be way more damaging to our health.

A lot of candy, snacks an so on are made purely out of sugar, just added some fruit flavor.

There is nothing wrong with that at all, it's up to people themself to regulate this, and with children, the parents should regulate it.

Originally posted by lewman
reply to post by Bedlam

 

If your fruit juice is from concentrate then it probably contains more sugar than cola, but I think the chemicals used to sweeten things in the absence of sugar, will be way more damaging to our health.

Nope, as I said it was home-made, toss apples or grapes in a juicer sort of thing like making cider. And we grew our own apples and grapes, too.

reply to post by Bedlam


Ahh yes I apologise for reading your post too quickly but I suppose there is no harm in spreading the message for those that don't know.

Originally posted by InternalMedDoc

Originally posted by bluloa


Why oh why are they allowing so much sugar to be digested by people every day?

I must have missed the part where they forced you to buy...any of this.

In all seriousness, I always hate hearing people blame companies for sugar content. It's clearly labelled on the packaging just how many grams of sugar are in each product. Why are you shocked when 100g of sugar in a piece of candy is a large amount? Shouldn't the number "100" tell you that?

Nobody forces you to buy anything, but a lot of the food shown is advertised as healthy for you. In my childs school they have a healthy eating programme and one of the foods listed as healthy is yogurt, and yet here above its clealry the case that yogurt isnt that healthy with the large amounts of sugar it contains.

Why is this amount allowed into food, what benefit does adding or allowing high levels of sugar have in food?

Originally posted by lewman
reply to post by Bedlam

 

Ahh yes I apologise for reading your post too quickly but I suppose there is no harm in spreading the message for those that don't know.

It's one of the little benefits of living on a farm as a kid, I suppose. We had grape arbors and a lot of fruit trees. We made cider out of the apples, fed the pulp to the cows, pigs and at times the bees. Also you have a lot of fairly non-standard fruit juices you pick up on - not so many city kids get blueberry juice or plum juice for breakfast, I'd suppose.

It sort of depended on what was in season. Blackberry juice cooked down some was one of my favorites.

Oddly enough, my blood sugar is perfect. I'm 80-90 all the time. After a big meal I'll peak out at 100 for an hour or two.

reply to post by bluloa

In my childs school they have a healthy eating programme and one of the foods listed as healthy is yogurt, and yet here above its clealry the case that yogurt isnt that healthy with the large amounts of sugar it contains.

Again, it's not unhealthy if you control how much you digest, just because it has sugar in it dosn't make it unhealthy, unless ofcause, you only eat yogurt.
In a varied diet, there is nothing wrong with yogurt, or sugar.

reply to post by bluloa


Big Pharma - diabetics - insulin - depopulation _ from "cheap food" fed to the slaves.

I should GMO. and the diseases they cause.

reply to post by bluloa


You should look at potatoe chips, doritoes and such - you'll be really amazed at how unhealthy they are.

reply to post by Happy1


Isn't it strange that in socialist China, they have much strickter guidelines on what is safe in food etc.. Even Heinz ketchup is banned there but I suppose medical care isn't a business there, it is a right.

reply to post by lewman


Hienz ketchup is loaded with sugar - thank you, john kerry hienz. our new secretary of state.

reply to post by Bedlam


It always makes me chuckle reading stuff like this - people assume because they made it "fresh" it is somehow better (often it might be) and then get high and mighty about them doing it..

1 apple, on average, contains 34g of carbohydrates of which 26g of is sugar.

One thing people also forget is that plants use sugar, derived from photosynthesis, to build their entire structure. Cellulose is a complex sugar and it makes up the bulk of a plants mass.

So even those who profess to be living a "healthy" lifestyle based on eating fresh fruit and vegetables, then crow about, are probably consuming just as much sugar as someone who lives off cola and mars bars.

However, sugar does not necessarily equal bad - there are many types and it is required in our diet.

Originally posted by lewman
reply to post by Happy1

 

Isn't it strange that in socialist China, they have much strickter guidelines on what is safe in food etc.. Even Heinz ketchup is banned there but I suppose medical care isn't a business there, it is a right.

Haha, really? Strict guidelines, hey? They may have tight laws, but place is so corrupt people regularly flout them with support from Communist party officials. That's why they are buying baby formula from half a world away (UK stores are now restricting sales as people are selling it on to Chinese parents)

And you think Europe had it bad by using horse? They have just shut down a large ring which passed fox, mink and rat off as lamb!

www.bbc.co.uk...

Originally posted by stumason

One thing people also forget is that plants use sugar, derived from photosynthesis, to build their entire structure. Cellulose is a complex sugar and it makes up the bulk of a plants mass.

Unless you're a cow, you won't be rendering cellulose back into glucose.

So even those who profess to be living a "healthy" lifestyle based on eating fresh fruit and vegetables, then crow about, are probably consuming just as much sugar as someone who lives off cola and mars bars.

Totally inaccurate.And of course, it presupposes that I was getting the bulk of my calories from fruit juice, which is also laughable.

mushrooms keep them in the dark and feed them on sxxt nuff said folks

reply to post by stumason


Yes I can imagine a nation of over 1.2 billion people finding it hard to enforce such laws, especially due to the land mass and the cost of policing such policies.

You mention plants needing sugar to grow, I have a question that I hope you can answer. I have heard that when eating asparagus (without butter etc added) your body burns more calories than are in the asparagus.
Does this mean asparagus somehow burns away the calories or does it not use sugar to grow?