Deciphering nutrition labels and what we aren't being told - A MUST READ ARTICLE FOR ALL!

Do you read the nutrition labels found on food?  I do.  I have for years and years and years.  When I’m not making healthy choices, I ignore the nutrition labels because I don’t care about the calories, the fat, the sodium, or the sugar.  Actually, I think to say that I don’t care is a fallacy.  The reason why I don’t read the labels is because I’m in denial.  I pretend that the amount of those things don’t really have an effect on my body.  I’d think, “Why does it matter?  I’m already fat.  I just gain all the weight back after I lose it anyhow, so why bother reading them anymore?”  I may be the only person out there that feels that way when I’m choosing to not follow a healthy lifestyle or when I’m in the throws of a binge-eating episode.  But, one question has always remained about nutrition labels.  Everything listed on the label has a percentage that reflects what the daily recommended amount is for a standard 2,000 calorie diet which is for an average adult who is in their healthy BMI range and who gets regular exercise.  However, two items do not have a percentage next to them.  Sugar and protein.  Have you ever wondered why, too?  So, I did some research.  I went on the USDA website and researched how to understand nutrition labels.  The site directed me to the Food and Drug Administration website.  Here is what I found. 

Protein:  A %DV is required to be listed if a claim is made for protein, such as “high in protein.”  Otherwise, unless the food is meant for use by infants and children under 4 years old, none is needed.  Current scientific evidence indicates that protein intake is not a public health concern for adults and children over 4 years of age. 

Here is what the USDA says about sugar on nutrition labels.  The site directs you to the Food and Drug Administration website: 

Sugars: No daily reference value has been established for sugars because no recommendations have been made for the total amount to eat in a day. Keep in mind, the sugars listed on the Nutrition Facts label include naturally occurring sugars (like those in fruit and milk) as well as those added to a food or drink. Check the ingredient list for specifics on added sugars.  If you are concerned about your intake of sugars, make sure that added sugars are not listed as one of the first few ingredients.  Other names for added sugars include:  corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice concentrate, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, honey, and maple sugar.

Here is the link to their page that you can find this information on:  http://www.fda.gov/Food/IngredientsPackagingLabeling/LabelingNutrition/ucm274593.htm

I find this alarming because of what we knowing about sugar.  Sugar has no nutritional value, especially those those that are added to anything.  Naturally occurring sugar in fruits are a different story.  It’s the added sugars that the public need to be cautious of.  When sugar is processed in the body, the pancreas releases insulin (a hormone) and the insulin stores sugar as fat.  Our body needs some sugar, but it doesn’t need it from added sugar.  We can get what we need from natural foods.  Fructose, found in fruit, is  different also because whole fruit is filled with a rich mixture of fiber, vitamins and minerals that help our bodies process the fructose differently.

So, I continued to do more research and found that the World Health Organization has made a recommendation.  In March 2014, WHO dropped their daily sugar intake recommendation from 10 percent of your daily calorie intake to 5 percent.  The American Heart Association uses the WHO recommendations and they state that women should have no more than 6 teaspoons of sugar per day and men no more than 9 teaspoons of sugar per day.  Preschoolers shouldn’t consume more than 4 teaspoons per day.  Children between the ages of 4 – 8 shouldn’t consume more than 3 teaspoons per day.  (In order to accommodate all the nutritional requirements for this age group, there are fewer calories available for discretionary allowances like sugar.)  This information I obtained from the Family Education website in an article titled:  Are We Too Sweet? Our kids’ Addiction to Sugar by Lindsay Hutton.  It’s an excellent article and is a must read if you want to know more about sugar addiction in children. 

So, how do you figure out how to convert grams of sugar found on nutrition labels to teaspoons?  It’s quite simple.  4 grams of sugar = 1 teaspoon of sugar.  So, it’s recommended that women not consume more than 24 grams of sugar and men shouldn’t consume more than 36 grams per day.  Preschoolers shouldn’t have more than 16 grams per day and children between 4 and 8 shouldn’t have more than 12 grams. 

So, because I care about my friends, family, and children I went to the market last night and started looking at some food labels of popular foods.  I wanted to show just how much sugar in terms of teaspoons are in prepackaged foods.  Here are some of the sugar values converted to teaspoons.

Smart Candy Sour Gummy Flavored fruit snacks:  8 g sugar = 2 tsp sugar.  The ingredients were:  glucose syrup, sugar, water, citric acid, sodium citrate, and pectin

(Before realizing that added sugar was toxic and how it was essentially causing most of our health problems, I would have bought these snacks for my kids.  Very smart advertising, lots of fancy health claims)

Capri Sun Roarin’ Waters:  8 grams sugar = 2 tsp sugar.  Ingredients: water, high-fructose corn syrup, sucralose.  (I use to buy these too, because, heck it’s just flavored water, right?!  wrong!)

Honest Kids juice boxes:  9 grams sugar = 2 ¼ tsp sugar  (100% natural juice doesn’t contain all of the richness in fiber, nutrients, vitamins and minerals that a real apple, or an orange, or whatever other fruit it is.  Just stick to real fruit.  Your body processes the real fruit over the juice from the fruit better and more efficiently.)

Good 2 Grow 100% juice:  25 grams sugar = 6 ¼ tsp sugar.  Ingredients:  concentrated apple, pear, and grape juice and water.  Serving size = 8 fluid ounces.  (Say what!!!!!!  Sure that’s good 2 grow all right!  Maybe around my kids’ waistlines!)

Arizona Green Tea single serve box:  12 grams sugar = 3 tsp sugar

Hi-C Juice pouch:  22 grams sugar = 5 ½ tsp sugar (Contains High-fructose corn syrup, and syrup)

Honey Maid Graham Crackers:  8 grams sugar = 2 tsp sugar  (But, I thought graham crackers were a great afternoon snack for my kids.  Considering my 8 year old is only supposed to get 3 tsp of sugar a day, I realize these weren’t the healthier choice)

V-Fusion Refreshers:  24 grams sugar = 6 tsp  (But it’s V8!)

Del Monte Diced Peaches individual serving cups:  5 grams sugar = 1 ¼ tsp sugar Ingredients: natural flavors, monk fruit concentrate, ascorbic acid, and citric acid.

Advertised as “Yellow cling peaches in water.  Artificially sweetened.  No sugar added”  (Not bad, and a better choice than juice.  However, I’m not sold on monk fruit yet.  It sky rocket’s a diabetic’s blood sugar, so it’s doing that to everyone.  I’ll pass and not take my chances)

Apple and Eve 100% juice – no sugar added:  30 grams sugar = 7 ½ tsp sugar  (Are you freaking kidding me?!!!!  I honestly use to buy this all the time for my guys.  This is what I always packed in their lunches.  This is crazy!)

Are you surprised by any of these numbers?  I was when I found out what the daily recommended allowance was for children and adults.

Okay, so let me just put this out there.  This is what a typical day of meals use to look like in my house.  All of these teaspoon counts are based off a single serving.  I’ll tell you though that we’d fill our bowls with cereal.  We wouldn’t measure it out.  We didn’t measure much of anything out.  But for the sake of this example, I’m going to pretend that we only ate a serving for each food item listed below.  And, this is for all of us because on any given day, any one of us in our house may have had an identical meal.

Breakfast:              Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal  10 grams = 2.5 teaspoons

                        1% milk  12.7 grams = 3 teaspoons

                        2^nd glass of milk to wash down the cereal = 3 teaspoons

A.M. Snack:            Rice krispy treat :  8 grams = 2 teaspoons

                        Adam and Eve juice box to wash down the rice krispy treat = 7.5 tsp.

Lunch:                        Peanut butter and jelly sandwich (potato bread) = 4.75 tsp.

                        bag of BBQ potato chips  =  .5 tsp

                        cup of mandarin oranges in jello  = 5.5 teaspoons

                        Adam and Eve juice box  = 7.5 teaspoons

                        package of fruit snacks for dessert = 2.5 teaspoons

Afternoon Snack:            banana  = 3.5 teaspoons

                                    glass of milk  = 3 teaspoons

Dinner:            Spaghetti with Hunts tomato sauce = 1.8 teaspoons (But, remember

refined carbs like pasta break down in the body and are processed j            ust like sugar.  Insulin stores refined carbs as fat.)

                        Italian sausage = 0 teaspoons

                        garlic bread = .25 teaspoons (But, remember what I said about

spaghetti)

                        glass of milk  = 3 teaspoons

At Practice:               20 oz. bottle of Gatorade = 8.75 teaspoons

Evening Snack:            Weight Watchers Peanut Butter Cup Sundae = 3.25 teaspoons

The total amount of teaspoons of sugar for this day would be:  62.3 teaspoons of sugar!  There are 120 teaspoons of sugar in 1 pound!!!  So, on any typical day of the week, I or my family, would consume a ½ pound of sugar.  And, remember WHO recommends we only get 6 teaspoons of sugar per day for women, 9 teaspoons of sugar for men, 3 teaspoons of sugar for kids 4 – 8 and 4 teaspoons of sugar for preschoolers.  Can you just imagine if the FDA required food companies to put the percentage of sugar on nutrition labels.  I’d bet it start to wake up a hell of a lot of people, especially parents to young children. 

Well, now I know exactly why I have been fat for so long.  Now, I know why my daughters have always carried around so much extra weight in their waists.  Fat from sugar typically is stored around the mid-section of people.  Now, I know why my husband has a “beer” belly even though he doesn’t drink. 

I’m so thankful to my mom and my cousin and some very smart friends who have been telling me about the dangers of sugar all these years.  But, I’m most thankful to God for knocking me on my thick skull enough to awaken my mind to this addiction. 

I encourage all of you who read this to keep a food diary of a typical day or a week.   Don’t go crazy with reading and documenting every part of the nutrition label.  Just write down what you or your kids ate for a day.  Ignore the portion size if that’s what you typically do.  At the end of the week or the day, look up the grams of sugar for each of the items.  Divide the grams by 4 to get the number of teaspoons, then add up all your numbers.  Compare it to the recommended daily allowance.  Will you be just as horrified as I was?