Today, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and the USDA released new federal dietary guidelines. Among the biggest changes to the program was the suggestion to limit added sugar intake to 10% of one’s daily calories. This brings U.S. standards inline with the World Health Organization’s recommendations. For a person on a 2,000 calorie a day diet, this would mean no more than 48 grams of sugar in a day (which is still quite a bit of sugar in my opinion.) The World Health Organization recommends 10% as the maximum, but to shoot for more like 5% of your daily caloric intake. For a petite woman such as myself, whose daily caloric needs are about 1200 calories, this would mean about 28 grams of added sugar in a day. (Personally, I shoot for way less than this.)
I thought that the announcement of these new guidelines would be a good opportunity to discuss what “counts” as “added sugar.”
I see so many recipes trending on Pinterest for “raw vegan,” or “paleo” desserts that market themselves as “healthy” but still have loads of added sugars. Perhaps they are more nutrient-dense than a cake made with processed flour, but desserts like these seem to get a halo around them and the implication that you can eat as much of them as you want without weight gain or blood sugar spikes. It’s a topic I will be discussing more in future features.
So, in addition to the obvious ingredient listings like “sugar,” “sucrose” and “evaporated cane juice” keep in mind that these “natural sweeteners” still “count” as sugar, even if they’re marketed as “paleo,” “low-glycemic,” “natural,” or “raw.” (Whew, that’s a lotta quotation marks.) They may have trace minerals and nutrients, and are better alternatives than processed sugar, but when it comes to your diet, they still count as “added sugars” and should be limited for optimal health:
- Agave Syrup
- Coconut Nectar/Sugar
- Honey
- Maple Syrup
- Molasses
- Palm Sugar
- Sorghum Syrup
- Sucanat
- Turbinado Sugar
Now, some of you may be gasping to see your favorite sweetener here. I will be writing more about some of these individual sweeteners in the weeks to come. (Did you know that coconut nectar and agave syrup contain more fructose than high-fructose corn syrup? More on that soon.)
What about apple juice, concentrated apple (or apple sauce) and dried fruit? Fresh fruit is not counted towards sugar intake because the sugar is so diluted that the hit is less hard, and because the WHO thought that it was a bad idea to discourage people from eating fruit. It seems to me that “processed sugar” is a better term than “added sugar” here.
To me there is no 100% healthy alternative to sugar other than fruits and honey. All these dupes (except for honey) may seem healthy, but they are not necessarily clean as you say. Another point is there are concentrated sunstances extracted from fruits. Eating fresh of dried fruits is not equally healthy to eating sweet fruit concentrates.
P.S. Could you please add dates to your posts? You started your post with “today” and when was that? 🙂 Otherwise brilliant resource! Thank you.