The 2016 edition of the Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents recommends that the daily intake of added sugars should not exceed 50 grams, and it is best to control it to less than 25 grams.
What are foods high in sugar?
High-sugar foods refer to foods that are high in carbohydrates and have more added sugars, and can be divided into high-sugar foods, low-sugar foods, and sugar-free foods according to their sugar content.
High-sugar foods mainly include cereals and their products, high-sugar processed products, and some fruits and vegetables are also high in sugar.
What are the dangers of a high-sugar diet?
1. Increase the risk of heart disease.
Italian researchers have found that eating high-carbohydrate foods may increase a woman's risk of heart disease. Women who consume foods with the highest glycemic load are 2.24 times more likely to develop heart disease than women who consume foods with the lowest glycemic load. But the researchers say the effects of carbohydrate intake, food glycemic index and glycemic load on heart disease risk apply only to women, not men.
2. Cause intestinal flora imbalance
Studies have found that high-sugar diets can directly damage intestinal barrier function, alter intestinal flora, and increase susceptibility to intestinal infections.
3. Destroy the balance of sebum secretion of the skin.
A high-sugar diet can disrupt the balance of sebum secretion in the skin, resulting in oily skin, acne, faster aging, and excessive intake of high-sugar foods and hair loss.
4. Increase the risk of diabetes.
Long-term consumption of high-sugar foods can induce diabetes. Long-term eating of high-sugar foods causes too much sugar in the blood and causes fat accumulation in the body, which leads to insulin resistance in the body, and insulin resistance induces abnormal glucose metabolism in the body, thereby inducing diabetes. Therefore, eating high-sugar foods for a long time will induce diabetes.
Not all foods high in sugar are sweet! So how can you tell which foods are high in sugar?
1. Pay more attention to low-sugar or sugar-free foods. The national standard "GB28050-2011 General Principles for Nutrition Labeling of Prepackaged Foods" (hereinafter referred to as the "General Principles") stipulates that every 100 grams or 100 milliliters of food with an added sugar content of less than 5 grams can be marked as "low-sugar food"; Less than 0.5 grams can be labeled "sugar-free" or "sugar-free". However, it is worth noting that although some foods are labeled as "sugar-free", they still contain substances such as maltodextrin, and it is not recommended to buy them.
2. The lower the sugar ranking in the ingredient list, the lower the sugar content. Because the "General Principles" stipulate that the various ingredients should be arranged one by one in the decreasing order of the amount added. Therefore, when the specific sugar content of a food cannot be understood through the nutrition facts list, you can compare similar products, which product has lower sugar content the lower the sugar in the ingredient list.
3. The carbohydrate content is not equal to the amount of added sugar. The "General Principles" require that the contents of the nutrition label are mandatory to include energy, protein, fat, carbohydrate and sodium, but the added sugar is not the mandatory labeling content, so there are few corporate labels. In fact, in addition to fruity drinks, carbonated drinks, and tea drinks, the carbohydrates in other beverages and various high-sugar foods such as ice cream, biscuits, and pastries cannot directly equate the carbohydrate content with the amount of added sugar, otherwise the amount of added sugar will be overestimated.