Sugar-Free Lent: Day Eight

Sugar-Free Lent: Day Eight!

That really doesn't feel like a walk in the park but I'm not going to give in and anyway, the headache is not like the blinding sugar-headache I get. So actually, I'm on a winner here. And making more typos.

Not eating sugar definitely makes me think about it a lot more. It occupies my mind. So I was looking at the Guideline daily amounts and what they actually mean and who's brain child they were. I don't want to bore you (and me) with all the research I have done over the Internet because if you are really so interested you can do it yourself.

First I looked at the NHS- website to find out what they are saying and it is interesting that it says there clearly that the added sugar in your diet should NOT make up more that 5% of the energy, that is the calories, you get from food and drink each day. Not very clear. How much do I eat in calories???? And what is 5% of that?????

But reading on I got my answers. On the NHS-website they say that this should be about 30 grams of sugar for those aged 11 and over. But this is added sugar.

What you find on the food labels doesn't refer to that. There is talk about the whole amount of sugar in the item, which includes the naturally occurring sugar like in fruit and milk. So how am I going to break that down if the manufacturer is not going to do that?

But it gets even more complicated. 

And the NHS- website is not talking about the Guideline daily amount. They talk about what you should do to stay healthy.

The Guideline daily amount is provided voluntarily by manufacturers and retailers and was developed to help people to make better use of nutrition labelling. And the Guideline daily amount says 90 (in words: Ninety) grams of sugar. The problem is that a lot of people, including me, mistake that as the amount you could safely eat not the amount you should not Exceed.

And they talk about an average adult aged 19 to 64. Am I average? No. I don't think so! Are You??? I could imagine that the nutritional demands of an 19 old differ a lot from that of an 64 year old, and are you not going to have any guidelines when you are older than 64????

It is perceived as a target rather than a limit.

The Americans even make a difference between women and men, which might be not a bad idea. What do you think? Should men be allowed more sweet things than women?

Interesting to learn that the WHO set new targets. According to the WHO you should not have more than 25 grams of added sugar in your diet every day!

Have a read for yourself if you are interested and speak German, of course!

http://www.spiegel.de/gesundheit/ernaehrung/saft-salat-joghurt-wie-sie-versteckten-zucker-erkennen-und-ersetzen-a-1192185.htmlhttp://www.spiegel.de/gesundheit/ernaehrung/saft-salat-joghurt-wie-sie-versteckten-zucker-erkennen-und-ersetzen-a-1192185.html