Ultra-Processed Foods Can Provide 90% of Sugar in Diet, US Research Shows

10 Mar 2016 --- New US research has shown that ultra-processed foods – including soft drinks – provide up to 90 percent of all added sugar and half the calories in the average American's diet. And British diets do not fare much better.

Ultra-processed foods contain salt, sugar, oils and fats and ingredients not generally used in cooking – such as flavorings, emulsifiers, and other additives – designed to mimic the qualities of "real foods".

These ultra-processed foods include mass produced soft drinks, sweet or savory packaged snacks, confectionery and desserts, packaged baked goods, chicken or fish nuggets and other reconstituted meat products, instant noodles and soups.

The British National Health Service (NHS), the World Health Organization and other health bodies warn that too much added sugar increases the risk of obesity and diabetes, which are associated with a higher risk of both cardiovascular disease and tooth decay.

"In the UK, most adults eat too much sugar," the NHS says.

Dr Gail Rees, Associate Professor in human nutrition at Plymouth University School of Biomedical and Healthcare Sciences, UK, said that less than five percent of energy should come from sugar added to food.

She said that in Britain teenagers tended to have the most added sugar.

The UK figures had remained fairly constant, she said. "Some people are trying to reduce their sugar intake and others are more."

In the American study, researchers looked at the diet of 9,000 people in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, including the average content of added sugars and the proportion who consumed more than 10 percent of their total energy intake – the maximum recommended limit – from this source.

The findings, published in the online journal BMJ Open, show that ultra-processed foods made up more than half of total calorie intake (just under 60 percent), and contributed almost 90 percent of energy intake from added sugars.

Added sugars represented one in every five calories in the average ultra-processed food product – far higher than the calorie content of added sugars in processed foods and in unprocessed or minimally processed foods and processed culinary ingredients, including table sugar, combined.

The researchers said a strong association emerged between the dietary content of ultra-processed foods and the overall dietary intake of added sugars.

And the proportion of people exceeding the recommended upper limit of 10 percent of energy from added sugars was far higher when ultra-processed food consumption was high, rising to more than 80 percent among those who ate the most ultra-processed food.

Only a fifth of Americans, who ate the least ultra-processed food, had an average daily added sugar intake that fell below the maximum recommended limit, according to the research.

Study author Professor Carlos Augusto Monteiro, of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, said: "Cutting back on the consumption of ultra-processed foods could be an effective way of curbing excessive added sugar intake in the US."

How to protect your family
It is good practice to get into the habit of reading the nutritional information that is listed on food labels in order to spot hidden sugars, the NHS says.

It warns that alongside the obvious added sugar in sweets, chocolate, and cakes, people should watch out for hidden sugars in things like cereals and pasta sauces.

Look for the "carbohydrates (of which sugars)" figure. A lot of sugar is 15g, or more, of sugar in a 100g, and 5g, or less, is a little.

How the UK compares
Latest British data from The National Diet and Nutrition Survey, published by Public Health England in 2014, found:

Mean added sugar (i.e. not from milk or fruit or veg) intake exceeded the recommended level (no more than 5% of food energy) for all age/sex groups most notably for children aged 4 to 10 years and 11 to 18 years. For these groups, mean intake provided 14.7% and 15.6% of food energy respectively.

For children, the main source of added sugar was soft drinks and "fruit juice". Cereals and cereal products was the other major contributor in children, mainly from cakes, biscuits and breakfast cereals.

For adults, table sugar and confectionery, non-alcoholic beverages (soft drinks and fruit juice) and cereals and cereal products (mainly cakes and biscuits) made similar contributions to intake.