Without knowing it, we consume more and more sugar

Without necessarily noticing itwe consume more and more sugar. Here is the alarming data taken from a study published on July 29 on The conversation and transmitted by scientific alert.

Sugar or sweeteners: a health hazard

In its natural state, sugar, such as in fruit or honey, is an essential source of nutrients and energy. It is different for added sugars and that The conversation call someone “Non-nutritive sweeteners” (such as stevia or aspartame, present in 0% of carbonated drinks) present in industrial food and drink.

although the advertising leads us to believe that sweeteners are alone not harmfulthey can play an important role in health because they accustom us to eat sweets. This is particularly salient in children, whose taste buds are under construction.

The problem is that the amount of added sugars and sweeteners in industrial products is considerably increased over the past decade. This was revealed by a study conducted on packaged food and beverages from 2007 to 2019.

Sugar has been on the rise since 2007, but not everywhere in the world

The researchers found that globally, the per capita volumes of sweeteners have increased 36% in beverages and 9% in food. This increase is all the more concerning since we didn’t always aware of the amounts of sugar we absorb.

In Australia, for example, it consumes half the population on average fourteen tbsp teaspoon of sugar per day because of the packaged productsfar exceeding the six to nine doses recommended.

The study authors also noted that the industrial products were more or less sweet depending on the region of the world. when health policies are widely installed in rich countries, manufacturers of ultra-processed products are taking by storm market in middle-income countries, such as China and India. This is where we find it the sweetest foods and drinks.

Featured image credit: Thomas Kelley / Unsplash