According to the FDA, sugar intake should not exceed 10 percent of your daily caloric intake
.According to a report in The Economic Times in November last year, “India is the world’s largest sugar consumer. It has been mentioned that all Indian people like to eat more sugary foods. Moreover, to increase sales in the domestic market, Indian sugar mills have launched an online campaign to increase domestic demand.
Nutritionists and endocrinologists share their expertise and knowledge. According to the Association of Sugar Mills of India, “Sugar is a very important substance for every natural process that goes into the proper functioning of the brain, muscle energy and our body cells.” It also states that the calories in sugar are equal to the calories in any other food. Weight gain occurs when the body does not burn enough calories or consumes too many calories.
Two main sources of sugar:
1. Natural sugar, found naturally in foods.
2. Added sugar, added to powdered sugar and processed foods.
What doctors really care about is this extra sugar. Natural sugars in fruits, milk and whole grains are easy to dissolve in the body. According to a study by Harvard Medical School, the average American consumes 22 teaspoons of extra sugar a day. That means he consumes an additional 350 calories. It causes obesity and heart disease. The American Heart Association (AHA) has therefore recommended that Americans cut back on excess sugar.
He consumes about 18 kg of sugar per year, compared to the average of 10 teaspoons of sugar consumed by an average Indian a day. It contains significant amounts of sugar in hidden forms from the different processed foods we consume. Also a soft drink contains 40 grams (i.e. 10 teaspoons) of free sugar.
Consumption of sugar we need:
AHA recommends that most women do not add more than 100 calories a day, i.e. about 6 teaspoons or more than 24 grams of extra sugar. Most men are also advised not to add more than 150 calories a day (about 9 teaspoons or 36 grams of sugar).
How to measure sugar content?
There is no nutrition or benefit to eating extra sugar in general. Therefore, it is best to avoid products that contain extra sugar, including foods that list “sugar” as the first or second ingredient. Ideally, 4 grams of sugar = equal to 1 teaspoon. When we sometimes add sugar to food, most of the sugar comes from processed and prepared foods.
Sugar-sweetened drinks and sugar in breakfast cereals can also have very serious side effects. We usually only count the amounts of white sugar we add to tea and desserts. But, we do not realize that sugar is added as hidden ingredients in foods like ketchup, processed food, rice, bakery products, dairy products. So it is very important to calculate the amount of sugars in every item we eat.
What percentage of your daily caloric intake should be sugar?
Before you buy and eat packaged food you should read the label on it and check the sugar content. For example, one teaspoon of ketchup contains one teaspoon of sugar, according to a report in the Times of India. Also, according to the FDA, sugar intake should not exceed 10 percent of your daily caloric intake.
Experts also recommend that the U.S. National Medical Library “reduce the amount of food and drink consumed per person per day to control a problem such as obesity.” Similarly the total intake of foods containing free sugars should be less than 10%. More importantly, the World Health Organization has reduced this percentage to 10 to 5 percent.
