Sugar in food: Come out, come out, wherever you are!

Having been diagnosed at a young age with reactive hypoglycemia, I've long been aware of the fact that modern food products hide alarming amounts of sugar, and conceal sugar in foods you'd never think contain it.


Like in food labeled as "Sugar Free":

Or ketchup:

Britain's FSA (Food Service Authority) defines high-sugar content as being 10%. Heinz Tomato Ketchup contains 23.5%. (British info source. Percentage from Heinz U.S. website.)

The following facts are just a taste (sorry!) of what investigative reporter Michael Moss uncovered in his book Salt, Sugar, Fat, about America's food industry. (Via buzzfeed. More fun facts there!)

The American Heart Association's recommendation for women's sugar intake is just five teaspoons a day. That's half a can of Coke. Or one and a half Fig Newtons.

Another source puts it like this: The American Heart Association recommends that women eat no more than  six teaspoons of added sugars per day or nine teaspoons for men. But, one 20-ounce bottle of soda contains about 16 teaspoons of sugars from high-fructose corn syrup. In other words...

(By the way, Coca-Cola executives refer to consumers who drink more than two or three cans a day as "heavy users.")

And as I said before, sugar is hiding in unexpected places. There's as much sugar in 1/2 cup of Prego tomato sauce as there is in three Oreos.

This fact alone (reported in Moss's book) is particularly telling...

Some packaged food executives don't actually eat the products their companies make.

John Ruff from Kraft gave up sweet drinks and fatty snacks. Bob Lin from Frito-Lay avoids potato chips. Howard Moskowitz, a soft drink engineer, doesn't drink soda.

Go thou and do likewise.