WEBVTT - The Way We Think About Sugar Is Going To Change

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>This is Christian Seger. So we recently went to the

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<v Speaker 1>house Stuff Works kitchen and we looked at the nutrition

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<v Speaker 1>facts label on some of the food there. We looked

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<v Speaker 1>at cherry coke, for instance, it has forty two grams

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<v Speaker 1>of sugar. Then we looked at Mountain dew and it

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<v Speaker 1>had forty six grams in a can. Okay, Well, something

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<v Speaker 1>that's always bothered me is how there isn't a percent

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<v Speaker 1>daily value listed for sugar. For instance, thirty nine grams

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<v Speaker 1>of sugar and a can of coke seems like a lot,

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<v Speaker 1>but is it? On Mayen, the Food and Drug Administration

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<v Speaker 1>introduced an updated Nutrition Facts label, which they said reflected

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<v Speaker 1>new scientific information, and among the changes were updated serving sizes,

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<v Speaker 1>calories in a way bigger font, and an entirely new

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<v Speaker 1>line for added sugars that also includes a percent daily value.

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<v Speaker 1>But let's back up, why does it matter how much

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<v Speaker 1>sugar a person consumes? Well, Sugar, whether it's natural or added,

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<v Speaker 1>is a type of carbohydrate that our bodies used for energy. Fruits, vegetables,

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<v Speaker 1>and dairy foods can naturally contain sugar. But the FDA

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<v Speaker 1>defines added sugars as those that are either added during

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<v Speaker 1>the processing of foods, sugars from syrups and honey, and

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<v Speaker 1>sugars from concentrated fruit or vegetable juices that are in

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<v Speaker 1>excess of what would be expected from the same volume

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<v Speaker 1>of one fruit or vegetable juice of the same type.

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<v Speaker 1>That that that last bit was a little bit long anyways.

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<v Speaker 1>A food science expert we talked to named Marion Nestley

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<v Speaker 1>from New York University explains why added sugars can be

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<v Speaker 1>harmful and they dilute the nutritional quality of whatever they're

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<v Speaker 1>added to. They give you calories, but they don't give

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<v Speaker 1>you any additional nutrients. The f d A recommends limiting

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<v Speaker 1>added sugar intake to no more than ten percent of

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<v Speaker 1>a person's total daily calories. For adults, this equals about

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<v Speaker 1>fifty grams or twelve point five teaspoons of sugar per day,

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<v Speaker 1>in other words, a little more than a can of

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<v Speaker 1>mountain dew. The World Health Organization recommends even less, just

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<v Speaker 1>five percent of a person's daily calories, which equal about

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<v Speaker 1>twenty five grams or six teaspoons per day, or one

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<v Speaker 1>package of peanut M and M's Now, for reference, the

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<v Speaker 1>average American adult consumes seventy five grams of added sugar

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<v Speaker 1>per day, or about nineteen teaspoons. So where does all

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<v Speaker 1>this added sugar come from? If your first answer is soda,

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<v Speaker 1>you might be surprised to know that American soda consumption

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<v Speaker 1>has steadily decreased in the past fifteen years or so.

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<v Speaker 1>The truth is that sugar can be found in just

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<v Speaker 1>about everything we eat and drink, but it's often disguised

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<v Speaker 1>under other names like glucose, fructoast, malttoast, dextros basically anything

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<v Speaker 1>that ends with oas cane juice, cane syrup, high fructoast,

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<v Speaker 1>corn syrup, cane sugar, corn sweetener, molasses, malt syrup, invert sugar,

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<v Speaker 1>or fruit juice concentrates. Okay, that was another long one.

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<v Speaker 1>Manufacturers list them in this way to break up the

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<v Speaker 1>amount and make it appear like there's less overall sugar

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<v Speaker 1>in a product, and that's one of the reasons the

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<v Speaker 1>f d A is updating the nutrition label so consumers

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<v Speaker 1>are aware of how much added sugar is in their food.

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<v Speaker 1>If you're going to be eating helpfully, you want to

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<v Speaker 1>keep the amount of sugar down, not just for reasons

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<v Speaker 1>of nutrients, but also because there's so much evidence that

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<v Speaker 1>people who eat a lot of sugar have a higher

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<v Speaker 1>risk for obesity, type two diabetes, heart disease, and so forth.

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<v Speaker 1>If that's the case, why hasn't the public been better

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<v Speaker 1>informed to answer that? We need to go back in time,

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<v Speaker 1>and we're going to talk to Christina Kerns, a post

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<v Speaker 1>doctoral fellow at the University of California in San Francisco.

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<v Speaker 1>The nineteen sixties, a lot of attention in the scientific

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<v Speaker 1>community was directed to trying to understand the dietary factors

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<v Speaker 1>in the American diet and how they might be linked

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<v Speaker 1>to coronary heart disease. American men were dying of coronary

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<v Speaker 1>heart disease at higher rates than other countries, and so

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<v Speaker 1>we thought our specific American diet might have something to

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<v Speaker 1>do with that. Kurns, along with co authors Laura Schmidt

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<v Speaker 1>and stand Glance, recently published a paper in jama Internal

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<v Speaker 1>Medicine revealing that the sugar industry sponsored research that purposefully

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<v Speaker 1>singled out fat as the dietary cause of heart disease,

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<v Speaker 1>while downplaying the evidence that sugar consumption was a factor.

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<v Speaker 1>As more evidence began to link sucross consumption to coronary

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<v Speaker 1>heart disease. The sugar industry got involved with the research

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<v Speaker 1>themselves in an attempt to discredit some of the evidence,

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<v Speaker 1>and I believe direct attention away from that research onto

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<v Speaker 1>the research linking fat to coronary heart disease. Founded in

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<v Speaker 1>nineteen forty three by members of the U S sugar industry,

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<v Speaker 1>the Sugar Research Foundation was dedicated to communicating and supporting

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<v Speaker 1>sugar's dietary role to the public. It later evolved into

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<v Speaker 1>what is currently called the Sugar Association. The documents that

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<v Speaker 1>we have, the industry is certainly talking about how to

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<v Speaker 1>protect market share, so the Sugar Research Foundation was created

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<v Speaker 1>to protect sales. Now, industry sponsored research is nothing new,

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<v Speaker 1>but the effects of the Sugar Research Foundation's manipulation were

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<v Speaker 1>far reaching. When the US government first published their dietary

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<v Speaker 1>guidelines for Americans in night, they recommended avoiding too much fat,

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<v Speaker 1>saturated fat, and cholesterol, which they linked to a greater

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<v Speaker 1>chance of having a heart attack. They did recommend limiting

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<v Speaker 1>sugar intake, but only because it could cause tooth decay.

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<v Speaker 1>Even today, go walk into any grocery store and look

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<v Speaker 1>at the so called healthy products. They usually advertise themselves

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<v Speaker 1>as being low fat or low cholesterol, but they say

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<v Speaker 1>almost nothing about their sugar content. After the GM article

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<v Speaker 1>came out, the Sugar Association released a statement in which

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<v Speaker 1>they said, we acknowledge that the Sugar Research Foundation should

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<v Speaker 1>have exercised greater transparency in all of its research activities. However,

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<v Speaker 1>when the studies in question were published, funding disclosures and

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<v Speaker 1>transparency standards were not the norm they are today. I

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<v Speaker 1>think it was interesting that they sort of acknowledged that

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<v Speaker 1>they should have been more transparent. Actually didn't expect them

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<v Speaker 1>to to say that. However, you know that that doesn't

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<v Speaker 1>exonerate the industry from from their actions. Despite the manipulation

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<v Speaker 1>by the Sugar Research Foundation, whether added sugar contributes to

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<v Speaker 1>coronary heart disease is still hotly debated. What you have

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<v Speaker 1>is an enormous amount of evidence from correlation and association

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<v Speaker 1>that people who eat diets that are high in sugar

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<v Speaker 1>tend to have a greater risk for obesity, types of diabetes,

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<v Speaker 1>and heart disease. The best thing that you can do

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<v Speaker 1>look at the labels, know what's in your food and

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<v Speaker 1>how much, And if you're worried about added sugar. A

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<v Speaker 1>simple solution is just to avoid prepackaged food by fresh

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<v Speaker 1>ingredients and cook them yourself. That way, you know exactly

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<v Speaker 1>what's going into the food you eat. So if you're

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<v Speaker 1>wondering why you haven't seen the new nutrition Facts label yet,

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<v Speaker 1>it's because manufacturers have until July to comply with the changes,

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<v Speaker 1>and if a manufacturer makes less than ten million dollars

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<v Speaker 1>a year in annual food sales, they'll have another year

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<v Speaker 1>to make this change. Check out the brain stuff channel

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<v Speaker 1>on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of

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<v Speaker 1>other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.