There are hidden added sugars lurking in much of the food we eat.
This Smart Eating Week, the ADA is encouraging everyone to become sugar aware and understand how much sugar is added to the food you consume on a daily basis.
Smart Eating Week is an annual event run by Accredited Practising Dietitians (APDs) and supported by the Dietitians Association of Australia which aims to encourage and equip communities to make healthier food choices.
As part of an overall focus on highlighting the presence of hidden sugars in foods and educating Australians to make healthier food choices that favour good oral health, the ADA wants people to talk to their dentist or accredited practising dietitian on the way in which they can reduce their consumption of added sugars to less than six teaspoons, or the equivalent of 24 grams, per day.
It can be challenge as Tara Diversi, DAA President and APD notes.
“There are over 30 000 packaged products in our supermarkets, but with so much variety available, it’s not always easy to make a healthy choice. The aisles are overflowing with options which use clever marketing and ‘buzz’ nutrition words such as ‘natural’ or ‘light’ – making the supermarket shop overly complicated.”
To assist people in making better choices during their grocery shop, the ADA has created a fact sheet, Oral Health and Nutrition: Understanding sugar, which decodes the nutrition information panel which appears on all processed foods.
It explains what is meant by sugar per serve, the number of serves per package and how to accurately compare products by using the “per 100g” column.
