Lower sugar intake to less than 5% of daily calories, WHO says

[Eugene]

Source: CBC News

Lower sugar intake to less than 5% of daily calories, WHO says

CBC News Posted: Mar 05, 2014 10:45 AM ET Last Updated: Mar 05, 2014 12:06 PM ET

The World Health Organization is again urging people to lower the amount of sugar they eat.

The Geneva-based global health agency says getting daily sugar intake to below five per cent of one's daily caloric intake would be optimal but reiterated that restricting intake to no more than 10 per cent is also good.

The draft recommendations, which will likely be contentious, will be open for public comment for the rest of the month until March 31. Then the agency and scientific advisers will finalize the guidance.

"Sugar might become the new tobacco in terms of risk," said Dr. Francesco Branco, head of nutrition for health and development for WHO.

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Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/health/lower-sugar-intake-to-less-than-5-of-daily-calories-who-says-1.2560639

[PADemD]

1. Tell it to the food manufacturers!

[hedgehog]

2. I just flashed on something - Manufactured foods for adults are analogous to feeding infants formula

Our economies are set up so that all the adults in the household are in the work force at all times.

Imagine an economy with a 6 hour day that allowed adults of either gender to come home and cook!

[PADemD]

3. Even when I worked full time, I cooked.

It is nearly impossible today to find manufactured foods that do not have high fructose corn syrup and many other sugars.

I just wish that the medical profession would stop scolding the consumer and go after the food manufacturers for once.

[HuckleB]

4. To be honest, both sides of that coin need to be addressed.

Of course, there is also at least one more "side." That is the side that leaves people with little time to cook. Yes, this can be by choice, via too much television, cell phone time and Internet time, etc.... but we've also built our lives around long commutes. When both parents must work until it's almost bed time for the kiddies, cooking gets left behind.

There's so much to the puzzle.

[hedgehog]

6. Also - there is a reason they call it "work" -

Put in a couple hours commuting, plus 8 (or 8+) hours earning a living, and grabbing some fast food doesn't look so bad!

[Dorian Gray]

5. I don't know that that is entirely true

Formula is as healthy as formula can be. It's not breast milk, but they genuinely try to include all the essential nutrients for a child. No unnecessary sugars or additives.

I think it's unfair to malign formula in such a way, especially when it's necessary for mothers who are unable to breast feed.

Processed foods include a LOT of unnecessary crap. sugars, salts, HFCS, hydrgenated soy bean oils, etc.

[hedgehog]

7. Modern formula is certainly well researched and vital to many, many families -

I meant to comment more on a civilization that thinks it more important for people to be in the work force than home -

most women have no choice in the matter - and no one should be forced by circumstances or societal pressure to stay home if they'd rather work - but certainly the readily availability of formula is part of the reason we send new mothers back to work so quickly.

[Dorian Gray]

8. That may true

I just think that it's not fair to compare packaged foods to formula (or other packaged baby foods). They are usually the best products that they can be. Unlike all the brands with extraneous crap in them!

[hedgehog]

9. Baby foods used to be loaded with sugar and salt -

http://www.nytimes.com/1996/02/21/garden/eating-well.html


which is proof that it can be changed if enough people use the power of the purse!

[handmade34]

10. when I was planning

my hiking trip I looked for high protein foods to carry... checking out everything as possibilities, I even explored baby formulas as possibilities... after looking at a few, I was disgusted, I wouldn't touch the stuff and would never even consider giving the stuff to my kids or anyone that I know... Baby foods are horrible!!

[SheilaT]

11. Before commercial formulas were developed

the typical "formula" for infants involved evaporated milk and karo syrup.

It's a wonder that any of us turned out as well as we did.

More to the point, it may well be that things like this are a large part of things like the epidemic of obesity in this country.

[SheilaT]

12. How exactly are we to calculate this?

I like to think I eat well. I never have soft drinks. I cook much of my own food. But I also consume various commercial foods, such as hot dogs. Or salad dressings.

Today's lunch was my version of Chicken Caruso, a recipe cribbed from a restaurant in a city I used to live in. Boneless chicken breast, cut into chunks, seasoned with Johnny's Pork, Chicken, & Turkey seasoning. Potato chunks which had been par-boiled, and then fried. Onion and green pepper, stir fried. All combined with a bit of chicken broth. For the detailed recipe PM me.

Dinner was my version of pigs in a blanket, hot dogs in crescent rolls.

When I talk about baking from scratch I certainly have not grown the wheat or raised the chickens that laid the eggs I use in whatever. I buy the flour, usually unbleached white, and I purchase the eggs at the grocery store. I try to minimize the prepared food items, but I also buy chicken broth, generally the reduced sodium.

A trivial aside: I hadn't consumed an ketchup for boring and complicated reasons for about four years. Recently at a restaurant I got a hamburger and put some of the ketchup provided by said restaurant on said burger. I was amazed and very put off by how sweet the ketchup was. Has that condiment gotten a lot of added sugar in recent years?