The Center for Science in the Public Interest calculated the teaspoons
of added sugars in some popular foods in the January/February Nutrition
Action HealthLetter. The nutrition-facts panel lists the grams of added
sugars in products. There are roughly 4 grams of sugar in a teaspoon.
To convert grams to teaspoons, divide by 4. In these calculations, added
sugars are rounded to the nearest half-teaspoon. American Heart Association guidelines suggest limiting yourself to 100 calories a day of added
sugars (6 1/2 teaspoons, or 25 grams) if you're a woman; 150 calories
(9 1/2 teaspoons, or 38 grams) if you're a man.
Before you chug down another regular soda or spoon sugar into your tea or coffee, consider this: A heated debate is going on over the health risks of consuming too much sugar, high-fructose corn syrup and other caloric sweeteners.
On one side: leading nutrition experts who believe that these sweeteners, including those used in soft drinks, tea, coffee and countless other foods and beverages, add empty calories to people's diets and promote weight gain. And they say emerging scientific research indicates that consuming too much of these sweeteners may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and other health problems.
On the other side: industry groups representing sugar and high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) that say their products are natural and don't cause weight gain or health problems. They have launched advertising and marketing campaigns.
The American Heart Association is on the nutrition experts' side. The group recently issued a scientific statement saying that high intake of added sugars is implicated in many poor health conditions, including obesity, high blood pressure and other risk factors for heart disease and stroke. And it recommended that women consume no more than 100 calories a day, or about 6 1/2 teaspoons, from added sugars; men, no more than 150 calories, or about 9 1/2 teaspoons. This includes table sugar, brown sugar, HFCS, honey, molasses, brown rice syrup, agave syrup and other caloric sweeteners.
Americans are eating and drinking an average 22.2 teaspoons a day, or 355 calories, says Rachel Johnson, a nutrition professor at the University of Vermont and lead author of the heart association statement. Every teaspoon has 15 to 16 calories. "Sugar has no nutritional value other than it provides calories," she says.
But the Sugar Association states on its website that the scientific evidence "exonerates sugar as the cause of any lifestyle disease, including heart disease and obesity." In a prepared statement, the group says, "Sugar has been safely used to sweeten foods and beverages for more than 2,000 years."
And the Corn Refiners Association is running ads to boost the image of HFCS. The association's website says that consumers are being misled by marketing tactics implying that products labeled "high-fructose corn syrup-free" are more healthful than those with HFCS.
Hitting a sour note, on both sides
All this marketing hoopla has left a sour taste in the mouths of nutrition experts.
Both sugar and HFCS pack the same calories, and they carry similar health risks because they are both about half fructose, says Barry Popkin, a nutrition professor at the University of North Carolina- Chapel Hill. His research shows that the average American consumes more than half of his or her added-sugars calories from beverages. Popkin's work and that of others also finds that when people drink regular sodas and other high-calorie drinks, they don't cut back on their calories elsewhere.
Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest says: "The bottom line is there isn't a shred of evidence that high-fructose corn syrup is nutritionally any different from sugar. We should be consuming a lot less of both sugar and high-fructose corn syrup, starting with soft drinks."
Population studies show the higher people's intake of caloric beverages, sweetened with sugar or HFCS, the greater the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and gout (in men), says George Bray, a professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge and author of The Low-Fructose Approach to Weight Loss. Fructose increases uric acid, which causes gout, he says.
Other studies suggest that the fructose in both sugar and HFCS may increase the risk of high blood pressure, visceral (belly) fat, triglycerides (blood fats), insulin resistance and fatty liver disease, Bray says.
Possible explanations: Fructose appears to cause chemical reactions in the liver and kidney that may lead to health problems, he says.
But Audrae Erickson, president of the Corn Refiners Association, which represents companies that make HFCS and other corn products, takes issue with some of the fructose studies.
"Nobody eats the same way as they are feeding people in these laboratory settings," she says. "These misleading studies are giving people abnormally high levels of pure fructose. Fructose itself is safe. It's in the fruits and vegetables we eat every day. Mother Nature put it there."
As far as the debate between sugar and HFCS, she says, "there has been a lot of peer-reviewed research demonstrating that all sugars are handled similarly by the body, whether they come from corn, cane or beets."
The association is running an ad campaign "correcting the record on high-fructose corn syrup," Erickson says.
In a prepared statement, the Sugar Association says that "recent efforts by manufacturers of HFCS to position their product as 'not different than' and 'nutritionally equal' to sugar are false and misleading. ... Sugar exists naturally in almost every fruit and vegetable, but most abundantly in sugar cane and sugar beets."
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