The French government agency - Agence nationale de sécurité sanitaire de l'alimentation, de l'environnement, et du travail (ANSES) (French Agency for food environmental and occupational health and safety) – has set new sugar intake recommendations for adults.
There is a lot of talk about the risks of overconsumption of added sugars in foods, but how much exactly is too much? How much are we eating and which foods are they coming from? Who are those most likely to be eating too much? How do we meet intake recommendations?
In this provocatively titled paper published in Progress in Cardiovascular Disease, Dr Edward Archer challenges the idea that sugar is responsible for the increased prevalence of obesity and chronic disease.
Presently there is no data on consumption of added sugar in New Zealand as the last national nutrition survey for adults (2008/09) and children (2002) analysed total sugar, sucrose and fructose only. Sucrose content is derived via chemical analysis and can only provide an approximation of total added sugars.
There has been a growing focus on the degree of processing of foods as a way of looking at the nutrition and health relationship. A classification system has been developed however it is worth looking at the evidence surrounding the concept of ‘ultra-processed foods’.
Keep up to date with the latest news and publications from Sugar Nutrition Resource Centre.
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