We’ve always been aware of sugar in our diet; however, it’s only been recently that we’ve become aware just how damaging too much sugar can be not only to our teeth but to our health as well.
Some articles refer to sugar as the ‘new nicotine’ – with doctors describing sugar to be as addictive and as dangerous as cigarettes – whereas others describe it as ‘a ticking time bomb that is responsible for the newest epidemic of obesity’.
What’s scary is that some studies revealed links between a high sugar diet and diseases such as diabetes, kidney disease, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and premature ageing. A recent report produced by FDI World Dental Federationhighlighted that “nearly 100 per cent of adults and between 60 and 90 per cent of children worldwide have dental caries, which results in millions of lost school and work hours. For instance, in the US, an estimated 2.4 million days of work and 1.6 million days of school are missed owing to oral disease. In the Philippines, toothache is the primary reason for school absenteeism. The FDI stated that about 97 per cent of Philippine 6-year-olds have dental caries”.
The World Health Organisation says that we are only supposed to have 5 teaspoons of sugar a day. I can hear your brains working now, adding up all the teaspoons of sugar you have in your teas and coffees or the tablespoon of sugar you sprinkled on your cornflakes this morning…. 5 doesn’t seem too bad does it? Well, that’s not taking into account all the hidden sugars there are in foods and drinks that you didn’t even know were there… Once you have all the facts and statistics, it’s scary to think you are having nearly 10 times more sugar a day than you are supposed to…
Nowadays manufacturers hide so much sugar in their products to make them more appetizing to us that trying to regulate how much sugar is going into our bodies is extremely difficult. ‘Low Fat’ or ‘Healthy Living’ products are usually packed full of sugar, so when you think you are being ‘good’ and watching your waistline, you should, in fact be watching your teeth. Items such as pasta sauces, salad dressings and soups contain nearly as much if not the same amount of sugar as a sweet treat. Other items, such as bread and pasta contain refined carbohydrates which get turned very quickly into sugar in our bodies.
Sugar has been proven to lessens our taste buds over time, however, if you reduce the amount of sugar in your diet, your taste buds will become more sensitive and even savoury foods will begin to taste a little sweeter than they did before.
Here are some examples of how many teaspoons of sugar there are some of your favourite meals and snacks:
Breakfast | |
Yeo Valley 0% fat vanilla yoghurt – small pot | 5tsp |
Pain au Raison | 5tsp |
Kellogg’s Crunchy Nut Cornflakes | 4½tsp |
Oat So Simple Apple and Blueberry porridge pot | 4tsp |
Jordans Fruit and Nut multigrain breakfast bar | 3tsp |
Milk (pint) | 2½tsp |
Brown bread / White bread – slice | ¼tsp |
Egg | ¼tsp |
Bacon | none |
Porridge | none |
Lunch | |
Tesco Mixed Sushi | 5½tsp |
Heinz baked beans – one tin | 5tsp |
Heinz Cream of Tomato soup – 300g tin | 5tsp |
Marks & Spencer Coronation Chicken sandwich filler | 4tsp |
Tesco Falafel and Butternut Squash salad | 2½tsp |
Waitrose crisp and classic Greek side salad | 1tsp |
Jacket potato with cheese and beans | 1tsp |
Tesco Finest Spinach and Pine Nut Pasta | ½tsp |
Quiche Lorraine – Large slice | ½tsp |
Sainsbury’s Four Bean Salad | ¼tsp |
Dinner | |
Sharwood’s Sweet Chilli Chicken with rice | 8½tsp |
Sainsbury’s Battered Sweet & Sour Chicken – half pack | 7½tsp |
Tesco thin crust Hawaiian pizza – 250g | 4½tsp |
Marks & Spencer Feel Fuller Longer Chicken Tikka Masala | 2tsp |
Aunt Bessie’s toad in the hole – per portion | 1tsp |
Uncle Ben’s Express egg fried rice | ½tsp |
Richmond thick pork sausages – four sausages | ¼tsp |
Waitrose Italian mushroom risotto | none |
Birds Eye Salmon Fillets with Lemon and Herb | none |
Birds Eye potato waffles | none |
Desserts | |
Heinz treacle sponge pudding – ½ pudding | 13tsp |
Tesco lemon meringue pie – ¼ pie | 11tsp |
Ambrosia low fat rice pudding | 9tsp |
Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream – small tub | 7tsp |
Angel Delight – one packet without milk | 6½tsp |
Haagen-Dazs dulce de leche ice cream – 2 scoops | 5tsp |
Chocolate fudge cake – slice | 5tsp |
Viennetta – slice | 2½tsp |
Tesco Finest salted caramel dessert sauce – tablespoon | 1½tsp |
Hartley’s ready to eat no added sugar jelly – pot | ¼tsp |
Drinks | |
Costa hot chocolate with marshmallows and cream – medium | 12½tsp |
Galaxy thick shake – 350ml bottle | 11tsp |
Volvic Touch of Fruit lemon and lime – 740ml bottle | 10tsp |
Innocent pomegranate, blueberries and acai smoothie – 250ml | 9tsp |
Starbucks chai tea latte – medium | 8tsp |
Coca-Cola | 7tsp |
Costa latte – medium | 4tsp |
Starbucks Americano – medium | none |
Pepsi Max – can | none |
Fruit tea | none |