Recently In The
News
Mars announces support for “Added
sugars” line on nutrition facts panel – Consumers need to know how much
added sugar is in their food and beverages in order to make healthy food
choices. The only way, or the best way,
is to have an “added sugars” line on the Nutrition Facts Panel. By having this as a separate line from just “sugars”
as it is now, this will allow consumers to distinguish those sugars from the
naturally occurring sugars in fruit or other milk ingredients.
Mars, while an unlikely ally, has
come out in favor to have a line for added sugars on the Nutrition Facts
Label. The Dietary Guidelines Advisory
Committee recommends that Americans limit their consumption of added sugars to
10 percent of calories, or about 12 teaspoons a day. The committee concluded that added sugars are
linked to a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and
tooth decay. Not rocket science, but
apparently proof was necessary to be able to make some changes in the Dietary
Guidelines. (FYI there are many “scientists”
that won’t agree there is a link between sugar and obesity.)
As the Committee is pushing to
have the “added sugars” added on the Nutrition Facts Label, they are also
pushing to have the sugar listed in teaspoons, not just grams. No one understands the metric system. I’ve made many a poster trying to show how
much sugar is in various products to make it more understandable. Teaspoons are the easiest way for people to
understand. The Beverage Association
would have you think otherwise. John
Oliver wants people to use circus peanuts to visually show people how much
sugar is in a product. One circus peanut
has ~5 grams of sugar. A 64 oz bottle of
Clamato has 16 circus peanuts. A 20 oz
bottle of soda, ~14 circus peanuts. #showusyourpeanuts - is the hashtag John Oliver wants us to
start using to get law makers to tell us what we’re really eating. Not sure if the humor of it will shine through, but whatever it takes!
If you haven’t see the clip from
John Oliver’s “Sugar” episode, it’s a must watch:
Interestingly enough Mars is also
helping in the fight to get junk food out of schools. They even have one of the strongest policies
when it comes to shielding kids from junk-food marketing. I hope other companies will follow their
lead. And in an ideal dreamy world,
maybe they can stop making so much junk food.
Panera removes Dyes, Additives
from Foods – Yellow #5, Yellow #6, Red #40, and other artificial food
dyes shouldn’t be in the food supply in the first place. But kudos to Panera for getting rid of
them. They have a whole list for you to
look over and see what’s “not in their food today” and what’s “being removed
from our food”. Here's the link:
The Center for Science in the Public
Interest’s Executive Director states that, “just because something is
artificial or its name is hard to pronounce doesn’t mean it’s unsafe. Some of the additives Panera is ditching are
perfectly innocuous, such as calcium propionate or sodium lactate - So those
moves are more about public relations than public health.”He goes on further to
claim that Panera should have also made clear that these improvements won’t be
happening at the soda fountain. The
sodas they sell will still include Pepsi and Diet Pepsi which now will have Acesulfame
Potassium and they will also still sell Mountain Dew, which contains brominated
vegetable oil as well as Yellow #5. But
as Jacobson points out, if what you’re eating at Panera is a 1,000 calorie
panini that has a day’s worth of sodium, with a 460 calorie soda, the food
additives should be the least of your concern.
I agree whole heartedly CSPI.
Acesulfame Potassium on the other hand is on their “Avoid” list,
meaning it is unsafe in amounts
consumed or is very poorly tested and not worth any risk. It has been poorly
tested, however, the tests that were done in the 1970s suggest that ace-K might
pose a cancer risk. So why did PepsiCo
switch from one “Avoid” sweetener to another “Avoid” sweetener? No clue, I have NO clue.
People ask me all the time in my office what they should
drink. My answer is simple. Water.
Water. Water. I tell them to either try seltzer water or
make their own infused water with fruit to help refresh themselves. Soda is never a recommendation I would make,
diet or not.
Don’t Count on supplements to
lower your blood sugar – Blood
Sugar Manager. Blood Sugar Defense. Blood Glucose Success. GlucoMiracle.
Supplements with names like that better make promises they can
keep!! But can these supplements really
help keep your blood sugar under control??
In order to see if they work, the main ingredient is put to the test against
a placebo, to see if it will lower the hemoglobin A1c (A1c shows your average
blood sugar over the past three months.)
Most of these tests were done in people with type 2 diabetes who were
also taking drugs to help lower their blood sugar. That’s not the same as if they were testing
the supplement by itself or in people with prediabetes. But here are the results on some common
supplements patients ask me about all the time.
Cinnamon – There were 5 good studies. People with type 2 diabetes took a daily dose
of 1,000 mg (⅓ teaspoon) to 4,500 mg (1 ¾ teaspoons) of cinnamon or a
placebo. Verdict: A1c levels in the cinnamon takers were no
lower.
Chromium – There was a study in 1997 with 150 people with
type 2 diabetes in China that took 200 or 1,000 micrograms of chromium
picolinate that did have lower A1c levels after four months than those taking
the placebo. Since then, however,
chromium (including picolinate) hasn’t had success in 7 of the 8 studies. There were a total of 476 people with type 2
diabetes that took 400 to 1,000 mcg a day or a placebo for at least three
months. Verdict: A1c levels in the chromium takers was no
lower.
Gymnema Sylvestre – No good studies have compared gymnema
with a placebo on A1c levels in people with type 2 diabetes.
Fenugreek – Only one good study has looked at fenugreek and
A1c in people with type 2 diabetes. 46
patients got 6.3 grams (about 2 teaspoons) of powdered fenugreek seeds every
day. Twenty-three people received the
placebo. After 12 weeks, average A1c levels
fell from 8.0 to 6.6 in the fenugreek takers, but from just 8.6 to 8.2 in the
placebo takers. Verdict: No research has been published since this
study 7 years ago. It’s worth studying more!
Bitter Melon – There has only been one trial that lasted long
enough to see an impact. Verdict: after three months, A1c levels were the same
in both groups.
Lipoic Acid – 921 men and women with both type 1 and type 2
diabetes received 600 mg of lipoic acid or a placebo every day (in two
studies.) After two years in one study
and four years in the other, A1c levels were no lower in the lipoic acid takers
than in the placebo takers.
Believe me, I know the idea of
taking a supplement to control your blood sugar levels seems tempting. But the bottom line is that losing weight is
the best way to get your blood sugars down.
And don’t forget your diet. What
you eat and the frequency of your meals makes all the difference too. Nothing beats diet AND exercise – The Diabetes
Prevention Program proved that J
There you have it. Just some of the most recent nutrition headlines. As I learned years ago, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
