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So one of the things I get asked about a lot is how to read food labels,

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particularly in relation to sugar content. Now it's estimated that sugar is

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added to 75% of all foods you'll find in the supermarket, so we as consumers need

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to get sugar savvy and that starts with learning how to read food labels. It's

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much easier than you think once you follow a few simple guidelines. So let's

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start with the basics where does sugar appear on a food label so if I take this

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box of granola bars for example sugar is always listed under carbohydrates so

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you'll see here carbohydrates of which sugars eight grams per serve which means

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that this granola bar contains eight grams of sugar now I find that grams

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mean absolutely nothing to people so I'm going to teach you a simple trick to

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help you visualize that. A really useful thing to remember is that one teaspoon

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of sugar weighs four grams so for example we know from looking at the food

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label that this granola bar contains eight grams of sugar so if we use our

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little teaspoon equation we know that that contains two teaspoons of sugar and

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I find when you think and visualize sugar content in teaspoons it's a lot

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easier to kind of put it into context and then at least you can make an

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informed choice. For optimal health the World Health Organization recommends we

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consume no more than six teaspoons of free sugars in a day. Now what are free

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sugars? Free sugars is any type of sugar that's added to a food by the food

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manufacturer, the cook or the consumer as well as sugar is found naturally in

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fruit juices, fruit concentrates and squashes, honeys and syrups. What free

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sugars doesn't include is naturally occurring sugars found in dairy products

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like milk for example, grains, beans, nuts and whole fruit and vegetables.

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So should I cut fruit from my diet if I'm trying to reduce my sugar intake?

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This is something I get asked about a lot and the answer is no. We should still

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all be eating whole fruits as part of our five a day. Now if you do want to

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reduce your sugar intake then it probably would be best to eat more whole

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fruits as opposed to fruit juices and the reason being is that our bodies are

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well able to handle the amount of naturally occurring sugars in the form

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of fructose found in a whole piece of fruit but if you take a large glass of

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orange juice for example that probably contains about four pieces of fruit in

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it. So naturally you're going to get four times the amount of sugar which our

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bodies are less able to handle because it raises your blood sugar level higher.

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So what constitutes a high or a low sugar content? A good rule of thumb is to

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remember that 5 grams or less per 100 grams is considered a low sugar content

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and 15 grams or above per 100 gram is considered a high sugar content. If

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If you're looking at the sugar content on a food label,

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it's important to know that not all of what you see

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is added sugar.

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In some cases, there's a combination

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of naturally occurring sugars and added sugar.

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And dairy is a really good example of this.

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So for example, if we took this natural yogurt here,

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looking at the label, I can see that there's 4.3 grams

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of sugar per 100 gram.

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However, if I look at the ingredients list,

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there's no sugar added whatsoever.

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So we know that those 4.3 grams

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are naturally occurring sugars in the form of lactose,

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which we don't need to be overly concerned about.

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On the flip side, this same brand of vanilla flavored yogurt

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contains 12 grams of sugar per 100 gram,

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which is almost three times that of the natural yogurt.

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Why?

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Because if we look at the ingredients list here,

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we will see that there is sugar added in this case.

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So what we have here is a combination

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of naturally occurring sugars

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with lots of added sugar on top.

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One thing that really confuses people

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is that food labels often list the nutritional content

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in two ways, per serving and per 100 gram.

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So which do you go for

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if you're trying to calculate your sugar content?

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Well, both can be useful in different ways.

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The per serving simply shows you how much sugar

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is contained in a serving of a food.

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so for example, one biscuit or one bowl of cereal.

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But if you're trying to compare two food products,

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that's where your per 100 gram can be useful,

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particularly if the serving sizes are not the same weight.

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So for example, this particular granola

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lists its serving size as 50 grams,

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and this one lists its serving size as 45 grams.

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So if you want to compare it like with like,

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compare them per 100 gram.

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Incidentally, this one contains just over 9 grams of sugar per 100 gram, this one just

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over 22 grams of sugar per 100 gram.

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More than double the amount.

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So you can see how it really pays to check the food labels and even sometimes making

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simple swaps can help you dramatically reduce your sugar intake.

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Saying that, it's important to remember that we only really need to check food labels in

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relation to processed and packaged foods.

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If we stick to natural whole foods as much as possible, we know exactly what we're getting

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without having to fuss over food labels.