Let's dive into sugars & added sugars and where to find these on your nutrition label. If you missed this one in our weekly newsletter, subscribe below to stay in the know!
Maybe now more than before we are starting to truly read and somewhat get a gist for nutrition labels and nutrition facts. Did you know that as of May 20, 2016 (just about 6 years ago to the day) the nutrition label was almost the same since 1993? That's 23 years without significant change to our nutrition label- containing incredibly important information that impacts us and our bodies every single day! Those changes made in 2016 really took until early 2020 to truly take full effect across all products from all manufacturers. The University of Minnesota School of Public Health conducted a study of about 2,000 young adults ages 25-36 to gather information on the new nutrition label and what they looked for. According to the study, one of the big changes of shifting the calories and serving sizes to a larger and bolded font as well as including the total number of added sugars in the serving, “fit the preferences of the young adults” in their study. Let’s zoom in on these identifying factors in case these areas are not ones you tend to look at, but are so vital to our understanding of the nutrition label and what we are putting into our bodies. Queue Screenshot/Note Taking: Calories - total calories per serving Serving size - the amount of nutrients listed on the label per the manufacturer's determined serving. You may have more than 1 serving per sitting or in a 24 hour period, you may need to double or triple based on how many servings you consume to understand the proper intake of nutrients. (this next one is kinda a big deal) Total sugars vs. added sugars: total sugar content included in 1 serving of the product (natural or synthetic). Added sugars are ones that are not naturally found in the product and are often added for sweetness to enhance food palatability and/or produce a longer shelf life for the product. Ideally we would like added sugars to be less than 10% of our daily intake or limiting low to none when possible. Based on your caloric intake under or over 2,000 calories, your % daily value may look different, but let’s use this as perspective for now.
TRY THIS IRL (in real life): How many food items in your kitchen contain added sugars? What are their grams of added sugar and % daily value? Identify what you would typically eat in a day and add up the total added sugars, in grams to see how many added sugars you consume on an average daily basis. This number may be more shocking than you think..😳 Try this activity at home and use this food for thought on your next grocery trip.
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