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Cumbria Times
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12:05 AM 20th November 2021
lifestyle

Healthy Heart Tips: Sugar Awareness

 
Action for Sugar holds a national Sugar Awareness Week each year, highlighting the dangers associated with too much sugar in the diet and this year it was held on 8-14th November 2021.

Here are some healthy heart tips to ensure you are keeping an eye on your sugar intake!

Sugar Recommendations

Consuming too much sugar in the diet can lead to weight gain and becoming overweight or obese.
‘Free sugars’ are sugars that are added to foods as a flavour enhancement or to act as a preservative (increasing shelf-life of products). This is the type of sugars that adults and children in the UK need to cut down on.
The government recommends that free sugars should not make up more than 5% of the energy you get from food and drink each day.

The maximum free sugar/day

Age 4-6 years - 19g
Age 7-10 years - 24g
Adults - 30g


Tips to reduce sugar intake

Choose products that are labelled ‘no added sugar’ or ‘no sugars’.
Reduce consumption of sweets treats such as cakes, biscuits, and sweets.
Swap out canned fruit in syrup for fresh fruit.
Switch sugary breakfast cereals for unsweetened cereal and add fresh fruit for sweetness.
Swap sugary drinks for water, sugar-free or diet alternatives.
Limit fruit juices and smoothies to 150ml a day.
Cut down on sugar in hot drinks or try adding sweetener instead.

Checking Labels

Nutritional labels can help you reduce your intake of free sugars.

“of which sugars” figure on the nutrition labels (part of the carbohydrate information) will help you understand the amount of sugar. Labels on the front of the packaging use a traffic light system to distinguish the amount of sugar in a product:

Red = high (more than 22.5g of total sugars per 100g)
Amber = medium (more than 5g but less than or equal to 22.5g of sugars per 100g)
Green = low (less than or equal to 5g of sugar per 100g).

Ingredient list

Watch out for these names which may suggest there are added free sugars:

Glucose
Xylose
Treacle
Honey
Dextrose
Sucrose
Sugar (palm, raw, beet, brown)
Cane juice
Fructose


Heart Research UK
Proud to stand out from the crowd, Heart Research UK is the charity dedicated to your heart. They inspire and invest in pioneering medical research, ground-breaking training and education, and in communities to improve their heart health for themselves. For over 50 years they have driven advancements in the prevention, treatment and cure of heart disease to benefit patients as soon as possible.


You can find more healthy tips, recipes and advice at heartresearch.org.uk