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Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

eurekalert.org

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Re: Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

#41

Post by wpietri »

andai wrote: post #38
wpietri wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's absolutely the problem. The current equilibrium is the results of an arms race. If any one manufacturer just cut sweetening by 50%, they'd be be screwed. We'd have to do it all together to reset everybody's tastes, and that's unlikely to happen. It's a similar dynamic to advertising. In theory, advertisements give us new information about products. In practice, the biggest spenders are companies you've heard o…

It's like the loudness wars[0] for your tastebuds! [0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

Ooh, great example!

Re: Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

#42

Post by ForgotPwd »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #9

The nice thing about reducing sugar is that after a while your taste buds realize how insanely over-sweetened many products are in the US. My current favorite example is bottled teas. When I was a kid I remember drinking Snapple, now I can't understand how I ever downed that stuff, it's like drinking syrup. If I'm lazy I'll get a bottle of unsweetened tea and mix it about 4-1 with sweetened tea. I get something that…

My favorite example is spaghetti sauce. I don't like sweet sauces, and looking through the ingredients of the major brands, I could only find one without added sugar.

Re: Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

#43

Post by ravenstine »

> Product reformulation efforts have been shown to be successful in reducing other harmful nutrients, such as trans fats and sodium.

Trans fats are harmful (well except some natural ones), but how can sodium be a harmful nutrient unless you have existing cardiovascular or renal issues? Seems like a strange statement.

Re: Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

#44

Post by rajnathani »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #9

The nice thing about reducing sugar is that after a while your taste buds realize how insanely over-sweetened many products are in the US. My current favorite example is bottled teas. When I was a kid I remember drinking Snapple, now I can't understand how I ever downed that stuff, it's like drinking syrup. If I'm lazy I'll get a bottle of unsweetened tea and mix it about 4-1 with sweetened tea. I get something that…

> When I was a kid I remember drinking Snapple, now I can't understand how I ever downed that stuff

This is because as we grow older, our sweet taste receptors become more sensitive [0]. This is a finding from research last year by UIUC. This finding also makes evolutionary sense, as children have higher energy needs due to their growth.

A quote from the research post link: “Compared with adults, children and adolescents are less sensitive to the sweet taste and need 40% more sucrose in a solution for them to detect the taste of sugar, a new study found.”

[0] https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-08-sweet-taste-perceptio...

Re: Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

#46

Post by betwixthewires »

I'd add salt to that. Americans consume way too much of these two ingredients. I cook some good stuff but I take it easy on the salt, it tastes better that way, and almost everyone that tries it says it needs more.

I like sugar, I use a little bit in my coffee, tea, I like fruits and stuff. But I don't drink soda or eat pastries or candy (except in November). Knowing how much sugar I used to consume really baffles me, and when I see how much other people eat I am dumbfounded that I ever considered such a thing normal. It's like watching little kids smoke cigarettes for breakfast.

Re: Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

#49

Post by nn3 »

asciimov wrote: post #40

I usually keep to a low carb diet. Recently I had a burger from a local burger joint bun included. The entire time I’m eating this burger I keep thinking this is the best damn burger I’ve had in forever. I chalk it up to being hungry. At the end of the burger I had bite of bun left that was bare of toppings. I ate it and realized this white bread bun is so sweet it tastes more like cake than bread… no wonder I though…

There was a story here about the Irish tax authority classifying Subway bread as a sweet, not as bread, due to the high sugar content. I think that's an accurate description of a lot of american breads.

https://www.npr.org/2020/10/01/919189045/for-subway-a-ruling...

Usually when I buy bread in the bread isle i discard all that have added sugars. But it's been getting hard recently.

Re: Reducing sugar in packaged foods can prevent disease in millions

#50

Post by nn3 »

caturopath wrote: post #36
hn8788 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how true it is, but one thing I've heard about artificial sweeteners is that your body thinks it's sugar, and will make your body feel hungrier because it expects it to have the same calories as regular sugar. I still prefer them because I hate the sticky feeling sugary products leave on my teeth, but I've talked to people who think artificial sweeteners are pointless from a calories-in/calories-out POV…

I'm pretty sure most of the "artificial sweeteners are evil" stuff is just moral panic to how they seem like cheating. It seems so unbelievable that any of them are especially bad for you or your habits, especially when compared to sugar.

So you're saying that all the papers on this made up their data?
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