Name: Is sugar the new cigarettes? Why you may see new warning labels
Uploaded: 2024-06-13T10:50:07.000Z
Duration: 4 min 14 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

That's the most fantastic thing I've ever seen.

On average, we eat more than 100 pounds of sugar per person each year.

That's more than three times the recommended amount by the Food and Drug Administration.

And it's not just candy, snacks, and soda.

Hidden sugars in things like processed food, cereal, salad dressing, and even yogurt are adding to our sugar intake.

And in a recent Time Magazine article, Dr. Mark Hyman says it's time to treat sugar like cigarettes.

He's leading a movement to take the mystery out of what we eat by clearly labeling sugar on the front of food packaging.

We see rising rates of diabetes, of heart disease, of cancer, dementia, all linked to a higher consumption of sugar.

Do you think putting something as simple as a label on the front is going to change the way consumers eat?

I think people make choices based on what's on the label.

Data shows those labels are having an impact.

A study looking at 2,300 families' food and drink purchases found that overall calories bought from products required to have warnings dropped by 23%.

Overall sugar bought from those foods decreased by 26%.

In New York City, as part of the city's Sweet Truth Act, a new rule would require food chains and coffee shops with 15 or more stores in the US to use a warning icon to let consumers know eating too many added sugars can contribute to type 2 diabetes and weight gain.

The labels would be mandatory on menu boards and packages for food and drinks with more than 50 grams of added sugar.

This allows New Yorkers to make informed decisions about their health.

And though a growing number of state laws are limiting local government control over food and nutrition, the Big Apple is just the latest to crack down on the sweet stuff.

Several cities across the country have implemented sugary beverage taxes.

A recent study found purchases declined dramatically in five of those cities because of it.

And the USDA announced new nutrition guidelines for school meals that include plans to reduce sugar.

Food industry groups say labels like the ones New York City will see could demonize certain food products or confuse consumers, and that existing nutrition labels provide enough information for people to make healthy choices.

They have to know what they're eating and they have to be clear.

And I think Americans should have the right to choose what's good or bad for them.

So if you wanna lower your consumption, what's the low-hanging fruit?

But don't do fruit, because fruit has sugar, too.

He said, no, because it has fiber, it has phytochemicals.

It's really the hidden sugars and the added sugars.

So Dr. Hyman says, if you want to pay attention to your sugar consumption, four teaspoons a day is what you should be aiming for.

He also says, when you are looking at the labels that exist, recognize sucrose, glucose, corn syrup.

Sugar is listed at 60 different names on labels.

Also, if you're gonna eat it, dessert is at the end of the meal for a reason.

Eat it with protein, fiber, fat, because you wanna slow the absorption of sugar into your bloodstream.

And then finally, try to avoid processed foods as much as you can that have that whole list of ingredients on the back that you can't pronounce that you don't recognize that don't really exist in nature.

And research shows that when you have some, you want more.

And that's why I think it helps people to realize how much sugar they're eating so they can make a choice for themselves.